Without Doubt

[Lou Metelko]

Without doubt the most frustrating, time consuming and language teaching project on a side screen car is the changing of the canister type oil filter. Removal of the canister along with the warm oil running down your arm is rather pleasant compared to the reinstallation. I know I can relace with a spin on adapter but the 2 is a Concours car and I can't afford any more demerits. I am venting since I just spent four hours trying to get that center bolt started. Thought it was on once only to have fall and bonk me dead center of the forehead.

What has been a frustrating project on your Triumph recently?

Lou Metelko
Auburn, Indiana

 

[GilsTR]

Lou...for me its messing with that stator tube. Trying to get it in the correct place where the turn signals will shur
off properly! But...hey...could have bought a Miata and just spent Sunday sitting in the lawn chair (ya right!).

 

[Geo Hahn]

Lou - you are a martyr to the cause of concours restoration and maintenance.

I love the challenge of keeping my cars original but as they will never win anything I caved in on the subject of oil filters and went with a spin-on.

My personal frustration has been trying to find the exact arrangement of clamps and hangers that keep the TR4 exhaust system from touching anything at all speeds. Not sure why but the TR3A doesn't have this problem.

 

[AngliaGT]

I always thought that was a really difficult
job on a TR6 - until our oldest was watching me
struggling to put it back on the car.He said -
"What's that little hole for?".It dawned on me
that it's for putting a socket & extention thru!

- Doug

 

[pjsmetana]

What has been a frustrating project on your Triumph recently?

The slower I go, the more oil I leak. Its sitting still and off in the garage right now, so it must be pouring wildly!

By the way, just go with the spin-on adapter and forget the frustration. Obviously keep the original parts, just... in a box. You can always remove the spin-on and put it back to stock.

 

[Adrio]

Even though I went with the spin on, before that I noticed that if you have the little cerclip on the long bolt the install of the stock filter goes a lot easier. Trying to compress that spring and start the long bolt at the same time was frustrating. Once I realized there should be a clip in there it went fine, but I still put the spin on adapter in.

 

[TR4nut]

I've hit two frustrating areas in the last year - the kind you'd love to discuss with the original designers if you had a chance.

First, you can't take the intake/exhaust manifolds off a TR4 without loosening a head bolt, because of the silly rear lifting bracket on the engine.

Second, you have to be a contortionist to get the top bolt and nut back on the starter motor on a TR4.

I'm sure there's more but those drove me nuts for a while.

Randy

 

[TR3driver]

First, you can't take the intake/exhaust manifolds off a TR4 without loosening a head bolt, because of the silly rear lifting bracket on the engine.

Which can simply be left off.<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]Second, you have to be a contortionist to get the top bolt and nut back on the starter motor on a TR4.[/QUOTE]Put a Helicoil into the gearbox housing. Makes it a lot easier.

 

[Andrew Mace]

What has been a frustrating project on your Triumph recently?

For me, it was what should have been a simple swap out of brake master cylinders on the '62 Herald. What should have taken no more than 45 minutes ended up taking a good 2.5 hours or so.

I realized when I was starting in on the job that a DPO had made "modifications" to the cylinder mounting bracket to effect a higher brake pedal...why, I can't say, but it was borderline annoying, and I wanted to get things back to where they normally would be. OK, no real problem, as I have other mounting brackets, and I usually remove them first and then take the master off the bracket.

Ah, but the same DPO had also apparently used at least two of the wrong bolts to hold down the bracket. One of them came out, but the other just kept spinning. After some significant swearing and then levering, I managed to get the stripped bolt out. Now I've got a pedal assembly with two useless blind nuts, so back to the barn for a better pedal assembly as well as a cylinder mounting bracket and bolts to hold it all down.

Fortunately (since I wanted to drive the car again this year), I resisted all temptation to clean and repaint the whole area of the bulkhead that has seen nearly 48 years of brake fluid leaks and simply reassembled everything. Great brakes again, and maybe I'll get to that cleanup and repaint over a winter. :wink:

 

[Geo Hahn]

...By the way, just go with the spin-on adapter and forget the frustration...

I assume you do not know Lou. Lou fills his tyres with air imported from England, preferably extracted from old still-inflated tyres that contain NOS air from the 50s.

IOW, the day Lou M installs a spin-on filter we can declare Concours is dead.

 

[71MKIV]

What has been a frustrating project on your Triumph recently?

Paying for it.

 

[Twosheds]

Without doubt the most frustrating, time consuming and language teaching project on a side screen car is the changing of the canister type oil filter. Removal of the canister along with the warm oil running down your arm is rather pleasant compared to the reinstallation.

Which is why I made replacing the oil filter one of the Funkhana tasks at the National Meet. Less the oil, though. But I did consider it.

You should have entered the Funkhana given your experience. You might have won $100!

 

[NickMorgan]

Never really had trouble changing the oil filter. Changing the radiator or the fan belt on a TR3 is quite time consuming, though.
Most frustrating job on the TR recently was sorting out four misfires in three months!

 

[M_Pied_Lourd]

Installing door waste seal strips and fuzzy window strips on a TR6. Despite having two of the "proper" tools, I still find them a bit of a challenge to fit.

Cheers,
M. Pied Lourd

 

[TR3driver]

Well, how about a spin-on that absolutely refused to thread in place?

My project TR3 came to me with a spin-on conversion already in place, and whatever leanings towards originality I have are not strong enough to make me remove it. When I went to change filters, there was a spin-on filter already in my "TR3 engine" box ... no big surprise as the 3A has been wearing one for many years and I sometimes stock up when there is a sale on.

But, it just would NOT catch on the threads! Not a lot of room in there, so I couldn't really see, but I turned and turned, holding it at different angles, even relocating the line to the oil pressure gauge so I could wiggle the filter around even more.

Finally even removed the center portion of the spin-on adapter (the part the filter threads on to) to see what was wrong with it ... it STILL would not thread into the filter.

That's when I finally compared the new filter to the one on the wrecked 3A, and discovered they had different part numbers ... the filter in my hands was actually for my GM car!

 

[swift6]

:lol: I've NEVER done that.