Tractor time

There has not been much time spent on my cars recently due to work on the Lightweight (more on which another time) and work on my tractor. I've owned this for the past five years or so and has come in really handy when moving engines around or fetching wood for the farm, but the hydraulics, which provide power to lift the front loader or rear implement, have over the years grown weak.
A gear driven pump provides the hydraulic power, but this is hidden away in the back of the tractor behind the gearbox and below the axle. The combined gearbox and rear axle oil was drained and while this was happening, I set about removing any parts which would get in the way.





With all the parts out of the way the rear case came off without any problems, using the two jack-off bolts to separate it and the Massey 35 to hold the weight.






It doesn't look too bad in the rear housing, though there is a bit of silt in the bottom of the case, not too surprising to me for a farm tractor of this age. I shall clean all this out as best I can, then put new oil back in, all 12 gallons of it.

I moved the rear case, with the hydraulic pump, into the workshop to make it easier to work on. Unfortunately there are no obvious signs of failure yet, so I guess a hydraulic pump rebuild could be on the cards.

Up for sale again

After my last post I have been told my old 2000 is back up for sale again after a re-spray. It looks a bit pink to me after the re-spray and I'm not too sure about the plastic hub caps, but it does look better for being in one solid colour again. You can see the full advert here

A departure and some new arrivals

Long time no update again. With the 2000 through it's MOT and a new nose cone fitted I decided it was time to move it on. I've had some good times with this car, the 2008 RBRR being one of the highlights, but it came to a point where it was being used increasingly for daily driving only and I was not getting so much fun out of it, that and the fact that with it's Witor exhaust system it is quite noisy for daily driving. So after the nose cone of the 2000 had a few top coats of paint it went up on a few car for sale websites. The next day I had a call to arrange a viewing and a couple of days later a deposit was put down. The 2000 is now a few more miles West along the M4 with it's new owner, who plans to re-spray it before too long, something I never felt up to.




The GT6 is reliable, but I did not want to have to make it a daily driver, so instead I set about finding a replacement for the 2000. My mind was fairly open about what to get, but my preference was for something rear wheel drive, comfortable, reliable and a bit more modern, without being overladen with electronics.
In the end I decided to plump for a 1983 BMW E21, it has a 1800cc slant-four engine, with a carburettor and a distributor, but fortunately no points. So far I have covered over 1000 trouble-free miles after replacing the fourteen year old tyre and knackered wiper blade it somehow managed to pass a MOT with.




Oh, and the other new arrivals, the farm dog had a litter of puppies about six weeks ago, so we now have seven Welsh Border Collie puppies, all of which, bar one or two, have found homes already.

At a week old




and five weeks

Time for that nose job

I have decided to continue sorting out some of the bodywork on my MkI 2000 and I am part way through a fairly major job, replacing the front nose cone panel. In 2006 the previous owner hit a deer during the CT RBRR, resulting in this.



but when it arrived, the car looked something like this



so I wanged in some metal from a Dolomite door skin to get it roadworthy.



Fortunately when I bought the car, it came with a spares front end, which has already donated parts of it's wings to this car and now has donated the complete nose cone panel



After much deliberation and wielding of the angle grinder, the old nose cane was removed, you can see from the pic below the blue of the old Dolomite door.



After a few hours spent cleaning off both the replacement panel and the car, it was ready for tacking on after a coat of zinc rich primer where I would not be able to paint after welding



And this is where we are tonight, blending in the new panel, removing dents and preparing for paint, which I hope to have done by the weekend

Some shed time

With the MOT out of the way again I set about a few tidying up jobs on the 2000. Around the rear wheel arches, the old underseal has been knocked/peeled off, next job is to get it in primer before giving it a coat of stone chip and a top coat of red to match. The original paint is in surprisingly good condition, but is quite thin.



While waiting for that paint to cure, work has re-started on the front passenger wing. I pulled some dents out and removed some rotten metal from the arches a couple of years ago, but never got round to giving it a top coat.





Up in the wheel arch I could see a bit of rust bubling up



Which cleaned up to look a bit like this



So there's going to be a bit more cutting before some fresh metal goes in.
After the new metal went in it was finished with seam sealant and a few coats of paint, yes I know it is not the right colour, but it is under the carpet.

PI tuning

My initial elation at getting the GT6 running on Pi was dampened somewhat when I realised that the rough running was accompanied by the exhaust from number two cylinder was glowing red. Something was obviously not right, so I gave the supplier of the exhaust manifold and metering unit (Gareth Thomas) a call and described the symptoms to him. He reckoned the timing was out and offered to pop over as he was in the area and check it out.
Later GT turned up and after much checking and re-checking of the camshaft, we had proved that the camshaft was approximately 10deg. too advanced. With the timing cover off, the marks on the cam wheel lined up correctly, but the cam opening were not correct. The cam wheel was a second hand duplex version, bought from eBay some months ago, which I had no reason to think was machined incorrectly, but it turned out that it has never been right when we compared it to another cam wheel I had found.



Eventually, after much checking, the cam wheel was re-fitted rotated round from where it was, along with a second hand chain to give the most accurate timing possible.

So a few hours after starting on the car we had it running something more like properly. No.1 injector needed bleeding, but was soon done and then it was on to the finer settings, once a throttle return spring had been fitted it was much easier to set the idle and then on to balancing the manifolds. A quick run out that evening showed a massive increase in torque and power, with some beautiful sounds coming from the exhaust and a wonderful howl when working hard.

The next day the air box log was fitted, it was much to my surprise that it fitted at all as I had not modified the bulkhead with that in mind. Then it was onto the ignition map, which we made surprising short work of, modified quickly in the shed before going out for a run. The new map cured the un-even idle, a stutter around 2000rpm and having increased the highest rev range, it no longer failed to go over 5500rpm. Out on the run the map was changed while in the petrol station, amid strange looks from other people, further refining it.



I then took to the passenger seat to let GT have a feel of the car, really worthwhile as I had been having some issues with how the car felt, but my lack of experience made it harder to define what the problem is.
One problem, which I knew of, is down to the lack of negative camber on the front, something which I would like to remedy with a pair of top arms from GT6Mike, but for now I shall see if I can get a few more shims in. Another suggestion is to increase the rear track width to make it more stable under braking, as at the moment the front does feel a bit too light and fidgety under heavy breaking.

All of this now gives me a further list of jobs to do, get some more camber on the front, fit a cold air feed to the inlet and seal up the gearbox tunnel.

Oh, and these a the plugs after a good run out.

On with the GT6 PI install

It took a bit longer than I had hoped but I soon got the inlet and exhaust manifolds on. It took longer as I needed to try different fixings for the manifold to enable me to both get the bolt in and tighten it up, so there is both nuts and cap head bolts holding it to the head

Next it was on to bracket for the throttle cable, temporary at first to check the movement before welding it together.



With the manifolds all on I could connect up all the hoses, but no fuel was getting through to the injectors and the battery soon ran down, so that had to go on charge. I was not sure if the injectors needed to be bled, the PRV was set too low or just that the battery is too low.





After a quick call I soon found out that the fuel system needed to be bled through the injectors by turning over the engine with the spark plugs out, excess fuel on full and the injectors out of the manifolds, which all makes good sense really, so to reduce the load on the starter. Such are the problems of trying to undertake a job such as this on your own with no previous experience on the Lucas PI system.

With the system properly bled through I did manage to get the engine to run on the Lucas PI system, albeit somewhat roughly as the throttle bodies had not been balanced and the tick over not set, but at least it ran, so I was happy enough for that days work.

Making space for the PI & starting of system install

Another job was to make space around the engine to allow the new exhaust manifold and PI inlets to fit properly. This meant the heater control cable was shortened, the under manifold heater pipe changed and a new clutch hose made.


For some reason I had a core plug that was failing, not around the edge/join, but leaking through it. Fortunately I had another one in my spares, so that was changed quickly enough.



The following day the fuel lines were all made up and complete to the metering unit, so the carb. dissy drive had been removed along with the fuel pump, which has been blanked off. It's all a bit tight round there, but fortunately does still fit in.


Around the other side the exhaust manifold is part on there for a trial fit, I needed to wind out the studs from the head to replace them with cap head bolts to fit the manifolds as the space looked tight for getting a spanner on and the inlet manifolds also required a longer fixing to mount them.


In the boot, the fuel pumps are piped-up and wired in, via relays. I want to get a fuel swirl pot in there eventually, but this should do for a start.

More PI preparations

Another job was to get the main fuel lines for the PI system fitted. I decided to use proper braided hoses instead of the original spec push-on plastic hoses One added complication was how to support and run the hoses. In the end I chose to make up some clamps to run down the outside of the chassis rail, which meant a bit of this X10.
and then a bit of lathe work with two pieces of alloy clamped together and drilled through to accept the hoses and through a different side for a mounting/clamping bolt. Ideally I would have drilled the chassis and used rivnuts, but due to lack of space (can't get the drill in straight) nuts were welded on the chassis rail and recesses made in the underside of the clamp to make it sit flush.

A good day was then spent fitting the clamps to the chassis, each one having to be fettled slightly to sit over the weld and also support the brake line.


The un-supported copper pipe is the existing fuel supply to the carbs. fitted up just to keep the car mobile as work proceeds.

Then up front, just before the toe board outrigger, a couple of supports have been welded on for the right angle hose fittings, which take the fuel to/from the metering unit.

PI preparations

Some progress has been made towards the PI conversion for the GT6 with new seals fitted to the metering unit pedestal and new O rings and seal for the Lucas fuel pump, which was then run-in on the bench under no load, watching the current drawn go down from around 2 to 1.35amp.




Meanwhile I had another trial fit of the exhaust manifold and inlets to check for any obstructions. The last time this was done the car was not complete and on the road, so things such as the clutch and heater return hose are now in place and will need to be moved. This should be no great problem as I had intended to replace both items anyway.

New wheels, well almost.

Yesterday I picked up my alloy wheels from the re-conditioners, the wheels having been shot blasted, any repairs required made and then sealed and painted.
Prior to this the wheels were looking quite grotty, were a pain to keep clear and had a propensity to leak air. It has been my plan for a while to fit better tyres, but I felt it was not worth it until the wheels could hold air better. It took them a few goes to get the colour powder coat to lay on the spokes right, as when I first went to pick them up there was a bit of a overhang on the spokes, but they offered straight away to re-do them free of charge.
I'll be keen to see how they look once back on the car as we did spend a bit of time with colour charts to try and get a colour which did not stand out too much or look boy racer'ish. Well recommended. http://www.thewheelspecialist.co.uk


Perhaps they need some centre caps still though? will have to look into what is available and might fit.

Meanwhile back on the car I've been doing a bit of tin bashing or to be correct aluminium bashing. This has been to make up a shroud for the radiator to divert air from the grille to the radiator core. Quite some time was spent with various cardboard templates before committing to aluminium, but I am quite pleased with the results and hope that come the warmer weather it all ought to help. The next job will be to get some etch primer and then top coat, not sure which colour to go for at the moment, same yellow as the engine? too bright perhaps? or a light grey to blend in?



After this first five months or so of having the GT6 back on the road I have been quite happy with it and it has been great to be able to appreciate every improvement I have made since then. Getting the Megajolt working, fitting the better suspension and getting the car tracked has probably made the most significant improvements to the drive so far.

I've got quite a list of minor jobs to finish off, such as fitting the foot rest to the gearbox tunnel and putting in a six-way connector for the speedo, but the next area to look at again should be the braking system. The braking system has bee quite adequate so far, but with plans to tune the engine further, I feel more improvements could be made yet, probably with Mintex pads, braided hoses and better brake fluid.

The art of suspen...sion

With the GT6 running something like right, I decided to turn my attention to the suspension; the car was sitting too high for my liking, felt a bit too wobbly and did not corner as ell as it should have. Part of the problem was down to there being positive camber on the front wheels and what looked to be a new rear spring, fitted by a previous owner, causing the rear to sit quite high. These two problems were solved quite quickly, with the addition of three extra wishbone shims to each front suspension mounting point and a one-inch spacer block fitted between the rear spring and differential.
While I was there, the rear spring mounting studs were also replaced, with Spitfire cylinder head studs, not the suppliers recommended plated studs, why fit weakened plated studs on important suspension components?

Last year I managed to pick up a pair of older design AVO coil over shock absorbers for the GT6, I'm particularly glad that I managed to get a pair of the old design considering the issues some people have been having with AVO bushes recently with them disintegrating after only a few thousand miles. Avo-bushes & boing-boing-zebedy


The shock absorbers are supplied to accept 2.5inch diameter springs, with the intention that on Triumphs the original top spring seat is used. I decided to copy Mr Sideways though, by using the AVO supplied top spring seats and fitting 2.25inch diameter springs. The advantage of doing this is to help keep weight down and reduce the cost of the springs, as now the free length of the spring only needs to be six inches.
The spring seats needed some machining to fit the new springs, but being alloy, it didn't take long on the lathe to take them down to size.


The difference was instantly noticeable, with the car cornering so much more flatly and not trying to dive into the ground under braking, but going to a spring rating of 600Lbs you would expect to feel some improvement, but fortunately the road noise and effect of poor road surfaces has not effected it too much.


Meanwhile at the back, a pair of Koni shock absorbers have been fitted, this time courtesy of Rimmer Bros, not somewhere I often buy from, but with their 20% off last month, it made them the cheapest for the Koni's.

One of the next jobs will be to check the adjusters on the rear radius arms still move, then arrange to get the whole car tracked, as it does feel as if the suspension is trying to fight itself.