The Birkett 6 Hour

When I got up at 7 in was pretty murky outside – very low cloud and everything was very wet. This was pretty much as expected so I got into the pit garage and swapped my wheels over to the wet set (which are still Yokohama AO48R’s but with some extra grooves cut). They may reduce aquaplaning a bit but don’t seem to actually increase wet grip. I also disconnected the front ARB and softened off all 4 dampers.

Since I was car A in our team I went to qualify first. Frankly qualy was horrendous The track was horribly wet, I was constantly surrounded by cars, visibility was terrible due to spray and I had no confidence in the amount of grip I had. There were waved yellow flags at multiple areas on the circuit which was hardly surprising given the conditions and the fact that there were 56 cars out in the session. And to cap it all I missed the chequered flag, by the time I’d gone round a couple of corners without cars on either side of me I realised something was wrong. My fastest lap was a pathetic 2:22 although I’m not sure there was ever a clear lap without yellow flags. But … the car didn’t break and I didn’t spin

All I needed to do was refuel and clean up my visor and spent the rest of the time in the garage chatting with the rest of the team. I was starting the race for our team so made my way round to the assembly area at 10.45, it had started to drizzle again. We went out and formed up on the grid and after what seemed like ages (they actually seemed to time the 3 minute, 2 minute, 30 second boards for the first time ever) the started us off with the green flag. After splashing around the circuit we got back round to the grid and again it took ages for everyone to get into place – I was on row 11 of 28 rows so my mirrors were full of headlights. The red lights came on then went out and off we went. Masses of wheelspin off the line and the cars in front got away from me, then cars were flooding past from behind. A Golf went flying past but I found out later he had 4 wheel drive which seems a bit of a cheat really! We all got round Copse safely, more cars came past on the run to Becketts and all I could see coming in there was firstly spray then the green car that had overtaken me then pulled across in front of me as he hit the brakes. We all got round there OK, then the run down to Abbey was interesting. Of course I’d spun here the previous morning so was feeling particularly cautious, as I decelerated through the spray the cars in front were going into the hairpin 3 abreast and indeed I had cars overtaking on both sides of me as I went round it. But still no crashes! Along the farm straight and a yellow single seater went past me up the inside as we went into the right hander after the bridge, then as we exited the corner he lost his rear and pirouetted off onto the inside. Round the first apex at Priory, gingerly turning into the second left hander and two cars came together exiting the corner. I went right to avoid them and someone else just avoided me but I was still intact coming round Luffield. A Morgan was very close coming around the outside of me and as I gingerly got onto the power the back end stepped out. I caught it OK, got back on to it then as we got round Woodcote there were waved yellows and onto the straight I could see what looked like a yellow Radical facing the wrong way on the pit wall. I saw the ‘SC’ board then meaning the safety car was out, so we all eased off and drove round for a while as they recovered cars from the 3 separate incidents around the circuit.

I was watching my lap times (around 3:20 behind the safety car) and trying to do the maths in my head – we’d agreed to do 20 minute sessions on grounds of us all being novices, but that in the event of a safety car we’d stay out until the safety car came in to avoid pit lane queues. As the laps went by my visibility got worse and worse and even though I had a clear idea where our pit board was I couldn’t make out anything on it as I went by due to all the spray and the crap on my visor. So once the safety car went in I reckoned my 20 minutes was up and after a lap at ‘race speed’ (i.e. marginally faster than under the safety car) I pulled in to pit lane. Apparently they weren’t expecting me for another lap but Austen, our B car, was ready and off he went.

I got my car refuelled and sorted my visor out. I didn’t get changed even though my race overalls were pretty soaked – I didn’t have very long and I really didn’t fancy putting them back on wet. It was pretty busy in the garage, we had a cluster of 3 garages together with 4 RGB teams in totalling 22 cars along with associated drivers, supporters and lots of other spectators who wandered around. It was all quite good fun. None of our team had any major dramas and at 1pm Paul Rickers, our F car went out so I pushed my car to the front of the garage and got belted up and helmet on etc. Once he came in I slotted out behind him down pit lane and as I got to the end the marshal got the safety car board out again! It was still horrendously wet and slippery and as we made out way out of Luffield towards Woodcote I could see the cause – poor old Colin Chapman’s car was being recovered from the barrier on the left They were still recovering it next time round then the next lap we were under race conditions again and it all went a bit faster. I was lapping in the mid 1:20′s and it was frankly all I could do. The visibility was terrible and every time I tried to go a bit faster the car was breaking away – it wasn’t the least bit progressive, it was just suddenly sliding.

David Wale passed me coming into Abbey but as I came down the finish straight there he was on the grass on the left, I wondered if he’d hit the wall but as I approached him he started moving again and was clearly about to rejoin. I splashed my way round for the rest of my session without any major incidents and was grateful to be getting out of the car back in the pit garage. I was becoming increasingly aware of a vibration when I was coming off the throttle into the faster corners – I’d been aware of it the day before and it’s really difficult to know if something is actually getting worse or if you’re just getting more paranoid! So I took the rear tub off and checked all the prop bolts, drive shaft bolts, wheel bearings, the prop centre bearing. I even got Andy Bates to have a look but everything seemed in order. We decided I was probably just getting paranoid.

While I was waiting for my next session the clouds cleared and the sun came out. While Paul was out before me there was another safety car session and as soon as it came in Paul did his last lap and I was off again. I think the cars were all bunched up as a result because I left pit lane onto a deserted circuit, which suited me just fine. There was no dry line but at least I didn’t have spray to contend with although the sun was very bright and quite low producing a lot of glare off the wet track. As I tippy toed my way out of Bridge in 5th gear the car stepped out again to confirm my impression that there was no more grip than previously, and did the same again exiting Luffield! As I turned into Copse I lost the front – they say a change is as good as a rest but I’m not convinced. I collected that up and carried on, then the faster cars caught me again down the straight towards Abbey. I completed my first timed lap in 1:23. On the next lap as I came under the bridge there were waved yellows again and around the corner a car had gone into the barriers on the right just before Priory. Once I cleared him it seemed OK but as I came round Woodcote the waved yellows were out again along with the SC board …

It took me almost a full lap to catch up with the safety car train, and by the time a couple of cars in front of me had pitted I was about 5th in the line. After they’d cleared the car at Priory I expected him to go in but he kept his lights on as we came round Priory I saw the medical car shoot out from the assembly area ahead of him. I wondered why till the safety car drove particularly slowly down the main straight and I saw the medical car parked up where 2 cars had come together into the barrier on the left just before Copse. So we circulated round behind the safety car for another 4 or 5 laps. I was aware I’d been out for well over 20 minutes but could see the pit wall crew easily every time I came round and was confident that if they wanted me to come in they’d let me know. Eventually the wrecked cars were cleared and next time round the safety car came in so after a quicker lap I pulled into pit lane for the last time.

I did keep the car and myself ready to go out again if we had problems but there was no need. Paul Rickers did say he’d had a couple of spins but had just got going again. When we’d started planning this event several months ago we were all too aware that we all had a pretty poor record, at one Brands weekend none of us had finished! Also 3 of the team only got rid of their novice crosses during the season. So although we’d been pretty slow (and running 20 minute sessions hadn’t helped our lap count) we were all pretty pleased that we’d finished all 6 cars without any damage or mechanical issues. I did spend some time checking over mine before the last session but I don’t think any of us did anything to our cars apart sticking fuel in and checking tyre pressures.

I personally had mixed feelings. It was great to finish and to have a weekend away and bring the car home working and intact but I was disappointed with my driving performance. Had it been dry it would have been different, I’m sure, but I think I have some work to do on the car’s wet weather setup. I suspect I need to slap some softer springs on there to make it a bit more progressive, I’ll revisit Tim’s spreadsheet and see what should be optimal theoretically. I’ll also get some testing done. Having spent some time reviewing my video of the weekend I still don’t think I could have gone much quicker even with more brave pills – here’s a clip showing the first lap of the race (after 3 separate crashes the safety car was deployed) and a few little slides.

I’m also still unhappy about the vibration – having had prop failures twice already I don’t want to take any risks, so I plan to take the prop and driveshafts off and get the prop centre bearing and my outboard tripode joints checked – they’re the only bits of the drivetrain that haven’t been replaced since the diff failure at Oulton that seemed to terminally injure both the prop and the right hand CV joint.

Birkett Testing

Not a lot happened in the week leading up to the Birkett. The car was ready but I was constantly worried about the engine – until I ran it in anger there was no way of knowing whether my bits of clutch plate swilling around in the oil had done any damage or not. The indications were that it was probably OK, but until you get it under full load and up near the redline you can’t be certain.

I rang up on the Monday about the clutch springs that never arrived from Hayabusa Central and the guy I spoke to seemed a bit vague but unsurprised, it seems it is or was the same company as Big CC Racing and indeed the former URL now resolves to the latter. He said he’d stick some in the post for me. He also said they do 2 types, short ones and long ones, I said what it was for and what problems I’d had and he said he’s stick the longer ones in. These duly arrived on Thursday, too late to fit of course, but I’ll get them in over the winter. Here’s a pic of the 3 different sets of springs – the one on the left is the Suzuki original, the middle one is the old ‘heavy duty’ spring that I suspect caused the problem in the first place, and the one on the right is the new one from Big CC Racing. I reckon that’ll do it! I might need to get down the gym though as the pedal could be a whole heap harder work. He also sent me a ‘ramp ring’ which I think is some device to limit the slipper action of the clutch.

I had to leave early on Friday morning and got to Silverstone just before 9am. I parked up with a few of the RGB guys and got the car off the trailer, signed on etc. The weather was brightening but the track was clearly still going to be damp from overnight rain. I left my ‘dry’ tyres on as the forecast was bad for Saturday and I wanted to save the ‘wets’. The first session was at 10.25 and the track was indeed still rather wet. I always take the first couple of laps very steady anyway, and I’d never driven this circuit before so I was being extra cautious. As I turned into the Abbey hairpin it turned out to be a little tighter than I expected so I had to just tweak the steering wheel a bit more, I didn’t expect a problem as I really was going very slowly but the car just spun! I hadn’t stalled and the MR2 behind missed me easily so I just got on my way again. The surface was very greasy so it was a good opportunity to take a few steady laps and see how the engine was. On the 3rd lap we got red flagged as a brace of MR2s went off at Abbey into the kitty litter so we lost 10 minutes or so of the session sitting in pit lane. By now it was clear that none of the conrods had exited the crankcase and all seemed well, the clutch was now fine.

After the restart I went a little quicker and towards the end the line was getting a bit drier. My fastest lap was a 1:57 which is pretty slow but as I pulled up behind the motorhome back in the paddock I was pretty elated that I’d come in after a full session without a single issue – the car seemed to be handling OK, the engine hadn’t grenaded, clutch and gearbox were working great, she seemed to be pulling fine and the dash and video were working properly. A step forward and promising start to the weekend

I checked over the car, the only thing I found was 3 of the front prop bolts had loosened slightly, so I tightened those and repainted them. The next session was at 13.05 and by now it was sunny and the track was more or less dry. And much more fun! I started to gain a bit more confidence and was quite enjoying myself – it was pretty busy and although our RGB cars were quicker than the MR2s, Locosts etc. there were some very quick cars out there. There was what looked like a Caparo who was quite happy to go up the inside of me into Abbey while one of the slick shod touring car-alikes went round the outside. Unfortunately the Caparo had his come-uppance as 2 laps later he was in the gravel trap there and the session was red flagged. My last flying lap was a 1:40.

After the restart I got a couple of 1:39s in but because of the traffic was confident there was quite a bit more to come. The car became very noisy and I was fairly confident the exhaust manifold had broken again. I thought it was nearly the end of the session and decided to come in before I did any more damage. Sure enough the rest of the guys were in a couple of minutes later. I hadn’t planned to go out in the third session anyway so I now had the rest of the afternoon to go over the car and get the exhaust fixed if I could. I found Andy Bates who just said to bring the manifold over, near his truck was George Polley’s truck so I grabbed their trolley and headed back to pit lane to get my rears off and over for some new rubber – the left rear was well past its sell by date. Once the manifold was cool enough I got that over to Andy, collected my wheels from Polley and stuck them on. By the time I got back Andy had finished welding the manifold and I refitted that. While the silencer was off I thought I might as well check the packing to find there was almost none of it left. The stainless wool had all migrated down to the far end of the can and had clearly done no good at all. Once that was packed and refitted I check over the rest of the car to find no problems at all. By 3.30 I was done and dusted and ready for Saturday.

Here’s a vid with a few clips from the first session and first half of the second session testing – sadly I hit the wrong switch at the end of the second half of the last session so lost all that.

Andy Cunningham went out for my last test session, there was no point me going out again and just a risk something would happen to the car. I signed on for Saturday’s race then my brother Andy arrived so he and I went over with the car to get it scrutineered. Once that was done we could relax for the evening with a barbecue and a few beers with Austen and the rest of the team. The weather forecast for Saturday was pretty awful but there was nothing any of us could do about that! I was just pleased to have the car fully functioning.

And back together again …

The new steel driven plates were in JT’s on Wednesday so I collected those but then had to set off straight from work to a meeting in North Wales. 153 miles of some of Wales’ (and arguably the UK’s) finest twisties in the Cayman wasn’t exactly an ordeal The run from Llandeilo through Talley on the B4302 is my favourite road on this planet. It’s just like Cadwell Park – fairly narrow, very twisty but really swoopy with loads of hills, 11 miles of adrenaline.

Friday morning I made a start on the rest of the clean-up operation. Washing the sump pan, baffle plate and gaskets in petrol got rid of the crud OK. I removed the oil cooler and hoses and flushed them and the sump tank through with a pint jug of petrol a couple of times. I threw the petrol away and did the same with some clean stuff. I then repeated this 4 more times until I wasn’t getting any more of the aluminium silt out of there. I rinsed the clutch basket and housing out with clean petrol. There is of course a risk that some tiny bits are left but the engine has of course already run with this oil in it. I’m hoping Mr. Suzuki makes a good oil filter. I downloaded the logs from the last session at Mallory to check on the oil pressure and that was fine. Short of stripping the engine and changing the big end and main bearings there’s not a lot else I can do really.

Once it had all dried off I refitted the sump pan, retrieved the clutch plates from their mineral oil bath and fitted all those and got the clutch cover back on. The sump tank and hoses could then be refitted. The next quandary is which oil to put in there. The stuff I drained out is clearly scrap as it’s black and smelly and full of crud. The Castrol I drained on Sunday morning is also a bit blacker than normal so I don’t fancy using that. I spoke to Darcy last night – he runs a Radical SR4 with a tuned 1400 Hayabusa and says he’s always used the Silkolene Race 15w50 that I was using. I recalled that the first batch I’d actually got from Powertec as it’s what they use in their Hayabusa motors. I’ve come to realise that my clutch problem never was about the oil and was to do probably with having crap heavy duty springs that allowed the clutch to start slipping and knackered the plates. The Silkolene being a bit thicker gives good oil pressure so I decided I’d go back to that. I had to get more from M&P and once it was in there the plugs came out and I spun the engine on the starter till I got 14psi on the dash. With the plugs in she started straight away, I ran her till the water was up to full temp, checked for leaks and switched off.

According to Pembrey’s website they had testing today but when I rang this morning they didn’t as they’d had no bookings. I tried Llandow who initially said yes but they’re running sidecar testing today and they changed their minds and rang me back to say they wouldn’t be able to let me out. Pity, but not a lot I can do about it. So apart from sticking the bodywork back on, giving her a clean and doing a quick spanner check she’s ready for testing at Silverstone next Friday.

Sorting out the clutch

Having mulled things over in my head loads of times I’d reassured myself the problem [b]had[/b] to be the clutch plates. So on Monday I called in to JT’s who told me a new set of 9 friction plates would come to £172.29 They could supply a set of EBC frictions for less than half of that but Andy Bates had already warned me off them. I was aware I could get a set of Barnett frictions for less than this so thought I’d check with Andy before ordering. He said to stick with standard plates but to replace the innermost narrow plate and the anti-judder spring with a standard plate. So I rang JT’ back and ordered them.

On Monday evening I had the motorhome and trailer unpacked and parked away quicker than expected so I made a start on the car. In surprisingly little time (less than an hour) I had the bonnet off, oil drained, dry sump tank removed completely and the clutch cover off. The shiny new oil that I’d stuck in on Sunday morning wasn’t any more. It was rather blackish. As I tipped it out of my drain pan into a container there was tiny glittery fragments and bits of black debris in it – Andy had warned me this was likely to be the case. Inside the clutch housing there were bigger lumps of debris and the whole assembly was quite blackened so it was pretty obvious the clutch had burnt itself out. It was actually tricky getting the clutch spring retaining bolts off as the clutch centre was just turning freely and I had to use my clutch holding tool.

Outer plate worn away

And here's what's left of plate #4

On Tuesday morning I cleaned up the steel driven plates to check on those and it was clear that at least one of them was warped and the rest were pretty blackened and I didn’t trust them. I decided the smart thing to do was to replace them as well so I called in to JTs again at lunchtime to order new steel plates. The frictions had come in so I collected those and in the evening slapped them in some clean mineral oil to soak. I also got the car onto axle stands again and removed the sump which was full of debris – the dry sump has a fine mesh screen across it which had caught all the bigger bits of crud. I’m clearly going to have a big clean-up job on my hands before I can stick it all back together.

Mallory Park again

This weekend Jen had decided to come with me – she’d been planning to come to Snett but had the dreaded Swine Flu and couldn’t. We arrived at Mallory just after 5pm and they were still racing bikes so we couldn’t get in to the paddock as you need to go on the track to get in there. Once they let us in we grabbed a pitch in the RGB section and settled in for the evening. Very pleasant it was too, quite different from the warm, light summer evenings, this time we joined Paul Rogers in his motorhome along with a few others.

The weather forecast was good but I was awoken in the early hours by the patter of rain although it was dry when I got up. Another early start, signing on at 7.30, scrutineering at 8 and Allcomers qualy at 9.30 By the time I signed on I’d been promoted to 3rd reserve (I was 4th when I booked on Monday). This meant that I would go out and do the qualy session but then would only race if a space became available. The car was ready to go, the only fly in the ointment being that I couldn’t get the video to work.

The Allcomers qualy was predictably hectic with over 30 cars on a 1.35 mile circuit. There was also a rather eclectic range of cars – Tim Gray was in a Radical, next fastest was the RGB lot then there were various others – the MR2s, a Locost, a few MG Midgets and a couple I couldn’t even name. It was dry and I was always either being overtaken, overtaking someone myself or setting up an overtake. Good practice for the Birkett then! The car seemed fine apart from pretty awful clutch slip which was really stopping me getting the power down on the straights. In the end it was so bad I came in just before the end of the session.

Back in the paddock I scratched my head wondering what to do. I put it down to either the change of oil to Castrol fully synthetic or the switch back to the standard Suzuki clutch springs. So I found Andy Bates, got some more oil off him and changed the oil. I was just about finished when they called us to assembly for the RGB qualy session by which time it was starting to rain. My rear tyres are shot and I was going to replace them at Snett but just never had time so I decided to stick my wets set on. By the time we got out it was well and truly raining and the track was very wet. It was horrendous, poor visibility, no grip and a clutch that was still slipping like a bugger. On one lap there were waved yellows round Gerard’s as Matt Rowe in his yellow Fury was in the gravel trap in his yellow Fury. Next time round (or maybe a lap later) as I was turning into Gerard’s what do I see but said yellow Fury in my mirror coming up the inside of me. So I backed off and let him through! There were a few spinners in front of me at the Esses including I think Adrian and Andy Cunningham both of whom spun just after the second apex. In the end the clutch slip got too bad so I came back in although it turned out it was the end fo the session anyway.

Plan B was now to swap the clutch springs – Andy Bates had a set of Barnett springs he was confident were for a Hayabusa. Trouble is getting the clutch cover off is tricky as the dry sump tank is in the way. I managed to unbolt it and lift it far enough without draining the oil. One discovery was that the clutch slave seemed to be exerting a bit of pressure on the pressure plate – I had to push the pressure plate on to get the bolts done up. The new springs were undoubtedly beefier than the stock ones and the same length. As I was getting it back together my brother Neil nipped over to race admin and discovered that I’d just squeeked the last place in the Allcomers race although they told him I’d start from the back of the grid. I got it all back together just in time to get to the assembly area. It was raining again. They told us in assembly that there was oil at the hairpin. Great.

We all went out and did an out lap to get to the grid. I knew we’d have a green flag lap so off we went when the green flag was waved but as we came round to the grid and I slowed down to reform they’d all gone! It seemed they’d done a rolling start so I got my foot in and caught up with a car that looked a bit like a Lotus 11, went round the inside of it round Gerard’s and caught them all up at the Esses. There’s always a bit of bunching the first few corners but this seemed different. Sure enough as we came round to the grid we all reformed again. I was puzzled but just sat and waited for the red lights. As they went out I got a reasonable start but had wall to wall MR2s in front of me. The one that had been alongside me was aggressively trying to get past someone who I was passing and was squeezing me towards the grass. I was mindful that Paul Rogers had pulled out of the race through not wanting to mix it with the tin tops in the wet so I back off and let him go. It was really slippery again and I had no confidence to push. I was behind Mark, Rob and Andy Grant’s mechanic, and was confident I could have got past him on the brakes but decided not to risk it. He’s a class C Fury but my clutch was slipping so badly that he was pulling away from me on the straights Towards the end of the race he spun at the Esses and I managed to comfortably avoid him by going past the front of him. Visibility was awful – I’d got muddy water between my tear off and the visor and in retrospect I’d have been better tearing it off! I was pleased when I saw the chequered flag. Back in the paddock those who had been watching were equally perplexed about what had happened to the starting procedure!

Plan C was now to look at the clutch and Andy Bates wondered whether the pushrod was too long and allowing the spring behind the slave cylinder piston to put too much preload on it. So we took it out and he machined it down on his lathe. I was ready for the RGB race with 20 minutes to spare. Luxury! I’d had no time to look at the timiing sheet so discovered in assembly that I’d qualified between Jim Fowley in a Hayabusa engined Fury (his second race) and with Mark just behind me. Adrian was just ahead of Jim.

This time the start was as normal. I got a blinder and shot past Adrian who’d had a shocker! I think I passed about 3 cars on the way to Gerard’s up the inside. I’ve learned the hard way that it’s important not to get too focused on the car in front of you but to keep an eye on what’s going on ahead, but everyone got round Gerard’s safely. My clutch still seemed to be slipping but I pressed on. As I came onto the straight towards the Esses I could see smoke and it turned out to be poor old Derek. He only needed to finish ahead of Steve to win the Class A championship but it wasn’t to be as it looked like his engine had blown. I got off the throttle straight away and Adrian shot past down the inside of me. I could see a gaggle of cars a distance behind me including Adrian, Paul Rickers, Jim and Mark but they weren’t really gaining initially.

My pace was limited by clutch slip but I felt I was going well apart from that. I was definitely carrying more speed round Gerard’s and getting used to letting the car run wide a bit before heading back in for the exit hard on the power again. As the clutch got progressively worse Paul Rickers caught me but I thought I’d nurse it along and try to finish. Accelerating up the hill towards the hairpin the clutch was worse than ever and it became obvious I had no drive at all! So I stuck a hand up and coasted into the chicane they use for bikes just after the hairpin. Before I switched off I double checked and I could now put the car through the gearbox with the engine running without using the clutch

So I kept the marshals company till the end of the race when they gave me a push to get me going down the hill and I freewheeled back into the paddock.

So, yet another weekend spent frantically working on the car trying to get out onto the track. At least I did the 2 qualy sessions and completed the Allcomers race and managed 8 laps of the RGB race. Trying to be positive it seems the only thing it could now be is the clutch friction plates which aren’t desperately expensive or difficult to replace. Also the car was going back on the trailer without any external damage, unlike last time at Mallory when it had to be prised out of the tyre wall. So I should be OK for the Birkett in 2 weeks time.

Before this meeting I’d had a little graphic made up for the car, before packing the tools away etc. it seemed appropriate to update it:

Updated graphic

Final preparations for Mallory

Having complete the repairs with a week to go I hadn’t been out to the garage since last Saturday. On Friday morning I popped out there to download the logs from the DigiDash and do a couple of minor jobs. I was highly unamused to see a lake of oil under the car I was also pretty surprised as I’d actually run her up to temperature specifically to check for leaks.

So I got the jack out, got her up on stands again and started mopping up the oil. Once I could get under there I could see a steady drip coming off the rear engine mount. Rather perturbed (and seeing my weekend trip to Mallory fading away) I crawled right underneath with a torch to see it was actually coming from a crack in the gearshift casing. Clearly when the prop clonked the gear lever it’s knocked the spindle over and cracked the casing. It’s a pity I hadn’t noticed it before as swapping the cover with the engine out would have been a 10 minute job. I decided that although this was the end of my leisurely Friday it wasn’t the end of the world. Unfortunately that cover can’t come off without removing the clutch slave and the dry sump pump with its pipes connecting it to the sump.

So much of my day was spent getting all that gubbins off the engine, removing the cracked cover, getting the cover off the old engine and getting it all back together. Since there was enough force to crack the casing I didn’t risk using the gearshift shaft and stuck the one from the other engine in.

Eventually I could stick the oil back in and run her up again to check for leaks.

On returning from Snett I’d realised the front wheels weren’t as free as they should be. The replacement pads for the HiSpec calipers had been a tight squeeze and I’d sanded them down quite a bit hoping that using them would soon bed them in. I was however aware that Adrian had once tried this and ended up boiling his fluid, so I whipped the pads out and sanded them down until the wheels turned freely.

After a bit of work on the paint overlap lines on the bonnet with some wet and dry followed by cutting paste and finishing compound I got her off the axle stands and had a quick blat up and down the drive to reassure myself that the clutch and gear selection were working. They were

Saturday morning was a simple case of getting the car on the trailer and the tools on board the motorhome. The weather forecast is looking good so I’m trying my best to be optimistic

Getting her back together again

I’ve previously borrowed a couple of helicoil taps from my brother Andy but the smallest coils I could find in the garage were 6mm and I need 5mm to repair the oil pump. So I decided to go for it and bought the full kit you can see here from the same eBay shop as the 12mm set I got to do the diff. I now have a surplus 12mm kit of course and wish I’d gone for the full kit when I bought that. What I’ve learnt from my first full season racing is that it’s always worth getting the right tools for the job, you invariably don’t use them just once. Also when something fails replace it and get an additional spare.

Friday was a very welcome day off and I started the day by sticking the engine in the back of the motorhome and taking it round to be welded. I’d dropped the manifold off on Thursday. Clive’s off on hols but Terry who he works with was happy to do the work. I picked the engine back up at 10.30 – £5 for the ally weld, £15 for the TIG work on the manifold

I also got the old CV joints off on Thursday so got going refitting the new ones. Here I hit a snag – I couldn’t get the CV joints on the splines of the drive shafts. A quick count told me there were 23 splines on each and they looked like they should fit. But they didn’t I took one of the drive shafts off but still no joy. I didn’t want to try knocking it on there as knowing my luck I’d get it stuck half way and not be able to get it off again! So I nipped over to BAR where Andrew looked at it and reckoned they were the correct size. He couldn’t push the CV joint onto the shaft either though and he wandered off out of sight into the workshop. After quite a lot of loud metallic banging noises he came back, plonked the shaft onto the counter and in his best Neath voice said “There we are, lovely fit”! I guess once they’ve been used a bit they’ll be OK to get off. Once back in the garage I took the other drive shaft off, stuck it in the vice and persuaded its CV joint on using a large socket and the rubber hammer. Refitting the drive shafts and bolting them up to the diff was time consuming but all went OK.

I then drilled out the welded post on the engine, tapped it and fitted the helicoil. I similarly fixed the 2 stripped holes in the oil pump then refitted the oil pump followed by the clutch slave. You can see the before/after pics of the welded mount below, it actually looks better in real life than the pics!

The Barnett clutch springs still hadn’t arrived so I put the original Suzuki springs back in, these had worked fine last season. I also refitted the gear lever that I’d welded back together, replaced the oil filter and lock-wired the filter and drain plug. I bolted the prop back onto the diff and bolted the centre bearing in place. While doing this I noticed that the flailing prop had clonked the vertical tube in the tunnel just where my left foot sits, denting it into the pedal box by an inch or so. This didn’t amuse me much, especially when a few clouts with the lump hammer didn’t have any effect on it. After 15 minutes of arranging blocks of wood I got the trolley jack in there and pressed it out almost straight, at which point it did succumb to the tender ministrations of aforementioned lump hammer.

Then it was time to get the engine hoisted back into the engine bay and bolted in place. By now it was 6pm and time for beer

On Saturday I made a leisurely start after watching half the F1 grid crash during the qualifying in Suzuka. The anodised Pro-Gold connector that screws onto the scavenge pump had taken quite a clonk but I had been planning to stick it back on until I realised I had a couple of spare -12 fittings in the garage, so I chopped the end off the hose and fitted a new connector. Then I got the engine plumbed and wired in, refitted the oil cooler (I’d removed it to drain the oil out of it), bolted the prop on, refitted the exhaust, filled her up with coolant and oil and took the plugs out to spin her up to check I had oil pressure and that the scavenge pump was functioning OK. It seemed to take an age then it came up to 8psi which is actually better than she manages at idle when she’s hot! Oil was recirculating nicely back into the sump tank too so I slapped a new set of plugs in and fired her up. She did start but was clearly only running on 2 cylinders. Swapping no. 1 and no. 2 plug caps seemed to do the trick – they aren’t labelled on this loom and are of equal length.

I ran her up to temperature keeping an eye open for leaks and making sure the rad fan was working OK and once happy switched off. The clutch needed bleeding which is always messy but once that was done it was time to refit the tunnel panels and bodywork. All done by 4 o’clock and she’s ready for Mallory next weekend