TR2/3/3A TR3 Tune Up

[Member 10617]

Is there a reasonable schedule for tune ups for the TR3? Some have suggested once a year, before "driving season."

If so, what should be included? I'm thinking preventive maintenance here. Points and plugs, yes, but also condenser? What about checking and adjusting valves, etc?

I'm not including checking all the fluid levels as this needs to be done periodically.

The manuals are very poor on photos for changing the points (there's a small market here for a well-illustrated, clearly written maintenance manual). Is there some good, clear source of information out there, especially for checking and/or replacing points?

 

[TR3driver]

Being somewhat lazy (Ok, a lot lazy), I tend to leave all the ignition stuff until I notice the engine isn't running as well. That seems to work out to about 10-12,000 miles, which agrees pretty well with the schedule in the book. Whether that is once a year or not depends on how much you drive in a year.

These days, it seems silly to me to replace the points without replacing the condenser; if I'm going to open it up I'd rather do it all. But back when a new condenser was a major expenditure for me, I'd leave it in there until there was a noticeable problem, like the metal transferred between the points or the engine didn't run.

PS, the Haynes manual has what seems to me to be a very clear, blow by blow, with pictures, account of how to replace the points. Are you looking for more than that?

PPS, "driving season" around here is only 6 months long, but fortunately it happens twice a year :laugh:

 

[Member 10617]

Thanks Randall. I, too, have heard that replacing the condenser when the points and plugs are chaged is a good idea.

I'm using the Haynes manual, but the photos in my book are very faint and unclear. The instructions are excellent, but I can't easily match them to the illustrations.

If I do a tune up once a year, before "driving season," that would be every 4000 miles for me. Virginia requres cars with antique plates to be driven no more than 4000 miles a year.

 

[Geo Hahn]

Before a long trip I usally check the point gap as I have found that this sometimes decreases in day-to-day use. Possibly because I do not get the little screw tight enough or maybe the dingus that rubs the cam wears down. I'll also pull the plugs then just to have a quick check of mixture, etc.

I check the valves about once a year though since I got hardened seats a couple of years back there isn't much to do there.

As part of frequent routine checks I wipe around the mixture nuts on the bottom of the carbs and the line fittings on the fuel pump with a blue paper towel. That type of towel (like at gas stations for windscreen cleaning) will reveal even the slightest leak -- lets me take care of it before the garage starts to stink of gas or worse.

...Some have suggested once a year, before "driving season."

And some have asked: "Driving season? Is that a golf term?".

 

[Member 10617]

Hi, George. As I remember it from my teenage years in Tucson, all year in Tucson is "driving season." Greetings to you and your crew!

Checking for leaks in those areas sounds like a good thing to do.

Speaking of "stinking of gas," the plug on my gas tank has been leaking for some time, despite attempts to tighten it. I had a shop work on it, but the leak continued. So yesterday I installed a new plug and fiber washer (from Moss). Before I did, however, I brushed a little non-hardening gasket sealer on the plug and the washer. Problem fixed. It looked to me that the old washer was not a fiber washer but some other material (rubber?). It deteriorated over time and leaked.

I'd still like to find a well-illustrated manual or instructions on how to perform a tune-up on the Triumph. Do you know of any website that has this?

 

[Geo Hahn]

I suppose it is all in the manuals but perhaps piece-meal. What you do in the absence of problems is a matter of personal choice. The sequence I use is (more or less) something like this though one may only do some of the items:

Set the points gap, replacing if necessary (do this first as it will affect timing)

Set the timing (static)

Remove the air cleaners, start the engine

Sync the carbs (since engine does not have to be warmed up for this)

Now that the engine is hot, set the mixture

Replace the air cleaners

Drive out

Pull over & adjust the timing as needed (vernier knob) to address pinking/pinging

Drive back

Examine the plugs to confirm the mixture is good

While the plugs are out check/adjust the valves (easier to turn over engine)

While the plug wires are loose check each with an ohmeter

All this assumes that things are in basically fine fettle and carb oil, coolant, etc are in order.

For a really thorough going over I like to have the garage TV on during the Olympics. Now that they are every other year this is pretty handy. Pick a long event that does not require close attention to follow, e.g. Cross Country Skiing or the Marathon.

 

[Don Elliott]

There is a soft cover handbook (8.5 by 11") entitled "Tune up your TR Sportscar" by S. Russell Hawe. It is 53 pages long and has large clear drawings and diagrams.

Published in 1960 by Sports Car Manuals Co.
Box 215, Springfield, VA

 

[Member 10617]

George and Don,

Many, many thanks. I think you've given me a good start.

Happy Thanksgiving.

 

[TomMull]

For what it’s worth (not much), here’s what we did at the shop where I worked as a grease monkey for a brief time when these cars were new. There were at least two kinds of tune-ups. A minor tun-up, recommend every 10, 000 miles or so, consisted of points, condenser, rotor and timing. The plugs were removed and cleaned with a little snadblaster made (I think) by AC just for that purpose. A major tune up, recommended after 30,000 or so (or whenever the service manager could talk the customer into it) included the above plus cap, wires, new plugs, a valve adjustment, idle speed and mixture adjustments if needed. Dashpot oil was checked with both if the car had them as well as fluids in general.
An oil change was almost always done at the same time but that was a separate entity, as was any carburetor synchronizing.
Personally, though, I kept a point file in the glove of my own car box and kept them going until there was nothing left to file. I could use the little spark plug sandblaster for free too.
Tom

 

[TR3driver]

I'm using the Haynes manual, but the photos in my book are very faint and unclear. The instructions are excellent, but I can't easily match them to the illustrations.

Yeah, they aren't real good in my copy either (been so long since I've used it, I had to go look). Maybe this will help ?
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B2H2NJt...iZTUx&hl=en

Note that the number at the lower left of each illustration is supposed to be the number of the text paragraph that the illustration goes with. However, it looks like the editor made a mistake with two of them, so I took the liberty of changing the numbers.

 

[TR3driver]

Before a long trip I usally check the point gap as I have found that this sometimes decreases in day-to-day use. Possibly because I do not get the little screw tight enough or maybe the dingus that rubs the cam wears down.

Or maybe you don't lubricate the point cam?

 

[Geo Hahn]

Or maybe you don't lubricate the point cam?

Shoot, they used to give you a little red capsule (looked like a spy's suicide pill) to lube that thing when you did points. I think those capsules went the way of the good Cracker Jack toys.

Likely the first time this happened it was a lack of lube, I now use a dab of assembly lube on there.

 

[TR3driver]

Learned about that one the hard way, many years ago. Did a fresh tune-up on Dad's car, wiped the cam clean but forgot to lube it. Don't remember where I was going, but I sure remember having the point gap close up until the engine wouldn't idle. Had to keep my foot on the gas, even at stop signs & lights, all the way home.

I found one of those red capsules in a forgotten box of parts once, but the grease was all dried up so I threw it away. Wish I hadn't.

 

[TomMull]

Red? Were they red? I don't remember red but then, I don't remember much. Perhaps I used a different brand of points. I know NAPA had the pills in some of their point sets for other applications up until quite recently. Anyone gotten Triumph points from them lately? Tom

 

[Member 10617]

Randall. Many thanks for the clearer page. It is much easier to see and follow.

As with so much else regarding these Triumphs, there is so much variation of opinion. Some say a minor tune-up every six months or every year, and some say once in 10,000 miles. Nowadays, every year would probably be 4000 to 5000 miles. Back in 1958, every year might have been 12,000 miles.

I'm thinking that a tune-up of some sort might be a good idea annually when the cold weather subsides and it's time to take the car out again for road trips. Here in Virginia, that's probably in March. This might be excessive, but it increases the chances that there won't be problems with the car ... at least not with those components.

I have found that with preventive maintenance, these old cars don't break down by the side of the road as often as critics claim. As they say: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure (or something like that).

 

[Don Elliott]

I don't do what is called "routine maintenance". I prefer the "on-going" term. When I notice something has changed, I find out the reason and implement a solution ASAP. I always seem to get home to implement the solutions.

I use Castrol 10W30 and have not had to add any extra oil between 3000 mile changes in the past 11,000 miles when I had the bores honed and I put in new rings.

 

[Member 10617]

Good point. Routine maintenance (i.e., on some sort of schedule) coupled with "on-going" problem solving should keep these cars happily on the road.