First blog update for some time then.
So what have I been up to? Stoneleigh spares day at the beginning of March was the traditional season opener, as always Amanda and I were putting on the Triumph 2000 Register stand with a little help from our friends. The lovely mk1 pi below belonging to Norfolk Pete was only just released from the workshop of Pete johnson and Yorkshire Triumphs that morning. It was on our stand two years ago at Stoneleigh in 'barn find' condition. It's a long way from that now since spending a lot of time having a full restoration at the Rawcliffe based Triumph specialists.
By the Sunday morning show start we had 12 mk1s, both saloons and estates on the stand, with lots of people looking athe cars and chatting with both old friends and new.
It was typically quite cold but it is March. Darren Stone's excellent two tone 2000 was one of 3 two tone cars on the stand and attracted a lot of attention.
Also debuting were two new designs of pull up banners depicting just mk1s (in honour of the 50th anniversary this year)
Also attracting lots of attention was Andy Borris's valencia mk1 with motive force from Bavaria. There has been no surgery to the body in transplanting the 24valve all alloy 2.5 litre six and E30 5 speed box into the car, just modifications to the engine and gearbox subframes. There isn't much spare room under the bonnet now though. Dad and I were lucky enough to take the car out for a drive. WOW doesn't really cover it, but what Andy has achieved is fantastic and a far better transplant than the default Rover V8 so commonly found in big saloon engine bays. Well done Andy.
Back at home I had the monday after Stoneleigh booked off, so I got to unpack the trailer and sort the garage and cars out. Shuffling the cars about I found the PI was a little reluctant in the starting department. When I went to put it back in the garage it wouldn't even turn over! Once I had checked a few things and decided it was the starter motor at fault I had to wait for Amnada to get home and help me tow start the pi so I could get it back on the drive. I had a spare starter motor in stock so jacked FRanK up nice and high to give room to extract the failed one.
Once out I noticed a difference between this motor and the spare I had. A quick chat with Dave Harvey confirmed the compatability of the spare as the photo below shows the original is physically bigger, it doesn't show how much heavier it is though!
After bolting the 'new' starter in the car it was still not turning. I gave up then as it was very cold and returned to it a couple of days later. I found that the motor was just reluctant to awake from it's slumber. After bridging the solenoid out half a dozen times the starter turned as it should and once the small connections were re-instated the starter was business as usual. In fact the replacement 2M100 starter seems much more energetic than the original M418G that it replaced, something that Dave Harvey had told me would be the case. And so to the new vehicle.
Last year I had an ankle op which was not as successful as was hoped, so I was back under the scalpel last week for a much bigger procedure. This time I have a half leg cast which is non load bearing for the next 3 months (possibly) so even using crutches is much harder than before. This has left me with having to obtain new wheels for the foreseeable future and being its my right ankle even an auto was out of the question.
At least it's easy to park .
And the offending limb as it rests now. I'm not really enjoying the forced convalescense so far.
