Subject: Re: [TR] Running on 2

From: "Ron L\"Herault" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2026 16:42:38 -0400

Did you confirm that the carb feeding those cylinders was functioning as
intended?  I believe that Carburetor is a French word meaning "don't touch
it" but I think if the piston stuck down that would cut off fuel, non?

Ron L

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From: Triumphs <[email-masked]> On Behalf Of
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Sent: Friday, March 13, 2026 2:00 PM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Triumphs Digest, Vol 19, Issue 49

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: "Inside Track on How It was Done" article (Alex&Janet Thomson)
   2. Re: TR6 rear shock mount break (DAVID MASSEY)
   3. Re: TR3 running on 2 (Notakitcar)

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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2026 20:01:54 -0400
From: "Alex&Janet Thomson" <[email-masked]>
To: "'John Macartney'" <[email-masked]>, "'Dean Tetterton'"
	<[email-masked]>
Cc: <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TR] "Inside Track on How It was Done" article

Wow! Just more examples of how the golden goose was doomed to die. How sad.

Thanks for sharing!

Alex Thomson

From: Triumphs <[email-masked]> On Behalf Of John Macartney
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2026 6:03 PM
To: Dean Tetterton <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: [TR] "Inside Track on How It was Done" article

Jonmac?s long reply.

Dean, 

Thank you for your kind words and I?m glad you found the story of interest.
I hope you don?t mind but I?ve copied this reply to the rest of the list as
your query touches on one of many similar issues that people periodically
ask me to comment on. Hopefully this wider reply might solve a few other
related/unrelated queries.

In the overall production process, where badges or odd bits of trim actually
got fitted was not necessarily a constant in terms of actual location. To a
certain extent, it all depended on the availability of ?qualified? labour to
do a certain task. The UK in the sixties, seventies, eighties was hidebound
by the power of trade union control. Within the overall motor industry,
there was a mass of different unions and union membership was mandatory if
you were one of many fishes in a large pool where things were made. Union
names that spring to mind are Transport & General Workers, National Union of
Vehicle Bodybuilders, General Municipal and Boilermakers, National Union of
Teachers, British Electrical, Associated Union Engineering Workers - and
many more. All of those were authorised by common and mutual agreement to
undertake certain tasks within the production process. One way and another,
we had enough people belonging to different unions who, by working together,
could somehow cont  rive to build a complete car.

Re the figment of your badge and letters.

Fred Bloggs who is an NUVB member is paid to fit badges and certain
brightwork - and that?s all! One day, Fred isn?t at work because the night
before, he spent most of his wages in the pub, went home piddled out of his
head and woke up the next morning with the mother of all hangovers, so
decided to stay in bed and Mrs Bloggs called the factory to say he was ill.
But because Fred is one of only two NUVB members on his workstation where
certain badges and brightwork are fitted, his mate has to do Fred?s work as
well as his own. As every single assembly task is time measured anyway and
piecework pay rates have been abandoned in favour of Measured Day Rate, the
NUVB foreman negotiates with other union foremen to run the track slower so
Fred?s mate can do both jobs without getting stressed out. To us, the
obvious remedy is to get a member of another union to do Fred?s work. 

But you can?t do that. Against union rules. Only NUVB members can do Fred?s
work and if there aren?t enough NUVB members on hand, then tough titty. Run
the track slower. End of story. It?s amazing we ever managed to make
anything at all.

In my days as an Apprentice at Jaguar, I was working on the track one day
when I noticed the main plug to a headlamp was dangling in the bodywork and
so I put it back and ensured it was firmly fitted - but I got seen by a Shop
Steward who immediately stopped the line because a non unionised Apprentice
was ?doing the work that should only be done by a member of British
Electrical - and no-one else?. The track stopped for over thirty minutes,
and boy, did I get bawled out! And that?s how bad it was. If you weren?t in
a union, you NEVER used your initiative to sort a problem if you saw one
happening or likely to happen. You looked for a man in a white overall with
a blue or red collar and told him instead.

So back to the question of who and where were badges fitted? 

Answer, by anyone within the relevant union who happened to notice items
were missing. Missing badges and Triumph letters got fitted somewhere,
somehow but not necessarily in the location where they *should* be fitted
and if the car reached the end of the line without them, a red SHORTAGES
label got slapped on the screen and a handwritten note was made on the
production tally and shortage list. Somehow, the system seemed to work -
sort of - but it was time-consuming, wasteful, inefficient and an absolute
effing nuisance.

And because of those practises, that goes a long way to explaining why all
the UK car manufacturers of substance today are owned by foreign companies.
Same goes almost for our former motorcycle industry, shipbuilding, aircraft,
mining and a raft of everything else. The power of the unions and management
hierarchies who were terrified of confrontation, caved in and we threw it
all away.

JM

On 11 Mar 2026, at 13:21, Dean Tetterton <[email-masked]

John

         Thanks for the great article. It sure opens my eyes about the
complexity of building so many different

varieties of the "same car". I have scanned a lot of images that are in the
VTR Mike Cook archives and have a

nice collection of production line images. The ones I have of TR4's being
built show that the TR4 emblem on the

boot lid must have been installed near the end of production. I have
attached a few of them and go from the

rocket room to tops being installed. None have an emblem on the boot. Is
that because some were sent out

with different one's or none? 

           I really enjoy your articles.

         Dean Tetterton

 

On Wed, Mar 11, 2026 at 8:11?AM JOHN MACARTNEY <[email-masked]

This is a long one but hopefully opens a few 'new doors' to walk through?
Enjoy!

Jonmac

Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/triumphs  http://www.team.net/archive

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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2026 11:20:53 +0000 (UTC)
From: DAVID MASSEY <[email-masked]>
To: Stan Foster <[email-masked]>, Triumphs <[email-masked]>,
	Tim Gaines <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TR] TR6 rear shock mount break

Here's a thought.? Ratco sells a Coil-Over conversion kit that doesn't use
the stock shock mounts at all.? Have you considered that?
Dave 

    On Thursday, March 12, 2026 at 12:06:49 PM CDT, Tim Gaines
<[email-masked]> wrote:   

 It is a stormy where I am, so I'm inside with my laptop instead of under my
TR6 working to get that rear shock mount cross member out. Somehow I must
have deleted some of this thread, and I don't remember if I ever continued
with my "fix" to the problem. I did carry it over to "The Triumph
Experience" where I got some more recommendations, and though I was
discouraged for a time, I am now very optimistic about my choices.
First, I got out the lever shocks that I had removed a couple of decades ago
and opened them up and found the cause of their horrible performance. They
were filled with grease! I found a Youtube video on the "Yakov's Beauties"
site (so many great Triumph jobs there) that showed how to refurbish them. I
did what he did and got a similar result where much more force was needed to
move the levers. I really think they are going to work as is, but if not
I'll get them done by one of the shops mentioned by others here.
Second, I did embark on an attempt to weld up and patch the cracks that had
appeared on the left side of the cross member (gas tank out of course). I
thought I could hold the pieces together with C-clamps and then spot weld
them in a few places from underneath, up into the channel. The idea was to
then add more to the welds in the channel and then weld patches to the outer
surfaces of the channel that I would cut from 14 gauge sheet steel. I did
get a couple of spot welds done, but the channel is narrow, the MIG nozzle
is pretty wide, and it was very hard to see anything when the nozzle and my
hand blocked the light. The killer was my discovery of another crack farther
up near the differential that was in an even narrower spot. I called a local
welder who was happy to come take a look at the possibility of doing a stick
weld up there, but he said there was no way it could be done, and he thought
the cracking would spread anyway. Total discouragement at that point because
I just could  n't imagine incurring the expense of a frame-off job to
install the RATCO Differential Tower replacement after post-Helene clearing
and tree work had depleted our accounts.
A very helpful post on The Triumph Experience (from Ken D) let me know that
the RATCO replacement could be done without removing the frame. "Read the
instructions on the RATCO site," he said. I did, and the process sounded
very doable, even for this 78 year old. I talked to Bob at RATCO, and got
some good advice about carefully checking my frame for rust before
proceeding. The cross member set up for lever shocks was not in stock, but
it is likely to be shipped next week. Meanwhile I have been busy following
the instructions. I'll briefly describe how things have gone for those who
might be thinking of the same solution.
There was some initial frame prep required that would be very difficult to
do without first making room by removing the hubs and half axles from the
trailing arms and letting the arms hang lower. Each side has 6 nyloc nuts
holding the hub to the cast aluminum trailing arm. All but one of mine came
out nicely, but one nut was frozen to its stud, and that stud and nut unit
re-tightened after several turns out. It was extremely tight and I feared
stripping the aluminum threads in the arm by forcing it out. It took several
hours (over a couple of days) of spraying Liquid Wrench, turning back in and
then out, tapping the surrounding metal, applying heat with a heat gun (a
torch might have been too much for the aluminum) to loosen the nut. It
seemed interminable, but I did begin to feel that the nut was backing out a
little farther on the stud, and it did finally give leaving the stud and arm
threads intact. Whew. Another Yakov video showed how to simply pull out the
hubs (no need to do an  ything with the diff). Mine were stuck, but I
borrowed a hub puller with a slide hammer from Advance Auto (payed $175, got
it refunded after pulling the hubs in 90 min).?
I used my little air compression driven grinder with cutting wheel to slice
the shock bump stops from the frame sides (to be re-welded later to a frame
collar in the RATCO kit). It was a tedious job. I borrowed a friend's Makita
electric angle grinder with a 4.5" diameter, .040" thick cutting wheel for
the cuts to the old cross member. The cuts on the front side of the old
cross member to separate it from the frame were about 6" long and took less
than a minute each! The same cuts on the back side of the old cross were
hindered by the bottom of the trunk area where the gas tank resides. Only
about an inch of the cutting wheel could cut until the body of the angle
grinder was blocked from moving farther in. This was incredibly
discouraging, and I think it is the only flaw in the instructions provided
by RATCO. Maybe there are low profile angle grinders that could work? I
finally hit on the idea using my saws-all with a good long Diablo
metal-cutting blade (I do have a few of my own to  ols at hand). It did a
good job of cutting the rest of the way and took only a few minutes. I have
used a grinding wheel to smooth out the metal left on the frame after some
of the cuts, and that has gone well.
Yesterday I reinstalled the hubs using just 2 new nyloc nuts on each. The
hardest part (not really bad) was sliding the new rubber boots (old ones
worn) over the splines in the shafts before pushing them through the
trailing arms (held up with a scrap piece of wood). This next is the best
thing about the whole job. Tomorrow I plan to place a jack under the diff,
remove the 4 nuts holding it to the mounts (2 in the old cross), and then
lowering the jack to allow the diff to settle into a cradle of the 2 axles
and the drive shaft. The only thing left holding the old cross in place is
an easily accessed half inch weld on each frame rail. Should take about a
minute to cut through those and then pull out the old cross. There will be
more grinding to smooth the frame surface in preparation for the new cross
member. That cross will be positioned by slowly jacking the diff back up
into the 2 stationary forward mounts and into the mounts on the temporarily
movable new cross. Ingenious! At tha  t point my nearby pro welder has
agreed to do the welding to the frame.
The current price tag on the RATCO kit is $375 plus shipping. The welder
charges by the hour, but I don't think it should take too long. Maybe $200
or so there; certainly less than $800 total for the fix. That is more than I
thought it would take originally, but this is much better than having an
iffy patch job or a car that sits in the garage until . . . ?
Tim??
?
------ Original Message ------From "Stan Foster" <[email-masked]>To "Tim
Gaines" <[email-masked]>; "Triumphs" <[email-masked]>Date
10/8/2025 5:37:30 PMSubject RE: [TR] TR6 rear shock mount break

I had those brackets and the stress caused the cross ember to be torn off
the frame. I fitted the cross member from RATCO and switched back to lever
arm schocks.
 
 ?
 
Stan
 
 ?
 
From: Triumphs <[email-masked]>On Behalf Of Tim Gaines
Sent: Wednesday, October 8, 2025 4:37 PM
To: Triumphs <[email-masked]>
Subject: [TR] TR6 rear shock mount break
 
 ?
 
I have been hearing a slapping sound either under or behind me in the 1974
TR6 when I encounter even slightly rough pavement, so today I decided to
sort it out. I thought I had found the problem quickly when I saw that the
spare tire securing hook bolt had come loose, but no such luck. When I
finally gave up on simple fixes and jacked up the left rear end and removed
the tire, I saw that the cross member had cracked near where the after
market shock mount adaptor bolts on. I did a quick check with the Moss parts
catalog and that cross member is not available with them. So, I'm wondering
if this shock mount replacement for the old lever shock (I installed a
couple of decades ago) was a bad idea and put too much pressure on that
frame member. It occurs to me that there may be some folks out there who
have gone through this and can tell me just how a fix should be attempted.
 
 ?
 
That crack shown in the photo seems to be only on the back side of the cross
member. I have learned some welding skills in the last few years, and I have
a mig welder, but I have never done anything under a car. I really don't
like the proximity of the gas tank either. I am thinking that my local pro
welder would be the guy to call on, but is this really something that can be
fixed that way?
 
 ?
 
?
 
 ?
 
 ?
 
 ?
 
 ?
 
 ?
 
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Message: 3
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2026 10:47:01 -0500
From: "Notakitcar" <[email-masked]>
To: "'Triumps On TeamNet'" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TR] TR3 running on 2

Hello group, got a head scratcher here.

Scenario:

Last Saturday drove to cars & coffee, ran great until I was about ? way
home.  Started cutting out bad and l limped home on 2 cylinders.

1.	Checked compression 170-175 across all 4
2.	Pulled each plug wire and determined the front two were not running
3.	Laid a plug along side the engine and verified there is spark
4.	Pulled the float bowl top and verified there is fuel, drained it
dry, blew air, let it refill.
5.	Turned the motor and verified the fuel is flowing into the bowl
6.	Covered the intake and fuel splashes back on my hand a higher RPM
7.	Replace the front two plugs, gapped at .034
8.	Checked valves, all are moving properly and adjusted
9.	Verified that the butterfly is opening
10.	? tank of gas.

Any other suggestions greatly appreciated before I go out back and shoot
myself in the head?

Many thanks,

Bill B

TS30766L

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