triumphs
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unasked-for progress report

To: triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: unasked-for progress report
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 20:30:22 -0400
Fellow Triumphisti (Fellow Triumvirates?),

Nobody asked for this but I just completed a task that was quite 
odious, or at least difficult.  Now that I am finished (or should 
that be it is finished) for now, I am pleased enough to want to share 
it.  And to complain a bit too.

For some months the Spitfire's gearbox has been making a strange 
intermittent clicking/knocking sound while (or should that be whilst) 
in 1st gear.  The knocks are occasionally accompanied by feelable 
jolts to the shifter, and about once a month or so it actually jumps 
our of gear.  Not good.  No other gear does this and the OD has been 
working perfectly.  Since the GT6 is now running very well (knock on 
wood) and I haven't been driving the Spitfire much lately anyway I 
figured it was time to pull the Spitfire's gearbox and fix whatever 
the trouble was.  Or more likely, let Quantum Mechanics fix it.  Or 
maybe at least open it up and see if I can see the trouble before 
committing dollars for someone else to do it.

The big accomplishment was actually getting the gearbox out of the 
car.  It took me two days (though not full days, I admit).  I've 
pulled the gearbox from the Spitfire before but it was two decades 
ago when I was much younger.  I've done the GT6 several times 
recently and gotetn good at it.  Neither the GT6 nor my previous 
experience with the Spitfire involved an OD gearbox though.  With OD 
that sucker is HEAVY!  Plus, there are a bunch of little things that 
made the Spitfire a pain in the butt.  F'rinstance, the starter motor 
can't be removed easily because the steering column is in the way.  
At least I could free it from the bell housing.  The cardboard splash 
guards on the engine compartment make access impossible, but removing 
them means undoing screws rusted into thingys mounted on the 
cardboard.  (I may choose not to re-install the splash guards; am 
open to advice on that issue.)  The cable between bell housing and 
frame that keeps the engine from flying forward in the event of hard 
braking or an accident is so danged stiff that you (or at least I) 
couldn't get it out of the hole in the bell housing, so I had to 
crawl underneath and remove it at its frame attachment first.  I had 
to pull one wheel off just to improve accessibility to underneath.  
(Okay, so my garage is too small and too cluttered.)  More than one 
of the bolts seemed to be positioned so as to be unreachable.  Hell, 
even my Fiats were easier to work on than that, or so I remember.  
Ah, don't mind me.  I'm just glad to have it pulled, like it was a 
bad tooth.  The real fun will begin when I try to put it back in...


-- 
Jim Muller
jimmuller@pop.rcn.com
'80 Spitfire, '70 GT6+





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