Listers
Thanks for all the suggestions on fixes for my rheostat. I pulled the side
panels for the first time this weekend and there hanging by the wires was the
ceramic portion of the rheostat. Got the rest of it out of the dash but
whatever the piece is that moves around the coil to vary the resistance had long
disappeared so putting it back together was not an option anymore. The ceramic
piece had four tabs and I put the two spade connectors on one side so that they
made a complete circuit to see if I could get the brightest dimly lit gages
possible. Didn't make much difference so I tried experimenting and found that
even with the two wires uncoupled their was no change in the gage lighting.
Any ideas on why the gage lights are still lit with the wires unhooked? I
expected the circuit would be broken but apparently it isn't.
Found that my gas cap seal is missing (between the cap and the filler neck) and
some ham-handed mechanic had glued a piece of vinyl tubing in its place. This
explains why I was smelling gas fumes every so often. Tried all the catalogs,
NAPA, and the junk yards looking for a replacement or even a source of fuel
resistant rubber gasket material to cut a replacement. Found nothing so far.
Any ideas or sources of material to fabricate a replacement seal. I don't want
to have to buy a $50 cap to fix a $5 seal problem if I can help it.
Maybe the missing cap seal explains part of the problem the extremely poor (for
a 6 cylinder IMHO) mileage (14.94 mpg) that I got on my first tank of gas
although I can't believe that much gas could have evaporated. I checked the
plugs (gap was what it should be and they had a light tan/brown color which I
thought showed a good fuel/air mixture), dwell angle was at 40 degree (which was
close to the 34-38 recommended). Idle was right at 800-900. The timing was set
at 12 degree BTDC (at idle with no vacuum retard hooked up) and the distributor
was maxed as far as advancing the timing, which I thought was curious. I could
turn the distributor and retard the timing OK. I admittedly was having lots of
fun by driving a TR6 like it should be but even so thought that the mileage
should have been around 20 mpg at least. Where should the timing be set for
Denver's altitude (5280 above MSL)? The vacuum retard is unhooked and the
vacuum line sealed off at the carb. Does this make it a "Static Pressure"
timing setting? On the advice of you listers I've resisted messing with the
carburetor especially since the plugs looked like the right color. Any
suggestions?
I do have a fun story to tell. I pulled into a sports bar parking lot to have
lunch Saturday and they were having a "Car Display" where they had vintage cars,
classic cars, street rods, on display just to attract customers. As I slowly
drove by admiring the cars, a guy inside the roped off area waved for me to
drive towards him and he'd hold the rope up. It took a few seconds to realize
that he'd mistaken my TR6 for one of the entries. My wife and I laughed about
it, but it was a nice compliment to think that my new little toy looked good
enough (I'd slicked it up pretty good that morning) to be mistaken for a car
show contestant. Now if I can increase the gas mileage I'll be en even happier
Triumph owner.
Thanks
Bud
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