Introduction, The World Beater?

 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 to document the work that I am doing on it.  I am open to comments as I am not very familiar with this model, my expertise (if you'll allow me to call it that) lies in reconditioning and restoring Jaguar E Types so this will be interesting to compare and contrast the different cars.


One of the first things I noticed when I sat in the drivers seat was the excellent gauge layout but I was immediately distracted by the water temp/oil pressure gauge sitting lopsided. 

So one of the first things I had to fix was to get this correctly mounted in the dash.

As you can see it has a very pretty engine bay, but there is one thing that really bothers me and that is the bonnet closure mechanism, in the stock configuration I don't know how one would be able to open the bonnet if the cable broke to the latch.

The latch is visible on the right hand side of the image about a third of the way down

Al little better picture of the latch

 
Having seen how several folks created a back up in their TR6's with a similar set up I'm going to buy some cable and creat a back up release that is accessible from a secret location.

Todays tasks consisted of little things:
Installed the battery cut off switch     
Realigned the temperature gauge       
Lubricated all the hinges                    
Installed and wired the cigar lighter    
Fixed the drivers side seat back release
Fixed the seat belts attachment points  
Worked on the steering column            
Installed the steering column shroud   
Fixed the center console-not installed 
correctly
Installed fuel filter and fixed fuel filter
bracket

Tomorrow will likely be a short day but will try to get the front wheel bearings replaced, will get started on it at least.

Cheers,
Lynn


5hr







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Carburetors

Image
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  
Read more

The Good, the bad, and the ugly

Image
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  
Read more

The Stagnator goes home

Image
This will likely be the last time I post on this blog site as it has become problematic for me at least. Won't let me post picture or if I post pictures it won't allow me to describe them. Don't know what happened but.... At any rate the Stag is gone and Bill seems happy with all that was done to it. I took the car out for a test drive and I enjoyed it, the steering is a little loose and the column probably needs new bushings but the car was solid and the little V8 sounds fantastic. If Bill can get the parts before we leave for Colorado I will fix the speedometer drive leak but other than that I think it will make the trip-I hope!
Read more