As you all know by now, the weekend weather in the DC area was
glorious to put it mildly. 80 degrees, sunny blue skies... Since the
TR was running so well, I decided to take it on a 360 mile journey.
(note miles and not degrees) Basically the idea was to drive to
Ocean City in the morning and return late that evening. I figured
this was a good spring test run since several of us, Dean with his
midget me with my TR, and another traveler in a non-LBC, all headed
east together. The TR wouldn't dare break down under these
circumstances. And it didn't... The other cars camped for the
night... I headed back home... that evening... alone....
The car was running strong and the gearbox felt tight. Everything was
in order on the trip to the beach. Until... Paul said how strong the
car was running. I found out later that he even called it "reliable".
That must have been too much for my car's ego. It let me know just
what it thought of those comments. Thanks Paul. :-)
The return trip was quite tiring. The brew and sun I had earlier in
day was working on my sleep centers, and I hadn't even crossed the Bay
bridge yet. Over 100 miles out. It was late. I was tired. Roy
Rogers! Hurray! One large coffee and some fries got me well on my
way. It's amazing what a little hot coffee in your lap will do to
wake you up.
Pulling out of Roy's I noticed that the shifting wasn't quite as
smooth as I had remembered. "I must not be more tired than I don't
think I am", I told myself. (?):-/ After dumping more coffee in my
lap, I realized that the reason I kept dumping coffee on myself was
that the car had developed a shimmy. A shake if you will. A tremor
on wheels. 50 miles out... Every once in a while, I thought I would
hear a, "ka chunk, GRIND!, ka chunk, GRIND!" I thought of other TRs
that had traveled from Oregon to St Louis, and wondered... 25 miles
out... The tremors are now mild aftershocks, followed by a CRUNCHING
sound. "Humm... Could this be a wheel bearing? They can grind
right?" Time for more coffee. 5 miles out I started to hit some
street lights. The car grinded the rest of the way home, but not too
bad so I continued. It stopped in my parking spot outside my
townhouse. I was GLAD to be home.
Monday morning I took it for a bit of a test drive. Well, I let the
clutch out after starting it, and just the spinning trans in neutral
made grinding sounds. Yuck. Drain the gear oil. Attached to the end
of the drain plug was a beautiful metal flower of filings. It was the
biggest flower of metal I had ever seen. Lovely. As the oil drained,
I could see the colour had turned to a chilling gun mettle gray. My
trans was trashed.
Paul and I worked late pulling the trans out on monday, and I was able
to pull the top cover. The second gear ring was missing teeth.
Actually, it was missing parts of the gear! It was really munched. I
figured that new bearings, syncros, and second gear, would run me over
$250 in parts alone. And that's before I start the work! Low and
behold, I found a used trans for $200. 66,000 miles. It will be
delivered tonight, I'll let y'all know if it works when the time
comes. (The guy claims he'll guarantee it for a week) I plan on
pulling the cover before the purchase.
QUESTIONS for brit list folk!
I did find an overdrive trans for $600, but I'm not clear I want to
spend that kind of cash on an overdrive unit. It is an early A type
unit. What do you all think? I'm guaranteed that it will work.
I looked at the TR6 that Paul described in an earlier post. Well,
it's a '74, been painted twice (was red, now green), has a small bit
of rust in a few of the body panels (some body work visible), frame is
solid, engine runs great, Some rust on the engine block from battery
acid. Clutch master is fried. Car has sat for over nine months.
Redlines. Overdrive. Top fair, Interior is toast. Floor boards
excellent. Needs TLC. I'm considering making an offer on this car,
taking the best of both and sell the other. I could use an overdrive
and some straight wheels. Can anyone tell me what a reasonable offer
would be? I don't want to insult the guy, but I want to AT LEAST
break even.
Comments?
---
Nobody knows how transmissions work, or even where they came from.
They just arrived at car factories in unmarked crates. The people at
the car factories put them in their cars. Many people believe the
transmission was created by beings in other solar systems. There is
evidence to support this - mainly transmission manuals which contain
bizarre diagrams and deranged alien commands.
-Dave Barry
Scott Paisley (paisley@cme.nist.gov)
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