tr7triumph.com

So there I was, cruising down the highway at 110kph. Not a care in the world.

Suddenly I hear a grinding noise and the car begins to slow down. I see an exit up ahead and rapidly switch to the curb lane. I try to put her into neutral, but it was too late. The next thing I know the gearbox locks up and I spin 180 onto the shoulder (and out of moving traffic.

Whew! I'm fine, facing moving trucks and cars, but off to the side on the highway shoulder. Car is stuck in 5th and won't move. In a statement of the care for your fellow man, today, not a single person stopped to see if I was ok.

Police and tow trucks showed up as I was call my local AA, so we pulled her up onto a flatbed trailer and headed home.

Several hours later, and a very dirty me, the tranny was out and on the workbench. Trashed pump caused the needle rollers and 1st gear bearings to seize and melt onto the mainshaft!. Also chunk out of one of the teeth on the layshaft (although that may have been there earlier). Oh joy.

So, anyone within a day's drive of Toronto, Canada have a spare tranny suitable for rebuilding they'd be willing to sell? [V]

M.

Now? Now is there anyone who doubts the benefit of a regular flush of the gearbox oil and swarf? You good folks need to remember this excellent article on the topic of swarf and regular gearbox oil changes.

http://www.forum.triumphtr7.com/topic.a ... ar,box,oil

My friend, your oil pump was destroyed by the accumulation of swarf chewing up the fibrous gear teeth. And, when the pump don't pump, our high quality British Leyland gear steel starts to weld itself all together.

I hope you enjoyed your spinout experience. It should have had the cardio-vascular benefit of adrenaline power flushing out your arteries.

I do have enough pieces to build up another LT77 gearbox, but I am about half a continent away. As a reminder, on the initial fill of the gearbox oil, please use 1 1/2 quarts of ATF. Automatic Transmission Fluid has a high detergent content and will clean out the fresh swarf and filth from the newly rebuilt gearbox. Drive the car easily for about 1500 miles and flush out the ATF. Replace it with our favorite gearbox juice, the Pennzoil MTF in the yellow jug that now costs $8.99 + Tax. It went up a dollar from last time.

Mildred Hargis

Vegas M,

Can you provide a list of the damaged pieces in need of replacement? I may be able to help.

Mildred Hargis

Vegas , if you check kijiji, I there was a guy in Kitchener/Waterloo who has been advertising TR7 parts available for quite a while now....

Ron.

Check out The Wedge shop for a better oil pump.

Cheers Troy

Yeah, he's got an all metal pump for the LT77:
http://www.thewedgeshopstore.com/produc ... r-kit.html
All-metal must be better than fibre-reinforced-plastic, but probably a wee bit noisier...

How easy a job is that to do,the oil pump replacement gears?

Don
Stick a Wedge In It
80 TR7 V8 Kick in the pants

Hmmmm, very interesting. But, here is a question or two. Given the pump gears are steel(?), what happens when the inevitable swarf chunk gets in there? Is there a sudden explosion from the lack of flexibility the fiber gears have?

The matter of preventing the swarf getting in there has yet to be solved. Do you suppose a piece of fine mesh screen could be welded onto the end of the inlet straw? Or, would this prove to be a blockage of the incoming oil?

This issue is far from solved other than my plaintive siren cries for regular and frequent gearbox flushing.

Mildred Hargis

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Odd</i>

Yeah, he's got an all metal pump for the LT77:
http://www.thewedgeshopstore.com/produc ... r-kit.html
All-metal must be better than fibre-reinforced-plastic, but probably a wee bit noisier...
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I got the metal pump (as spare parts) from I believe VB. I don't know if Mildred's concern about swarf and metal gears is relevant or not (time will tell) but I expect it will be noisier than fiber (why they had a fiber timing gear in the Triumph motorcycle in 50's/60's). Whether you can actually hear the difference with other nouses going on is another matter.



- - -TR7 Spider - - - 1978 Spitfire- - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

Hi all,

I did an 8 hour round trip drive yesterday and picked up a transmission taken from a car with only 25k miles on it (pulled from a wreck and sitting in a garage for 25 yrs). I'll pull it apart, check the bearings and oil pump, replace the seals and should be back on the road by the end of the week (unless it needs bearings which I'd need to order - I have the seals and gaskets).

Thank you all for your offers of parts, etc.

I've learned my lesson (again....[xx(]) and will redouble my maintenance efforts.

Regards,

Martin