Skoda Rally Blog

So, this morning started with an engine and gearbox ready to go into the car.  Had a late start as my assistant (OK, my Mum!) was busy until around 10, but by then the engine was on the sling and in position; the only help needed is to get everything lined up to get the engine mount by the water pump in place – I’ve tried it single-handed and it is possible but not straightforward.  Handily the sling was perfectly balanced, so it worked without any grief at all – 10 minutes later the exhaust was connected (as I’d left it in place) and the engine and box were in place.

The rest of the day was just a case of bolt everything back in place.  I didn’t want to hurry as there plan was to spend the day getting it in and running, which shouldn’t need to be hurried.  There were  a few fasteners that needed replacing here and there, so the traditional trip to Allfix to buy bolts was had at lunchtime, and then everything else got bolted up.  Just needed to fit the driveshafts and it’d be nearly ready to run.

Except this is the first time I’d fitted driveshafts into the gearbox with the new diff.  If you’ve never fitted them before, they’re held in place with a circlip that goes inside the gearbox, and fitting is usually just a case of putting them in position and knocking them into place.  But the new diff doesn’t have a chamfer on it, which meant the shafts just would not go in place.  I’d tried for ages, and cut myself a few times getting them in and out.  In the end, I found the problem – the circlip was dropping and dropping too far for it to go into place.  I needed to keep them in place as they went in, and thought how to do it; putting some grease in the groove stopped it moving, and they went in reasonably easily – in fact this is a tip I’d use again and again, I’m sure on a properly chamfered diff it would then be a piece of cake.

The last thing to take care of was to put all the liquids into the engine – oil, gearbox oil and water.  This went OK, and there were no leaks, which was good.  I disconnected the ECU (so that it wouldn’t fire up) and then turned the key, the idea being to build some oil pressure before attempting to start it.  This took a few goes to do, but that’s to be expected with a totally dry engine, and it got pressure pretty quickly.

Time then, to see if it would fire.  I connected the ECU and switched on, not turning it over, just to see if it was holding fuel.  It wasn’t – a pipe from the fuel rail to the pressure regulator was leaking like hell, so that was replaced.  Checked pressure again, and it seemed OK.

Time for the S or B moment.  Turned the key.

It fired up, nearly instantly.  And this is despite not having the throttle sensor connected as I can’t find the cable.  Kept blipping the throttle, and it sounded fine.  The gearbox sounded a bit noisy, but it’s splash-lubricated and it was in neutral – only having the gearbox actually turning lubricates it.  Smiled a fair bit, and then turned off, and walked round to admire my handiwork, only to find a pool of petrol!  The return pipe to the tank was leaking as well, so that needed to be dressed, and I waited a while for the heady smell of Super Unleaded to subside, which thankfully it did fairly quickly.

I connected up the gear linkage so I could put it in gear, and then started it again.  All seemed well, so I checked the gears.

First.  Second.  Third.  Fourth.  Fifth wasn’t there.

Tried again.  Nothing.  Reverse? No problem!  Fifth?  No chance.

Disaster.  Despite having checked it when built, I’d clearly made a mistake.  I tried them all again, all OK aside from Fifth, which just didn’t seem to be there; it’s not that the lever was stiff, it just wouldn’t go anywhere near where it should do.  Gutted, it’d mean hours of work to remove it all, and then to find out what was wrong.

Usually when things go wrong, I get depressed, have a moment of dispair and then make a plan and get on with it.  This time it was no different, really, but before doing so I decided to check out exactly what was happening before ripping it all out.  The only things that had changed was the tightening of the detent plug (which makes the gears ‘latch’ in place) and the reverse light switch; both of these also allow viewing of the selector mechanism to a limited extent, so I got Mum to change gears while I looked at the internals.

And fifth went in.  No problem.

Every time.  Until I put the detent in again, and then it went.  I then did the detent with the gearbox in neutral, and it worked, and kept working.  Looks like it’ll be OK – at present the car is still on stands, and has no gearbox oil in, so I’ve not run it up since the ‘fix’, but I’ll do that before anything else; it may be OK.

Engine Fitted

There’s been one more development; I’ve spent some time on the phone to Richard from Motorsport News tonight, and he likes the idea of the blog and us trying to do not only Rally GB but Finland next year, so hopefully there will be people reading this next week who are new to the blog and will want to support us this year and maybe even next year too.