…slow going.

by Darren on Oct.28, 2010, under Build

This week I’ve been off work, and for some crazy reason I actually thought I’d got my act together and wouldn’t have much to do. Given the mad panic that I had getting the car ready (ish) for 2007, and even looking back at what I’d done in 2008, I was thinking I was well ahead. However, my list of jobs missed out a couple of things: Firstly that I’d really knackered my left hand up in terms of being useful for work (by the cut I did when doing the trailer), and secondly that one of the jobs was my least favourite, seat mountings; Paul had sat in the new seat, and it was clearly not in the right place, so this meant re-doing all the seat mountings. My least favourite fabrication job, because it’s awkward and tight in the Felicia (it would be quite easy in a larger car), and also because it’s quite difficult as a result of this to get everything in place, meaning that the seat needs to be in and out of the car several times (10, I think!), to make sure each mounting is right – it’s easy to assume that you’ve got it all right and then find out you can’t get the seat in (I did this in the Favorit!). However, that wasn’t the case here, but it still took all of Wednesday and some of Thursday morning to get it done. It’s now as low as possible in the car, and as far back as possible too – when I get in, it feels like being a “real” navigator as you can’t see the end of the bonnet. This pleases me, and I celebrated by repainting the floor (as it looked horrendous). Hopefully Burley’s frame will fit in too.

So, a day and a half down to a single line on the list of things to do. But this left only a few mechanical things, first of which was sorting out the leak in the left front strut. This isn’t a “service” item, it’s a user-item; when you put the leg together (with the spring) it needs to have a small amount of oil put inside the strut leg, which is then sealed in place with the bottom nut and a copper washer; last time it hadn’t sealed properly, leaving a pool of oil on the floor. Replacing it meant taking the strut off (which involves a few other steps), and then sorting out the leak, which was done once it was all cleaned up and bolted up properly. And next was another leak, or rather a pair of them – the right-hand driveshaft seal on the gearbox was leaking (which I didn’t think would be too difficult to do), and the gearshift shaft seal (which I did) – they are B and A respectively on the picture below.

Oil seals that need doing....

At this point, Peter turned up, from Top Oils, who are my biggest sponsor! He had brought down the oil for the engine and gearbox, which is made by Bardahl and provides excellent protection for the components of engine and gearbox – they contain Fullerene, carbon ‘balls’ which have impressive mechanical properties, and should help protect the Skoda’s engine which regular readers will know gives the centre bearing a hard time. We chatted a while about the event and so on, but then it was lunchtime and then back to work. I decided to attempt the gear shift seal first, and was really surprised that it came out very easily (Thanks Jim for the tip!) – as it had a lip on it outside the gearbox it was straightforward and my nightmares of breaking the seal and not being able to get it out were unfounded – 5 minutes later after draining the oil, it was changed. To do the shaft seal, the shaft needed to come out, which was fairly straightforward, and then levering the seal out and tapping a new one in; getting the shaft back in without damaging it was done, albeit twice as the gripper diff’s lack of a chamfer always makes fitting the shafts a bit of a lottery, even with my ‘grease the circlip to keep it in the centre’ trick.

Then a few bits an pieces, tightening things, replacing missing fasteners and so on, and then some items arrived; I have spent some of the sponsorship money I got on new equipment, in this case a pair of Fluorescent “Task Lights”, which are low-energy (38W), but give out LOADS of light – a great bit of advice from British Rally Forum, especially at £35 for two, delivered. They are low power enough to be runnable from an inverter from a car or van, but of course I want to run them off my generator, so I got that up and running, and worked a treat.

Time for an engine and gearbox oil change, with the new Bardahl oil being put into the engine…

Engine Oil from Bardahl.

… and gearbox…

Bardahl gearbox oil

Ran it up, plenty of pressure, which is good, and a nice quiet gearbox too. Lovely. Another thing which may help a bit is a total bit of boy racerism, but was a cheap (£7) and easy fit – an oil filter cooler – essentially a slip-on heat sink for the filter:

Max Power Central.

Hopefully this will help keep the oil a bit cooler, and it certainly won’t hurt; while there is provision in the regs for me to add an oil cooler, it’s difficult to find somewhere for the cooler radiator to go that is both cool and not vulnerable, and obviously damage to it would mean no oil and game over – this isn’t anywhere near as efficient, but has no reliability issues. Image issues, yes!

Next it was time to change the front brake discs – they weren’t too warn, but they were rusty, so time for a new pair, by which time it was getting dark and the work lights were really useful:

New brakes! Shiny!

And that was about it – not a lot I could do as next job was to bleed the brakes (to change the fluid really), and I didn’t have any fluid, so that was it… As it stands, the car is nearly ready. Tomorrow is time for mapping on the ignition, so hopefully it will go better than previous visits; I’m rather worried about it!