:: Diary - October 2024 ::
:: Wednesday, 2 October 2024 ::
I've been reading (a lot!) about refurbishing Triumph Spitfire / GT6 differentials, and it seems that a bit of backlash isn't something to worry
about, as long as it's not whining or grumbling. Mine is also leaking though, and I do want to try to sort that.
I have a look at where the oil might be leaking from. This shows the diff from the rear offside wheelarch.
First job is to check the breather vent - the yellow arrow points to it, at the top of the diff, just in front of the right hand rear mounting bush.
It's a wee "jiggle pin" that can get clogged up with muck etc - then pressure build up in the diff as the oil warms up, and pushes it out through
the seals. The vent on my diff is fine though.
The nose of the diff is dry, so it's not the pinion seal - which is a relief because replacing that means a full rebuild to reset preload etc. I
thought the oil was coming from the seal around the rear cover, but a proper inspection shows oil spread half-way up the back half of the diff,
which suggests that it could be the seals where the driveshaft flanges come out of the casing.
I clean all the oil off the bottom of the diff, and I'll have another look in a few miles to check where the leak(s) start from, before the oil gets
spread around too much.
If it's the driveshaft seals, then I might be able to replace them without taking the diff out of the car. If it's the seal between the front and
rear halves of the casing, the diff has to come out. It apparently comes out sideways, through one of the wheelarches, after you have dismantled
one half of the rear suspension. It also comes out upwards if you take the rear window out and cut a hole in the floor, which sounds a bit more
drastic.
:: Tuesday, 8 October 2024 ::
Right - a bit more research into Triumph Spitfire / GT6 differentials has left things more confused than ever. I've seen comments from a few people
about having their diff refurbished to remove backlash, and when they get it back, it whines... some have been replaced under warranty and the
replacement has been been accepted because it still whines, but not as bad as the first attempt.
So my decision is - if it isn't broke, don't fix it.
It is, however, leaking oil, so yesterday I decided to take the car for a wee 10-minute drive - enough to show where any leak is, but not far enough
to spread any oil all over the diff again.
The main leak seems to be here - the offside driveshaft. It's not leaking from around the driveshaft though, it's leaking from behind the flange
holding it into the diff casing.
The biggest leak, however, is from the rear seal in the tailshaft of the gearbox. It's leaking down onto a hotter part of the exhaust (in front of
the silencer) where the fumes then come upwards through the gear lever gaiter when you stop. That's a separate problem though, and we'll get to that!
First job is to remove the exhaust - not necessary to access the driveshafts but it will be for the gearbox seal. It looks tiny compared to the
amount of metal in the exhaust on the S! Removing it is easy - two U-clamps and some bolts holding straps to the chassis.
Then it's on to removing the inner end of the drive shaft - it's a big UJ, no allen keys and torx bolts here, so I just work my way round with two
9/16 spanners (or 17mm if you're all oh-look-at-me la-di-da continental) and swing it up out of the way.
Then there are 4 wee 3/8 allen bots holding the mounting plate in place. Look at how it's fixed on, because it only goes back one way. Then you can
tap the carrier and bearing out of the diff casing. Make sure you don't drop it in all the shit on the garage floor. If you don't have shit on the
garage floor, you're not doing this right.
Then I clean up the contact surfaces on the carrier and the diff casing, and smear on some instant gasket, making sure I dont get any on the bearing
itself.
Then, as they say in the manuals, you put it all back together again.
On to the gearbox seal. I need to remove the propshaft. I make sure that its position is marked on the UJ flange and the front of the pinion flange,
so that I can put it back in exactly the same place to make sure it's balance, then undo the four propshaft bolts at the pinion, with those 9/16
spanners I had a minute ago, but which now seem to have disappeared for a fag break...
Once the bolts are off, it needs a gentle tap with a hammer, then I put a drain pan under the back of the geaarbox to catch any drips, then the
propshaft lifts up and backwards over the diff, enough to disengage it from the splines in the gearbox tailshaft. Then it comes out down and
forwards. There aren't any drips...
Which leaves us with this - an oil seal ready to be prised out and replaced - except I don't have a replacement so I get that ordered - Ford Type 3
4-speed box, rear oil seal. I'll leave the old seal in until I get the new one and make sure that it's exactly the same.
So that's it for now - diff leak hopefully sealed, gearbox leak under repair, exhaust off for cleaning off the old stinking oil that's stuck to it.
:: Friday, 11 October 2024 ::
New gearbox seal delivered today, so back under the car! There are various methods of removing the old seal - you can batter an old screwdriver into
it and lever it out. Or you can screw a couple of self-tappers in, and lever those out.
I've got one of these - I can't remember when I bought it, but as far as I can remember, the last time I used it was to take the crankshaft front
oil seal out of a Ford 2.9 engine in a Granada. I sold that Granada in 1995, so it's at least 30 years old! Stick the hooky bit in, pull the handle
bit, seal pops out. Dawdle.
When I say "as far as I can remember", you have to understand that might not necessarily be right. You're reading the ramblings of a man who bought
memory foam insoles for hs shoes so that when I walk into a room, I'll remember why I went there... That's why this webiste serves as:
a. a "service record" of what's been done;
b. advice (for what it's worth) on how to do things; and
c. a reminder for me, of how I did this shit last time, so that I don't make the same mistakes again. In theory.
Anyway, on to fitting the new seal. I find that a deep 30mm socket is exactly the right diameter to fit inside the tailshaft housing, without
fouling against the end of the output shaft itself. I put the seal against the housing, and drift it in with a bit of 3lb percussion.
Then get the propshaft, lift the back end on top of the diff, and lubricate the outside of the front splined shaft and slide it on the splines,
into the seal.
I lower the propshaft forwards and into position, and replace the four bolts, being careful to line up the marks on the two flanges so that it goes
back exactly where it was.
Then it's a simple matter of refitting the exhaust, with a bit of exhaust paste in the joints. "Simple" doesn't really do justice to the amount of
pushing, twisting and hammer-battering that's involved to get it all back into place, and get the various fittings tightened up, but eventually,
it's all back as it was (but slightly higher to give slightly more clearance).
See in the propshaft bolts photo above? If you look at the underside of the diff, just where the big paint chip has been knocked off, you can see the
letters "HC" embossed into the casing. Checking that against an online database suggests that "HC" means that it's a 3.89 ratio diff, originally
meant for a Triumph Vitesse with overdrive. The TVR spec sheet shows that TVR chose to fit it to a Vixen with no overdrive, so no wonder the engine
revs are high in 4th gear...
Coincidentally, I got a letter today inviting me in for a hearing test. I had one about 2 years ago and they said that I'm losing certain frequencies
that make it difficult to hear speech above background noise, when I'm in a large group of friends. Fortunately, I don't have a large group of
friends so it doesn't bother me. What I have noticed, though, is that if I'm in a restaurant of pub with a noisy group at a nearby table, I can't
hear what's beside me. If it's a group of pissed shrieking women, it's feckin' impossible. Babies are ok - I can tune out those noisy wee feckers,
I've had 3 kids of my own. Maybe I should ask them for hearing aids that noise-cancel the sound of a 1600 crossflow engine with virtually no exhaust
silencing at 3,500 revs? That could be a plan!
:: Sunday, 20 October 2024 ::
I haven't even looked at the car for a week. Life has just been busy with other stuff, and you have to prioritise!
Yesterday, though, I decided to check the oil leaks from the diff and the back of the gearbox, so I took the car out for a wee 20-minute run while
it's dry. Somebody nearly killed me.
Just around the corner from the house, the main road has a 50mph limit for about a mile and a half to a big roundabout. Along the way, there are
two wee junctions with slip roads. The main road is a single carriageway, though, so you can't move out to let somebody out of the slip roads.
However, a lot of people on these slip roads seem to think that they can just bomb out into moving traffic at 50mph, regardless of who's already
there. I'm following another car along the main road. 2 cars come up the slip road. I slow a bit to let the first one out in front of me. I'm
right alongside the second car's driver's door. He just pushes out anyway, and I still don't know how I missed him, aprt from a wee instinctive
flick of the steering wheel to the right...
Last week, at the other junction, I was motoring along in the day car, and somebody pulled the same stunt on another car coming in the other
direction, forcing him on to the wrong side of the road, and an imminent head-on into 2 tonnes of Range Rover doing 50 miles per hour. I dodged up
the slip road on my left side to let him whistle past...
Arseholes, there's more and more of them, without a feckin' clue...
On a brighter note, half mile further on, I have to give way at the roundabout to a gold and white American car. This is it (after I searched for
it later). It's a 1958 Chevy Bel Air, which I haven't seen before.
I saw it again later in the day, when I was in the Range Rover, so it must live fairly locally now.
Anyway, back to the Vixen - it seems to be driving a lot better and smoother, although there's still the occasional clunk from the back when you
move off or change gear.
So, on to today! I lift the Vixen and check underneath. There's now no sign of a leak from the differential, excepy maybe a wee seep from the gasket
between the front and back halves of the case, but nothing like it was before and no oil dripping on to the exhaust. The back of the gearbox also
seems to be much better, although there is a very slight drip, but again, nothing like it was before. I think I'll settle for that as a success!
I also go round and check that all of the bolts in the suspension bushes are tight. Some of them aren't as tight as I would like...
:: Jim Tully ::
My friend Jim Tully passed away on 21 October. He was diagnosed with cancer around 4 years ago, and has met that challenge with his normal positive
attitude, but sadly he was told a month or so ago that it was no longer treatable. I have written on these pages that we were doing something, or
not doing something else, "for reasons that I won't go into". Well, this was the reason.
We have shared so many TVR trips and adventures over the past 20 years, too many to write about here. Every trip has been better for Jim's sense of
humour and mischief.
Our first trip "abroad" was to TVR S-Club in Coventry in 2007, on a weekend when TV weather reports warned of severe flooding, with several roads
blocked, and police advising people to make essential journeys only etc. So naturally, after about half-a-second's careful consideration, we three,
the original S-Series caballeros, decided to set off anyway, and had an absolutely brilliant weekend.
That was followed by a trip to TVR S-Club at Newark in 2008, with a bigger Scottish contingent. We all had t-shirts especially printed and everything!
Dave's daughter and my son also came along. Memorable for (a) a gazebo blowing end-over-end up the showfield, and (b) winding up Mike about washing
cars outside the hotel at 7.30am.
2 years later we went to S-Club in Telford, and went down to visit Ironbridge for our customary ice cream
This trip was also memorable for the water pistol fight where Jim was aiming for the face and Dave aimed for the trousers, so Jim had to spend an
hour lying face-down so that he didn't look like he had wet himself...
practice for the drive home from another event ...
Sometimes we studied geneaology.
Sometimes we just wore silly hats.
This is at the TVR Car Club event at Burghley House - can't remember the year.
We had a wee 4-man Scotland tour in June, where we spent one night in swinging Campbelltown (on the Mull of Kintyre).
And this is from our very last trip to England, when we went to a TVR event near Blackpool in July...
We've had some great times, we've shared stories of our lives and experiences, some hilariously funny, some unbelievably sad. Anybody else listening
to our conversations would think that we couldn't stand each other, such is the level of banter and piss-taking. But when it came down to the wire,
we were always there to help each other.
We've travelled many thousands of miles together, and we've always managed to depart and arrive at the right place at the same time.
This last journey, you have to make on your own Jim. But we know that as usual, you'll be waiting for us just up the road, just round the next corner,
and we'll all catch up then.
Until then, all our thoughts are with Debbie, Anna and Bobby, whose loss is inestimably greater than ours.
I have a look at where the oil might be leaking from. This shows the diff from the rear offside wheelarch.
