PV's a-plenty

22/11/2017

It's been a month of PV's...
  • GAS 685 (Emma's rally PV544)
    • Sent in for MoT after we replaced the brake warning switch.
      There's actually two of them on the car, since I never wish to be rejected at scrutineering: the OE pressure item on the master cylinder as spare; and the "main" twin circuit style one on that makes contact when the pedal is pushed - it was this one that had died, not surprisingly since whilst most of the unit is in the dry of the car, the plunger is under the car prone to fords and other water.
    • Rejected at MoT for steering wheel wobble: at some point we had lost the self-cancelling boss at the top of the column - this is essential to tension up the bearings. I fitted one, and the steering wheel is now as it should be.
      Also the LHR upper spring cup was rotten, and how! We now have a lovely new shaped and formed upper spring cup, and an MoT'd car
    • We'll be out on 30th December, the Winter Classic Rally is a superb halfday/shortnight event at the perfect time, based around and using Salisbury Plain.
      As will Amy: navigating for Simon in his Porsche 924
  • Mike H's rally 544
    • So, the clackety noise followed by dumped oil required the engine to come out yet again: simply and stupid mistake by the engine builder (not us!): they'd fitted the fuel pump without the bakelite spacer, which means the camshaft over depresses the pump lever and ultimately it fatigue fails. In this case it dropped down to the shallow pan immediately below #2 conrod which obligingly punched the broken lever straight through the sump.
    • The car is now MoT'd, and tuned up, and ready to go.
  • Our "new" PV444
    • Rear wiring loom installed, and two period looking rear indicators fitted adjacent to the boot lid (the late 444 indicated by flashing the stop/tail lights, as per USA)
    • Rear brakes fully built up, front discs replaced (we've left them as they are, but I may reinstated the drums one day), brakes bled - but no hydraulic pressure, and no leaks, which rather indicates the master cylinder.
    • Lower wishbone inner bushes replaced, I'll leave the rest of the front suspension metal/metal bushes as they are: they're expensive and hard work, so if it ain't bust...
    • I'll roll it off the ramps today, use Emma as my 60kg "wings, rad, windscreen" weight by sitting on the engine, and set up the geometry - it should be within spec I reckon, but I'll double check when the car goes to MoT, one day...
    • The photos illustrate the way the shock absorbers have been improved (mechanically, perhaps not aesthetically) by the previous owner
  • Other activities
    • Crow's table top rally has had an excellent start: enjoyable, challenging, frustrating - the latter was the final route card 12, which I couldn't get to go, much too subtle for me. I also had problems on the tulip one but managed to make it work (although I picked up a 30 penalty at the final control despite getting it correct, but spotted it too late to query).
    • The Preston!
      Yippee, it's Preston time of year again, and once more I was delighted that Owen asked me to ride with him again. You may recall that he and I led last year's event in this MGZR until the last section where our second puncture of the night and a confused navigator dropped us to third overall.
      In addition there's Harvey's 144 out on the event, it's been a few years since my 142 competed on it. Better still, my daughter Amy gets to compete on her first Preson.
      Having marshalled with me on at least 4 occasions this has been one of her driving ambitions, and is a perfect warmup to doing the seriously tough LEJoG event navigating for Ozzie Peter in his 244 later in the week.
Well, after all that upbeat news, we were very saddened to learn that Nigel Raeburn had succumbed to cancer. We saw him at the Tour of Cheshire and briefly chatted, his ready smile (actually, was it a permanent smile?) and incisive help has been one of the joys of the navigating fraternity over the years. We like so many others shall miss him.

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