TVRs and Stuff

:: Diary - July 2024 ::
:: Saturday, 6 July 2024 ::

Been on holiday for a week, on Jersey, so no TVR updates!
Interesting place though - the national speed limit (the black line across a white circle) means 40 miles per hour, which doesn't half confuse the satnav in hire cars, which read the sign and tell you that the limit is 60 - but it isn't! I drove about 100 miles over the week, and didn't find a single bit of road where I would have felt happy going much faster than 50... and most roads are so narrow and twisty, with very solid-looking walls right beside them (no verges) that self--preservation limits speeds in most areas to 30 or even lower.
Still good fun though - lots to see and do, it was great!
The same can't be said for Easyjet... this isn't the place for me to even start to write about how rubbish Easyjet are, unless you are on the first flight of the day before their habit of cumulative delays has started.
Anyway, back home yesterday evening, so out to the garage this morning to look at the Vixen before the Car Club meeting tomorrow. The main thing I want to look at is the variable idle speed, which just won't settle to a steady idle.
The car has a Weber 32/36 DGV carb, which are usually very reliable. However, I think that it has been adjusted to compensate for the broken (stuck partly open) choke mechanism, so is now too rich and lumpy now that that's fixed. I start it up, and although it starts first time, it still won't idle at a steady speed, even when it's warm, without a wee bit of choke.
My memory of tuning Ford crossflow engines by ear is a wee bit vague, but after a bit of internet searching, I think I remember. The first step is to return it to basic factory settings - mixture screw about 2 turns out from fully in, and idle speed screw about onee and a half turns in from a "just released" position.
Then I start it again, it ticks over now with no choke, but still really lumpy, so I turn the idle mixture screw out, a 1/4 turn at a time, listening to the revs increase slighty each time. Then there's a 1/4 turn where they don't increase... so leave it there and adjust the idle speed screw to lower the idle. Then adjust the mixture screw again, listen to the revs, and adjust out by another 1/4 turn or so until the idle increases, but before it goes off (i.e too rich).
Jump in the car with a screwdriver, take it for a wee test drive... it idles a wee bit fast, but has a hesitation as the revs increase from idle - for example just when you're pulling out at a junction. It's better but it's not quite right...
I go back home and remove the air cleaner, to check that the throttle butterflies are closing properly. I squirt some carb cleaner down each choke until theres a small pool of cleaner on each butterfly (this also cleans the accellerator pump nozzle). The carb cleaner sits on the butterflies, doesn't drain away so I know they are closed fully.
Start the car again, the idle is much better, and another wee test drive shows that the car is much more driveable, especially pulling away from a standstill.
I fill up with fuel ready for tomorrow's meeting.

:: Sunday, 7 July 2024 ::

It's TVR Car Club day! We've arranged to meet up for a wee run first, although Dave isn't going because he's not well. The car starts again first- time from cold in the garage, which is a good sign!
So after our usual meet-up preamble, Jim, Eric and I set off over the new Forth Bridge and up through Fife. Jim is in his wedge, and he has just installed new boot struts, which are stronger pushing upwards than the lock holding it down, so he has a couple of episodes of "air brakes" when the boot flies open unexpectedly.
Off the motorway and on to some interesting wee twisty roads up through Glendevon, and then back down the dual carriageway bit of the A9 to our meeting place. The wee Vixen is going better than ever, it's brilliant!
We get parked up and after a bit of chat, we head in for lunch. Hugh has joined us and he has brought his TVR, which is good to see.
The conversation over lunch is the usual mix of the unrepeatable and the incomprehensible, especially after the Guinness in Hugh's steak and guinness pie kicks in - which results in tales of derring-do in Morris Marinas doing more miles per annum than the Starship Enterprise.
Then it's time to head home, but a few miles down the road, the motorway is shut because of an accident, and the best diversion route is also shut for roadworks - so we are diverted down a route that Eric (in the front) doesn't know - but we find our way back to our original route just as the rain comes on. Heavy. And Jim has his roof off...
I try not to be too distracted by that fact since I am concentrating on the road and looking for standing water - the car is so light that it seems to aquaplane on anything deeper than a midgie's spit. I'm also struggling to see through very slow windscreen wipers, and can't remember which switch position puts the lights on dip beam - This is not fun...
I turn off the motorway and down a slip road, and when I get to the junction at the bottom, the engine dies. It starts again no problem, but now the idle speed is very low and lumpy. I think the carb needs a very thorough clean!
Anyway, I get home a few miles later, chuck the car in the garage and screw the idle speed screw up a bit. We'll see what it's like next time I use it.
Next task will be to swap the Vixen for the S, so that I can get ready for the TVR event in Blackpool next weekend. Dave has come up with a route home that's more like the feckin mille miglia, about 7 hours of driving not counting stops for fue for car and drivers... Now we're only waiting for Adrian to send us the interesting route to get there in the first place, that he has been working on since next Thursday.

:: Monday, 8 July 2024 ::

My first "spotted"! I've owned the S for 21 years, and have never seen anyone post on any of the popular forums that they've seen it out and about. I had the Cerbera for 5 years - again nothing. I've had the Vixen 3 months and yesterday someone posts that they saw me with Jim and Eric on our way the the club meeting.
I decided to swap the Vixen over to the farm today, so that I can bring the S back here before its trip to Blackpool next weekend. The S is a pretty basic drive, but it's positively spacious and luxurious compared to the Vixen!
Preparation for next weekend appears to consist mainly of cleaning the dust off it, plus the normal checks of water, oil, fuel and tyres that you should do before any long journey, especially in an older car.

:: Wednesday, 10 July 2024 ::

As expected, I while away a couple of hours wiping a rag over the S, and giving the inside a wee dust. Oh and not forgetting a twiddle around the wheels. It has come up not too bad!
Oil up to level, water at normal level, tyre pressures all ok and needs some fuel before we go. Everything else seems to be working normally (that's not to say it's working correctly, but working how they normally work).
I've been thinking about the Vixen and its variable idling speed - you set it, drive for a bit, and then it's too slow and stalls - so you set it again, drive for a bit, and when you stop at junctions the engine is racing. I still think the carb needs a good clean out, so I order a rebuild set that includes all the gaskets, o-rings and seals etc, a new idle mixture screw (mine might be damaged), and a new accelerator pump and diaphragm. I'll get the car back here after this weekend and have a go at that - it's around 45 years since I last took a carb to bits, so it should be fun! (Although I had better eyesight then, so I could actually see what I was doing with all the wee tiny bits that fit inside carburettors!)
I also got the refurbished fuel gauge back today, so that can be refitted!
Plans are all in place for this coming weekend - we're meeting up early on Saturday at "oh god is it morning already" o'clock, so that we have time for a wee run and a modest breakfast before we meet up with Adrian. Then we have a wee scenic route planned to Blackpool, where TVRs were built and our destination for celebrating that on Sunday.

:: Saturday, 13 July 2024 ::

6:45 am - it's here! The alarm says it's time to head off to the TVR Heaven event in Blackpool tomorrow. So I'm up and after some packing of last-minute items, I'm ready by 7am. EXtract the car from the garage and we're off! The weather is kinda threatening so the roof is staying on for the moment.
I meet up with Jim, Dave and Eric at our usua starting place, among some "street machines" who are obviously heading for some show or empty car park nearby. After some friendly salutory greetings, we head off on the first leg of our journey - Dave is leading, I'm at the back.
After about 10 miles, halfway round the city bypass, I notice that Jim has slowed considerably... I follow him as he coasts down a slip road and into a side road. His throttle cable has broken. Dave and Eric turn around and join up with us.
A quick investigation shows that the nipple has broken off at the pedal. The S has a crap arrangement at that end of the cable, where the pedal pulls the inner cable downwards, and out of line with the outer cable, so it wears through where it leaves the nipple. We set about trying to repair it, while Dave heads back to collect a spare cable he has at home.

We try screwing an electrical connector on the end of the bit of cable that's left, but that shortens the overll length too much, so the throttle can't close. So we take the cable off, in preparation for dave arriving back, and then cut a bit out of the outer cable to shorten its overall length so that the inner cable would have more slack. We don't get a chance to fit that though because Dave arrives with the spare one. It's fitted and after around 60 minutes delay, we're on our way down into the Borders to breakfast in Jedburgh! At least the rain stayed off while we were standing around, but it's bucketing down now... we're amused to see a family of ducks hitch-hiking down the grass verge at one point.
Because we're meeting Adrian in an hour or so, only a light breakfast is required - a bacon roll should fill the gap!
Then we discover that Adrian is on a wee emergency family mission, so won't be meeting us this morning, but will come to the hotel later. This curtails our lunch plans, but does mean that we can nip off a bit of our planned route to make up time.
When we go out, there's a nice Rover 110 in the car park.

Eric reports that his Tuscan's LCD instrument display has disappeared (or gone very faint) so he can't see his speedo or rev counter. He manages to adjust it a wee bit but it's still not right.
We get ourselves sorted out, and head off roughly towards Tebay services. I lead the troop down the A68 to Corbridge, and then along towards Carlisle, where we stop for a quick refuel.

Tebay services is... indifferent. Eric's soup is cold, I have an expensive toasty that isn't very toasty at all, and a scone that has the texture of damp plasterboard. It's feckin' horrible. You don't get reviews like that in the Egon Ronay food guide.
Jim's turn to lead, from Tebay down the M6, where we turn off early for a bit of back-road driving before Blackpool.
We find that our Preier Inn has no meal deal, but we book a table in the adjacent pub/restarant for tonight and tomorrow (when it might be busy because England are paying in the final of the Euros).
I go up to my room, take off my jacket, have a pee, look out the window and...
there's Dave, cleaning his car.

For a nanosecond, I'm tempted to join him, but naaah... I'll clean it tomorrow before we set off. So instead I sit and vegetate in front of the TV until dinner time.
Adrian joins us by dinner time, so the chat flows thick and fast as usual. Eric reports that his dash has green warning lights on, eb=ven when the car is switched off, so we decide to disconnect the battery to seeif that rsets everything.
The battery is under the wheelarch, so you have to take the wheel off to reach it. Imagine getting "free fitting" for a battery at Halfords (ask Adrian for the nearest location) and then they realise that they need a scissor lift and a midget with one very long arm to reach it...

:: Sunday, 14 July 2024 ::

5.30 am - I'm awake, thinking about a number of things, including that bad debtor that I mentioned on 26 June. I can't write too much about that for legal reasons, but suffice to say that things have progressed since then, and although he still hasn't paid, I think the noose is tightening. I have an email to write to move it an extra notch.
First though, I have a look out the window, and there's Dave, cleaning his car. It seems that we all have our different obsessions! For a nanosecond, I'm tempted to join him, but naaah... I'll clean it later, just before we set off.

So, email written (but not sent yet), a bit of TV-vegetating, and down for breakfast at 7.30. Dave announces that he has been for a walk, and the road we intend to take is closed. I have a wee look and deduce that it's not our road that's closed, but another one...
Do I have time to clean the car? Naaah... I'll clean it after we arrive.
So we set off for the event, only 10 minutes down the road. When I say "road" I mean "medieval cart track" that looks like it has had no maintenance since Oliver Cromwell dug it up during the English Civil War, to slow down the cavaliers (although no-one has yet explained how he knew that Vauxhall were going to make that particular model, 300 years in advance). Anyway, these Cavalier-traps work equally well on TVRs.
So we arrive and park up, and I find myself next to Ian, and we start on an interesting chat about interesting things, while he cleans his car. On the other side, Dave is giving hs car another wipe-down. I'll clean mine in a minute, after a quick look round.
Let's not prolong the suspense any longer. I never did get around to cleaning the car. Not because I was too busy, not because I forgot - but because in this drizzle, it just seems like a waste of time, and I couldn't be arsed. There, I've said it.
So instead of a detailed explanation of car cleaning, let's look at some of the things to see and do.
We in the S-Club have our own wee display area, separate from the main field.

This S-Series has a V6 Jaguar engine fitted.

The main field is much bigger, for everyone else.

This V6 Tuscan was nice. Not sure about the colour though.

A Grantura in the process of restoration.

This Vixen owner has solved the problem of "mirrors too low on the doors" - I'm not too sure about the aesthetics though.

This Vixen has a different heater fan and box arrangement, a waterproof box over the cable clutch pedal linkage, and 12 fuses in total. Mine has 3. According to the owner, it also has hesitation and misfiring problems that sound like vapour lock - evaporation in hot fuel lines. I don't see anywhere that the fuel lines could get that hot, and I think it sounds more like water in the electrics in this pishing rain...

I speak to another Vixen owner who is half-way through installing a mappable ecu to control ignition and fuelling, because his carburettor has a flat spot. Sledgehammers and nuts come to mind, but if that's what he wants to do, that's fine. Personally, I like the simplicity of a carb and standard old-style ignition.
I notice that quite a few of the Vixens and Granturas have their rear-view mirror fixed to the dash, rather than the roof. Because of the curve of the rear window, and especially with a roll bar, it's difficult to see far behind you with a roof-mounted mirror. I might experiment with moving my mirror to the dash. Maybe.
The TVR Speed 12.

This Cerbera had highly-poished brass and gold fittings - on closer inspection, some of the hoses were simly wrapped in gold foil, but it still looks tidy and modern, like the McLaren F1 or Bugatti Veyron. All the panel fittings were also gold, which finished it off.

Here's the solution to Dave's car-cleaning worries - a hand-held pressure washer using a collapsible plastic bucket. I like the hat too!

For some reason, there's a Bell-Huey helicopter on display. It's really interesting though - this one served in Vietnam in the last years of the war, and was then a training aircraft for the US army. It was brought to the UK and restored.

Humans have 2 hands and 2 feet. Helicopters need about 4 arms and 2 feet to keep them in the air. I've always thought that planes fly themselves until they crash. Helicopters crash unless you fight them into the sky and continually wrestle to keep them there, while keeping an eye on all those dials and two eyes on the proximity and aligment of the scenery outside. Too hard!

There's also supposed to be a display of a Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine, but they haven't turned up.
I do end up speaking to one of the main TVR parts supplers, having decided suddenly that I need to carry a spare throttle cable. I did a temporary repair on mine, so long ago that I can't remember doing it, so a precautionary spare might be in order! I'll order it online.
Then they announce the awards - Ian has won the "Best S" award, with Dave second. I win nothing again - probably because you can hardly see the car under the layer of rain and accumulated shit.
When we leave the event, we decide to have a drive through Blackpool itself, along the seafront. My satnav tells me a million times that "School Road is closed", which no doubt would be helpful if I knew where School Road is, but since I don't, I just have to follow my nose. The road along the sea front isn't that busy, but is buggered up by roroadworks, cyclists (who don't move over for nobody, no matter how slowly they are freewheeling) and horse-drawn "cinderella" coaches which (a) hold you up and (b) cover the road in horseshit to drive through.
The buildings along the seafront to put it politely, have seen better days (when you get time to look at them past the arse end of cycists and horses).
At the other end of the road, past the Tower, we decide to head back another way. Without the glamour (!) of the seafront Blackpool looks past its best, like a 1970s page 3 girl who is now approaching 90.
We arrive back at the hotel, where we say cheerio to Adrian who is heading back home tonight, because he's working tomorrow.
We find a bit of the restaurant away from the TV screens, and sit down for our dinner. I'm not a big football fan, and in any case, I'm not one of the blue-painted "scottish patriots" who support "anyone but England". I'm indifferent to who wins, so when Spain eventually come out as winners, it doesn't really matter. Cue the TV punditry about how the manager is a failure because they haven't won anything. Try being Scottish pal...

:: Monday, 15 July 2024 ::

Bit of a more decent time to be setting off today - breakfast at 8:30, then set off whenever we feel like it.
At least the sun is shining and the cars are gleaming! Well Dave's is - the rest haven't been cleaned since we set out on Saturday.

I fire off that email that I wrote yesterday, and wait for the chain reaction.
The first stop is for fuel, where I brim the tanks and we're ready to go - except Dave jumps in his car and... nothng. It sounds like the battery is flat, even although we've just driven from the hotel.
The only jump leads we have are Eric's, and they have an Andersen connector on one end to fit his Tuscan. After much grovelling on the floor, we're able to jump start the car. It turns over, but still no start...

It turns out that a wire has come off the immobiliser fob - with that fixed, it zooms into life, and we're off! Our first stop will be in Beattock, via Dumfies. We convoy up the M6, with me at the back. We turn onto the A75 at Gretna, and drive along towards Dumfries. The road is fairly busy, and were in a longer convoy of traffic following a van, and I have a huge artic inches from my rear bumper. I don't know if he's being agressively stupid or just plain ordinary stupid, but I ignore anyway. I've seen that film "Duel" starring Dennis Hopper.
Then we reach roadworks. Long queueing roadworks. When we clear those, we stop in a layby where Dave says that he has checked, and our proposed lunch stop doesn't open until 4pm, so we decide to go to Moffat instead. Off we go again, up the A701, and park up outside our restaurant. We decide to sit in the conservatory, which is absolutely roasting - it's like having your lunch in a sauna.
From there, we head up the od road that was replaced years ago by the M74, to Abington, where we have a quick pee stop and say our goodbyes. As we're ready to leave, an AA truck arrives and parks in front of us - someone must have told him there are 4 TVRs in the car park so there's guaranteed business.
Eventually we head on our last leg, but have to stop to put roofs on - just in the nick of time before the rain comes on in earnest! Then you're faced with the dilemma - do you keep the window open a wee bit for ventilation and to stop the car steaming up, but get a wet left arm with the water dripping in from the corner of the windscreen, or do you shut the window, stay dry, but can't see out?
Anyway, our route passes my house first, so I peel off for home, and sling the car into the garage, after another epic weekend!

:: Wednesday, 17 July 2024 ::

First task today is to repair the seal at the top of the drivers door opening - it goes around a very tight radius and is difficult to glue down because it wants to straighten - and once it lifts a litttle bit, it catches on the rear hood sectio which peels it off...
So I start by gluing it in place again, and then drilling a little hole throough the seal and the top of the door opening - then a screw with one of those little back screw covers that you use to mount number plates - and it's sorted!

I also found that the seal that goes from front to back of the left hand (bigger) roof panel was hanging off - I think it caught on the bag - so I clean that up and glue that as well.
I ordered a spare throttle cable yesterday, and it arrived today. Into the boot is goes!
Then I clear out all the extra baggage like tools, cleaners, hats etc, and take the car along to the farm, and bring back the Vixen. Jock has a better look at it and renews his quest to get me to fit twin choke Webers - that's not out of the question, but at over £1,000 it's an expensive way to fix a minor problem. I'll have a go with the carb rebuild kit first.

:: Saturday, 20 July 2024 ::

I've been busy with work - I've been given 3 different jobs at the same time, so I spent yesterday visiting those.
Anyway, back to the Vixen. My refurbished fuel gauge came back last week, and today I fitted it.
Here's the temporary replacement gauge that doesn't match the others. It also reads back to front, so when it says "empty" it means "full" and vice versa.

I take that out and wire in the new gauge, which immediately reads "full", and I know it isn't. It goes to zero if I earth the sender wire. It needs a bit of calibration, but I'll wait to see if it falls into range as the tank empties - if it reads "plenty" for most of the tank and then only starts to drop down the gauge when it's half-full, say, then that's fine - as long as it tells you when you need to put more petrol in!.

Then I start the car up and let it warm, and try to adjust the idle mixture, which I think is too rich. The idle evens out slightly when I weaken it off a bit, so we'll try that for a while.

:: Monday, 22 July 2024 ::

I want to have another look at the caibration of this fuel gauge. I know that the fuel gauge is right - it has jjust been refurbished. What I don't know is if the car has the correct sender - I don't think it does, when I look at the resistace range quoted in Vixen forums, compared to mine.
So the first step is to empty the tank and see what it reads. I use a vacuum pump and extract about 25 litres of fuel from the tank, until I can hear that it's empty. To confirm, I start the car and run it for a minute until it coughs to death as it runs out of fuel.
The gauge still reads "full". No bloody use...
So, I remove that gauge from the dash and replace it with my temporary gauge (which reads the wrong way). It reads "full" (or "empty" if you translate it back-to front).
I put in about a gallon of fuel. The gauge doesn't move and the car doesn't start. So there's at least a gallon in the bottom of the tank when the car runs out...
I put in another gallon. The gauge flicks up to around 1/16th from empty. The car starts. So that confirms that "empty" means "empty"...

I put the rest of the fuel back in.
I have 4 options... I can put the right gauge in, but have no idea how much fuel I have. I can find a gauge that matches the sender but not the rest of the gauges. I can find a sender that matches the "correct" gauge (but I have no idea what I'm looking for). Or I can leave it with the wrong gauge reading back-to-front, that does at least tell me before I stutter to a halt. For the moment, I'll stick with option 4.
Then I start it up, and have a wee 20-minute drive just because...

:: Saturday, 27 July 2024 ::

Another busy worky week, and not the greatest weather - so sitting in the house doing 3 jobs at an hourly rate has had a certain appeal...
Update on the client who owed me money - well he paid it on Monday! Only after a long telephone conversation about how he has been in hospital, and his business partner is feckin' useless, and I should have reminded him, he always intended to pay etc - but he paid! Not all of it, though - I'm still out of pocket for the legal fees etc, but that'll come. I'm a very trusting soul - but I also know where the next lever will be if he doesn't...
So today, a minor modification to the Vixen. The view in the inside rear view mirror is crap - you're peeking under the roll bar and the top edge of the back window, so you can only see tings that are right behind you, but not the road further back. I noticed when we went to Blackpool that about 1/2 of the Vixens and Granturas had inside mirrors fixed to the dash, so I took mine off, held it upside down on the dash, and it worked a lot better.
So I ordered a smaller dashtop mirror, and decided to fit it today.
There's a speaker grill on top of the dash, which is kinda in the way - but it only seems to be glued to the vinyl, not to the dash itself.

I peel that off, and underneath, there's the decomposed remains of a prehistoric speaker... it's not even connected to the car radio. The car radio isn't connected to the car either, and doesn't even work when you do... And even if it did, you wouldn't be able to hear it if you were moving. Or standing still.

The speaker is held in with nuts from underneath, and no way to reach them. As far as I can see, they built Vixens by hanging a speaker on a butcher's hook, and then built the rest of th car round about it. I don't need it out, so it can stay - I only remove all the flaking paper.
Then I get a bit of thin plywood (part of the packing for the quickjacks!) and cut a bit big enough to cover that speaker hole, and mark and drill 4 holes for screws (that avoid the speaker itself)

I stick a bit of thin foam to it, and then a bit of vinyl with short staples.

Then I screw that on to the top of the dash, with those little black screw covers for number plates. Then I position the mirror and screw that to the dash.
It looks not too bad, and the view is definitely improved! It's a flat glass mirror though, so things look pretty close - that VW is about two car lengths away from the back of the car. I'll try it on the road and see how it goes.

:: Wednesday, 31 July 2024 ::

Another small improvement to the Vixen. When you open the bonnet, the wee chrome bumper sits on the g round. That's ok if you're on grass, or up on jacks - but on a paved surface it's not so food. I noticed at the event near Blackpool a couple of weeks ago, that some owners have fitted "restraints" to limit the travel of the bonnet so that it doesn't touch the ground - see the photo of the yellow one at the event, he used a bit of yellow rope.
I have bought 4 wee brackets from a ships chandlers, wide enough for a webbing strap. I have clip-on straps from the car cover for the Chevy, which I'm chucking out because (a) it's torn and manky, and (b) I don't have the Chevy any more anyway.
Yesterday I made 4 webbing loops by cutting webbing strips around 8 inches long, folding them over and through a buckle, and sewing them by hand.
So today I stick some masking tape on the car where I want to put the brackets - in the corner of the bonnet, into the cross-bar...

and into the bulkhead underneath. I mark where the bracket holes have to be, drill the holes and mount the brackets through the webbing loops.

Clip in the long strap, adjust the length and there we go - the bonnet doesn't hit the ground any more!

One strap would probably be enough, to be fair, but this way, I can take one off if I'm working on that side of rhe engie bay (or both if it's on the jacks) - simples Sergei!

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