StagV8

2 big steps forward

2010-04-14T09:02:00.000+01:00

Last weekend saw the arrival of some sunshine over Morecambe Bay, which got me keen to progress work on the Stag. The first task I decided was to look at the problem with the BW35 auto gearbox. I got it as as a recon unit a few years ago but sometime later it lost 3rd gear. It was then rebuilt which worked for a bit but has now started to fall out of Drive when setting off, then slamming back in again until eventually it shifts to 2nd gear! Not very dignified and highly embarrassing as it tends to spin the wheels each time it drops back into gear.

I suspected it was because I'd got the wrong oil in the gearbox. A lot of this work was done many years ago, before the current age of forums which are an invaluable source of information. At the time I was unaware that there were different types of ATF, so I wasn't sure what sort of mixture I had in the gearbox. I'd already done one oil change when I was sorting out the leaks from the dipstick/filler tube but after this the gearbox seemed no better. However, I'd read that it can take 2-3 changes to get most of the old stuff out as a lot sits in the torque converter. So I ordered the correct type of oil and changed it again.

What a difference that made! The first time I put it in gear it seemed a lot more positive and after a few runs up and down the drive it hadn't dropped out of gear. So a road test was called for, a quick blast round the bypass and the gearbox was performing well. Gear changes were positive with much less slipping than I was used to.

Unfortunately the Rover V8 engine didn't seem to be performing quite so well. It wouldn't accelerate well with a lot of popping and banging through the exhaust so I returned home to investigate. Figuring on a timing issue I set up my timing light, only to find it had failed. Not to be deterred I decided I couldn't make it much worse doing it by ear and set it to a point where the engine seemed to run best. After another road test the popping had dissappeared but it didn't seem to be running on all 8 cylinders, so back home for more investigation.

Deciding to remove the spark plugs to see what they looked like I found one that was very loose (cylinder 7). On removing them all I found that they were all very black (so running rich) apart from one (cylinder 8) which looked normal! The one normal plug had me confused as the car only has 2 carbs so I wouldn't expect one to be significantly different to the others on that bank. After cleaning and re-gapping the plugs I had a think about it and realised that the inlet tract for cylinder 8 has the vacuum take-off for the brake servo. I'd taken this off when re-filling the gearbox because the pipe gets in the way of the filler tube. When I'd removed it I found that this connection to the inlet manifold was very loose, so I guess this was drawing additional air into this cylinder to weaken the rich mixture.

So after another road test and everything seemed to run better, the gearbox was performing well, the engine was a lot smoother and overall performance was much improved. So a big step forward. I still have the timing to sort out once I replace my timing light and need a crash course in adjusting the mixture.

Whilst researching the problems with the gearbox I came across this workshop manual for the Borg Warner 35 Automatic Gearbox:
A link to a list of the individual scanned pages: http://www.anugraha.org.uk/rover/bw35

Alternatively, download the whole manual as a zip file from here (nearly 8MB): http://www.anugraha.org.uk/rover/bw35/bw35man.zip

The second thing I found is a document from Castrol which describes different types of automatic transmission fluid and why Dexron type fluid shouldn't be used in the BW35 gearbox.
http://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=29405&d=1219058696
(Links directly to a pdf file)

Bedford Car Club Hangover Autotest Videos

2010-01-09T16:57:00.003Z

27th December 2009 was the date for the Bedford Car Club Hangover Autotest in Little Houghton. I was to meet Mike B there who was coming up in his Triumph Herald rally car. However I had spent Christmas in Yorkshire where there had been up to a foot of snow.

My Impreza was the only car that was able to get up the lane to the cottages where we were staying. Fortunately conditions hadn't worsened on the 27th and I was able to set off at 6:30am to make it down to Little Houghton for 10am, just in time for the drivers briefing.

What followed was an entertaining days driving, the only problem we had was the exhaust falling off the Herald.

Some videos from the day can be seen below.

Darren : Test 2 : Run 1

Darren : Test 2 : Run 2

Darren : Test 3 : Run 1

Darren : Test 3 : Run 2

Mike : Test 2 : Run 1

Mike : Test 2 : Run 2

Mike : Test 3 : Run 1

Mike : Test 3 : Run 2

Mike : Test 4 : Run 1 [Aborted when the exhaust fell off!]

Mike : Test 4 : Run 2

Club Triumph results for the day were:
Matt Helm 1st in class, 3rd overall
Mike Helm 1st in class, 6th overall
Mike Bishop 3rd in class, 9th overall
Darren Armitage 3rd in class, 11 overall

Essex 12 Car Rally

2009-08-26T22:41:00.000+01:00

Sunday 23rd August was the day of the Club Triumph - Essex 12 car rally. I'd been looking forward to this event for a while. The day dawned bright, and turned into one of the hottest. So we had the best part of the day sat in the oven of a Herald, with a heater we couldn't turn off!

We arrived at the start in Bures with plenty of time to spare, although that was the only time we were going to be early all day. After the remaining cars had arrived, the drivers briefing got underway. Among the topics were advice of a large bump along the route that was likely to remove an exhaust if taken too fast, part of the route which had recently been resurfaced in gravel leaving it extremely slippery and a possible road closure just before the finish. Once this was done the clues to the first 2 sections were handed out and the crews returned to their cars to start plotting the first section.
Plotting section 1 was fairly straightforward with clues in the form of 6/8 figure grid references. A roamer is especially useful here. We worked as a team on this, with one person reading whilst the other plotted. Then we swapped over to double check the route. This undoubtedly added a few minutes to our time and may be something we can improve on.

On completing the section we looked at the clue to the next section. For this we got a clear A4 sheet with some little numbered circles, the first of which had the name of a farm. OK, so we place this over the map with the first circle on the farm and the position of the other circles tells us our route. Well, not quite. We quickly worked out we'd have to rotate the sheet on the map until the circles all fell over roads. This was getting a bit fiddly now... until we spotted the BIG line drawn on the sheet with a gridline number on it! As soon as we lined that up, the rest fell into place. So, after a short time plotting we were back on the road. The on road navigation was fine, apart from one point where we turned up what we thought was the right road only to find it was the longest farm driveway ever! We now realised we were in danger of missing the closing time at the next checkpoint. With a few miles to go we traversed the recently gravelled lanes mentioned at the drivers briefing (very slippery). As I was counting down the distance and time left we could see a tractor ahead.

Things were getting tight now, but it turned off just as we came up behind it, phew! Onto the final main road to the finish of the section and I could tell we would barely make it when we encountered a slow moving van (you don't often see one of those!). With hardly more than a mile to go and less than 2 minutes left we made it past the van. Now we were coming up to the final minute, but around the corner was more slow moving traffic. We had no option but to follow them to the car park that marked the finish of the stage. With only a few seconds to go we turned into the car park - made it!
For the second half of the event the clues got a bit trickier, Section 3 gave us a spot height to drive to. Along this part of the route we had to get the phone number off the side of a building. This was then used to calculate the grid reference of the section finish. To navigate from the spot height to the section finish we had to find 3 spot heights that added up to 84! Unfortunately we'd not had chance to mark up the map prior to the event so finding the spot heights wasn't easy but luckily (and it was luck) we quickly found the 3 we needed. Once the route was plotted it was back on the road and onto the end of the section.

There was then a short neutral stage where we had a tulip diagram to get to the start of the final section. The clues for the final section were a set of gridlines to cross, then a herringbone. Pretty straightforward, and with time moving on we dispensed with our usual cross-checking, plotted the route and set off. Time was starting to run away again and encounters with slow traffic, pedestrians and cyclists all meant taking extra care and an appropriate reduction in speed which started to add up to a significant delay. It still looked achievable though and we finally pulled into the pub at the finish to be greeted by a huge Club Triumph marquee with a couple of minutes to spare.
Now we could get down to the important part of the day, lunch! We were definitely ready for it, and it was really excellent.

Once the end of the event had been declared the results were announced. There were 2 classes, Novice and Expert, with us entered in the Novice class. The full results can be found on the Club Triumph website. As for our performance, we somehow managed to come first in class with 3 fails! When the overall results were announced, we'd come first overall as well. A really excellent end to the day.

Village Car Show

2009-08-22T15:07:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago was the local village car show. Although the Stag wasn't in any condition to go, I had a wander over to see what was about. There was a great turnout of classics with quite a few Triumphs. I managed to snap a few pictures with my phone.

Wiper Motor

2009-08-22T14:40:00.000+01:00

Another long term problem on the Stag has been the wipers that don't self park. When I first got the car, it was a very low priority task, replacement engine, gearbox, floors, wings etc were all more important! So, a "temporary" repair was done (which has lasted about 15 years!) by removing the permanent live to the parking switch.
With a bit of free time I removed the motor and stripped everything down and cleaned and painted it. Nothing seemed to be mechanically wrong with the motor and an electrical test of the parking switch showed it to be working as well. Perhaps this was just and adjustment problem then.
With everything reassembled I set about adjusting the parking switch and after a bit of tweaking, it now works.

Stag electric window switch repair

2009-08-22T14:16:00.000+01:00

After being laid up for a while it wasn't surprising to find some of the fittings in the Stag needed some attention. One of the electric windows switches appeared to be broken/seized. No amount of persuasion would get it to move to either the up or down position.
These seem fairly expensive to replace so I didn't think I'd have much to loose by seeing what was inside it. After carefully prizing the bits apart there didn't seem much wrong with it. A close look showed that the metal zig-zag contacts may have been slightly bent, so I adjusted the shape a bit with a pair of small pliers. After cleaning everything out and reassembling with vaseline on the contacts I tried it again and it's all working again.

Mirrors and black tape

2009-08-22T14:05:00.000+01:00

For bit of a break from the Stag, I looked at a problem with my commuting car a 2000 Honda Civic. It's had a broken passenger side mirror ever since I've had it and looks a bit ugly with black tape holding the plastic bits together. It all works OK but lets the car down a bit. Anyway, I recently found an exact replacement for it in the right colour on Ebay.
I thought it was going to be a really awkward job, but Honda seem to put cars together in a way that makes them easy to take apart! So, in under an hour I had a much better looking car, with not horrible black tape.

What a dipstick!

2009-08-22T13:47:00.000+01:00

Ever since I've had the Stag it's always had a leak from the Auto Gearbox dipstick tube. It uses a couple of copper washers either side of the dipstick to effect a seal where it connects to the gearbox. I've already changed these before but ATF seems to find a way past anything. It doesn't help that it first lands on the exhaust pipe and manages to soak that before ending up on the floor. This also results in clouds of smoke when the engine is running.
It got to the point where there was an oil slick under the whole of the car and because the garage is on a slight incline it was coming out under the garage door.
I was going to have to have a serious look at this, so after draining the gearbox I removed the dipstick tube. Nothing seemed to be amiss so I cleaned up all the surfaces and refitted with new copper washers. I didn't have to wait long though before the usual drip was back. I started to wonder if the dipstick itself was at fault as it's been modified to clear the starter motor on the Rover V8 engine. After a careful look it seemed that the braising at the bottom of the tube might not have been completely effective. I had this re-done and refitted everything again, but the drip was still there!
I wasn't sure there was a lot else I could do. I didn't want to have to live with it because it was a fairly significant leak, and makes things really messy. So, after a bit of research on the web, I found that dowty seals could be used as a replacement for the copper washers. They weren't expensive, so I ordered a couple of sets. Not expecting miracles I refitted everything again and was very surprised that they did seem to do the trick! They've now been on a few months and everything still seems to be dry.

Engine dies after a few minutes...

2009-08-22T12:21:00.000+01:00

A perculiar problem arose while I was trying to become confident that the car would be reliable on the road. Before I was able to MOT & Tax it, the only driving I could do was up and down the drive. However, it was unable to make that short trip without the engine stopping every few minutes and being difficult to start. I tried fitting an electronic ignition unit from SimonBBC. This improved the general starting and running but didn't stop it cutting out.
I next looked at the fuel pump, I've always had a slight weep from this and I wanted to sort this out. It took the fuel pump off and removed the fuel pipe connections from it. When I looked inside, I found the inlet to the pump had a piece of cellophane covering it! I think I've found the problem. I removed this and reassembled everything, carefully cleaning and making sure all connections were tight.
This solved the problems with the engine cutting out, but I still couldn't stop the connections from leaking fuel slightly. Whilst I'm not keen on replacing parts for the sake of it, it did look like there was a problem with the fuel pump fittings. So, I ordered new parts from Rimmer Bros. Once these had arrived, I fitted them and since then I've had a leak free fuel pump.

6 Years between MOTs

2009-08-22T11:50:00.000+01:00

The last time my Stag had an MOT was back in 2003 when I moved house. It seemed the easiest way to move the car to my new home. Since then the car has sat in the garage waiting for me to start work on it. So having done no work on it since then, apart from the odd bit of tinkering, I decided it was time to prepare it for an MOT again. I started by sorting the basics out, engine, brakes, lights, etc, to ensure that it was generally safe and reliable(ish) to make it 2 miles to the local MOT station. I took it along and although it failed, I was pleasantly surprised that the list of failure items was not that great;

too much play in the steering rack
excessive corrosion in rear wing
worn balljoint
incorrect headlamp aim

I decided to let the garage complete the work for the MOT as I'm not great at welding and the other jobs seemed easier done whilst it was already at the garage. I supplied a recon steering rack from EJ Ward, replacement power steering hoses from Monarch and new track rod ends.

Unfortunately on the way back to the garage to drop it in for the work, both engine mounts failed! So whilst they had it apart, I took the opportunity to clean & paint them and returned them with some new engine mounts from Monarch.

So, after much work was done, I was finally able to collect the car with a new MOT.

New Blog!

2009-08-22T11:12:00.000+01:00

After running my own website at www.StagV8.com for a while, I thought I'd try setting up a Blog to record my involvment in the classic car scene. I'll be posting about my attempts to restore a 1974 Triumph Stag with a Rover V8 engine. I'll also be writing about my experiences on classic car rallies as a navigator. The writings of my driver can be found at www.triumphandadversity.blogspot.com.