Datsun 2000 Update

The shocks are not installed yet, but the rest of the front suspension has been sandblasted, painted, and re-installed as it should be.  Chip also disassembled, blasted, and painted the rear suspension and changed the existing bump stops out for a more appropriate size.  Coupled with the shock adjustments, the ride will be so much more compliant.

Here’s a look at the nice coil and plug wires, among other things.  The new coil is able to reliably handle 12 volts, rather than reducing 12 volts to around 8 like the old one was doing.

Cleaned up rear shackle and new bump stop.  We’ll keep the site up to date as we continue the progress.

British Car Rotor Button Tech Tip

Does your rotor button look like this?  Is the contact held onto the plastic with a rivet?  If so, you may experience a misfire or ignition failure.  The original Lucas rotor contacts were recessed into the plastic and did not use a rivet.  On these rivet designs, the bottom of the rivet ends up being very close to the spring clip on the underside of the rotor, which means there is insufficient insulation between the contact and the distributor shaft.  Electricity follows the path of least resistance, which in this particular case means it grounds out through the rivet on to the spring clip and then to the distributor shaft, all of which means no spark to your plugs.  We replace these when we come across them to avoid ignition problems.  If you’re having ignition problems, this is a good item to put on the checklist.

Triumph TR6 Restoration

Most car folks love a nicely restored car and UK Motorsports is no different.  If a car needs maintenance, maintenance it gets.  If the owner wants a restoration, we can do that too.  Below is a brief tour of a TR6 we restored.

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Here we’ve got the chassis once we put the motor back on it and started piecing everything back together.

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Adding more accessories under the hood.

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Interior coming along nicely.

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Finished and back for a visit.

1968 Datsun 2000 Continued

Above is empty space in which the suspension for this 2000 roadster used to reside.  It will return after some cleaning and adjustment.  Chip was looking into some information the owner provided about the harshness of the ride and discovered that the adjustable Konis on the car were set full-stiff… making the shocks reluctant to rebound once compressed.  Let’s take a look at the parts off of the car in the picture below.

The lower and upper A-arms are there next to the orange Koni.  Something else we shall remedy is that the ball joints on each A-arm should have rubber boots around them to hold the grease.  We’ll get those replaced to protect the ball joints.

Continuing on his tour of the undercarriage, Chip observed an oil leak at the front of the oil pan.  Take a look at this picture and you may spot the problem.

This is the front of the oil pan looking from underneath the car.  The second bolt-hole from the left is empty.  That’s most unhelpful.  The hole is filled with Permatex.  We’ll get the pan off and replace any of the studs that need replacing.

Still left to do are some improvements to the ignition.  The car has an electronic distributor on it, but it’s currently coupled to an older coil.  In a nutshell, it’s a 12 volt distributor connected to a coil that in reality only reaches about 8 volts.  The end result is that the ignition is not getting the full benefit of that nice electronic 12 volt distributor.  We’ll remedy that also.

These drivability improvements should render a noticeably better ride,  encouraging the owner to keep it out and about as much as possible.

Triumph TR6 Front Differential Mount Repair

Perhaps you have heard of the common TR250/TR6 differential-mount weakness.  We have repaired some of those and will try to illustrate the problem.

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The above picture depicts the problem.  Over the years, stress to the mount weakens it and it cracks.  It’s a weak point.  That split at the bolt is not supposed to be there.  What we do is weld it back together and then add metal to box it in and make it stronger.

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This picture shows how we get to the top of the mounting point without removing the body off of the frame.  The stress on the mount causes spider cracks (or worse) on this side.

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This last picture shows the mount (different TR6 in the picture) re-welded and new metal added on other other two sides to “box” it in and strengthen it.  These mounts are great items to put on the checklist if you have or are in the market for a 250 or 6.

1968 Datsun 2000 Roadster

This 1968 Datsun 2000 came into the shop for some odds and ends and we thought we would use it to illustrate a common upgrade that many owners choose to make.  What we do is add relays for the headlights and any driving lights.  The idea is to take the electrical load off of the decades-old dash switches and move it to the new relays.  The dash switches then simply switch the relays.  Just a simple little touch to make everything a tad more robust.

Here is a photograph of the relays in place.  If you have any questions, do let us know.

Fuel Injected Triumph TR4

This TR4 is from our own Dean Tetterton’s family.  Dean became intrigued by the promise of precision fuel mixture control afforded by fuel injection, so he looked into the fuel injection kits for British cars offered by Rick Patton of Patton Machine.  The improvements are in throttle reponse rather than horsepower, and I encourage you to read Patton’s explanation of the benefits here. Patton also makes mention of two completed TR6 conversions, one of whom reports regularly seeing over 30 mpg and another getting 28 mpg.

The necessary alterations include an electric fuel pump with 15 pounds of pressure, a fuel return line back to the gas tank, and four sensors.  The sensors are a water temperature sensor, a throttle position sensor, a manifold air pressure sensor, and an O2 sensor in the exhaust.    These sensors relay information to an E.C.U. mounted in the passenger compartment which controls ignition and fuel delivery. Let’s take a tour to see what the new parts look like in place.  Double click on any of the photos to make them larger.

Above is the engine bay after the complete installation.  The adapters are the billet pieces underneath the carb lids.  The injectors are standard GM parts in plentiful supply.  The fuel pressure regulator is also visible just to the left of the left side air cleaner.

A closer shot of the fuel pressure regulator.

Above is a picture of the throttle position sensor, which is the black plastic piece in the center of the photo underneath the two hoses.

This picture shows the Manifold Air Pressure sensor mounted on the firewall.  It’s connected to a vacuum line that runs to the manifold.

Above, you can see the required new fuel return line exiting the engine bay to run down along the passenger’s side frame rail and return to the fuel tank.

The water temperature sensor screws into a bung welded into the thermostat housing for the TR4.  TR6 conversions do not require a new bung, as they have an easier location to install the water temperature sensor.

The distributor is now controlled by the E.C.U. mounted in the passenger compartment.

The Check Engine Light mounted in place of the choke knob.  Seriously, it’s real.  Once the parts are in place, custom tuning is available and included in the kit price.  Owners may drive their car with a laptop hooked up to the E.C.U. to collect data and then send the recorded files to Affordable Fuel Injection, who looks at everything and sends back refined files fine-tuned to your application.

The result is a well-controlled ratio of air to fuel at every rpm.  In other words, your old British car responds to the throttle as precisely as all the modern cars you drive.  Indeed, if all you know are modern cars, you may not appreciate the shortcomings of some carburetor systems.  Dean reports the standard response from those who drive his TR4 is, “Wow.”

Rear shot of the rare 1964 Triumph TR4 Fuel Injected model.  Questions?  Shoot us an e-mail or call.  We love this stuff.

1960 Triumph TR3

This TR3 had been sitting for a number of years when we got it.  The owner decided to take the plunge on a re-paint so we disassembled everything and sent the body out to the painter.  Meanwhile, we set about upgrading details to make the car a reliable and robust performer, like installing a BP270 cam in the rebuilt motor, adding relays in the wiring, replacing the old fuel line with new, rebuilding the brakes, and other odds and ends.  Click any of the pictures below for a larger (much larger!) view.

Here she sits on the operating table being reassembled.

Here’s a peek under the bonnet.  Everyone loves a clean engine bay.

The wiring is coming along nicely.

New fuel line bent into shape by Dean.

Interior yet to be trimmed.