Changing gear...

Just a quick update on a couple of hours work today (forgot camera again – sorry!) – although looking back I think ‘why the hell did that take so long’! Having decided that the radiator will be at the back of the car (probably), the natural follow on from that is that the fuel tank will go at the front (I think). This means (still with me?) that there should be room for the gear linkage to come under the engine, removing the need for the cable shift. So I spent time today making the new link bar. First was to find a suitable piece of tube to fit over the gear selector shaft. As it happens, an off cut of the tube that I used for the suspension was nearly perfect. I cut this to size and drilled it so that a 6mm bolt will go through the hole in the selector and clamp the tube firmly in place. To this tube I carefully cut and shaped a piece that drops vertically down. For this and the fore/aft link I used the selector rod left from the original Rover donor. I could have used the Fiesta rod but the Rover version is a bit meatier! Now all I have to fathom is how to attach the rod on the other side of the engine – the Sylva Riot links to the bellhousing bolts – if anyone out there has any photos I’d be really grateful! Bye for now!

May bank holiday update.

It’s the May bank holiday weekend and that can only mean one thing - the annual pilgrimage to Stoneleigh for the kit car show. Next year we really will have something to show.! To my mind, the show was notable for several prominent empty spaces in the exhibition halls as well as the debut of two cars very similar to the Mistrale - the SDR and the Rocket. There was also a reappearance of the Quantum Sunrunner. I particularly liked the Dax powered by a Bell Jet Ranger turbo-shaft engine - more on that one another time.

As John et al came down for the show, there was a busy weekends work on the car. first job involved grinding off the remnants of the bent engine mount and grinding off a weld on the other mount that I was less then satisfied with. Unfortunately, i was having a ‘Bad Weld Day’ and it took several attempts to produce a replacement that I was happy with! Next step was to get the engine back in position so that the new mount could be tacked in. Once the engine was in, John made the support struts whilst I busied myself with the gearchange. Originally I intended to use a shaft based system inspired by that on the superb Sylva Riot. However, with space at a premium I felt unable to position all the joins correctly so I am currently working on a combination of rods and cables. Fortunately in my ‘Steptoe’ box, I found an old bell crank that came off a motorbike at some stage in the past and this proved perfect to mate with the Fiat coupe cable I acquired! The fore/aft will be by a rod and I spent some time experimenting with an old Audi gear lever mated to Fiesta remnants to get a smooth action - unfortunately the Fiesta lever is a bit too butchered to use! I would love to use a shift like the one I saw on an Ultima at the weekend. dream on!
Meanwhile, John had the mount tacked in so it was out with the engine whilst he welded it fully. Finally it was back in with the engine to finish a busy, but very satisfying few days work! Whilst at Stoneleigh I bought a new radiator to replace the Fiesta one which wasn’t the prettiest! The princely sum of £10 each for rad and fan was paid. On our return to the workshop, we looked at various options for its positioning. We have (probably) decided to rear mount it above the gearbox - the prospect of long hot water pipes running through the tunnel with all the hydraulics and electrics seems worse that the extra weight at the rear of the car! This means that the fuel tank will now go at the front. Probably!

More soon!