Triumph Sports Cars

Hey Jim,

It might be cheaper to get your existing rad re-cored with a thicker core. Have them weld on a 22mm threaded thermostatic switch bung and you are all done.

Aside for the threaded bung (which I didn't do), I had mine redone for a bit over a $100.

M.

Good idea. I'll check with my local radiator shop after the switch comes in.

Jim

I think the real problem is that the TR-7 is an alliterated anagram. Whatever that means. No doubt that is what's causing me all of this trouble in the first place.

Jim

How about TR-7 seat diaphragms Martin? Do you have a good source for those by any chance?

Jim

"the real problem is that the TR-7 is an alliterated anagram"

Huh?

To quote wikipedia....

"alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words or phrases"
"anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letter of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase."

So you are perhaps saying that with the TR7, BL was trying to be slightly different while repeating all of the mistakes of old. Yes? :)



For seat diaphrams, try these: [trf.zeni.net]

M.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2012 07:20PM by bsa_m21.

I'll have to defer to Tim on that question, though I do think it makes a great theory. Love the dog shot btw. I should be hearing from trf soon with delivery info. Figured I'd fix the seat while waiting on the temp switch, glue down some carpet, little things like that.

Jim

Hi Jim. So you didnt get it after all. Wired and weird use the same letters but in a different order. And since they both start with the same letter ,thats alliteration. As to all the crazy wiring run abouts and round abouts, only in England they say . Tim

Should have known roundabouts would be in there somewhere. Well the switch came in today. Very nice piece, and a shame to cut the pins off it to fit the new ones really. Next, finding a bung I can turn into an adapter fitting.

Jim

I decided to buy a tap instead of trying to find a fitting, found a package deal on ebay for 20 bucks including shipping for four large metric taps in sizes I didn't have so that was a bargain. While waiting I've had time to think about how I'm going to do this. I have a vent line from behind the thermostat over to the surge tank and it makes sense to me to put the temp switch in that line. Just need a chunk of aluminum that the switch will screw into and fit it with a couple of small hose barbs. Then find a handy spot and run the hoses. The flow from the vent line will be continuous at all times as it bypasses the top half of the radiator to the tank and then to the water pump inlet (dual pass radiator) so I won't have to be concerned with steam pockets and it bypasses the thermostat too so even if the thermostat should stick closed it ought to be operational. Only downside is a lump floating about on the intake manifold but I'm sure I'll be able to strap it down somewhere.

Jim

Jim, will you be putting Megasquirt on this car?

No David, I don't think we'll be keeping it that long. I bought it as a surprise birthday present for Edith and she doesn't appreciate surprises. So, although she claims to like the car, it will be leaving in favor of the vehicle of her choice. In the meantime I've been fixing it up a bit and using it for errands. Dan and I may bring it to Texas if we don't take his TR-4, (the A/C will be nice) but once my car is back on the road it'll go back in the barn until E wants to do something with it. I'd still like to replace the door panels but aside from that it's fine.

It's actually a pretty nice little car, but if I was going to EFI I think I'd look for a newer Buick V6 to put in it and get the advantages of more power and better economy, along with all the EFI bits already there. Maybe get the tranny (4L60E I think) as a package deal with a low mileage Gen-III 3800. That would make a sweet car.

Jim

Here's the piece for fitting the switch:



The 5/16" smooth barb goes into the manifold in the hole tapped for the vent line behind the thermostat, then the push-on fitting goes in place, leaving a 5/16" hose to go to the surge tank. Flow will be directly onto the end of the switch for good response. The housing is made from cast aluminum and is very light in weight, it will be strapped to the fuel inlet to steady it against vibrations.

Now I just need to determine which wires switch at the upper and lower temps and I can finish the control wiring. Should be out driving it tomorrow.

Jim

The black and blue connect at a temperature below boiling. It is marked 92* 87* / 105* 100* so I'm guessing it has to go to about 230F* to switch the second side. Maybe boiling straight antifreeze...

Had no straight antifreeze so I had to use 50/50 mix. At first it wasn't enough but as the water boiled off and the temp climbed the white wire switched.

So now the question: Does SAAB comply with the standard automotive scheme of black = ground, or do they go with the European industrial convention where blue = ground? (Or was that brown? I never can remember.)

Really it doesn't matter that much as long as the low temp switch doesn't fail, but if it does I'd like the high temp one to be connected to the right lead.

Jim

Seems to work, time will tell how well. The first photo shows the switch location, the second is the fan relay box. Since I found that the vacuum advance that had fallen off the carb and so had one vacuum cap there will be some tuning to do.





Jim

Jim,

For the three wire SAAB switch:

- The blue wire is for low temperature operation
- The white wire is the high temp operation
- The black wire is the common.

Martin

Thanks Martin, that's excellent! (Especially since that's the way I wired it and won't have to change anything :-)
I got it out running errands today with the A/C on and only got slightly above half scale one time so that is promising. Looks like I may need to come up with a more permanent mount for the fan, it may just do the trick. More testing should tell, especially high speed with the A/C. Still have doubts about that, but I do have a much healthier fan if I need it (and if I can fit it in there).

I'm now trying to track down a misfire, which is irregular and apparently in the HEI (Buick V6). The timing light shows some spark scatter and irregular firing so I replaced the coil which seemed to help a little. And it seems all the lights have decided to go on strike so that will keep me busy for a bit. Typical British misconnects there I suspect.

Jim

You are welcome Jim.

I used two fans from a Disco wreck. Made a bracket to mount them to, in front of the rad (no AC on this buggy. Work great.



Re: And it seems all the lights have decided to go on strike so that will keep me busy for a bit.

While you are at it, check and lubricate both the main light switch and the hazard switch on the front console. The wonderful Brits wired all kinds of things through the hazard switch and often it is a key cause of failure for turn signals, door lights, etc. And, be VERY careful playing with the column mounted combo turn signals, horn, hi low switch. There are plastic bits in there that get REALLY brittle and break if even slightly abused. Another wonderful piece of British engineering. You can buy replacements on ebay and most of the regular suppliers, for anything from $40 - $200 depending on the seller. Don't bother buying a used one. They are as bad as what you already have. :)

M.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/2012 07:51PM by bsa_m21.

All the lights but the two front side markers simply came back. Go figure. Well, except the high beams. So I've been trying to tune up the engine with qualified success, and here's something that I suspect fits the weird wiring category. When I remove the vacuum hose from the distributor the engine runs fairly smooth and I get a steady strobe flash from the timing light. When I plug it back in, the timing light goes out completely and the idle gets very rough like it's hitting on 3 or 4 cylinders. Honest Injun (PIC) that's exactly what it does! What gives? Another infiltration of the dastardly, nefarious, and satanic Lucas influence? (at least it doesn't squirt wiper fluid out of the plug boots)

OK, well there IS an electrical component connected to the vacuum can. The pickup coil, And that is the only remaining component in the HEI that hasn't been changed. Guess I'll head over to Advance.

Jim

Sounds like the reluctor is out of phase with the cap and rotor. So it trys to fire between cyls.
The same thing happens if the green and white wires are reversed.

Fred, yer killin me. Green? white? GAH!
MAYBE there's a green wire and a white wire, the ones on there just look... well, OLD. Have to see what I get with the new one tomorrow evening. I even found a test, but the heck with that! I'm not putting the old one back in anyway. Don't think I'll need to worry, the tabs are different sizes.

Obviously it was in the car too long and got infused with Lucas smoke which was incompatible with the GM parts. I understand the popularity of the HEI now though, the only connections it has to the Lucas system are the power (Ign) wire and the tach lead so it's pretty well isolated and self contained. No Lucas wires to the coil, no Lucas coil, and it even uses Chinese plug wires which are reasonably compatible. Plus, John does a pretty good job of separating them by providing an intermediate wiring harness. The problem is, since this was an old conversion the seals in the harness went bad and the smoke leaked through, causing Lucas-like symptoms in the GM unit, Every piece in there was corrupted, even the GM distributor harness. And it was so obvious what was going on once I realized the intermittent nature of the failure, if I'd only realized it sooner. I am just SO thankful it didn't get to the stage of having the windshield wiper fluid leaking out of the plug wires. I've heard that is almost impossible to cure.

Jim