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Well that was a deeply joyous day…not!

Set off nice and early this morning ready for our last call of the week in Cuddington to see Steve for cambelt service and a few other things on his Trophy. But…disaster! Our lovely camper to get us sorted after Covid and get us out working again and has been amazing and just had a new engine fitted 10k miles ago went BANG on the M62 on top of the Pennines! 😧

Call put in to the RAC and 4.5 (not bad) hours later they came and recovered us. That was one cold and noisy grass verge to wait! At least we are always prepared for the cold and wet, but still totally grim. 🥶

Absolutely top man picked us up and took us over to the workshop, where we had a chat with the company that fitted the engine, watch this space…

Have to give a mention to the couple of chaps from the Highway’s agency who came to see if we were alright, really great men doing a very hard job, big thanks to them for being kind, meant a lot.

Next problem sorted, our other form of transportation, the trusty steed had been resting due to ‘Covid contingency van’ being used, but it had ran over the MOT due date, call made and huge thanks to our local MOT station for getting us sorted last minute, which meant we could get home at least.

While we were waiting for that to be done we were still not convinced with the rear spheres on Kevin’s Trophy, and so decided to take one of them off and have a look. Sure enough, our suspicions were proved right, they had also been fitted with standard front spheres and then packed out with spacers and washers. (We will do a separate feature of this issue as it’s mentioned in our previous post on this car and may be of interest to some). So, we refitted it with a Trophy rear sphere, and pumped back up and sitting correctly.

When we came to do the same on the nearside rear, found that this one wouldn’t pump up. This was found to be due to a blockage in the hydragas pipe. With it getting very late we decided to call it a day and will return to refit a replacement pipe in the morning.

Just got home now and thawing out. Feeling very dispirited. A nice welcoming meow from the cat though who was wondering where her tea was! 🐈‍⬛

Diary scoured for a day to get back over to Steve. 🧙‍♀️ – https://ift.tt/AxXWHnP

A long, but really good day, just got home, after starting off the day in Linby for some things on this fab looking TF 135 (in British Racing Green) …

New CAT and new Lambda sensor fitted as the car had just failed the MOT on emissions. The front brake lines were found to be showing signs of corrosion, so these were replaced. Rear calipers cleaned up and freed off. The re-test was due this afternoon.

Great to meet Ian, he has owned the car from new, that he bought to impress his then girlfriend and who has been his wife ever since! It’s always so good to have a nice story and history with these cars.

Some really interesting chats about what he does for a living, plus his interest in cars. One of which, we took a couple of pics of, an Opel Manta GTE in absolutely mint condition, complete with original seats. Date to be arranged to return to sort a couple of other things.

From there we trundled up the motorway to Rotherham, as Jo had got in touch about her fab TF 135, that is currently in her sister Maria’s care and who had unfortunately found that that the exhaust flexi section decided to give way, as Maria is relying on the car for her work as a carer we were glad to be able to get over and sort it for them. Lovely to see Jo, after such a long time and meet her family. Date to be arranged to return for a couple of other things.

A visit to the workshop on the way back, for a few bit and pieces, food shop and now home, tea in the oven and admin time ensues! – https://ift.tt/rexBEpa

Keith dropped off his TF 160 (in HFN) to us as arranged, when we last saw him back in September, for assessment of the issues he had been experiencing with noisy VVC mechs.

The car had reached its 100k+ milestone and due to Keith’s attention to detail the car looks in such great condition he wanted to get the insides in as good a condition to keep her on the road to enjoy for some time to come.

Cylinder head removed this morning, which showed that it had definitely done it’s time. There was evidence of a degree of heat damage, as the oil had started to congeal and thicken throughout the head, this was most likely down to the oil pump not running at full capacity, so a new oil pump was duly fitted.

Whilst the head was off, it was easier to preempt the oil cooler issues that 160’s tend to have and fit it with a bypass.

Refurbished 160 cylinder head replaced, with all ancillaries cleaned up and refitted. Cambelts replaced along with water pump, tensioner and alternator belt.

Car back up and running nicely this afternoon and sounding a lot quieter!

Managed to get her out for a couple of photos despite the dismal weather, now all tucked up ready for collection and to be reunited with Keith at the weekend. Hopefully the weather will be a bit better by then for a topless drive home. 💚 – https://ift.tt/9FLX4np

Hundleby just outside of Spilsby today for work on Denis’s very nice looking and well cared for Steptronic.

Having done work previously such as the CVT oil and strainer service and fitting of a soft ride kit it was now time for the cambelt service.

Cambelt, water pump, tensioner, plugs, all filters and oil changed. New lambda sensor fitted as the existing lambda sensor was putting the orange light on on the dash and showing multiple error on code reading. Denis had also been experiencing a sticking accelerator when initially setting off, and thought the cable may need replacing, but we found it to be the accelerator pedal itself that the bushes had become worn on, so we fitted a replacement pedal and it now feels a lot easier. We went armed with new discs and pads, but found that the ones on it were like new so we saved him a bit of unnecessary expenditure there. Denis did feel that the braking wasn’t quite as responsive as his other cars, but this is due to the standard kit that was originally fitted to this model of 240 mm discs all round. We’ve advised that maybe next time he could move up to the kit that Will Naylor produces, which doesn’t require a bigger wheel upgrade.

We then popped over road to see David’s equally always fab looking TF 135. David had asked if we could swap out a couple of sensors for him when we were there as he’d noticed he also had Lambda sensor issues and a cam sensor issue on his code reader.

Lambda sensor replaced and the cam sensor was also replaced. All error codes cleared.

Great to see them both again briefly between walking and shopping trips, together with some favourable weather and a good couple of cuppas.

Busy day at the workshop yesterday, with the welding done on Jim and Karen’s TF and it’s mashed in sill, all ready for collection at the weekend.

Kevin’s Trophy needed a bit more work on the spheres as the car was looking as if it was permanently taking off! The car had previously been fitted with replacement spheres, which we found to be standard ones rather than Trophy ones when we measured them. Now that’s sorted the car looks a lot more balanced. MOT done and all ready for collection at the weekend. – https://ift.tt/jrwWXIJ

A welcome contrast with the weather where we found ourselves this morning in Redcar.

Bob’s TF 135 Spark in Sonic Blue (JHG) was due its cambelt service. Good looking car, that Bob has owned for 12 years and admits that it is very well pampered!

Cambelt, water pump, tensioner, platinum spark plugs, air filter cleaned up, oil and oil filter change, fuel filter change all done.

Lovely to see Bob and have a quick chat between his business calls. Thanks for the tea and cake!

We then went over to Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees as Gary had been in touch saying that ‘Madam’ his TF 135 that he bought from us 2 years ago was losing a bit of coolant intermittently and could we have a look when next in the area.

On pressure testing the system it was found that a couple of hose connections with spring clips had started weeping, therefore replaced these with jubilee clips. After refitting, pressure tested the system again to find all good and no further weeps. Shame not to see Gary as he was working, but hopefully will see him at an event later in the year.

We had hoped to pop over to see Terry and ‘The Chairman’, but he was still at work. Will get to see him on our next trip up and see what’s occurring with his fab MGF.

Good run back home in the daylight and sunshine ☀️ Have a great weekend everyone. – https://ift.tt/4i1ot5B

Head gasket replacement in the snow this morning, over in Rochdale on this Rover 45 1.8.

Rich had got in touch a couple of weeks ago, on the recommendation of his friend Richie, to ask if we could come over and sort it, as it is wife’s daily car. As we were ahead on Kevin’s car we were able to free up the day.

The head gasket had been replaced with the previous owner about 4 years ago, with a Mk 1 elastomer gasket, so unfortunately had gone again. Rich had been keeping it going and topping up with coolant so was a little bit full of lovely caramel sludge which took a while to drain off. All gaskets replaced and everything cleaned up. Really pleased to get it back up and running again for them,
despite the blizzards of sleet and snow. Couldn’t deploy the gazebo as it may well have taken off! 🌪

Lots of welcome cups of tea to keep us going, thank you! ☕️

Mark had also got in touch recently, saying he had been experiencing coolant loss on his TF 135, that we had carried the cambelt service out on a couple of years ago, and was reluctant to drive it back home to Selby. So we called into his work in Castleford on the way back to carry out our usual checks, which confirmed that the proverbial had occurred. Date arranged for him to get it over to the workshop in the next week or so to get sorted for him in and around other work. If the weather had been kinder we would have just done it there and then, but we were still a bit frozen, good day despite that! 🥶 – https://ift.tt/pmXH8ix

Bit of a longer run this morning, down to Cleobury Mortimer, near Kidderminster for work on Tony’s fab Lotus Elise S1.

When we were there last he asked if we could do a preemptive head gasket replacement at some stage. The cambelt service was also now due. The car had originally been living in Perth when Tony bought it. He’s planning on a tour of Scotland with his son in August and just wanted peace of mind that all was sorted.

It was on its original elastomer gasket with plastic dowels. Head gasket replaced and cambelt, water pump and tensioner replaced, new alternator belt and set of platinum spark plugs. So she’s all good to go.

Really nice seeing Tony again who kept us fortified with a plentiful supply of tea.

We then pootled on over to Bromsgrove as Chris had got in touch saying something was occurring with his fab and well travelled MGF 75th Anniversary.

No error codes showed up, but on investigation it was found that it had very low fuel pressure, which points towards the fuel pump being on its way out. Replacement pump to be sourced and fitted. Lovely to see Chris and have a quick catch-up before we headed back north. On a very busy M1 now and time to do some admin and keep Jon supplied with chocolate at regular intervals 😄 – https://ift.tt/GUxRryq

Weather a bit better today, and nice to be out on the road, with a run through the Lincolnshire wolds to Old Leake near Boston, where it was good to see Jim again who wanted a few more things doing on his fab looking LE500.

New alternator fitted as his current one had zero bolts output and it had been repaired once previously. Braided hoses fitted all round and brake fluid flush through. Jim had bought one of the Mike Satur brake servo braces, but unfortunately this would have involved removing the aircon unit, as all LE’s are fitted with it as standard. So Jim opted for one of the braces we carry with us.

Good to have a catch-up up with Jim and enjoy many cuppas and biscuits. Glad we had his garage to work in as it was a tad blustery over there!🌪 Date booked in at the workshop later in the year for a few more things. – https://ift.tt/DxVPEr4