RBRR Preparation has started!

Today was the start of the preparations of the Stag for the Round Britain Reliability Run, this commenced with draining and replacing the coolant. This required the disconnection of the bottom hose, but like many things on the Stag, nothing is straight forward!  To get to the jubilee clip on the bottom hose, I had to move the Power Steering pump and battery as the screw was at a difficult angle on the top of the hose! Total time spent draining coolant and replacing - 2 hours and a lot of choice words!

Whilst the system was drained I decided to tidy up the pipework leading from the header tank (Mercedes) to the water pump. I had not been happy with the tight run of the hose as it ran around the front of the cam cover so have now cut the hose and inserted a right hand bend which now places less stress on the hose. as can be seen from the following pictures.

 I also took the opportunity to tidy up the fuel hose from the filter to the carb using some steel overbraided hose and a nice clean fuel filter.

Once all this was done, it was time for the oil and filter change. Having struggled with the original spec oil filter I have now decided to replace this with the spin on type on the next oil change! The easiest job today? - putting 5 litres of VR1 into the car!

Next on the list - some copper grease on the back of the brake pads to reduce the squealing from the part worn EBC Green Stuff pads I fitted last year, top up the diff and check the auto box fluid. Check all u/j's and wheel bearings and pack the spares into the hood well.

Another Stag modification

Today I received an exciting parcel from LD Parts, the specialist Stag parts supplier. I have decided to try out his 'Secret Spoiler'.  To put this in context, a number of Stag owners have fitted various spoilers to the front valance to aid cooling at high speed as it is reputed that the airflow 'stalls' behind the front bumper at continued high speed and misses out the bottom part of the radiator resulting in a increase in engine temperature.


For those of us who prefer the original classic lines of the Stag, there is now a solution that has been developed by LD Parts. I have not included a photograph as it is currently 'patent pending' but it is an extremely simple solution that redirects the airflow to the bottom of the radiator and is invisible to the unknowing. You need to crawl under the front bumper to realise its there.  This evening I fitted it in 5 minutes, provided this warm weather continues, I shall take the Stag along a nearby motorway where I know where the temperature gauge rises to in hot weather when sustained high speed is maintained to see what effect it has.


Details of the 'Secret Spoiler' can be found here:Secret Spoiler

Another modern update to the Stag

When I first got the Stag I fashioned a home made 'breeze breaker' for use with the hood off using 6mm perspex. This has worked well but unfortunately was cracked rather badly on the 10 Countries Run when I put it in the boot and carelessly closed the lid. I effected a temporary repair with good old Gaffer Tape.

Since then I have been mulling over what to do, replace the perspex, purchase a good secondhand Bosscreen (too expensive new), try to make my own mesh one, or purchase a specially designed mesh one, again too expensive.

In the end I followed an interesting thread on the Stag Owners Club forum where some owners reported that the Audi A4 folding wind breaker was a good fit for the Stag. After bidding on a few on EBay I was eventually successful in getting one within my budget last week and it arrived today

very little modification is needed, just some form of strap to the T Bar which is effected using Velcro as seen in the following pictures. There are two positions it can be used, either using the correct tilt as used on the A4 which means the tonneau covers the back seat but leaves a slight gap by the B Post, or angled against the B post which leaves a slight gap at the back seat. Having tried both positions, there does not seem to be any difference(or increase) in drafts. it is as effective as my previous perspex one.

 And it all folds up nicely in this bag

No More Spitfire!!

Its not as bad as the title sounds, last week I decided to EBay the Spitfire and today it has gone to a new owner in Dartford that has plans to 'tinker' with it for a hobby. I was pleased that it has gone to a good home and a little sad to see it go given the experiences I have had with it on two failed 10CR and the successful RBRR in 2010.  In fact I think it was the documented history that I had with the car and the photo's across Europe and on the RBRR that helped sell it.

In the end it went for a good price, and exceeded the  reserve I set.

So, I am now down to one Triumph, the Stag which is this years choice for the RBRR

Anyway as a homage to the little yellow Spitfire, here are a few photo memories

2012 - near home

 Club Torque - Spitfire pictured in Spain on front cover

 2010 RBRR

 Drive it Day 2010

 RBRR Meeting Gaydon 2010

 10 Countries Run 2009

 10 Countries Run 2009

 10 Countries Run 2009 - Millau

 10 Countries Run 2007 - Morez

 10 Countries Run 2007 being recovered!

 Drive it Day - 2009

 Spitfire Day - Duxford

 SEM Leatherhead

These are but a few highlights of a very enjoyable time with an excellent little car

Stag Emergency Fuel Shut Off Device

Having looked at a post on the TSSC forum about the fuel pump emergency shut off device that shuts off the fuel pump in the event of an accident I decided to look into fixing mine.  Ever since I acquired the car some seven years ago the existing device has been circumvented by a previous owner, I know why having taken the existing one apart some years ago, it was thoroughly rusted inside.

Following a link on the forum I secured a modern one off ebay and proceeded to fit it today. The first job was to look at the existing connections to see what bits were needed, I was horrified to see the picture below!

The previous owner had taped everything together so I naturally assumed it had all been connected properly, not so, as can be seen some bent wire had been used to link the wires to the pump and the electronic ignition circuit. As can be seen from the picture below of the extracted wire it had begun to rust inside the connections and presumably was only a matter of time before one of the connections failed resulting in a stranded Stag! 

Having cleaned up the connections I then had to find a suitable site for the new device, there was not room on the nearside bulkhead as the electronic ignition module is mounted there and it was too big to fit in place of the existing unserviceable device.

I therefore elected to put it on the offside (driver's) side extending the loom to this position. Having screwed it to the bulkhead and connected everything together I started the car to make sure everything worked. The car started and ran fine, but how do I check the switch cuts out as it should? Off came the screws holding it to the bulkhead, I was then able to tap it against the bulkhead simulating a hard jolt as in an accident, sure enough the engine and pump cut off as designed - Phew!

Quelle Horreur!!

Why the French you may well ask, I had a moment today that reminded me of my first attempt at the 10 Countries Run in 2007 when the Spitfire knackered a rear wheel bearing resulting in our retirement in France.

It was such a nice day today that I decided to use the Spitfire, on my way home at lunchtime I hit a pothole with the rear nearside wheel which resulted in a very horrible screeching noise from the rear, remembering a similar noise near Dole in France in the middle of the night I limped the final two miles home very carefully.

Jacking the car up when I got home and turning the wheel, there didn't seem any play in the bearing so off the wheel came followed by the brake drum and what dropped out, the top brake shoe return spring! I remember I had replaced the brake shoes last November just before the MOT, clearly I hadn't positioned this spring properly, a quick 5 minutes work resolved the problem and I am pleased to say all is well again.

Well it is Friday 13th!!!!

Stag has a new Ticket!

After much gnawing of fingernails today I finally received the call from my local garage that the Stag has passed its MOT with a few minor advisories:

- cracked exhaust mounting on nearside below gearbox

- sheared bolt on autobox oil cooler

- suspected wear in offside rear wheel bearing as tyre shows wear on inside edge.

Can't dispute the first two, but I suspect the last one as that tyre was swapped from the front offside about a month ago and it was showing wear on the inside then! Still I will have a good look at it before the RBRR just in case he was right!

As it was a nice day today, I gave the Spitfire a good run and leaned off the mixture on the front carb as it was running rich, this has certainly improved the idle but I still have a problem with the jet going slightly into 'choke mode' on its own. I will have to look at the linkage a bit more closely as these were new a couple of years go when I replaced the old waxstats for conventional jets.

New Year, New Challenges!

This year its the turn of the Stag to attempt the Round Britain Reliability Run, should be fun I hope, it was in the Spitfire last time. Speaking of which, I dusted the cobwebs off the Spitfire today as it had been sorned since its MOT last November, taxed it and gave it a good run up to Morrisons for some shopping. Its amazing what you can get in the boot!

I have just booked the Stag in for its MOT in our local garage as its renewal has crept up on me and I've only got 7 days left on the ticket. Fingers crossed all is well, I've done all the usual checks but this is the first time I haven't sent it up to Faversham Classics for a service beforehand as I plan for it to have a service closer to the RBRR, it's only done 3500 miles since the last one and 2000 of those were on the 10CR

Mild Panic!!

Went into the garage this morning to be confronted by a very wet floor! Initial investigation showed that the Stag had dumped the contents of the new header tank into the 'V' and spilt out onto the floor. I at first suspected the water pump seal not being used to a decent head of water and started to dismantle the airbox to have a better look, fortunately I noticed the top hose was wet where it joins the thermostat housing and looking more closely at appeared that the leak was in fact from that so I released the jubilee clip and re-positioned it this time tightening it up with a socket rather than screwdriver. I also managed to get a few extra turns on all the remaining 'new' jubilee clips.

Having given the car another good run today I am now waiting for it to cool down to make sure this was in fact the root cause of the problem.

Watch this space -- as they say!

Mercedes Header Tank fitted to Stag

Just before Christmas I purchased a header tank off a Mercedes W202 (C200) to fit to the Stag after seeing a few similar conversions, particularly that done by Danny Stroud who had put an excellent description of his on the Grampian Stags website.

After conversing with Danny through email, following which he sent me further photo's I followed his lead and sourced most of the parts and hoses from Car Builder Solutions, which coincidentally is only a mile from home.

I have deviated slightly from Danny's installation and used a tee in the top hose rather than using a half inch BSP elbow in the radiator filler cap, this follows a route taken by other Stag owners.
The fixing of the tank was actually the hardest bit, identifying suitable brackets to provide the supports, in the end I decided to use some 3mm steel brackets from B&Q. I have yet to fashion one for underneath the tank, but it is well supported by those fitted so far.

A major headache was reducing the size of the hose from the header tank from 25mm to 15mm, as the alternator had been relocated to the nearside this left little room for my initial plan to use a straight reducer, I solved this by using a 90degree elbow reducer immediately below the header tank, allowing me to use the 15mm hose behind the alternator to connect to the water pump.

After a good test yesterday running the engine up to temperature and giving the Stag a good hard run for half an hour, no leaks etc were found. All I need to do now ids fit the lower support bracket and maybe think about fitting a water level sensor. Round Britain Run preparation continues!