STARTING A BARN FIND

When we recently stumbled across a sorry-looking Triumph Stag at one of our local garages, MJ Motors of Birstall in West Yorkshire, we were naturally intrigued as to why it was there. The car's owner had recently acquired it and was confident it had been meticulously restored several years ago, but then it had not been used. Instead, it had been stored in a damp barn to slowly deteriorate. Fortunately, its neglect and lack of use hadn’t returned it to a restoration project, so the instructions were to get the engine up and running first, then see what else may need fixing.

We followed the work involved to produce this hopefully useful guide to getting an engine running, especially one that hasn’t been used for several years. The following pages reveal all of the work required that was carried out over a period of two days and show that there are two main aspects of the engine that need to be addressed – ignition and fuelling. Providing there’s a spark at the spark plugs and fuel being delivered to the carburettors, there’s a fighting chance of getting the engine running. You also need decent compression in the cylinders, of course. As you’ll