Hi All!
After being caught up in a very hectic semester (between too many
classes and a mixed up social life), I've done very little on my
Drophead TR7. I have now dropped one class and am pulling through the
turmoil with a certain female friend - things are looking up!
The nice guy who lent me an engine hoist reminded me that he wouldn't
mind it back sometime in the near future. To appease him, I decided to
make one more go at getting my new engine (bought this summer) into the
car. The last attempt was abandoned after about a week of heaving the
engine to and fro. I had the engine lined up to the auto trany, with a
couple of boltsholding it in place, but the engine wouldn't budge the
last 1/2 centimetre. I turned the engine over by hand time after time,
trying to get the engine to settle into place - no luck!
Today I returned to my garage (after a 2 month absense), and after about
15 minutes of turning the engine over by hand (this time in the oposite
direction as I had tried last time) the engine popped into place! - I
believe the problem to have been in aligning the key into the torque
converter from the trany pump (there may be a slight lip on the key). I
then quickly bolted the engine mounts down, and started threading in
the multitude of tiny bolts holding the bell-housing to the engine
block. I now have all the worst ones in place (the ones along the top of
the engine with about 2mm each in which to turn a wrench.
Next day I will be finishing the rest of the bolts along the bottom of
the engine (lots of access from under the car), and then all that
remains is the simple but time consuming job of hooking up all the
plumbing and cables (now dangling like over-cooked spagetti at the side
of my engine compartment). Don't forget that this is a Canadian
automatic car - 2 choke cables to attach and balance plus the downshift
cable to repair and adjust to make things more interesting than others.
Wish me luck! (weather here still seems nice enough to do some top down
cruising - with a jacket of course!)
Greg.
--
Internet: gall@ultrix.uleth.ca
"You miss too much these days if you stop to think"
By a famous Irish poet and philosopher, Bono of the band U2, circa '91.
'76 Triumph TR7 V8 (Buick 350) Fixedhead Coupe.
'79 Triumph TR7 Auto Drophead Coupe.
'78 Mazda RX7.
'73 FIAT 128 Coupe SL 1300cc.
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