2018 review

I guess I ought to stop apologising for being late with these posts, and just accept the fact that I just don’t get around to things quickly enough these days. I’m pretty much retired now (although just starting some new complex systems research) so you’d think I’d have time. Seems to escape me though. And, no, I’m not spending all my time watching daytime TV.

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Fit the Fifth

Expired CV joint-002…in which our intrepid hero sets out on his fifth quest to slay some unperceived dragon, albeit starting by avoiding a trip to Pembrey in the land of the dragons.

Back in the real world I took the J15’s bodywork off to have a look at the damage as a consequence of the CV joint. As you can see a goodly quantity of CV joint grease was scattered about and I found a single one of the balls out of this tripode joint skittering about on top of the floor pan. The rest of them must have escaped captivity in Snetterton.

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Here we go again

Storage boxesThe first race of the season is now just a few days away and it’s going to be a really busy day. We’ve got two races in a day and, because Donington operate what seems to me to be a completely unacceptable testing regime, there’s no testing on the friday before the race. My view is that the club shouldn’t give the circuit our monies if they aren’t prepared to accommodate us for testing but I don’t hold much sway and so I’m going into two races on a new circuit (we’re on the GP circuit) pretty much blind.

The one slight saving grace is that the club have managed to get a test session into the start of the programme. This means that I’ve got two practice sessions and two races to fit in on the day, which is going to be a bit pressed, to say the least.

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Shine

I’m still in a bit of a quandary about what happened to the chain and sprockets. I spent a while measuring it as accurately as I could tell and I think the driven sprocket was translated about 0.9mm to the right of where it should be and was at an angle of 0.3° to the drive sprocket. I’m not an expert at chains but that doesn’t sound horrendous.

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Working on the chain gang

Hmm, I think I’ve found a bit of a problem, which might just explain the problems I’ve been having with the new engine.

After the first outing at Snetterton I’d noticed that the chain had needed adjusting quite a lot. That seemed a bit odd but I didn’t think too much about it. However, I’d noticed that the same thing applied after the Silverstone race. At first I was wondering why the chain was stretching so much, or perhaps the sprocket was moving slightly. However, I think I’ve found the problem…

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Exhausting work

OK, I’m back. It’s been a while but we’ve been on holiday and I spent a week away at a conference which explains the lack of progress.

In fact, if I’m honest there isn’t really much to say anyway. After the Snetterton race I’d decided that I needed to sort the exhaust system out. I spent a while phoning around a few builders without any joy. I’d imagined that they’d all be twiddling their thumbs at this time of year. However, that appears to not be the case. So, after discussing it with Andy I thought I’d try something that I’ve been meaning to have an experiment with for a while. This is making my own exhaust. After all, it’s just a pipe and as Andy manages to make them out of a collection of mandrel bends, why can’t I?

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