THE STAGNATOR, 1971 Triumph Stag

Well, the god was that the carburetors are installed and the car started and ran well. The bad?  Take a look at this picture of the rear wheel. The ugly? installing the tires is a son of a gun, took me a couple of hours to get the tire and tube on only to have the tube blow out when I inflated it.  I was careful to use talc and avoid pinching the tube but something happened as I don't think it should have blown at 36-38 psi?  I guess it's better to have it blow now than when it's on the road to Colorado.  That being said I think we'd (Bill) better find a competent shop to install these tires/tubes. Three broken spokes in a row Looked pretty good after cleaning them up. Well, that's all folks!   Wish someone could have caught a picture of my expression when the GD tube blew.   Cheers, Lynn  

 Evening Folks, Didn't have time to do a post yesterday so will combine todays and yesterdays.  Ran into a few issues with them but was able to make some gaskets and fix a few things along the way.  All of the 'O' rings in the carbs have been hard and brittle so was definitely worth the effort to rebuild them.  ZS  carbs have an 'O' ring in the bottom of the float bowl that fits a plastic plug, when these get old the carbs leak fuel. Included this picture to show the adjustable needle valve. The 'O' ring was beyond doing what it was intended to do and broke as I removed it.  The Carburetor should not have to be topped up with oil as frequently now. The carbs mounted to the intake manifold, it has a two piece manifold which made installing the carbs almost pleasant compared to removal This is one of the "ball and socket" linkages that had been held in place with tape, the socket was obviously intended for a larger ball and would slip right off.  I c...

Not a lot of text tonight and Bill knows the reason, we had a nice dinner with a few folks and are mourning the eminent departure of our friend Jim H. I may have found an 'O' ring that will work for the intake manifold-I hope as the original is way past it's use by date as are all the 'O' rings and gaskets on these carburetors. Disassembled carb, sure hope I can remember how it goes together That's all, I have a puppy demanding my attention now, he's been ignored all day-poor guy! Cheers, Lynn 3 hrs  

 Hope you all had a great weekend, we received some much needed rain but it was a bit dreary.  Since I had to go grocery shopping this morning I decided to pick up some cable for the emergency Bonnet release mechanism that I'm going to 'craft' for the Stagnator. The cable runs across the back to a preexisting hole in the fender well,  I even had a grommet that cleaned up the installation IMHO. Cable loops around the post and when pulled releases the mechanism in the event that the main cable breaks Little loop hidden in the wheel well After that was squared away I started on the carbs which I'll document below: Top of air filter housing removed, needs a fresh filter Housing removed Inlets now gone Picture of problem linkage, it had been taped together to make it work, not sure how I'll fix that so we may have to find a replacement. Cables and hoses being removed Fuel lines plugged, ready to try to remove the carbs Carbs off and on the shelf, the 2 nuts on the out si...

Happy Saturday, It's been a rainy day here but did get a little done on the Stagnator today.  I usually don't work on them on the weekends but I wanted to wrap this task up today.  Next week I'll start on the carbs but I am approaching that with a little trepidation, it looks like the throttle linkage is held in place with tape so I'm wondering what I'll find, impossible to locate parts?  Who knows...  A big thanks to Rick M. who has done a little research for Bill regarding parts suppliers, Stags are a fairly rare car and don't enjoy the aftermarket support that some of the other LBC's have. I think it's fascinating the way that Triumph has set up the cars for either steel or wire wheels by the simple addition of a bolt on hub. Just thought I'd share the brand and name of the grease I used NAYYY.  Nothing else to share today, see you all on Monday. Cheers, Lynn 2hrs

Had a lot of stuff going on today culminating in an LBC drive this afternoon to honor one of our friends who has decided it's time to live closer to family-we will miss you Jim! I was able to get a little bit done on the Stag and installed the drivers side front wheel bearings, no big surprises but I do think it's time to consider replacing the rubber brake lines. The  set up on the wire wheels is kind of interesting as it appears that the wire wheel hub was an after thought on this car as the hub that you see here has the splined hub mounted to it on the four studs you see.  One problem with this approach is that the wheel and wire wheel hub have to be removed to service/adjust the bearings.  The black cap in the center can not be removed without taking the wire wheel hub off. Just showing the minimal clearance of the caliper bolts to remove the caliper, very hard to get a torque wrench on these bolts and the are supposed to be torqued to 65 ft/lbs Don't know why I put t...

 The Stag, When the Triumph Stag was introduced it was expected to compete against some of the finest cars in the world like the Mercedes 250 SL. On paper the match up was pretty reasonable, the Stag had a small V8 and many of the creature comforts one would expect in such a car, electric windows, telescoping and adjustable steering wheel, multi adjustable seats in a very sporty package.  Had the engineering lived up to the hype I think that Triumph would have had a winner on their hands but sadly the car had a tendency to over heat, blow head gaskets and warp the heads.  The single row timing chain was also problematic resulting in chain breakage trashing the engine (replacement was recommended at 30K miles). That being said I think time has been kind to the Stag and it has aged very well, this car in particular is a very nice example that has been brought to me for some prep work in anticipation of an upcoming tour.  In this blog I will share the experience and try...