-
The Roadster Factory Recovery Fund - Friends, as you may have heard, The Roadster Factory, a respected British Car Parts business in PA, suffered a total loss in a fire on Christmas Day. Read about it, discuss or ask questions >> HERE. The Triumph Register of America is sponsoring a fund raiser to help TRF get back on their feet. If you can help, vist >> their GoFundMe page.
-
Hey there Guest!
If you enjoy BCF and find our forum a useful resource, if you appreciate not having ads pop up all over the place and you want to ensure we can stay online - Please consider supporting with an "optional" low-cost annual subscription.**Upgrade Now**
(PS: Subscribers don't see this UGLY banner)
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
Wall of Shame
- Thread starter vping
- Start date
Share this page
Offline
You could view what was left of the con rod, oil pickup and crank through the space this piece vacated in the side of an MGB-GT block. Engine had been into before we bought the car, unbeknownst to us. It grenaded itself on the Mass Pike at West Springfield, 11:00 PM. First Wife at the helm. Long story.
OP
Offline
So now I'm a DPO. I was going to post some pics of these really bad parts I had but can't find them. We cleaned out the garage recently and may have scrapped them!!
Anyway, one of my wall of shame items was a piston. '80LE was brought to me to install an Overdrive. When I started it to put it in the middle bay, it felt like it was "running rough" and sounded like it was on it's last leg but there was no mention of that when it was dropped off.
I'll typically start with the carb and work my way down. I started with the air cleaner. It was aftermarket Weber downdraft with one of those rectangular chrome covers. When I removed the cover, there were small bolts in the carb opening and were there so long, they actually wore out the metal. For the life of me I could not figure it out and then it dawned on me....The small bolts holding the air cleaner on were mismatched. WOW. someone let the bolts fall into the carb and didn't realize it.
Since it was running rough, and the engine was coming out anyway, I decided to pull the head. One of the pistons looks like it was attacked with an ice pick!! Some how a bolt got sucked into the piston chamber, bounced around and must have made it past a valve and into the exhaust. Never found it. I decided to reuse the bolt I found in the Carb to put the air cleaner back on when I was done with the project. Thought it was fitting to do so!
Anyway, one of my wall of shame items was a piston. '80LE was brought to me to install an Overdrive. When I started it to put it in the middle bay, it felt like it was "running rough" and sounded like it was on it's last leg but there was no mention of that when it was dropped off.
I'll typically start with the carb and work my way down. I started with the air cleaner. It was aftermarket Weber downdraft with one of those rectangular chrome covers. When I removed the cover, there were small bolts in the carb opening and were there so long, they actually wore out the metal. For the life of me I could not figure it out and then it dawned on me....The small bolts holding the air cleaner on were mismatched. WOW. someone let the bolts fall into the carb and didn't realize it.
Since it was running rough, and the engine was coming out anyway, I decided to pull the head. One of the pistons looks like it was attacked with an ice pick!! Some how a bolt got sucked into the piston chamber, bounced around and must have made it past a valve and into the exhaust. Never found it. I decided to reuse the bolt I found in the Carb to put the air cleaner back on when I was done with the project. Thought it was fitting to do so!
OP
Offline
That's a keeper (the piece that is )lol
Gliderman8
Great Pumpkin
Offline
A couple of years ago I bought a second TR6. I got it running and heard a strange “pinging” sound from the engine. Using a piece of pipe like a stethoscope it sounded like it was coming from #3 piston. I pulled the head off and couldn’t believe what I saw. Laying on top of the piston was a 3/8” washer.
Last edited:
Offline
Amazing the things that get sucked down through an intake. A couple pals and fellow Elan owners had worked on one of the cars, the Weber 40 DCOE's off and gone through. All assembled and off for a test run, they made it out of the driveway and to a stop sign a couple yards away, when they heard a horrible rattling from the engine. Chopped the iggy and pushed the Elan back to the garage. Quick exam indicated one of the 8mm nuts securing the airbox to the carb bodies was MIA. Head removal found it lodged in one chamber of the head and multiple, perfectly stamped images of the nut embossed in the piston top. Nylock nuts have been used for the task from that day forward, on every one of the Weber fitted engines we've worked on. That was back in 1977 or '78.
Gliderman8
Great Pumpkin
Offline
The guy I bought the TR6 from never worked on the car; he entrusted all the work to his favorite mechanic. I’m sure his mechanic dropped it in the intake and just went and got another one and returned the car. Sheeesh
Offline
Speakin' of TR-6's, my pal had a classmate in college with one. The car wouldn't turn over one morning, no amount of coaxing, from jumper cables to push-starting worked. My pal asked if I'd look at it. I was living at home at my parents' place with a garage full of tools and resources. Asked the Old Man if it'd be okay, he agreed. They towed the car there, we sat it in the drive and I pulled the plugs out, asked the owner to see if it'd spin up. When he turned the key we saw multiple JETS of water shoot out of the plug holes! Musta shot up fifteen feet into the air.
Head gasket R&R with some careful water removal (used Mom's turkey baster... better to beg forgiveness an' all that), an oil change and he was on his way.
Head gasket R&R with some careful water removal (used Mom's turkey baster... better to beg forgiveness an' all that), an oil change and he was on his way.
Offline
At least the fuse contacts didn't corrode away.
OP
Offline
New item by Vincent Pina
photos.app.goo.gl
Offline
Wiring "sins" are one of the reasons I wrote the article about the disrespect our cars were treated with back-when. Twisting a couple wires together and taping it up was about the best they got. Some even had house wiring wire nuts holding the headlight circuits together. ScotchLocs were big things, too. Aluminum pegs connecting copper wires, exposed to atmosphere. What could go wrong!?
OP
Offline
New item by Vincent Pina
photos.app.goo.gl
Offline
Especially if you consider all the time trying to discover all th' bodged pieces in one fifty or more years old!It amazes me how inexpensive and entire cloth wrapped harness costs, and how little time is needed to install.New item by Vincent Pina
mikephillips
Yoda
Online
My Tiger when I bought it in the early 90s was rough. it have been hit in the front at some point and the front fenders removed over the tops of the tires. An new bit was brazed on, but rather than butted to the original sheet metal it had been lapped over and filled with plastic. Of course it was cracked and even the brazing was breaking down. When it had last run in the 70s I was told, the rear brakes had gone bad and the fix had been to screw a plumbing cap onto the flex hose as a "fix". Engine had a high rise intake and since it was too tall for an aircleaner they had just pushed the carb top against the hood, I suspect breathing was "interesting" for it. Now I knew it was going to be torn down to a bare shell and redone so none of this bothered me, but I was amazed at the 1970s just an old car fixes...
Offline
Again I will direct attention to my opinion in the "Articles" section regarding prejudice and perception where our LBC's are concerned.
A friendly reminder - be careful what links you click on here. If a link is posted by someone you don't know, or the URL looks fishy, DON'T CLICK. Spammers sometimes post links that lead to sites that can infect your computer, so be mindful what you click.