It must be more than twenty years back when this topic on reconditioned engines
was aired and I remember contributing to it.
One of the major issues in unit reconditioning is getting the old units (aka in
the U.K. as corps or cores) and it would be tedious and cost prohibitive in the
extreme to ship worn engines, gearboxes and other electrical items across the
Atlantic or more oceans if you include Australia and the Far East. All unit
recon work on engines and gearboxes for the U.K. and Europe was undertaken by a
Standard-Triumph subsidiary called Beans Industries. In my day, a Beans rebuilt
engine was painted an unattractive shade of blue and the engine number was
ground off and replaced by a totally different number stamped in place.
George Durand who was the companyâ??s Parts Director was very proud of the unit
recon and service exchange programmes he had established in a number of major
markets and there was definitely one for the US and another for Canada.
Basically, Standard-Triumph North America in Leonia, NJ together with their
opposite numbers in Toronto, contracted two local companies to do their recon
work as genuine factory replacements using parts supplied by STNA and STC parts
divisions. It canâ??t be ruled out that some blue Beans recon units arrived
stateside as part of regular parts shipments from the factory but it makes
economic sense for the import company to set up this sort of arrangement on a
local basis but what colours that might have been used is anyoneâ??s guess.
Itâ??s all rather like the Triumph branded radios sold as genuine factory
approved units. The Acclaim was the first car to have a radio as standard fit
but cars that went for export were usually radio-less and had a locally
supplied unit fitted before delivery.
Lucas had a different arrangement and usually supplied a new unit in a service
exchange packaging identity at a slightly lower retail price.
Jonmac
** triumphs@autox.team.net **
Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/triumphs http://www.team.net/archive
Unsubscribe/Manage:
http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/triumphs/mharc@autox.team.net
|