Jason's Blog

Just walked in the door after a 100 mile blast - it's not all sorted but wow! This really has unleashed the potential of the motor - she pulls seriously all the way up to 100mph and past. Throttle response os excellent and petrol consumption is on an unscientific basis no worse than carbs (which would have been hard). There's no filters, the throttle linkage needs serious lubrication as it sticks a little. There are some pipes and cable to sort out (anyone got a side entry 6 cylinder distributors cap? Standard Vanguard I think) and there's a bit of an issue over the banjo bolt/valves on the metering unit causing some fuelling issues but it's all solveable! BIG BIG BIG thanks to Dave for the expertise, help, parts, hospitality etc. Thanks also to Claire for being so understanding when I keep him out and feed him curry and larger :-) Back to the real world with a bump, gotta go to Norwich now in the Eurobox and pick up the pieces of work I should have done yesterday! Phot...

Well I'm sat at a Canley Classics PC checking my email and blogging! Fitting Lucas PI to the Vitesse has gone well but not well enough. I was up here at the crack of dawn on Monday and had a great trip up, 100 miles at full chat. I confirmed the presence of a prop vibration between 75 - 80 mph. OK I confirmed the presence of a vibration that Dave diagnosied for me :-) Whilst up here I stripped off the prop and found the sliding joint on it's way out and some play in the UJs so we took it down to Dave Mac propshafts for him to work his magic. Meanwhile we sorted out the PI - I've taken a few photos and when I'm back home I'll upload them with a full report. Suffice to say we found some interesting stuff. Apparent valve seat reccession, I've reset all clearances and recorded them all so I can go back and check on it. I feel an unleaded head coming on. We selected the best of the PI kit, although I have some early single balance pipe stuff we went with the later tw...

Well work really does get in the way of my social life these days! It was 5:30 before I arrived at Canley's on Friday, hardly enough time for a poke around the workshop to see what's new - I did notice 2 pieces of a 3 piece World Cup spec 2.5PI sump guard set - it's a real thing of beauty but so heavy!! It seems to be made out of Dreadnought armour plating. Also in Dave's workshop was a new development for us small chassis Triumphs owners - really neat and something that removed an Achilles heal of Triumph engineering with a modern alternative. I won't say anymore, not even if you pester me as it's not perfected nor has it yet been fitted. Having listened to Dave's tales of a busy business I wouldn't like to add to his list of stuff to do! We retired to the Weavers and sat in the glorious sunshine for beer and pork scratchings - we know how to live :-) Final preparations were made for Monday/Tuesday when I'm going to hang up my office clothes and get...

Not sure what's happened to the Blog feed into Club Triumph as it's misbehaving - the Blo updates appear but you can't read tehm from within the CT site. I've been through my settings and all looks fine. I'll have to sort it out with Keith when I'm back home. I'm stuck in Norwich all week then off up to Manchester Friday, hope to drop in at Canley's on the way home for a beer with Dave and one last chat about Lucas PI before next week. The plan is that I'll take the car up at the crack of dawn to get to Dave before the traffic builds up - might be a 5 am start for me. Anyway, once up there I'll srtip ff the SUs and start assembling the PI kit onto the car - I've allowed a couple of days to get it on and sorted. I need to gather up the rest of my PI kit in the garage on the weekend, over the years I've accumulated loads of stuff but it never really got put in one place! anyway, I will take my camera and take plenty of photos, watch the blo...

If you've been folloing the events in the TSSC recently you'll know that the Council of Management (CoM) of the TSSC have announcemed the appointment of 4 new CoM members - Garth Jupp, 2.5PI pilot, formerly of the Isle of Wight and now working for Rimmers. Nigel "NiG" Gibbins - TSSC Racer and championship organiser Mike "Cop Shop" Crewes - Stag pilot also Triumph trialer or is that trialist? (not in the Stag!) and Vivien Thompson. Mike has also taken on the General Secretary role. I've spoken to both Bill Sunderland and Simon Roberts (CoM member and "chair") at length on the phone over this weekend. Simon tells me that the CoM are "100% behind Bill" and have spent a great deal of time discussing the various rumours, speculation and questions that have been raised. Simon told me that the CoM are clear on the way forward and are pleased that everyone is committed. Now I've been vocal about openness, transparency and explaining thing...

I think I've found the problem with the Vitesse starting - closer examination reveals that the bulkhead mounted solenoid is just being used as a terminal block. Thick black battery wire goes in and another thick wire goes out to the starter - i.e. the main feed. The starter is a TR6 type with top mounted solenoid. There's a thick brown wire that comes out of the loom and also goes to the solenoid, not sure what that is, could be the facet fuel pump mounted in the boot? Nothing else is connected to the bulkhead solenoid - I think I'll get some battery cable and terminals to make a new long lead from battery to starter. I can then remove the bulkhead solenoid completely. There's then the red and white normal gauge wire from the loom that goes to the terminal on the solenoid on the starter - this was a crappy connection that I remade last time I looked at it, now I've found that it's brittle close to where it goes into the loom, there's a small split in the ins...

Hello to the green Stag owner bombing round the M25 yesterday at respectable speed, it was so good to see and hear a 3 litre V8 being driven hard - I slowed down to let you pass and wound down my window to hear you - you wouldn't have noticed me, I was in one of the countless Euroboxes you flew past!