New TR7 Owner

[Gubi]

Hi guys - I just bought a TR7 and figured I'd introduce myself and the car. It's a '79 hardtop in very, very blue. I'm in California and this has been a CA car its whole life, so the body's in quite good shape. Downside is I need to keep it smog-compliant, which limits the available modifications and improvements I can do to the engine.

Seems to run and handle pretty well. Bunch of electrical gremlins to sort out and it's squealing like a pig when cold (seems to be the viscous fan coupling, I believe) but beyond that it's in reasonably good shape. I've got a couple of older Alfas I wrestle with so hopefully this won't be too much worse.

This is either one of the smartest or one of the dumbest purchases of my life. First order of business is to take off the stupid numbers on the side and change some fluids, then to learn how a carburetor works [:D]

I'm sure I'll be asking a lot of questions in the coming weeks, so thanks in advance.





-----
Tom
'79 TR7
'87 Alfa 75
'91 Alfa Spider

[John Clancy]

Nice! Looks like a 1975 or 76?

The squealing has surely got to be the fan belt.

<center><b>[url="http://www.triumphtr7.com/documents/sales/codenamebullet.asp"]Buy the story of the Triumph TR7/8 on DVD here[/url]</b></center>

[Hasbeen]

Tom, drip or spray some water onto the fan belt pulley. This will
stop the squealing for a short tiome, if it is because of a
slipping belt.

If this doesn't work, check the alternator, & the coupling. If you
can get hold of a stethocope, or a steel rod to hold to the part
area, & your ear, this can locate the bad part.

If it is because of the viscous coupling, DON'T DRIVE the car, until
you replace it. When these fail, the fan tends to go through the
radiator, with unpleasant, & expensive results.

Hasbeen

[rocky_679]

hi gubi im quite new to the tr7 scene myself so gd luck mate all the best [:D]

stephen j dark

[jclay (RIP 2018)]

Hi,

Welcome to the Forum!

I had the exact same squeal with my TR8. Let be guess, it lasts from 5 to 10 seconds. Change the fan belt. On start up the alternator goes to full charge for about that long and puts a big strain on the belt. After I changed my belt, no more squeal.

You might want to check some of my sites below. Probably the best thing to do is download file TR7man.pdf from the download page.

Clay

[url="http://web.mac.com/jclaythompson/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html"]My Triumph Site[/url], [url="http://web.mac.com/jclaythompson/iWeb/Technical/Intro.html"]Technical Stuff[/url], [url="http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/53/wo/HJMTK8gsojtwKleP.1/0.2.1.2.26.31.97.0.35.0.1.1.1?user=jclaythompson&fpath=Triumph_Articles&templatefn=FileSharing4.html"]Download Page[/url]

[Beans]

Viscous coupling: try turning the fan by hand, should be some resistance and no noises.
Check fan belt for tightness and wear, adjust or replace if neccesary.
And with fan belt of check fan pulley and alternator for signs of wear.

And welcome to wedge ownership. Car looks like a nice early Canley car.
Shame about the hole in the roof though

<center>
<font color="blue"><i>1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, currently being restored)
1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)</font id="blue">
<b>[url="http://www.tr7beans.blogspot.com/"]<u><b><font size="2"><font color="red">My Weblog</font id="red"></font id="size2"></b></u>[/url]</b></i></center>

[frankman]

nice color - cool car keep it

Hello from Switzerland

Frank

[FI Spyder]

Looks like a really nice coupe. All good advice stated here. The cars are fun to drive, parts are available and the car is unique. Once sorted they are reliable enough. Any electrical gremlins are likely corroded connections. They are open and suseptable to moisture, polution. Once cleaned and treated with dielectric grease to protect them your good. I would do a systematic cleaning of each and every one at your pleasure. Wiring diagrams are available for each year in the OEM manual that you can buy (for hard copy) or down load for free at jclay's website in pdf.

If it's original I would keep it that way as most are upgraded/customized so an original copy is quite rare and unique.

TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra

[Bobbieslandy]

Hi Gubi,

That's a very clean looking motor! As long as you've got patience and a good sense of humour the TR7 will be a very rewarding car to own. It's a shame you can't junk that Emissions control stuff, What's the thoughts on junking the smog compliant gubbins and fitting an LPG conversion? after all, it's what's coming from the exhaust thats the problem not what it looks like under the hood! or is that not the case?

Awesome colour too, it's a good find.

Rob

[Workshop Help]

Your first helpful hint. Do Not Disassemble the carburetors without asking us first, it will save you a whole lot of effort and expense.

Mildred Hargis

[Gubi]

Thanks for the advice and encouragement - I will need both.

I need to do some digging on that squealing. Normally I'd think belts, but it did it for about five minutes and then suddenly stopped (of course, right when I popped the hood to investigate).

I'll post some more pics later. The interior looks like it's been redone recently and is a bit...colorful. Let's just say it looks a bit better now that I've pulled off the bright electric blue steering wheel cover [:D]

Off to remove some stickers...

-----
Tom
'79 TR7
'87 Alfa 75
'91 Alfa Spider

[PeterTR7V8]

Welcome to the forum. The car looks in very good shape from this distance & that is a lovely colour. Is the swage stripe a sticker or a clip-on? I like the windscreen mounted rearview mirror.

[Gubi]

An inauspicious start.

Removed the numbers via the hair dryer technique. Unfortunately this had the side effect of removing a bit of the clear coat (which was not particularly well bonded to the respray) as well. Oh well - it still looks better than racing numbers.

Having screwed that up I went on to replace the aged-looking coolant. Drained, flushed, refilled, went to start...click. Crap.

Bringing years of Italian car ownership experience to bear, I grabbed my starter-whackin' stick and gave it a few pokes. This progressed me to a "click...whiiiirrr" which is an improvement, but the solenoid was clearly not engaging. It's now just back to click.

Battery is fully charged, so things aren't looking too good on the starter front. I didn't do anything near the starter and I don't think I splashed any coolant anywhere inappropriate, but who knows...I'll clean connections and let everything dry out before I start throwing parts at it.



-----
Tom
'79 TR7
'87 Alfa 75
'91 Alfa Spider

[nervousnewowner]

welcome to the forum and class car ownership, [:D]


the project at birth, watch it evolve...I hope...

[MickeyR]

Hi, Tom -

First and foremost, check ALL grounds. They're the usual suspects, and many of us have spent much more money and time than necessary trying to fix/replace stuff, when the real problem was simply a poor ground connection.

Good looking coupe, by the way. I like the French/Tahiti blue.

Mickey