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TR-3A Retirement Project!

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TS66693

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Bought it in '79, did a little undercarriage work, then LIFE came along and it's been in my garage ever since. Well, now I'm retired, and I just purchased a boxcar of parts from TRF, and am cleaning out my garage so I can get at the little beauty (ugly duckling more like it :smile:... Lots of work to do, and I'm sure that I will be on this Forum a LOT, asking all you professional rebuilders out there how to do this and/or that! This is my second TR. Owned a '58 TR-3A when I was going to college... wish I had that car back now, of course! One new thing I bought for the engine is a new set of 87mm pistons and sleeves, which should give it a little more power, but not much. Figured as long as I was rebuilding the engine, I might as well go all out :smile:.
So, stand by everyone... here goes!
 
Welcome to the asylum! I'm recently retired myself, which hopefully means I'll have time to take care of all the little things that my TR3 lacks (like an interior, top, wipers, etc) :smile:

We love photos here, so be sure to take lots. They also come in handy later, when you're wondering "What did that look like before I took it apart".
 
Thanks for the welcome message! Yes, I agree with you about taking lots and lots of pictures, with captions :smile: I use a lot of Zip Loc baggies as well, labeled profusely with a Black Sharpie!
 
Good luck with the car. By the way, be sure to measure the ring gap on the pistons. The last batch I bought was a little large. The group here can help you with anything about the car. A great bunch of people.
Jerry
 
Welcome to BCF!

By the way, we don't just have "professional rebuilders" here. We also have old retired guys who just barely know how to troubleshoot burned out light bulbs. Like me!

When I retired, my first project was my 1959 TR3. Sure learned a lot while bringing it back to life. And most of what I learned ... I learned right here on BCF.

Post your car questions over in our Triumph forum and we'll reply with (mostly) good answers!
Good to have you with us.
Tom
 
NutmegCT said:
By the way, we don't just have "professional rebuilders" here. We also have old retired guys who just barely know how to troubleshoot burned out light bulbs. Like me!
Click to expand...
Indeed, we have all sorts on BCF. I'm neither professional nor a rebuilder; just a shade tree mechanic who has been wrenching and driving a series of TR3 cars for going-on 40 years.

Good tip on the ring gaps. I was told that they are deliberately supplied slightly oversize, so you can match them to your liners/bores. Doesn't make a lot of sense when you buy them as a set, but they apparently sell the same rings separately. The oversize liners give more boost than you'd think, because they bump the compression ratio up as well as the displacement.

Also make sure to check the liner protrusion on both sides. I've had two engines in a row now where the top of the cylinder block is not perfectly square and the measurement comes out different depending on which side you measure it on. Had a terrible time with leaking head gaskets until I figured that one out.

You might also want to look through the collection at https://drive.google.com/folderview...yMy00ZDhkLTliOWEtOWU1OWRhNDZhYmRl&usp=sharing
Might be one or two helpful documents that you don't already have. I recommend downloading the files to your hard drive; but I do occasionally make updates. Also, please let me know if you find anything that is illegible. Some of the scans are not so good, and I'm trying to (slowly) update them.
 
Randall - that Google Drive reference set is a goldmine. Thanks for all your work in putting that together and making it available. I've added a link to it via my own Drive folder.

TS66693 - Randall (TR3driver) is a *great* resource to all of us.

Randall, by the way, did you ever get the pdf I sent you about my coast to coast trip last year?

Tom
 
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