Its Christmas Time and exhausting work

Well maybe not, but I did receive some more presents in the post today

Adjustable front suspension tie rods

hydraulic clutch assembly - no more lever arm and clevis pins to fail

which assembled look like this

complete with pipework

and adjustable pedal stop

Thanks to Rob at Sprint Speed for these.

Now on to  the exhaust.  Sprint engine really like a reduction in back pressure, so the first job before getting a new exhaust system is to open out the exhaust manifold downpipe ports. Fortunately I have a nos manifold to work with.

As standard these are 35mm diameter,

even though the flange gasket is 43mm as shown by the ring of engineers blue round each hole

 

 

The ST manual recommends 45 mm with similar sized downpipes, so this is what they look like opened out (the socket is 45mm diameter)

Not a great deal of "meat" left between the ports, but just enough for 2 exhaust tube walls.

Here's old and new

I can take the car for its new exhaust system now

Bits and Bobs of work on the cars

I have done a few small jobs on the FF estate recently. One of the items that has always bugged me was the weatherstrip on the rear driverside door. Unlike all the others it was a repro one, and far too large in cross section so it always looked out of place.

I noticed recently that the originals were the same cross section as TR4 / 5 ones

and fortunately, these are just long enough to be cut before the curved section, and still fit the rear door on a 2000 - result - one correctly fitting, and correct looking weatherstrip, which matches the other nos ones I had managed to source for the rest of the car.

Due to work commitments I have not taken the estate out much recently, and it also needs an MOT which is now booked for 2 weeks time, but I have been running it up to temperature on our drive. last time I did this, it ran out of petrol, but the gauge still showed 1/4 full and the low fuel lamp wasn't on.

I thought it was the pump at first, but a check soon revealed no fuel at the pump either, so I pulled the sender out of the tank thinking this was faulty. When I did this I noticed about 2" of fuel in the bottom of the tank - removal of the fuel pick up pipe revealed the problem - it was bent and no where near the bottom of the tank. A little fettling of the pipe, correcting the bend soon saw the pump get fuel and it started again. Good job we kept the tank brimmed and didn't rely on the gauge on the RBRR!

Other cars, I have started an engine rebuild on the Sprint on my spare engine, and some of the parts have started to arrive. Apart from mundane items like gasket sets these landed this week

They each weigh 160 grams less than the original rods and have arp fasteners

and undoubtedley have been made with a little more precision.

I have ordered a few other bits and pieces to accompany them, but the lead time for these is a month or 2 or 3, so this won't be a rapid process. However its interesting to note that forged JE pistons now cost less than County ones from the usual suspects ! - no prices for guessing what I have ordered.

The Sprint will shortly be going to JP Exhausts (they did the FF exhaust and manifolds) for a new system, but I need to do some work on a spare cast manifold that I have first - more on that next time.