39-Year Old Assembly Error Found!

Boy, I'll bet this car had some creaks and groans in the right front! As I took apart the fourth strut assembly (two from the Stag parts from Dave Crane, two from the 2000) this Sunday, I noticed that the top of the strut assembly looked a little different than the others. Apparently, some Triumph assembly line worker was a little off the mark with his placement of the rubber pad that goes between the spring and the upper spring rest.

In case you can't tell from the picture, the ring was fitted ABOVE the spring rest. It's in perfect, un-blemished condition after 39 years of being totally useless. The metal-on-metal spring to rest contact, however, left a lot of iron oxide particles...

Here's another shot with me holding the ring (to left). The stuff that looks like cotton wool is various insect nests/egg sacs....soon to be gone.
One of the things all this disassembly means is lots more parts to beadblast. Here's some of what I'll be trying to get blasted soon:
Finally, I splurged! I really didn't want to bolt that rough looking badge on the left to the rechromed bumper...so...look what I found on eBay! NOS, it even has the right badge in it, now that the TR6/2500S engine will be going in... :-)

Oh well...still searching for some more time. I did manage to drain the tranny as well; it already had a magnetic drain plug (some crud attached, but nothing to worry about) and had pretty clean oil. Next step is to get in and find out what I need to replace (besides the inevitable countershaft and cluster gear bearings...) Guess that's all for tonight. Hope to see some more comments!

More progress...albeit slow progress!

I realized that I had neglected to post that the overdrive and mainshaft had arrived from Ian in New Zealand. Ian has previously provided overdrive conversion kits to two of my friends, and they're both happy, so I expect things to be fine with Chrissy's conversion. Ian also supplies 2000/2500 parts, so if you're in need in the land of OZ, drop him a note. Ian's e-mail is roslian@xtra.co.nz. You can see the overdrive to the left.

And here on the left is the transmission it will be mated to. I've rebuilt Triumph TR and Spitfire transmissions before, so this shouldn't be too difficult. I'm going to wait until I've cleaned and stripped the transmission down before I order parts...I'm sure I'll need a layshaft and countergear bearings...the rest we'll just have to wait and see. This transmission was originally in a TVR 2500, so it will be seeing drastically different duty in the estate.


Speaking of projects, here's another one. I took apart one of the Stag front strut assemblies that Dave, the best Triumphguy I know, was kind enough to find for me. This had spent some time in a junkyard, so I wasn't expecting too much, but I did learn the following:

• I need to use my stronger spring compressors when undoing the castellated nut at the top...which won't be hard now that the weaker version was bent by the spring (no injuries, thankfully)
• The almost 40-year old bond between the rubber and metal of the upper portion must be of a very high quality, because even on the Stag units that look a lot worse than the ones off the wagon, the bond is still very strong
• I am unable to open up the strut housing (probably a good reason why Chris Witor says this isn't a DIY job) so I will be purchasing housings that have already had the cartridges replaced
• Finally, since I can easily compress the Stag strut with one finger, any thoughts of using the existing struts went out the window.

Finally, I wanted to show the stockpile of parts waiting to be attached to Chrissy...can't wait for some time to actually install some of them! Good thing she's got a lot of storage space!