[Fot] 50K

[Don Elliott]

I was 7 miles from home after driving over 7200 miles from Montreal and 
back - to Portland, Oregon, for VTR back in 2000 when the rear spring broke 
on the passenger's side.  Trear fender on that side was down as you 
describe - almost touching the ground.  I limped home the last 7 miles.  I 
guess that the shock assembly kept it together.  The car (and the rear 
springs) had 130,000 miles on them from new and I had driven 45,000 miles 
since I had completed my restoration in 1990.  The day after, I removed the 
rear spring and found that the spring was broken just to the rear of the 
axle.  The two outer leaves of the RHS rear spring had clean fractures.  But 
the two inner leaves had broken some time earlier.  This was obvious by the 
scrubbed and rusty surfaces across the fractures.

I called the local sportscar shop and he had 10 springs in stock.  A few 
days later, I was back on the road.  The sashay feeling on smooth but wavy 
surfaced roads had dissappeared.  I suppose that the two broken leaves had 
been cauing this for about two years.

Don Elliott, Original Owner, 1958 TR3A

http://www.triumphest2006.com/images/clubcars/30donelliott'str3.jpg

(photo at VTR 2001, Colorado - drove 5225 miles that trip)


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Gano, home" <triumphs at consolidated.net>
To: "Michael Porter" <portermd at zianet.com>; "Triumph List" 
<triumphs at Autox.Team.Net>; "Friends of Triumph" <fot at autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 11:54 PM
Subject: [Fot] 50K


> This afternoon I took the TR3 to the next town (20 mile round trip) and
> notice, as I pulled into the garage that I was within 2 miles of turning
> 50,000 miles since rebuilt.  Seeing as how that is something of a 
> milestone
> I decided to wait until the cool of the evening and take a run around my
> usual tuning course.
>
> It was a beautiful evening.  Cool and the car was running very well.  I 
> had
> this whole long, self congratulatory post planned, to tell the story of
> dragging this car out of my fathers barn in 1995 and spending the next 7
> years rebuilding it and cap it off with how I had been, mostly successful 
> in
> putting 50,000 trouble free miles on it in the 5 years since.  A real back
> slapper about driving it to both coasts and several dozen destinations in
> between and about fixing whatever minor problems arose with basic hand 
> tools
> in motel parking lots and racetrack paddocks.
>
> Well, the car had different ideas.  About 10 miles into the course, and 8
> miles after I had passed the magic 50 K mark, I hit a railroad crossing a
> little fast and BANG, the rear axle shifted about 6 inches forward and the
> left rear dropped 4 or 5 inches down.  I am assuming that the axle came 
> free
> from the spring mounting, but its too dark and too remote to try to fix 
> it
> right now and it is clearly not drivable as is.  I will send a tow truck 
> out
> in the morning and better assess the damage (This will be only the second
> ride home on a hook) and hopefully have it back on the road well before 
> time
> to leave for TRF / Pittsburg Grand Prix / VTR, but this is not the ending 
> I
> was hoping for this story. :-)
>
> These cars certainly have a knack for keeping a person humble.
>
> Ken Gano
>
>
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