Lots of half finished jobs

Gradually looking more complete

The struts for the aluminium cover (to be made!)

The top and rear water coolant pipe

Another week of bits and pieces, and a number of half finished jobs, due mainly to not having all the parts I need.

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The exhaust spacers arrived from John Ziemba, together with the long tachometer cable so I was able to quickly fit the latter, and jiggle around with the exhaust too as the pipe reducers had also arrived in the post. However, having thought that I had two suitable clamps for the silencers, I found I hadn't, so did a tour of the motorcycle outlets, motor factors, and in desperation, Halfords. The closest I came was one of the motorcycle outlets who had 47mm to 51mm stainless clamps, but not the 43 - 47mm size that I needed. Back home, and the Internet to the rescue where I quickly found suitable clamps at a much more acceptable price - £2.95 each rather than £7.95 each for the slightly larger ones at the retail outlet. I now just have to wait for the vagaries of the dear old Royal Mail to deliver same. Given that they are still delivering Christmas cards posted 10 days before Christmas, I'm not too optimistic of a quick delivery. Unfortunately I couldn't do any more on the exhaust until the clamps arrived as they had to be fitted before the reducers are pushed into place. Had a bit of a game with the reducers as, in theory, I needed all three reducers to plug the gap between the 38 mm down pipe and the 44 mm ID of the silencers. However, they just wouldn't all fit so I had to use two of the reducers and give the clamp a serious bit of tightening.

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Having already found that none of my collection of clutch and throttle cables was suitable, Sam Day had acquired a throttle cable and choke cable for me. I collected these when I delivered my water transfer pipe to him on Monday so that it could be modified to suit the short return to the radiator. That just left the clutch cable which I ordered from David Silver on Tuesday. Still, I was able to finally fathom out how the throttle cable fitted as the thread at the pedal end was a tad bigger than the turbo cable and I needed to enlarge the hole in the pedal box to accept it. I really wasn't overly happy with the rather casual fit of the throttle cable to the throttle pedal so have used a small cable tie to ensure it doesn't jump out.

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Sam had tested the two CDI units I bought on EBay and found that one was working and one wasn't - so much for the legend "In good working order"! Having got the working unit home I quickly drilled a couple of holes on the bulkhead in a position that would allow easy connection to the leads from the alternator. As the connectors on the leads from the alternator were looking a little corroded I mused on the best way to clean them, then hit on an idea - what about Coco Cola? I filled half a jam jar and dunked the three connectors into the Cola and watched 10 minutes of fizzing before becoming bored and having lunch. After lunch I removed the connectors, washed them in water and was amazed at the shiny appearance. That should give a good connection!

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As an aside, the turbo engine and ancillaries were collected by the shippers during the week and will be on their way to Australia shortly.

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Another package received this week was the coolant pipework, connectors and clamps. Fitting the top hose was quite straightforward as a 45 degree bend from the thermostat housing creates a direct line to the top radiator connection. A bit of pipe cutting and clamp fitting, and the top connection was quickly finished. The bottom hose connection was not so easy though as access is much more restricted. My plan was to use two 90 degree bends to take the coolant pipe through the bulkhead and then return behind the engine. This would then enable me to connect up to my water transfer pipe, which will be parallel to the hose from the radiator, by using a 180 degree bend. Easily said, but not quite so quick to achieve as the top hoses, primarily because access was difficult. Nevertheless, after some changes in the position of the clamps, and some judicious cutting of the bends, I now have a coolant pipe sitting patiently beside the water pump, awaiting the arrival of the transfer pipe so that the final connection can be made. On the turbo installation, the coolant overflow bottle was attached to the outside of the body - a feature that I felt was rather unattractive so I intend to fit a smaller round bottle that I will mount in the engine bay, probably on the nearside, and out of sight. Having checked around, it seems that the overflow bottle fitted to the small chassis Triumph range (Vitesse, GT6) will do the job nicely so I've ordered one of those. Oddly, the rather tatty looking secondhand ones on EBay are more expensive than new ones from the leading suppliers.

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Due to the modifications being done to the water transfer pipe, I have not attempted to fit the carburettors yet, as they sit directly over the water pump and rear coolant pipe. However, once the transfer pipe has been fitted I will be able to fit the carbs, fuel pump and fuel supply pipe. I've also bought a fuel cut off valve that works if the car is bumped - just as a precaution.

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With visitors this weekend I had little chance to do anything substantial but have managed to make two aluminium struts to support a cover for the area between the dash and the bulkhead, as well as a central strut from the bottom of the dash to the bulkhead to give the dash more support.

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Roger