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Thought it might be fun to share a few photos from an exhausting upgrade these last few weeks. I hated the exhaust on my 3, it was a stainless item installed by the PO but a really crude thing particularly at the back where it came out at an angle to the back of the car and was just generally agricultural looking, particularly as the rest of those cars are so flowing and elegant on their lines. I had discovered that the original cast manifold was also broken when I was flushing the cooling system. It obviously needed some attention so I decided to make and fit an upgrade from front to back, its fabricated from components in stainless, good fun and not too costly, other than the tubular manifold, as we know they are expensive. Couple of pics there as well of the heat shield which along with the wrapping is doing a really good job in keeping underbonnet temperatures down. Long trip coming up but so far all seems good, no vibrations or fouling and temperatures nice and low around the front and underfoot so to speak. I used pie cuts to get bends and offsets, again bought in from a component supplier, I've never seen those before, very useful product. Broken Original Manifold. New Tubular Manifold Rear to front looking thru the ope in the chassis with cardboard template in position, sprayed it thru the ope to mark it for transferring into wood to keep the exhaust in position as a starting point. Front to rear with famous Kellogs template im position at ope in the chassis! Wood template/support transferred from the Kellogs template Cutout a guesstimated angle to come through the chassis. Support the exhaust pipe in its route through the chassis and ensure no fouling there where its difficult to do something about if its wrong. Fabricated heat shield to protect underside of the carbs, the alternator and steering gear. 1700129040_fabricatedheatshield.mp4 Close up of the heat shield at the alternator. Emerges from the front of the chassis ope, need for first offset using the pie cuts. Uncleaned joint tacked and welded at the first box. Temporaty hangers for fabrication purposes between the first and second box. R New back box and tip on temporary hangers. Heat shield in position complete with test fitted shield on 2 & 3 branches. Finished new tip, right angle with the back of the car and nice rolled edge (bought in). 1st test sounding! 1109257395_completedsoundtest.mp4 The wooden templates/temporary supports. The original stainless exhaust. Obviously not really "original!. 917729164_Originalattherear.mp4

I want to replace the fixed perspex side screen windows on my 3A as one has gone opaque and the other is cracked. Is this a job a novice can do?

I have a long (rigid) steering box/column with control head and stator tube surplus to requirements. I suspect the best use for this would be for converting a car from LHD to RHD so I would like to offer the full package. I believe the drop arm and trunnion bracket are different and probably some of the bracketry inside the car. What other parts would be required (maybe someone has a complete list of parts for the conversion)?

Good afternoon! I'm trying to dismantle my Lucas "bomb" type starter motor M4185 V164. The motor turns fine and pushes the bendix out but fails to turn the engine. I think that the coupling, (sleeve and rubber drive item#57 in the Moss catalogue) must have delaminated and I need to replace it. I've never seen a starter like this before and I can't dismantle it. I've removed the bendix gear OK but I can't get any further. My "Autobooks" manual refers to a pin and at nut that I don't seem to have. I've attached some pictures with where I've got to. I cannot find how to remove the collar (arrowed). I wonder if it has a circlip inside the collar but I can't actually see one nor see how to get at it if it is there! Once dismantled I'd appreciate any tips on the rebuild please. Any suggestions most welcome. Many thanks Regards Andrew King Swanage TR3a TS75982L

Hello, bit of an ignorant question i'm afraid. will tr4a wire wheels ( currently with tyres 165 HR 15), fit a tr3a (currently with very old wires and tyres 185/70 VR 15)

One of the side screen fixed windows has gone opalescent. Are new ones easy to fit? I can't quite see how it can be done.

Is it necessary to have the special tool to remove the rear hub on the Girling back axle to replace the oil seal, or is there a way round it.

Has any one fit a Lucas SFB300 Hazard Warning Kit to a 3A? I have an explanation of which colour fixes to what, but wonder which is the nearest/easiest place to connect, for example green/red, green/white. Thanks in advance.

Hi I have a TR2 with an uprated all synchro gearbox with uprated overdrive currently running 20w/50 oil. That was changed last spring since when I've only done about 600 miles The box has been trouble free until this year when it has become increasingly difficult to change gear when the gearbox is hot. There are no problems when the engine and box are cold but once up to temperature it’s becoming a nuisance I’ve changed the clutch fluid (which had been overlooked) which has improved the gear change but the problem has persisted. Because it improved, it might point to clutch issues but the engagement point on the pedal travel doesn’t seem to change with temperature and there are no signs of fluid loss (hard to tell round the slave cylinder because of the ever present oil drips but the fluid level doesn’t drop). The clutch is a TR6 cover and plate on a TR4A aluminium flywheel Next thoughts are to change the oil for say Millers EP 80w90 Any ideas?

After 3 years in bits I am rebuilding my 3A. I spent all yesterday afternoon trying to fit the vent flap. I found trying to piece it all together challenging but still cannot fathom how the sping goes. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi. My first question on the forum. Having got used to (on all modern cars i.e. anything later than say 1975 ?) having an internal rear view mirror which one can flip down to reduce dazzle from headlamps on following vehicles. I now find, when driving the TR at night, I am having to move the mirror down to avoid dazzle - but then cannont see anything rearwards. Has anyone come up with a solution to this while maintaining the right look for the mirror. Obviously one could fit a "modern" mirror but most would look quite wrong. Bob.

Welcome to Bodge City Trickle from the soldered seam where the extension header meets the top tank. 2 choices after the K Seal did not fix it. Remove the apron and resolder. Or. Scrape clean locally and apply some goop. Which goop to use? Went with JB Weld. Refilled with fresh water and antifreeze, run up to temp, bled system at thermostat housing and heater, left for system to pressurise and the electric fan to cut in. No leaks spotted yet. Gave the drain tap too much welly and have broken the lever off it. It is the block one so have replaced the tap with a stainless blanking plug. Had to buy 5 so have a couple spare if any one is stuck. The Moss mild steel one is £6.00 I paid half that. Found a lot of white corrosion on the aluminium parts. Car radiator cooling system runs blue antifreeze. 50/50 mix with rain water. Brushed clean and refitted.

Having tried out a number of different offerings to replace the 6 / 21 W bulb used as stop /tail (TR3a,3b) or indicator / tail (TR2,3) None of them actually outshone the original bulbs. The problem being that the position of the LEDS was not in the correct place within the plastic (or glass for early TR2's) covers. There is a Fresnel lens built into both these covers, & the original bulb filaments are placed at the focus of these lenses to give a good intensity when viewed from behind. So, I decided to make my own version. many types of LED chip were tried, mostly white in colour as I could not find any red ones which were bright enough, The basic design places 3 X white LED chips (or 4 X red ones) at the focus of the lens, & they worked well enough, comparison tests between standard bulb & my units showing a definite improvement. The final breakthrough was following a meeting with fellow Forumite Dave Lacey, who was interested in my project, & sent me some high power red led's which his company used for a different purpose. The improvement these offered led me to design & have made a number of printed circuit boards to take these led's & supporting components. These boards are assembled, then mounted, & potted into the standard bulb base. I have now installed my TR, a friends TR, both with the Lucas L549 lamps, & my Hillman Aerominx which has the L741 lamp unit (same as early TR2's). They can be configured for 12V or 6V working, also -ve or +ve earth. I have now made up a total of 8 "bulbs", with another 12 assembled pcb's but not yet configured, or mounted to bases. If anyone would like to convert to these "bulbs" I can supply them ready to go, but as they are hand assembled numbers are limited, & they may take a few days to complete. Cost would be £10 per bulb. Note. if using on a TR2 or TR3 with no separate amber rear indicators then a different flasher unit will be required as with any LED conversion, these are readily available from a number of suppliers, I used one from Gil at "Better car lighting". Imaged attached shown comparison with standard bulbs, LED on left, bulb on right Bob.

A thread elsewhere on Forum reminded me of how often folks use the wrong size spanner . . . . . and regret it. Herewith a link which I have mentioned in years gone by, updated and expanded since last I mentioned it . . . . . . A most useful table of relative sizes of jaws, vast quantities of useful advice re spanner handling, and more follow-up links for even more specialist data than you could ever need. http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/psc/spanner_jaw.html Cheers Alec

Hi just curious if anyone has swapped a tr7 5 speed into a tr3? If so any insights would be appreciated regarding the clutch, pressure plate, pinion etc. I a not sure if anyone sells the adaptor for the bellhousing end or for the gearbox end to weld onto the existing tr3 bellhousing. Thanks in adavance.

There is probably no limit to the odd and inexplicable things done to our cars by POs over the past 50 odd years. My example and plea for help, is as follows. A rear spring on my 3A has gone 'flat' causing the front offside to drop by an inch or so. Removal of old and replacement with a new pair is a pretty straightforward exercise. Unless of course a PO has welded the head of the pin supporting the front of each spring to the chassis (see photo below). As a result, the pin cannot be prised away from the spring and out of the tube in the chassis. Neither can the spring be prised off the pin because the body is in the way. Now, there may have been a good reason for this (happy to hear from you long term owners) but a solution is needed. My mechanic and I have come up with a couple of options (that we are going to think about until the winter!). Worse case, this may involve grinding off the weld / head of the pin, cutting through the (sound) chassis from below and heating up the tube in order to free the pin (there's not a lot of room for manoeuvre down there). Of course, if there is as much Waxoyl in the chassis frame as on it, I believe that the chances of a spectacular blaze and one less TR on the road are pretty high. So, has anyone had to deal with this problem? There's bound to be someone... Many thanks! Miles

Is there an easy way ? As its raining again (why did I take the hard top off !) thought I would have a go at inserting my LED dash bulbs today. Feeling behind the dash all I can feel is wires and holding brackets, no obvious bulb holders ? Internet pics don't seem to show anything? Do you have to take the small gauges apart to change bulbs ? - eeek ? I am assuming that for the central cluster I can undo the wing nuts and pull the panel fwd for access (although I recall there was little spare wire on any gauges to allow much movement). Is it possible to replace the speedo and taco bulbs in situ? Good news, my dodgy fuel gauge is now working - the needle now flickers to the beat as my radio plays !!!!! ps, if earthing my fog/spot switch near the dash, does it matter what I earth to - dash panel, retaining brackets, or take the earth wires through into the engine bay ? ps, on a pull switch how do I know which is feed and which is earth ?? Thanks as always Happy Easter Eat Chocolate pps - my speedo doesnt have the bit that pokes out of the bottom to reset the trip counter - are these available or am I stick with the clear pipe ?

Hi, Mentioned here a couple of weeks ago that my distributor seized up. Was finally able to get the shaft out of the bronze bushing, whilst doing so a number of little bonze pieces fell out. It appears that the top 1/2" of the bushing totally came to pieces. Don't know why this happened but lack of lubrication ( my bad) might be the reason. Yves

I am disassembling the engine on my '58 TR3A and am pondering replacement of the crankshaft and camshaft sprockets. What is the criteria for inspection of the sprockets to determine re-use vs. replacement? Thanks in advance for your time. Steve

We are at an interesting point with the TR2 engine build. Conrods are MaxPeeding fitted with ARP 2000 bolts The supplied spec says use 45 ft lbs torque and ARP thread lube. This suggests it gives 0.005”- 0.006” bolt stretch Have checked torque wrench accuracy and it is fine. Torqued the bolts and we are getting only 0.003”-0.004” stretch. Should the torque be increased with hope of getting the greater stretch or left as recommended? I have read Bob’s actions with these rods and bolts in his excellent rebuild thread and he found an angular torque did not provide the torque recommendation. Thanks for any advice Peter W PS. Photos are for principal of how the measurement is done. Not the measurements finally observed.

Questions have been asked from Australia about the car in the pictures below. It's being described as a fibre glass bodied TR3, that was towed to race tracks by a TR6. It seems to have a UK Q-reg, which may mean that it's of unknown age, or it's a kit car of some description. I'm aware that there are kit car copies of the TR3 and TR3a being made. If anyone can shed any light about this car or its history, I'll pass it back to the interested party in Australia. Thanks David

Hi All, Not sure what side is up or down on the distributor clamp. Starting to think that this might have been a factor in my seized up distributor. Yves

Hi Can anyone help me understand the water flow around the 4 pot (3a with a heater) I found this video that helps interested in the flow temp and rate ( hot /fast ie nothing technical) to the heater from the back of the block, tap fully open. Through the heater (temp drop fan on fan off?) and returning via stainless pipe to the water pump (bypass part?) is the water pushed out of the head or sucked from the pump ? the heater seems to produce warm air on to left knee when the blower is on. ( but only recently learnt that the air intake flap doesn’t feed the heater !!) is this heater flow part of the bypass flow as in the video thus heats up first? is the engine flow top of rad to head to block front to back or top to bottom across the engine. as you can see I need advice this is helping me do my homework for another project in another thread. Thank you H

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIUMPH-TR4-RUN-ON-NORMAL-95-UNLEADED-PETROL-INTANK-EASY-TO-FIT-AND-INSTALL-/272109108010?ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:MY:3160 "THE FORMULA POWER FUEL CATALYST This will allow any engine designed to run on leaded petrol to run safely on normal pump unleaded 95 octane fuel. The fuel catalyst has the desired effect of raising the octane lubricating the engine and burning at a slightly lower burn temperature. There is no need to use a liquid additive or to retard the ignition timing or to fit hardened valve seats The fuel catalyst is a tin amalgam and follows very closely to the original Royal Air Force receipe which was developed to combat poor quality and low octane fuel. This product is not unique to us, there are a few companies producing a similar product but we hope you will be impressed with our honesty about this product. It simply is placed into the petrol tank of any car or motor cycle and then only 95 unleaded fuel needs to be used. Lead was put into petrol in 1936 to stop the KNOCK this product was developed in 1941 for the Royal Air Force. HOW LONG DOES IT LAST? Some companies claim unbelievable mileage but you cannot claim this as cars and motor cycles differ in the amount of fuel they consume. We therefore state that our product will be good for 100,000 miles. We give a 6000 mile test period, a full refund if you are not satisfied and a £1,000,000 product liability insurance underwritten at Lloyds. ONE FINAL POINT IF YOU LEAVE YOUR CAR OR MOTOR CYCLE FOR MONTHS ON END WITHOUT USING IT THE FORMULA POWER FUEL CATALYST WILL KEEP THE FUEL FRESH AND STOP IT BECOMING STALE. MADE IN BRITAIN MADE IN BRITAIN MADE IN BRITAIN"

I'm painting a set of TR2/3 steel wheels at the moment, size 4J x 15 as per the original standard. During the prep work I have noticed the centre hub section of two of my the wheels are positioned at approximately 7 or 8mm inset on the rim compared to the others. The wheels all carry the same stampings and part number except for one minor detail, on the front face in between the wheel nuts some have an additional letter '2' stamped on them. The additional stamping is consistent with the centre of the wheel being inset or not. I now realise I have 2 pairs: one pair the hub is inset by the 8mm, the other pair is not. This has the effect of offsetting the rim (tyre) by this amount and I don't feel too happy to mix these on the same axle. Does anyone know if this is a TR2 -TR3 build difference?..... and what are the thoughts on mixing on the axle ? ( I can obviously only carry one wheel type as a spare). Thanks Bob