tr7triumph.com

Posted: **27 Feb 2009 18:22**

I am working on posting a pic of my car (have to take one first and then follow instructions for posting etc)I have had an interesting first week.The right headlight has decided it wants to stay in bed and the left has followed it's example and refuses to pop up[?] I have checked the fuse box and one on the bottom row had gone (sort of in the middle 25 amp).Anyway the replacement fuse wont fit as it seems too long? I will have a long fiddle this weekend .I potter with my cars like some men dissappear to the garden shead for hrs[:)].Also since I set the clock it stops and starts.It looks like the adjusting cable shorts out something on the rear of the dash if its in the wrong position.....just a theory.Also has anyone ever replaced the fuse box for one that takes blade fuses? Just brainstorming here!............................................... Fetch my old clothes this is gonna get oily[:X]

Posted: **27 Feb 2009 19:18**

Hi ya,

Glad your getting into TR7 ownership in fine style [:D]

You bought your fuses form Halfords didnt you!!!!!!! Halfords glass fuses dont fit, in fact they dont fit anything.. at all!

Dont bother with Halfords (known as the joke shop) but go to an oldy worldy hardware store or motor factors and get your fuses there, they will be made to old sizes and will fit.

Blade fuse boxes are a common mod for the racer boys, bit too much effort for me to bother though really.

FOR SALE!!!!Purple 2.0 Litre DHC Grinnall
Red 4.0 Litre V8 DHC Grinnall (with huuuuuge arches...!)

Posted: **27 Feb 2009 19:38**

Ha, woman
- sounds like you've got most of the known gremlins in that car...:

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> The right headlight has decided it wants to stay in bed and the left has followed it's example and refuses to pop up <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"> Well known gremlin. Lot's of threads on that one in this forum - and all other media/forums for TR7/TR8.
Most of us have been there, and unfortunately have the t-shirt...

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> I have checked the fuse box and one on the bottom row had gone (sort of in the middle 25 amp).
Anyway the replacement fuse won't fit as it seems too long? <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"> That's because you're trying to fit the wrong size fuse. There are two different 1/4" glass tube fuses;
(I've inserted text from an old mailing between the lines here:)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
... made me think - so I went out to my TR8 and took out my little stash of old original Lucas fuses
[from the bygone era when they were labelled with both of their current ratings]:

A Lucas fuse is rated by what current it would blow at.
Ordinary automotive fuses are rated by what current you can draw WITHOUT blowing them,
or the maximum continuous current. They don't really specify at what current they'll blow...

Anyway, these old Lucas fuses of mine have both the Lucas "will blow at" rating,
and the maximum continuous current rating, i.e. the normal rating labelled on them.
[Or rather in them, because it is a small paper strip inside that carries this info.
The more modern Lucas fuses have the info printed on the glass tube in an abbreviated form.]

So here's your equivalents:

Lucas 50 amp - continuous 25 amp
Lucas 35 amp - continuous 17 amp
Lucas 25 amp - continuous 12 amp
Lucas 20 amp - continuous 10 amp
Lucas 15 amp - continuous 8 amp
Lucas 10 amp - continuous 5 amp
Lucas 2 amp - continuous 1 amp

See the trend here?
Each fuse is actually good for a continuous current that's roughly 50% of its Lucas rating.

BUT!
Another, and just as important, issue to take into account is the fact that the Lucas
fuses have a different physical size as compared to the standard item. [Who would be surprised!?]

The Lucas 1/4" diameter fuse is 1 and 5/32" [~29.4mm] long,
while the standard 1/4" fuse is 1 and 1/4" [~32.0mm] long.

This makes it more than a tight squeeze - loading the fuse holder plastic with undesired stress
if you force a standard fuse into the Wedge fuse block...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This means you'll risk frying the harness wiring if you, for instance, force a standard 50A fuse into the
position where the manufacturer fitted a 50A Lucas fuse (since you've in essence fitted a 'will blow
at' 100A fuse there... And don't forget: the excessive length also puts unwanted mechanical stresses
onto the plastic isolation in the fuse box around that long fuse.

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> Also since I set the clock it stops and starts.
It looks like the adjusting cable shorts out something on the rear of the dash if it's in the wrong position. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"> Another of the well known idiosyncrasies of the Wedge: the transistor clock lives its own life - they all do.
It's not a short or something, it's the clock itself that operates that way. You can retrofit (solder) a pace-
maker into it - or you can live with it and just ignore what it tells you.

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> Also has anyone ever replaced the fuse box for one that takes blade fuses? <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"> I'm working (very slowly) on creating a new 'electric centre' with a lot of relays and blade type fuses all in one place.
Will make for a much lighter harness inside the fascia when most of the control wiring can be made out of 0.5mm2
wire, to/from switches etc, carrying just the tiny milliamps needed to operate the relay coils. The heavy gauge
wiring will just go directly from the relay/fuse centre to the 'consumer' unit. What I'm struggling with now is finding
0.5mm2 thin wall wire in the correct standardized colour combinations, finding the various base (single) colours
are easy but finding the striped versions are proving difficult...

Posted: **27 Feb 2009 21:04**

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Another well known idiosyncracie of the Wedge: the transistor clock lives its own life - they all do.
It's not a short or something, it's the clock itself that operates that way. You can retrofit (solder) a pace-maker into it
- or you can live with it and just ignore what it tells you.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Its not that bad, it is normally right twice a day!

Alan
Saab 9000 Stg 1
Saab 9000 2.3 FPT Auto
'81 TR7 DHC

Posted: **27 Feb 2009 23:22**

Hi Steph,
Done to same thing myself, bl88dy Hellfords [:(!]
Got some of Fleabay in the end (what cant you get of there [?] ), similar to these-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... gory=30928

Cheers John

LIVE LIFE A QUARTER OF A MILE AT A TIME!
1979 3.5 FHC(STATUS PENDING!!)

1982 2.0 DHC NOW A 4.6,ON THE ROAD NOW KICKING AR5E !!!!

Posted: **28 Feb 2009 19:40**

I have brought in an expert on the case.Sort of an FBI agent to my police man[:p].I went to the local auto elec specialist for some correct length fuses and after he took a journey to his vaults and returned blowing the dust off a old order book he exclaimed "no one uses these fuses any more,what car is it for?" I had taken in a example fuse and asked for a selection you see.Anyway when I told him he went all misty eyed and said "I have'nt worked on one of those TRs for ten years" Apparently he was the 'go too' man for the Triumph agent yrs ago in these parts.He is very keen to takle my gremlins so I have accepted defeat and from Tuesday my car is in his hands.He assures me after his experienced touch it will be the car Triumph should have produced in the first place.[:D]. Even better than that he is doing my car for a VAT free rate as long as he can teach his staff along the way so they can "see what proper cars are like before computer chips did it all"[8D]

Posted: **28 Feb 2009 19:46**

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by nofinchance

Even better than that he is doing my car for a VAT free rate

as long as he can teach his staff along the way so they can "see what proper cars are like before computer chips did it all"[8D]<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

The garage I take my car in for an m.o.t does the very same thing

Every year when he knows it is going in for an M.O.T he makes time

so he can gather the apprentices round for a lesson .

If it's not broke don't fix it.

Posted: **28 Feb 2009 20:12**

I have the same experience. I have used the same place for MOT's for years (actually a Suzuki dealer), and they love my family as the cars tend to attract them round. The Saabs are not too odd (although one is Stage 1 with 3" exhaust etc), but the young guy who did my sons (now squashed) '89 Mini had never driven or worked on one before. Now they can't wait for his '74 Viva to turn up in May, my other son has an '89 BMW 635CSi. My TR7 tops it all, I have to take a lot of good natured stick but it makes their day. The old ones have so much more character.

Alan
Saab 9000 Stg 1
Saab 9000 2.3 FPT Auto
'81 TR7 DHC

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