Been ages since I made a post, so hi.

I can tell the weather is getting better as I’ve seen more classics on the road recently. A Morgan, a couple of Morris Travellers and about three MG’s. I’ve seen loads of Triumphs! A Vitesse on the sea-front in Southend, a blue Spitfire on West Mersea, a dark Stag on the M25 near Surrey, a dark Spitfire Mk3 in Surrey, a blue/grey pre-facelift Mk2 2000 (or at least that shape) in Enfield and two minutes later on the same road a red Spitfire going in the same direction and a blue 13/60 going into Houghton Regis. These cars are too common, I think I’ll get rid of them. But before I do, an update;

2000: This one’s been a bit of a pig. I’d been down to Surrey with no problems and a couple of weeks before that I popped down to Essex. Each trip was over 100 miles, not a beat missed. I nipped down to the local Chinese the night before Crich and again, all was fine. Up nice and early on the Sunday and I jump into the Mk1 to pick up my mate and buzz up to have breakfast with the Brummies. Would it start? Would it fu… butter! It ran like a bag of spanners, banging, not reving. Arse. I fiddled, fiddled, got it started, moaned when it stopped, and fiddled. Then gave up, told my mate to come to me and went up there in the Acclaim. People told me it would be the points when I taked to them in Derby and when I got home I adjusted them and it went great! The next day… nope. Exactly the same problem. So I replaced the dizzy cap and… it worked! Until the next morning. In the end I traced the problem to a new condenser which was faulty. I’ve chucked the old on in and it all seems fine now. It’s been pressed into regular use and other than iffy brakes and a dodgy rear wheel bearing all seems fine. I’ve got a Mk2 halfshaft to turn into a Mk1 and I’ve got new brake seals and flexible hoses on order. I’ve already got new caliper pistons waiting so I can rebuild the front brakes. I need to paint the underneath of the car too as all of the underseal has fallen off!

Acclaim: All is working well. It ran hot on the way to Crich and when I got there (after Barry had put away his Acclaim anorak and studdied the car) Barry pointed out the radiator was a bit past its best. So I’ve sorted out to get it re-cored. Annoyingly the 2000 was playing up when I wanted to take it off so it’s still waiting to be done. When I get a chance I’ll get it sorted. I’m testing the 2000 to make sure it’s reliable for the time being as when the radiator comes off the car won’t be able to be used for a week. The wiper motor still needs to be replaced and this car also needs stripping and repainting underneath. I’ve also got to give it another rub-down as the paint is starting to oxidise.

Herald: Well, I painted the windscreen surround at last. Don’t worry, it’s white! The starter motor is knackered. The battery is also past its best yet Halfords tell me it is fine. So soon I’ll be going back to throw it at them It’s a 3-year life jobbie and the three years end in June. Cutting it close! Obviously it still has no windscreen in. The seats are half-way to being replaced - they need some metal welding to them (quoted £25 per seat to do four 1″ long welds!) which I’ll be doing myself. And it still needs the rust cutting out of the tub and new metal going in. I’ve sourced a section which will be cut out of a scrapped tub when I get my arse in gear. The wheels will hopefully be sorted soon too. Will it be ready for the 10CR… Oh, and I’ve got to change the engine still.

That’s the noise a 2lt straight-six makes, right? It’s nice.

The 2000 is back on the road and working now. If anyone can remember back far enough I found out I’d broken a front suspension spring on a Monday. In fact, tomorrow it is exactly four weeksa go that it happened. So I asked around on the Club Triumph site to get some more info on what I could do and get. On Wednesday I ordered some 160lb 1/2 lower jobbies and gaiters from a well know and respected supplier and was told they’d be with me Saturday. Brilliant! The next Wednesday I phoned to ask where my springs were… After a couple of calls back and forth I was told that mine were having to be made and would be with me by the end of the following week and sent direct from the manufacturers. I bit my tongue and said ok. Why couldn’t they have contacted me the moment they knew there would be a delay? Anyway, I waited. I had no springs. The gaiters did turn up the day after I phoned though… Exactly three weeks after placing my order I called again to ask where my springs were. On the fourth call in an hour and a half I got an answer and was told that I should have had them. My red mist eased off as I was spitting feathers at that point. I got called back and told that my springs were just being powder coated and that they’d be with me Friday. And they were.

I’m still very much not happy to say the least. When I was told it’d take three days to get them I was happy to leave the car outside. But I was not happy to find out they’d be late and that they knew yet didn’t contact me. I’m even less happy to have to leave the car out in all the snow we’ve had (there is still some on the roads and in the gardens here) without being able to move it for over three weeks. I’m told this isn’t the normal situation and the be fair, I don’t know if there are any personal circumstances involved so will have to give the benefit of the doubt as the parts have arrived and are good quality. And it’s also worth to note that the second hand rear springs I bought off Charles Harrison arrived very quickly too! I think they took two or three days.

Changing the springs was easy. Putting the strut back on wasn’t. I struggled for over an hour on the passenger side then gave up. It’d been a while since I took it off so suspected that I may be doing something wrong although I couldn’t figure out what. So I took the drivers side off with the idea being that I’d be able to see how it came apart and went back together. I was right, there wasn’t anything I was doing wrong. It’s a dead easy job and everything goes back on within ten minutes. So there’s something not quite right on the passenger side. I had to lay on my side in a manky puddle and snow with one had pushing up, one had pulling the hub to the front of the car, my knee pushing it inwards and my third hand pushing the bolt in. I got there in the end. When I caught my breathe and the sky was returning back to its normal colour from blue I noticed there was no light left. I took it for a test drive, all seemed ok.

Bob was dropping the other parts I bought with the car off on Saturday so I decided the fit the rear springs that morning. He arrived just after I’d removed the two rear wheels and gave me a tip. Dead easy job and it was all sorted in an hour or so, including nipping home to grab some other bits and a quick wee.

So the car works again! It’s also a touch lower too. A certain auto fetishist says the 160lb springs reduce ride quality and don’t improve the handling. I have to say that the car feels a tiny bit more communicative and the ride doesn’t feel noticeably different. But I have to keep in mind that my old springs could have been over 40 years old.

Bob told me that my struts came off an S model to allow wider tyres to be fitted. I have noticed a difference between the two on the car. The first photo is of the passenger side and the second of the drivers. What is each one off of and what differences are there? I’ve got two newer struts to go on which are a matched pair (part of what Bob gave me) and the ones currently on the car will go into the spares supply.

I’ve also found that the rear wheel on the drivers side has some wobble in it. Bearing? I’ll ask more at the pub tomorrow night. Hopefully it’s nothing expensive. The grabbing front near-side brake seems to have eased off too, since doing the rear springs.

Sorry for the long entry. But at least it’s not filled with loads of photos for once!

You’ve made the 2000 break!

I had to go to Cambridge yesterday so the plan was to jump in the 2000 around 5pm, do some shopping and get there for 6pm before going down the A1 to arrive at the pub around 7:30. I get in the 2000 and as I reverse hear horrible noises. All I had to hand was a very dim torch on a battery booster pack. From what I could see it appeared the plate the bottom of the suspension spring rests on was somehow half way up the spring. Rollocks! I can’t use the Herald right now so it was a case of using the Acclaim. It served me well and managed around 30mpg from my calculations.

Anyhoo, I’ve had a look at the 2000 this morning and this is what’s happened.

Somehow, as a couple of people suggested last night, the spring has failed. I guess the good news is that it didn’t happened whislt I was driving it. It gets used almost every other day and two days ago I was in the middle of the town centre. Two days before that I was in multistory carparks. It’s failed whilst parked up and not being used.

So now I have to deside what to do. I need two new front springs. Do I go for harder than standard? Do I replace all four on the car for peace of mind? Do I somehow convince myself that I need and can afford four, harder and lower springs… I’ll have a look at prices first I think!