Gearbox out!

This week has been a busy one! I started the week by fitting one of those 'Stant' lever radiator caps. This is straightforward enough but, if you're thinking of fitting one, you need to get a few things right. Firstly, the pressure rating has to be right (13lbs) and, secondly, it has to fit under the bonnet! I checked this very carefully before dropping the bonnet down for the first time!

The next job was a big one! The gearbox needed to come out so I could replace the engine's rear oil seal. I won't bore you to death with the details of how I got the gearbox out but it did involve a hell of a lot of brute force, wood and jacks. Believe it or not, I did it all on my own too!

The oil leak had made one hell of a mess. The inside of the bellhousing, bottom of the gearbox and the underside of the car were absolutely caked in oil and dirt!

The standard cast iron bellhousing weighs nearly as much as a chest freezer! I bought an alloy replacement from Moss last year and started preparing it to fit. It's not the best casting I've ever seen but I think it'll do. I've painted it inside and out and I've gone for grey POR15 this time to show up any oil leaks! It's a very similar colour to my workshop floor!

The seats are looking good. I've bought another seat foam set from Owen at Park Lane Classics. I haven't had time to do any more work on them though. I'm waiting till the gearbox is out of the way and my workshop is less dirty before I start work on them again!

Heater Box Issues

A while back I mentioned that I was looking for a heater box to replace the rusty one with a broken linkage that came off my car. I did eventually manage to track one down on Ebay nut when it arrived I realised it wasn't going to be as simple as just chucking it in the car!

It was advertised as a 'Mk4 and 1500' heater box so, naturally, I thought it'd be the same as the one I had. It was, however, slightly different internally, with a different resistor and motor wiring! After carefully studying the two designs I decided the best course of action would be to drill out the rivets holding the internals in the original box and remount them in the new one. In order to do this I had to cut out the different brackets in the Ebay box. This then left a couple of small holes close to each other.

Obviously it's not great having holes in a heater box, so I decided the best thing to do would be to drill them out into one big hole and fit a grommet. This seems to be working out okay so far and I'm just waiting for some POR15 to arrive so I can paint it.

I've finally got around to cutting out the passenger side engine valance. These are coming on slowly and just need a bit more fettling to fit. Then I can make some brackets for them and maybe finally get them powdercoated!

I really want some parts to arrive this week. The HCR is getting nearer and I'm still waiting on a list of parts as long as my arm. Moss said my alloy bellhousing would take two weeks and that was just over two weeks ago so hopefully that'll be arriving soon. I'm also still waiting on my alloy water pump housing. I was told at the end of Jan that it'd take a week and it's still not here!

Degrease and Deoil!

I've got a few little jobs done this weekend. Firstly I cleaned up the bulkhead. Parts of this were covered in decades of grease, dirt and dist. I used a mountain bike degreaser called 'Muc Off'. They do a whole range specifically for cars now but I've always used the mountain bike stuff on my car and it works really well. With the crud removed there was plenty of light surface rust revealed and even a little paint in places. The battery box is basically sound though, which is very good news!

The other job I got through this weekend was draining the oil from the diff. This was the first time I'd ever done this job on the triumph and I'm pleased to say it went okay! The main problem is that triumph were too penny pinching to fit a drain plug so you have to use a small tube through the filler plug to empty the old oil out. I used a small siphon style hand pump. I just stuck the pipe in the diff, pumped the oil through to get it going and then waited for it to slowly siphon out. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that nearly as much oil came out as should have been in there!

Now I just need to pump some new oil back in. Can anyone out there recommend a good oil for a hard working diff?

In other news this week - The Spitfire Graveyard got back to me saying they'd got a decent heater. Haven't had time to call them back yet, though! Also, I got onto Moss Europe about my alloy bellhousing and found out its going to be with me in a few weeks. That's something to look forward to! Then I can get on with getting the engine out and replacing the clutch.