byakk0

Re-installed my steering column and discovered after the fact that I got it turned 90 degrees I guess it's ok in the end as I discovered my intermittent 'sounding of the horn while driving and not want it to sound still' occurs, so all that effort I took accomplished nothing beyond me understanding (mostly) how the steering column works. I also tried chasing down the electrical short I have in the rear loom. Turns out to be a bad wire connecting one reverse lamp to the other (green/brown). I disconnected that wire and used another and the problem disappeared---or so I thought. I had removed the top fuse and was using a test light. With the above problem the test light came on strong. Once I solved the rear loom issue the light still came on very faintly, so I disconnected the rear loom and the light remained lit. Now I need to chase that short, somewhere in the front. One more thing I discovered. My starter sparks out the center shaft when starting. It's not a lot, but enough to be concerning. Looks like I need to order some brushes and attempt a rebuild. Good news is I did get it started a couple times the past few days. It's been snowing like crazy around here for the past 2 months and the roads have been terrible. Monday was warm enough to melt nearly everything and I was hoping today (Tuesday) would have been better. Thought I'd attempt a quick run, but the weather had other ideas and we got another 2 inches. Maybe next week--if I don't yank the rear loom out. I need to feed it through that hole in the inner sill anyway. (any suggestions on accomplishing this awkward looking task?)

Then just enjoy the ride, and we'll enjoy it with you. The destination is out on the horizon somewhere...

Picked up a battery today. Now I can get my new alternator installed, test my horn issues, and chase down the wiring gremlins in my green circuit

Makes sense.

I'm not familiar with the Ginetta beyond your work here. Does the rear glass open like the GT6 does? If not, would somehow converting it be an option at all? (aside from possible gained weight)

Good enough on both counts: Thanks John, I'm sure you are very correct. Just need to decide how high to take it and work accordingly. I've got new bushes in a couple shopping carts. Now just a matter of hitting the buy button on one of them. It's a toss up between rimmers and a state side supplier. Anyone use the uprated ones rimmers list? For £22ea that's pretty pricey.

Thanks Paul. I'll digger deeper and harder there. Lance, I've recently renewed that joint and the ground connection is good, as is the ground from the steering rack to the harness. The trouble is not with it working-it does that fine when press the button. The trouble is sounds whenever as I drive.

Thanks. The more I thought about it the more realized as much about needing/not needing the nylon washer for electrical insulation. With the brass contact ring in place I spun the outer column a full 360 around the inner shaft, deliberately including any play for max movement and it didn't contact anything. Guess I could bend that tab back a little in case I'm missing something.

I needed to work somewhere warm today so I pulled my steering column out so I could take inside to the table. I'm getting a fuse blowing in the green circuit, so I was wondering if I'd find a short. No luck there. I'll chase that short down later. As for the main reason of pulling the column, my horn sounds intermittently when I drive-that is, it functions correctly if I press the button, but under normal driving conditions it will go off all on its own, more on than later. Quite annoying really. I originally found the horn brush replaced with threaded rod wrapped in tape. Thought that was the culprit so I bought a real horn brush, but that did not solve the problem. So, I tore the column down completely, aside from removing the bushes inside the column itself. [img]http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb266/byak0/steering%20column/1485219137709.jpg [/img] [img]http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb266/byak0/steering%20column/20170123_170758.jpg [/img] The only findings I have to report are merely questions at this point. 1) the brass horn contact ring. The inside of the table the purple/black wire is connected to has some rubbing wear on it. I thought it was a possible culprit, but with everything assembled it does not appear to have anything close to it to rub on. The purple/black wire connects here, and I’m seeing signs of rubbing on the inner face of the connection. I don’t know if this is old damage repaired or not, as this is the first time I’ve had the column apart. No telling what the PO did to it. The brass contact ring is removed by un bending these two tabs. You can see the wear a little better in this shot. An here you can see the ring installed. Not very clear but in rotating the ring around the inner shaft I don’t see any reason for it to contact anything. There isn’t really much lateral play . The upper bushing looks decent (to me). Its rubber with a metal spring clip on the inside. Then I got to looking at the U-bolt setup that keeps the inner rod and the outer sheath from coming apart, and I do have direct metal on metal contact there, and the parts diagrams show a nylon washer. I'm wondering if this is the cause. I connected my DMM to check for continuity but that test came up empty, so I still don't know. I'll have to rig up something to bench test it with a 12V supply and a test light. I’ll probably order new bushings, and I remembered an old column I have in the corner. It had the nylon washer, so I cannibalized it. I need to order new bushes and I see there is supposed to be a nylon washer right there. ... The horn brush is another possible culprit, but as I mentioned installing a new one did not solve the problem. I have correctly it installed, from what I understand. One thing I am wondering, though, is if my brush is yet too long as the button pops off easily. I have the 2 ½” unit. It is recessed about 6mm from the top of the boss. I don’t know if this is normal or not, so if anyone has any idea or photos they can share with me that would be great. After some digging and question sessions I think I’ve got it narrowed down to wiring, so I plan on running jumpers from the button to the relay and other bits. More on that once I get around to it. At this point I have reassembled the column for reinstallation (and so as to not lose parts). Changing the bushings will be simple enough, I think, so if I need to pull the column again once I have them on hand so be it.

ouch. They really did a job on it. Glad to see it going in for repairs.

definitely that...just getting the flanges to mate up is the question. Extend the floor flange or...?

I bought my sills from Victoria British here in the states back in 96, I think it was. The floor pan is factory/unchanged The overlap is roughly only 1/4"

Need to pick your collective brains. I've got one last round of welding to do on the passenger side rocker panel/sill, where it connects to the floor pan flange. Problem is, the two don't mate up well. I've got the door adjusted as well as I can and the gap at the bottom is very good. If I pull the sill up to match the welding flange of the floor it closes door gap. The rest of the rocker is welded in place. Only the bottom remains. What's a good way to go about fixing this? Here's an actual photograph I just drew up, 3/4 view and on end. One method I am considering is extending the floor flange to meet to bottom of the sill, the area marked in blue. This would be by far the easiest to do, in theory, however I do not have access to lift so getting it high enough to comfortably work may be an issue. (Last time I tried welding on my back I burned my chest. Owe!) Any other ideas or thoughts?

My aim is to have it licensed this year. I'd really like to drive it back to Salt Lake City in Utah to attend the annual British Field meet, one I attended way back when I was driving it, but I doubt that is going to happen, even if I do manage to get it legal by June. That would be at least a 700 mile round trip. Long haul for a car car fresh out of resto. I doubt it will be painted, but for once in it's life as I've know it, it will be one color (primer) & rust free. Hoping for paint before school starts in the fall, guess we'll see.

Definitely a simpler solution. Coming right along!

Finished the floor mats. Binding is a little tougher than I thought it would be, but I'll get the hang of it. Here's the results, though I'm not sold on the color. It is a charcoal grey, but against the body color it nearly looks a shade of brown. Small one for the GT6 and a larger one for my wife's van. It will see a lot more use there and it needed new one, so it's a good way to test out the wear and quality before I commit to one style. I'll add a heel mat later. Also stitched together some scrap to see how things would look against a door card.Contrary to the way I have the card painted, this is height at which I'll have the division. It will closely resemble the OEM door card when completed as seen below. I also picked up a GM 7127 internally regulated alternator and matching pigtail. Now I can eliminate that frustrating external regulator and keep my battery charged. It's a direct bolt in for the one I currently have. Current setup is a GM externally regulated alt. My documentation on wiring has gone missing and I can't seem to sort it properly, so out with the old in with the new.

That double just looks strange to me. Probably because I'm so used to my single. A freind in Colorado has a UK spec Mk1 he imported that does not have the plinth.

Fill the holes with fiberglass as best you can for the sake of getting the substrate thickness uniform, then do a wooden or some other overlay.

Hard to say what the US reasoning was. The dual plinth was fit the Italian market, iirc. There's a pic floating around somewhere, and they show on the canley diagrams. Interestingly enough, the single plinth setup is not shown

I've seen both here actually, but I think with is more common

Found a seller on eBay that has some rubber seal that worked great for sealing the rear license plate illumination plinth to the tub. Can't find the stuff from any of the usual triumph vendors, if they even have diagrams show it. It just slid right into the gap, so I may need to make a little adjustment to tighten it up. A local upholstery shop had a roll of carpet on hand for a decent price, and the color was close so I bought a yard to play with. It's a cut pile they claim local hot rodders and car builders like. Checking it against the other interior colors as well as the body color. I'm going for similar color to body color, so this is a charcoal grey. Going to bind it in black, although part of me wants to bind it in the light grey. I may do a sample just to see how it looks vs the black. ON the other hand, binding in black ties it to the black piping I'll start of by making some floor mats, one for use in my wife's van. This will be a good way to test the durability of the carpet before I commit.

are those Blue Sea marine fuse boxes?

           OEM or new boot, easy enough to swap out if I don't sew it in for a while.

Grey with black piping, mostly. Door cards will be grey on the top, black on the bottom, eventually with a wooden cap (could be a winter project this year) The rear panels will be grey with black piping along the tops. Carpet will either be black with grey trim or grey with black trim, I'm undecided. Need to work up some concepts in that department. Headliner is a stock Longhorn from Canley's, with a white plastic hinge cover with integrated 3rd brakelight of my own making center console seat ~Need more vinyl to complete the seat and the rest of the interior. door card concept 3rd brake light

Worked on perfecting the some of the interior hardboard panels. Discovered I needed to redo (again) the upper pieces that go above the wheel arches. In my first attempt I put the mounting holes directly over the holes in the body. This works great if you use aftermarket plastic push in style clips, but I want to use the OEM clips, and they are offset, so I made a new set with 1/2" offset holes all the way around--that was take II. But, I realized there are three holes the long panel over the wheel arch shares with the upper panel--the clip goes from the lower panel through the upper panel, so the lower three holes on the upper panel require the holes exactly over the mounting holes in the body. I re-punched those panels so as to get the location of the needed hole correct and thought I may use them anyway, but decided against it as the elongated hole made for a weak spot--so, I remade the upper panel a third time. Fits like a charm. by the way, the three common holes uses a clip that is slightly longer (the one on the right). see how they vary in shape? I also made a new shift boot. I had just enough scrap left of the grey and blackvinyl to pull it off. The original one is in mostly decent condition, but if you look closely it has some tan speckles on it, which at this point I have not yet attempted to clean them off. Also some PO decided to attach the boot to the tunnel with screws. I'm actually torn between using the oem one and my my new one. So little of my original car remains, and this piece would be a nice way to keep a little of the old intact, plus it fits the color scheme so I doubt anyone would really notice. Feel free to voice your opinion in the comments below. Mid progress. And the final product.