GT mediated Awesomeness

[Tim Leech]

You are a glutten for punishment Tom,

[saintjamesy89]

Its all going well so far...

I got the TRS up and running yesterday, i'm trying to find a decent 32/34 Weber DRTC for it, as a Swiss car it has all sorts of emissions control rubbish and according to the internet should only have 75bhp, i'm hoping a UK spec carb and blanking off the emissions control stuff will improve its running etc so it can be MOT'd and sold.
It is being moved next week so that it can be side-by-side with the GT, ready for the rest of the a/c installation on the GT. Whilst they're both tucked up together there are a few other jobs that need doing on both.

TRS - Brakes, carburettor, cambelt, nearside wing mirror, UK spec headlights, autobox fluid change, wiper blades, fuel hose replacement

GT - cambelt, both rear electric window mechanisms/glass securing channels, fuel hose replacement, exhaust adjustment {vibrating against spare wheel carrier when cold} and of course the dashboard a/c swap

I have to finish installing the new bathroom first though!

[saintjamesy89]

[Tim Leech]

Your mad! well done

[saintjamesy89]

So it begins...

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[saintjamesy89]

The TRS started up, rose and smoked out the entire garage! But I have a rebuilt UK/French spec DRTC 32/34 to go on at some point which will let me bin all the Swiss emissions crap. A very friendly Frenchman on leboncoin posted it to me for a fraction of a new proper weber - very happy with that - it even comes with a carb for 'spares'!

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[saintjamesy89]

TRS UK spec carb fitted, I had to swap over the kickdown cable and a few brackets/spacers etc for that spindle. Also i needed to re-route and/or replace some of the coolant hoses for the autochoke the old Swiss carb was a manual choke (fingers crossed that won't bite me )

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Much tidier, the millions or vacuum lines are now gone leaving just the new distributor advance line. Again, I hope that doesn't bite me, no idea if the autobox needs some vacuum involvement!

[saintjamesy89]

The first loom has been removed, scuttle looms looked the easiest, so starting there!

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[saintjamesy89]

A day of good progress, I spent a few hours in the morning getting the replacement carb all plumbed in - surprisingly easy in just bolting/unbolting ancillaries etc. I had the GT next to it to get the autochoke coolant pipes the correct way around thankfully, there are only 3 pipes but still a fair few combinations! The maze of vacuum lines that plugges onto the old carb were drawing some vacuum (perhaps from the egr/exhaust?) So I popped some carefully sized bolts in the ends to block them off.

It still isn't running great though, I had to adjust the idle up for it to actually idle and it is reluctant to start without throttle. Interestingly when restricting the air intake (hand over air filter inlet) it evenbs out slightly and the idle goes up, perhaps it is running lean? I think the exhaust system needs attention before it gets into proper use, to remove the EGR and emissions stuff and/or remove a partial blockage.

Anyway, I think it is running well enough now to be easier to move and doesn't seem to randomy stall! I even gave it a good does of carb cleaner down the yap for good measure. I wonder if the timing might also need looking at now the carburation has changed?

[saintjamesy89]

Back onto the A/C stuff, after a bit of faffing around and looking at the Haynes wiring diagrams (no a/c to be found of course!) I got to it labelling the connectors etc pre-dissasembly. I thought i'd start with the GT and the scuttle panel loom, the a/c cars have an additional blower fan and also the recirculation flaps that need electronic control, so a way to ease into it.

GT's scuttle loom


Both scuttle looms


After getting the GT's scuttle loom labelled up and removed, also the single blower fan, scuttle panel, wiper arm etc all removed I started the same on the TRS. I was quite surprised to find most of the HVAC controls on the a/c TRS on the very same loom as what I thought of as just the 'scuttle loom' that fed only the scuttle panel components. This is great news! It means that most of the extra electricals are already accounted for!

a/c HVAC/scuttle loom in the GT


There were only two cut wires, the exact same wire on each car:
1 - A grey wire (Yellow loom) in a green 3 pin connector that goes either into the instrument panel or MK1 tower switches
2 - Another grey wire (also yellow loom) that wound its way to the relay mounted on the drivers side under dash area right next to the door shut, one of the lower dash mounting bolts secures it to the sidewall of the shell. Not sure what this is, perhaps an inertia/safety switch of some kind?

Interesting fuse or something electrickery bolted to the underside of the TRS' steering column bracket/frame/support




(WILL EDIT TO SHOW MOUNTED LOCATION)

The above needed the mounting holes drilling out for it to fit the GT, the holes in the steering oclumn were too close together on the GT, not sure why as they look the same! Also I had to find some tiny nuts as the TRS had captive nuts to secure this, all easily sorted though. I will need to extend the two cut wires and the two wires that connect to the above under steering column fuse (or whatever!) I think these will be the least of the LHD to RHD complications.

[saintjamesy89]

Tomorrow is more loom bothering, the twin fans, compressor trigger and pressure switch all need wires sorting. I hope to get the HVAC units out and start thinking about cutting holes in the bulkhead too, but that may be a Friday/Saturday job after the electrics are further along.

[panky]

I'm enjoying this

[saintjamesy89]

Today went a little less well, especially when I came to the conclusion that I'd need to use part of each main engine compartment and instrument cluster loom for each car.

The GT has toys the TRS doesn't
(Fuel/speed computer, fog lights, strange cylindrical thing behind the bumper and temperature gauge etc)

Of course the TRS is an auto, so has a whole extra engine part loom, has the twin coolant fans, a/c pressure sensor on the drier and wing mounted indicators to name but a few.

But the worst of it all is that both cars have entirely different instrument clusters, this is going to be the problem and is why i'll need to divide the looms for each car... Sigh

A naked TRS!

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The entire forward if bulkhead TRS loom

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And it's out of the car, disconnected from the fuse board and instrument cluster area too

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As I left play for today, I'd removed the TRS loom and labelled the GT's loom ready for removal first thing tomorrow. I'd also started trying to seperate the wires that need to stay on the TRS from those that need to go onto the GT.

What the bloody hell am i doing?!

[saintjamesy89]

I did think it odd that the GT has 1 engine bay relay and the TRS 6! I went through and investigated what each relay did - but still unsure what the 6th is for - I found it's 3 black wires disconnected.
Most of the relays i found were to do with cooling fan control.

[saintjamesy89]

I'm enjoying this

I was also enjoying it yesterday! But i do have all of tomorrow and some hours on Saturday to get cracking. Once the wiring is done I hope it'll be downhill from there