Restoration
of a TR-250 Part
Three
by
Steave Freeman
The
car status--- I currently have put all the suspension together.
I used up-rated springs, new ball joints, nylatron and polyurethane
bushings and all new hardware. I
had the driveshaft balance checked with the installation of the new U-joints
and found it wouldn’t balance. The
shop had to cut off the end, center it and weld it on straight.
I also had new U-joints installed in the half shafts.
The Roadster Factory (TRF) put new bearings in the half shafts.
The
differential is installed with a new mounting kit.
The half shafts are put together using Valvoline synthetic grease, new
rubber seals and stainless steel safety wire. The rear lever shocks have been
drained and service and bled with new oil.
New
races where installed in the front hubs and new bearings and grease seals.
It had been a long time since I took this area apart, so I didn’t
know the felt on the grease seals goes away from the bearings.
They don’t work the other way. The
hubs are on with the new rotors and I am ready to install the brake calipers.
New Carrera adjustable shocks are in place set at the #2 setting.
The
engine has been taken to the machine shop with all the pieces.
Work will start on it in a couple of weeks.
The body is being worked, so I have to get busy before it is ready to
mount on the frame. I still have
to run all the new brake lines and the fuel line.
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This
will be a little different than the other parts written so far.
With summer coming and a few repairs needed by some of the club
members, I am going to list some of the resources I have used.
I don’t know if these are the best, but these are some of the ones I
used and have had good results.
Chrome
plating is difficult to find locally. Custom
Plating, 3030 Alta Ridge Way, Snellville, Ga. 30078, (770) 736-1118, is a
local source. Charles Jones has
35 years plus in the business and does pretty good work without a minimum.
They do polishing, straightening, aluminum, stainless, etc.
I
couldn’t find a good (to my standards) damper for my engine.
Mine had suffered a lot of degradation of the material between the
halves. I knew I didn’t want it
to come apart at the wrong time so I found out about the Damper Dudes, 5509
Cedar Rd. #2, Redding, Ca. 96001. I called Mike who told me of their complete disassembly and
rebuild process. They did a fine
job on mine for just $89.00 and shipping.
Where
and what camshaft? There are a
lot of opinions out there. I used
Crane Cams Inc., 530 Fentress Blvd., Daytona Beach, Fl. 32114. Bob Stratman was the contact person who checks your core and
advises what can be done. They
have a ten-day turnaround policy, so you don’t have to wait long.
My engine is being built now, so I will have to let you know how it
works.
When
I disassembled the engine and looked at the rocker arm, I knew there was work
to be done. For this I found a
place on the Internet who specializes in rebuilding rocker arms.
They do a lot Triumphs. They
told me to not even clean the rocker arm, they would do it all, just bag it
and send it. What I got back is wonderful.
New shaft, end plugs and other hardware and all for $98 and shipping.
Rocker Arm Specialists, 19841 Hirsch Court, Anderson, Ca. 96007 (530)
378-1075
Machining
for camshaft bearings. This was a
tough one. This is a very
exacting machining operation. The
shop needs a line-bore machine, which is not normally found in an automotive
machine shop. There may be a lot
of places out there that can do this job, but me finding one was hard.
At our club meeting, David Hurst pointed me to a good place.
These are very nice people who are familiar with this job and have made
some special tooling to assist in doing it correctly.
The place I used was Specialty Service & Supply, Inc., 3395 Fox
St., Suite 105C, Duluth, Ga. 30096, (770)
623-9890. Hugh and John Cobb are really nice to deal with.
They are in North Duluth off of Buford Hwy.
Machine
shop Sun Belt Performance is doing the engine.
They support several race teams and have an excellent reputation.
So far they have not started my engine, but they have done some
Triumphs before and I’m sure will do a good job.
They do have a dynamometer in house, so they can run your engine.
I’ll write more after we see how the car runs.
730 N. Price Road, Sugar Hill, Ga. 30518 (770) 932-0160
Tyson
at Roswell Auto Cool, 826 Ellis St., Roswell, Ga. (770) 587-3331, really did
the trick to my radiator. He took
out the three-row original core and put in a four-row high efficiency core.
This about doubles the cooling ability of the radiator.
I also had him put in a boss for a Honda thermal fan switch.
My Perma Cool electric fan, from Summit Racing Equipment, will now come
on at 203 degrees and off at 186 degrees.
With a 180-degree thermostat this should be about right.
I
got my wheels through K Speed America, (800) 494-0708.
I bought the Panasport 16-inch diameter, 7-inch wide wheels with the
zero offsets. I wanted to buy
locally, but found the prices too high and the expertise of the local
distributor lacking. I called K
Speed and they knew all about Triumphs.
Lighting,
the older I get the more of it I want. Locally
we have a business, PLR Group that sells Cibie lighting products.
Better yet he discounts and then gives club members and additional
discounts. I got a set of Cibie headlights that have a parking light
function. There is a small bulb
in the bottom of the headlight that you wire into your parking lights.
When the parking lights are turned on, the headlights come on a very
low setting. The guy to speak to
is Jackson at (404) 943-0810. He
is located in Suwanee, Ga.
Red
line tires. While at the VTR
Regional in Florida, I saw a TR-6 with 215/65/15 Goodyear Tires with a nice
red line like the old red lines. A
company in Conway, South Carolina named Diamond Back Classics does them.
I looked up their add in the Hemmings and called to find out how they
do them. It is a proprietary
process. I don’t know how they
do it, but they look nice. I am
going to order a set of Dunlop D60-A2, 215/60/16 tires for mine.
They will cost me a little more, but then I get the red lines.
Call John White 1-(888) 922-1642
At
the start I wrote a little about the cutting off and re-welding of the
driveshaft. My shaft didn’t
have any damage, it was made off center.
I suspect all Triumphs are not done too well.
If you are going to replace your U-joints, just take your stuff to a
shop and have them do it. The
driveshaft shops have good U-joints and they press them out and in every day.
This is not the easiest job at home and you can save yourself a lot of
grief. I think it was $7 for
labor on each U-joint and their U-joints were competitively priced.
I used Doraville Drive Lines and Springs Inc., 6910 Buford Hwy,
Doraville, Ga. (770) 441-2501
Nisonger Automotive, 570 Mamaroneck Ave., Mamaroneck,
New York, 10543 (914) 381-1952.
These guys repair your old gages.
They were the distributor in the old days.
They will also advise you on things you can do.
I
get a lot of my hardware from Threads of the South Inc, 1076 King Industrial
Drive, Marietta, Ga. (770) 425-3787. They
seem to have a pretty wide range of nuts, bolts, screws, snaps, etc.
I
try to support the local shops, especially the ones who advertise in the club
paper. They are a good source of
knowledge and we need to keep them in business. Make sure you tell them you are a club member.
Some of them give discounts if you let them know.
If you know of businesses locally who can do triumph work, let me know.
I could have saved a lot of time if someone had given me a list.
I am currently looking for a good wheel alignment shop to do both ends
of my car when it is done.
A
final note: If you have stripped out or are missing some of the ¼ X 28 rivet
nuts where the back of your top to bolts to the body, call me.
I had all mine dissolve in the acid bath. No one seemed to have them,
so when I found a source, I bought a few and the special tool to install them.
Part One
Part Two
Part Four
Part
Five
