Well my brother and I finally did it. Last weekend we
completed the engine swap and general refurbishing of everything
in the engine compartment. I got my pictures back which show the
pre-restoration engine compartment and the contrast is startling.
No more rust! No more flaking! and everything is clean and bright
. . . the aluminum, the chrome, and freshly painted black
accessory items. No more english-white paint either. The PO had
painted the exterior more of a refrigerator white, so I went with
it. The old english-white (a kind of cream) only existed under
the bonnet anyway. I know it's not original but hey, it was
either that or tear apart the ENTIRE car and paint everything a
la Terry Ann. Anyway, you can crawl under the dash to see the
english-white if you really want to. The boot floor is black
over red. The underside of the boot lid is robbins egg blue. So
white seemed like a good compromise. It was the majority color
at least.
Actually, there wasn't much to do (in the greater scheme of
things). I put the plug in the oil galley access hole of the
head to stop that nasty leak (for those that remember my last
desperate report) and got the car started right up. We then
spent the better part of a day trying to figure out why the
charging system wasn't working properly. I first got a
multimeter and checked the generator. Fortunately for me, the
new MOSS newsletter had an article translating the intricacies of
the shop manual for this operation. Still, it was confusing.
Everything seemed to be within spec's though, so we replaced a
suspiciously burnt wire, but that didn't solve it either.
Finally I tackled the job I was trying to avoid: that of
pondering the workings of a Lucas voltage regulator. (For a non-
electrical engineer it's pretty intimidating) I worked for about
an hour, poking the meter here . . . then over there. Still
confused, I went to lunch. Suddenly, over lunch, I had a flash
of insight. I went out to the car and connected a wire directly
from the ground on the voltage regulator to a bolt on the head.
Everything worked perfectly! Moral: When you paint the engine
compartment, scrape ALL of the paint off of the places where you
re-connect the grounds.
The next task was the interior. First on the list here was
repairing a rotting transmission cover. I discovered that the
thing was actually the original pressed-cardboard cover which had
been covered in fiberglass by a PO. Actually not a very bad
solution. I got some more fiberglass and reinforced the punky
spots. Then I discovered a small problem with this modification.
When I put the fiberglass reinforced cover over the new rubber
gasket, the new bolts weren't long enough in most cases.
Fortunately I hadn't thrown out the old ones. So much for TRF's
new hardware kit. BTW, I noticed that the old bolts were
actually superior to TRF's new ones in one respect. While TRF's
are normal bolts with a threaded section that ends in a squared
off fashion, the old ones end with the threads tapering to a
point. This is far superior when you are trying to thread a bolt
blind. Moral 2: NEVER throw out any old parts till you are
absolutely sure you don't need them (then put them in the
basement.) The rest of the interior went without incident. I
found some good stuff to replace the wooly stuff under the
carpets at the local buildings supply store. It cost about $4
for enough to do the whole floor. Contrast the auto
upholstery/restoration shop which wanted $20 a square yard!
Next, it was time for the test drive! My brother and I
jumped in and started it up. GRRRRIIIIINNNDDDDD!!! Turned out
the clutch needed a bit of adjusting. I can't quite figure out
why though. The only thing I replaced on the Transmission/Clutch
was the throwout bearing. Could the machine shop have pressed
the bearing too far onto the bushing? I ended up having to
adjust the slave push rod ALL the way out to get it to work
properly. Should I be worried?
On the whole, the test drive went great. All systems
operated properly. After a nice Italian tuneup out on the
highway to blow all the residual oil out of the exhaust, I could
actually put my hand behind the exhaust pipe and have it remain
clean! (with the old engine it would have been black in less
than a minute.) The engine was good and strong once it was
warmed up, but I have a couple of concerns. Number one, the
valves are still real noisy. I took off the valve cover and
started it up to confirm oil circulation. I saw oil coming out
of the holes on each rocker, but it wasn't exactly streaming . .
. more like bubbling up. Is this normal? I still have the old
rocker shaft, and it is pretty bad. Some of the rockers have
actually dug their own little grooves into the shaft so that they
are really notchy. Is this where the noise is from? Maybe I'm
just too used to modern-quiet engines. It's just that these
valves are noisier than my '81 Volvo when it starts up in the
winter with all the oil at the bottom. Maybe it's time for a new
rocker assembly. Suggestions are welcome. The second problem is
that the engine still won't run smooth below 1,000 RPM. I used
to attribute this to a worn out engine, but I don't know what it
is now. I checked the timing with a gun and it appears to be OK.
The carbs were synched last year. I suppose they could be out
now. The only other thing I plan on doing is a colourtune
adjustment. I couldn't do one with the old engine because it
leaked so much oil. Perhaps that will clear up the roughness.
Any other ideas?
Thanks to all for the input I have has during this process.
I hope to have the TR out this summer at some events, and I hope
I'll see some SOL's out there.
Cheers,
Michael Hering
'67 TR4A IRS
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