The gear stick should just knock out of the housing complete with the seat, I wouldnt want to try it without a replacement seat though as it may break up on the way out, search part number 90278761
I have been trawling the Internet, looking for bits so I can make a quick shift, over the years I have amassed a stock of bits, after a bit of box diving in my garage, which has in turn made me think, do I want to cut up my very nice, and expensive, brand new Quaife quick shift, Nah, Nor do I want to cut up a very expensive Japanese one I have, but what I have done is bought a very cheap chinesium quick shift for a BMW, bearing in mind, BMW use the Bigger/stronger version of the same gearbox, and hopefully it may well yield some useful parts.........
Not that Im a whimp, but its a touch cold in the garage today.......... As soon as my cheap Chinese BMW quick shift arrived I realised it was not a lightweight animal, with the shaft for the lever made from 20mm steel shaft turned down on a gentle taper to 12mm, it will never break off thats for sure, the nicety of it is its easy to build into something else other than BMW,
started to knock ups bracket to take the quickshift,
time to lop off some of the excessive lever
then drill it out for the next bit,
the next bit is cutting down and fettling the old lever into the stub
assembled and ready to fit,
compare the two pics, 1st to 2nd stroke has gone from 300mm down to 55mm, im stoked with that,
But in the meantime I got a touch distracted after a Christmas dinner, probably too many beers too.... and a bit of facebooking...... Bugger there goes keep it simple stupid (KISS)
So, I now own a set of direct to head 20xe Jenvey 45mm throttle bodies, 2 ECUs alledgly configured for a 20xe, and a bundle of wires that appear to a loom to fit a XE, mmmmmmm what have I done,
Post by grumpynorthener on Dec 9, 2022 18:01:23 GMT
Not that Im a whimp, but its a touch cold in the garage today..........
Ian - Strongly disagree with this statement - you're a wimp and I'm a bigger wimp - cold isn't the word - last thing I expected when I opened the workshop door this morning was ice on the windscreens of the motors inside the garage - I had some running about to do so I started the Range Rover up and left the heated seat on whilst limiting my time outside of the vehicle to seconds
Not that Im a whimp, but its a touch cold in the garage today..........
Ian - Strongly disagree with this statement - you're a wimp and I'm a bigger wimp - cold isn't the word - last thing I expected when I opened the workshop door this morning was ice on the windscreens of the motors inside the garage - I had some running about to do so I started the Range Rover up and left the heated seat on whilst limiting my time outside of the vehicle to seconds
laying in bed the other night, not able to sleep thinking about the car...as you do, came up with this amalgam, by no means set in alloy yet, but, I have a thing about the Vauxhall logo in the Triumph engine bay, I know its a lot of work, and I dont have access to machine equipment any more, but the idea of smoothing off the Vauxhall logo, machining a pocket in the spark plug cover and then machining the Triumph from the sprint cam cover so it drops into the hole and either glue or weld it in, like I said, just a thought at the moment............
Ian - Strongly disagree with this statement - you're a wimp and I'm a bigger wimp - cold isn't the word - last thing I expected when I opened the workshop door this morning was ice on the windscreens of the motors inside the garage - I had some running about to do so I started the Range Rover up and left the heated seat on whilst limiting my time outside of the vehicle to seconds
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Don't know what all the fuss is about. I had breakfast sitting outside in the garden at 6am today in shorts and T shirt. It was lovely and I could really get used to living in this part of Australia. (Sunshine Coast) Going to be painful when it is time to go home after 5 weeks of this.
Had a few issues with the car this week, mostly with starting problems, or more exactly not cranking over just the click of death from the starter solenoid, checked the battery electrolyte levels 2 cells were nearly to the top, and one was uncovered, and the battery was only 35AH, Im not an expert, but I think I can see an slight start of a problem here, the wiring is in places in my opinion slightly suspect to be polite to previous owners. the BL charging/starting wiring is a throwback from inertia starters, where the solenoid would have been theres what looks like a plastic block with the Charge and Starter main cables running Into it plus another bundle of feed wires for other things, TBH, I was tempted just to hack and repair but it would be a gynaecology job and by no means easy, for the moment, that stays in situ, Battery in the boot is the plan which will be run in 4swg ark welding cable, its about as good as you can get in my opinion, although theres a earth strap from the battery to engine, and a very small wire, (20a) to body, I have rebounded it using the said welding cable direct to body from engine, Ill run one from the tail housing too., I have also bought a 65AH battery for the car that hasn't a hope in hell of fitting in the engine bay where its supposed to go, which has sort of twisted my arm a touch with the future boot location, Just the addition of a new earth strap has made a huge difference, Now my fear was when tacking the quick shift together I had inadvertently fried the QED ignition box and it was not allowing the engine to turn over because of a direct short I may have instigated, but not to worry, it fires up on the 2nd try, PHEW So now Im waiting for Bits n Bobs stuck somewhere in the internet, what can I get up to especially as the wife is out with the puppy, ground off the vauxhall logo from the spark plug cover, mmmmmm thats better, but not what I wanted so I cut it up with a disc cutter, simples...
and, simarly attacked the triumph Dolomite sprint cam cover was attacked with the aforementioned disc cutter with a bit of fettling with a assembly of files... hey presto... much more to my liking
I think there will always be problems when you buy something like this, its funny what other peoples ideas of acceptable are! At least its winter and you have plenty of time to work through the issues!
The triumph is still providing me with little surprises, some, sort of expected, some not so, while Im waiting for the postal gods to deem me with some stuff I have ordered, Ill get some other bits started and sorted before the warmer weather, and show/meets, The exhaust is too noisy, and the induction noise is also excessive, beyond where it should be on 45s, I have already had this conversation with Mr Bravo about noise, and we both agree the exhaust is a cut about FWD thingy of dubious build quality and fit, knowing this I purchased a Simpson exhaust for a short oval car, fully expecting this to need major modifications just to get in the engine bay, well, surprisingly I think the top bunch of bananas may well fit without cutting, RESULT!!!!, this has involved removing a interesting engine stabiliser and bracket bolted to the shock turret, this was needed to stop the engine rocking on is mounts because the exhaust manifold, in many places is a few thou from fouling chassis or body, getting the manifold off was remarkably easy, Brass nuts n Studs, all good, with a lot of wiggling it came out, (God Bless the inventor of roller stud extractors) the quality of the compromising of the exhaust then became apparent, somewhere in its past a previous owner must have been the proud owner of a VFBH and used it with aplomb, Makes me wonder if the closing of the exhaust manifold could create enough back pressure to make the carbs extra noisy?
that the bottom pipe from the collector beaten into submission I would guess reducing the CSA by 70-75%,
and No1 downpipe showing off its wound so it could clear the engine mount.
the offending mount, it was never intended to break, but Im going to use the 2 spare bolt holes at the front of the block used in FWD applications, and remove much of the mount thats preventing me getting the manifold in situ,
Problem solving again, and again.... This is the Simpson hotrod exhaust I procured some time ago, on a whim hoping it will fit, well, today has been the fruition of that whim, let me see, oooh surprise of surprises, it dosent even get past the cam cover, looking a bit lower, its obvious that the HEAVY DUTY engine mount ironmongery is in the way, so with a jack under the the ally sump, take the weight of the engine and remove the 4th road bridge
With a bit of jiggerypokery the Simpson header looks like this, its by no means perfect, in as much as the bottom pipe rests on the steering rack but I have room for a bit more wiggling I think I can do it, its tight on the chassis rail, so tomorrow I will take off the manifold, bolt the engine mount back on, then remove the opposite engine mount, losen the manifold mount, fit 6mm spacers and remake or adjust the passenger side mount moving the engine 6mm off centre to the drivers side, then of course remake the manifold side mount, then see where I am with the clearance over the rack, I think it should be possible
That manifold is so close, shame the primary pipes arent a weeny bit shorter where they join the head flange
Everything is a bit close on that side, things will move over a bit, But everything is gorilla tight plus+++!!! on this car, Im trying to process some things that have been made seriously inaccessible where there is loads of room around, at the moment I want to see what the drivers side engine mount looks like but I think I will need to remove the alternator, all the radiator pipework and a fair bit of wiring that seems to run under there, anyone an expert on vauxhall XE engine plugs, Have 2 dangling in the air, 1 under the carbs, im guessing a knock sensor? I noticed another one tied off and tucked away. On a positive note, I will have to remove some of this stuff to sort a couple of oil leaks, ones an easy one, its the crank sensor, it seems to be leaking and where it has been close to the old manifold and the wiring is a bit crispy and falling apart, the other oil leak might be sump gasket, Its a bit oily under there to tell yet untill I get it cleaned down, As for the exhaust manifold, it fits better than I could have hoped except for the bottom pipe, which I think may be a touch too friendly with the steering rack gaitor, there is room for movement in the pipework, or can you buy fireproof gaitors
20XE is a 2 litre twin cam 16v, the C designation refers to catalyst, which I and fairly certain the Toledo dosn't have one, but the vauxhall donor probably did,
In that case the fact that its MOT exempt is a blessing but unsure if testers are that much on the ball of spotting the fact that it's a catalyst designated engine in a non-catalyst car - unsure of where the compliance factor lies - personally it wouldn't bother me in the slightest providing the rest of the car was up to dealing the upgraded power output and it very much sounds like it is
MOT emissions tested to whichever is oldest, car or engine. Onus is on the vehicle presenter to provide official document to prove engine age if it is older than the car Personally believe the MOT exemption is an utterly ridiculous idea as well.
v8ian good progress on the new project It's always an eye opener with some peoples idea of wiring improvements As for the transmission, it should be a Getrag 260 I think. Same as an Opel Manta 1.8 would've had, and the bellhousing being at a different angle to the CIH engines I believe
Well, the exhaust manifold has been a mission, from what looked like a slight tweak to a pipe has turned into a full assault, and its still not quite sorted yet, started off with That will only take a morning to has it really taken 2 weeks? its in position subject to connecting the downpipe to something resembling an exhaust My phone has decided to lose some photos but not all, firstly the exhaust fitting entailed moving the engine what I think was about 12mm to the drivers side, the engine mounts were heavy duty never going to break, so I removed most of the mounts and converted to urethane bushes, much more compact, soon I have room for the manifold... not, what with the engine move and faffing around I decided to set the engine to 0 degs rather 7 deg tilt, with this new position the manifold now fouls a chassis flange, grrrrrr, that was not an issue before, the FBH sort of helped a bit, and some spacers on the engine mount helped a lot, the next obvious problem is the bottom pipe of the manifold runs right thru the steering rack, I had visions of cutting off the bottom pipe and flairing it into the pipe next to it, so I put my big brave pants on and remove the slip connectors and cut off a pipe, then it dawned on me by rotating the bottom collector thru 90degs I can get a miss on the rack, it did involve cutting the ends all the other pipes to move their relative positions away from the rack as its a 4-2-1 the bottom pipe is quite big in a tight space, so I ordered a box of stainless bends, a lot of cutting swearing, more cutting a bit of welding its starting to fit together.... whoopieeee, I'm sort of happy now,
but its still very tight around the footwell
Meanwhile while waiting for exhaust bits I had previously removed the alternator so I could remake the other engine mount, simplifying the charging system was my next target, only because I'm moving the battery to the boot, not a big job but a right pain because of the lack of ease to procure basic wiring items at my local factors, it would appear that Lucas ACR plugs are made of fairy dust, and aftermarket ones are made of chocolate. its Now a Job in progress, So, where to next, New hoses seems like an idea, spend a small fortune on silicones and find one missing on delivery with the note, not in stock for 2 weeks, unfortunately its the one that is needed first before the alternator goes back, as its then hidden from easy access, so the process of cutting and fitting the rest in position starts, there was originally a misalignment of the hose from the rad now theres a bit called an engine mount in the way, eventually I find a 35mm black dogleg silicon hose, not a cheap item phone them this morning to be told by the answerphone they're on holiday.... Bumhats... Lets try another job, the expansion tank fitted to the car seemed to me to be plumbed oddly especially the air bleed pipe on the engine fed the heater, and that had a 4mm restrictor in that too, wondered why the heater struggled, time for a redesign, I had an old BL brass expansion tank, with a bit of moving of pipes and blanking off I think it will be OK,
the scrunched silver foil is there as a method to see how much room I have under the bonnet shut the bonnet and the crushes the foil to show how much room there is.
and finally, with me being a bit odd with the look of modern engines on older cars, I sourced a Opel oil filler cap, on FB for the princely sum of 5 British beer vouchers I took a punt as it was sold as an "oid filler cap" made mt feel better as the ones of Ebay are heading for £50.
So, I'm stuck waiting for bits and bobs to turn up,, some of the stuff I have ordered proclaiming genuine LUCAS items is clearly not, even this stuff was of a lower quality than the real stuff, ----- ITS BAD...... the plan has now turned to other jobs, which are out of sequence, not the best way for me to work as I like being methodical and follow routine of starting and finishing a job, or at least getting the job to a decent place to stop. Today started working the Job from the finish to where I cant go further, Kitting the boot out for the later addition of Fuel Injection and relocation was just a fill in job, Just acquired a what probably is a Chinese made swirl pot and semi submerged/internal pump, if it works and dosent leak it will be a big bonus. its advantage for me is it sort of fits in the spare wheel well, and I might even be able to keep the spare wheel, the false floor that rests on the wheel will need a cutout for the piping, but thats another day,
don't get me wrong, this is great little in fact I love this little car, and want to make it better, One thing on this car that I hate is the noise the Redtop fuel pump makes, it drowns out conversation, I have never heard a pump so noisy, including some BIG volume drag racing pumps it may be the where its mounted 12" higher than the top off the tank, so it has to drag fuel out of the tank, and its isolated on rubber mounted that look suspiciously like exhaust cotton reels.
The Main Job for the day was to get the battery tray, isolator and 100a mega fuse all in a position where thy should work, The isolator, is not the normal big RED key but a security (DURITE) type lock, only a time wasting deterrent I know,
Please excuse the temporary upstand it has been made but the paint was still wet.
ts been a long slog, getting the exhaust manifold done and finished, seems Like my life is revolving around waiting days, sometime weeks for delivery of bits I need, then half a days faffing around on the car, then realising I need more bits.... But, The exhaust is on and tightened up, except for the tailpipe,
the knock-on from the exhaust has been fitting the Battery in the boot which has entailed endless hours of modifying the loom and running cables, all the wiring seems to run on the passenger side of the chassis leg/wing, I needed to remove the battery cable from the LH side and run a lead back from the alternator and into the loom to provide power the to car also lengthening the starter solenoid wire and the alternator exciter wire, not a big issue, but needed doing as I had found 2 crimp connectors in the 2 wires already adding a few more fuses on the way as its woefully bereft if fuses, added a 50a mini mega fuse on the charge side and a Mega 100a on the battery, did the loom, pulled it tight and wrapped it carefully then, rerouted it differently so it was secured well, finished running the cable thru the car, complete with extra wires, relays and fuses for running EFI when I can get around to it, mounted it all in the boot, not quite how I wanted, but the swimbo insisted on some boot space being required,
getting excited now, so I switched on the power, turned the key, pump runs, but no turning of the engine, or charge light I was advised that there was a small Rists connector that is the key switch loom, behind the parcel tray which I had refitted and this said connector was prone to dislodging when fitting the parcel tray, this tray is an absolute A-se to fit and remove, so with much incoherent swearing being uttered, it was out, and I could start continuity testing, the plug proved to be OK, I Hot wired the starter and the starter worked, but no matter how I checked for continuity , even cross checking in case I had wired the loom incorrectly, NOWT....... no option but to start stripping the loom back from where I started, undid some of the tape further up the loom so I could stick a sharp needle into the wire and check again still nowt, on wire pulled away in my hand, on inspection I found yet more crimp connectors in the loom 2 of which had failed, the exciter wire and the start solenoid, so thats 6 extension crimps in 2 wires over 400mm I'm assuming the last 2 broke when I pulled the loom tight to wrap it, re-did the joints correctly, turned the key, charge light lit, and the thing started on the third try.......... its a lot quieter now without the blows and cracks on the exhaust and surprisingly on the intake too, I'm guessing due to less back pressure on the exhaust manifold. win win there for me, I did remove 10" of tailpipe as it looked like a pea shooter sticking out of the rear of the car and facing upwards, and fitted a downturned tip which may also help with the noise.
Well another Idea has hit the buffers for now, I had a spare set of wheels from the A35van, 7 and 8x15" compomotive TH, I knew one had had a repair, and, offering that one up today, I caught my finger on a sharp bit inside a spoke, and looking I find a crack in a spoke, now that had to be a BIG hit to crack a spoke on a TH.. think a change of plan is on the horizon, Right, that evening went scrolling thru FB marketplace to find a suitable replacement, nothing seems to be about, But I did find something else, with a stagger, and 15", Several problems with dolomite sprint wheels as many BL products is that they run a FWD offset, which in turn the dolly wheels don't allow for big enough brakes,(for me), hence the search for 15s , so, Now, I hope, I have a set of FWD wheels that stylistically will work on the car, PCD is incorrect, 100mm vs 94.25mm, not sure If I want wobble nuts as the studs are only 3/8 unf, which is less than 10mm, redrilling or PCD converters seem to be the better option.FB searching may have yielded a winner Got the wheels last night, for not an awful lot of dosh, If they don't fit, I know I can sell them on without issue if they don't or aesthetically work, especially as they are a bit of a VW icon, The fronts are a very similar ET to whats on the car as factory, but as they are a bit wider so I may need to space the wheel slightly, the backs will be a suck it and see, I think they will get a diamond cut and blacking as they should be,
Yep they are ATS cups. in 6"and 7" and forgive me if I'm wrong, remind me of a wheel made by cosmic in the 70s
Ok they look tight, by I'm 99% they will fit, they are sitting jammed on the studs and about 15mm off the face of the hub, so I don't think hub converters will work on the back as thy will move the wheel out too far, that narrows down options to re-studding the hubs, anybody got a pair of Sprint Hubs already drilled 100 PCD, I'm not holding my breath,