Triumph Sports Cars

Mike, sent you a PM.

Ed

Mike, Looks like a little late night thrashing could get you to Carlisle Kitcar Import show in a couple weeks, lol. We'll be there Friday to Sunday. Mike

Mike,
I was at Carlisle with this same TR7 in about 1996. I will have to think about heading down there again.

Well, I started it up and managed to drive it 0.7 miles this weekend. The brakes barely work at this point, so I just went around the block to see how everything else worked.

Other than brake headaches, the startup went smoothly and I am very happy with everything. The Magnaflow XL mufflers sound perfect to me. They aren't very loud, but sound healthy. If anyone wants a somewhat quiet car, I'd recommend these mufflers.

The weather should be nice for the next few days, so I'll keep plugging away at it and will plan to get a video of it running in the next few days.

On the brake issue, I continually get lots of air out of the front calipers. I literally bled a gallon of fluid through them last night. I've tried vacuum bleeding, vacuum and pumping together, and pumping by itself. Tonight, I plan to pull the pads out, let the pistons extend, and then push fluid back up into the master cylinder by sqeezing the pistons back in.

I was able to improve the brakes considerably last night. I did the piston extension and retraction process a few times. It empties about half of the fluid reservoir, and then I pushed everything back into the reservoir. I then did some bleeding by pushing the pedal very very slowly (my 9 year old daughter actually did the pedal work, and she enjoyed helping).

It probably still has a bit of air, but it feels safe to drive now. I'll bleed it again tonight if I can get it on the road for a few miles.

The only other issue I have is that the 10si alternator seems to have died. It charged for a few minutes and then quit. I'll check the wiring and the ground, and replace it if necessary. I customized the bolt pattern on it, so I'd have to swap the front housing onto the a one.

Mike, Did you bench bleed the master first?

Hey Mike,
If the wiring checks out OK.
Check the belt tension. It sounds dumb but we fix lots of burnt out alternators just by tightening the belt.
Then you can quickly test the alternator by full fielding it.
This is done through a small "D" shaped hole in the rear housing.
Just insert a small screwdriver into the "D" hole and ground the tab inside.
If the alt starts to charge then all that's wrong is the regulator.
A rebuild kit is available for these alternators.
They are cheap @ around $20.00 and rebuilding is ridiculously easy.

Cheers
Fred

" Posted by: mgb260
Date: May 06, 2014 05:22PM
Mike, Did you bench bleed the master first?"


No, I did not. I am guessing I should have. Will I get there without taking it off and bench bleeding it now?

"Date: May 06, 2014 08:46PM
If the wiring checks out OK.
Check the belt tension. It sounds dumb but we fix lots of burnt out alternators just by tightening the belt.
Then you can quickly test the alternator by full fielding it.
This is done through a small "D" shaped hole in the rear housing.
Just insert a small screwdriver into the "D" hole and ground the tab inside.
If the alt starts to charge then all that's wrong is the regulator.
A rebuild kit is available for these alternators.
They are cheap @ around $20.00 and rebuilding is ridiculously easy.

Cheers
Fred"

Fred,
Thanks. I'll try snugging up the belt. It does charge a little bit regardless of whether the field and sense connections are hooked up. It looks like it's spinning fine, but

I can swap it for a rebuilt one at AdvanceAuto for about $22. My front cover is customized to fit the Ford bracketry, so I'll have to swap covers if I get a different alternator. I should probably just put a regulator in the one I have since I have to take it apart anyway.

I have heard of that full field test, but also heard it can burn things up. I'll try it. If the alternator burns up, then I'll get another one. Hopefully that hole isn't blocked by my cylinder head.

Mike, You can do the bench bleeding on the car. Just loosen the brake line fitting slightly one line at a time. Have container or stack of rags underneath. Have a helper push the pedal down to the floor and hold it. Tighten fitting and do the same on the other one. You may have to do it 2 or 3 times. Don't let the master cylinder get low. Then do normal bleeding, starting with farthest from master cylinder. Right rear, then left rear, then passenger front, then driver front normally.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2014 05:21PM by mgb260.

[youtu.be]

Not sure if this link will work, but I'll try.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2014 01:27PM by Addicted.

[youtu.be]

This isn't a great video, but the sound is more representative.

Mike, Car looks and sounds great!

Here are some pictures of how the underside turned out. You will see I added a 3/16 plate and large washer to the center of my k-member. The thin k-member was really beat up from years of jack use. The plate gives a nice solid surface to lift under, and the washer is sized to fit a bottle jack in the center or floor jack around the outside. I usually use a bottle jack on my lift, and it's nice having a secure spot to locate it.

Above the axel, the tail pipes are about 1.5" from my fuel tank. I decided to put some insulation on them. In my usual fashion, I have two different styles on of insulation to see which one works better. Driver side has aluminum faced fiberglass, and the passenger side has header wrap. So far, both are working just fine.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2019 08:48AM by Addicted.

What a great build...Congrats Mike...

Thanks. My wife is probably wondering why this was done in 6 months, but the bathroom isn't done after several years. Oh well.

Quote:

My wife is probably wondering why this was done in 6 months, but the bathroom isn't done after several years.

Do you have a good answer, one that she will accept? If so, please share it, we all could use it.

Hah, not really. My kids are convinced I ordered an entire car via UPS and FedEx boxes.



I've driven the car about 10 miles now. Once the bugs are worked out and I quit worrying about it, it is going to be a very fun car.

The alternator seems to be doing ok now. I snugged up the belt, so maybe that was part of the problem. It still takes quite a while to get going (voltage goes up really slowly after startup), but it does get there eventually.

The brakes are going to be fine. The passenger side front caliper still had some air coming out on my last bleeding attempt. The other three are finally flowing with no bubbles. Even as they are now, the brakes feel incredible compared to the stock TR7 setup.

Looks great Mike!

Question - How loud are those pipes?

On my V8 conversion, I did a two into one, with resonator and muffler. Sounds great with the top down, but is very loud in the cab with the top up at 60mph (a deep drone). I'm thinking I might look for something to quiet everything down.

(My build: [forum.britishv8.org] )

M.

Martin,
I've looked at your thread quite a bit over the past several months. Your car looks great.

Mine turned out quieter than I expected and I would say it's worth trying that muffler type. (Magnaflow XL). I used part number 13265, which was the biggest one I could fit. The bigger the muffler volume, the quieter it is (for the same style muffler). I linked a couple youtube videos earlier in this thread, if you didn't notice them.

I need to make a decision on rear end gears, so I was paying attention to noise at different cruise speeds. I consider it to be very quiet on the road up to a certain RPM (probably 2200-2400). My tach isn't working, so I can't give a good answer on that. I should receive my tach signal adapter today, so it should be working soon.

I had a monza exhaust when I was running the stock 2.0 engine, and it seemed quite a bit louder and almost annoying on the road compared to my new setup.

There are quite a few things I need to dial in and fine tune, but the exhaust isn't one of them. I had planned on adding additional mufflers in the middle of the car if I needed them, but that's one thing I won't need to do.