1970 Triumph 2500

[arceye]

Well, the 2.5 was the best wasn't it. PI's werent always known for reliability so the carbs may be a good option.
That said a mate of mine in the 80's had a PI and he LOVED it, he'd have married the damn thing if he could. Looked after I think they were fine so could be nice to change back.

All this talk of motorways and busy roads is nearly making me homesick, coming from Lancs and only moving North a few years ago I spent a lot of my time in a Railway van travelling anywhere from our Preston base as far as Nottingham and Lockerbie, 12 hour shifts on the Nottingham tram line, plus travelling all the way to Notts and then back crawling past Sheffield and on to Preston before a fast six hours of shut eye and back on the Mway for another shift and plenty more jobs like that to boot

Now I see a motorway about twice a year but I reckon we have some of the BEST driving roads around Just made for classic motoring and a traffic jam is any more than 3 cars at the two sets of lights in town .

Good luck with the journey and hope it goes well.

[MG Mal]

Could have bloody told me that when I was doing Wakefield, many a night out stuck in the truck on Silkwood Park...

He's not 24hr, but deffo best grub around that area.

MAl.

[mach1rob]

Well it's back, and all went well, well, apart from the guy who was supposed to deliver it trying to jump start it with the leads on the wrong terminals. 1 buggered alternator later... Thankfully I have a spare in the shed which may fit.

Traffic was lovely on the way up, no hold ups anywhere and was in Halifax for 10am after leaving just after 5.30, return trip was hampered by a broken down car in the roadworks on M62, but that was swiftly dealt with, and having plod pull out on my at J 15 on the M40 creating a rolling road block while the air ambulance took off from the accident northbound. Glad I wasn't sat in that, a good 5 miles worth of tailback going north.

It's not mint, but that's what I wanted, something I can work on a fiddle with when the mood takes me, but the engine is as sweet as, sounds lovely and runs really nice, hopefully get chance to drive it tomorrow, don't want to risk it as battery is flat so if it stalls I'm skuppered.

A few better pics, and I love the period Lucas spot and fog lamps

[arceye]

Very nice, glad all went to plan, enyoy it.

[mach1rob]

It's a bit poorly Went out for a spin after changing the alternator (got to love BL for using the same one on so many models!) all went well to start, drives really nice, then as it got up to temp it started to missfire and run like a bag of spanners, before conking out completely in town on the main roundabout. managed to limp it home eventually, and had a look, coil was extremely hot to touch. Carbs are getting fuel fine so I started to look into the ignition side of things as coil is getting much hotter than I'd like. Someone has fitted a set of electronic points, and these are designed to run on 12v, the Triumph uses a ballast resistor to run on 6v, so I think this may be the issue.

Plan is to bypass the ballast, replace the coil with a proper 12v one, replace cap and leads, and just for good measure, attempt to tune the carbs up and see how that pans out.

[arceye]

Sounds as good a plan as any, let us know how it goes, its a b*gger when you just want to get on and enjoy them and all the problems start to show up.

[mach1rob]

Well I've not had chance to do too much to the Triumph since it arrived, dark evenings and wet weekend have conspired against me, but I have managed to get a few bits done. Snapped speedo cable has been replaced, and I also swapped the rev counter and speedo over, the cable was coming right up in the middle of the trunking for the screen demist, the old one had been bent round to clear it, which is why it snapped. It now runs smoothly to the other side. I did notice while doing the cable, the column adjuster handle had sheared off, and the column could move up and down. I've located a replacement which should be here shortly, but for now a long bolt is doing the job. Few grommets need replacing through the bulkhead that have gone walkabout over the years.

New coil has been fitted to try and eradicate the cutting out (see separate thread) and carbs tuned up, runs and drives sweet apart from that. I've also located some 1/2 leather seats from a Rover 400, but I think I'm going to have to get the rears from an 800 as the 400 ones are a bit shorter.

I doubt much more than basic tinkering will take place now until the spring, but hopefully I'll get to bottom of the cutting out by New Years Day as there's the usual meet up on the seafront, and it'd be nice to have it there for that.

Few pics after a wash and polish, although camera makes it look a bit paler than it actually is.

[Aar0sc]

Didn't realise you were on her Rob! Hello again!

[mach1rob]

I get around Aaron!

[mach1rob]

Finally spent a bit of time with the old girl over the weekend. The new rotor appears to have sorted the cutting out issue, and a nice 30 mile trip through the New Forest was accomplished without issue, so I feel much happier about taking it out now.

Spent an hour today sorting the heater out, couple of pipes were off so now we have blown air to the windscreen and the eyeball vents on the dash, but the hot cold cable needs securing as it's not actually moving the valve, but that can wait until I remove the steering column to fit a new bush to the bulkhead and height adjuster bolt as I'll have much better access to the heater box with all that out the way.

Just a pity I found a large amount of water in the rear footwell though. I had put this down to the Webasto leaking as there was water on the rails inside, but I'm now wondering if it was purely condensation, as the window was open a fraction, and with the amount of wind and rain we've had recently it could have been that. Time will tell, but I may invest in an outside car cover to keep the elements out as much as possible.