Chris Seymour Posted June 5, 2020 Report Share Posted June 5, 2020 So decided to take my TR6 for a run today. Did a 20 mile motorway jaunt at 50 mph. When I pulled up and let the engine tick over, the oil pressure was only hovering above the first bar and the ignition light was flickering. Blipped the throttle, and the light goes out and the pressure gauge needle moves up a bit. Is this normal? Only bought the car last November, had a full nut and bolt restoration including engine, done in 2017 by the previous owner and has only covered 750 miles of which 500 are mine! Has squeaky front brakes which I’m hoping a dab of copper grease on the back of the pads will solve, and a very annoying issue where the bonnet keeps popping open when you drive down a bumpy road. I have checked and adjusted the alignment of the sprung catch to the mating half, screwed the screw inside the spring both ways and every time I go down the road the bonnet pops open! It drives me around the wall and have run out of ideas on how to cure it. Going back to oil pressure, what should it read and at what revs? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BlueTR3A-5EKT Posted June 5, 2020 Report Share Posted June 5, 2020 Welcome Chris, Your car looks splendid - Is it still carbs? Be very careful with the bonnet. If you 'adjust' it and it ends up jammed you will probably break the release cable in an enthusiastic pulling spree. Fit a second release cable or an emergency release mechanism before you get into adjusting anything. Lubricating may just do it. Lots on here about stuck bonnets. Cheers Peter W Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Seymour Posted June 5, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2020 Not a carb model, don’t be fooled by the front! When it was restored for some reason the owner preferred the American front end look. Photographs of the start of restoration shows the indicators in the front valence. It has a secondary bonnet release fitted by the restorers, it’s all nicely greased. There must be factory settings when they came off the production line? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ntc Posted June 5, 2020 Report Share Posted June 5, 2020 1 hour ago, Chris Seymour said: So decided to take my TR6 for a run today. Did a 20 mile motorway jaunt at 50 mph. When I pulled up and let the engine tick over, the oil pressure was only hovering above the first bar and the ignition light was flickering. Blipped the throttle, and the light goes out and the pressure gauge needle moves up a bit. Is this normal? Only bought the car last November, had a full nut and bolt restoration including engine, done in 2017 by the previous owner and has only covered 750 miles of which 500 are mine! Has squeaky front brakes which I’m hoping a dab of copper grease on the back of the pads will solve, and a very annoying issue where the bonnet keeps popping open when you drive down a bumpy road. I have checked and adjusted the alignment of the sprung catch to the mating half, screwed the screw inside the spring both ways and every time I go down the road the bonnet pops open! It drives me around the wall and have run out of ideas on how to cure it. Going back to oil pressure, what should it read and at what revs? Check the cones are fitted correctly and your tick over is set to low Quote Link to post Share on other sites
aardvark Posted June 5, 2020 Report Share Posted June 5, 2020 Chris - the owners manual says 45 to 65 psi at 2000 revs. This is with engine hot. cheers dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike C Posted June 5, 2020 Report Share Posted June 5, 2020 Welcome. Your idling speed might be too low. I set my idling speed to 800-900 rpm to minimize low speed pressure pulses on the MU and throttle butterflies. Make sure the bonnet is set to close with the plunger absolutely concentric on the latch hole- any attempt to correct bonnet gaps by using the bonnet closure operation to force the bonnet sideways will also leave it liable it to spring open when the body twists. Also if you have a repro latch it will have a round steel wire spring, these are much weaker than the original latches which had a spring made of square section steel. I guess Triumph had a reason back in the day to use the far more expensive square wire spring. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dblenk Posted June 6, 2020 Report Share Posted June 6, 2020 I had the same issue when I got it back from a tr specialist drove me nuts it was the adjustment on the spring bracket fitted to the bonnet oil press as said 50psi at 2000rpm was always my guide when hot I also found I had the wrong filter fitted again another specialist but sorted I remember talking to Neil (NTC) about it david Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Seymour Posted June 6, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2020 David, what adjustment did you do? I have adjusted the position of the spring to make sure it is inline with the mating half. It’s whether I screw the the spring bolt in or out? Need also to check my tick over, what rpm should a hot engine tick over at? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Seymour Posted June 6, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2020 19 hours ago, Mike C said: Welcome. Your idling speed might be too low. I set my idling speed to 800-900 rpm to minimize low speed pressure pulses on the MU and throttle butterflies. Make sure the bonnet is set to close with the plunger absolutely concentric on the latch hole- any attempt to correct bonnet gaps by using the bonnet closure operation to force the bonnet sideways will also leave it liable it to spring open when the body twists. Also if you have a repro latch it will have a round steel wire spring, these are much weaker than the original latches which had a spring made of square section steel. I guess Triumph had a reason back in the day to use the far more expensive square wire spring. Hi Mike, I have checked and adjusted the spring to make sure it lines up centrally with the latch hole. Both halves are new replacements when the the car was restored by the previous owner. Could it be that they are not up to the job? 23 hours ago, BlueTR3A-5EKT said: Welcome Chris, Your car looks splendid - Is it still carbs? Be very careful with the bonnet. If you 'adjust' it and it ends up jammed you will probably break the release cable in an enthusiastic pulling spree. Fit a second release cable or an emergency release mechanism before you get into adjusting anything. Lubricating may just do it. Lots on here about stuck bonnets. Cheers Peter W 5 hours ago, dblenk said: I had the same issue when I got it back from a tr specialist drove me nuts it was the adjustment on the spring bracket fitted to the bonnet oil press as said 50psi at 2000rpm was always my guide when hot I also found I had the wrong filter fitted again another specialist but sorted I remember talking to Neil (NTC) about it david Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ntc Posted June 6, 2020 Report Share Posted June 6, 2020 As I said check the bonnet cones fit right at each corner if you adjust the catch without you are making more problems. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike C Posted June 6, 2020 Report Share Posted June 6, 2020 I agree , check bonnet cones, rubbers each of the bonnet, make sure the plunger has no side force on it when the bonnet closes and check the latch has a square section spring. I bought a repro latch with a round spring opening force on cable connector =0.5kg, original latch with square spring=1.5kg. So I junked the new latch. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rob Salisbury Posted June 6, 2020 Report Share Posted June 6, 2020 Hi, If all else fails with the bonnet popping try this, remove the central striking pin (Pt No.611622) and check the shape of the shoulder that abuts the moving latch, it needs to have a fairly sharp edge and little or no downward slope, if it's got a rounded edge then the latch slips off and the bonnet pops, you can correct the shape using a hand file. Cheers Rob Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike C Posted June 6, 2020 Report Share Posted June 6, 2020 11 minutes ago, Rob Salisbury said: Hi, If all else fails with the bonnet popping try this, remove the central striking pin (Pt No.611622) and check the shape of the shoulder that abuts the moving latch, it needs to have a fairly sharp edge and little or no downward slope, if it's got a rounded edge then the latch slips off and the bonnet pops, you can correct the shape using a hand file. Cheers Rob I did that and also made sure it was not overlubricated. This made an improvement but my own real problem was using the latch to try and help square up the bonnet. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Seymour Posted July 5, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2020 So finally solved my popping bonnet! Turned out to be the poor quality new pattern latch plate. Now fitted an original one that I cleaned up and painted. The spring on the latch after at least 40/50 years is much stronger than the new pattern rubbish. The latch fully returns where the pattern one with weak spring didn’t fully return. Brakes now no longer squeal after replacing pads with Greenstuff pads and anti squeal shims. What I did find out is that my car has the earlier callipers and not the metric ones that it should have for it’s age! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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