One Last Great Grim Tale
By Walter Partymiller

     That time, I had stopped in Columbus, Ohio to see good friends. There was  a college girl there that learned that I was heading west. She wanted to see her boyfriend out in Boulder Colorado. We drove all night. In the morning as we left the flat plains of Nebraska and started to climb up, up, uuuUUUP in to the Rockies of eastern Colorado, a most intense, early snowfall quickly dumped on the freeway.

     The story here is that this pretty girl had been sleeping as we drove. Suddenly we were going at the wrong angle to straight & way too fast. She woke up instantly, said "Whoooooowww" and then fell back to sleep just as promptly. The slide was corrected and I slowed the pace a bit. Since then, whenever I go in to a slide I say "Whoooooowww" .

     Anyway, this time (back to Wyoming), when the rough weather hit, I was more concerned with having "On" two accessories at the same time - the sum total of which always showed up marginally negative on the amp-meter gauge.

     The two accessories would be #1: the heater, the efficiency of which was laughable. (One can say "laughable", more than two decades later.) And #2: the windscreen wipers. "Oh Shhh...they used to work." Folks, this wasn't cotton candy time at the state fair in July! It was a full blown, freezing, mid-winter blizzard on the high plains of western Wyoming, no where near Cheyenne, nor any civilization.

     Conditions were not ideal to pull to the side of the highway and tinker. You couldn't even tell if there was a side of the highway. What to do?? Like with much of my life, you just keep on keepin' on. 

     I survived with help from a truck driver and his 18 wheeler. (From my vantage point that count was 8+4+6. Out West, they are allowed to pull two enclosed trailers, plus the tractor.) Read on. I would roll down the window enough to stick my arm out and clear a swathe for to see where we were going. I would then wind up the window - under the pretense of  'warming up a bit' - until the snow built up so bad that it was time to wipe again.

     You couldn't really see anything anyway. No highway, no landmarks..... no nothing. What saved me were the red taillights of that Semi-Rig. He must have figured out I was in trouble and he let me follow up close. When daylight came, after holing up for the night somewhere east of Laramie, Wyoming ( I always slept in the car when I traveled, the passenger seat had been removed for that purpose) by some deserted Conoco (Western brand) gas station, I tore into the wiper motor assembly cover, fiddled around a bit taking it apart and piecing it back together. Had it working again in short order. Not so bad when it is daylight and the skies are clear. It was just a loose wire.

     I was lucky that time, as in other times. My belief is that "luck", as such, is more of a spiritual thing and it is easier for people to say "lucky" and not have to explain it. I guess I'm still lucky cause I'm still here.

Conclusion

     The TR4A was a world class car. It was well developed, nicely assembled and probably underpriced for what it was. Aside from the inadequate heater and defrost system, it would have benefited from an alternator which would have given a stronger charge.

     One serious development flaw was overlooked. When the displacement was enlarged from TR3 days roughly from 2 liters to 2.2 liters, the larger pistons and bore intensified an internal balance problem. After all, 2.2 liters is considered large for an in-line four engine. Probably the factory engineers were aware of this. And further probably, it would have just been too costly to redesign the motor with counter-balance weights or shafts. It was easier to leave well-enough alone.

     Although I faithfully kept the valves adjusted , at 92,000 miles the exhaust valves on cylinders 3 & 4 wore at the lip (burnt). Perhaps I should had a torque wrench and removed the rocker shaft at valve adjustment time and torqued the cylinder head to spec. It should have been done. Another case for hindsight. Piddling further into the repair records are: one fuel pump diaphragm, two mufflers, four resonators (the dual rear mufflers), twelve Michelin tires, one speedometer cable. The carbs were adjusted twice. This is really a commendable service record for 100,000 miles of sports car driving. The TR4A had additional sound deadening material over the TR4 and it had the running lights with chromed wing and door trim strip and a beautiful veneered walnut facia. It got 32 miles per gallon of premium petrol. 'Twas my favorite Triumph.