April / May 2021 Issue 328

Now we all would like to be cheered by memories on mask-less summer times past and maybe we are tending to reflect a tad too much on that recently. There is strong counter undercurrent to this of course in that GWTR area bods are hard at it mechanicing, even spraying away in often draughty home garages, where the light seems never bright enough in these winter days. One such GWTR TR6 owner reports on the efforts encountered, nose scraping the chassis as it were, to overcome an errant clutch slave cylinder. For the sake of decency he will of course remain anonymous !
Given the reliable nature of the TR4 clutch actuating system it is surprising that for the TR5/6 some things were changed. Clutch Plates, Covers and Clutch Bearing system component brands change with the progression of time yet the principles hydraulically remain about the same.
So why one wondered, when using an OEM standard clutch slave cylinder did the actuating push rod keep popping out of its cylinder along with the sudden loss of pedal pressure and the fluid, again and again. A puzzle indeed, especially when using an utterly original bell housing. May be the slight variances of Bearing / Clutch Cover and Plates all added up. GWTR’s engineer checked that the reputable OEM reproduction slave cylinder was the same in length as before whilst noting that the various internal bores used in the TR2 / TR3 varied to the TR5 / TR6. Yet that should not have made any difference unless that slave rod was in fact different in length over the various ‘versions’ of slave cylinder.
Not a lot in it really with around ¼ inch critical to the rods satisfactory operation. GWTR’s intrepid TR engineers can easily spend more time in researching than in actually arriving at the practical solution, procrastination indeed the thief of time.
The crux seemed to be the TR5/6 bell housing with its slave cylinder holding plate on the radiator side as opposed to the TR4’s plate on the gearbox side. Here an absolute return to the TR4 fixings was a consideration but that would have been a departure from the TR6 Manual, not good for a future owner. Taking in various TR Register Forum suggestions the working solution pointed to using an adjustable push rod which itself then was ‘tailored’ i.e. it was chopped back by the said ¼ inch. Additionally the use of a strong return spring to bring the rod well back into the slave body ensured the disengagement of the clutch bearing on release of the foot pedal.
Clutch bleeding became a one man operation using a bleed kit and with the gearbox tunnel off. One handed espannered for the adjusting the bleed nipple tension. If the arm here is slim enough to slip through the floor gearbox /casing gap, the clutch pedal can be hand pushed downward and released for the bleeding sequence and easy to check the actual real time motion of the slave cylinder rod. Happy times, that is, before the ‘ brass monkey ‘ freezing cold weather breezed in !

Our Goodwood TR4 owner started coachwork repairs in December as he was revisiting an original repair carried out shortly after he bought his TR in 2007. Back then, the use of filler and fibreglass had turned into a bit of a marathon. After posting on the Forum he heard from David Ferry who very kindly sold on a repair panel comprising the front 6 inches of an o/s front wing. A local welder very competently joined this to the otherwise good wing and all was then stripped back to the bare metal in order to do the respray. After much patience sapping sanding, swearing & spraying he happily reports a very satisfactory result ! Having covered over 30,000 miles of ownership, understandably there were a number of chips/scrapes to most of the body panels. Having little else to do during lockdown our intrepid Tr4 owner carried on and to date has resprayed 3 x wings, one door and the boot lid. [the other panels due to follow]. But with the cold, he took the advantage of the fact that his son no longer need his bedroom and so the panels are currently are stored in there while the paint is hardening ~ much to the critique of ‘she who must be obeyed’ On this cliff hanger, the picture showing these panels will be in the next issue folks.
As you can see Goodwood area TR owners have very, very extensive hands - on experience with their TRs and often an encountered problem can be sorted out fairly easily at a reasonable DIY cost. In normal times there is nothing like chatting to owners who are actively maintaining their TRs at a Meet, currently however, any Goodwood area bods encountering a similar or indeed any TR problem can email an enquiry to gwtrgroupleader@gmail.com but as always, do include your telephone number when emailing.