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Wedge My new toy: 1981 TR-8

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Get the carb(s) dialed in and the reduction in co should bring the hc down a lot... This is carbed? or injected? I know 6's but just passing familiarity with the wedges..

Do know a bit about smog reduction though...
 
So I got to spend some quality time under the hood and under the car today.

And I have to say that in one way I feel really bad, in another, good. Someone at some point over the last 30 years *really* put a lot of time, energy and love into this car. I'm guessing it was not the previous two owners. So, I'm glad because I get the opportunity to drive and love this car now and eventually pass it on to someone else, I'm sad because I'll have to undo a lot of this person's work.

Pulled the plugs, they were sooty and smelled of gasoline. So it's either too much fuel, too little spark or both. Plug wires are 7mm and look quite old. Distributor car's pretty carbonized inside and rotor is worn. Turns out the distributor is a Mallory unit (2564301) that runs dual points. The point's "look" ok, but I was afraid of removing them without having replacements handy. I at least ran some emery paper across them. The coil was a Mallory coil of the same vintage. I'm going to not bother messing with it and just buy a new one.

Passenger side valve cover has a 1 and 1/8" diameter hole for a breather tube in it. My guess is that it's for 1" diameter breather tubes and the rubber insert is gone. Existing tube has had duct tape wrapped around it to keep it in place (gooey mess). IT then has a rubber line that leads up into the air filter. I don't exactly know why it's configured like this, but the breather is choked and pushing oil fumes into the air filter and clogging it. Carburetor is a Holley 390 CFM Four Barrel Street (#0-8007).

Underneath the car I saw power steering fluid. I'll have to keep an eye on that. The car has custom made exhaust headers which go directly into single chamber straight mufflers. The Catalytic converters and stock manifolds are not with the car. Oil pan's been seriously banged up and patched over the years. At some point a steel plate was added to the bottom of the car to preotect the pan.

So, it looks like I'll have to take Todd up on his Catalytic converters. Anyone have exhaust manifolds?

Jody
 
Followup question. What are the good independent parts suppliers? I generally find they have better prices (e.g. spitbits) and are much friendlier. Otherwise I default to getting a vicky brit catalog and buying what I Can from them.

Jody
 
co is raw fuel.. You reading show that it is waaaay rich.. get that corrected first and it will help considerably with hydrocarbons, which is unburnt fuel after the combustion cycle.

Have you checked here?

https://www.thewedgeshop.com/
 
Noticed something odd on the car last night.

I had the TR8 up on jackstands all the way around. Started the car while doing some testing. With the transmission in neutral the driver's rear tire was spinning under engine power.

This doesn't seem right. Is it? Or is there likely something in the Transmission that's off? I have noted that it's a bit chattery in 3rd gear, and there's additional vibrational noise that dissipates when I pull up on the shifter.

Jody
 
Don't worry about the wheel turning with the transmission in neutral. There is always some drag of the mainshaft on the input shaft bearings when in neutral. I'm sure you could stop the wheel with your hand.
Scott in CA
 
My local FLAPS only had Hypoid 75W-90 Mobil 1 Synthetic. I want to drain/refill the tranmission and the manual explicitly call for Hypoid 75W (and it was quite anal retentive about it, which generally means slightly wrong = bad experience).

I've had issue in other LBCs with synthetics and with mixing/changing Hypoids. Is this an ok replacement? Or is there a better recommendation?

Jody
 
If the shifter moves up and down, you will need to change out the shifter bushings. Make sure you have plenty of swear words handy when you do that job. Your gonna need them!!!
 
One of my transmissions likes Redline D4ATF; the other one doesn't like ATF or Redline synthetic 75-90 it seems to like Penzoil synchromesh transmission fluid. So I guess it depends.
 
tr8todd said:
If the shifter moves up and down, you will need to change out the shifter bushings. Make sure you have plenty of swear words handy when you do that job. Your gonna need them!!!
Click to expand...

I've got plenty of those words. The hard part is making sure there are no children in proximity to repeat them. :smile:

Oh, and the PO stated to use 91 octane (US) in the vehicle, and that sounded odd to me. Was readin the manual, and the spec is for 91 octane (UK), which is 87 octane (US).

87 makes a lot more sense, this is correct?

Jody
 
Jody -

For your transmission, the generally accepted stuff to use is Pennzoil Synchromesh fluid. Drain what you have and fill 'er up with it. Did mine when I restored it, and so far, still perfect.

If you're running stock cam, etc., 87 octane should be fine.

Mickey
 
Mickey,

Thanks for the info. I'll put that in the transmission instead.

I've cleaned up/refreshed the ignition system now. Without any other modifications it's idling rather well. New coil/cap/rotor/wires. Wanted to do points but couldn't source the correct ones locally.

Also checked fuel pump pressure it checks out at ~5.5 - 6.

Next is the carb. I'm little leery of diving into it. I've been working on Carters, Strombergs and SUs so long that I look at the holley and my brain just gos..... "too... many.... barrels...." From my reading it seems I can adjust the idle speed and mixture, but to really lean it out I need to get in and change jets and the like.

Jody
 
Jody -

This guy has the info you need. Lots to read, but print it out and spend some time with it. Tuning and jetting are toward the end of the article, and it helps to read it all.

It's not as difficult as it seems, once you get your feet wet. (Just like everything else!)

Mickey
 
Got into the carb tonight. Pulled it apart. The jets were labeled 512, I bought new jets %51, which were correct for the carb. Everything went back together fairly easily.

Had SWMBO out to turn the key form me while I watched. A moment later we had old faithful in the middle of the engine compartment because I forgot to preset the needles. A bunch of scrambling, mopping up gasoline and then all was ok.

Got the needles set right, float's all set, everything looks good. She started up and ran (hadn't set the idle yet). Plenty of vroom vroom, then noticed the accelerator pump was leaking.

Carb back off, flipped it to check out the accellerator pump and I *&@*$#($ stripped one of the screws. 9pm on a saturday night, I somehow don't think I'll get getting any more parts for it this weekend.

grumble, grumble, grumble.
 
Jody, when I did my trans I flushed it a couple of times with paint thinner or sumpin. Been a couple of years so I can't remember. If you haven't done it yet and are interested let me know and I'll see if I can locate the info.
 
I'd love the info on the trans flush. Haven't done it yet as I've been sorting emissions related malarky.

Bit the bullet and bought a new carb for the car as the front fuel bowl is unobtanium in a reasonable amount of time and I WANT to drive.

Had a wonderful ~100 mile drive last night doing loops around the valley freeways. Figured the car would be good for emissions this morning. Hit the emissions place, saw I was well back in line so I turned the car off.

Line moved, went to start car, recieved... "rawr, rawr, rawr, raaawwr....." Immediately realized I didn't have my cell phone on me (this is now the second time this sort of thing has happened at Emissions. Suprisingly, both times were a Triumph) to call the wife.

Poking around under the hood did nothing, opened the boot to check the battery. Negative cable was "scald the cat" hot. Got the car pushed into the paring with a little assistance, then borrowed a battery jumper from the emissions shop next door. Car came right to life. Considering the alternator's brand new and the battery just tested out ok my bet is that the connection at ground on the chassis is all goobered up. Got the car home, put it in the garage, stomped into the house with an apparently disgusted look on my face.

I'll break out the dremel later, clean the connections and put the charger on the battery. Perhaps I'll try emissions again tonight, perhaps tomorrow.

Jody
 
I was on my way to my local british car club a few weeks ago and stopped at safeway to get a sandwich. came back out, no nothin'. no lamps, nothin'. after waiting three hours for a bed load tow (second truck)I got home and found the negative cable corroded where it bolts into the trunk. and it was running so well.
 
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