Rust Repair

Update by Tim Suddard to the Triumph TR3 project car
May 10, 2001

On Friday May 4, Project TR3 was sent into dry-dock for some R&R. Rest and relaxation turned into rust repair and mechanical restoration. Plans called for a “look see” into the overdrive transmission which was leaking and starting to grind synchros.

What we found was failed shifter rod seals (a common TR problem) and worn synchros. When we originally rebuilt this gearbox five years ago J.K. Jackson used (against his better judgment) cheap reproduction synchros rather than real ones because that is what we had. Our clutch and flywheel looked real good, but our front drive shaft yoke was worn too much to be used on a race car, so it was replaced.

While J.K. went through the brakes, wheel bearings and transmission, Tim decided to gut the interior and add a front hoop (with the the help of expert cage fabricators, BSI Racing). The original passenger seat, rear seat and dilapidated carpet were cute, but as we get more serious about racing this car, we wanted a cleaner and more efficient cockpit, as most of our competitors have. We also wanted to make the car safer and trim unneeded weight. Everything was removed from the interior and the battery will be moved to the passenger compartment for better weight distribution and serviceability.

Another item on our list was to convert the car from positive ground to negative ground and to switch from a generator to an alternator. We’ll give you more updates as we finish this work and test out our efforts at Mid Ohio (June 22-24 SVRA event) where we were able to turn two minute laps last year in our first race ever with this car. We are hoping to shave roughly ten seconds off those lap times, as we have both the car and the track a little better figured out.