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Showing posts from 2009

2009 - the year of not doing much!

This year has been pretty much as expected - with a large financial commitment towards the kids education and work being pretty comitted too. I haven't been able to do much to indulge my Triumph hobby. That said I was able to get over the Isle of Wight for the IoW Triumph Club event, not a driving event in the CT style, just an excuse to camp, drink and BBQ. The next event was the "cancelled" La Carerra Caledonia proving that you can cancel a Triumph event but none of us will take any notice and just turn up and do it anyway. Dave pulled the rally Vitesse 6003VC out of the museum and we were off. Now those who know me will say they aren't surprised at the next revelation, but I was. You see I have found I have a big arse, it's quite wide, hip to hip - that means that it doesn't really fit in a narrow rally seat. 6003VC's seats really did hurt, squeezing my bony arse into them gave me a couple of nice bruises on either hip, bruises where seat and pelvis fel

Triumphant in Paris

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I took the family to Paris for the weekend on the Eurostar, part of Zoe's 18th birthday present. She wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower, as you do. Anyway, on Sunday as we were walking away from the tower across the Seine and towards the Champs Elysees we were greeted by several French Triumphs. Unfortunately I was quite a distance away when I saw them but I had the camera in my hand so snapped a few pictures. We saw more Triumphs as we were breakfasting on the Champs Elysees, they were driving towards the Arch de Triumph - of course! It was nice to seewhat looked like a nice range of TR2/3, TR4 or possibly a 5, a couple of TR6s, a Stag, an MGA and I think an MGB GT I must say they weren't hanging about and did look nice in the crisp morning - all roof down.

....and then....

... another bundle of post this morning and we're up to entry number 69, Here's the list so far Entry Name 1 Mike Bishop 2 Bill Davies 3 Nick Jackson 4 Claire Hill 5 Jim McGuiness 6 Colin Radford 7 Jonathan Clegg 8 Steven Burrows 9 Floyd Pattie 10 Andrew Johnson 11 Jayne Spicer-Adams 12 Malcolm Swingewood 13 Jason Chinn 14 Craig Bennett 15 Alex Chandler 16 Brian Cox 17 Andrew Dann 18 Clive Senior 19 Tim Hunt 20 Malcolm Philpott 21 Jessica Brake 22 Roger Hogarth 23 Dave Kirk 24 Yossarian Gay 25 Keith Dandridge 26 Allen Foster 27 Graham Whiting 28 Wayne Scott 29 Michael Helm 30 Mark Bland 31 Howard Brissenden 32 Dale Barker 33 Tom Key 34 Mark Mclean 35 Doug Foreman 36 Tim Bancroft 37 Allen Walker 38 Pauk Bodiam 39 Richard Brake 40 John Hayes 41 Ashley Mills 42 Andrew Shirley 43 Keith Bennett 44 Jayson Murray 45 Robert King 46 Alan Pettit 47 Andrew Pearce 48 Russell Banyard 49 Dave Langrick 50 Steven Needham 51 Mike Barrett 52 William Columbine 53 Dave Marshall 54 Andrew Plews 55

The first 36 entries are in

For those of you pestering me for entry numbers, here are today's entries, all 36 of them. Not bad for the first day. This is the order in which I opened the bundle of envelopes, the only ringer is me, I gave myself number 13 again 1 Mike Bishop 2 Bill Davies 3 Nick Jackson 4 Claire Hill 5 Jim McGuiness 6 Colin Radford 7 Jonathan Clegg 8 Steven Burrows 9 Floyd Pattie 10 Andrew Johnson 11 Jayne Spicer-Adams 12 Malcolm Swingewood 13 Jason Chinn 14 Craig Bennett 15 Alex Chandler 16 Brian Cox 17 Andrew Dann 18 Clive Senior 19 Tim Hunt 20 Malcolm Philpott 21 Jessica Brake 22 Roger Hogarth 23 Dave Kirk 24 Yossarian Gay 25 Keith Dandridge 26 Allen Foster 27 Graham Whiting 28 Wayne Scott 29 Michael Helm 30 Mark Bland 31 Howard Brissenden 32 Dale Barker 33 Tom Key 34 Mark Mclean 35 Doug Foreman 36 Tim Bancroft Now a word of caution - I have yet to fully record all the details and check membership details so if you see your name there and you haven't renewed your membership, pull your fi

The Postman has been.......

....... and left me with a massive bundle of entries! I will be opening them later today and will start to create the entry list.

RBRR - the madness starts

For those of you sending me PMs on the Forum I am unable to respond as I am returning from a business trip to Istanbul. I will reply to you all when I get home tomorrow. UPDATE - I am now home. My magazine is here and my entry is in :-) Of course I won't take entry number 1, where's the fun in that?!

It's been a long time

Much water under the bridge and miles covered so I thought a quick update was in order. PI Pumps - the eBay listing generated more interest than I could have imagined and I have been making ans selling pumps to the Formula 5000 and classic racing fraternity! One to South Africa to go on a Chevron (whatever that is) and a whole package of stuff to a nice guy in California to go on two cars, a Brabham BT - 21 with Lotus Twin Cam and a 1970 Leda F 5000 - I've sourced and supplied seals, O rings, pumps and motors. My little test rig has been running for days! The original idea of selling enough to pay for the development costs is long gone and I broken even with the South African sale alone. All has cushioned the eBay disappointment. Trouble is, the pump I built for my car went to California! Never mind, Mike, 4x4 2000, Weaver came up with a box of pumps for me and I have the raw materials to make a few more. I've sourced the O rings for the fuel injectors too although I had to

Hmmm

Well that wasn't what I expected - the first of my pumps raised a lot of interest, some 22 "watchers" a few email but only 4 bids and a sale at £31. I've made a loss :-( However, I said I'd let it run it's course and see what the market valued it at and I guess I've got an answer, although eBay can be unpredictable. The funniest thing is that the buyer is known to me - I was negotiating a purchase from him! Small world. This Blog has generated some enquiries and I'm currently putting together a package for the States which will help me break even. The process has also encouraged a few people to turn up some spares and parts for which I'm very greatful (thanks Mike, that box of stuff will be very useful!) so I'm not put off just yet.

Lucas fuel pump resurrection

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After much work, head scratching and testing I have built some pumps I'm proud of. I enjoyed doing them and have a couple for spares for myself and a lot of potential to make more. I’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t, what can be reused and what needs to be binned and more importantly how to test the results. Sourcing and buying parts outside of the normal retail outlets has lead to buying in quantity but means that I have the stock to do more. It also means that I need to recoup some of my outlay so the first "surplus" pump is on ebay now to see if there's a market for these. I'm never going to make any money at these because there’s too much manual labour involved and the parts aren’t cheap but I hope I can make pumps that work. I’ve selected the best bits, reconditioned and replaced where necessary and tested a lot. I’m going to run each pump for a min of 2 hours on the rig to ensure it doesn’t lose pressure when hot. Whether I put each one on the car

Special Spanners

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It's always bothered me that I've never seen the "right" tools to adjust a metering unit on a PI. The "Christmas tree" of nuts that adjusts fuelling at various throttle/vac positions is housed under the black or green (or Red) cone on the top of the MU - if you have a red one email me ;-) The nuts are weird different sizes, not conventional at all. I always thought it odd that no original tools ever surface for these nuts. It's not the end of the world, you can get by easily without them but I always wanted the right tools or at least to know they existed! Enter a nice chap who goes by the name of Hans-Peter Langenbach from Germany. He had the same idle thought as me but he decided to do something about it. He set about designing and manufacturing a set of suitable spanners. He popped up on the Club Triumph Forum and asked if anyone was interested, I was and I now have a set. They do just what it says on the tin and fit just fine, might be a little tight

Feeling righteous

Sunday was the day for Lucas PI remanufacturing. Over the last few months I've been doing some leg work to acquire the right bits and pieces to recondition a pump or two. I've been finding spares all over the place, at last count I was up to something like 7 pumps in my possession plus the one running on the car! I've tested a few and many were crap - looking decent and serviceable on the outside doesn't mean they're any good at all on the inside. They all run and pump but a leak shaft seal (drips out of the tell tale) means they are useless unless worked on. My new best mate, the friendly chappy at the local hydraulics place has been a real help - he sourced the big "O" rings that sit between the pump and the motor. It's the same ones in between the layers of the pump body. He also sourced the "O" rings for reconditioning Lucas injectors as I have run out of original Lucas ones. Trouble is, I had to have 50 - well guess who'll be buying

It's weird what pops into your mind.....

I woke up this morning with an idea, well more the idea of a place to look for the solution - complicated I know. Here's the twisted tale. I have an agglometer in the PI, a fancy name for a glass bowl and drain tap in the fuel filter. The idea for this is that you can see if there's any water contamination and drain the fuel. It also has the added benefit of being an easy way to drain off a small amount of fuel for starting a BBQ in true boys own dangerous cookery style - but that's another story :-) Anyway, as well as the agglometer thingy I have a clear injector line so I can see what's happening there too. The result of all this transparency is that you see things you never knew were happening - phenomena that you'd be blissfully unaware of if you had a standard system. What could I see? Bubbles! No not the one time monkey partner of the deceased King of Pop but bubbles of air/vapour in the glass bowl and the injector pipe. These baffled me - the system was not l

Tyred and emotional

I'm a hoarder, I can't throw stuff away, it's a serious problem for me and although eBay has relieved me of a few things it's a double edged sword because for every thing I sell I seem to buy more replacements ! Anyway, Sunday was a good day, fellow Triumphist Nick Jones was in need of a hood frame for his Vitesse and yes, I had one, well two actually. They'd been up in the garage loft for a few years - one even had a 1970's white roof still attached. Anyway, an arrangement was made and Nick pitched up Sunday morning for excavations in the garage loft. I uncovered a spare wheel well for a Herald/ Vitesse up there too (will be on eBay when I can find the camera). We managed to get the frames down and examined, they weren't as good as I remembered them but together they were good enough for Nick and beer tokens changed hands. Not one to hang around, Nick's already been at them with grinder and hacksaw to make a bespoke but more importantly fitting hood

Under pressure

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The PI piffling continues in the heat - great for vapourising all the spilt fuel just hope no one lights up nearby or it's instant BBQ! I never knew there were two types of pressure relief valve - the long ones are easily dismantled and examined but the short one is a bit of mystery to me. The brass piece is just a 3 way, the next segment is just a housing for a mesh filter, the actual PRV is in the end. On the short one looks to be very similar to the normal long type but I can't see how to take it apart. Never mind, I'll see if it works and adjusts OK. I'll have to use the car as the test rig as I haven't built a bench test rig yet. I have now been through my stock of pumps and tested every one on the car. Which one is the best? Well would you believe it, the KMI one that wouldn't run and I took apart and cleaned! All bar one actually pump, 3 have failed shaft seals so they piss fuel out of the tell tale and one just won't hold a constant pressure as it o

Pump it up

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I'm Jason and I have a problem. I buy "bargains", you know the sort of stuff, £0.99 on Fleabay and I'm there, "click" and it's mine! So, armed with that "skill" I find myself sat in a hotel room in India, with nothing but a mini bar and a laptop. You know the routine, drink, eBay, random clicking, box of busted PI pumps is mine for a fiver, delivered. So I get home to be greeted by piles (and I mean piles) of various eBay purchases and they get stacked in the garage. The intention is to learn about the things, figure out what wears, what can be refurbished, what new parts are needed and how to test the finished item. This week I am on a "use it of lose it" holiday at the end of our holiday year - no one else is off and I can piffle in the garage, I am now surveying my vast stock of pumps - I've paid no more than a tenner for most of them and the vast majority were less than that. Some came with mounting cradles, pipes, pressure re

Tacho wiring diagrams

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Having been considering a tacho/rev counter for a while now (Mk1 PIs do not have one as standard) I started thinking about what, where and more importantly how I would fit it. I don't want to bodge a hole in the dash, I don't want to cut out existing instruments and I don't want a modern looking tacho. As ever, my eyes turned to eBay and there's a bewildering array of instruments, often without instructions or wiring diagrams. In my quest for information, I stumbled across this and thought it was worth sharing I still haven't got a tacho but I do have a reasonable idea of how to mount it and what sort of tacho would be OK. Ideally I'd like a works type pod like on FHP993C so I can put a fuel pressure gauge up in view but that might be a little tricky to find - my car isn't a replica so I don't have to be a slave to originality but I would like to keep it period looking as far as possible From FHP993C - At Canley Classics July 2007

Indian SD1

Have been out and about in the city of Pune and spotted an SD1 in a carpark, didn't have the camera but will try and remember it later today so I can get a picture, if it's still there. SD1's were made in the old Standard India factory in Chennai (aka Madras) where the Standard Herald and Gazel were made. The whole Standard / Leyland India compant went bust in the 80's and lay dormant for years until Rimmers bought up the stock of half assembled SD1 shells. Anyway, I've got a weekend in Pune and then off to Noida (Delhi) before the long haul home. I hit the ground in the UK on Thursday night then Friday morning it's up to Scotlandshire for the event formerly known as La Carerra Caledonia. See you there :-)

Back home in one piece

Well we made it home and didn't need the services of a recovery truck so I count that as a successful outing! A straight drive from the docks home, not the easiest but I took it steady and it was fine as long as I didn't expect any acceleration! Well it wasn't all plain cruising - it's misfiring or to be more accurate, not firing fully, well that's what it feels like. I didn't have any pump cavitation issues and that's the spare pump running without a cooling coil. I'm starting to think "ignition" so I am going to go through it all and assume nothing is right, testing it all one component at a time. Must find out how to test a coil! For now it's unpack, wash-up and sensible meal time. BIG thanks to Graham and Angela and the Isle of Wight Triumph club for another cracking weekend!

What a day

Well that was a day and a half! The car ran better for a while then started playing up again, not in a good way! The PRV seemed OK but then the pump started to cavitate and scream just after the car stops! It had been running OK, cool and when I checked it was drawing only 4 amps. Today it was up at 5.6 amps and it was cavitating - I could see the bubbles circulating into the glass bowl of the filter - fuel pressure in the engine bay was fluctuating all over the place. The current diagnosis is therefore crap pump! So being a good boy scout, I had a spare and changed it, that seemed to then show up a bit of dodgy ignition! The rotor arm was changed out for one I actually fixed with araldite once - better but not great At this point someone handed me a beer and I gave up! The thing (the car gets called a thing when it's not running right) is running, it hasn't actually stranded me. Yet and to be brutally honest I am knackered and looking forward to a few more beers! So balls to t

It's a hat trick!

Despite stiff opposition and the creation of a splinter group "Rejected by the Shirts" when partners decided to make their own team, the Hants & Berks irregulars won the pub quiz for a third year running. Wearing the same awful shirts as last year and christened the Matalan Marvels because of them, we managed to retain our winning streak. Quite how still amazes me as we were only 7 and were fairly drunk but just as stupid as we always are. Last year's prize money was recycled into a Sat Nav which we have donated at this year's raffle prize to keep the weekend interesting :-) At the moment I am contemplating getting the BBQ lit to start breakfast for 11 - I do hope the rain we had in the night doesn't come back! Sent from Blackberry.

What a relief!

Well that was fun, the PI continued to fart and pop it's way round the island today but we did make it to Blackgang Chine and back. During the day a diagnosis of sticky PRV seemed favourite amongst the gathered Triumph intelligenci. Although I had a spare in my kit I was not sure of it's suitability. I mean it could be worse than the one on there! Fortunately for me organiser of the weekend Graham Stretch came to the rescue again as he so often does! He had a known good PRV on the shelf. After showing me how it worked (because I wasn't sure and it was in pieces) I fitted it and immediately got a steadier pressure reading and a smoother running/sounding car. A quick blast down the road and all seemed much better. I will do a post mortem on the old PRV and we'll see what the issue was. The car is running quite rich but once I've got it stable I'll get onto that. For now it's on with the tasteless and tight shirt for an evening Pub quiz and some beer. Oh and R

Installed

Well we made it without issue, a couple of chugs and nothing more dramatic but it's still not right :-( Anyway, I am installed in the bar, there is Spitfire Ale on tap so all is well with the world. I will have a look at things in the morning and assess whether it's worth messing about or just a prayer to the gods of self healing! Sent from Blackberry.

Isle of Wight here we come

Not sure if this will work as I am using a bit of company bandwidth. Have arrived at the ferry ahead of schedule only to konk out at the check in! A quick look at my pressure gauge showed a distinct lack of PSI - like nowt! Pump buried under camping gear but I left some room around it (the boot is currently bare of any trim). It was not hot nor even warm to the touch so I wonder if the PRV is playing up? They apparently don't go wrong often. I have a spare with me, as you do. If it is heat in the pump then it will have cooled by the time we get off this ferry. I wonder if I may have squashed a fuel line with all the stuff packed in the boot? Plenty of time to investigate if/when we get to the camp site. I have heard from the advance party (Carl) that my tent is up :-) He has also called for fresh supplies of beer so we will stop off on the way and pick some up. Right, enough of this mobile blogging, back to enjoying the Isle of Wight ferry! Sent from Blackberry.

La Carerra Caledonia

Well what an interesting couple of days. I had to go to Manchester on business for a meeting today so I drove up last night and stopped off to see Dave at Canley Classics. I often drop in for a pint and a chat (OK usually a pint of coke). I had considered entering and mentioned it to Dave but it was somewhat half hearted as I knew I would have no time to prapare or help prepare a car and mine hasn't really proved itself yet. Anyway Dave said he'd been visited by Dave Langrick who had convinced him that doing La Carerra was a good idea - we'd done the event together 2 years ago in my fire breathing Vitesse (the flames out the back had scorched Langricks bumper) and it had been fun despite the issues. Anyway, Dave asked if I wanted "in", well I had already decided that I could not do it in my own car, due to the lack of any preparation time. I'm due out to India again in a few weeks and won't be back until Thursday evening on the 4th but hey! If there's

Unstuck stickiness

Well that's me done for the day, my back's gone stiff and it's time for a shower and a beer. It's been a decent day really, the sticky brake is unstuck. I couldn't really see much in the way of a cause but there was quite a lot of dust and crud in there. I've cleaned it all up and made sure there's no rust on the drum or lumps on the shoes. To be honest it just looks like they were sticking to the drums, everything now looks fine. It's all pretty new looking in there, all NOS stuff. I also managed to get blanking plugs into all the holes in the nearside inner wheel well. Throughout it's life the car looks like it's had several incarnations of PI plumbing. That's not uncommon seeing as there were half a dozen factory modifications done to Mk1 PIs! I've gone and done my own version relocating the pump to the offside, away from the exhaust. I've plumbed in a fuel tap and glass bowled agglomerater with a drain. That drain goes down throug

Stabilisers back on

Well stabiliser (single). Ever since getting the car the dashboard has been a weird ornament. None of the instruments worked. I had a low fuel warning light but that was about it. First came the choke light, that was just a clear up of the mechanism and I did that when I found the right choke cable to fit. Next came the clock, thanks to Scrapman Colin Wake I got a working clock - it even kept excellent time. Next came the speedo, that was my fault I think, when I fitted the cable I seem to have managed to miss align it at the gearbox, quite how I did it I don't know but a happy few days tracing it sorted out and that was great. But the fuel and temp gauge eluded me - I got a new voltage stabiliser but that didn't work, it was more serious than that. I managed to buy one of those new solid state stabiliser chips (no connectors just the chip) and was prepared to "go modern" to fix it. First though lets get the multimeter out and see what the hell's going on. Yup, it

I've seen the light

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I've always been keen to use modern technology to improve the lighting on my cars, I don't think I've ever had standard lighting for long on a car. Usually that's been fitting relays and higher wattage lamps. There's never been much choice for upgrading the sidelights so I was quite interested when I started seeing LED lamps coming down in price. I also liked the look of those modern LED indicators that are crisp and instant as they come on. For nearly a year now I have had an HID kit sat on the shelf waiting for me to get round to fitting it, I don't have all the lenses I want to do that yet. So last week, in a moment of weakness and I dare say idleness, I took a surf and ended up with a set of LED lights. Somehow I managed to mess up the order and ended up with a bit of an odd assortment - I didn't want to do the indicators until I had figured out how to ensure they actually work! LED indicators and old school flasher units don't play well together, ap

Sometimes the Gods smile on you.....

....and sometimes they turn round and take a dump on you. So, it goes like this - MOT passed, feeling good. I'm sorting out the rough running (I'm running out of ideas but I'm still keen). I refit the air filter, it's all a little tight with the "spaced" throttle but it just about fits. Now let's see if the timing is still OK. I find that the timing is a little off, weird because I've done that a few days ago. Never mind, get the timing gun out and get it sorted, dizzy feels a little loose so I tighten it all up. The car's ticking over nicely and then just stops, dead. No stutter just stops. I jump in the driver's seat and whiz it over, it doesn't catch. Strange. Then I get that flash of inspiration or was it the sound of the pump changing ever so slightly or the stench of petrol? So with ignition still on (silly boy) I take a look in the open boot - it's not a good sight. The high pressure hose on the output side has split where it goe

Whooo Hoooo!

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It's that feeling you get when you win the lottery, when you find one more chip in the bottom of the bag, when you come home and the kids haven't broken anything, when, when , when - you get the drift. Well that feeling was mine today when the PI sailed through the MOT without a problem. The guys in my preferred MOT station are old car friendly, Bob the one I see more often than not, appreciates the finer things in life, like Triumphs :-) OK so whe I said "it's running a bit rought I've got a dodgy injector" he did say that they were standard on PIs - thats' why he always ripped it all off and put Webers on! Nevertheless, a fresh ticket is mine. The car made it there and back - I have even managed to get the speedo to work, bonus! So, to celebrate, I gave her a present The issues now are all around getting her running right, anything else is pretty much cosmetic tarting - I have promised myself that I will attend to the important stuff first. Otherwise I&#

Thanks Bert

I've been struggling with the PI, I think I've turned the corner thanks to Albert Einstein. You see I have a "Home Page" on my PC that includes a daily random Einstein Quote, I'm trying to increase my bullshitting repertoire. Anyway, today's quote was 'Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.' and as I sat there looking for inspiration this morning I figured that was good advice. Let's go do something different! You see I couldn't understand the results I was getting with the fuel injection - bubbles in the now clear line (sometime you can have too much information) and poorly injecting on No1. All unions tight, no sign of leaks, everything all as it should be visually. I had changed out several components and generally messed about with the usual suspects. All my test readings on my pressure gauge were OK but it would still not run well, popping and farting like me after a curry and bucket of lager. I

A few more silly little jobs done

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When I bought the car it came with a nicely rechromed bonnet badge, these things are getting to be silly money, £100 for a decent one, £200 for NOS. Anyhoo - mine was nicely rechromed with a new foil for the Injection lettering, however it wasn't quite right as the indents weren't black. So I decided to try something and took a roll of go faster striping I had and a craft knife - here are the before and after pictures Hopefully it'll stay on, I've had that reel of stripes for about 30 years! I remember nicking it from my Dad's garage and using it to put some on my mates Raleigh Chopper when we were about 10 years old! The other major achievement today is that the proper steering wheel is back on and..... ...... I'm not so sure I like it! Too thin, too flimsy and too big! With PAS I don't need a bus wheel and I may well find a smaller Motolita one - if I can find one for a reasonable price. More later, I'm enjoying this :-)

Today's learning......

There two ways to remove a steering wheel, one way is to leave the nut on but loosly so the wheel just comes un-stuck and doesn't actually come off the column - ie you can undo the nut completely after you've loosened the wheel on the colum and are left with the steering wheel in your hands and a smile on your face. The other way involves you removing the central nut and sitting in the driving seat. You pull on the wheel whilst bending your head over the steering wheel. Now give it a few repeated tugs culminating in one big snatch. The wheel will now fly off the steering column and you will whack yourself on your head with the wheel. Bearing in mind you have just put a lot of energy and ooomph into this it will hurt, you will see stars and if you're really luck you will have a nice red mark on your forehead, a small lump and a big headache. Guess which method I used? Remember kids, I do these stupid things so you don't have to. Tomorrow I am going to play with electrics

I have redeemed myself

Got the PI back together and took her for a blast down the road, well more of a pootle than a blast! Never mind, it runs and I can now get stuck into MOT preparation, well checking really because she's been nowhere in the last 12 months. A couple of corroded connections got in the way of the passenger side repeater working, but that's sorted in a second, just need to do a little repair on the lens to ensure it lasts another 40 years. I returned wo the orginal pump and have noticed that the fuel pressure is falling under 100 psi so I will change that all out this week - must try and see if I can relocate it to the other side of the boot, away from the exhaust. I picked up a pair of black Stag seats for pennies last week, they need work - diaphrams etc but they may do for a trial fit - I like them, just need blue covers!

Forgive me for I have sinned

Forgive me for I have sinned It's been 5 months since I last drove my PI I know, I know - I've been busy in the country and others! Grab a coffee, this is a going to be a long one. When I last drove the PI, it was missing and would not pick up very well when you floored it - to be honest it's a new engine, the car had been off the road for 30 years and in the workshop for 5 (ish) so I was taking it steady but now it was time to fix it. I found the throttle spindles were worn and decided to change them for a mint Mk2 set I had. I then checked for injector dribble (it's an age thing) and sure enough I had a dribbley injector (No1) I took it off and found a couple of little black rubber bits in it - ah-ha says I in my best mechanic voice, Thar's yer problem. Fortunately no one was looking and I carried on as if I were sane - the black bits looked like the rubber seals in the metering unit breaking down - I remember Dave telling me that the PI kit was "picked over&

Wow – not only pictures but moving pictures of BYE377H, aka Car No 1 at the start of the World Cup Rally

On the advice of one the discussion boards I visit, I took a long overdue look at British Pathe Limited and found some interesting stuff. The search engine takes a little getting used to, the previews are low quality and the full versions are expensive but you can get a preview for free. All sorts of stuff there including this one https://www.britishpathe.com/thumbnails.php?id=85444&searchword=world%20cup%20rally&searchword=world%20cup%20rally You can download stills from the movies and I was going to put a few up here as I figured no one would mind. Wrong - I enquired and got a nice email saying that they'd charge me so you'll just have to go there and download them yourselves. There's stills of BYE377H the 2.5PI of Buchanan-Michaelson sporting Rally Number 1. I never realised it had a red stripe over the bonnet - until Dave rubbed the paintwork off and showed me, then I found these pictures, that I can't show you! There is a very brief clip of the car driving

A very productive couple of days

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I'll write this up properly as soon as I have the time but here's a quick taster of what I've been up to. Brian Englefield, one of the privateers on the World Cup appeared on the Atlas forum I occasionally use, then popped up on the CT forum to set a few things right. I started corresponding with him and he invited me to go see him and his "box of World Cup stuff" - was I excited? Damn right I was! The unique things about Brian Englefield is that not only did he complete in a Triumph but he also bought 2 of the World Cup cars from the works, including the wreck of XJB304H which is now in the hands of Pat Walker. Now there has been some chat about the provenance of this car although having seen BYE377H the Buchanan-Michaelson car and WRX902H the test car, I now know exactly what would be needed to replicate a works shell and how difficult it would be to do now. So it was a great opportunity to speak to the guy who reshelled 404 and see just what was done. So I gath

World Cup Rally route on Google maps

I've been playing with Google Maps to see if I could plot the rally route, I didn't quite manage what I wanted to do but I have managed to plot all the major aiming points, well those I could find! I wanted to try and link them up with the likely roads but I couldn't seem to make it work without a lot of work. Ultimately, if I can, I'd like to tag the photos I have with the places they were taken, once I've verified them! The maps are reproduced below, I think this should link you to them too European leg View Larger Map South American leg View Larger Map If you're viewing this from within the Club Triumph site then you may not be able to see the embedded Google map, click here to go to my Blog http://chinn.blogspot.com/

ADU 5B @ Chatsworth Rally Show 2008

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Trawling for photos, I stumbled across what I think is Dave Pearson pootling about on a sedate drive around Chatsworth in 2008, I say "I think" because I'm not sure if anyone else drove 5B that day - Dave, help me out with a comment mate. Click on each of the images to be taken to the owners pages and the image source with some bigger versions. Here he is again

New photo I've never seen before

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1970 World Cup Rally 00 Originally uploaded by Paul Lowry Just mooching around the net for some info and found this phot I've not seen before. All three surviving works Triumphs are in there. Click on the image for a slightly bigger version hosted on Paul Lowry's pages. I've written to him, I wonder if he has anymore? The caption says SANTIAGO, Chile, May 13 (UPI) The 43 surviving crews in the London-to-Mexico City World Cup auto rally rested today after their grueling 3,800-mile nonstop drive from Rio de Janeiro Additional - I have now got the original image and it's a scanned negative at excellent resolution so I've uploaded it to my Picasa album here. From World Cup Rally 1970

Triumph Rally cars - long after the World Cup Rally

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Via the Atlas Bulletin Board I was pointed at another Picasa album that shows a few interesting pictures including an ex-works World Cup car, an ex-works Mk1 and of all things a rally Stag!! The pictures were taken in 1985 at RAF Lindholme I've added the albums owner as a"favourite" in my public Picasa profile.

World Cup Video

Found this whilst trawling the net, again. Triumph 2.5Pi World Cup Rally 1970

New Album - what does the web think?

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I've been playing about with the new improved Picasa, a really good free photo program. I've uploaded a few Mk1 pictures here I'm a little dispaoointed that no one has yet made any comments on the photos - I welcome people's sensible input here, if you know when or where the photo was taken or can answer any of the questions I've asked (or set me right where I've got it wrong) then please have a go! From 2000 Mk1 Rally Cars

More World Cup photos

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Considering I only had one picture of this car I am really pleased to have made contact with one of the guys who drove it on the World Cup rally, Brian Englefield. He's very kindly sent me a few photos of the car on the event and in subsequent campagns. Here's UKV701H the LHD entry of Brian Englefield, Keith Baker and Andrew Lloyd-Hirst, somewhere in Serbia I think From World Cup Rally 1970 I've uploaded a few more and will blog them as I get round to it or take a look at my newly created (so it will probably fall over) World Cup Rally gallery on Picassa - click on the photo above and go there. I've included a randon World Cup photo in my Blog homepage for those who get here via the web at large rather than via Club Triumph. Where possible I will always credit the source of the photos - this one was from a professional Rally photographer, sadly the firm seems to be defunct now as I can't find them. If anyone knows better please let me know.

Quick Restoration Project?

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I was transferring some photos from my father's old laptop to a CD for him when I happened across this fine example of a New Zealand Triumph. Photo taken in 2004, not sure of location but near some hot springs if that makes any sense to anyone. Despite the loss of what looks like a PI, I kinda like the way it's going back to nature.

Having a bit of a World Cup day

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A spark from the Club Triumph forum, a chat with an present owner of one of the cars and an email from an entrant to the event have all rekindled my interest. I've been looking for pictures and details of a couple of cars from the event, the sort of works car BYE377H or "Car No 1" (as it lost it's registration over the last 39 years) and the private "works assisted" entry UKV701H that I always thought was left in South America. Well the web works in mysterious ways and what does it throw up today but pictures of both cars as well as other info. Here's a picture I've seen before but only in poor quality, this one isn't great but it's better. It's Bobby Buchanan-Michelson getting a speeding ticket whilst driving out of London from the start in BYE377H - there are more pictures of this event as it was reported in the newspapers pretty extensively at the time (apparenly, I mean I was 4 at the time!). Then there was this picture, which again I