[Front engine oil seal]

My timing chain oil seal has failed and there is a lot of work in getting access to the cover. The front panel and oil cooler will dismantle but it takes a long time.

 

Once I have the timing cover off should I just replace the seal and gasket, or maybe the tensioner while I am looking at it, and maybe the timing chain and so on ...

 

The engine was reuilt by Racetorations about ten years ago and I think that the chain is quiet. I have some tappett noise but the chain seems OK.The mileage is about 20,000 and I am keen to take any sensible preventative measures while I am in the engine bay. Maybe I should look at the engine mountings?

 

Any advice welcomed.

[Control Box]

Yes Stuart you are right but this leads to being a control box obsessive and boring to the nearest and dearest. The only route then is the TR forum.

 

I want to speak to a manufacturer to find how the poin ts are made, and what he thinks about the life expectancy of the metal involved.

[Control Box]

I have a lucas green box item is in my collection of useless kit. One of the terminals came off and I drilled a small hole through the rivet and replaced it with a small brass bolt.This upset the control unit and it has been sulking ever since.

 

The crux of these problems seems to be the regulator points which open and close a lot moe than the cut out points and must therefore be made to a much higher specification. Have you tried cleaning the points in the regulator? For gods sake do not touch the one you have working. There may be some mileage in liquid points cleaning. This is my next route. The new ones from India have a sticker on the side requesting that the points should be cleaned before use. The workshop manual suggests using a fine stone, which I have done on old points, without success. But if the points are silver plated, as suggested above, any abrasive cleaning will harm the surface.

 

I understand that the new ones are made in India at a serious factory, who make electrical kit for many different applications. I would like to have a dialogue with their technical department. How do we locate them without becoming an electrical distributor?

[Control Box]

I am continuing to learn and understand the mysteries of the RB106/2. Yesterday a local friendly auto electrician came over and we had and a 2 hour tutorial in the garage. My new dynamo purchased for top dollar in the autumn and not yet road tested, failed to put out more than 5 volts. I had a spare and fitted it.

 

Then we looked at the control boxes in my collection. We managed to tune 3 good ones out of a collection of 9. The most significant feature is that anything that had had the regulator points cleaned, dismantled, polished or even wiped with meths would not perform at all. The 3 success stories were only adjusted and covered the range available from new Indian Lucas, 43 year old ex Triumph Herald, and NOS Lucas RB90 from 1977.

 

Has any one cleaned the points on the regulator and had success? If so what method was used? As my man left he loaned me the Lucas official hand books for control boxes and generators. I am off to the copy shop to have some printing done and ring binding, before I have to return them.

 

I am more confident about going out in the car now but there is no doubt that there are some poor quality parts out there.

 

Richard

[electrical terminal cleaner]

The light switch has been in Coca Cola for 3 weeks and is not showing any signs of improvement. There is some culture growing on the surface. My son remembers a project at school when the tooth suspended in Coca Cola finally dissolved completely. I will give the switch another few weeks before buying some contact cleqaner. I like an on going experiment in a corner of the kitchen.

[Lucas dip switch]

I have gone out of my way to use an old style battery, not sealed and occasional top up. I have the liner and I think that the regulator needs to be set lower. I know that Don did this but where is the man when you need him.

 

I am now designing a new loom with a fuse in line behind every light and would welcome some advice on extra fuses and relays. Next time some rubbish repro side light shorts out I will not have hot wire falling on the carpet and burning a hole. Should I uprate the headlamp cable or fit a relay up front. Where would the feed for the lights come from if I use the existing cables for a relay. I think that this will also save my switch.

 

Thanks Richard

[Lucas dip switch]

Thanks for all the advice. I replaced the blue feed from the light switch to the dip switch and the terminal now runs cold when the lights are on. I now realise that it has been getting hot for a long time because the carpet is damaged underneath. It is a poor design that points these high loading cables directly at the bulkhead when a 90o connector would bring the cables out away from any shorting out potential. I am considering a modification to the bracket to give a bit more space.

 

My regulator is now a 44 year old unit from e-bay and has adjusted up so well that I think the problems may be over in that area as well.

 

However while under the dash I notice that the underside of the battery box is rusting badly and has a hole. Is this due to the regulator being set too high and the battery heating up? This was mentiones by Don recently but I can not find the thread. A week end with rust killer before it gets too cold to be out innthe garage.

 

Richard

[Lucas dip switch]

Thank you for the help. My new switch was a second hand old one bought at the Classic car day at Malvern last weekend. The heat is in the wire which shows damage for the first 1 1/2" Shall I run a new cable from the dip switch to the light switch and maybe from there to the control box? I must solve the problem before a new loom in the spring. It would be catastrophic to burn up a new one. I am considering replacing the bullet connectors at the front wing connecting strip with a 4 wayfuse box on each side. One of the side lights shorted out and damaged the cable. It was a new light.

 

I have a collection of control boxes and the one that works best is a 99p ebay purchase , very dirty and dated 1963. I cleaned the contacts and adjusted the regulator and my ammeter has never been so happy for years. I quite like going back to buying second hand parts, which I used to do with my first cars in 1962, after so many disappointments with shiny new bits out of the box.

 

I never had electrical problems when this was my " daily driver."

[Lucas dip switch]

Thank you for the help. I am testing now without the switch fitted on to the bulkhead. The cable is getting too hot and I have cleaned the contacts but the cable is damaged by overheating and I am wondering if this has ben a problem for a long time. I changed the headlamps and bulbs for quartz halogen rated 60/55w . But this was getting on for six or seven years ago. If I replace the cable from the dip switch to the light switch what size shall I use?

 

Richard

[Lucas dip switch]

My dip switch has failed and on close inspection seems to have been very hot. The wires are a bit cramped behind the bracket and the insulation has perished. At the Classic Car Show at Malvern over the week-end I bought a new switch and connected it up this afternoon. I left the lights on with no engine running and after about 5 minutes the supply was too hot to hold for more than about 15 seconds. I feel thst the cable should run cold and that I may have some defect somewhere. Is there an experienced sparks out there who can advise. The head lamps are working but I am not confident about going out in the evening and have not fixed the bracket back on yet. I am sure that the connector should not run with any heat at all. Please help.

 

Richard

[electrical terminal cleaner]

Does anyone know where I can buy the chemical cleaner that will bring some of the dirty contacts in my wiring back to life? I understand that you need one which is kind to Bakelite and plastics. Do computer technicians use any suitable products?

 

Thank you Richardtr3a

[Girling rear brake system]

There was a lot of alteration to the brakes by Standard Triumph and the later cars have 9 " brakes . At your swap meet try to buy the shoes second hand. The new shoes available here are a slightly different radius and the rear brakes will run very hot. I struggled for 2 years until I found an old set and some linings at an autojumble. The new rear wheel cylinders are available but you can choose from different sizes with which the factory experimented.More research for dark winter evenings! My back plates do not have the reataining spring which most of them do have. My commission no. is 28894

 

Good luck

Richard

[Wet Liners]

I like this approach best . In my case it is the dog who helps and when I tell him we are stuck in the traffic again and turn off the engine, it is amazing how soon the cars move on.

 

Yours Richard

[Restoration update]

I have a new switch and it works really well. There is only a spring and two contacts inside and if you can refurbish carbs the switch would be a piece of cake. I also have the old switch waiting for me to find a short length of spring for the last ten yeqars at least.

The switch is a joy to use as you now realise.

 

Good luck, Richard

[Fuel line route]

had this problem with my TR3 and all was cured by an overhauled distributor from The Doctor. He will explain the rotor arm situation to you. Now I have no hesitation in turning the engine off in jams and we restart with ease. my distributor was overhauled before and apparently was then fitted with nonmatching springs and weights.

I was a fan of easystart and now need no choke and run so much better. He is not cheap but I am very happy to spend £200 to have a proper car again after ten years.

Try the distributor and coil and you will be home and dry.

[Ignition Light]

If the adjustment is faulty (set too high - on the volts) the sign indicating this is that you are having to add a lot of water to keep the battery acid level up to the correct level because it's getting too hot in the battery and boiling off the battery acid. If the paintwork on the underside of the bonnet shows rusty spots or bubbled paint, this is another sign that the acid it getting too hot and spitting out the vent holes in the battery caps. When I bought my TR3A (brand new in 1958) it came from the factory with a voltage regulator that was set too high and the battery acid flowed out and eventually it rusted right through the battery box.

 

I changed that during the restoration from 1987 to 1990 and finally re-set the voltage down from the 14.5 or thereabouts where it had been factory-set to 13.6 as per the manual. Since then, I have had a bit of spitting but no flow out and I rarely have to add any water. I use de-ionized water. Since 1990, I have driven more than 97,000 miles and never needed to re-set the voltage regulator again. It is still the original one from 1958.

I have just come in from the garage where I have been fitting an expensive reconditioned dynamo and a bench tested new Control box. I polarised the dynamo and the cables to the control box are new with new connectors.

I fired up the engine hoping for a final answer to this aggravation.The regulator part of the control box was arcing quite fiercely and the ammeter was very active swinging in jerky moves. The cut out would sometimes briefly open and close again allowing the red light to come on with a short flash.

I changed the control box back to the 43 year old second hand unit and all seems to be more or less normal with no arcing and only mild flickering at 2500 revs.

The new box came as tested and guaranteed and I can not believe that it is not 100% I am looking for a newer second hand unit now as a spare. What is wrong with my new control box? These are not complicated but the trouble that I am having is unbelievable.

What do you think?

[Ignition Light]

Hi Mark, I have found on my 4A, doing about 4000 miles a year the reg box goes out of adjustment every 2-3 years, I think the adjuster springs must slacken and the dynamo output drops a couple of volts. Like yourself I run an electric fan which takes about 8amps and therefore the battery needs all the help it can get.

I also found about 4 years ago that one of the terminals on the dynamo loom was about to break off, probably caused by heat and corrosion. On many old cars these terminals have been replaced with the diy crimp type which can work loose and be intermittant, my solution was to replace both terminals together with about 10ins of wire and solder these on the bench before splicing them into the loom and once again soldering the joints.

 

 

Chris

It sounds as if you have had some problems with regulators. I am trying to learn as much as possible and would be interested in your solution. How do you know the adjustment is faulty?

Thank you for any help.

Yours

Richard

[Dynamo]

I have been taking advice from different sources and it may be that the quality of the dynamos which I have been fitting is not good enough.

 

When I went to the distributor Doctor and spent heavily I achieved a great result and the car starts first time hot or cold for the first time in many years.

 

So I am now having a correct C39 PV/2 dynamo specially built for me by Bernard Bryant and a matching Control box to be delivered to Beaulieu next weekend. The dynamo as fitted is a C40/1. It does not look as if there is much difference but I would be interested to know. Has any one any experience in this area. How is it possible to identify new field coils so that I can make sure that I am not been fobbed off with some old parts?

[Brake performance]

Hi guys, thx for all the replies so far. Although not cheap, but the low USD-rate makes it attrctive anyhow to buy now, I want to go for the Jack Drews solution. Marcel, I guess I will need to order the complete kit at 290 USD and not only the stub axles?

Conc. the green stuff, I intend to agree with Tony. They have a better bite than standard, but seem to generate a lot of dust and intend to glaze (at least on my plain disks).

The rear standard liners (Moss) seem to touch the drums at the adjuster side when adjusted thightly and when spinning the wheel by hand . Loosing them up so that the wheel spins 100% free gives a big(ger) pedal travel. Should one find a compromise here or can they slightly contact the drum (w/o heating up too much) as the front pads do?

Cheers, Rudi

The rear shoes are not supposed to touch in one place and make the drums hot. I offered up the new against the old and found a different radius. It is only small and could probably be improved by filing the end of the shoe. But I don't want to do this.

 

I am having old shoes relined by someone who knows how to do it ,when I find him.

 

Good luck

Richard

[Dynamo]

I am sure that there a lot of people out there who have fitted a new control box. The question is does every one polarise the control box as well as the dynamo.

 

I am getting advice from an expert that it is essential. This could be my main problem. Also there is a motorcycle web site who claim that the control box is built for either positive earth or negative.

 

Does anyone know the specification for the Lucas RB106/2

[Ignition Light]

This is amazingly lucky. I have spent hours and hours working on this charging circuit. I should spend some time cleanong all the terminals and connections. If your control box goes down you are in for a lot of problems.

 

Good luck

 

Richard

[Ignition Light]

The red light is very important and there is my recent thread under dynamo fitting. If you run with the red light on the cables in the loom will be damaged and possibly the control box. Do not clean the points in the control box. New control boxes are of dubious quality and the usual reason for the red light showing is that the dynamo is not charging. Test with a voltmeter as in the manual. Some of the dynamo are also of poor quality. I have been wrestling with this problem for over 2 yearsand I have large stock of non working control boxes. See also the Star auto link.

 

Take care and do not run the car with the red light on for more than testing purposes.

 

Richard

[Dynamo]

This is a very useful website and I will be sending them some questions. I have never polarised the control box but will certainly do so in future. Thank you.

[Dynamo]

In my collection of 11 control boxes I have genuine Lucas , green box Lucas, reproduction, B90 nos dated 1988 and 1977,new Durite and others.

 

Last week I bought a second hand box from e bay for £3.00. It is very dirty outside and comes from a Triumph Herald.

 

I fitted it last night and now everything is just as it should be. I am very pleased because this now allows me to test all the other stock and identify if they work or not.

 

The date on my old box is 1964. This kit is 43 years old and works immediately with a nice steady ammeter needle. I am becoming obsessed by this subject and will now spend months checking the ammeter instead of watching for speed traps.

 

Can fitting a duff control box upset my new Dynamo?

 

Thank you to all who have helped.

[Dynamo]

I have bought a moving coil ammeter and have the manual. I am nervous about adjusting a control box and hoped that full scale renewal of the two units and connecting cables would get me out of trouble. This is getting very long winded. Thank you for your help.