GT6 Nick

Thanks Nick, I'll check how far the clutch plate runs on the splines. And your comment about forged vs pressed clutch arms has me wondering. My conversion kit came with a pressed arm, and despite a dab of grease on the ball, it squeaks. I didn't know that there was a forged version of the arm. They look well made, especially in the ball-socket area. Hmmm.

My Grandfather bought the Avenger brand new in 1971. It was his last car and the only one he bought brand new. My mother learned to drive in a column shift Humber 80, so I guess he traded the Humber in for the Toxic Avenger. Yes, they rust badly, and I had a lot of derusting to do when I inherited it. It's solid now, but hasn't run in about 20 years. How time flies. The interior still smells the same as I remember as a little boy. I seem to have inherited my Dad's BMW the same way. My brothers don't want it, and it's in almost mint condition, so I'm looking after it. My Dad really liked it, even though it is so low that he struggled to get out! The garage's black colour is mainly aesthetic. It's NZ's unofficial national colour, and New Zealand doesn't get nearly as hot as Australia. In winter, any additional warmth will be very welcome.

One last update before I head inland again for work. From time to time on my illegal black-ops tuning runs in NSW, the GT6 engine made tapping noises that I could feel through the clutch pedal. Oil pressure was good, and when I sent the gearbox away for a rebuild, I checked that the noise wasn't coming from the bastardised Toyota/Triumph clutch. The vernier camshaft sprocket was fine too. Today I pulled off the sump and found the cause. The Racetorations' alloy sump surge plate had moved (it isn't clipped or otherwise held in place) and #4 big end had been gently tapping on it. If you need a chunk gouged out of stainless steel, it turns out that ARP bolts are just the thing. The bloody plate must have only popped up at the front, as there aren't any marks under # 5 and 6 big ends. So, I'll have to make a new plate and figure out how to stop it moving upwards. I can't see any metal debris in the crankcase, but I'll clean it out thoroughly and check the bearings before I bolt the sump back on. Looking good here... No marks on #4. But check out where #4 was making contact. The marks where 1, 2 and 3 big ends run are my doing, as I found the sump (designed for a GT6) didn't quite accommodate a 2.5 crankshaft. I'll tidy them up a bit more before the sump goes back on.

One of the reasons I've been ignoring my GT6 is that I flew back to New Zealand quite a lot (when the borders were open) to build a garage on my quarter-acre of grass. Right now I'm working with a local architect on a house design, and hilariously it looks as though the house will be smaller than the garage. Back in 2018 I measured all my cars and determined that I needed a 7 x 10m garage plus a workshop/cabin to fit the collection. As long as I didn't buy any more cars.... Once the council had approved my plans, a local builder poured the slab and finished it to lock-up stage. I took it from there, so now it has power, water, sewer and fibre, and a fully lined and insulated workshop. It makes for a good home away from home when I go back to visit friends in NZ. Lots of black. A mate mowing my lawn. I would be able to fit three cars side by side if I didn't have a lot of house materials in there. My Herald back from its adventures in Australia, plus my late father's 3-series and my Grandfather's Avenger. And stacks of timber, furniture, and stuff from my late parents. Lesson - garage spaces get filled up. Always. There's still room for the GT6 though! The lined and insulated workshop, which is where I camp when I fly back. The benches will get upgraded for heavy stuff one day. A roll-up futon - amazingly comfortable. I was worried that a plywood interior might look like the interior of a packing crate, but it's actually a really nice look. Workshop-style decor. I haven't got the steam gauge working yet. The only thing I didn't include in the workshop fit-out was a shower, because a workshop isn't supposed to be for living in. My solution works and has a fantastic view, but can be a bit breezy. Chapter 2 - later this year I'll be back over, helping the builder on the house.

What I didn't mention is that to continue with Megasquirt, I'll also have to buy a new laptop. My old one is very old (c. 2010) and the battery is long dead. It works when plugged in, but not on the road. I much prefer using a Mac, so the only reason to buy another PC laptop would be to resume the battle with Megasquirt. As for being locked into a proprietary brand of ECU, to be honest I don't see myself constantly tweaking the curves to chase horsepower. Once it's smooth and reliable I'll probably never look at it again. If it does get sick, I'd rather be able to take it to an expert who can diagnose it in an hour, than spend my days off reading and re-reading the manual and trying to make it less broken. And if I want to go properly fast, I have a Daytona 675 and Ducati DesertX (gratuitous bike shots follow). A very silly Triumph. And a slightly more sensible Italian, trial-fitting its new luggage. I asked about tuning the GT6 on a local dyno with Megasquirt (if I bought a new computer) but the shop I talked to (and the one recommended to me by several people) are pretty busy. You book half a day, and if the first couple of hours are spent figuring out the software, that's time wasted. But what really made me think was watching a video where a bloke in Sydney quite sensibly popped a Ferrari 360 flat-plane crank V8 into a Seventies Alfa. He got it running with a Link, and then took it to a tuning shop who were able to set the fuelling and ignition curves in about two hours. Very silliness.

Small update, and some pondering... The camshaft sensor and timing cover are done. I've made a cardboard template of a better crankshaft sensor bracket to get replicated in steel - I can cut and fold the steel, but my flat's not wired for welding. I'm still waiting for the new thrust bearing before the engine can go back in. Once again, hurry up and wait. In the meantime I've been pondering the EFI. It has Megasquirt, and to be honest that's one reason why the car was built but then the project stopped and the car sat in the garage looking gorgeous. I had a car that ran OK if you babied it, but it needs to be running sweetly before it goes for engineering certification. And it needs to be certified before it can be road-registered. I drove it (illegally) a few times when I lived in country NSW, but I'm not a tuner, and I was risking detonation (high compression) or getting booked by the fuzz. It needed to be set up properly by a tuner. I was slowly figuring it out, but then the gearbox started squealing, so it got tucked away in the garage. Unfortunately the nearest tuning shop that will work with Megasquirt is 900km away in Brisbane. I know Megasquirt is the cheapest (but still good) ECU, but factor in at least one 1800km round trip in my Pajero towing the GT6, plus trailer hire, (lots of) petrol, motels, and no guarantee that the car could be set up in one trip, and it's not that economical. But, a good thing about Mackay is that it has a thriving car and motorsport culture, and no shortage of tuning companies with dynos. I talked to one today - five kilometres from my place! - and they're familiar with locally made aftermarket ECUs like Link, Haltech and MoTec. To buy one of those ECUs, swap over the wiring and get it professionally dialled in on a dyno might cost a couple of thousand dollars, but I'd have a professionally tuned car, and local support ten minutes away. I think that's the way I'll go. Anyone want to buy a Megasquirt MS3 Pro?

A workmate recommended a local machinist and fabricator, Metal Mik. Mik's workshop was a showcase in metalwork. A custom Model A chassis here, an English wheel in the corner... I showed him the clutch thrust bearing mechanism, and he’s making a longer thrust bearing carrier so that it remains stable and doesn't slide off the end of the input shaft's sleeve. A simple fabrication job, when you have a lathe, mill and block of brass. Back in my garage, I was able to swap the vernier camshaft sprocket for a solid one. The camshaft had previously been dialled in, and I was able to bolt on the solid sprocket without disturbing the timing. Next, I drilled and tapped a hole in the solid sprocket, and made a sharp punch to mark where the hole in the timing cover should be drilled. Once the cover was drilled, I fitted the flying magnet and locktite'd it in. A pointy bolt. A locktite'd magnet. Unfortunately my current garage isn’t wired for my welder, so I dropped the cover off to Metal Mik to weld on an M12 nut. He’ll also weld some lugs to mount a better crankshaft sensor.

In truth, I doubt it matters. (Although a proper engineer would want to test that guess with a sensor on the camshaft sprocket and another on a distributor body). There's a tiny bit of backlash in my distributor gears, probably only a degree or so. If the gears are under continual load from the oil pump, even that tiny amount shouldn't introduce errors. And again, I'm trying to avoid the perfect being the enemy of the good. But in this case, a magnet on the camshaft sprocket is an easy solution. I'll also weld a crank angle sensor bracket to the timing cover while it's off. A bit of crackle black paint and it'll look factory.

Update time! The gearbox guy warned me in August that he had a lot of work on, and he wasn't kidding. My W58 only came back a couple of weeks ago. New bearings, seals and at least one synchro, and $1200 later it's as good as new. Before it goes back on the engine and in the car, I'm taking the opportunity to sort out three annoying issues. Only three, I promise. (1) The Conversion Components kit to mate a Toyota gearbox to a Triumph engine included a clutch thrust bearing carrier, but I was never happy with it. It works, but the carrier slides too far forward on the sleeve around the gearbox's input shaft. It hangs almost halfway off, and I'm worried that as the brass bearing carrier wears, it'll start to tilt and hang up on the sleeve. The solution is to make the W58's sleeve about 13mm longer, which will take some welding and machining. The thrust bearing is also spaced forward on the brass carrier, and again it isn't as well supported as I'd like. Hopefully both problems can be fixed by a clever machinist. The alternative would be a concentric clutch slave cylinder, but I'm not sure any of the Toyota-specific kits available would fit my Toyota - Triumph hybrid without some machining. And if anything goes wrong with a concentric clutch cylinder, the engine and gearbox would have to come out. Again. (2) Before the engine came out, it occasionally made a rapid tapping noise that I could feel through the clutch pedal. Theory A was some part of the dodgy clutch mechanism contacting the flywheel, but no, that's all clear. Theory B was something in the timing gear, maybe the vernier camshaft sprocket's little bolts coming loose. No, they were fine. So Theory C is that the stainless windage tray in the alloy sump is getting tapped by a big end. I haven't put the engine on the stand to drop the sump yet. I don't want to disturb the timing because... (3) Camshaft timing. I never got around to adding a camshaft position sensor when I first got it on the road. They aren't strictly necessary, but they help with programming and controlling sequential injection. I couldn't add one to the vernier sprocket, because the adjusting bolts stick out further than the little flying magnet. I didn't want to try a pickup on the camshaft's redundant fuel pump lobe, as that would have involved machining the camshaft fuel pump lobe. It's a pretty rare camshaft, a gift from Andy Thompson with PI race history (overkill but sounds awesome and is still very torquey). Running a camshaft sensor on a cut-down distributor introduces uncertainty from the gear drive. But, a few months ago I was watching a Power Nation video on building an EFI Chrysler Slant Six, and they fitted a camshaft sensor to a steel camshaft sprocket. So that's what I'll do! It means going back to a non-adjustable camshaft sprocket, but standard sprockets have a bit of adjustability depending how they're mounted, and to be honest, I doubt a degree or so will make a difference that I can feel. Something about the perfect being the enemy of the good... So, watch this space...

It's well past time for an update. Since I moved back to Queensland, the GT6 has sat in the garage, looking beautiful. So beautiful and finished that it was hard, frankly, to start taking it apart again. But, the W58 gearbox isn't going to fix itself, so this week I asked a friend to help me remove the bonnet. That was a ten minute job. Now it's off, I've started disconnecting the engine so that I can remove it and the gearbox together. No bonnet = super easy access. The tiles mean I'll have to put plywood under the engine crane to avoid leaving marks, but it's far nicer to work in than the last place I rented, which had a gravel garage floor. Meanwhile, the other Triumph lurks in the background, no doubt planning its next act of civil disobedience. Those quick-disconnect electrical fittings save a lot of time! The back of the Supra W58 gearbox. Cutting the tunnel in half when I built the car means that I don't need to remove the whole tunnel.

Those floods blocked a lot of roads through NSW and Victoria, and some of them are still blocked. Google Maps and Apple Maps are usually about three days out of date, and even state emergency phone apps and 'live' information billboards along the highway rely on someone remembering to update them. Or someone on the ground getting to a place with phone reception to alert the council or state authorities. Otherwise, take your chances. Doable (remembering that I had the GT6 on a trailer behind me): Nope! Maybe? Sometimes I carry a drone, which is a good way to check the road ahead: Anyway, I hope the flight home isn't too tedious.

Oh. Sorry, I misunderstood. That's a 1927-8 Dodge ute/pickup. I bought it as a pile of parts from a farm. I've restored the chassis, axles and wheels, so in theory I could assemble it as a rolling chassis. Once I do that, though, it'll take up an entire garage space, so it'll remain a pile of parts for a while yet. Mechanically, vintage cars are really simple. They were designed to be repaired by mechanics who probably started their careers as blacksmiths. The fasteners are all UNF, and bearings are pretty standard sizes. The bodywork is another story though. I'll have to find a better body and bulkhead, or use the originals as patterns and make new ones. Thankfully it doesn't have many compound curves. As found: Restored wooden wheels. These were re-spoked with Australian Spotted Gum, a local alternative to the original Hickory. But, one thing at a time. I need to get the GT6 fixed first!

The 'project' was the original restoration, mostly covered on the Club Triumph forum between 2008 and 2016, before Club Triumph migrated to a new platform and the photos became detached. I think the thread has been restored, but by then I'd moved to a new town, and my new garage wasn't somewhere I could really work on the car. So, the GT6 has spent the last few years tucked up in my garage, snoozing under a cover, while I hooned around Australia on two wheels. The box started screaming within a few kilometres. I suspect it's one of the input shaft bearings, and that the box was already knackered. The clutch also makes a whirring noise from time to time. It's a hybrid of Triumph and Toyota, and from the noise, I think the actuating fork is occasionally contacting the pressure plate. Something else to sort out while the engine is out.

I'll bump this thread back up the list, as I'm hoping to finally get the gearbox fixed soon, and hit the road. Towed 1200km north from Narrabri in NSW, to Mackay in Queensland - the tropics! NSW floods didn't help. No, I didn't drive through these floodwaters, but it made a cool shot! Deluxe accommodation. With one new battery and some fresh petrol, it started right up. Needs a tune though, so I'll need to dig out my laptop. A new acid-gel battery. Hopefully it won't leak or vent corrosive liquids. And in its new home, with a newer Triumph (still a classic I reckon) for company.

This Nick? Just finished a four-round trip interstate move, from New South Wales to Queensland (Kingsland?). My 13/60 is on a ship back to NZ, where I've bought a block of land and built a garage. In ten years or so I'll retire there. My GT6 didn't get much done to it while I was living in NSW. It got dropped off a tilt-tray during the move south, and after I'd had the chassis straightened it thanked me by munching a Supra gearbox bearing. I pushed it into my garage and left it, partly because the garage had a grave floor and I couldn't be arsed pulling the engine out with a crane sinking into the gravel, and partly because I'd bought a faster Triumph. But, when the time came to trailer it up to Queensland, I poured in some fresh petrol, installed a new battery, and it started right up. Mackay, where I'm living now, has a thriving classic car scene, which is good motivation to pull the engine and gearbox out, fix it, and finally get the car road-legal. I'll dig up my old thread rather than mess up Craig's. On the move up. Each leg was about 1200km, and I did four round trips with trailers. This was the last one! In its new home. Much nicerer than the last one.

The other day I heard that rustbuckit2011 aka Arlo 'Paul' McDiarmid died at the beginning of April. I knew Paul from the Triumph Owners Club in Christchurch in the early 2000s. For a long time we had three generations of McDiarmids in the club. His grandfather Stuart owned a PI, his Dad a Cactus Mk1 Vitesse saloon, and when I knew him, Paul had a red Herald 1200. Paul making sure his engine was still oily on a club run over the Southern Alps through Arthur's Pass. Eventually I moved to Oz, Paul chased an acting career in Auckland, got married, had a couple of kids and bought a saloon. We still chatted online from time to time as he continued to tinker with his Herald. A couple of years ago he developed cancer, which he mentioned here but never seemed to dwell on. Anyway, this is him: Arlo MacDIARMID Obituary (1983 - 2022) - Mt Wellington, Auckland - The New Zealand Herald (nzherald.co.nz) Too soon!

Disappointingly, the surgeon put up a blue sheet so that I couldn’t see the monitor. I did ask if he would record the video for YouTube, or just upload the blooper reel. Making the surgeon laugh is an ongoing effort. Endone is a brand name for Oxycodone. It probably sounded better to the focus groups than Hillbilly Heroin.

Well, that was interesting! Yesterday was my TURP. First operation with a spinal, which showed me what it would be like to be a paraplegic. The anaesthetist was great - a Belgian named Peter who decided that working in the Australian tropics was nicer than Belgium. His main job though was to keep me happy and distracted, so I got a lesson - with pictures - on how spinals work. Cerebral, cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, and how core functions are regulated by the vagus and phrenic nerves. He warned me there might be a test later. The surgeon was happy with how the operation went. They removed the catheter this morning and discharged me. I’m still peeing red, but I think that’s because of the amount of material removed. It’s a big wound area. I was on a flushing drip all night, so the nurses were in every hour to empty another 3L of saline. I’d say hello and then go back to sleep, mumbling a little prayer to Our Lady of Endone. 27 patients and three nurses - those ladies worked hard. Thankfully, bladder control seems OK, although I bought a pack of incontinence pads beforehand just in case. I’ll stay in hospital accommodation for a few days in case of complications, before heading back to the mine’s accommodation a couple of hours inland on Friday. The much-reduced prostate area is very tender. Moving my motorcycle this afternoon was painful, so hopefully I’ll be less sore by the end of the week. It’s a bumpy highway. So - time to rest and get better, maybe go for short bush walks, and wait for the biopsy results. Fingers (and legs) crossed. Thanks for all the advice and info on here.

Hmmm. I know Vitamin B comes from Beer. What do I have to drink to get Vitamin D?

The GP said that my urine test didn't indicate an infection which might have inflamed the prostate. The flow rate's been dropping off for a couple of years, so the hypertrophy isn't a new thing. His two suggestions were surgery, or hormone treatment to shrink the prostate. In my case he didn't think that hormones would make a significant difference. I asked about a biopsy or cat scan, but he apparently likes to jump right in! To be honest, I was glad he didn't want to take biopsy samples because I don't love needles... until he assured me that the op could be done with a spinal block instead of a general anaesthetic. Woo hoo! I mean, much as I'd love to watch the monitor and chat as he works, taking a wee nap sounds far nicer than getting a needle in the spine by a bloke named Vlad. Oh well, only a few weeks to wait...

A quick update. I visited a urologist on Monday. To my surprise he didn't think it was malignant, or that scans or a biopsy were necessary, and moved straight to doing a TURP - where they remove the centre of the prostate via a keyhole. The existing keyhole... He referred to the procedure as a 'rebore' Ouch. It'll get done on August 30th, and because the hospital won't release surgical patients without carers, I've booked myself into an outpatient accommodation unit on the hospital grounds for a few days afterwards. Then it'll be back to the mine site on light duties. The material removed will go to the lab to check whether it's benign. If not, that'll mean a bigger op. Now, fingers crossed that the Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane lockdown doesn't extend this far north by the end of the month!

I haven't posted anything on Sideways in ages, mainly because my Triumphs (Herald and GT6) have been unregistered while I spend most of my time working away from home as a wandering geologist. Australia has many rocks to look at. My third Triumph does get used, but that's a Daytona so not to be mentioned here. (It's quite fun though.) I remembered this thread because of Nick Jones's posts on his prostate treatment. The saga was filed away for later reference, and just as well. A few years later it looks like it's my turn. The no-prostate club is about to get a bit less exclusive! A couple of weeks ago my plumbing changed from its usual occasionally-can't-pee setting, which a doctor a couple of years ago told me isn't uncommon, to always-feels-full-even-though-it-was-just-emptied. A trip to a GP near work (I don't have a regular GP because I'm seldom in one place long), and he referred me for a blood test and ultrasound. And yeah. There's a problem. Normal prostate volume is about 25-40mL, and mine's 115mL. PSA is usually 2.5-4 ng/mL, and mine's 11. Thanks to repeated state border closures here in Oz I can't go home for treatment, so it'll probably be a case of choose where in Queensland I'd like to see a specialist, and assuming they decide to operate, I'll stay in a motel for a week or so afterwards. More fun in the time of COVID! Anyway, I'm glad people have posted about their experiences with prostate problems, because it helped convince me to see a second doctor after the earlier one dismissed the symptoms. Thanks guys!

Still getting up to mischief, mostly on two wheels. Last year I rode the Honda around Australia, confirming Matthew Flinders’ assertion that it is girt by sea - ‘A Small Bike Ride’

More adventures with the Wrong Triumph (ie not enough wheels). Last weekend was the Big Chill classic race meet in Stanthorpe, up on the Granite Belt high country near Brisbane. It's an area high enough that it sometimes sees snow in winter. Yes, snow in Queensland, state of pineapples. Anyway, I figured that watching old bikes or cars being thrashed around a track is better than seeing them asleep in a museum. And because it was a race meet, I left my touring bike with its panniers and heated grips at home, and rode up on the Daytona, which thinks it's a race-bike. Just after sunset on Friday, I discovered that Daytonas have an appetite for headlight bulbs. Of course, this was on a dark, kangaroo-enhanced country road with 50km to go. I wonder if modern Triumphs still contain traces of Lucas? The Daytona and I woke to -3C in Glen Innes on Saturday morning. A bucket of water outside my room had ice on, so I waited until the sun was well above the trees before hitting the frog and toad for the last 150km or so to Stanthorpe. Four layers, winter gloves and the helmet cracked open slightly to avoid fogging. Brrr! Did I mention that the Daytona doesn't have heated grips? Even an hour after sunrise there were a few icy patches on the New England Highway. Amusingly enough, the only highway patrol I saw was in a freezing road cutting that hadn't seen the sun since March, when I was already riding very slowly. Great spot guys! The Saturday qualifying/terrifying laps were underway when I got to Carnell Raceway. I parked in the pits because (a) I'm too lazy to walk far, (b) I could keep an eye on the bike, and (c) to soak up coolness by association. A couple of Bonneville racers spotted the Triumph badge and came over for a chat (and probably to see if they could blag a few parts). Thankfully they were confused by the extra cylinder, left hand gear change and lack of Whitworth. Its lack of carburettors was deemed to be the work of the devil. After a hot cuppa to thaw my fingers and pot of hot greasy chips to thaw my brain, I settled in and alternated between watching the bikes, savouring the smells of Castrol 1 and wandering the pits to take photos. I also replaced the headlight bulb. On Saturday night I had dinner with some motorcycling mates in the bestest Irish hotel in town and eventually, after the Karaoke stopped, a good night's sleep. The racetrack on a cold Sunday morning smelt of bacon and old engines. The various classes of vintage bikes, some dating back to the twenties, resumed battle. My favourites were the sidecars, where the swingers throw themselves around like drunken monkeys but fail to fall off. One combination obligingly crashed into a safety barrier right in front of the crowd, earning him a short flight into the fence and a loud cheer. No damage, I think his beard broke his fall. I headed home to Narrabri when they stopped for lunch, beating the Garmin's predicted eta (and sunset) by a satisfying margin. Maybe Garmin needs a 'Daytona' setting?

Funny, that’s what I said about the Daytona. None of the other Triumphs believed me...