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Decision on TR7 Bearings from Hell

To: Triumphs@autox.team.net, british-cars@autox.team.net, tr8@mercury.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Decision on TR7 Bearings from Hell
From: Eganb@aol.com
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 23:52:32 EDT
Well, with the posting of this email, half of you will think i have lost my 
mind, and the other half will be saying "go for it!"

After a closer look at the scratches and burr on my TR7s crankshaft, I'm 
going to rely on my trusty Dremel and yards of Crocus cloth to smooth out 
these blemishes caused by my carelessness, instead of pulling the crank which 
I have neither appropriate space or cash to do, but would probably end up 
being a heck of a lot quicker.  

What I do have is plenty of time and sweat-equity to put into the project, 
and for you who are still interested, a couple of additional questions:

1.  I finally got the #1 bearing out by taking the camshaft caps off and 
raising it enough to reduce the chain tension.  The upper bearing slid right 
out.  My question is whether the chain is suppose to be so bloody tight, and 
is there an adjustment I should be looking for?

2.  My strategy is to clean up all the scratches and burrs, then spray a 
couple of gallons of WD40 over everything to clean out any grit, then put in 
some extra new shells on the bearings that were scratched, turn the engine 
over several times by hand, and then take the caps off again to see if any 
scratches appear on the shells.   What do you think?

3.  After I reassemble everything, including brand new bearing shells, I 
thought I would leave the sparkplugs out, and pull the car in gear to help 
the engine get "broken in" without the heat and pressure of actually running. 
 Maybe pull it for a couple of miles, then replace the oil and filter.  But 
then I thought maybe this would cause accelerated wear because the engine 
wouldn't be running at its normal temperature, so the oil might not be as 
fluid.  Thoughts?

After re-reading all of the above, I can't believe the effort I am about to 
go through.  But there's something about the challenge that is irrestible.

Of course, just to be safe, anybody got a spare crank they don't need?

Again, many thanks for all the comments and advice.

Bruce
1980 Inca Yellow TR7 5-speed convertible
Chapel Hill, NC

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