Skoda Rally Blog

As last year, what should have been a simple “pack up and go” job wasn’t – it has taken most of the day so far to get everything organised (despite what we did yesterday) and into the van. The car is finally clean, and that’s a major step forward, and it all seems OK, just a few finishing touches to apply tomorrow, and the stickers. My mate who used to fit stickers…. hasn’t turned up, so I guess I’ll have to have a stab at it myself – at the moment it doesn’t look right, being all in white and totally unwritten!

Hopefully I should get to the house some time today, although it’s looking more like tomorrow now!

So, today was hideously cold. So cold that I had to put a heater onto the car I was taking the bits off of just to make it bearable to touch them! The plan was to remove the entire hub assembly, complete with driveshaft, and transplant it into the car. Reason for this? Because it worked OK in the banjulmobile, and therefore there was less opportunity to be at home to mr. cockup, who has been paying me weekly visits of late. However, this did mean it was quite heavy and also meant I had to fit the terratrip sensor to the new hub, meaning it took a couple of hours to get all done, including a bit of a scare with the hub not clamping up on the strut properly (just needed hoofing up), and then after a test drive…..

One noise removed (two including noise #1), but a new one instead – turns out after yesterday’s replacement of the spherical bearing there was something not sat right, and I ended up having to remove the lot to fit it properly. That done, I finally got to drive the car with Paul in it as well, and it finally drove without any rattles or anything else that you’d not want on a rally car. Especially one that is supposed to be doing a 3-day event next week!

Paul was busy preparing everything for the move into the service van, sorting and tidying everything, and I got on with the car, fitting the sumpguard and a few small things as well, and then onto fitting the sumpguard for the recce car (which is my daily driver, hence me being so keen to make sure that it doesn’t get minged as I’ll need it on the Monday afterwards), and that meant removing the old mounting, which had been cut after the last mounting bar got bent meaning we couldn’t undo the nut. Fortunately Paul volunteered to do this to save my back (which really doesn’t like lying on a cold concrete floor), but he was beginning to question that half an hour later, but he eventually got it off (with a bit of help from me at the right time), and then it was ‘just’ a case of making up a new bar which will hopefully make the back of the guard sit a bit higher this year – the crowns on the roads were catching it quite badly last year, meaning several raised eyebrows.

Picked up the van, thanks to the legend that is Steve Colville, and tomorrow should be stickering, final bits and pieces (including a new nav lamp, and terratrip sensor and checking a couple of other things), and loading up. Hopefully nothing else will go wrong, as there really isn’t time now, is there?

Something occurred to me yesterday – this has totally consumed my life for the past couple of months. I’ve not been out since mid-September, aside from going to friends houses a total of three times in that period (once to take pics of the rally car, no less, and watch England ‘play’ football). And because of all of this, I’ve kind of forgotten about the fact that next week I’ll be living a dream. Again. Doing for the second time something that I never thought I’d ever get to do at any point, let alone twice. Except this time I’ll be doing it in a car that I’ve built myself. In my drive. For not a lot of money. Anyway, I think that once I get there (maybe tomorrow, although I think I may need to wait until Monday to travel up) it’ll all start to make sense again. Last year it was when I picked up the stickers from the Milennium Stadium. I have no idea when it will be this week, but hopefully it’ll happen sooner rather than later!

Got lots of things done this morning/afternoon, all sorts of little things that need to be done, so there was a lot of ‘list ticking’ taken care of…

And then Pete turned up again – firstly a CV boot had decided to lunch itself, turns out it was a pattern one, and they’re always rubbish, so that needed to be sorted, but took ages. And then to the other side to fir the terratrip sensor…. only to find the source of Noise #2 – front left wheel bearing had loads of play in it – it was fine when MOTd, so must have happened since. As it was 4:30 by this time, a mad dash to the local motor factors (who had one, luckily), and then to Ebblake Tyres to use their press (with some help from Ricky Aitken, legend!), and then back home to fit it, having fitted the metal and terratrip sensor. Put it all back together in the dark (and getting very cold), only to find that….. it’s still bad. Clearly the hub must have a problem, and it doesn’t work as a result. Fantastic. So now I have to get a spare one – probably from the banjulmobile, but it’s more grief and less time to get everything done.

I’m sure I’ll sleep like a baby tonight…..

Clearly I’ve been working today, but after work I cracked on with a few hours’ work – got the sumpguard off, changed the oil, changed the gearbox oil, changed the water (with new antifreeze), plus fitted a new temperature switch for the fan – ?13, but better safe than sorry.

Had a few things to fix, number one was the fact that the heater blower didn’t work at all. Which caused all sorts of issues, and could have meant a total dash removal. Fortunately it was as simple as plugging it back in, under the bonnet! Nice.

The rattle that was present (when the throttle was put on or taken off) turned out to be a bolt that had worked loose in the gearbox mounting, so that was easily fixed.

Next up, some little things, including making sure the service crew were still coming and the van is still available – both are OK, which is good news indeed. Then to make up nav lamp #2, a nifty LED-based one with red that’s always on with the lights, and white that’s switchable. This is half done now, ‘cos I’ve lost the pigging red LEDs!

On the upside, I have managed to get a nice new steering wheel and hub, rather than the standard one, so it’ll look a bit more like a rally car inside and actually steer a lot better, and perhaps most importantly, the logbook has arrived! It actually arrived yesterday, which means the MSA turned it round same day, so a big thanks to them – I had a receipt which I could have used at scrutineering, but I’d much rather have a proper logbook.

Oh, and I woke up at 5am. Which sucks.

Most drivers get to do a rally shakedown on a stage, checking settings and adjustments and tyres, etc.

As with last year, my preparations haven’t quite worked out like that, so my “shakedown” has been driving the car to work a couple of times this week, a 60-mile round trip. And in that time, it’s been mostly OK. A couple of rattles here and there, things that I know to fix, but mostly pleasant and going OK. This is good, ‘cos it means I’ve actually slept two nights running. Here’s to a third….

Oh, there’s been some interest from the local paper’s motoring writer, and he asked for some pictures. Bournemouth has been the wettest place in the country since Sunday (handy, that), so the only place to take any kind of a picture at 10 at night is the underground garage at Paul’s place, and they wanted photos, so I’ve put one up here for everyone who’s been nagging! ‘Real’ photos should follow at the weekend, once the car is (a) finished and (b) stickered up a bit!

No updates for a while, not because I’ve been slacking off (far from it), but because I’ve been too busy. In the time away, all the last things were done to finish the car off – sumpguard fitting, tankguard final fitting, various minor things to help keep the car going, etc.

Today has been a milestone for me. Took the car to be logbooked this morning (which was a far more pleasant experience than I was led to believe), and it passed, everything was in order and I came away with quite a few handy tips and things to improve the car, which is good too. ?28 well spent.

What wasn’t so good was that I’d forgotten to put the bonnet pins back in before driving home, due to some re-opening of the bonnet – basically my fault, ‘cos I normally put them in when I close the bonnet but was told we’d be re-opening it, never did, and forgot. Idiot. Result – one bent pair of hinges and a dented bonnet, and 2 hours to fix it. Not happy at all about that, but there you go – no-one died, and it could have been a lot, lot worse….

Sorted out several minor additions to the car, such as the 5v supply for the GPS unit and the PDA (which will have sat nav, etc, on it), better spotlamp wiring (as it had to be removed to sort the bonnet out), intercom wiring extension, etc.

Tomorrow will see the last bits done, and then a week’s worth of driving just to bed everything in. However, (not wanting to tempt fate), it does feel very good at the moment; the weld-in cage makes the shell so stiff that it feels incredibly taut and precise, much more so than the last car. Hopefully the engine and ‘box will hold up and be reliable; I know that the car won’t be that quick, but it’s quicker than the old car, and should be OK up hills, despite the lack of a C/R gearbox – Chris Bennett has again picked up the box and taken it away, and I’ve heard nothing since – I wouldn’t risk fitting it at this stage, I’d want at least 2 weeks of driving the car with it in before I’d trust it, and as Day 2 of WRGB is 2 weeks away, that’s never going to happen.

Oh, the title is a reference to the song – “Keeping the Dream Alive”. I’m still doing it. Just about.

I’m off out to buy a lottery ticket. My luck must finally be coming good as R477 KRU just passed the MOT. That’s a huge relief for me (although I was certain I’d done everything, I always worry, ‘cos there are so many things to miss, and things like brake performance can always be difficult to test beforehand), ‘cos it means I’m one step closer to a decent night’s sleep.

Oh, and doing WRGB 2007.

Next up – el sumpguard! No peace for the car builder!

…MOT?

This weekend has been a good weekend. Most of it has been spent on the car, and all of it has been productive. The tankguard is fitted properly at last, all the hoses have been secured and covered in spiwrap for extra protection, the seats are in. The harnesses are in. The fire extinguisher is in, with pull cables. The hand-held is mounted. The dashboard finally fits. The rev counter and clock work. The electric windows have switches in the dash instead of lolling around in mid air. All the things needed for the MOT seem to have been done, and it’s booked for 10:30 on Tuesday. Doubtless it will fail on something, but it’s at least ready for it to a degree. And what’s the best thing of all?

It’s finally starting to look like a rally car. This is probably stupid, but given the immense amount of work I’ve had to put into building the car, and the huge amount of trouble and frustration to finally see it looking nearly usable is hugely satisfying. I just hope that it’ll repay all my hard work by being reliable!

Since the last entry, the entry list for Wales Rally GB has been posted – look here if you fancy a look. Yes, we’re on it. Yes, we’re last, and yes, we’re the only A5 car, which I think sadly means even if we do finish (which would be a miracle, given what’s gone on recently) I don’t think there’s a trophy for us. Which kinda sucks. But at the moment, just getting to the start line will be an achievement as there’s still a LOT to do!

Today I finally had the moment I’ve been waiting for for months – I drove R477 KRU. OK, only up the road due to various legal issues, but enough to find that it has all the gears it should do and goes OK. Maybe the nightmare is coming to an end. Jobs completed today include:

• Final check of all levels, etc before takeoff.
• Fitted bonnet pins
• Fitted harness eyebolts
• Fitted drivers’ seat
• Fitted exhaust
• Tested all electrical mods (all working OK)
• Fitted air horns, compressor and relay
• Various odds and sods

So, that means I actually have a car that could be usable in a week’s time. I have the MOT booked for next Tuesday morning, and this weekend there will be lots of other things to do to get it ready for that, but the handy thing is that there’s not a lot to do to get it totally ready, aside from sorting out the engine mapping, which with a wideband O2 sensor, some careful driving and the handy DTA box I’ve made (more on this later) means that it won’t take me long at all. Cool. Finally.

OK, there hasn’t been a lot of updating this week, despite me taking the entire week off to do the car.

And there’s a good reason for that. If I was a religious man (I’m not) then I would be totally convinced that God hated me, and wanted me to suffer. Why do I say this? Well, basically, if it can go wrong, it has done, and even if you wouldn’t think it could, it has done. Let’s look at some of the highlights of the build of R477KRU, shall we?

• Custom Cages send me a cage kit with no diagrams or pictures (saying there were none), and offer very little help with the build of the cage. This was bad enough, but then compounded with the paperwork that turned up having what? Yes, diagrams and pictures. Thanks a lot, idiots.
• The cage profiling tool took 5 weeks to turn up
• I lost 3 weeks of working time in the summer due to the wettest summer on record
• I lost 2 weeks of solid work due to my back injury, followed by another 3 weekends with a relapse.
• The engine I bought couldn’t be rebuilt in time due to the pistons taking over 3 months to arrive.
• The brake hoses I ordered took 2 weeks longer to arrive than promised

etc,etc,etc.

So, this week I hoped all that would change.

How wrong I was.

Upside first – I have completed the electrics on the car, for the most part – the extra fuse box and relays are fitted, with switches neatly done in the dashboard, FIA-spec isolator fitted to the car, etc. The extinguisher is mostly fitted, with one more nozzle to be fitted and another pull to be ordered (they supply a 12′ and a 6′ and the 6′ is never long enough). The back suspension is fitted. The front suspension is fitted. The brakes now work (thanks to next-day service from the excellent Speedflow, who were a pleasure to deal with and I should have gone straight there), and the fuel lines are inside. The new engine now runs well on the original manifold.

But the gearbox, oh the gearbox.

For those of you who don’t know, I gave someone I know ?800 and my ‘box with LSD for a C/R straight-cut box. That was in January. Since then I have had silence and excuses, and despite being told it would turn up twice (weeks ago), it didn’t. But it DID turn up on Wednesday, after me fitting a spare so I could at least get things running.

So I fitted it on Thursday morning, and then found out…. It didn’t have any gears. Where 3rd should have been, there was a neutral, and where neutral should have been, the entire box locked up. I only did this turning it over by hand, not on the engine, as I am not crazy. So, out it came. I split the box and found the selectors were wrong, and used the other box (which was only duff as the diff gears had dropped) to model the selectors. It worked fine after 4 hours, so I refitted it and had to work on Friday (as I need the money and also needed a break from 8-hour fruitless days on the car).

Come this morning, I connected the gear linkage and it seemed OK, so I connected everything else up (manifolds, etc), and ran the engine. And was greeted by a hideous screaming sound – loud enough to bring my Mum out from the house! So out it came again, this time for good. I have removed the LSD from the box and put it into the standard box (which then needed to be rebuilt again, twice as the selectors moved during reassembly), and finally (with some help from Paul who has been here all afternoon) got the box back in the car and bolted in place. The lever and linkage are in place, but the gear change seems very notchy, which I can’t account for other than the gears being dry, so hopefully when I put oil in it and run it tomorrow it will work OK. If not, I can’t see what else to do – I don’t have a spare, and I have even less energy.

Oh, and if anyone wonders why the blog has been down all week, it’s ‘cos even my Internet went wrong all week. If anyone has a Felicia or Favorit gearbox that works, please let me know. I’m thinking the box in the car is done in too, and I am, frankly, at my wits’ end. I am tired, sore, and I can barely feel my right hand most of the time. I think my nails will never be clean again. And I have only 4 weeks to get the car running, sorted, MOTd and logbooked. Nothing like a challenge, eh?