It’s Christmas Eve (I wish this time of year was still as magical as it was when I was a child) and I’m stretching out the time until Santa arrives by writing this post. Not that there’s much to write about to be honest.
Archive for the ‘suspension’ Category
With the engine in bits I could suspend my disappointment and get on with other things. First up is to sort the wishbones that I’ve been meaning to remake. This is to get rid of the Delrin bearings, which haven’t really worked, and hopefully to get a bit of weight out. So, making my usual MDF and bracket jigs I remade the rear upper wishbones, as seen here. You’re right, they’re awfully short (although you have to add a lot of length in the rod-ends to this photo) and this is what completely re-designing the rear of the car would have sorted. However, I just don’t have the time, especially as I’ve just got a new job. (As well as still teaching, this time to “Engineering Doctorate” students, up at York and my PhD viva being next week. Eeeek.)
I took the crank up to Andy yesterday to see what he thought. As I was beginning to suspect he reckoned that the #2 and #3 big end journals were toast. This is a real bugger, as you can’t get undersized shells and therefore can’t get the crank reground.
It’s getting perilously close to the next race but barring a bit of shouting, the car’s now done. I wonder if it will work properly?
I took it up to Andy’s last week and he modified the old exhaust system to fit to the new engine. I think it’s ended up being a bit of a bodge, to be honest, but with luck it will work well. I do keep wondering if I should have had a complete new system built.
Last weekend was the first of out visits to Snetterton this year. We were running on the 200 circuit which is pretty much the same sort of layout at the original circuit, albeit with the hairpin at Montreal which is huge shame after losing Sear and the left hander at Murray’s which is a replacement for the original Russell chicane. It’s a shame to lose the original Coram corner and, also, Jim Russell’s name from the circuit. The interesting bits of the new circuit are all on the 300 circuit, as I tested on earlier this year.
