Daily driver

[Forumadmin]

Well today Trevor Spero came around with his Javelin to have a look at an oil leak from the filter housing, and from the diff and look at his door hinge. We used my endoscope that Amy gave me for my birthday to look around the oil filter drain plug ( FS105/8), the top crankcase bolts and the housing gasket (50692). There was no sign oof a leak after extensive washing with brush cleaner and a hose pipe.

I had thrashed his car on my test track up the bypass to reproduce the engine overheating that Trevo was reporting. The electronic temperature gun showed that exit water from the heads and hence that hitting the temp sensor was 95 but the water had cooled to 65 in the rad. This suggests poor flow or water pump. Trevor had previously had a travelling thermostat to blame for blocking his top hose. Is this still a problem? He has just phone from the M25 reporting overheating again.

I digress! Trevor decided to check his wheel nuts and one sheared, not because he was putting excessive force on it but the stud had necked. I took off the drum and put another stud in. I torqued the wheel nuts up to 35 lbs ft.

With the drum off we discovered a worn shoe which we changed (but some more will be ordered from JCS) and a leaking oil seal. So a bit more work to do. The oil leak on the rear axle was both from the filler on which we put some PTFE and from the pinion oil seal which TS will need to order.

I could not fix all the things as I needed to change the friction plate on the clutch and sort out why there was so much play in the clutch mechanism. Trevor helped to remove the box which is easy on my car as the chassis cross member is removeable. We were disturbed by Ib Rasmussen from Denmark and we discussed the Baltic trip and Ib's racing success. I digress again! It was obvious that the Lever Ball Pivot(50837) had worn the hole in the clutch housing. i had suspected I might have fitted the wrong one as there is a fatter one in some housings, but this was not the case as the fatter one did not fit. So we found a drill 6 thou larger than the original hole and cut a piece of 3 thou shim to insert in the hole. Worked a treat and now no play. The Clutch throwout bearing (50845) was also very worn as was the Clutch Operating Lever Fork RHD (50846) so these were replaced also. It is possible to change the clutch without taking out the engine with this failrly simple mod

[Alf Heseltine]

Hi Keith, how did you make the chassis cross member removable and not have any effect on chassis strength & integrity. Sounds like a good mod.
Let us know how to do it correctly.

Alf

[Keith Andrews]

They do up the wheel bolts with a 'windy gun' and only then use a torque wrench, presumably to check that the bolts are at least done up to the 66ft/lbs, as specified

Yeah and thats how they get fired... cheating the system...
The idea is to set (there is a setting screw on the side of the rattle gun( 'windy gun') the gun lower than required torque THEN finish off with the torque wrench...But they up the rattle gun torque setting, over torque and JUST FOR SHOW use the torque wrench knowing full well the nuts have already been over torqued...
But to the un warey customer and the manager watching from the office, everything appears kosher.

The trouble is we have min wage people with min wage mentality messing with the piont to which the road friction is 'fixed' to our cars...sort of like having the hospital cleaner close up after a major heart operation.
If u even suspect this is the case, get the manager and have the torques checked...you can even insist that they replace all the wheel studs and nuts.

[Forumadmin]

On trhe SA I cut the tubes vertically about 3 inches from the side chassis members. I made 4 times 3 inch square plates from 3/16" flat plate. I trimmed the ends of the cut tube so that two plates just fitted between the cut on each side. I welded these plates to the tubes. Drilled a hole in each corner of the two sets of plates and bolted them together.

On the SC I cut the tubes in the same place but made a clamping tube out of a wider diameter tube.
The SA design may be stronger axially; but I do not think the tube does much more than support the gearbox anyway.
There are pictues soewher already on the site (I think).

[David Morris]

Hi Keith,

Reading in an earlier post about the 0.003" shim you used to 'pack-out' the fulcrum pin, I assume this was used around inside of the hole for the the pin? We have been measuring the lengths of the pins and have found 0.050" variation in the lengths, from a sample of four pins. I guess this would have a very real effect on the operation of the clutch? Any ideas on which pin to select?

Many thanks,

David

[Forumadmin]

I will check when I get from the Baltic on my selection of pins. I checked the seating of the fulcrum ball because I thought I might have to pad the back out a bit( the base that touches the gearbox casing). I checked the operation of the clutch, making sure that when it was engaged there was sufficient room behind the arm so that when the friction plate wore there would still be a gap. Without doing all the geometry I guessed 4 mm would be enough. It is actually critical since, if the arm is pushed out the other way towards the engine, it starts to hit the rotating cover plate.

We really ought to decide the tolerances.

[Keith Clements]

I have had some punctures but the one suffered on the way up to the Resto show in the SC was certainly different. Amy noticed the tyre was very flat when she looked at the car the day after I had driven it there. They had been fitted 6 years ago.



The tube had split along one of the creases.
My trusty tyre man said the tube had not been inflated prior to fitting the carcase. He also suggested fitting a 15 inch tube rather than 16 inch that had been fitted. So I went with his advice.

I phoned Jack up who got the tyres fitted and he said that Tyre Pros had had two tubes burst when trying to snap the bead on as it required excessive pressure. Hope the other three do not have the same issue. Always make sure you carry one or two spare tubes as many fitters do not carry them (16inch) now.