The Beat Goes On

• Rear Suspension
• Valve Adjustment and Air Cond. progress
• A/C Pulley and Low Note Horn
• OH NOOO! Valve Job!
• Back from the valve job, on to a wheel alignment

9/20/98  Got the rear springs in and installed so the rear is finished.  Got back to the front end and replaced the right ball joint and bushings on both sides upper A-arms.  I couldn't do the lower because my jack stands are too tall and I couldn't get 'em under the front end of the car.  Guess I'll cogitate how to get that done.

My restoration is nearing completion. A few little things left to do, but the end is in sight.  Then the only stuff to do will be all the stuff we do to keep it running.   This winter my project is going to be to have Air Conditioning added by spring.   I know most you will wonder why. As a daily driver I have to be able to sit in traffic going 10 mph.  In Atlanta it is 90+ (32C) from June through September.   I don't mind top down as long as you can be moving, but there is too much time in traffic not moving and having the top down in the baking sun is worse than top up.  I have located an original unit that I can pillage for parts.  I plan to use the original unit inside the vehicle, the evaporator and blower, the compressor mounting bracket, pulley and idler in the engine and then go new for all the rest of the parts.   The original compressor was a York which means that conversion plates to new compressor mounts are readily available.  I plan to install all the parts and then take it to someone to hook all the hoses up and charge it up.  I understand the new compressors take a lot less horsepower, but I still am concerned about overheating.   There were a couple times this summer that, while sitting in traffic, the temp began to climb. Oh well, more later.

10/13/98 I finally got the box of A/C stuff home and find that there is an intact and in good condition evaporator, fan and housing.  That's all the internal passenger compartment stuff. Also there are all the brackets for the compressor, idler pulley and crankshaft pulley.  I spoke with an A/C company today and the guy there who handles the "classic retrofits" said I had all the right stuff to make it an easy job.  I told him I'd drop in and get an estimate.

On other fronts, engine performance began to deteriorate. I had noted some time ago the way I would have trouble idling after a long run on the freeway.  The condition began to get worse and worse till I was having trouble keeping an idle at all.  I checked everything. replaced a gob of the ignition system, went through the carbs end to end.   Nothing helped. I was about to take it to the mechanic.  I really wanted to figure it out myself. Finally, last weekend I adjusted the valves.  They were WAY tight! Some of them required two or three turns to get to a gap at all.  Got 'em all set, spend quite a bit of time befuddled by my dizzy being 180 off so the plug wires went on backwards (I can't imagine when that happened.) But finally got it straightened out.   It immediately ran great. Better than ever before.  I am really amazed, perfectly smooth idle, much more power, gas mileage appears to improved 50%. Really - 50%. Next weekend I am going to check 'em again. I figure that they were so tight that some of them might need a bit of running to reseat and require tweaking. 

My friend John, master of things mechanical, rode his 'cycle down from the 'burbs to help me with the valves.  He was riding his newly acquired, old, but not yet antique 'cycle (an early 80's Kawasaki). He got a few miles from my house and dropped a valve through the #2 cylinder.  It ran remarkably well for having a 2 inch hole in a piston.

I also replaced the cork gasket on the fuel sending unit.  Now there is a pain in the butt! If you don't pull the gas tank there is precious little room for hands and stubby screwdriver, but I got it done.

I can't believe this is a Triumph.  It runs great, isn't leaking or burning any oil. Disaster must be lurking around the corner.  At least there is real wood in the dash to knock on.

11/14/98 I tried to get the A/C pulley on a couple weeks ago but failed.  Couldn't figure out any placement that didn't rub the crossmember behind the fan. As long as I had the radiator out I replaced the bushings on the steering rack. Yesterday I put in a new low note horn and cleaned the copper ring in the steering column.   The ring was quite dirty and it was difficult to make the horn work while the wheel was in some positions.  Seems to be fine all around now.  The crud was pretty stubborn and had to use some sandpaper to get it all back down to fresh metal. Its nice to have the full two tone horn.  High note only was not particularly attention getting and that is what a horn is supposed to be.

11/21/98 Got the A/C pulley on today. The solution was to use the late red fan instead of the earlier one. Since the late red fan is no longer I took a Stag fan.  It was a little on the large side, I thought it was a little too close to the lower radiator pipe so I ran around to the regular car parts stores, but no one had anything smaller than 17 inches.  The Stag was 16"  and I wanted about 15". Anyway, I came back home and marked off 3/4" on each blade and hauled out the saw and whacked it off.   Fits fine.  Pulley now in place.  Tomorrow the compressor mounts.

The pictures above are after the pulley was installed and the pics below are of the compressor mounting bracket. I had to move the fuel line a little bit and the manifold cooling hose is kind of pushed up into the bracket, but all is well.

I had to move the alarm as well, the fan pushes through the top of the passenger foot well and I had the alarm mounted there. I put it down at the battery level.   There was just enough room next to the heater hoses to fit.  The one area where a small amount of creativity was required was in the bolt going through the water pump housing.  Bentleys indicates it might oughta be 3/8" BSP.  What was actually there seems to be 5/16" UNF. The mounting plate bolts through there and finding a 4 inch UNF was no problem, but it doesn't seem to grab as it ought to. Its snug though and seems at least as good as what was there before.

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12/10/98 Was at a fast food restaurant near a mall with my son.   Went to start the car.  AWFUL sound.  Went away right away, I drove home.   Came out a few hours later to go to the store, started car, awful sound, sounded like a valve.  Shut it off.  Sunday morning pulled the valve cover,   clearances ok till exhaust # 5. No clearance.  Unable to adjust to get a clearance, the valve just kept coming up.  Broken valve? A year ago when the engine was rebuilt the shop said the head looked fine and we left it alone. Towed the car to Dr. Dan.  The head is off, the valve did not break, the seat had disintegrated.   This is good, relatively speaking, no damage to the lower engine.  The head is now at the machine shop - new valve seats, new valve guides and new valves.   Pics below, engine without head.

This is the old head.  Note in the close ups the tiny lines eminating from the exhaust valves. The two pics on the left below are cylinders 5 and 4 (5 on left, 4 on right). Both pics are of the same thing.  The 1st hole is #5 intake, to its right #5 exhaust, in the right hand cylinder its #4 exhaust on the left and #4 intake on the right. The tiny lines, quite visible in the 1024x768 versions (they are thumbnails, click on em), are cracks.  Got to throw the head away.  Notice that the #5 exhaust valve seat is missing, its remains are coating my exhaust pipes. On the #4 exhaust you can see a slight lip around the outer edge.  This is valve seat recession. 25 years of no-lead gas.

These next ones are a replacement head.  Tomorrow it'll get baked to clean it and reveal any cracks.  If its cracked it goes back from whence it came and we'll try another.  Once cleaned and proven good - all new hardened valve seats, new valves and guides.

12/19/98 Its home from the Doctor. Got it back last Tuesday.  The first day or so it was back it ran kinda cruddy, but has improved and seems to be running fine now.  I suppose the new valves just needed to settle in some.  I wasn't able to get any pics of the new head while it was off, but everything north of the block is new or renewed.  Anyway, we are back on the road. One nice thing about Dr. Dan is that he always cleans things up and makes 'em look nice.   Notice how he has painted the A/C bracket and the top of the radiator as long as he was there painting the head.  I guess the only other thing of note is that Dan moved the fuel and vacuum line out from under the A/C bracket to over the top of it.

Herr Doctor pointed out how far out of alignment my wheels are. I knew that, but was waiting to finish the lower front bushings before doing it.  I guess I'll go ahead and get 'em aligned and redo the fronts after the lower bushings are installed.  I have been recommended to a place that specializes in such vehicles by two different reliable sources.  Those of you in or about Atlanta, its Gran Turismo East on Shallowford Road near Buford Highway. In setting up my appointment I thought to ask if they had shims and he checked and they were out, so I picked up a half dozen front and a half dozen rear for him.  I'll let y'all know how it comes out. It really needs the alignment badly. It has a pretty good shimmy about 50 mph and I can tell I am just eating up my tires.

This page last edited 12/19/99 06:34 AM.

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