Well, the last of the parts finally arrived and my TR6 is back on the
road! (yay!) Anyway, it was a pretty hefty bill to pay for a
complete rebuild of a TR6 trans AND overdrive, but I have a one year
warranty with unlimited miles.
The shop I used was in Denver, CO and they seemed to be very good. My
only complaint was that their prices for parts seemed a bit high, ($14
for a clutch fork pin!!!). I guess that's one of the reasons I do my
own mechanical work. However, I figure that the extra bucks for parts
is insurance that the gearbox is good for a year of abuse. (yeah
right) Anyway, I would recommend this shop to anyone that needs
assistance for their LBC in Denver. The name of the shop is Kats
(they specialize in Jags) 3201 S. Zuni, Englewood, CO 80110. (303)
761-1242 Very professional operation, excellent service, price of
parts is a little inflated. They did provide me a FREE loaner car for
a week since my TR6 is my only source of transportation. That's
actually worth quite a bit right there. (I tried to get them to loan
me the XK140 they had on the lot, but he insisted on giving me the '83
buick. *sigh*) I suggest this shop be added to the list of brit car
places.
Basically the trans required all new bearings, new syncros, new
layshaft, new 1st/reverse gear shaft ($$$), and a new clutch for the
overdrive($$$), among a fistfull of other little parts. The real
problem with the trans was that a needle bearing ($10 part) dropped
out inside the 1st/reverse gear shaft, and then began to weld itself
to the layshaft. That was the clicking I could hear under load.
Well, this trans lasted 18 years, and it now has upgraded parts in it.
I figure with me driving it should last at least 13 months. :-)
Paul Gilders arrived back from holiday in Denver on Wednesday eve. It
was my hope to have the trans back from the shop and use this
wonderful resource to assist with the trans installation. Well the
clutch for the overdrive didn't come in, so instead we had a wonderful
dinner and mechanical interlude at Lawerance and Anne Buja's
mechanical garden palace. It was our intention to get the Buja's
Daimler started. It seems that lucas was among us... We conquered the
first obstacle by jumping the Daimler's dead battery with the TR6.
The then transmission-less TR6 was in just the right place for the
cables to reach the Daimler. This must have been a good sign from
Lucas we thought. But there just wasn't a spark to be found. The
Next problem we found was that the coil juice wasn't getting out (or
maybe to) the distributor. We knew there was juice from the coil as
the timing light flashed when we attached it to the coil wire. We
tried the coil wire from the TR6 to no avail. Another Stout, a
porter, and a Boulder Amber came from the fridge to help address the
problem. The volt meter was applied to the situation and found that
the plug wires were in fact conductive. We were about to try my spare
coil from the TR6 when we came up against the largest obstacle that
could not be overcome. It instantly stopped the thought process of us
three Solers. Anne announced that Dinner was ready. The Daimler
would have to move on it's own power another day. :-)
Thursday, Paul headed towards England, and Lawerance drove me to pick
up my "new" transmission. Picked up some 85-90Wt GL4 gearoil, and we
were on our way to success. A few brews from the previous evening
came out of the fridge and we attacked the situation with vigor!
After the trans was in, clutch slave connected, I asked Lawerance if
we should stop and test the trans without the driveshaft connected.
His response, "I think those guys in Denver knew what they were doing,
I say we continue." So we did. In just over two hours (from start to
finish) we had the trans and interior completely installed in the TR6.
Time for a test drive. Up the street, everything seems ok. But no
overdrive. It seems that I had connected the seat belt buzzer to the
overdrive switch.
On the drive home, I tried the overdrive once again. Nothing. What
the heck could be going on here? Three minutes later it kicked in.
It just took that long for the O/D pump to prime up since it was dry I
think. The trans seems a bit hard to shift into second right now, but
I'm hoping that it just needs to break in. If not, it doesn't really
matter since I have my year warranty. The hard shifting into second
was when I was very glad that I didn't try to rebuild the trans
myself...I think that it will be ok.
Being a three day weekend, I've decided to visit an old high school
buddy of mine in Phoenix, AZ. That's right, we are going to find out
just how good a job these guys did on my trans. I'm going to put 1600
miles on it this weekend. Call me crazy, but I haven't driven the car
for two weeks, and I need to catch up! I'll give you all a full
report when I get back on tuesday.
If the TR passes the test to Phoenix and back, we'll have to see it
will be able to make it up to the top of flagstaff in Boulder. When
should we attempt this Jean? :-)
I can't thank the Buja enough for putting up with me over the past two
weeks, storing the TR, and their incredible mechanical support. SOL
are cool. :-)
Let the adventures continue!
-Scotty!
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