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Blog
WHAT we’re doing, and HOW we’re doing it!
June 5, 2023
There’s not much we can say about this fuel pump, other than we’ve never seen one like this
before! We removed this from a TR4 that was shipped in here because it wouldn’t run. Now
this wasn’t the extent of this TR4’s trouble, but it was certainly a significant factor. From the flat
circle at the left center of this photo, I can tell you that this is an aftermarket replacement fuel
pump. How do we know this? Because the original pumps have a large “AC” cast into the top
of this flat area. I’ll also add that we’ve been experiencing a very high rate of new replacement
pump failures in the past 12-18 months, many of which fail before we can even pull the cars out
of the shop. We’ve tried all of the reasonably priced replacement pumps from several different
suppliers, and they all suffer from the same problems, meaning that they won’t pump fuel. For
years we have preferred to replace fuel pumps rather than rebuild them, because of the
economics involved. The replacement pumps did work well, and the cost of a new pump was
well below the cost of a rebuild kit and the labor to rebuild it. Now that the replacement pumps
suffer from quality issues, our only choice is to rebuild the old pumps here in our shop at a
higher net cost to our clients. But needless to say, we won’t be rebuilding this one!
May 30, 2023
It’s well known throughout the Triumph community that we rebuild a huge amount of TR2-TR6
engines, and many of them are shipped here from all over the USA. For those of you located
some great distance from Southwest Ohio, it’s pretty easy to strap an engine onto a pallet and
have a freight company take care of the logistics. This is a TR3 engine which we recently
overhauled for an owner in FL, all wrapped up and ready to ship home. Usually we’ll receive an
engine laying on it’s side (after draining fluids), but we have to be a little more careful for the
return journey home. We like to make wooden wedges from 2x6 or 2x8 boards, and bolt the
front motor mount tabs to the pallet through them. Those wedges and a couple of diagonal
metal straps at the rear (threaded into the block’s bellhousing bolt holes) will keep the engine
from rocking side to side and falling over. We’ll also install a few small 2x4 blocks around the 4
flat sides of the oil pan, just to make certain that the engine doesn’t slide around on the pallet.
After that, all that’s needed is to strap and shrink wrap the entire assembly, then call the truck.
We’ll close this little story by mentioning that this engine arrived home safely 3-4 days after it left
our shop. Now you know that there’s really no reason to have your engine rebuilt by anyone
with less Triumph experience than is available here at Macy’s Garage. And if you don’t want to
remove the engine yourself, you should know that shipping a whole car is actually easier than
shipping an engine by itself. Send the whole car and we’ll handle the R&R for you as well!
May 22, 2023
This battery shelf has received a “repair” in the past that isn’t too bad, but still leaves a lot of
room for improvement. The flat piece on the bottom was at least bent up along the back edge to
seal the rear corner, and brazing (gold spots) assured that it would stay securely in place, but
nothing was done about sealing the reinforcement channels in the bottom. Leaving these open
will allow heat and fumes from the engine bay to travel back to the rust holes, eventually making
their way into the passenger compartment. Even worse are the upper holes at the approximate
height of the battery. These come from spilled acid or acid vapor exiting the battery caps, and is
generally caused by an over active charging system “boiling” the battery. Now you can see the
importance of the tall rear wall of those battery box liners we’ve been talking about! When the
firewall rusts out in this upper location, it feeds acid and engine fumes directly into the fresh air
plenum, which then directs all this nasty stuff through your heater and dash vents (TR4-6). This
is not something you want to have blowing in your face, or breathing through the heater when
the windows are up and the heater is cranking out warmth on a cool morning!
May 15, 2023
Last week we showed you the battery box liner, and this week we see why you need one. This
is what the battery “shelf” in a TR4-TR6 looks like after being attacked by battery acid for many
many years, and this is actually a GOOD one! We usually see them in much worse shape, and
with all sorts of “quick-fix” repairs, which we’ll show you later in this series. With the bonnet up
and a battery in place, the true condition of this area or the quality of previous repairs is
impossible to know, unless you just happen to see the chunk of plywood that’s spanning a big
hole poking out from under the battery! Now you can’t go asking to remove the battery
whenever you are looking at a TR4-6 for possible purchase, but you might get a peek at it from
inside of the car, ahead of the lower dash support/console and just above the gearbox cover.
Just be sure to take a good flashlight along whenever you are shopping for one of these cars.
May 8, 2023
Considering that just about every TR that comes to our shop has a rusted out battery box or
shelf, plastic battery box liners are one of the smartest Triumph TR “upgrades” that have ever
been made! Water that passes through the TR2-3B bonnet vents and past the rear bonnet edge
(where it meets the scuttle) on all TR’s will provide plenty of moisture to collect below the
battery, not to mention spilled water and acid mix from over filling a battery or the acid that boils
out in a fine mist from over-active charging systems. The boxes for the sidescreen cars fit
perfectly, but the later TR4/4A boxes have an interference issue with the heater return pipe at
the rear of the head. In those cases, we must perform a little surgery to the front of the liner as
shown in this week’s photo. Just be sure to leave enough of a lip along the front edge so that
any accumulated water and acid mix will not run out of the box, and cause the metal under that
nice plastic liner to rust away all over again!
May 1, 2023
Many years ago, we put a “How To” up on our website showing the process to rebuild the TR2-
TR3B steering boxes. It was meant to be instructions on how owners could do these at home,
but many folks look at it and decide it’s going to be too much work, or require too many
expensive special tools. The result has been that we rebuild an average of two of these each
and every month, and have maintained that volume for more than 10 years now. Needless to
say, we’ve probably seen more of these steering boxes than anyone else in North America, so
there’s little today that surprises us any more. Over the course of the last 10+ years we have
seen a few with bearings that have lost a couple of balls or occasionally disintegrated like this
one, but never in a car that was being actively driven immediately before it arrived here. More
probable is that a steering box like this is why the car might have been taken off the road 20-30
years ago! In this case, this steering box is from a TR2 that is presently in our shop for a
complete frame-up restoration, and the car ran well enough that we drove it into the shop after it
came off of the transport truck. Needless to say, it was a real bear to steer, but we didn’t get to
actually see why until months later at our normal time in the whole big process.
April 24, 2023
We have a TR6 here for some minor service, and one of the owner’s concerns was that the
starter sounded funny, like it was dragging all of the time. Someone had previously installed a
new style Hi-torque starter, and we quickly determined that it sounded like it was hanging up in
the flywheel. Removing the starter easily confirmed our diagnosis, as we’ve seen enough TR6
starters to recognize that the small pinion gear was sticking out too far from the starter itself.
The next step was to decide if the starter had a malfunction that prohibited the gear from fully
retracting, or if the starter was the wrong part for a TR6. It only took a brief moment to decide
that there was nothing wrong with the starter, and it would work perfectly fine on some other
kind of car, but it was totally wrong for use on a TR6. We pulled a new TR6 Hi-torque starter
from our parts department and by comparing the two you can see how the small pinion gear is
supposed to retract into the starter housing and pull away completely from the flywheel ring gear
teeth. We installed the new and correct TR6 starter onto the car, and that problem was checked
off of the owner’s to-do list. There are no shortage of “upgrade” parts available for our cars, but
you do have to be careful that you’ve (1) received the correct item, and (2) that they are working
as they should immediately after installation. Even with “stock” style parts, you can’t trust that
the part you removed from the car is correct and that you’re good to go if the new bit looks like
the one you just took off. Our Triumphs have been around long enough by now that there have
been plenty of chances for wrong parts to have been installed in the past.
April 17, 2023
The rear valance (tail pan) on all TR6’s is one of those trouble spots that are extremely rust
prone. Fortunately, all of the three panels which make up the area are available, and they fit
relatively well too. The trouble with replacing them is that removal of the old rusty pieces leaves
the entire rear area of the body tub loose and floppy, so getting all of the new parts to align
properly takes extreme care and a precise set of jigs to help with the task. This TR6 will
become even more flimsy when the spare tire pan is removed, which is the next step after this
photo was taken. Access makes the job go faster, so even though the rear of the tub looses
95% of it’s rigidity, this is the ideal time to replace a needed spare tire pan. You can’t see it in
this photo, but the rear deck panel (under the gas cap) has already been replaced, and we did
this change well before cutting away the rigidity provided by the rear valance. When it comes
time to solidly weld the rear valance panels in place, we’ll be installing the rear fenders and
trunk lid and hinges, just as one more additional check to assure perfect alignment. You can’t
be too careful when a car is peeled open like this, because there’s nothing worse than getting to
final assembly and finding that a hood, trunk, or door won’t close!
April 10, 2023
Over the course of several decades, it’s not unusual for the fiberboard glove boxes to take a
beating, not to mention the ones that are used for food and nest boxes by mice. As such, when
removed by restorers, they usually are immediately discarded without further thought. After all,
new replacements are available, right? But what many do not realize when tossing the remains
of these old dilapidated boxes, is that the metal ring to hold the light on the TR6’s is NOT
included with the new replacements, nor is it available under it’s own part number. The safest
course of action when you find yourself in the mad rush to disassemble a car for restoration is to
keep EVERYTHING until the restoration is complete, even a chewed-up and smelly cardboard
glove box. You won’t know until it’s too late that you might be tossing some seemingly
insignificant clip or fitting that will become really important to your restoration many months (or
years) from now.
April 3, 2023
We have a source for overdrive units, both the earlier A-type and the late TR6 J-type, so we’ve
been doing a lot of conversions to add this highly desirable option to the gearboxes we rebuild.
Part of the conversion process requires that isolation switches be added to the gearbox top
(A.K.A. shifter housing), so that the overdrive cannot be engaged unless the transmission is in
the correct gear. To add these switches to later tops without plugs in existing holes, we must
first locate the center of the cast boss on top of the housing. This center location is then
punched and drilled with the correct tap drill size for the odd 5/8”-13 tap we use to thread the
holes. We always tap the threads with the drill press, so that the hole will be threaded straight
and perpendicular to the base of the housing. Precision in even this seemingly simple task is
paramount, and short cuts will only produce botched results.
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