I woke up a TR3 that had been sitting in a field for 11 years. Raccoons
had had kittens in the passengers footwell (the hardtop was still on). Before
it arrived at the "ran when parked" spot, it had been side swiped on the 405
freeway in LA, ran off the road and rolled onto its side in the fireweed stuff
that grows on the side of the SoCal freeways.
After I got the car home
and knowing nothing about Triumphs, I rebuilt the fuel pump, replaced the
plugs and wires, squirted oil in the cylinders, changed the oil, fixed a
radiator leak, poured in some gas, got out a spare battery, hotwired it and it
fired up pretty quickly. It backfired a rats next out the exhaust which took
out the expansion chamber on the muffler. I took the car for a low speed test
drive. The tach and oil pressure gauges still worked. About 2 miles from my
house the car stopped when the rust in the gas tank plugged the lines. I
should have known better than to try that.
I drove the car with that
engine, trans and brakes for almost 10 years before doing any serious
rebuilding. Tough little cars these are.
21 years later the car still
runs great and is the best car that I have ever had.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39699927@N08/8518944877/in/photostream
-Bill in Tehachapi
** triumphs@autox.team.net **
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