Sorry if the cross-posting is inappropriate...I'm still picking up
on the "personality" of these lists...it's been a while.
Five years ago I spent most weekends working on my 65 MGB....sometimes
it was fun, sometimes it was not....but it was always rewarding in the
end.
Then I started playing with motorcycles, they're smaller, easier to
work on, and if you screw something up real good you don't need to
worry about how you'll get to work on Monday.
My MG, in good mechanical condition, always ran when I wanted it to,
and I waited and waited until the day when I could do a full cosmetic
resto on her.
Then Kelley, my SO, bought a 1970 TR6. I spoke of it a week or so ago,
and since then I've spent every free minute wrenching on the car.
We were told the car needed a clutch, and once we got it running on all
6 cylinders and tried to drive it, we were convinced.
Friday night I pulled the tranny out, and with the lack of carpets
or a tranny cover this task was rather easy. I think it took about
an hour from start to finish and the gearbox was sitting on my
workbench. Sure enough, the fingers on the pressure plate were all
abused and broken. The TO bearing looked ok, but I would replace it
anyway. The disc itself was also in need of replacing.
Saturday morning broke warm and clear here in Palo Alto, CA, and we
hopped in to the official "British car parts chaser" (unmentionable
Teutonic wonder with a TLA for a name) and headed to O'Connor Classics
to pick up some parts. The painful truth is, that while Mike has a
lovely shop, clean and charming, and friendly and helpful employees,
he's not a hub of Triumph activity. His focus is those Octagonal
bearing autos, and he just doesn't stock much Triumph stuff.
I needed a clutch disc, a pressure plate, a TO bearing, and a Clutch
master and slave rebuild kit. He had none of those items.
The other Triumphs shop in town was closed on Saturdays. Hmm...then
a thought crossed my feeble brain. Dialed 411 on the cell and asked
for the number to British Motorsports....Campbell CA please....dialed
them up and had the guy pull all the parts listed above, and a few
others while we sped toward Campbell.
He had all the items we needed except a clutch alignment tool...we'd
eyeball it and pray for forgiveness.
Speeding back toward Palo Alto I could not help feeling blessed....
I can't ever recall being able to get everything I needed in one stop,
so easily.
Stopped by OSH to get some new Grade 8 bolts for the pressure plate,
and some assorted fasteners to replace the ugly metric, and farmer
bolt types that the DPO had used everywhere possible and then back
home.
With Kelley by my side (and what a dream it is to have your lovely
SO helping you wrench [and swork] we began reassembling the gearbox.
I replaced the lock "pin" that holds the throwout fork to the cross
shaft...sure enough, the old one was fractured. Safety wire neatly
tied, output shaft lightly greased...we put it in the cockpit and
began to align it.
All told, it actually went in very easily. Very little jockeying
needed...and soon everything was bolted up. Removed the half-inch
thick stack of washers the DPO had shimmed the slave with and bolted
it to the gearbox. With the car off the jack and everything checked
over once more I invited Kelley to give it a go. She hopped in the
drivers seat, we rigged the "rigged" ignition and she started the
car.....clutch in ("wow it feels great!" she says) and in to reverse
with nary a grind.
The rest of the night and following day was spent tearing around Palo
Alto in what she affectionately refers to as "car". She is positively
beside herself with love. I may have mentioned that she's wanted a
TR6 since she was a little girl...and this is a dream come true for her.
The only uncomfortable situation....it was near 100 this past weekend.
The original tranny cover disintegrated years ago...and there was only
a gaping hole left. We didn't have our replacement from Moss yet...so
we had plenty of heat and of course, the requisite hot oil smells. All
of this seems to add to Kelley's love for the car. As I sit here now,
there is a big box from Moss with the rather substantial tranny cover
in it...awaiting 6PM tonight when it will get installed in "car"
Another day, another problem fixed, another problem yet to be
discovered.
Cheers,
teej
PS-ObFunnyAnecdote...one of Kelley's friends asked how I felt to have
it "all over now" referring to the clutch install. she seemed to think
that was the last time I'd be working on the car. I could only laugh
and say "it's only just begun my friend...only just begun."
--
TJ Noto Palo Alto CA USA http://www.rahul.net/tjn
"He spent a lot of time on a barstool, and if you asked him what he was
doing,
he'd say, "Jus' waitin' for a beer front to come blowin' through."
-Spurr
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