Didn't compete in the 142 - lots of workshop activity

8/11/2017

Richard (L2CT driver, 144 Camel) & I had entered the Wethersfield Targa Rally as a dual entry: Richard driving the ex-Vestey L2CT MGZR, and me driving my gorgeous 142.
About a week beforehand I realised that the Volvo could not compete: how, after 17y of regular competition, did I not know this you ask? Rightly so!
I'd got myself confused: since the car is a 1970 model I figured I could enter the historic class, however it has 4x throttle bodies and the attendant coilpack modern fuel injection, so that means an MSA Waiver is needed since there's more than 2 chokes on the induction.
Now, only Historics get Waivers, not moderns - so of course I cannot claim modern injection AND a waiver. We withdrew the 142.
In all honesty I couldn't bring myself to run Emma's PV544 on the Targa, it just isn't a Targa car, preferring the rough loose to the sealed surfaces of the Cold War airfield.

Anyway, Richard & I had a lovely day in the heavily oversprung MGZR (it's still on it's Africa springs, so very tailhappy), and put in some good times - spoilt early on by a "slight" savaging of a cone at a stop-astride passage check, that I had to recover from underneath the car since it definitely wasn't going to come out of it's own volition.
We finished midfield due to that 1'+ delay.

  • In the workshop
  • Our own fleet...
    • The 142 had suffered from a very strange over-leaning - clearly due to the TPS letting go and giving low opening values to the ECU when in fact the throttles were wide open.
      Obviously I changed it out with a new unit to good effect, for 6miles. Then a quick down change from 5th to 3rd (I confess, the 142 has a Ford Type9 gearbox) and I heard a snap, then back to massively overlean running, but perfect at idle.
      I limped home, then found yesterday that the problem was simply that the link rod, between the front throttle body pair and the rear, had fractured. 30' latter the throttle rod had been TIG'd, and the throttle bodies back in the car.
      At last, a reliable 140 again!
    • Amy's Morris Minor had a blown head gasket, so I changed that out. No other damage pleasingly, but frightening just how far the 4 pedestal bolts re-torque after the 2nd hot run: I must have taken them down another full turn at least, very nerve wracking.
    • Amy's 130 is still up in Liverpool as her daily driver, no news is good news!
    • Our PV444 - weeeelll, still haven't managed to get any time on it, but late November and December should see good progress...
    • Sophie's Fiato Punto - superb car, £200 buys you a lot of vehicle these days. And aircon too. That works!
      Having sailed through its MoT, I shall now give it a new cambelt.
  • The Harrison's old PV544...
    • My "300" engine came out, then the crossmember
    • Strengthened a used upper wishbone, and fitted that to the LHS
    • Stripped and welded up the RH shock turret
    • Refitted the much happier crossmember, then the engine that Mike had supplied from his stash
    • Fired up the engine on Wednesday night, warmed through nicely
    • Fired up the engine on Thursday morning to fetch fuel before delivering to MoT...
      • "Bang", rattle, engine stalls, big pool of oil on my workshop floor.
    • I reckon #2 big end has let go, since I can't think of anything else that results in a 5mm hole beneath the big end
  • Tom's 164
    • All MoT'd and running nicely
    • An irritating rattle that disappeared on the open road in 4th turned out to be a completely seized propshaft centre bearing
    • Another rattle was cured by replacing the rear shocks (quite possibly the original 45yo units!)
    • There is another rattle at the LHF, which might well be front shock, but Tom has pulled the plug on expenditure now.
  • Mark's 122S
    • New engine built up after it overheated (old radiator failure)
    • It's nice building a stock motor, well almost: it's actually P1800 D-cam guise, but otherwise stock
    • Fired up and running sweetly, but needs a working temperature gauge before I do the final tuning run on the Lambda sensor
    • This is possibly the nicest Amazon we have on our books, and certainly cannot be bettered for condition - the underside looks like it came out of the factory 5y ago in a dry climate. How wonderful!
      I believe it is in fact Mark's daily driver.
  • "Australian" Peter's 244 is pretty much ready for the LandsEndJohn'o'Groats rally in December
    • After much delay the "sumpguard" arrived from Australia, to much mirth at Amazon Cars: it's a (very) shiny bit of 2mm checkerplate... that doesn't actually reach the sump, let alone cover it. It has been filed amongst "not required on voyage".
      We've drawn up a decent 8mm design for the car, and hope to get that in about 10 days.
    • I'm trying to get Amy to get involved in Crow's TableTopRally, but not sure she has the time (2nd year Geophysics), however she'll be out on the Preston before LEJoG, so that'll bring her up to speed on her mapreading, if not the technical plotting of Regularity.
  • Then back to the Harrison's PV544: engine out and see what needs resolving...

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