Tuesday 30 September 2008

I've still not got any gas...

...but I have now got a rather fancy spring eye bashing tool - on loan from Mike Buss (top chap BTW). Very handy looking thing, I'll probably find out if it works on Saturday. 

I've also been having fun with a Stage 1, not that its mine. Someone has put an 80s Jap diesel under the bonnet, and I was amusing myself trying to get most of a transit exahust and a bit of flexi pipe mounted underneath, to repace a really nasty mess that mostly consisted of a 2.25P silencer and half the nissan exahust, welded together in the middle.

I've also got to fix a novel problem with the rat - idle speed when warm is about 3000rpm, and it runs along a 35mph in top without any feet on the pedals. I've not altered anything except the manifolds recently - I swaped an exahust manifold, and thereby had to remove and repace the inlet side - maybe I've unwittingly fixed an air leak that had been causeing a poor idle, which a P/O had masked by turning the idle screw up a bit - apart from that I've no ideas...

Friday 26 September 2008

Welding, and yet more welding

The chassis is now totally bare, and so far a dodge crossmember has been replaced, along with a front dumb iron. I've also cut out one engine mount, and measured up to fit a new one, and cut out the rotten bottom section of the main chassis rails under the back 1/4 of the chassis.

I would have done more, but I've run out of gas, so everything is on hold until I can get the bottle exchanged. I've also been welding a few other things recently, most notably some significant repairs to a Stage 1 the belongs to a chap in New Mills - I fabricated the bottom half of a rear crossmember, and fitted it, as well as doing a couple of spots on the main rails.

The rear axle has had a quick coat of black paint while its off. Amongst my next missions is to replace the spring eye bushes, which are all in the same condition - almost totally rubberless.
To this end I'm borrowing a "bushwacker" which apparently makes this horrible job rather easier... expect to see me white haired some time soon.