[TR] A flood of flukes

Wbeech@flash.net wbeech at flash.net
Tue Jun 25 18:30:16 MDT 2019


Ouch, at least you had a nice 4+ hour drive.   Not a fan of electronic ignition, just call me an old pointy head. 
Bill
tS30800L

Sent from my DynaTAC 8000X

On Jun 25, 2019, at 4:03 PM, TERRY SMITH <terryrs at comcast.net> wrote:

My wife had an old college roommate over for lunch on Sunday, so better part of valor I made myself scarce with a 4 and a half hour aimless drive in the TR3.  I should say four hours and twenty-eight minutes, because exactly two minutes from home the car lost all power.  No coughing, stumbling, fluttering.  Just total power one minute, complete shutdown the next.  



Towed it home with the loader, got it in the garage and went to work testing.  No spark out of the plugs.  Good spark out of the coil.  Swapped the Pertronix unit out for points, engine started and car ran fine.  I think I'm done with electronic ignitions.  I very likely killed the thing leaving the key on or somesuch idiocy to which I am prone.  Fluke number one.  



Next I ran it up to temperature at high idle so I could check the mixture one last time, I noticed it was overheating.  There are no knocks, rattles or grindings going on.  Oil pressure is steady and good.  Tested this twice, so I've either got a water pump or thermostat problem.  Fluke number two. 



Happen to have a new spare water pump already so I thought to replace both the thermostat and pump while the coolant was already drained.   I got under the car to unscrew the plug from the radiator to let the water out.  Got the plug out, then noticed that not only the plug came out, but the threaded housing came out with it.  Apparently it's like a plug within a plug, one threaded, the other weakly soldered it in.  This is one of the new radiators from one of the Big 3. Fluke number three.  



Gadfrey.  



Spent today pulling the valence and the radiator.  I'll take it to some radiator place to have the plug housing brazed in instead of soldered.  At least getting at the water pump is going to be easier.  



Terry Smith, '59 TR3A  TS 58667

New Hampshire





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