The gear reduction starter arrived for the TR8. As a side note, I'd never tried one of these before.They are SO much easier to work with as they are very light. The car also spins up really well.
Between the installation of the gear reduction starter, and a final round of diagnostics that determined that the battery truly was bad (despite the new diagnostics machines at Autozone saying it was good), the charging system was now working fully on the TR8. Good times!
Flush with my successes I opted to take her on the road for a 1600 mile round trip to Jensens West. Some time after midnight on Thursday I hit the road heading towards L.A. Some time around 2 A.M. I was stranded on an off ramp near Tonopah with a bad water pump. After a miserable night trying vainly to get the car operable I managed to limp home with a final rescue coming from SWMBO and the baby.
Luckily enough I just happen to have on hand one of the last British Leyland bossed NOS water pumps for my car. I bought it in a lot of parts from a local Triumph enthusiast who had been holding on to it for many years waiting for someone to have a use for it.
Saturday I tore down the cooling system and found a lot of corrosion. The thermostat housing was half eaten away.The heater core had to be bypassed because the pipes were gone. The old aftermarket radiator hoses had their internal springs rust away to nothing. In many cases I was pouring brown mud out of cooling pipes on the car. This is why you NEVER put straight tap water into a car. Always use R.O. water. No one ever seems to listen to this advice, because every old car I fix has similar problems.
The gasket for the water pump was torn, so I used Ultra Blue (from Permatex) to make up gaskets for the water pump and thermostat housing (I couldn't find a ready replacement). Also, every existing rubber hose and hose clamp were tossed and replaced. If at all possible, never re-use hose clamps. Their failure rate rises dramatically every time you retighten them.
Put everything together again this morning. Also used a different alternator pulley to realign the belts a little better. Now the car is happily vrooming about again!
I'm presently sitting next to two boxes of A/C bits for the car, but I'm holding off on those while awaiting stock exhaust manifolds and catalytic converters. Emissions first, cold air second.
Cheers!
Jody
