On Fri, 2 Jul 1999, Peter Innocenti wrote:
> Just fixed the strangest problem with my TR6. I was pulling into my
> driveway when suddenly I couldn't straighten out the wheel...ground
> strap from my battery was tangled in the u-joint on the steering shaft.
> I quickly fixed the problem....
Wow. Deja vu all over again. Reminds me of the time back in the 1970s when
I, er, I mean my evil twin brother -- yeah, that's it -- was driving my
GT6+ home one night after a date. Earlier that week I'd removed the
tachometer to have it rebuilt and had simply left the now loose drive
cable dangling under the dashboard. (Whoa, don't get ahead of me here, but
you're probably right in what you're thinking.)
Over the 25 mile or so drive home I (ok, I admit it; I'm the guilty party)
noticed the steering becoming much harder, especially in turning right. It
got so bad that by the time I got to my street and driveway (both
right-hand turns), I pretty much had to take those turns in stages: turn
as much as possible, back up and steer left, turn a bit more best I could,
etc.
In the dark and late of night I'd never noticed that the tach cable had
managed to snag on the bolts and such that help provide the sliding
adjustment on the famed Herald-derived "Impactoscopic" steering column.
Slowly but surely the cable wrapped itself tighter and tighter in that one
direction, making it impossible to steer more than about one-quarter-turn
to the right.
Easy to spot, and fix, in the light of the next morning. And, by that
time, I knew I'd need to add a new tach cable to the list of purchases to
be made when I went back to the dealer to pick up the rebuilt tach.
This undoubtedy is the reason Triumph ultimately went to electronic
tachometers in the later Spitfires. No question this was a serious safety
issue that should have been addressed by BLMC, DOT, NHTSA, PETA....
--Andy
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Andrew Mace, President and *
* 10/Herald/Vitesse (Sports 6) Consultant *
* Vintage Triumph Register <www.vtr.org> *
* amace@unix2.nysed.gov *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|