TR6

The engine rebuild is moving along: the cylinder head is still at the machine shop, and the block has joined it there, but we may not continue with the same block. 

I knew that the block had previous issues with a dropped thrust washer; the rear washer had dropped before i started working on the car, and after taking it apart it was obvious that it had also happened at least once before. The thrust washer is a known weak point of these engines, because it only covers 180° of the crank face, and is prone to accelerated wear if the clutch is pushed in when the engine is started. 

Since we were still in the middle of the coldest part of winter, i did most of the assembly work in my basement shop. My workbench there is an old drafting table, with a shopmate bench as secondary table and vise.

One of the justifications for pulling and rebuilding the gearbox was that it would sometimes jump out of 2nd gear when decelerating. There are typical reasons that would happen: the "top hat" bushing for 2nd gear is broken, because of excessive wear in that cluster, or a weak detent spring for the shifting rod assembly for the 1-2 gear. 

For this gearbox, the 2nd gear top hat bushing was in perfect shape, and the 2-3 cluster of bushings was still in spec, which is good news because that top hat bush alone is about $50.

Well that wasn't so bad, the guts are now out of the gearbox.

The cylinder head for the TR6 engine is off to the machine shop and i've just about finished cleaning & repainting or plating everything else i can take off the engine: starter, alternator, water pump. The distributor is back from Advanced Distributors for a full rebuild and recurving, and it looks great. The radiator is out, but i'm waiting until i can give it a proper flush outside. 

It's zero degrees outside with many cold weeks of nothing to do. What's next? Take out the gearbox, of course. 

Or, at least the prep work for the rebuild. I had planned to do this early in 2020 with a local club member and be done with it all by now, but COVID happened, etc. etc.

After reorganizing the garage a couple of times and evaluating the space, i've decided to tackle the rebuild myself, with the help of our local Triumph club to pull the engine and borrow an engine stand. Since the garage isn't heated, i'm planning to pull the engine and gearbox probably in March, but i'm trying to get as much of a head start as i can.

This is where the engine started:

This isn't a car project exactly, but i did finish a lot of small projects in the week or so getting ready for this trip:

The commission tag is the early British version of a VIN tag on newer cars, and on the TR6 it's riveted to an inner fender inside the engine bay. It's where you find the vehicle ID number, paint and trim codes, and other info, depending on the year it was produced.

My speedometer was acting up; needle jumping around, making a clicking noise when i backed up, sometimes even staying at 30mph after i'd stopped. One common reason for a twitchy mechanical speedo is a cable that needs fresh grease, but there was no change after a good cleaning and regrease, so it was time to pull it apart.

The rear hubs on the TR6 are a known weak point - maybe not always in normal use, but definitely in the racing world, where they commonly used alternate hubs for race-prepped cars. I'll probably never race my car, but the issue has also come up with aging parts, and as i contemplate taking the car on longer weekend trips, and as one of my previously-rebuilt hubs has been loosening up, i opted for the insurance of an uprated set of hubs.

First step: dismantle the rear axles: