Tag Archives: bowtie6

Rear Suspension Reassembly

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In the last couple of posts I’ve described the reason for taking apart the rear suspension on bowtie6.  I had to send the coilovers back to the manufacturer for servicing and sure enough, after a few days they arrived back in as-new condition.  This morning, I started cleaning all the hardware and springs followed by a dry-run:  installing the coilovers on the rear suspension (without springs) and going through the entire range of motion of the axle using my jack.  I just wanted to make sure nothing was binding or out of alignment.  All checked out, so time to quit farting around and get down to business…

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Rebuilt Coilovers

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The Man in the brown truck delivered a box containing bowtie6‘s rear rebuilt coilovers.  This stuff is like jewelry – too bad they are not in plain sight!

Needless to say I unpacked them and they are perfect.  Sure, there are a few scratches from wear and tear but overall they are mechanically back to as-new condition.  The rebuild price was not too bad:  $99.00 + shipping.

I can’t wait to get the springs assembled back on them and then mounting them back to the rear axle.  I’ll have a new post with pictures this weekend.  Stay tuned!  :mrgreen:

Coilover Repair

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After nearly 25,000 miles on bowtie6 and countless number of rebounds the rear coilovers finally gave up the ghost; time for coilover repair.  In order to get them apart, I had to do a partial rear suspension tear down.  My cousin Jim designed all the mounts so they could be easily disassembled – “…remember, everything will eventually be replaced or serviced at one point or another”, he says; “…it doesn’t matter how nice it looks or how great it performs, if it is not easy to disassemble and put back together, it isn’t worth a damn!”.  Wise man, my cousin Jim.

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SuperTrapp Performance Tunable Exhaust

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Going through some bins in the garage this weekend, I found several spare discs for the Supertrapp performance tunable exhaust as mounted on bowtie6.  You can see the two discs in the picture above, towards the left.

I’ve written about the exhaust in a prior post (Click HERE) so I won’t repeat myself.  However, the idea behind the SuperTrapp tips is to control backpressure and noise.  This is accomplished by adding or removing those discs to the end tip of the exhaust.  The more discs, the less backpressure and the higher the decibels; consequently the less discs, the quieter it gets but the more backpressure accumulates.

So back to the two discs.  I got the notion to move things around as well as adding the two spare discs.  Here is what the two exhaust pipes really look like:

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So I decided to remove a disc from the right side pipe and add the others to the left side pipe.  As you can see, the left side comes out at a 90 degree angle from the main 3″ pipe.  So, I figured what the hell!  The worse thing that could happen is that it sounds like crap.

Well, much to my surprise the experiment has worked quite well.  Backpressure has been reduced, noise went up (but only during WOT) and overall acceleration feels better.  I know, this is all measured by what is transmitted via the seat to my arse.  Good enough for me.  I like it!

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2012 Euro Auto Festival – bowtie6 will be there!!!

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Howdy folks!

Good news tonight…  Finally!!!

  • Performance issues are now a thing of the past.  I’ve had this blog moved to a load balanced hosting plan and we should be noticing some much improved load times.
  • If you have any issues please let me know:  [email protected] – and I’ll see what I can do to fix it.

The next thing I wanted to let you all know is that bowtie6 will be at the prestigious 2012 Euro Auto Festival at BMW’s Greer, South Carolina assembly plant this weekend.  You can read more about the festival by clicking here. The last time I registered to show my car was there was in 2009.  Incidentally, bowtie6 won First Prize in the TR6 class that year.  🙂

If you have never attended the Euro Auto Festival, you need to make a point to be there.  There are many, many cool cars in attendance and the venue is amazing.  The BMW Zentrum is there and you will see a huge collection of amazing cars.  Among them, my friend Michael’s highly tricked out Volvo.

Michael has turned his Volvo into a real powerhouse and basically created a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  It has a highly tweaked Ford Mustang engine in it (oh dear, I said the “F” word!!) and many, many cool enhancements.  I promise I’ll have a full article (or two) here soon with more details about Michael’s ride.

This year’s “marque” is MercedesBenz.  According to the AccuWeather this weekend should be sunny and very nice.  So I plan to have the digital Canon with me and I’ll try to take as many pictures as I can. Stay tuned and I’ll try to put together a nice gallery of shots.

If you happen to be there please come by the Triumph section and say hello.   bowtie6 is downstairs in the garage right now, all gussied up and ready to go.  I have actually taken the hard top off and installed my soft top back on.  This top was custom made in the UK for me several years ago and it is a little “different” from the standard soft tops:  it lacks the side windows.  Click on the “About” menu option to see what it looks like.  At any rate, I hope to see you there!