Here's the latest progress

As you can see from the picture below, the front suspension and brakes have been removed from the car:

It's a lot easier to deal with than the TR series, that's for sure.

Here's what the springs and struts look like. I think it's strut replacement time:Most importantly, Chrissy now has a transmission, and the TR6 has regained an engine. Brian (on the left in the picture) was kind enough to sell me the engine and transmission from his 1973 TVR 2500M, which has a small-block Ford in it's future (!)

Thanks to both Brian and David for helping me pull the engine and tranny last Saturday. Now, to mate the TR6 tranny with the overdrive and mainshaft coming from New Zealand... :-)

We're getting closer! Parts continue to arrive (thanks to eBay and TRF) and I'm starting to refurbish parts. The steering rack was pronounced "good to go" by Kevin Andrews of Wayne's Alignment last weekend at the TCOC tech session and new rack boots are waiting to be installed.

As Triumph Stag parts are much easier to come by in the US, I will be using suspension pieces from a Stag to add an anti-roll bar to the front of the wagon as they are apparently interchangeable with the 2000.

Triumph had an interesting way of shoehorning the larger 2500 engine into the 2000 engine compartment. They moved the mounting holes for the engine 1" to the left (since they are on angles, it actually results in a 0.6" movement) and added spacers to the right side of the engine (as seen from the driver's seat) to rotate the engine back to level. Here's a diagram that Andy drew explaining it to me:

Down below this is the move I will have to make with the mounting holes. There's really not enough material to just drill, so I'll be adding some metal as well....break out the welder!


I have to point out that the sedan/estate front suspension is much simpler and easier to work on (as long as you have a suitable spring compressor) than the TR series...at least in my opinion. It was nice being able to drop the whole thing at once...

Until next time!

Jamie

Yet another green and red sighting...and more work done!

Saw a post on the Club Triumph board about a '67 Mk. I estate for sale in England, so I followed the link. Yet another Conifer Green/Matador red combo! What gives with this color scheme???

Ok. I've actually gotten some work done in the past couple of days. Pulled the pedalbox, pedals and brake booster, blasted and repainted them along with the replacement harmonic dampener for the TR6 engine. Today, the front brakes and most of the front suspension got removed/cleaned. Definitely going to need some new bushings, but there must have been some recent work done on the brakes; the calipers look rebuilt with new pistons, the ball joints are new, and I think the tie rod ends are also. Good old Timken bearings that look good enough to clean and reuse, and no bad surprises.

Tranny woes!

Ok...for future reference for all you big Triumph fans out there...a Stag BW35 is not the same as a 2000 BW35. You can see the pictures here to the right, the 2000 is above the Stag. Although they look similar, the Stag input shaft is 1/4" longer and slightly larger in diameter. This means that it WON'T fit into the 2000 torque converter (I tried)...and it means that I'll be punting and looking into a manual transmission conversion. Eventually its what I would have liked to do anyway, but I really didn't need the headache now. Thankfully, there's a terrific Triumph guy named Andy Thompson in Australia who's helping me with the carbs, intake, oil pan and the other items that it takes to fit the TR6 engine. Here's a picture of "my" carbs that he posted to the Club Triumph forum:

Also, Ian Priestley in New Zealand is working on putting a package together with the overdrive and mainshaft to convert a standard TR6 tranny to work with a 2500 A-type OD unit. Finally, I hope to get the engine and transmission from my friend Brian Kelly's TVR 2500 that he's converting to a Ford V-8 unit.

So...here's hoping that "a plan comes together!"