I was so happy! I had my GT6+ running again with a nice new axle with a nice
new U-Joint. I took it out for a drive, and it ran great, no vibration, ran
like a new car.
But then.
I smelled brake linings. Pulled over and a caliper was smoking. The pedal was
hard as a rock. Sigh. I pushed on the pedal a few times, and suddenly it sank
to the floor. After that, it gave no sign at all of resistance. I checked the
reservoir; it was still full. I assume the M/C gave up the ghost.
I drove it to town, using the handbrake (glad I put that new cable on!),
which is pretty scary. A member of the Triumph club runs a brake/muffler
shop, so I left the car, along with a M/C rebuild kit (just happened to have
one...). I don't have the steam left or the workshop to rebuild the M/C, so
I'll let him do it. I know he'll do it right. This DOES break my rule on not
letting anyone else do work on the car, but I'm burned out right now.
Once I got the GT6 safely delivered to the brake shop, I proceeded with the
task of putting a new speedo cable on the Spitfire Mk3. Figured it wouldn't
be too much work, since you can get at it from underneath.
But then.
I removed the end from the gearbox, and instead of withdrawing the square
cable end we all know so well, there was a bunch of wires (part of the cable)
mushed into a mushroom shape. My guess is that the square end broke off, the
someone tried to make the speedo work by jamming the cable itself into the
square hole. When it was tightened down, the cable mushroomed and got jammed.
When the gearbox turned, the cable end in the square hole was twisted off.
All this means, of course, that the new cable's square end wouldn't go into
the hole, since it was full of crud.
So I removed the seats, carpets, dash support, and gearbox cover, and
carefully drilled out the square hole with a small bit. Bits of wire came
out, and the new cable eventually fit well enough to work freely. I then ran
the cable, closed up the dash, and reassembled the interior. The speedo now
works fine! Gee, it was so simple...
Can't wait to see what happens next week - getting close to VTR!
Larry
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