:: Diary - October 2017 ::

:: Sunday, October 1, 2017 ::

It’s Showtime!

But first - breakfast! Buffet rules apply. So we'll start with some cereal. Then a plateful of fried stuff. Then a croissant just to finish with something light. Can't be too careful - let's have another croissant to lighten the load.

Reset the satnav for Wentworth House, give brief instructions to the rest of the squadron in case we get separated at the exit from the hotel on to the main road, and we're off. After about 7 miles the satnav says "you have arrived at your destination", when we bloody obviously have not. Not only that, but there's not a sign or a sniff of the place.

I stop at the side of the road to investigate, and a convoy of TVRs passes. We'll just follow them - the worst that can happen is that we'll all be lost together. But no, they find the venue, so we get parked up on the wet grass.

Attendance isn't great, a lot of local people will be put off by the weather (whereas we have paid for hotel rooms for 2 nights, so we'll bloody well use them, no matter how shite the climate is). This photo shows about half of the total.

This is rather nice.

I particularly like how the drab grey sky reflects off the manky bodywork, providing a perfect contrast in shape and texture to the fucking soaking wet grass.

Adrian is supposed to be meeting us here, he turns up at around half-past-the-time-when-half-the-cars-have-already-gone-home, and is promptly awarded the rubber chicken of shame.

We have expensive coffee in the tea room. We have pizza. And cake. Twice. We wander around and speak to other owners. We admire - well just about anything really, just for something to do.

We notice that a few of the Cerberas are sporting huge bloody flags on phallic flagpoles (that's Cerbera owners for you) and stickers for some mini-club they obviously have between themselves, so we decide to start our own. An animated discussion ensues about the club name - we don't want to have TVR in the title because that might make people think that anybody with a TVR can join, and we wouldn't want that. We decide on cartoon characters, starting with the "Betty Rubble Appreciation Society (BRAS) but move on quickly to the "Jessica Rabbit Fan Club". We'll have a telescopic flagpole with a ginormous flag with a picture of Jessica on it, with the club motto "Roger that!" emblazoned boldly underneath. Perfect.

Jesus is that all the time it is? OK back to the tearoom.

After most people have left, we turn the cars around for group photo in front of the stately pile. But Dave moves it up to park beside us.

Back at the ranch, dinner is less busy than last night, so we get served within a reasonable time. Almost. At least we are able to join in the staff after-hours karaoke of "simply the best" - slightly delusional but fun just the same.

One last visit to the chocolate vending machine and it's off to bed.

:: Monday, October 2, 2017 ::

Breakfast - same as yesterday, but less busy. We watch a dutch-registered pancake trailer being packed up, and he leaves.

Then it's pack up, and out to the cars for the trek homewards. There is a short delay while we watch Hugh have difficulty getting his key to fit the car lock, until we give in and suggest that he tries his own car, and not mine.

So we're off - me in the lead again, satnav to the A1 and up a bit for a couple of hours, and just before we are due to stop, I spot the dutch pancake-wagon in the nearside lane. He must have been battering it... going flat out eh?

We stop in the same crap services that we stopped in last year, but my bladder endurance won't last another 20 miles until the next one. Another Costa, another splash of fuel, and it's onwards! My gear knob comes loose just as we pull out of the services...

Jim has heard on the radio that the A1 is closed at Dunbar because a lorry has overturned. We have decided that it will probably be cleared by the time we get there, and even if it isn't, a local diversion is likely to be quicker than a wider diversion from where we are now. So we head on, up a road that we know is closed. Life on the edge.

Just over the border, we are caught up by a convoy of 3 marked-up police traffic cars, and a black BMW estate that seems to be part of their group. It doesn't make any difference to us, of course, because we are always well-behaved, but this must be the most law-abiding journey up the A1 that I have ever seen - no lunatics overtaking and pushing in, nobody cutting out of junctions - people can be sensible if they try!

We stop at the garden centre at Dunbar - the road is still closed, but we'll re-appraise the situation after some cake.

The local diversion isn't that bad, so we don't lose much time, until we reach the City Bypass and the normal queues.

So, that's about 550 miles each over the weekend, no major issues (apart from a detached gear knob and a semi-detached Adrian) and a great time was had by all! I chuck the car back in the garage where it will undoubtedly languish until it's to late for me to do all the wee jobs that I meant to do - again.

:: Friday, October 6, 2017 ::

I go and buy some Loctite thread locker, and put it on the grub screws holding the gear knob on, and re-attach the gear knob to the lever. I'll save fixing the other end of the gear lever (the bit that actually selects the gears), until another day...

:: Sunday, October 22, 2017 ::

Can't remember if I mentioned it, but I noticed a few clonks coming from the transmission during that last trip, as I was pulling away from stationary, like at junctions and things. It didn't sound like a driveshaft (they tend to be worse on corners rather than on straight lines) so I thought it's either the prop shaft UJs, or backlash in the diff.

So today, we'll have a wee look, shall we?

First I turn the car around so that its arse is at the garage door. This means that (a) there's more light to see what I'm doing, and (b) there's more room to wriggle my own arse under the car's, to see what's going on.

With one wheel jacked up and supported on an axle stand, and the car in gear, I wriggle underneath and just move the lifted wheel to and fro with my foot, while I look and feel around. The prop shaft seems ok, the drive shafts feel fine, but the diff appears to be moving slightly up and down...

The diff is bolted into a cradle, and the cradle is fixed to the chassis through 3 rubber mountings. I replaced the rear one a while ago, and I don't see any movement there. The offside rubber mounting, though, has fallen to bits and the diff is moving up and down on that side like a fiddler's elbow - and it clonks when it hits the chassis...

I need a bit more height, so I lift the car onto 4 axle stands, arse up, nose lower (just enough to get the exhaust out).

Then I disconnect the front of the exhaust...

Then I support that on a block of wood, while I remove the two bolts at the silencer and the one at the rear. Exhaust off!

Then I take the two rear wheels off to get better access to the diff mountings.

Here is what it looks like - you can see that it has broken off from its mounting flange.

It should look like this, when the diff is lifted into position on a jack.

I spray half a tin of penetrating oil over the central mounting bolt, and the two bolts that (should) hold the mounting to the chassis. The big centre bolt comes out with a socket on a UJ with a long bar, no problem.

The smaller bolts are an absolute pain in the arse. They are tight, they are rusty, and they are difficult to access - but I do eventually get them out, a sixteenth of a turn at a time.

Here's the broken mounting, off the car.

And here's the chassis and diff cradle, covered in penetrating spray.

The mountings are still available, for around £38 each. I need to order one tomorrow.

You'll see in the photos that my car's chassis is in need of some tlc. Most of the bits you see have been repainted in the past, but need done again. To be honest, the whole car needs a proper restoration. I don't think I've got a full restoration in me, I'm too old for that shit.

I have had my money's worth out of this machine, many times over. I have never regretted buying it (which is more than I could say for the Cerbera at times) and I still don't. It owes me nothing. When the time comes, maybe when I don't want to drive it any more, I'll sell it or have it restored, but at the moment, everything still works, I'm enjoying driving it and fixing what needs to be done to keep it going, and I'm going to keep doing that for as long as I can.

:: Wednesday, October 25, 2017 ::

See when I said on Sunday that these mountings are still available? I lied. Those were on an old website that is no longer active.

I do find them though, on TVR's official parts supplier, who are part of a TVR Specialist company that I won't name.

I need to tell you a story here. See when I was about 6 or 7, I was in our local newsagent with my mum, who was paying for her newspaper deliveries. The owner grabbed me (long before the days of all this child protection pish) and accused me of stealing sweeties from the display. My mum made me turn out my pockets in the shop (where the other customers could see, not in the back shop where they might think he was right). Of course, me being the innocent well-brought-up individual that I am, I was proved completely innocent. My mum said "right, cancel the papers, I'm not coming back in here again" (vindictive and impulsive, my mother, thank goodness I didn't inherit any of that), and apparently I said "no, me either mister".

And I didn't. Eventually I forgot why, and I had to ask her the reason that I didn't go into that shop, and she reminded me of the story.

When I was older, and got interested in cars and stuff, I found that was the only shop in my town that sold the car magazines I wanted. So I used to get the bus 5 miles (or walk!) to the next town, where there was a bigger newsagent. I spent 30p each way on the bus, to buy a magazine that only cost 35p to start with.

So, with that principle established, back to the TVR parts supplier. Many years ago, their main company royally screwed a member of our local TVR Club. I came to the conclusion that they (or particularly the guy he was dealing with) fall into the category of "lying deceiving bastards". So they are not getting any of my money unless there is absolutely no other option.

Unfortunately, they seem to be the only company where you can now buy the original part.

However, there are polyurethane bushes available, that would fit instead of the original rubber ones. I have one holding up the rear of the diff, so maybe it's time to upgrade the other two. They are more expensive though, but see "principle" above.

Bear in mind that TVR hardly made any of these types of parts themselves - they used whatever they had lying around the factory, that they had picked up along the way. So these bushes must fit something else... Not Ford Sierra though, which is your normal first port of call...

A wee "reverse search" using the part number reveals that they were also fitted as radius arm bushes on some Lotuses (Loti?) including the Europa, and also - the Delorean! And Delorean ones are cheaper! If I had a Delorean, I would go back to 1990 when they were probably cheaper still, but as it is, I need to pay the going rate (which still saves about £15 over buying "TVR" ones!)

So I ordered those on Monday, and they arrived today. Two bits of Delorean, exactly the same size as the originals! Great Scott, Marty!

I don't have time to fit them though, got a bit of work to do. Yes, I do sometimes act responsibly. Not often, but sometimes.

:: Friday, October 27, 2017 ::

Time to fit the new bush!

I've been out and bought new nuts and bolts, washers etc, no point trying to re-use the old ones, they are rusted to hell!

It's not that difficult, when you're using new bits! Getting the nut onto the bolts in the box section is a bit fiddle though. What you do, is put a bit of masking tape over the end of your ring spanner. Then you push the nut, with the nylon bit downwards, into the masking tape, so that it's wedged into the spanner. Then you stick the washer to the nut with a dollop of grease, and manoeuvre all of that into the box section. Then you manoeuvre the bolt through the bush mounting, through the box section and into the threads on the nut. Then with a ratchet ring spanner on the top, you tighten it up a bit, but not completely.

Repeat procedure on the other bolt, still without tightening them up.

Then I jack the diff up until it just touches the chassis (but not taking the weight yet). Then get the big central bolt into the threads.

NOW you can tighten them all up, and take the jack away!

Only the other side to do now! Fortunately, the chassis on the nearside is different, and you can get a socket on a long bar onto all of the bolts, from underneath. I start up the air compressor, support the diff with the jack again, and with a ring spanner bracing the bolts from the top, I have the two mounting bolts and the central bolt out within a minute.

New mounting bolts fitted, remembering to fit the fuel filter clamp under the outer one, central bolt in place and all tightened up with the "windy gun" again.

The first one took me 3 days. The second one has taken me 10 minutes! In another 15 minutes, I have the exhaust refitted, but I can't get underneath properly to tighten up the downpipes bolts.

It's amazing how quickly you can work when (a) it's getting near dinner time and (b) you're bursting for a pee but don't want to clean up first...

So I'll finish this tomorrow.

:: Saturday, October 28, 2017 ::

First job - put the wheels back on!

Then I lower the car carefully from the 4 axle stands, and push it backwards out of the garage, so that I have space to get underneath the front.

I jack the front back up, and tighten up the downpipes connections.

Sorted!

I quick road test down the street and back confirms that there's no more clonking, and even the slight judder that I sometimes had when pulling away is gone (which I thought was the clutch - it's been in for the life of the car as far as I know!).

Happy days!