Rear Suspension Work

 Wow, another year slips by without a post. Not a lot going on with the car project but I have fiddled with it from time to time.

Over the past year I've purchased a differential and started trying to fit it into my narrowed Miata rear subframe. After cutting out some large chunks (new plasma cutter!) it became pretty apparent that this wasn't the best differential choice as far as mounting style. But it is what I have and I'm not turning back now! I took a few days this past week and have managed to fabricate and weld in the rear diff mount. Need to fab up the front diff mount and then it'll be time to try and fit it into the car.

To do that I'll have to empty the car first. Oh, it's still full from the move. Well add that to the "to-do" list.

Also purchased in the last while was seat tracks. The plan is to put in non Triumph seats but using the Triumph seat tracks should make it easier.

It is funny leaving the project and coming back to it. The first impression I had was WOW those doors shut great. Give it a little push and it clicks home so easy. I know it wasn't like that when I bought it. I was also impressed by how solid the repaired areas are. Yes there are areas that need a little body filler due to ripples or whatever but it's solid. So cool.

I'm Still Here - Just Busy

 It has been about a year since my last post. Sadly it's probably been that long since I've done much to the car but not from lack of wanting to. This being a hobby it gets pushed to the back of the line of many things on my to do list. And since my last post we moved. Selling a house, buying another and moving are very time consuming. But the housing market being what it was and choices being limited we ended up buying a fixer upper. This has taken most of my free time and little time for hobbies. But things are getting more under control now and I even bought a part for the car project (a driveshaft). Perhaps I'll actually get to working on it again.

Here are some pictures of the car on the car transporter. The car's cabin is filled with most of the parts needed to finish the car. Under hood is the engine and radiator. There may be a few more things added but not a lot. Judging from the tire gap it appears the new engine and configuration has the front end lighter. Hard to say until everything is assembled but it's looking that way.

Ran The Engine - Differential Woes

 Wow haven't updated this in a bit. Since I wrote last I sorted out the computer issues that were keeping the car from trying to start. Bought a new battery and was ready for another test run. Oddly there was an issue with the fuel pump piping. There are 2 fuel lines coming out of the pump, one is for a siphoning pump or something. Previously I had just left it to recirculate back into the tank but it appears it needs some back pressure or nearly all the pressure goes out that line. Odd it hadn't done it before. For now I plugged it. With that solved the engine ran good and let it run for 5 min before deciding to shut it off.

Next on the to-do list is sort out a differential. Wanted to go with a BMW E36 LSD with a 2.93 ratio. I've purchased a 2.67 set of gears that I could swap in as I don't think I'll need much help getting off the line with about 3x the power and low RPM on the freeway would be great. Pretty set on the LSD as with the extra power really need the help getting it to the ground.

Previously I had stopped by a junk yard, a couple hours away, to get one that was listed as LSD but when I went to pick it up it wasn't LSD so no go (visually looked inside after by spinning it didn't feel like it had LSD). Tried another yard on vacation that listed one but they said I should give them a week to pull it. Perhaps next time I'm by this way. Since we haven't been by we call them and see if they will ship it. After several calls to them and getting they are checking on it with no return calls we give up (they never have called back). So we order one from a junk yard far away that has it listed as LSD and the right ratio etc. Told them if it isn't LSD don't ship it. They say they checked it and it's LSD and ship it to me. When I get it the diff has a totally different case and mounting as it's from the wrong year of car and the year range of car it's from NEVER came with LSD at all. I have a diff just like only feet away from where I open the box. I'm beginning to think that the yards don't know how to tell an Open diff from LSD. The yard isn't willing to admit their mistake and I end up having to cover shipping back to them at the tune of $83. Being charged for their incompetence doesn't sit well.

Think it's time to abandon looking for the unicorn differential. Buying and aftermarket LSD spool to add LSD is crazy expensive. Do I use the open diff I have or hold out for some other LSD. Looking for alternatives there are few modern vehicles with LSD. And few cars seem to have the ratio's i'm looking for open or not LSD. And to top it off the only versions that do have LSD seem to be from performance V8 cars so the diff is BIG. Would be over-sized for what I need and smashing a huge diff in this little car seems unnecessary but might be the way to go.

Running the motor again

It won't Start! But before I get to that an update on progress. Cooling hoses are connected up enough for testing. Here is a pic I took when it was mostly done.

After the cooling lines were all connected I powered up the electrical system and put the key in and it won't engage the starter. Bad deal. The cluster now says the steering lock is defective and red steering wheel lights up on the dash. That s a new and bad error. We have stripped a ton of wires from the harness but I've checked and all the ones for the steering lock are intact and look good. Using VCDS it surprisingly shows the immobilizer is happy. The steering steering lock is in the unlocked position. The steering lock quit locking on earlier engine starts due to some of the modules I removed.

I'm a bit frustrated with it. Not sure if the steering lock module is now broken, something else is broken, some wire to something else is missing causing it to think it's broken or if the no start is something unrelated. It may be time to remove the IMMO but if the issue is something else that's be kind of a waste and might not fix it. Already spent many hours looking over wiring diagrams and checking things. Fixed a couple wires that were mistakenly removed but so far still no starter action.

I've taken the steering lock apart and checked it to see if it just failed but it appears good. I expect it is likely a wiring problem from us removing gobs of wires or man handling the wires but where? My guess at the moment is either the J393 module or J519 module. Checked over the J393 module connections last night and none of the removed wires appear significant. Did find out that unplugging the J393 module allowed things to power up (T15) and NO steering defective error on the dash (no errors in the text window and and just a few lights). Strange. Oh with J393 plugged in and the steering lock unplugged or the steering wheel module unplugged nothing powers up. Or if the Steering lock is in the locked position (and everything plugged in) nothing powers up (it currently set to the unlocked position.)

Things I changed before the steering lock error went off. I found a ground wire not grounded. However this wire was simply a diode to ground from one of the power leads in the fuse box. Grounding the wire didn't appear to change anything. Recoded the comfort module (J393) back to Auto trans along with the steering wheel electronics back to Auto trans. Then the steering lock error (red steering wheel) went off and the steering lock started actuating again. The engine allowed to start field in VCDS is now showing as Yes.

The cluster still says "depress clutch", odd as I can't find anything that is not coded to auto trans with the exception of the gateway, which I've unchecked the auto trans as that module isn't there. On J519 there is a wire that ran to the P/N switch and looks like may go to the clutch switch on manual trans cars. When grounding that wire (T16g/7) the J519 module sees the P/N switch as activated. With that wire grounded pressing the key all the way in now activates the starter relay. Now I just need a better battery and some fuel and it should run again!

Got a new battery and the car started then died. No new errors. Seemed a bit fuel starved. Ran the pump a bunch of times hoping to get the air out but the engine would fire up, fun a bit and die. The fuel lines were connected the exact same way as the first time. So seemed like it should work. Looking at the fuel pump assembly I noticed a large amount of fuel coming out the extra line, I thought it was just for the 4motion version. The tube I had that would attach there inside the 4motion tank was quite restrictive so I just plugged it (see picture) and the car started and ran just fine. Ran the engine for about 5 min. and shut it down. So success there. The wiring and modules seem happy again.

After looking up new fuel pumps seems the FWD (2wd) version also has this same tube out of the fuel pump? Weird. Will have to research that a bit more.



Below is a picture of the bin holding the wiring and a few electronics boxes we have extracted so far from the wire harness. And that's not even all of it.

Possible Rear Disk Brake Conversion :-)

 This week we finished up the temporary hose routing then tried to start the engine. Sadly it was complaining of some error and wouldn't even engage the starter. Strange as we had this setup working before and only removed wires that weren't connected to anything. After much time reading diagrams and checking thing and changing some coding back to automatic transmission we were able to get the error to go away. Unfortunately the battery is dying so I need to replace that before going farther.

Also on Saturday we brought in the floor from one of the scrapped GT6's. I kept it for the purpose of testing new suspension fitting. It's very liberating to be able to cut without worry that it's not the "right" place. And after I cut and fit it, sure enough, I could see a better spot to cut. So nice to have a practice run.

Overall it's not looking bad. Looks like I need to enlarge the suspension/axle tunnel 3-4" forward. I'll try to move the rear suspension cross brace forward a couple inches to avoid cutting the rear of the suspension tunnel on the actual car. Would like to get my differential to see how it fits in first (Waiting on the salvage yard). Then there is the integrating this part into the Triumph frame. Always more to do.

Radiator Hoses - Possible New Rear Suspension?

One night I decided to modify some suspension parts I bought for the project quite a long time ago. Was kind of a whim thing to work on this now and especially with so little planning but it looks like it might have turned out. Narrowed it 8 7/8 inches. Time will tell if this is a good amount or not. It's just tacked together so it is easy enough to change.

 This week was spent fitting radiator hoses. Bought a bunch of 90 degree elbows, misc hoses and an aluminum tube. Starting to fit it all to the motor. Used the simple wire crimper method to bead the end of the tube. No pictures but there's plenty on the web. Right now I'm skipping connecting up the heater and some of that misc. I can do that later. Waiting on some caps to cap off the unused ports.

Mounting The Radiator

 Now that we have a fan shroud and radiator it's time to put them in the car. The GT6 and spitfire use different mounting points on the frame.

Since my frame is a GT6 the spitfire mounts aren't there. Also the spitfire puts the radiator into a bracket then mounts it to the frame. Which I also don't have. So decided to make my own mounts.

Wasn't much of a chore to make them. Now the radiator is mounted and I can move on to fitting cooling hoses to the engine.

Fan Shroud

 Last 2 weekends I worked on creating a fan shroud. Plan is to use the Passat OEM fan so it'll play nice with the ECU. Wanted to use the Passat radiator too but it was too large to fit under the hood. Looked at using the GT6 radiator but with the engine so far back the Gap between the radiator and the engine looked ridiculous. Decided to buy a cheap Spitfire radiator as it sits farther back. Yah it's from a 4 cyl but the radiator area looked about the same. The GT6 is more vertical where the Spitfire is more horizontal. If it's a problem we'll probably go with a custom radiator However most hotrods, including my last engine swap, seem to have problems cooling in traffic not doing high HP runs.. which tends to be due to not enough air flow over the radiator and not the radiator size. So this car will be getting a fan shroud which should greatly improve the low speed cooling. Anyway back to the fabrication.

Fan shroud version 1 I created out of some aluminum sheet laying around. Thought it'd make a nice shroud to go with the aluminum radiator. And not having to paint it was a plus. It was going ok but it was starting to crack from some of the bending and joining the bent over flanges was looking like a drag. The metal was probably a bit too thick for what I was doing with it.

Fan shroud version 2 I made out of some 18 ga metal I had left. Working with the sheet steel was fun. It was easier to bend and I could easily weld bits together. Anyway it is pretty much complete except for paint.

Alternator Bracket.....Done

 Been awhile since I took time to work on the car. Most of my Saturdays of late have been dedicated to house projects. And it also got hot so the garage wasn't fun to hang out in. Recently the weather cooled a bit and I thought it was time for a Saturday in the garage.

Last Saturday was spent on the Alternator bracket. I'd cobbled one together for proof of concept but it was too flimsy to hold it while running. 

So basically made a similar bracket but in thicker metal. The final part is 5 pieces welded together. I'd make a paper template from the flimsy bracket then cut it in metal and weld that piece on. 

Looks to have turned out nice and sturdy. One thing done.

Oh one other day I decided to try sitting in the car and see how the steering and pedal position would feel (I've never driven a triumph). I'm also considering changing the steering column to be parallel to the axis of the car instead of angled as it comes from the factory. Also wanted to see what room was there if I used the Passat gas pedal. Anyway I tossed in a two 2x4 chunks stacked to be the seat. After climbing in I tossed out one of the 2x4's as two was too many and my head was too close to the ceiling. That seat won't have much cushion.

Alternator Bracket, V2, Wiring Thinning

 Since last entry, time has been spent thinning the wiring harness. I purchased a copy of "VCDS" and an interface which is used for coding VW modules. With that I was able to tell most of the modules to not worry about the Auto trans, Electric power steering, tire pressure monitoring, Airbags and bunches of other non essential items. Haven't had time to try and recode the ECU, which is a bit trickier, but with the changes so far we are able to still start the motor without the items previously mentioned attached. With that completed we opened up a lot of the wire harness and started removing unneeded wires. I know wiring is not what some people enjoy but for me it feels like a mix between a puzzle and a treasure hunt. Working on the wiring has been a relaxing activity for the both of us on many evenings.

If memory serves, the past 2 Saturdays were spent making test fit alternator brackets to check clearances. Holding the alternator in position to check clearances and make templates was very difficult so went with the plan to just make something quickly out of scraps and then measure how far off it was to make another better one. Was a good strategy as the first one made didn't work out. no surprise. Originally I mounted the alternator as close to the motor as possible. My first thought was to skip using a tensioner but just swing the alternator out to tension the belt. I'll include a picture of that original setup. But to tension the belt I'd have to slide the alternator up more than pivot it. Decided a tensioner or at the very least an idler pulley would be best. There was no space for the original Passat tensioner and the alternator at the same time. Thought of making my own thing but it looked like the tensioner from the 3.2L 24V VR6 would fit my engine and that tensioner has most of it's structure forward and right of the alternator leaving room for the alternator. Alternator bracket was quickly revised to test placement. In the picture of V2 the tensioner is locked in the nearly full loose position. It will swing to the right (left in the picture) to apply tension to the belt.

Now to see if I can get a belt the right size and make a permanent bracket.

VR6 Running in the GT6!!!

 This week we put together the oil system. A custom adapter plate to the engine to some AN lines to a remote oil filter. It ended up in the wheel well as it's tight inside the engine compartment. I think that it won't get in the way of the front wheel. If it does it can be moved.

Also found that the oil dipstick wasn't in an ideal location now. Changing how the coolant pipes run made it in a less desirable location. So bent that up and welded on a new holding bracket. Also cobbled up some temporary set up for the fuel pump and piping to the engine.

Then it was a new set of spark plugs and connect up all the electrical fittings. Friday night it was all together but it wouldn't start. Was giving a bunch of errors codes for stuff on the motor. Time to call it a night.

Saturday morning we went out and pulled a spark plug. The plug was wet, so we were getting gas. Checked and no spark. Humm. More looking and there was no power getting to the coils at all. No power to the coils and the other errors were probably all from the same issue. After looking at some wiring information It had to be the power source to the coils (and other stuff ) wasn't working but how was the power run to the coils. Long story short the connector that brought in coil power and a few other wires that didn't go to or through the ECU had the wrong thing plugged into it. Simple fix and voilà it started the next try.

Here is a very short video of it starting and running:

Car On The Wall

 The weather has improved so there was some time spent in the garage. One thing that needed to be done is to sort out the wiring harness. I pulled the harness, nearly complete, from the donor car. along with most of the computers, switches, fuse boxes etc.. To make it easy to sort out I pinned the wiring up on the wall and then plugged in all the computers and switches. This made it much easier to find the wires I need to keep and what I need to ditch.

While it is there I also plan to use it to test run the motor. With the wiring and computers on the wall I ran the cable for the engine ECU to the car and plugged it in. Also ran some grounding straps to connect the critical items. Put the key in and it lights up and unlocks the steering column and shifter. It looks like every error light still lights though, oh well, I won't be using that cluster anyway so no worries there.

The oil filter and dipstick need to be fitted to the engine before I can even see if it turns over. That's next on the "to do" list.

Tach And Speedometer Converted To Electrical

 Since the last entry I've converted the Tach to be driven by a stepper motor. The Tach was much easier as expected. The plate that holds the needle etc. on the Tach is the same as the speedometer but is just missing the Odometer parts. What wasn't expected is that that tach plate from my GT6 was more like the TR7 speedometer insides than the GT6 speedometer insides (or the other GT6 Tach I have). Probably this Tach was replaced at some point and the internals are the newer design. Funny though as now both the speedo and tach have matching insides.

When mounting the stepper motor in the tach, this time, I printed a template on the 3D printer to help mark the holes that I needed to drill. This worked perfectly. Should have thought to use the printer for this type of work sooner.

After calibrating the tach I edited my program to drive both the tach and the speedo at the same time. Been a pretty fun project. Still need to make a bracket to hold the tiny computer onto the backside of the speedo (that computer will drive the tach as well). Now the car can have its new engine while keeping the original, yet altered, gauges

Speedometer Driven By Stepper Motor

 This week was spent installing the X27 stepper motor into the Smiths speedometer. The magnetic mechanical drive was removed and there was almost enough space. With a little grinding on the housing space was made. Had to drill 2 holes to mount the stepper. the holes were 2mm dia and accuracy was a must. But like all my other hole drilling experiences, the holes were just a bit off. With a little slotting things are pretty close. Close enough for some testing anyway. Cut the Speedometer spindle short and 3D printed a coupler to mate the speedo spindle to the stepper motor.

Turns out the TR7 speedo has slightly larger bolts holding the gauge face on then the GT6. But opening them up the tiniest amount the GT6 face bolted right on. Luckily the GT6 needle seems to fit on no problem. With some calibration of the stepper motor to the gauge I am now able to enter a MPH into the program and the needle points to it on the gauge. See video if interested https://youtu.be/iNGHQlcFkZA May not seem like a big deal but it feels like an accomplishment to me :-) Oh the odometer isn't installed in the video but it's all basically done. Just need to tidy up a few things and reassemble it.

The odometer stepper motor is taking some space of the high beam light tube. I could probably make it all squish in but felt like putting in some LED's for the warning lights would be a better all round solution. Ordered some 1.8mm LED's that should fit nicely on the end of the smaller warning light and inside the larger one. My only concern was if they would be bright enough. After they arrived did some testing and the light it is plenty bright, maybe too bright for the high beam. The LED is much smaller than the large bulb and tube it replaces. Makes the large assembly look comical in comparison.

This has been a fun project. Just a few more tweaks and this will be done. Also need to convert the Tach and perhaps the temp gauge(s) but they should be much simpler now.

Oil Filter And Converting Speedo To Electrical

 With the weather firmly in the cold zone not much has been done in the garage. Before the cold hit I started work on relocating the oil filter. The OEM filter was not going to fit and relocation made sense. However I couldn't find anywhere that sold an adapter for my engine. The closest one available was for a slightly different version of the motor and the maker couldn't tell me if it would fit and one of their distributors said it wouldn't. Took a plate and drilled it out and had some AN10 fittings welded to it. Volia adapter plate. Have pretty much everything I need to finish the relocation except for warm weather. Looking for projects to do inside instead.

Which brings me to gauges. Since I'm changing the motor and trans there isn't mechanical outputs to drive the tach and speedo gauges. The easiest thing would be to put in some smiths replica gauges but I don't want to give up on the mechanical odometer. For some reason this retro feature makes me laugh and want it to stay. Which brings me to a project I'd started work on two years ago but got put aside when the weather warmed that year.

Electrically driving the Triumph gauges. Seems like a fun project. My idea is to cram in a stepper motor to drive the odometer and one to move the speedo needle. Looking at the Odometer the trip and odometer are both driven individually which would make another stepper to drive the trip odometer. Room inside is at a premium and it does take a bit of torque to rotate the odometers. To make a long story short, I found the TR7/8 had a mechanical odometer but the trip odometer was driven by a gear from the main odometer. The guts of the speedometer bolt into the GT6 housing. Found one forsale cheap who's input was all froze up. With some modifications I was able to get the odometer stepper located in a way that it will all fit into the housing. Sweet. Just need to fabricate up some small mounting bracket and that's done. The speedo needle looks pretty straight forward. I bought some x27 stepper motors that are specifically made for gauge needles. Plan to use them for the speedo needle, tach, temp maybe all the needle gauges. Connected up one of the steppers to an Arduino and it seems dead simple to control. Just need to mount it.

More to come.

Adapting engine into the car

 Turned the car around in the garage. This car is so small I was able to fit it between the other two cars while turning it. No need to back any of them out. Now that it has the LH side out I can work on adapting the coolant system and oil system. Also found that the factory alternator from the donor car won't fit. So will do some adapting there. Decided it would be best to install the steering column to ensure there is adequate space around that. Took the column from one of the worst parts car so I don't have to worry so much about damaging it. On the plus side the steering fits no problem.

Not much to show at this point as most of the work has been in research and measuring. I've fabricated and bought a few parts but nothing has been fully assembled. The donor car radiator is slightly too big to fit. Think I'll fit a spitfire radiator as with the engine so far back there is no need to have the way far forward GT6 radiator.

Lots more to come.

Engine Repair Complete

Where did November go? Time flies. The engine timing chain, guides, oil pump and high pressure fuel pump cam have all been replaced, Timing covers back on, oil pan cleaned out and resealed. Engine fixed. Now back to customizing.

Did a little more to improve the adapter plate. Added 2 counter sink bolts. Turned out nice but forgot to take a picture. It'll be apart again later. Put on the flywheel, clutch and starter. Tested the starter and it was a bit too tight to the ring gear. A little adjustment to the adapter plate and it seems to be working nicely now. Put the transmission on. The first time it has been installed with the clutch. It seems to mesh. Currently there is no release bearing mechanism in the transmission. Thinking of going with a concentric throw out bearing system but will worry about that later. With no driveshaft the car won't be needing a clutch anyway.

Next up is to turn the car around so the LH side is facing out. That way I can get better access to the oil filter area which needs customizing before I can try and start the engine.

Engine Repair

Been busy with other things and couldn't get to working on the triumph. One of the things taking my time was my boating hobby. Last weekend I sold the boat. That will no longer get in the way.

This Saturday i pulled the motor to begin the timing chain guide repair. I bought the donor car cheap as this needed to be done. With the engine out I figured It would be fairly straight forward. Won't bore you with the details as VR6 motors aren't the focus of this forum. But one hang up is the oil pump needs replaced. Due to issues with the timing chain (the pump is driven by the chain) the impeller/gear was pushed hard against the back casting scoring both. Also the high pressure fuel pump cam was surface fatiguing so that needs replaced too. So need some more parts before it can go back together.

Good Bye Donor Car

 Well it has been awhile since last update. Sadly my time has been taken with other things and being able to enjoy my hobby has taken a back seat. While not directly related, but well it is, the engine donor car is finally gone! The few min I had free was spent grabbing the parts that I might want from it so it could be sent away. That day came this past weekend.

They say the happiest day of a boater is the day they buy and sell the boat. Well for a donor car that is just a true. Very happy to finally have the shell out of my way. Next free time I get can be back on the Triumph. Maybe in a couple more weekends.