Smoke me a kipper I will be back for breakfast”..10 CR and all that
Well it's been a long time since I've updated the blog most of that time was used up being Daddy to new baby No3 and getting the Taxi ready for the 10CR as well as starting a new job
The list of jobs getting the car ready went something like this-
Replace the diff oil seals –I pinched the stag diff (3.7:1) Not only to drop the ratios for the 10CR hills but to make life difficult for myself as a stud for the rear mount plate stripped, ah I thought no bother I will use the casing from the 3.45 unit I've just taken off the car-nope the casing is a different shape! Bollocks off down to Tipton Garage for the heli-coil treatment
I fitted the stag brakes –I got the discs skimmed prior to fitting and rebuilt the callipers and of course fitted new bearings
Original Mk 1 skinny "I've just had a moment" disc and Skimmed Stag disc/ calliper being fitted
Next job on the list was a carb re-build and rolling road session-It ran so much sweeter with new jets, spindles, throttle butterflies etc I set it up by ear then took it down to the rolling road where we soon discovered the foam air filters I had put on over the Calver tuning stub stacks where getting sucked into the carbs and cutting the power off at the top end –watch the dials in the vid clip RR017 the power drops off a cliff before the throttle is lifted that's the moment the filter gets sucked into the carb!
So with the filters removed and some richer needles fitted the old £50 second hand lump was knocking out 130 bhp, the only trouble being no air filters! Ho hum time to shed up another air box/cold air intake idea, which resulted in three holes cut into the front nose cone –more of that later as I had an M.O.T to get it through, which it did with reasonable ease, only a few advisories-headlight alignment, wheel bearing, and track rod ends all those jobs where sorted –the wheel bearing was brand new and I should have nipped it up a bit more when fitting
All this tinkering had to be done outside as the Slag had spread its self all over the garage floor-I found a £9.99 B+Q gazebo provided the best protection from the glorious British Summer we were having
Anyway due to lots of grown up stuff getting in the way I didn't really get the chance to give the car a good 200 mile or so test run my fiendish idea of a "Breakfast Club" meet didn't happen due to lack of time –this is still a something I want to organise so those who were up for it the first time get in touch and we will get something sorted
Before I knew it homer was here and we were packing the car ready for the run the first thing that went wrong was on the Tuesday night on a 10pm run to 24hr Tesco's to get some bread and milk I had forgotten to buy earlier-the oil pressure gauge pipe came loose on the engine block T piece resulting in complete loss of oil and me begging a Tesco's night manager to open up the forecourt shop to sell me some cheap oil to get me home- which he did
We decided to drive to the London Wednesday evening for the Thursday morning start staying the night at the "hotel grot" at South Mimms services
The run went really well for the most part- our biggest problem came through the night on the way to the Condom halt –leaving the Motorway to find the halt tucked away behind a graveyard Ben applied the brakes only to find they were pulling really badly to the driver's side – my thoughts were full of leaking callipers but on investigation we found a leaky oil temperature probe housing had covered the passenger side hub, disc, calliper and wheel with oil
In my tired state I looped out the oil cooler and housing whilst Homer cleaned the disc and replaced the disc pads-what I should have done is simply taken out the temp probe housing as I had a section of pipe to do just that but my head was in a sleepless spin – not having the cooler working caused problems later on the oil pressure dropped off going up the Pyrenees and on the high speed blast to miss the Hotel junction at Beziers the pressure was only around 30 psi
After getting grumpy and kicking the car things improved we got a free upgrade at the hotel to a semi decent room and with a clear head in the morning oil cooler piped back up it improved the pressure –we now had a healthy 50 psi hot above 2,000 rpm, the crank made a few rattles but it was still working
I will write more about the rest of the run in my next post in the mean time have a look at this clip to give you a taste
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XumwjjxB8IU
