SUS 991R - accidental restoration in Virginia

[straylight]

spill the beans !

[boybiffa]

might be jumping the gun a little bit but... indeed this does sound nasty

[X-pat]

I was very lucky - having tried unsuccessfully to select third gear or get back into second, and with a truck approaching fast (at about 20mph over the speed limit, like everyone else on this road), I found I was on just enough of a slope to allow me to coast off onto the verge. A quick check underneath confirmed extreme dampness caused by leaking of hydraulic fluid at the rear of the slave cylinder, and a lack of fluid in the m/c.

I put the car in 1st gear, managed to get it started and limped the half mile or so back home.

I should be drummed out of the TDC for this stupidity or, at the very least, publicly flogged with a wet haddock. At least it may serve as a reminder to anyone who is connecting one of these braided hoses to make sure that it is the correct item and is fitted using the correct copper washers, as discussed in other threads.

I would like to be able to say that "no gearboxes were harmed in the making of this story", but that would be too much to hope for. This was the situation when I took the top off the gearbox:



Miraculously, damage was limited to 2nd and 3rd main and laygears.







I was surprised to see that the nose extension had fractured:



I don't know if this was related to this incident or not. On taking out the mainshaft and countershaft, this was what was left in the bottom of the casing:



Fortunately, I think I must have been a dentist in a past life.....


I sourced new / secondhand gears - fortunately quite easy to come by as the TR6 gearbox is common over here. I had an nos nose extension that I bought from a chap on ebay a couple of years ago - "just in case". I cleaned everything thoroughly, got rid of all the swarf and metal fragments, reassembled and fitted the gearbox back to the car - again. Since then - no gear issues at all.

[straylight]

that is indeed spectacular. I'll be putting my hand up shortly for some worse stupidity, but I got off lightly.

I'm not so sure your mistake was down to stupidity though, just a really small mistake.

but I'm not sure I'm following this correctly, how did the lack of a clutch (I'm presuming the slave just bled the brake fluid out through a poorly fitting braided hose) cause catastrophic damage to the gearbox ?

and great pics

stu

[boybiffa]

Sounds like a lucky escape. better than writing the car off!

As for the gearbox,looks like that took the brunt of swift action

so whats the plan? swapping over to the spare gearbox and rebuild the damaged one?

glad your ok, sounds like it could have been a lot worse.

Rob

[X-pat]

As for the gearbox,looks like that took the brunt of swift action

Yes, the "swift action" of a slightly panicked driver trying desperately to select a gear to get him out of the way of a very large truck...... that's what caused the damage and what was stupid, I think. Otherwise, if I'd had space to coast off the road immediately this happened I would have got away with just replacing the clutch hose instead of rebuilding the box as well, having destroyed a perfectly good set of gears.

You learn from your mistakes - I have certainly learned from this one. I'm quite adept at stripping and rebuilding these gearboxes now, too.

[JPB]

Ouch! I guess it's difficult to think of anything else when there's a massive truck bearing down on your tail, but if there were to be a next time (there won't be, but....), when the gearbox is in neutral, raise the engine speed to match the road speed then you'll find that the gears will slip in just nicely.

[boybiffa]

shame the dolly's never came with spare under pants

I would have done the same thing.

did have a similar sort of experience (no where near as terrifying though) with a vauxhall corsa belting down a hill towards me,stranded on a roundabout... at the last minute i had to bang the little 1300 dolly into 1st and spin the arse end round,that was a little bit of a close call

so.. with you having a great big US trucker baring down on you... well done! its easier replacing a gearbox than an entire car.

hope you have a better journey out next time

Rob

[straylight]

ah, understand, thanks and massive commiserations. My first ever accident was sliding into the back of a volvo trying to push the brake pedal through the fire wall trying to stop. Instinct takes over.

stu

[X-pat]

Here are some piccies taken today. Car is behaving itself now - sixty eight miles on the clock now! Fine in traffic, no overheating even in 85 degrees. Running just below halfway on the gauge, Kenlowe cutting in as it should when stationary.















Some jobs still to do:
Repaint the spoiler to match the rest of the car
Sort out the slight weep from the thermostat housing (thick type of gasket in place, will replace with thinner one)
Adjust the nearside rear door lock
Put on the side stripes
Recheck the mixture.

[straylight]

Put on the side stripes

yes, first thing I noticed (joking, mine also need doing)

she looks to be a credit to you, great finish and I'd imagine a lot of fun with that engine set up.

great pics, thanks

stu

[X-pat]

Last weekend I replaced the lower steering coupling with one of the UJ type from Wins. Straightforward enough. Yesterday, I put on two new track rod ends. This was made very easy with the help of a small ball joint separator that I bought for doing the sway bar links on my BMW. Just the right size for Dolly TREs - they pop off nicely with no damage to the rubber boot.

Today's task was to find out why the front carb was peeing petrol out of the venturi and onto my shoes. It's running on DHLAs and was fine until recently when I noticed a small crack in the top cover, no doubt as the result of previous over-tightening of one of the retaining screws. I thought it wise to change it for a spare one that I had, so swapped over the needle valve and floats and refitted the replacement top cover.

The symptoms seemed to indicate flooding of the float chamber, so possibly incorrect float setting - although I hadn't knowingly changed this when I did the top cover swap. I took the cover off the front carb and also the rear for comparison and noticed the problem. When I had changed the needle valve, I had omitted to put an aluminium washer between the needle valve and the top cover, the result being that the valve was sitting about 2mm higher than it should and the floats weren't shutting off the fuel. I put this right, checked the float setting, reassembled and tested it - no sign of leaking, so problem solved.

[X-pat]

Put on the side stripes

yes, first thing I noticed (joking, mine also need doing)

My coachlines arrived from the TDC this week (thanks, Malcolm)!! Is this better now, Stu?



So, back to the original colour scheme from its 1850 days - carmine and gold.

[straylight]

LoL, I've just ordered mine and due to Jannette's sterling efforts, they will be delivered with a coffee mug, T-shirt and key ring

and yeah, she looks the stuff now