Darren Groves
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Posts posted by Darren Groves
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Halogens are the obvious choice, sealed beams are hard to get and just not as good.
Next question is what type. In terms of functionality the "crystal" headlights with something like a philips extreme or osram nightbreaker bulb are very good. However, the clear lens does not look original. (but the excellent lighting more than makes up for that)
Worth adding elays for maximum effect (but not strictly necessary, halogens don't use any extra current)
Thanks Clive. Yes, I think I would like to keep the original look. Are there any Halogen lights which have an approximation of the original lens ?
I have the Crystal headlights with relays, significantly better that the standard halogen conversions. I'd rather see where I was going at night than worry about if they look original
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Darren, have you tried the alternate battery yet? I did have a bizarre fault on battery where the internal "crimping" had not been done properly, the battery would open circuit, cut out, arc across the crimp and reconnect. Eventually the arc spark ignited the battery fumes and blew the side off the battery! Hopefully this isn't as dramatic as that but it sounds like the fault is in the connection area, I think you are right to examine the earthling. Earthling straps can look heavy and robust but, are often poor and past their best.
I've had 2, one yesterday but that wasn't the right type and was a poor fit, this was on when I had the little blip today, I've now a virtually new 063 type (same as mine) temporarily fitted to see if that helps. I did clean up the main battery to body earth strap connections today, but may just replace it as they're little money.
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I had another little episode of it earlier today, but all I noticed was the radio switch off, turned it back on and no presets so it must have lost both ignition & permanent live feeds momentarily, but I was doing around 50mph at the time so I didn't notice the engine cut as I guess the break in electrics was very short.
I did take off all the connections on the solenoid, the twin spade connector on the live side that is secured by a bolt and shakeproof washer was a little loose, maybe that was an issue. Cleaned all the connections and tightened up and bypassed the fuse on the Lucas fuse box, so time will tell if any of that helps.
Darren
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Yes Darren, the fuse cap bridges or connects circuits from either side of the cap aswell as each end of the fuse,
so non fused circuits get their feed from the fbox but not via the fuse wire
awfull things when a bit aged
pete
Mine is not that old, I added it in a few years ago just as a convenient way to run power to various accessories. I don't need the glass fuses as all the circuits have blade fuses protecting them individually, so maybe I can loop a wire from one side to the other and bypass the fuse.
If it was an old Fiat or Lada I would have have leapt in and said ignition switch.
They are notorious for failing at most inappropriate times as all electrics are fed through them.
Adsrian
I did think of the ignition switch and wiggled the key as I was driving but nothing happened. I would think if this is the problem it would be more like a disconnect in the ignition fed circuit rather than a complete loss of electrics?
Thanks for the suggestions.
Darren
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Do you have one of those nasty fuse boxes with the box blades are connected as a brisge by the cap on the fuse , notoriois for dumping connctions with weak sprung blades and corrosion on the fuse cap
pere
Do you mean one of these?
Then yes, I do use that to feed many the electrical circuits....might be worth a swap for something better.
Darren
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Occasionally (though twice today) my Herald just cuts out, I look down and the ignition lights are on but I'm coasting to a stop, on most occasions the car restarts fine and I carry on. This seems to have become more frequent since I switched to EFI, though my gut feeling tells me that's just a coincidence. I had something similar when I was running Megajolt & Carbs a couple of years ago, the starter seemed sluggish afterwards on those occasions, so I added an additional earth lead from the engine to where the battery earth connected to the body, this seemed to fix it that time round.
Until a couple of weeks ago I had one of those dis-car-nect jobbies on the battery earth terminal and each time it happened the small bypass fuse blew. Thinking this might be the issues I removed it and went back to an earth lead direct to the body, but I have had the issue again today, so can't be that.
One thing that does happen every time is that I lose all the presets on the radio, which says to me that there is a complete momentary loss of electrics rather than an ECU glitch or loss of power to the ECU, Pump Or Injectors etc.
I have an alternative battery I can borrow for a while, so I will see if that helps. But before I start checking connections & wiring anyone else had something similar?
Darren
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I have always used a good quality sealant, and never had a leak.
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Ok, you win! How did you manage that?
Ben - Yes rings were gaped.
Clive - No, I didn't get the block skimmed, just checked for flatness, but that could certainly be the reason for the failure between 1&2.
This engine was troublesome from the off, partly because a well known Triumph supplier who sold me the Newman Camshaft gave me the wrong settings so it was running 5° out for some time. That aside, it run hot for a while when new then settled down, done a few compression check in it's first year as I was trying to fix what wasn't the smoothest idle (not knowing the camshaft was timed wrong) and they were all good, so the broken rings didn't happen in the first few thousand miles. Compression started to drop a couple of years ago, I noticed the crankcase pressure was high.
Richard - I have spoken to FW Thornton's before when I was trying to source some NOS pistons for the engine that's just gone in. I always use a guy called GBH Spares down here in Devon, he holds shed loads of NOS engine parts and companies like Thornton's often go to him to get there stock. The new engine has County pistons in BUT the rings were swapped with a set that GBH Spares have made as they don't trust the County ones, so even some of the traders are aware of quality issues.
I did also have the block skimmed this time and the cylinders lined so it could go back to standard pistons, and the Fast Road camshaft has gone and replaced with a MK3 Spitfire one, so hoping it'll be smoother and last a little longer....time will tell.
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Block was rebored and new pistons & rings fitted, so no lip to do any damage.
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Decided to strip down my 'old' engine, when I say old its probably not done 10k miles but has never been a 'happy' engine. In the last couple of years compression has been down and its suffered from excessive crankcase pressure, hence the reason for rebuilding my original engine. I never did like the fast road camshaft I put in it either.
I took the head off and there were signs that the gasket had started to give way between cylinders 1 & 2, it did this a year ago. But when I took the pistons out, the top ring on each of them was broken, these were new County pistons and rings. Now I have read that County rings aren't great, but to have 4 break and the same ring on each piston seems odd.
I guess it doesn't really matter why as the new engine is now in, but curious as to why it would happen.
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I'm in the silicone camp, my brakes are the best they've ever been and no spongy pedal. I suspect some blame a spongy pedal on the fluid when the problem lies elsewhere.
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OK, so I have won the award for numpty of the week. Pete, you need to get a stock of new T-Shirts for me I think.
Oil leak wasn't from the pressure relief valve, but from the 4 missing oil gallery blanking setscrews I forgot to fit, put those in and oil pressure light goes out immediately.....what a tw*t!
On a slightly different issue, I started the engine and it was running nicely and had been for 5 minutes or so, then a strange noise and was only running on 3 cylinders. Identified it was No.3, popped the rocker cover off to find one of the rockers had jumped off the pushrod. I had set the valve clearance and the lock nut was tight so hadn't come loose, anyone had this before?
Darren
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Could there be a problem with the face on the block
pete
It's been freshly painted so maybe an uneven finish. Will clean off to bare metal and try again, but will use the valve from the engine that's just come out.
Darren
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You have got to take the valve off and inspect, or swap for another.
Thanks for the reply Clive.
My original post was done very quickly as I had to go off somewhere, so was going to add that I have another valve from the engine that I have just taken out, so a known good one, that I was going to try. Just wondered if a faulty valve would give way and dump what was a fair bit of oil or could there be anything else that might cause this?
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So new, rebuilt engine in and it starts, oil pressure light stays on, so switch off quickly. Get out of the car to find it's dumped a load of oil which looks to have come from the pressure relief valve. The valve was definitely done up tight, so must have been under some pressure for it to leak past the copper washer.
What do we think the problem is?
Darren
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Not exactly as there are a few minor differences, but looks close enough to be worth a punt. Mine was from a '94 Micra so fits within the date range of the one you've linked to.
Cheers
Darren
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The Micra fans spin the correct way, it's the VW fan that some have used which spins the wrong way but there's no point reversing it as the fins are angled for one direction only. Both fans need modification of the heater box.
I have used a VW fan in the past and now use a Micra one, you can read about it here: http://triumphherald1360.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/heater-fanblower.html
Darren
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Thanks all.
Will go for the 1200 heater set-up and blank off the extra end.
Next question....Whenever I refill the coolant, I always have to raise the front end as high as possible to get it into the heater the rad sits lower when on the level. The process would be easier if the top heater hose had some kind of filler. Anyone tried doing this?
Darren
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Thanks Pete & Colin.
Ok, so if I plumb as per 1200 that does away with the pipe I don't want, but the under manifold water pipe on a 13/60 has a t-piece were the 1200 one doesn't.
So options would be to blank off one of the T's and have no circulation when the heater valve is closed, or 'T' into the head to heater valve hose and create a route for the water.
I wonder why the circulation when the heater valve was closed was added to the later cars?
Cheers
Darren
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This is the only image I could find on Google, but does seem to show a feed from the cylinder head and return on the pipe to the rear of the water pump hosing. No heater valve or bypass, but that should be simple enough to work out.
Darren
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Thanks Pete.
I was trying to work out how the early Herald's were plumbed as they didnt have the heated inlet manifold and one of the heater valve hoses go direct to the head.
I was hoping that if I could find a way to lose this hose I could have the 2 temp senders (1 for the gauge, 1 for the EFI) side by side in the water pump housing, would just be neater.
Darren
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So now the Herald is running EFI, the water pipe that used to run through the inlet manifold to warm it is now not needed. To keep things circulating I just used rubber hose to maintain the circuit (see pic).
So what are my options to get rid of this pipe completely? If I just removed it and replaced the t-piece by the heater valve with a straight connector, that would stop circulation I guess? So what if I used the blanking plug which is at the back of the cylinder head to join into this t-piece by the heater valve, would that keep the flow correct to the heater?
Darren
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Are there any Stag owners out there that could possibly take a photo of how the exhaust mounts to the back of the gearbox. I didn't take it off and the owner/friend can't remember how it went.
Apologies for the poor quality photo.
Thanks
Darren
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The modified fuel tank is in. I had a minor worry at one point that the spare wheel wouldn't fit but it does with room to spare.
The new in-tank pump is much quieter than the previous one, the filter being in the boot is neater also, so all-in-all very happy with this set-up now.
Speedo Calibration
in General
Posted
So back in September last year I decided to send off my Speedo for calibration (it's a Spit 1500 speedo in a Herald) as I was getting fed up of trying to do the mental arithmetic every time I approached a different speed limit as it was over-reading by around 20%. It came back, I fitted it but the odometer and trip moved on 1 mile and then stopped, so it went straight back and was fixed with no bother and returned to me once again. When I first refitted it I drove around with the Sat Nav on for a couple of trips and the readings were pretty much spot on, all good I thought.
Over the period in-between then and now the needle started to get a bit erratic at higher speeds and no longer seemed right. Out for a run yesterday and I needed the Sat Nav to get to where we were going so could check again and apart from the waggy needle, it was back to over-reading by around 20%.
Now I have no idea how a speedo is calibrated, but is it possible for it to revert back to it's original settings?
I have checked the 3 measurements I gave to the company to calibrate it first time round and they all came out the same.
They've said to send it back and they'll check it, but just thought it a little odd....
Darren