Building, racing, crashing race cars with the 750 Motor Club
At last I feel as if I’m getting somewhere. Given what I need to do before the season starts that’s a good thing.
I’ve finished sticking the airbox together, and the final version is in the photo on the right. Actually, that’s not quite final as since then I’ve arranged a couple of little brackets to stabilise it to the roll cage and covered up that hole which was a failed attempt at getting access to one of the fixings on the top of the standard airbox; I’ve decided to live without it.
Back again, although still with little to report. What’s worse is that I’ve got some exams to mark this week so that’s going to make progress even slower than usual.
All the same, after putting the new engine in I put all the wiring back. Of course, this was a lot quicker than last time as everything was cut to the right length. You can see some of the wiring in the photo on the right. Not really very interesting though, being the same as before.
OK, I know I’ve been tardy about posting lately, but not very much has been going on. However, I’ve been re-invigorated by a trip up to the Autosport International show this week, along with Adrian. I didn’t actually buy anything but it was great looking at all the bits and we bumped into loads of fellow RGBers.
Look at that. I bet you wish you’d got your own twinkly bar stool for Christmas too, don’t you? For some time I’ve wanted one of these in the garage and Anthea bought me one for Christmas, which I think came from that purveyor of fine quality garage items known as Argos.
It’s Christmas Eve (I wish this time of year was still as magical as it was when I was a child) and I’m stretching out the time until Santa arrives by writing this post. Not that there’s much to write about to be honest.
With the engine in bits I could suspend my disappointment and get on with other things. First up is to sort the wishbones that I’ve been meaning to remake. This is to get rid of the Delrin bearings, which haven’t really worked, and hopefully to get a bit of weight out. So, making my usual MDF and bracket jigs I remade the rear upper wishbones, as seen here. You’re right, they’re awfully short (although you have to add a lot of length in the rod-ends to this photo) and this is what completely re-designing the rear of the car would have sorted. However, I just don’t have the time, especially as I’ve just got a new job. (As well as still teaching, this time to “Engineering Doctorate” students, up at York and my PhD viva being next week. Eeeek.)
I took the crank up to Andy yesterday to see what he thought. As I was beginning to suspect he reckoned that the #2 and #3 big end journals were toast. This is a real bugger, as you can’t get undersized shells and therefore can’t get the crank reground.
Finally, I was getting to the root of the problem. And, indeed, demonstrating that it really was a problem. First thing, though, was to close up the top of the engine. So, I took off all the cams and drive gubbins, put the followers somewhere neat and tidy and put the cam cover back on. All this so I I could up-end the engine without the followers falling out. What’s more, with the cams out I can twizzle the crank around as I want without worrying about the pistons bashing into any valves.
So, I took the engine out, intending to get to the bottom of the oil pressure issue. I’m getting reasonably good at taking the engine out of this car, but as usual you always end up with a quantity of fluids falling out and making a real mess of the floor.
…whatever one of those is. (Actually, it turns out that it’s a small explosive device.) It’s what the Birkett turned out to be.
I’d got myself all ready well in advance, here’s the car sitting on the trailer and, after a morning lecturing to students. I jumped on the train, zoomed down to Cambridge and drove to Silverstone. There, miracles of miracles (they must have got some new security guards) we got in easily and parked up for the night.