Thanks be to Paul

Following various messages of encouragement on here and elsewhere, I decided to give the Beast a last chance. On Saturday, I approached Paul in the hope that he had a spare distributor lying around. He had, but it was one with points as opposed to electronic ignition. Fear not, a trip to Bewdley to his mate Pete was called for

Pete just happened to have a box of Lucas distributors lying around , all in various states of (dis)repair. We transferred the potentially buggered innards of my dis with those from one of the others. I also borrowed one of those ballast resistor box things too. 2 hours later, time to put the plan into action.

Cock! The gear on the oil pump had moved and the dis wouldn't go in. A temporary blip though as Paul created a oil pump mover tool thing from a huge bolt and an angle grinder. The dis was put in. The cables were recrimped and reconnected to the coil and resistor. all connected. The key was turned ... COOOOOOOOOOOOOCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK! At this point, you may have worked out that all was not well. We waggled and pulled and disconnected and reconnected but to no avail. That's it then. The Beast is going back on eBay for as much as I can get.

It was at this point that Paul decided to fit the points dis ...

Lager! The Beast lives!

I Surrender

An update for all those of you who still bother to read this sorry tale: it's still fucked! I have tested the spark using some glow end cap things. I have sparks. I then tested the spark with a spark strength tester thing that looks a bit like a compass. The spark strength tester thing suggested the spark was too weak. So, what produces the spark? The coil. It can't be the distributor as that just distributes the spark surely? I purchased a new coil. Typically, it made fuck all difference. That was about 2 weeks ago. I have been nowhere near the sack of crap since. I can't be arsed. I loathe and detest it. No wonder TR7's are universally ridiculed. No wonder Rover went down the shitter. I raise the white flag in surrender.

Hammerite

The under arches and under body are now nicely Hammerited. It was very rusty in places. There was also alot of filler. I am getting a bit of deja vu from 20 years ago. I hope the MOT man doesn't poke the bottom too hard with his scredriver!

Waste of money?

In the last year, lots of people have suggested to me that I had wasted my money on the Beast. Well, to all of you doubters, it's a very useful way to dry groundsheets and caravan awnings.

The great tune up - my cock!

Hello all. No recent updates as it's fannied again. It's still the Rover part, nothing wrong with the Triumph bits at the moment. The engine has decided to play silly buggers again. Gary (rebuilding a TR7v8) popped over a couple of weekends ago to have a look at the positions of the water hoses on the engine. As he was there, and because he knows a bit about cars, I convinced him to have a "quick" look. 3 hours later, feck all difference - except that the new Facet fuel pump is in. When I say in, it's bodged in the engine bay with lots of jubilee clips and hose pipes rather than on the rear bulkhead where it belongs. I may just add a photo at some stage - if I can be arsed. Until then, here's the pump ...

Next stage then ... to finish off the under sealing. I did the passenger side. It looks quite good actually! Now with the car turned around (thanks to Gary and Simon!), I can get to the other side. As for the engine ... feck knows what to do. I don't think it will be on the road this summer. In fact, I have a nasty feeling that it will live in the garage for a decade before I sell it to Ed for the price of a curry. Cock!

Fiat Panda v Triumph TR8

Went into the garage over the weekend to put the seats in and fanny about with the chewed electrics. I thought I would just give it a test first, and listen to the burbling and popping for inspiration. Bastard!

If I hadn't just spent lots of dough on a Pajero, I would be making use of Coco's scrappage thing and doing this...

The great starting debacle pt 10

Never mind all of that sensible Frank stuff below! We have a breakthrough! last night, Ben (Who's Who) popped around to finish off his work. he was convinced that he had the answer. Last time he paid a visit, he had set a Top Dead Centre thing up which was incorrect apparently, as the piston is already at the top when at TDC and thus wouldn't ignite the mixture - or something like that. So, we removed the plugs (I am getting good at this bit!), he gapped them and I replaced them, except #1.

He then set the TDC thing which is somewhere at the front next to the fan, to 6 degrees. I really need to find out what all of this means! Whilst I turned the crank via the big nut on the alternator, he played with #1's hole. Following that, he shone a light somewhere around the distributor. It was at this point, and not for the first time, that he tried to explain what he was doing - it was something to do with checking the earth on the coil I think. I felt rather like a spotty GCSE kid asking a nuclear physician to quickly run through how to make a fission bomb.

Once all that was done, the cap and leads went back on. The Beast was a little desperate, and I could see the strain on Ben's face, but it eventually went. It was a fantastic - but not a very pretty noise. We are backfiring and popping even more so than before. But who cares ... the Beast lives! "The great starting debacle" is over. Raise a glass for the new series: "The great tune up".