Stag update and a bit of history!

I've been using the Stag a fair bit over the last couple of weeks, mainly to put mileage on the new engine so that I can put it in for the next oil change and head torque. Consequently its now booked in next week having reached the requisite 1000 mile mark. This new engine just gets sweeter as the miles go on and its getting increasingly difficult to keep to the 3000 rpm limit - only 4 more days to go!

One thing I did notice recently was a bit of driveline vibration between 50 and 60, so today I took the car into my local National Tyres for the wheel balance to be checked. I have good experience of this tyre supplier having bought tyres for my Skoda, Spitfire and the wifes Ka through tyreshopper.co.uk for fitment there.

They balanced them all, but pointed out that the offside rear was very difficult to balance as it was slightly buckled, this is strange as looking at the wheel it seems to be in better condition than the rest. Anyway, they did get a good balance on it in the end and I took it for a good run up the M20 - admittedly at a slightly greater speed than the legal limit and more than the 3000rpm for just a few minutes, what a difference - the vibration had gone completely. Just need to sort out the slow puncture in the spare now and swap the wheel.

On a slighly different topic - still Triumph related in a way, I have been scanning in some old 35mm slides on a new slide scanner I bought from Maplin and came across some photo's of my first Triumph Herald a 1966 1200 convertible taken during a holiday in Cornwall in 1973 with my then Fiancee Rose (now wife) - hence the strange photo of me pointing to an appropriately named road! You can see from the photo that this was my Hippy look!

The next photo was taken outside the holiday cottage we had rented - I seem to holding the local cat!
The last photo is taken in the driveway of Rose's parents back in Kent. I remember that we had to stop on the way home at Heathrow to wire up the exhaust rear box as it started dragging along the ground whilst travelling along the M4!

RBRR 2010 - A long awaited result!

After 2 failed CT 10CR events in the Spitfire I can now hold my head high and say 'YES - We've done it!' My friend Graham and I reached The Plough last night after 2000 odd miles in the Spitfire on this years Round Britain Reliability Run.

We were exhausted, the car was exhausted (but running) and elated as we went to get that final signature in the roadbook, certainly a new experience for me! Roll on the 2011 10CR!

The beginning of the run was very wet and we were stuffing rags around the most leaky parts of the hood for the first couple of hours and then it eased off the further north we went, By the first stop at Blyth we were actually beginning to dry out. The car was running well, although I was a little concerned that it had started to show some slight rattling under hard acceleration from the bottom end but decided to ignore it - I was determined to get to the end!

We had a good run though the night rolling in to Edinburgh Airport in the 2nd half of the pack, having been passed by the faster cars on the way up. Dawn was breaking as we reached the next control at Skiach which made for a lovely run up the coast to John O Groats and breakfast! After a very welcome meal at was off to take the obligatory photo as proof of our adventure so far. It was then time to depart off to drive the great roads, in particular the B871/B873 by Strath Naver down to Altnaharra. This was the first time we took the hood down as it was warm and sunny. We had a great time on this road, following a 2000 at a decent speed.Our next stop was at Conon Bridge - more food and coffee!. We departed in the sun to drive down past Loch Ness and up through Glencoe (nice clean toilets at the Glencoe Visitor Centre). By this time, the rain had started again so the hood went back up. By this time we were about an hour behind schedule and arrived at the Stirling stop (Morrisons Garage) for coffee and very nice Scotch Pies.

The next part of the journey was the run down to Lancaster Services past Glasgow, this was another damp and somewhat boring run as it was the M80/M73/A74/M6 during which we had to stop to change drivers - sleep deprivation was beginning to show its effect.

After Lancaster we headed towards Wales stopping at Gledrig for fuel, and refreshments. After this was a nice drive down to the Sugar Loaf Picnic Area passage control. in the early hours of Sunday morning. As there was limited space here we travelled on after getting the roadbook signed and stopped by the side of the road to change drivers. At this point we were approached by a friendly policeman who pulled alongside as asked if we were OK - after explaining we were changing drivers he asked if there was a special rally on as there seemed to a lot of cars around, so the next 5 minutes were spent explaining what we doing - they were suitably impressed!

Following this we travelled down to Monmouth where admittedly we took a deviation from the route and took a quicker route to the M4 to pickup some time. As I got out of the car at Gordano Services on the M5 I noticed that the ignition light was glowing and the Battery Condition Gauge was only registering 11.5 volts - I hadn't noticed this earlier as the steering wheel boss hides the light. A quick diagnosis confirmed the alternator was not charging.

Fortunately, before the run, my neighbour Andy in Car 98 (Toledo 1300) had discussed spares and he agreed to carry his old alternator as a spare, so once he arrived at the services I put it on my car and we were back in action. The rain started halfway through this process and continued with high winds until well into Cornwall making the drive very arduous at this point.

We were about an hour behind schedule when we got to Lands End and saw many fellow Triumphers going in the opposite direction to the breakfast stop at Scorrier
The breakfast was excellent and plentiful, after adding another half-litre of VR1 to the car we headed off for the next stop at Bude, an easy run and more coffee and cakes! The sun was out so again the hood came down for the run across to the Badgers Holt Control Point at Dartmeet. I have to confess that this time I plugged the destination into the Sat Nav to let Graham get some sleep as a consequence we used a longer but quicker route to get there.

After Badgers Holt was a quick run to Pimperne Village Hall, Graham knew most of this road well so we swapped driving and I catnapped until we got near. I still can't work out how Graham manages to sleep so soundly in a Spitfire! At Pimperne we were greeted with lots more Tea/Coffee and excellent homemade cakes. From here was the trip to the final control stop at the TR Register Offices at Didcot, again we decided beforehand to let the Sat Nav do the directions and take the quickest route there - we wanted to get back to The Plough as quickly as we could as we were now over an hour behind our schedule. Having successfully got our roadbook signed and used the TR Registers loos we followed the roadbook instructions back to The Plough. This was entertaining and at a few points we questioned the wisdom of following them until we saw the ques on the M40 when we passed over it. Eventually we joined a traffic free A41 and a similarly quietish M25 for the final trip to The Plough.

After being greeted on our return, getting the roadbook signed at the finish we settled down to a pint of Shandy and food.

We had a great time, and the car performed almost faultlessly, I even started ignoring the rumbling bottom end bearings during Sunday afternoon as the realisation that we were going to make the end finally dawned on me.

There are many people to thank for making this a successful event, My great friend Graham for agreeing to do the event with me, Andy for donating the alternator, the organisers, Tim, Jason, Nigel and the many others who helped them.

My 3rd and most successful CT event - roll on the 2011 10 Countries Run!

Stag Auto Box seal replacement

Had a very interesting day today. For the past couple of weeks my Stag has been leaking auto fluid from the Torque converter area following the installation of its new engine, so today I took it up to Faversham Classics where one of the owners, Trevor and I were to jointly remove the box and replace the seal. This was an education for me, I had never been in the position before where I could work on one of my cars in a properly equipped garage with Lift and all the right tools.

It was also a great help having Trevor to show me how to do it with all his knowledge and shortcuts. We started at 10.00am, had the box out by 11.30 having removed exhausts, propshaft, starter motor, gearbox mountings to name but a few of the items. The culprit was found to be the seal between the Torque Converter and gearbox, there was also a weep from the gearbox rear seal, so both these were replaced. I was surprised how warm the Torque Converter still was despite having 'rested' the car for 2.5hrs following my drive there(35miles)

Following a break for lunch, the car was ready for the drive back home by 3pm. I now know the value of having the right tools for such a job! I also have discovered muscles I didn't know I had in my arms and hands!

Yet again the people at Faversham Classics cannot be praised enough for the way they look after their customers, Trevor was very fair when it came to discussing the bill and very few bits of the folding stuff was needed.

Car 97 RBRR - Drivers Meeting Gaydon

Made the journey from Kent to Gaydon today for the Driver's meeting for the RBRR in the Spitfire. - see above picture taken outside the entrance where I parked with some other CT cars. This is the first time its been so far north of London in my hands although it's seen plenty of service on the continent! It ran pretty much faultlessly all the way there and back, the exception being the loss of tickover at idle which was a bit entertaining on the M40 Sunday evening jam. So a swift visit to Sainsbo's in Staines to refuel and adjust the idle screw made for an easy final 60 miles home on the M25. Luckily, having worked in The Causeway in Staines for a number of years, I was able to bypass the usual Sunday evening crawl past the M3 junction by using my old route home via Thorpe Park and Chertsey.

I was pleased with the way the car ran overall, according to my Satnav the total journey was 280 miles with an average moving speed of 54mph and the fuel consumption worked out at 42mpg, if I can achieve that on the RBRR I will be very happy! The oil pressure tailed off a bit on the way home, not drastically so, but enough to suggest changing the oil to the VR1 20/50 that I bought last week may be prudent.

The Driver's briefing was good, ably performed by Tim, Nigel, Jason and a couple of lovely girls from MIND whose name I forget. Even managed to meet up briefly with my brother who has lived locally to Gaydon for 20 odd years but never been there before. He was my co-driver on the last two 10CR's but declined to do the RBRR, probably because its his birthday on 1st October and has better things to do! He is willing to do the next 10CR though, but only if we do it in my Stag, I think he wants a bit more comfort!!!

RBRR Preparation Car 97

When should one stop fiddling (fettling?) the car for the RBRR - I seem to have reached that point where I am seeking things to do to the Spitfire whereas in reality its ready to go.

Yesterday on a whim I decided to take the lovely sounding GT twin pipe back box off, and put the bog standard rear silencer on, I reasoned that it was just too noisy with the sports box on at cruising speed (60-65mph). It is now a bit more civilised although it did have an effect on the idle, it is now much smoother. A good run today meant I could hear all the rattles and clonks now!

I have now decided to give her a run to Gaydon on Sunday, I honestly can't think of anything else to do, just do an oil change after Gaydon and top up the gearbox, Final drive and general check over the rest of the car - the front pads are fine, they are greenstuff ones that I fitted for the 10CR last year and have plenty of life left in them (I have a set of spares in the boot anyway)

Next week, my neighbour Andy and I and our respective co drivers are having our own driver's meeting as Andy can't make it to Gaydon - he is at Goodwood this weekend.

I must remeber to put some black sacks in the car - that pesky hood just will not stay watertight in rainy weather, got a very wet right knee yesterday in a downpour !

My thoughts now are to the route we are taking I have highlighted all the controls stops in my map book and will be putting them into my sat nav, probably one of the most essential items as the speedo is somewhat innaccurate - today I was allegedly doing 80 down the A21 when in reality it is 69mph according to Mr Garmin - honest officer!

I was planning on using the Stag to drive to Gaydon, however that has developed an auto gearbox fluid leak and its not going in until next Thursday to be sorted. It seems to be coming from the Torque Converter which means a gearbox out job which I shall be helping Trevor at Faversham Classics to do. Should be an interesting day working with the professionals.

Stag & Spitfire update

Thought I ought to do an update on both cars.

The Stag as everyone will recall has had a 'new' engine fitted courtesy of Faversham Classics. I have been using this more or less every day since its return in order to get it to the required 500 mile oil change and head torque. I achieved this last weekend following a couple of appointments to 'celebrate' weddings.

I have to say that the engine is running very sweetly and I found it increasingly difficult to restrict myself to the 2500 rpm maximum during this period. The car is now booked in for this service next week, following which I will be allowed to increase the engine rpm to the heady heights of 3000rpm for the next 500 miles.

I am tempted to use this to go to the driver's meeting for the RBRR at Gaydon next month to put the miles on.

Whist talking of the Round Britain Reliability Run, I have now managed to set up a Virgin Money Giving page for our attempt this year. It can be found here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/RBRRCar97

I am planning to use the Spitfire on the RBRR, it is now running well and just needs some final adjustments to the mixture and fluid levels topping up. I have been using this fairly frequently since I put the engine back together, there is still a small leak where the new sports exhaust manifold meets the old pipe that runs below the car, but this should be easily sorted unlike the problems experienced with the standard manifold on last year's 10CR. I also need to empty the car of some of the rubbish accumulated on the 10CR - better late than never, the crisps are not so crispy now!

The Stag returns!

At long last the Stag has returned from it's heart transplant! I collected her today from Faversham with a fully reconditioned Triumph V8 courtesy of Faversham Classics.

I have been given strict running in instructions from their engine builder, Trevor, thus: No more than 2500 rpm for first 500 miles, then return her for an oil change and head torque, and keep away from constant rev driving such as motorways and dual carriageways. Then 3000 revs for the next 500 miles followed by another oil change. So no chance of using this on the RBRR unless I can put on over 1000 miles between now and 1st October!

Car is much quieter at the front and has a real Stag burble at the back. To keep costs down I opted to return to the standard exhaust manifold setup as the mild steel tubulars I had on it previously were well worn.

The engine has been rebuilt from the ground up with recon heads and block + 20 thou with new conrods, valves, guides and valve seats. The Crank has been hardened, recon oil pump and water pump.
Here are a few pictures of the 'new' engine - note I have retained my alternator bracket that moves it to a more accessible position, the carbs and distributor are from my old engine - so far I am very pleased with it. The car also had one new driveshaft fitted and a rear hub bearing replaced under warranty by SOC Parts as it had failed by dumping grease all over the shoes. They were also kind enough to supply a set of shoes FOC.