1973 Triumph Toledo S2000 Cont.

Thanks Gregmac, I’m pretty chuffed with it.

It was bright and sunny in Peterborough this morning so I took the Toledo into work and got the wheel alignment done on the way. It was a good opportunity to poke about underneath while it was on the ramp.
Tracking was way off and it now has significantly improved steering. Its still got about 10degrees of play in the steering but feels normally weighted and well connected with the road. There is a slight knock as you take up the steering play so more investigations required to find the cause of that.
While I had access I also set the shocks to mid stiffness rather than full soft which has sharpened the general feel but I think it needs to go stiffer on the front still.

Long overdue for an update, I’ve been very busy with the car this year but unfortunately not much driving.

I sold the Mini Pickup in the new year and dripped it off in Felixstowe for its new life is Australia at the end of Feb. In early March I got the car into my garage to give it a thorough once over and this ended up being a bit more involved than I was expecting. I’ll run through front to back:
Investigations into the poor steering showed the rack was worn out as well as the trackrod ends and the lower steering column joint. I took the opportunity to replace the rack with a 2.75 turn quick rack from TD Fitchett replacing the 3.75 turn that I had. I replaced the disk type steering joint with another UJ and sorted some lose bolts and wheel bearings. All this has resulted in a dramatically better steering feel. It is now very precise and almost psychic when driving fast like my old minis have always been.
When going through the front suspension I added two more camber shims on each side. I measured the car as having -3degrees negative camber on the front and its now -2. Next time I have the opportunity I’ll add another two shims as I was really aiming for -1 degree.
The heater blower was touching the inlet manifold under load so the brackets for this were modified to move it 10mm closer to the firewall and it doesn’t rub at all now.
The exhaust manifold was found to be hard against the subframe where it passes the bellhousing and so I removed this and relieved the subframe further to give ~ 10mm clearance. Whilst in this area I could see that the lambda sensor was touching the transmission tunnel as well as the bellhousing touching the firewall in two places. These only needed minor modifications, but I now have good clearance everywhere.
In the front wheel arches and under the front floors I found that there were some areas of bare primer or bare metal where rust repairs have been carried out. I rubbed these down and give them a POR15 treatment before re-schutz’ing the whole area (it’s mostly ziebarted already)
The front seats have been replaced with black leather mk1 Audi TT items which are far more comfortable/supportive giving a better driving position. They also tilt to give access to the rear seats a bit easier. I’ve added static three points belts to the rear seats. The car already had the mounting points for these from factory so it was just a case of bolting them in.
At this point I wanted to use the car for a trip over to Caffine and Machine and a brewery tour with the lads but I was a bit worried about the rear diff. When spanner checking the rear end I had found it to have extreme lash and be totally empty of oil. I filled it up with EP90 but wasn’t hopeful.
On the trip from Peterborough to Stratford the little Tolly held its own, keeping up easily with my buddy’s TVR but I was more and more aware of the diff noise as we went. Quick inspection at Caffeine and Machine showed that the diff pinion nose seal was starting to weep… but the car made it almost home before just as I entered Peterborough the Pinion bearing disintegrated and that was that.
Here is a picture of the extremely worn CROWNwheel.



The only other bit of excitement from the trip was when I had to jump on the brakes and it immediately locked the rears! Turns out the sprints have a rear bias limiting setup that is load sensitive and almost totally unavailable. The Toledo wasn’t fitted with anything so I’ve bought an adjustable pressure limiting valve which I’ll fit to the brake line to the rear in the engine bay before the new axle goes in.

The current situation is that the old axle is removed, and I have sourced a good used sprint item to go back in. Whilst I’m there I’m taking the opportunity to sort a few other issues at the back of the car. There was quite a lot of surface rust up around the rear suspension strut towers and again a few rust repairs with no paint or in primer (good quality repairs however) I’ve used a wire brush on the angle grinder to clean everything up and found that the rust was all superficial. I’ve then used POR15 again on basically the whole underside from the rear valance to almost the back of the doors. Then seam sealer, stonechip and top coat.
The other issue currently being worked in the fuel system. I was aware of the fuel smell in the car when I collected it but when fitting the new seats I found the return fuel loop was just rubber fuel hose loose under the carpet. The new setup will replace this and the factory hardline under the car.
6AN quick connectors to suit the s2000 fuel pump to 8mm nylon braided PTFE hose going to a 6AN bulkhead connector into the axle well. Then 3/8” aluminium hardline from there for both feed and return right down to the engine bay terminating with a hosetail for normal fuel hose to the rail. Seeing as the boot isn’t sealed from the cabin I’ve gone for the PTFE line from the pump to the bulkhead connector to ensure I don’t get any smell.






The chap I bought the new axle from also sold me a dolomite reach and rake adjustable steering column which should make a world of difference to the driving position (currently arms out stretched) and I’ve also managed to get a new Sprint rear antiroll bar from Rimmers as the Toledo doesn’t have one. These are the final mods to go on as the axle work is being finished and hopefully back on the road before the MOT expires at the beginning of June.

I was worried I wouldn’t feel much attachment to this car as it’s the first modified classic I’ve owned that was bought not built by me. However all this fine tuning has been very satisfying to do and I now really feel like I’m putting my stamp on the car. Cant wait to get it back on the road!

That looks really clean. Reminds me of my dads old Dolly 1500. Loved that car with its walnut dash and overdrive switch.

Last night I stripped down the new axle for a clean and refurb. I’m just planning to do seals and paint it as the bearings are good quality timken items and feel sweet. There was a lot of sludge in the casing but nothing magnetic. 

New inner halfshaft seals


Diff and CROWN wheel look perfect


Diff casing


Next I need to swap the brakes from the old axle and build it all back up.

I’ve been very busy on the Tolly, today i managed to get it MOT’d and back in action finally.

I finished the fuel lines down to the front of the car. I came across a little issue on the fuel feed to the rail. I think it’s a pre formed pipe from factory and had just been cut off with no flare to retain the push on hose. 



Now with AN fitting and hose tail. I hope to run the engine bay pipes in ptfe braided line but for now normal fuel hose will do.



Brake bias adjuster added on the rear floor. I’ve not set this up yet but it’s max 50% so should be better than before already.



Late night finishing touches



Ready for the MOT man



Unfortunately it wouldn’t restart after the mot was passed much to the amusement of the mot guy. I think the starter has failed annoyingly but i’ll check it on the bench before I shell out for a new one Until then i’ll be practicing my bump starts and parking at the top of hills!

Excellent.

You might be right actually! The tach only goes to 8k so it’s guesswork after that. I’m having trouble judging it so I keep hitting the rev limiter at 9300. I need more talent... or a shift light

The starter issue turned out to be a bit of corrosion on the terminals and a poor joint in the main power cable. Starts on the button now 

Next issues to address are the non functioning speedo and noisy exhaust.

After some investigation it seems that the oem hall sensor on the gearbox is wired into the etb speedo. The s2000 pickup however is not a single trigger but a 40 tooth wheel and its on the second motion shaft. This means the signal is far too fast for the gauge to process. Seeing as a sensor kit from etb is pretty cheap i’m going to add this to the prop shaft for simplicity. When playing with the menus on the speedo i found 0-60 timing mode, looking forward to getting some times!

For the exhaust it wasn’t  just the noise that needed addressing but it was a 2.25” system where as the oem s2000 has 2.5”. The increased gas speed this is causing is probably a factor to the noise. 

I’ve chopped the old system off after the O2 sensor and will fabricate a whole new system from there back. The centre box is a thrush “turbo muffler” which is designed for better noise suppression without back pressure. The flow snakes around through the box rather that being a straight through glasspack type. The back box will be a powerflow chamber box to reduce resonance and hopefully give it a nice note.

Last night i tacked up the front section including a flexi and vband joint (i wont have any slip joints)






Chris

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