That’s Right. Keep Movin’, Pal

Well kids, you know entirely too much about CA license plates, and you’re wondering what’s next? Getting back into it, we’ll revisit our checklist:
- Top: Removed
- Hood: Removed
- Trunk Lid: Removed
- Windshield: Removed
- Interior: Removed
- Gas Tank: Removed
- Engine/Brake/Clutch Controls: Removed
- Wiring: Almost
- External Lights: Almost
- Grille: Later
- Bumpers: Later
- Fenders: Later
- Doors: Later
- Carriage Bolts: Later

I neglected to include an important checklist item: Removing the carbs/intake. We’ll take care of that lickety-split and then get started on the wiring.

Eventually, the body is going to be lifted straight up off the frame and anything in the way could either get damaged, do damage, or prevent the body from being removed. The carburetors pose a potential hazard because they ride right above the passenger wheel well. Since you have dual carbs, it’ll be better to keep them mounted on the intake manifold(s) and remove everything in one big heap. Remove the gas line and oil breather tube from the valve cover (choke and throttle linkage should already be gone) and you may need to remove the air cleaners for clearance.

Inspect the surrounding area to make sure nothing’s in the way and start unbolting the retainers around the intakes. Undo and remove the two nuts and clamps underneath first, then the four across the top (leave the two outer, lower nuts because they only hold the exhaust and don’t support the intakes). Once all the hardware’s out of the way, you can jostle, shake, wriggle, or otherwise muscle the assembly to remove it. Shove some rags in the exposed intake holes to keep debris out.

An added bonus of removing your intakes now is that it provides unobstructed access to your generator and starter. While you’re in the area, g’head and remove the wires from the generator and then move on to the starter.

Prepwork for the wiring harness should be mostly complete since the bulk of it is associated with your dash. You should be at a point now to disconnect the wiring connectors for the tail lights and license plate lights, located in the trunk on either side of where your gas tank used to be. This will free the remaining anchors on the wiring harness south of the firewall. Once the wires are free, bend the hold-down tabs along the length until you reach the bulkhead and have the rearward wires accounted for. Go to where your master cylinders were and disconnect the wires for your brake switch (if not already disconnected) and the wiper motor too. Feed those wires through the firewall and into your cockpit and then do the same for that wire connected to your started solenoid. Your voltage stabilizer, turn signal repeater, and hi/lo beam foot switch should be the only remaining connections on the inside – disconnect them. Now, you can undo the retaining tabs and collect all internal wiring on the passenger floor. The only ‘connection’ that should be left at this point on the interior is the harness passing through the pass-through hole into the engine compartment. Now move on into the engine bay.

Tip: While bending the hold-down tabs for the wiring, save the protective rubber boots for reuse. They clean up well with some acetone and provide the protection needed to prevent tabs from cutting into the wires. If you don’t know already, the Brits are World renowned for faulty electrics – we can only help to improve an imperfect situation.

Taking account of what’s needed north of the firewall can look a little overwhelming but they’re just wires, man. Starting from where your steering column is, we’ll move clockwise until we reach the harness pass-through, collecting wires as we go. The first connection we see should be the (+) connector on your ignition coil – disconnect it and move toward the front of the engine. Next will be your left horn and temperature sending unit at the water neck on your cylinder head – disconnect them. Now, there should be a grounding connection on the inner fender that’s connected to your left-side headlamp, parking, and turn lights – undo that and undo the connections for your front markers on your grille. The headlamp wires will need to be cut, so make sure you leave enough room to splice the wires later (3-inches minimum). You should now have all of the wires free for the left side of the engine bay and you can disconnect the supports going across the front grille support. Now, repeat the process for the lamps and horn on the right side – the harness should be taped to the support member – go ahead and free that up. Your generator and starter should already be disconnected, so only the fuse/regulator connections should be left.

Here’s where pre-planning helps. Mark the wires connected to the fuse block and the voltage regulator BEFORE removal. I use masking tape and a simple numbering scheme, but you can do something more elaborate. The point is to mark the wires only for a short time because once we pass the harness through the firewall you’ll want to reconnect the wires before forgetting where they go – better to store that harness for safekeeping.

Do a double check that all wires are disconnected.

Storytime: Sometimes you get impatient and do something that you know is a bad idea but, for whatever reason, you proceed. Instead of undoing all the connections under the hood (primarily because those voltage regulator connections scared me), I chose to pass the wires from the interior through that little hole into the engine bay. The interior wiring is much thicker in places and it still had gauge bulbs and other accessories attached. It was possible to get that mangled mess through, but to say the least, it was like trying to pick your nose through your ass. It is much more advisable to go the other route and pass the engine-side harness through into the interior.

That being said, do so. It’ll be a little tricky at times, but you’ll get there. Once you have the harness intact, find a safe place to store it along with the voltage regulator, fuse block, connectors, etc.

Side Note: If, during the process, you do not get frustrated, irritated, or otherwise heated, think about this: Not only do all of these wires need to go back through that teeny hole, they need to go through an even teenier one too, namely the rubber grommet that you’ll be replacing later. You may be tempted to just cut that harness, but be prepared for a much larger headache when figuring out how to reconnect those wires.

As I said previously, these cars are rife with suspicion when it comes to anything electrical – don’t tempt fate to save a little frustration. Mildly-humourous enthusiasts have dubbed Lucas the ‘King of Darkness’. Lucas is the company who made most of Britain’s automotive electrical components to include lighting and the ‘King of Darkness’ moniker comments on their perceived reliability. Oh, snap. But, if you get into any trouble, here’s a map:

While we’re talking electrics, kings of darkness, and lights, you can start removing all of the external fixtures:
Headlamps are easy enough to remove. Your TR4A should have chrome trim rings around each light – get rid of them to expose the headlamp retainer that’s affixed by way of three screws. Once the retainer is removed, the lamp should easily come out of the ‘bucket’ and you can disconnect the plug to completely remove the headlight. Each bucket includes an adjustment mechanism for headlamp alignment so it may be a little confusing, at first, to determine which screws to unscrew to remove the bucket assemblage. If you’ve made it this far, I think you can figure your way out of this pitfall.
Sidelamps need to be removed from the back, in the front wheel well via two nuts (#54 pictured below). It might be easier to turn your wheels out to create some clearance for your tinkering. Since you don’t have a steering wheel anymore, you can just manhandle the wheel. Or, if you’re not manly enough to handle it, jack the front end up and it’ll make your job easier – just be sure not spill any wine cooler on your skirt in the process. Before you remove each sidelamp, be sure to disconnect ground wires from inside the engine bay and feed the wires through into the wheel well.
Front Flasher Lights can be removed now or can be left on the grille for later retrieval. Whenever you’re ready, just remove the lens and your path will be obvious.
Tail Lamps are held in place by two small nuts (#105 in the picture) that are accessible via the trunk. Since the wiring should already be disconnected, tail lamps removal should be a breeze.
Plate Lights are integrated into the rear bumper overriders, so at this time you only need to fish the wiring from the trunk through the space between the rear fenders and the main body. There’s a grommet just above where your tail lights were – just pop the grommet through the hole and feed the wires in. We’ll get to the plate lights later when we talk bumper.

I think that’s it for now. We’ll continue our saga next time. Thanks for looking.

Work is the Curse of the Leisure Class

Hi all. It's been too long since I've posted updates on this restoration and if wasn't for my darn job, the car would be completed and this blog would only serve as historical reference.

In real-time, the car is looking good with its new paint and interior. It's been started, but runs rough and it's real hard finding a new or reconditioned windshield wiper motor - ya know anyone who's got one? The last few items to wrap up are: wiring, windshield glass, top, alignment, recondition the grille, tune the carbs, door windows, and a number of other little things.

In blog-time, the restoration is approaching the apex of the teardown phase and approximately coincides with mid-April 2009. As I am hoping for a short lapse in my workload, I expect to crank out some posts here to get everyone closer to events as they occur.

Stay tuned...

Just YOM, No Kippur

California, with all of its faults (not talking seismic), does offer a surprisingly great service through the DMV – the Year of Manufacture program, or YOM to those in the know. Basically, it allows you to legally register your classic car with vintage license plates. A few other states offer similar programs so consult your DMV to see what’s what (or check this out: http://www.thebolthole.com/misc/yom.html).







For CA, specifically, about forty years after license plate series have been retired, they are eligible for the YOM program. The older black-on-yellow tags went from 1956-62 (left - referred to as ‘56 base plate) and were eligible for YOM sometime in the early 00’s and the highly-recognized yellow-on-black plates from 1963-69 (right - referred to as ’63 base plate) have just matured enough to warrant YOM status last July (2009).

But wait, there’s more! Since we’re dealing with the DMV here, not everyone can benefit from this new-found generosity and there are some strings attached:
- Your car’s year of manufacture (hence, the name) needs to fall within the years of the plate you wish to use. A 1961 TR3 would require the ’56 series and a 1967 TR4A would go for the ’63 series. Got it? There are some exceptions, of course. Sometimes dealers made mistakes and titled cars as later models - a 1962 model sold new as a ’63 (more common than you’d think). Or people who bought used, out-of-state cars and registered them in California - my neighbor’s ’61 Sprite had ’63-series plates because he bought it in '65 from a man in AZ and registered it in CA (remember they were new-issue plates back then, not YOM). He happened to have pictures from that era, which he needed as proof to re-register for the black YOM tags after a few years off the road. Bottom line: it ain’t a perfect system.
- The license plates need to be ‘DMV Clear’, meaning that no record can exist in the DMV’s extensive database. A 35-minute call will take care of this (30 minutes of waiting for 5 minutes of business). You also need to have both plates in a matching pair.
- You will need a validation sticker that matches the year of your vehicle. A 1964 Amphicar needs a white 1964 sticker, a 1967 TR4A would need a blue one from 1967, and a 1965 Camaro wouldn’t need one at all because they weren’t made until ’67. You get the picture.







eBay has been a great source for YOM license plates and stickers – just be wary of counterfeit stickers. I was lucky enough to find a set of cleared license plates in very decent condition with the original ’67 sticker still intact. It took some looking, but they’re out there. To be as period-correct as can be, I did some research, some contemplating, and maybe a little bit of LARPing to figure out what to look for. You see, theoretically, license plate number AAA-000 was the first in 1963 and number ZZZ-999 was the last in 1969. So, I was looking for plates that began with T, U, or V for my ride. Thanking the British Heritage Trust for the info, my particular TR4A was dispatched in April of 1967. After a short spell of time on the road in Portsmouth, England (that’s a whole different story), I figured the car made its way to the great state of California in the good ole US of A about mid-year in ’67, so my search for YOM license plates targeted those starting with a “U”. A couple of weeks of searching, a few phone calls to the DMV, some lost eBay auctions, one last-second bid/win, and viola!, my new old tags.

I’ll leave it up to you to create your own adventure, but here are a couple of lessons-learned and tips for you to ponder:
- Always get your plates in pairs. Since the ’63 YOM is still relatively new, people are going ape sh!# over these old plates, selling for $300+. You could get a great bargain on single plates, but you will need both license plates to register as YOM. There are some shops out there that will make a copy of an existing plate for $50, but proceed with caution for two reasons: the dupe may not pass DMV inspection AND there’s another plate out there with your numbers – keeping in mind that these are hot right now, it’s quite possible that someone else had the same idea as you did one day earlier. In either case, you lose.
- Call the DMV. Don’t trust the seller that the plates are ‘DMV Clear’ without calling the CA DMV yourself to find out. I joked about the wait time earlier, but it’s worth your investment, I think.
- It’s no guarantee. Even though you’ve contacted DMV and they’ve told you that your plates are cleared, something can always go awry. The nitwit on the phone made a typo, someone else took legal claim to your tag numbers before you, the YOM officials in Sacramento didn’t like the cut of your jib – whatever; your application can be denied for a number of reasons, which leads to…
- Be prepared. Bring everything you think you might need and prepare yourself for a three-month wait on your application's approval. Many agents at your local DMV office are not experts on YOM – do your own research and bring guidelines with you. As outlined below, the process is just a process and regardless of how you think it should be, it is the process that will be followed, flawed or not. Keep in mind that from the day your application is submitted to the day you hear it was approved could take three months. Take the initiative to ensure everything is in order before venturing out to the DMV.
- Ugly is legal. If your YOM candidates are not the prettiest pig in the parlor, don’t worry too much about it as long as they are legible with no signs of alteration. Restored plates can be legal, if approved paint colors are used, but don’t waste the money restoring them until your application is approved. Once you have legal claim, then you can clean ‘em up.

The process, as determined by the CA DMV, appended by me:
1. Just like when you call tech support and verify that yes, indeed, your computer IS plugged in, I am going to start with the most obvious first: Make sure your car’s year, or more importantly, the title, is within the range of YOM plates you wish to use. As stated earlier, mistakes can be made and although your VIN tells you it’s a ’62, the title, registration, or other ‘official’ documentation may tell a different story. When in doubt, the DMV will refer to documentation. If you have an oddball situation, call the DMV to get their take – as with most things, if you can tell a compelling story, you’ll find someone who’ll listen.
2. Verify the cleared status of the prospective plates by calling the DMV HQ in Sacramento, CA (1-800-777-0133). The trick is that if the plate you’re calling about is in the system, there is a record, and that plate is not clear. You just need them to verify that the plate is not in their system – aka it is available for registration.
3. Get your plates and appropriate validation sticker for the year of your car.
4. Get your application here: http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/reg/reg352.pdf and fill it out. Double check all info is correct, print it, and sign it.
5. Print off these guidelines here: http://www.dmv.ca.gov/about/lad/pdfs/yom/new_text.pdf and bring them with you to the DMV. In the likely event your DMV Window Rep is not up-to-speed on these new-fangled regulations, it will be invaluable to have the DMV’s own gospel to refer to.
6. Pack a lunch and prepare for your day at the DMV. Bring the following with you to DMV:
- YOM plates (two of them)
- One correct year validation sticker (I don’t think it needs to be affixed to the plate)
- Currently-registered plates (two of them)
- Current registration
- Vehicle title (just in case you need it)
- $45
- Proof of insurance (just in case you need it)
- YOM Application
- DMV YOM guidelines for reference

What to expect from your visit: You will be able to keep the YOM plates, but the DMV will most likely want to retain the ‘old’ plates. Additionally, they will keep your registration and provide you with a temporary registration card, valid for two months so you can still drive your classic while in wait.

What to expect in the mail: When your application is approved, the DMV will send you a new registration card, a month sticker, a new year sticker, and two ‘ears’ that you’re supposed to put the new stickers on, like this from a ’56-series:
Good luck and happy motoring.

Additional Ancillary Supplement for Various Miscellaneous Parts

Remembering for a moment that the summation of your efforts to this point has been regressive in nature, we’re going to continue down a path of disorder, from structure to chaos to help out our old friend Entropy a bit more. As if the entire Universe is acting through your dexterous hands, this l’il racecar is gunna be a pile of parts soon. And from that pile, new life will be forged. Borne from metal and built through might, the revival will be impressive.

Snap out of it, man. Checking off a few items from our list, we’ll tackle the Gas Tank and Control Pedals in this episode and get to the wiring harness next. Like, OK, Scoob?

Rokay, Raggie. Getting down to business, take a peek inside your gas tank to see how much (if any) fuel you have left in there. For anything more than an inch or so, find an appropriately-sized container and start draining. How, you ask? With a siphon, of course. Put your container on the ground and get a length of tubing that will reach down to the bottom of the gas tank all the way to your receptacle – 6 feet or so of 3/8” clear tubing works nice. You can strain yourself, inhale noxious gasses, or get a mouthful of petrol by sucking the gas through the hose like so many unfortunate slapstick saps or you can be smart about it and try your luck at any (or combination) of these favorites:
- Blow it up: Instead of pulling, try pushing the gas. Start by sticking the hose all the way in the tank and have the other end securely in your container. Take a deep breath, use your hands and mouth to seal off the filler neck of the fuel tank, and blow. As the gasoline creeps its way up the hose, it will start flowing by gravity on the way down the other side. It could take a few breaths, but as long as there’s no more air in the hose, the siphon will start and continue to move the gas without intervention until the tank is nearly empty. Neato! If you’re even smarter, you can use a rag and an air compressor in lieu of your nasty breath. Oh, and make sure gas doesn’t escape through detached fuel lines or carburetors.
- Squeeze it out: I admit it, I haven’t tried this one but it should work. In theory. Stick your hose ends where they belong and pinch the hose at the gas tank end. Now, run that pinch down the length of the hose. If the squeeze is tight enough, moving it will create a pressure difference that will bring that gas along with it. If you try this and it works – let me know: I’ll send you a cookie.
- Dunk it in: (This is the preferred method.) Just start feeding your tubing into the tank until you have about an inch left sticking out of the neck. Now, put your finger over the hole’s hose (no, the hose’s hole) and quickly move that end over to your drain bucket. If you have a good enough seal and you move quick enough, the siphon will be primed and start flowing right away.
- Drill it out: You can purchase an electric drill-driven pump at your local hardware store or online somewhere. ‘Nuff said, cheater.

There will be residual gasoline in there regardless of what method(s) you choose and that’s OK. First, store your gas somewhere safe or just put it in your other car’s tank and use it. Even though your gasoline is literally about as old as the dinosaurs, some chemical elements will evaporate over time and/or it could take on water the longer it sits idle. So, if the gas doesn’t look or smell right get rid of it.

Now you can jack up the rear and get up in there. Bring an oil drain pan with you and, carefully, loosen the fuel line under the tank (on driver’s side) until the remaining gas starts draining. Some gas will run down your arm into your armpit and it will be chilly – you can tie a shop rag around your wrist to prevent this. Also, some gas may run its way down the fuel lines and miss your drain pan but it’ll evaporate quickly enough. Move the fuel line and fitting out of the way when it’s done and go back topside.

A side note: These cars are very restoration-friendly and this gas tank deal is just about the only time you need to do anything from underneath (assuming you’re doing a complete frame-off resto).

Remove the gas cap and filler neck. They’re just secured with a couple of hose clamps – loosen the top one a little until you can work the cap free and then remove the neck. Now all that should be holding your tank on are the six retaining bolts along the perimeter. Once these bolts are removed, don’t pull the tank out just yet – tilt it to the left to drain the last bit of fuel (you still have the drain pan below, right?) and then tilt it toward you and unhook the fuel gauge sending wires from the sensor on the top o' the tank, then remove the tank. And that’s that. Retrieve your drain pan, lower the car, and get a beer – you deserve it.

Helpful Hint #29: If you have some surface rust in that tank o’ yours, put a few cups of gravel in it and shake it around for a little while. Just be sure to remove the sending unit (gas gauge sensor) beforehand.

Next up: The ABCs of foot pedals: Accelerator, Brake, and Clutch. Now go to the engine bay and locate your Clutch and Brake master cylinders, just next to the battery tray. First, unhook the wires to the brake light switch; then start undoing the hydraulic lines to each master cylinder. There will be some brake fluid dripping, so bring a rag with you. When they’re disconnected, move them aside and remove the cotter pins on the clevis pins that connect the brake/clutch arms to the brake/clutch forks. Got it? OK.

While your there, remove the four nuts just below the pedal-cylinder connections. When you have your nuts in your hand, go to the driver’s footwell (where the pedals are) and unbolt the one bolt up front between the pedals and the three bolts rearward. It’ll be a little uncomfortable being on your back and all, but you’ll get over it. The pedal assembly will be free now, it just might take a little wriggling. Set the pedals aside and go back to the cylinder housing - being careful not to spill brake fluid from the master cylinders, set that aside as well.

The accelerator pedal is next up and is easiest removed with the other pedals out the way. Go to the engine bay and disconnect the carb linkage to the pedal’s crossbar (right underneath the battery tray). Just next to the arm will be a brace mounted to the firewall - remove the two bolts holding that in place. There will be 2 sets of four bolts to the left and the right holding the whole accelerator dealy in place - only remove those on the driver's side for now. The assembly should now be loose and movable. It's then just a matter of fishing the pedal side of the contraption up and out through that hole. It'll fit, don't worry.

You should now have an empty cockpit with wires hanging about and no junk in your trunk. We’re making a lot of head way and only have a few things left before the body is ready to come off. As stated earlier, we’ll hit the wiring harness next time. Stay tuned…

Heating and Seating – Interior Part III

Continuing our saga, we’ll focus on removing the heater and the seats and get to the other stuff in subsequent ‘blogs, y’all.

Before I begin, I do have some newses for you. The little news: In real-time, just the exhaust, gas tank, and miscellaneous suspension parts need sandblasting and painting before I can start the ‘Put It Back Together’ phase of my Master Plan. The big news: The body has been painted, ready for delivery. Keeping you in suspense a little bit, here’s a glimpse: The finished hood (can’t see the red pearl coat in the picture, though).

Back to the Past. From previous posts, we’re pretty close to having everything disconnected from the body to, eventually, remove it. Right now, in blog time (sometime around early April ’09), our checklist looks something like this:
- Top: Removed
- Hood: Removed
- Trunk Lid: Removed
- Windshield: Removed
- Interior: About halfway
- Gas Tank: Later
- Engine/Brake/Clutch Controls: Later
- Wiring: Later
- Headlamps/Grill: Later
- Bumpers: Later
- Fenders: Later
- Doors: Later
- Carriage Bolts: Later

This is all just to remove the body (sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t). The engine, transmission, differential, and suspension will be dealt with after the body’s gone.

If you’re ready to begin, drain your radiator. If this seems weird to you, then you may need to think about things a little. Remember when you disconnected the heater control valve in ‘Misses Dash - Interior Part II’? Well, that heater valve just controls how much heated coolant is siphoned off the engine to your heater core to provide you with your desired amount of heat. It’s called coolant, but smart folks long ago decided to use it as a heat source too and they’re still doing it. All your heater really is is another, albeit small, radiator that transfers your engine’s heat to warm the air passing through it. So drain your radiator. There will be residual coolant in the hoses and core, but draining your radiator will stop the coolant from coming out of the engine while you’re working on the heater. Got it? Good.

Bonus Material: You might want to flush the system to clean it out beforehand. Depending on how long the car sat, your flushing agent could be just plain tap water or specialty chemicals designed to attack corrosion and gunk in there.

After the coolant is drained and stored in a safe place (pets love to drink antifreeze, but it’ll kill them), start detaching the hoses from the engine. The top hose is attached to the heater control valve, the other hose connects to a pipe that plumbs its way back to the water pump housing. If the clamps are frozen or stripped and the hoses are cracked or damaged, you can cut them - be sure to have something to catch the residual coolant in. When the hoses are disconnected, push them down as far as you can (without crimping them completely closed) to drain what’s in there. After they stop dripping, you can remove the other ends from the coupler that goes through your firewall.

Tech Tip: Get a radiator hose pick tool. It’s just an angled pick with a grip handle on it that you insert between the hose and neck and work it around until the hose is free. This is more for the benefit of the necks than the hoses because most necks that you come across will be copper-based, which is great for heat conduction, but not so great for strength. The pick will save the pliable necks on your radiator, heater core, and pass-through coupler regardless of whether you plan on keeping the hoses or not. A box cutter can be used as a last resort, just watch your fingers, please.

Moving inside the car, go to where the coupler passes through the firewall and disconnect the hoses from it. One thing to remember: The hose from the control valve goes to the top pipe that passes through the firewall, which connects to the hose that goes to the bottom of the heater core on the other side (the hoses cross here). This doesn’t help you at all now, but it will help when you’re putting everything back together. Now, just undo the retaining bolts at the top of the heating unit and set it aside to be dealt with later.

I know you’ve been patient; now, you can remove those pesky seats. There are four bolts holding each in place and you need to tilt both seats forward to find them. See – they’re nestled away in the seat rails. Not much wisdom to offer here, other than making sure that you label/mark the seats for ‘Driver’ and ‘Passenger’ because there are small differences. We’ll tear them down and reupholster them in a later post, but if you want to go with a less-expensive and easier option, junkyards or the Internet may have what you’re looking for: Miata seats. From the research I’ve done, seats from a Miata are the best-fit, modern-day seats for the TR. You can probably find nice, heated, electric, leather Miata seats for what the vinyl seat covers for the original TR4A seats would cost. Since I’m going stock-ish with leather and I like that the original seats don’t come above the door line, I can’t skimp. Your choice, though.

That’s it for now. I think we’ll follow our checklist above and move on to some of those other items next time… Bon Voyage.

(Trans)Mission: Possible

In our second installment of automotive tutelage, you’re going to get the shaft. A couple of them, in fact. The drivetrain of a car is full of ‘em: crankshafts, camshafts, input shafts, output shafts, drive shafts, halfshafts, etc. We’re going to focus on the inner workings of a manual transmission (aka: tranny, gearbox, four-on-the-floor): the Input/Output shafts between the crankshaft and the driveshaft.

Before we dive in, let’s discuss purpose. The purpose of any transmission is to use the limited rpm range of your engine and power band to achieve higher speeds and better efficiency. If you’ve ridden a bicycle with gears, you know that lower gears are used for lower speeds, that higher gears are for higher speeds, and that you have to progressively shift through different gears to maximize your own power. You cannot start off in the highest gear and expect to get up to speed quickly nor can you stay in the lowest gear and expect to get anywhere quickly. Gearing makes use of your momentum and allows you to effectively use your power in a comfortable manner. Simplistically speaking, it takes the same power to go 0-5 as it does from 5-10, 10-15, etc. because you just keep adding to your momentum – just like pumping your legs on a swing. OK?

Okay. The difference between your bike gears and a car’s manual transmission is just how they’re laid out – a bike uses a chain and a derailer to go from gear to gear; a car’s gears mesh continuously and are engaged/disengaged to shift. Your front bike gear with the pedals is akin to the tranny’s Input shaft and the rear sprocket on your Schwinn is comparable to the Output shaft. The size in relation to one another is the gear ratio, expressed as output:input. So, if your front sprocket has 17 teeth (or cogs) on it and the rear has 34, the gear ratio is 34:17, or 2:1. (Figuratively equivalent to 1st gear on a mountain bike.) Here’s where it gets a little tricky: you have to interpret the numbers in the ratio as a gear reduction to come up with something meaningful – a 2:1 gear ratio means that every rotation of the output will require two rotations from the input or every rotation of the input results in 1/2 rotation of output. Think about riding your bike in first gear – your legs are rotating much faster than your tires are and, if you actually look at the gears, you’ll be on the smallest sprocket in the front and the largest in the rear – the lowest gear ratio. Progressing through your set of gears, the highest gear you have will relate to the largest front sprocket and the smallest in the rear. This difference in cog counts is exactly what’s going on in your car’s transmission. Replace your legs with an engine and the back tire with a driveshaft and the analogy is complete.

Lab Exercise: In a three gear situation, you have first at 3:1, second at 2:1, and third at 1:1. At 1000 rpm input, these numbers would relate to 333 rpm, 500 rpm, and 1000 rpm respectively. You can see that at the same input, your output is getting faster and faster as the gear ratios are getting larger and larger. Now, if third gear was 0.99:1 (or anything less than 1), your output will be spinning faster than your input and you are now in ‘overdrive’. Overdrive just means that the diveshaft is spinning faster than your engine – a 0.85:1 overdrive would result in 1176 rpm in the example above.

Advanced Lab: Since the differential has an internal gear ratio associated with it, your transmission’s output does not directly relate to your tires' speed. You may have heard of 411 gears, this just means that there’s an additional gear reduction of 4.11:1 in your differential, so at 1:1 in your transmission, it would still require 4.11 rotations of your engine (and transmission) to move your tires one revolution. Since the tires come in many different sizes, another calculation would be required to translate tire rotation to actual MPH (one of which is 2πr, or the circumference of a circle).

Real-World Lab: (The math portion of the lesson is almost over). What would your speed be in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th at 2500 engine rpm on a stock 1967 TR4A/IRS? Doing some research, you find out that the gear ratios of the TR4’s gearbox are:
First: 3.14:1
Second: 2.01:1
Third: 1.32:1
Fourth: 1.00:1

This would relate to the following output rmps at 2500 engine rpm:
First: 796 rpm
Second: 1244 rpm
Third: 1894 rpm
Fourth: 2500 rpm

Assuming a 3.70:1 rear (differential), the following would be the corresponding tire rpm:
First: 215 rpm
Second: 336 rpm
Third: 512 rpm
Fourth: 676 rpm

Now, given the original tire size of 5.95-15, this relates to an overall radius of approximately 12.75 inches, or a circumference of 80.11 inches. This means that for every rotation of the tires, they will move a distance of 80.11 inches. Since we have the distance per rotation and the rotations per minute, we can come up with total inches per minute and, with some additional math, miles per minute and, finally, miles per hour. As useless as it seems, the answers to the question are:
First: 16.3 MPH
Second: 25.5 MPH
Third: 38.8 MPH
Fourth: 51.3 MPH

What does it all mean? In theory, using the same amount of work from your engine, you can travel over 50 miles in an hour rather than just 16. Correlating this to when you start in the highest gear on a bicycle, the car would have to work very hard to get up to 50 MPH if it only had 4th gear.

I think the horse is dead so I will stop beating it. What you’re really interested in is how that gearbox works. You know that moving the gearshift around changes the gears but the rest is shrouded in mystery. Well, Sir, knowledge is about to be dropped.

Forgetting about Reverse gear for a moment, and remembering that the gears in a manual transmission have a constant mesh, it’s not a tough jump to imagine four sets of gears with varied sizes, approximately being of size that would allow for the ratios described above.

Now, looking at the same gears on their side (so we can arrange them inline), you see that you can have the gears described above rotating in pairs along two common axi (is that even a word?).

Taking it a step further and replacing each axis with a shaft will give you four geared pairs and constant mesh. Keep in mind that the gears are not fixed to the shaft yet so each pair is free to rotate independently.

We now move the pairs close together and assign labels to the shafts – ‘Input’ for the side connected to the motor and ‘Output’ for the side connected to the rest of the drivetrain. The pairs are still free to rotate on the shafts.

Making it a little more useful, we now affix the upper gears to the Input shaft. This is typically accomplished by having a splined shaft. We haven’t done anything to the Output shaft yet, so if, let’s say, the engine is running at 2500 rpm, the Input shaft will be rotating at the same speed, the Output gears will be rotating at various speeds (see below), but the Output shaft will stay dead.

Adding something to the Ouput shaft, specifically synchros, will give us a way to ‘engage’ the gears one at a time. Shown here, the transmission is figuratively in Neutral. The synchros can slide back and forth and there is a mechanism there on each surface to engage a gear when they meet. So, with no gears engaged, everything is still spinning with the exception of the Output shaft, as shown.

Finally, we shift into first. Neglecting clutching for our example, only the first gear is coupled to the Output shaft through the synchro and it’s spinning at almost 800 rpm.

So, we have the engine at 2500 rpm, the power is going through the Input shaft, meshing with the Output gears, first gear is engaged, thereby powering the Output shaft at 796 rpm, going through the differential to do more math and the car is cruising at 16 or so miles per hour. Let’s switch to second.

Now we’re at 25+ MPH. Third.

Approaching 40 MPH, the tranny’s output shaft is humming at almost 2000 rpm and we switch to fourth.

I think you get it. Wrapping up the lesson, the clutch is a mechanical link between the engine’s crankshaft and the transmission’s Input shaft. Along with mechanisms in the synchros and the gears themselves, the clutch’s job is to disengage power to the Input shaft so that switching from gear to gear doesn’t result in grinding. (By the way, since the gears are in constant mesh, grinding is not actually your gears but is rather from synchro to gear malignment.)

Oh, and as for Reverse, there’s an additional ‘idler’ gear that slides into place, reversing the direction of the Output shaft, seen here:

One last diagram of the actual TR4's gearbox. Looking from the top, the Output shaft is above the Input shaft (so the Input shaft is hidden), the clutch/engine would be to the right and the driveshaft/rear would be to the left. The 'mechanisms' that interact between synchros and gears are also seen here - they're called 'Dog Teeth' of all things.

May I squeeze in a final tidbit of information? If you notice, the Reverse Gear and Idler are straight-geared and the rest are angled. The angled gears reduce noise and mesh better than the straight ones. You've all heard the whine when you go in reverse - that's from the straight gears! Why not use angled for Reverse? That Idler would have a hell of a time sliding in and out if it were angled.

Misses Dash - Interior Part II

By now you have a project on your hands. I’m not sure, in the grand scheme, when, exactly, something becomes a project, but I’m willing to bet that a ’67 sports car that’s missing most of its top side and half its interior qualifies. So now what? To save your project from becoming just another boxed-up bargain listing on eBay, you gotta maintain expectations and be adaptable. Knowing that everything is not going to turn out as planned will keep your sanity in-check and your interests high. So…you find a crack in your differential mount. Big deal. Get a welder, learn to weld, and fix the darn thing. And have fun doing so.

Inspirational words and uplifting sentiment aside, dashboard removal can be quite a task with lots of wires, controls, gauges, and steering columns (er...column) in the way, coupled with intriguing design details that toy with your problem solving skills. Choice time: Do you trust your skills enough to put back together whatever it is that you take apart? If so, read on, Jack.

First things first: Unhook the battery. It’s only 12 volts so you’re not going to get shocked while you’re fiddling around behind the dash, but you could have some nice sparks and arcs if there's power back there. The lead going to the ammeter is live even with the ignition turned off (most of your car’s power goes through here and, consequently, you will not have any power to the rest of the car while the ammeter is disconnected). If you choose to remove the battery entirely, don’t leave it on the floor of the garage or anywhere else near the ground. Mystical forces are at work here and they will drain your battery dead if you let them – a couple of 2x4’s or a shelf will provide adequate insulation.

Before getting down and dirty, there are some prerequisites for dash removal:
- From the engine compartment, free your choke, hood release, and heater control valve cables from their respective mechanisms and feed the cables through the firewall into the car’s interior. You can use a Sharpie to mark the cables as a reminder of position when you reinstall them. Or not.
- Unhook the cable that goes to the heater unit under the dash – the one that controls air flow direction, not that there’s much of a choice there.
- Disconnect the control rod for the vent cowl (one of my favorite features of the TRs is that popup cowl) from the armature under the dash.
- Remove washer fluid lines from under the dash.
- If your vehicle is outfitted with a radio, please unhook it and/or get rid of it now (we’ll be discussing the sound system in a later post).

Now start disconnecting the electrical leads to the steering column under the dash, which consist of wires for the horn, directional switch, light switch, and, in some cases, the overdrive switch. Unless there’s an abnormal amount of deterioration under there, the connectors should separate cleanly with moderate force. Once you think you got all the wires, double check and move back into the engine bay.

Follow the steering column from the firewall toward the rack/pinion and stop at the first joint you come across. Douse it with CRC and loosen the retaining bolt until you have a decent amount of play there. Go back under the dash and unbolt the bolts along the column. Once unshackled, the whole assembly, steering wheel and all, should slide through the firewall and into your pants, setting up a ridiculous scenario in which you squint an eye and say to your buddy, “Arrrg, it’s drivin’ me nuts!”

When playtime is over, you should have a nice amount of room in front of and behind the dash to start removing the gauges, speedometer, and tachometer. Some masking tape and a marker will help since you really should label all the electrical connections before unplugging them.

Although the ammeter, fuel, and temperature gauges are the only ones that work on electricity, all of them have lighting in the form of a pressure-fit bulb. Pop those out, disconnect connections and unhook cables behind the dash, saving the oil pressure for last. Since this gauge is fed directly by the engine’s oiling system, there is a chance residual oil is in either the gauge or the tube or both. Just have a rag handy when you disconnect the oil line. Also inspect the connection for seepage, which could indicate cross-threading or other issues preventing proper sealing. Once the stuff is disconnected, it’s a matter of undoing a couple hand-tightened nuts that secure a U-bracket holding each assembly in place (the ashtray is mounted the same way). The gauge faces are glass, so keep them safe from harm. Don’t worry about whether the gauges are in good working order because we’ll cover how to test all of them in a later post.

So, now you should have an empty dash with wires/cables dangling beneath it. Good progress. When you’re ready, open the glovebox door and remove the glovebox liner – it’s cardboard-ish and should be held in by 6 screws. If you can’t work it completely free, don’t worry; just let it sit in the recess until the dashboard’s been removed. There should be five screws about the dash surface – you remove these and your wooden dashboard will follow.

The dashpad top is next, held in place with glue and a few screws, which are revealed when the wood dash is removed. You also need to unbolt the defrost vents from the underside. What you’ll be left with is the backing plate and the rest of the support structure – don’t be concerned with the surrounding dashpads or the vent ducts – they’ll all come off with the backing plate.

Now you can start tackling the rest of it - move on to the dash support, which is the console-like appendage that holds your radio, envelops the gearshift, and doesn’t really support the dash a whole lot. Undo the four bolts securing it to the floor and then move on up to the plinth. The plinth is the thing directly above the support that holds your controls. Why ‘plinth’? Because Triumph said so. There’s a fastener behind the plinth on the left side – unscrew it and remove the plinth, controls and all, revealing two more bolts on the dash support. Unbolt those and remove the support. Work the fasteners on the backing plate until it can be removed and, Viola! If it wasn’t a project before, it sure is now.

Here's what everything should look like now.