Well, I sure wish that was the end of the story. Last night, after
working on trying to lean out the mix on the SU's on the MGA, I went for
a drive through the back roads near where I live to see how she
performed. 11:00 at night and screaming through the windy turns. What a
thrill. Came into one of the tight turns that makes this road so much
fun, braked hard, down shifted to third, put the gas to it. The engine
was screaming. Powering through the turn, everything felt perfect. The
car was performing wonderfully. Too bad the tach isn't working. I'd sure
like to know what the RPM was. Suddenly the rear end broke loose.
I spun out. Now, this is a pretty sparsley populated area, mostly
orchards and farms. The car and I did a couple of 360s before we came to
a rest. Everything was pitch black. Headlights were out, couldn't see a
thing. I tried the starter, nothing. The words " thank you Mr. Lucas"
crossed my mind after assessing that I was still in the seat, and
reasonably intact. The only thing that I could see in the overcast night
was something light colored several feet away. Climbed out and picked it
up....a chunck of BONDO! D#&n!
Started walking home to get the van to come back and tow the car home
when a cop pulls up and asks if I had been involved in an accident.
After explaining the situation to him he gives me a ride back to the
scene of the "accident". When we get there it looks like a theme park
with my car sitting back end against a tree in some guy's front yard
(which was bigger than most football fields). This time the house lights
were on (Oh, there's a house there. If I had seen that I would have made
a call.) The cops verified that I was sober - though probably stupid -
and helped me assess the damage. The battery had been thrown about
twenty yards and in the light we found it and my ball cap. Reinstalled
the battery and the car started right up. Farmer John, whose yard now
boasts some great looking tire tracks in rather creative patterns, is
still furious.
The police felt they had to ticket me for something - stupidity isn't
illegal yet- so I ended up with a $55 fine for "Too fast for the
conditions". Kind of hard to argue that one.
The real damage.....drivers side rear wing, driver's door, and left rear
tire. I drove the car home, or rather nursed it home. Bottom line.....
I'm glad to be alive. The kids still have a Dad. One more touch of
reality to help me keep both feet on the ground in the future. Life is
indeed precious....
On the up side, the kids are giving Dad some wide berth right now.
Sorry for the bandwith, but just had to share this with folks who can
appreciate.
Mark
(Now driving VERY conservatively and looking for MGA body panels)
-----Original Message-----
From: philpatt@kalamazoo.net [mailto:philpatt@kalamazoo.net]
Sent: Sunday, May 16, 1999 10:48 PM
To: Triumph List; drew@pixar.com
Subject: RE: New Noises....
> Without asking too many revealing questions, did the noise start
> after someone may have tried to put the car in reverse without
> coming to a complete stop? If so then I'd have to guess that a
> tooth got knocked off one of the gears in the gearbox. Given that
> there's no "klunk klunk klunk" in first my guess that it's the
> reverse gear (item 70 page 26 of the Moss catalog.) If first gear
> was also making a klunk then I would guess the 1st gear countershaft.
And the winner is..... DREW!
As a refresher, my Dad's TR3 started making "THUNK THUNK THUNK" noises,
very
prominent in reverse, and as I later discovered, less prominately in
1st.
The full story (shame shame):
Fellow Lister Mark Price (several TR250's and a driver MGA) had just
bought
his 58 MGA. At work, we have a nice straight-away entrance drive.
Well, Mark and I drag raced his 58 MGA (w/ MGB motor) vs my Dad's 56
TR3.
The first race was fine (I lost), and the second was a comedy of errors
(on
my part).
After parking the TR3 at the starting line (parking brake on) and going
inside to hassle Mark into getting his act together so we could race, I
proceeded to try and drag race with the hand brake on. Doh! That
didn't
work well. 2nd try, We smoked 'em, (took it easy on 1st gear), ran 2nd
up
to about 5500 or so, slammed it into 3rd, rev'ved it a bit more, then it
was
time to stop..... So, I braked and downshifted into 2nd, squealing the
tires again (I think this is where my problem occured).
Anyways, after stopping, and going into reverse to back up I first heard
the
now infamous "thunk thunk thunk".
In the past two weeks, I've trailered the car back to Dad's for an
inspection, which we did this past weekend.
After pulling the tranny, the pressure plate looked fine (I was hopeful
that
was the problem... but alas....)
So, we started tearing apart the tranny (anyone got a few churchill
tools I
could borrow long enough to duplicate?). Once we exposed the gears, we
put
the magnetic probe into the gear box and fished out a single tooth
(oops).
Turns out, I broke a tooth on the 1st Countershaft gear.
Soooo.... We're now in the process of building a few tools to remove the
constant pinion shaft and the mainshaft, and will soon have the 1st gear
countershaft out and will be replacing it.
So, many thanks to Randall Young, Dick Dell and of course, Drew for
their
responses.... Now, Dad & I just have to get the damn thing apart and
back
together again....
Phil Pattengale
54 TR2 - TS1440-LO {project #1}
56 TR3 - TS13872-L {project #2}
philpatt@kalamazoo.net
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Track/2890/
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