Sprinting to the RBRR sorry RBR

What a pedantic name change, no longer the RBRR now to be the RBR - why does the word Reliability suggest racing on Public Roads ? What a shame to mess with the name of such an iconic event.

OK rant over.

Anne cannot make the run so AJP (Shedtune) has kindly agreed to accompany me - I hope he can drive in the dark ! No Lambrini either as McJim won't be manning the Scottish Border this year, Jason will miss his marigolds

Having put a few hundred miles on the Sprint last week it was time to fix a few things. I had already put the new alternator on, which has fixed the charging issue, and its rated at 50amp so will probably help the battery during the night runs on the RBRR

There was a blow from the manifold to downpipe joint, and once the old manifold was removed you can see where it was leaking, probably caused by a missing bolt as there were no threads left for the middle bolt.

However I had another manifold which I have helicoiled all the threads, so the bolts now fasten.

It was time to replace the starter too, the previous one which had been bought as reconditioned by the PO last December was playing up, solenoid clunking but no starter whirring away so I have replaced this as its easy to do with the manifold off.

I fabricated a small alloy heat shield for it too as everything gets very hot down there on a Sprint.

Next job was to swap the plastic expansion bottle for a genuine metal one which I aquired earlier, as the plastic ones tend to split.

Then it ws time to check the new wheel bearings which required a slight tightening of the castle nut by one notch

Then a general check over the car, fluids, etc, and what do I see but more EP90 leaking from the gearbox - this time it was from the gear selector rods - the PO had rebuilt the box but obviously hadn't replaced the O rings, or if he had they were from China - needing to fix this today, and not having the required size O rings, my spare Sprint box donated its gear selector cover, but it did mean transmission tunnel and part of the dash out. If this doesn't fix it, I will get some O rings on Monday and repeat the process again.

thats it for tonight, just headlamps to replace with some Cibies, and I have promised AJP a sound system ( that's so he doesn't hear the clattery engine at cold, or the gearbox whine, or has to talk to me I suspect) wonder what his taste in music is ? Hope he likes Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin