Getting back on the road

Well, the Piper cam really helped! Beryl was holding her own against a few more exotic cars at the VSCCA Spring Sprints. I was in the Preservation class (sort of 7/10ths racing / track day rules - only overtake on the straights etc). The suspension feels very well dialed in with much less body roll, pitch or understeer. Very predictable too with the Pirelli CN36 tyres. You can rotate the car at will and correct my dodgy line when I have to (helpful with my line sometimes!). The cam comes on song around 3,000 rpm and stays on song up to the redline. Pulls very well. I've noticed an extra 5mph on the straights compared to last autumn. The car didn't miss a beat all day, apart from losing another tooth on the ring gear (I'd lost two before and have a spare flywheel to fit, so now I need to pull the engine and fix that. But seriously happy with the mods. Kept up and tussled with Fulvia and Giuletta without a problem. The whole poingt was to build a car to annoy the Alfa guys (joking) and I have to say it worked. In car video for your viewing pleasure!
 
Was told by the chap in the Fitch Corvair sprint that he thought I had a V8 and was surprised when I told him it was a four banger. We weren't the fastest out there, but did pretty well considering.
 
One thing that happened when I stopped for petrol on the way home was a nasty clang followed by a seized starter motor when I tried to start it. I knew I had a tooth missing on the flywheel ring gear and had found a NOS flywheel in Pennsylvania of all places!

This time it was next to the first tooth. So, I decided it was time to fix the problem. I’d also been lucky and found a new pinion and sleeve for the bendix gear on the starter. So that’s being fixed as well. When I removed I realised the body was loose, so I’ve snugged up the screws that go through the motor housing. Fingers crossed that helps too.

Engine was pulled today and gearbox split. Sure enough it wasn’t two teeth, but about four missing in three different places. End of play today was new flywheel in place a quick clean up and check over. Like a muppet I forgot to disconnect the fuel line when pulling the engine. So I’ll need to grab a new brass olive and fix that tomorrow. Fortunately those are available in hardware stores here.


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Engine out!
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Less teeth than expected
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New flywheel in place.
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Not sure, but I think the old pinion wasn’t fully deploying.
 
I've got a mains powered impact gun. After 50 years messing about with cars and trucks I recently bought one and it's been brilliant. It's yet to fail to undo anything I've set it to and it was cheap too. Far better than all the air powered ones I've had.
 
harveyp6 said:
I've got a mains powered impact gun. After 50 years messing about with cars and trucks I recently bought one and it's been brilliant. It's yet to fail to undo anything I've set it to and it was cheap too. Far better than all the air powered ones I've had.
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The cordless impact was a life changer! Made getting the flywheel bolts off a doddle. Simple stuff like taking a wheel off is easy too.
 
harveyp6 said:
I've got a mains powered impact gun. After 50 years messing about with cars and trucks I recently bought one and it's been brilliant. It's yet to fail to undo anything I've set it to and it was cheap too. Far better than all the air powered ones I've had.
Click to expand...
With all the good battery powered impact tools now I don't ever use pneumatic one of the four cylinder cars that I work on. You can even get battery powered impacts now that will undo wheel nuts on semi trailers!
 
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