Last modified May 9, 2003
Stainless Steel Exhaust
Windshield Wipers
Panasport Wheels and Modern Tires
Bumpers and Chrome Plating
Seat Rebuilding and Reupholstery
Headlamp Trim Rings
Brake Pressure Differential Warning Assembly (PDWA)
Stainless Steel Exhaust
I decided to spring for a stainless exhaust system for the TR during the restoration. I love the sound of the stock exhaust system, so I initially planned to get the SS version of the single muffler stock system - but who can resist the looks of the dual muffler sport system? So that's what I went for. I ended up waiting literally months for the pieces to arrive because the mufflers themselves were on backorder. When they did finally arrive, I was very pleased with the appearance and quality of the parts. I was a little dismayed to find that the mufflers are basically glasspaks, that is, they are straight thru jobs with no baffling. At this point I was starting to wonder if I had made a wise decision.
The mounting brackets for the mufflers are on the output end, so you have to rig some type of hangers. I used a piece of 3/4" square steel tube which I cut to the proper length and welded between the rear frame members so it ran from side to side just forward of the rear valence. The mufflers hang from this by rubber straps that are supplied with the exhaust system. I did a lot of trial fitting to insure that the outlet pipes are as close to the valence as possible without actually touching.
I used universal tailpipe hangers on the front end of the mufflers to give the system additional support. The result is a rigidly mounted system that is pretty well isolated from the car as far as vibration goes.
One thing I have learned about exhaust systems of any type is that you should avoid plain old auto parts store muffler clamps like the plague. They don't seal well and they distort the pipes, making it impossible to get things apart and back together again. On a TR, there are so many reasons why you WILL have to remove the exhaust system, you want to make sure it doesn't get mangled and difficult to work with. I recommend using the stock style TR clamps that completely encircle the pipe and use grade 5 or better bolts. Put anti-seize grease on the pipe joints, the hardware for the clamps, and, most important, on the exhaust manifold outlet flange studs.
Make sure that the pipes that run through the tunnel under the driveshaft do not ground on the surrounding sheet metal or you can get all sorts of strange vibrations. For that matter, check from the front of the system to the back that the pipes and mufflers do not contact the frame or bodywork anywhere.
I was put off a little, at first, by the additional noise the car now makes, but I'm getting used to it. It's not obnoxious, but the world doesn’t need more noise. I do have to admit, though, that at 65 mph it sounds like beautiful music to me. If I had it all to do over again, I think I would opt for the stock configuration in stainless.
Windshield Wipers
Over the ten years or so that I have owned my present TR6, I have noticed that the wipers had become "sloppy." They didn't park at the bottom of the windscreen and you could move them through ten or fifteen degrees of arc by hand. Because of this lost motion, I was not getting a full sweep across the screen, either. During the recent restoration of the car, I took the opportunity to investigate and solve the problem.
The wiper mechanism is driven by an electric motor under the hood. Within the motor case is a gearbox that converts the rotary motion of the motor to linear motion, which moves a steel cable back and forth. The steel cable is wrapped with yet another steel cable that is coiled around the first cable in a spiral. The end result is a long "gear" that runs through the firewall and across the car behind the dash. This cable is enclosed in steel tubes that support it as it runs from the motor to the wheelboxes. The wheelboxes are the parts that stick up through the cowl in front of the windshield on which the wiper arms mount. They convert the linear motion of the cable back into rotary motion to make the wipers go back and forth. The wheelboxes are not much more than a shaft in a sleeve bearing with a spur gear that meshes with the linear gear formed by the cable.
The steel tubes that support the drive cable clamp firmly into the sides of the wheelbox. The slop in my wipers was due to this clamp having gotten loose. Age and abuse had taken their toll and, upon investigation I realized that nothing short of total disassembly would put it right. I was in the process of stripping the paint from the car anyway, so I need to get the wheelboxes off of the cowl to do things right. The hardest part of this entire job was removing the large nuts from the outside of the wheelboxes. Take off the wiper arms. On the face of the knurled wheel that holds the wiper arm, make a mark with a scribe or marking pen at the 12 o'clock position. You'll need that later. The threaded part of the wheelbox appears to be made of pot metal and the nuts appear to be chrome plated brass. Whatever they are, they had welded themselves together on my car. Of course, when you twist on the nut, you have to keep the wheelbox from turning, and to do this, you have to remove two access plates from the inside of the firewall (actually the air plenum) under the dashboard. I was fortunate in that I had the heater and glovebox out at this point anyway, so I'm not sure if it's actually necessary to remove these items to get the access plates off. Once you can access the back end of the wheelbox and devise a method to keep it from turning, you still have to be careful not to apply too much torque, as you may damage the assembly. Also, it's very easy to damage the paint on the cowl when you are struggling with these things.
Fast forward - now you have all the parts laid out neatly on your workbench. Carefully examine all of the parts. The hard black rubber pieces that secure the wheelbox to the cowl are usually broken - another source of slop. The windshield washer jets are also mounted in these and they are often clogged up. Replace them. Lucas makes a "wheelbox kit" that contains the two pieces for one wheelbox. Try turning the wheelbox shaft. Mine where darn near frozen. I soaked them in lightweight oil and after a few minutes, I was able to spin them freely.
Assembly is the reverse order of disassembly. Not really, but I've always wanted to say that!
Check the cable support tubes for bends, kinks, and other types of distortion. The ends are important, because that's where they clip into the wheelboxes. If there's any question about their overall condition, replace them.
Apply some grease to the cable. The cable support tubes are clamped in place by stamped metal pieces that are attached to the back of the wheelbox. On my car, these pieces had been distorted over time and the tubes were no longer held firmly in place. A little judicious hammer and plier action got them back into fettle and they were like new.
Now it's time to remount the wheelboxes. Attach the "squirter" hoses to the new "wheelbox kits." (You flushed the squirter hoses first to get rid of any gunk, right?) PUT ANTI-SIEZE GREASE ON THE WHEELBOX THREADS. Mount the wheelboxes. Again, be careful about the paint on the cowl. Be careful to hold the wheelbox in place from the rear (thru the access holes under the dash) as you put the big nut back on. Feed the cable back through the support tubes and put it in place on the wheelbox. This is sort of an over-simplification, because you have to hold the tubes in place while you put the greasy cable through without letting it get contaminated with sand, pine straw, whatever. Remember those marks you made on the knurled wheels a while back? Turn them 180 degrees from that mark so the cable is running on "virgin" gear teeth. Engage the cable with the gears and re-install the back piece of the wheelbox. The access plates were originally sealed with some type of putty. Hardware stores stock something called "dumdum" or sealing putty that is quite similar, or you can use RTV, but do seal them up as the "plenum" is exposed to weather and should be isolated.
Everything should be in order at this point - tight - no lost motion. During this whole process, replace anything that seems suspect. After all, you don't want to have to do this again for about ten years, right? Bottom line - this is a difficult job and it can be expensive if you have to replace wheelboxes, cables, etc. but it helps turn back the clock and makes your car a pleasure to drive.
Panasport Wheels and Modern Tires
Panasports are great! They look good, they're straight, and they're round. My car came with wires, which were beautiful but not practical for daily use. Going to Panasports and 205/70-15 tires was one of the best moves I ever made, but I learned a lot in the process.
Panasports are a little wider than stock wheels. This is a good thing - wider is better. But the first thing I discovered is that on a really tight turn, the wheels contact the upper A-arm. Imagine, if you will, these beautifully machined wheels SCRAPING against the sharp corner of the A-arm. Not good. So I ordered wheel spacers offered by Moss Motors, but I could only get the lug nuts on about two turns with the spacers installed. I called Moss and was told "Yeah, that should be okay." No.
I got out my trusty Makita angle grinder and took the corners off of the A-arm and ground the excess length off of the upper ball joint mounting bolts. Problem solved, right? Wrong. I went and had the wheels balanced only to find that in a tight turn, the clip-on wheel weights hit the upper A-arm and got pushed around the wheel to a new position! Every time I made a tight turn I created a new vibration.
So now I insist on tape-on weights on the inside of the rims. Since doing this, I haven't had any problems. For a daily driver, wider mag wheels and modern tires are a must. They transform the car.
Headlamp Trim Rings
The trim rings on my TR6 have always been kind of ratty - the chrome had just sort of faded leaving them kind of gray and dingy. When I got the e-type and began working on it, I noticed that its rings were pristine, so I decided to use them temporarily on the TR and buy new ones for the Jag. I thought these things were all the same - a standard Lucas part, but I was wrong. The Jag rings are smaller and it turned out they were a very nice tight fit on the TR. There is no gap between the ring and the headlamp bulb. The effect is very nice on the TR, making the headlamp and trim look like a single assembly. I didn't realize exactly how much difference there was until I tried to put the TR ring on the Jag and it wouldn't fit in the headlamp recess - too big.
Bumpers and Chrome Plating
When I had the car re-painted, I decided to get the bumpers re-chromed as well. They were rusty in some spots and generally rough looking. New TR6 bumpers are virtually impossible to obtain and I understand the quality of aftermarket replacements is not good. There is a local plating shop in Norfolk, but I had been told that they only do "show quality" plating and that I couldn't afford them. I perused Hemmings Motor News for shops and found one in Richmond, about 90 miles away. After talking to them on the phone, I sent the pieces to them via UPS and waited a couple of weeks for a call saying they were done. My younger son and I took a liesurely drive up there and picked them up and got a tour of the shop while we were there. the appearance of the place turned me off a little bit - dirty, hot, but the bumpers looked pretty good, so I paid my $600 and drove home. To make a long story short, right after the warranty ran out, I had rust spots so bad that I decided I should remove the bumpers to prevent permanent damage. I drove the car for months with no bumpers before I decided to call the local shop and see What "show quality chrome" cost. Turned out it was $600 just like the other guys, but when I got them back, they were breathtaking! The fellow I dealt with said the other shop had not put a layer of copper on the bumpers, which is necessary for durability. Months later, the bumpers look great. Ask you plater if he uses copper!
The Brake Pressure Differential Warning Assembly (PDWA)
The PDWA is a switch that sits in between the front and rear brake hydraulics systems. Like most modern cars, the TR has a dual braking system, and if there is a difference in the pressure in the front and rear system when you step on the brakes, it turns on the brake warning light on the dash and it stays on until the problem is repaired. The difference in pressure may be due to a leak in one of the systems or maybe a defective master cylinder. If care is not taken when bleeding the brakes, it is likely that the PDWA will be actuated as well. I'll cover turning it off later.
I found myself topping off the master cylinder reservoir periodically, and when I finally got a chance to look around, I found that the electrical socket on the switch that sits in the center of the PDWA was full of brake fluid and there was a telltale stain around the PDWA assembly. When I removed the switch from the unit, there was brake fluid in the hole as well, which is a no-no. (I had disconnected the plug from the PDWA years ago because the dash light was on.)
I figured it would be relatively simple to remove the PDWA and replace the seals, so I got out my tubing wrenches and dug in. As I backed the flare fittings out, I began to get the idea I was in trouble. They put up a lot of resistance and, when they did come out, it became apparent what was wrong - the ends of the flare fittings had flared out themselves, making them too big to come out of the brass PDWA unit. As the came out, they annihilated the brass threads in the PDWA, so off I went in search of a new one. I found one at Moss Motors and it was in stock for around $125. I weighed my options (only one that I could see) and gave them my card number.
In the meantime, I took the old one apart to see what makes it tick. 
It is really nothing more than a piston with a seal on each end that moves to one side or the other in response to a pressure differential. As you can see from the picture, one of the seals was actually broken. I think I could have replaced the seal with a new o-ring had the threads not been destroyed.
When I got the new PDWA, it was close, but not identical as you can see in this photo. 
The new unit is larger, but the main problem was that the mounting hole was in a different place. The original was held in place by a bolt that went through into a 1/4-28 threaded hole in the sheet metal beneath. When I put the bolt in the new one and did a test fit, it was apparent that the PDWA would be too close to surrounding objects to get the brake tubes in. I thought about just doing without the bolt, but I was afraid the vibration of the loose unit might work harden the tubes and cause them to crack later on. I decided to make an "offset mount" to utilize the existing mounting hole in the car body, but locate the PDWA in the correct location. The resulting gizmo is shown in the pictures. It consists of a small metal strap with a stud welded in place to stick up through the PDWA.
Now I was faced with the problem that the flare fittings were deformed. I could fix them or replace the brake lines - fix them. I plugged the end of the tube with a small piece of paper towel and broke out the Dremel tool with a grinding stone and very carefully removed a small amount of metal around the circumference of the end of the fitting. Fortunately, only one required this treatment, so pretty soon I was able to put all the pipes back in place.
If your brake light is on and you are pretty certain that there is no problem with the brakes, you can remove the plastic switch from the PDWA and, using a small screwdriver, move the shuttle piston to its central location. Then you can put the plastic switch back in, and if the light comes back on when you apply the brakes, there is a problem with the hydraulics that you need to ferret out.
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