Ti Motorsport

Training day

The London Cape Town competitors joined the ERRC newbies on a training day at Gaydon.It was a chance to meet some fellow competitors as well as glean a little bit of an insight into what to expect on the event.

Phillip Young and the rest of the organisers had laid on a fairly busy schedule for us including a very entertaining talk from Stuart Turner, who gave us an idea of team management at both BMC & Ford.

Time constraints meant that most of the topics were only touched on very briefly & for some of those present it was probably too brief.

Our day started with a very useful talk by Paul Robinson on the duties of a co-driver/Navigator, a job that both Richard & I will have to undertake at some stage on the event.

Tony Fowkes & Phillip gave us an idea on what we should do in the way of preparation based on their years of experience. Emphasis from Tony on the benefits of travelling light, something that Richard & I had already decided on.

The afternoon was given over to a road rally training session for complete beginners & an autotest for the Enduro boys or anyone else who wanted to enter.

While these events were going on,Kim Banister spent a while giving us an impromptu session on GPS navigation, not on the schedule but as I have never used this form of GPS navigation, a very very useful half hour.

One of the better things about the end of the day was the chance to visit the museum & a walk back through time. Not too sure about the gun idea though.

 

Having sometimes wondered about how long it took for post to arrive, I learnt .

Nice wheels.

Then again the speedy response to police calls was also explained.

There were however one or two cars that appealed

A Different Ratio

It was time to have a look at the original diff from the Saloon. Knowing that the final drive ratio was going to be wrong, it did come as a bit of a surprise that it was a 3.77:1. As can be seen, this is a free diff & will be replaced with a slipper of one form or another.

We have fitted a 4.8:1 in the Coupe. I was a little concerned that it would be screaming the nuts off the engine but with the 15" wheels & M&S's, it cruises at  70mph with 4000 revs on the rev counter in 5th & having now done 3 or 4 hundred miles in it, I think it will be quite suitable.

Now all we need to do is find something a little more suitable for the saloon.

Paint Shop??????

What with getting our sand blaster back into operation & spraying Chassis Black on all of the 504 Saloon suspension components, it's more like Gogi's paint shop than our more usual mechanical mayhem.

We do however need to get it all out of the way as we are about to start on the rebuild of James Shallcross's Peugeot 205 Trials car.

Moving On

The internal fuel lines in the saloon are now complete.

The new fuse box has been configured and it's time to start on our auxillary loom.

The relay housinge is another make it yourself item & fits into the 4 slot housing module in the same way as the fuse unit.It  can be wired to suit any relay or flasher layout. We will just be using them for relays for spots, fogs & co-driver operated horn & wash/wipe. 

Escort Box Complete

Having given the errant Escort baulk ring a bit more of a hone, reassembly got underway again & this time everything was fine. No locking of gears on the synchro rings.

The nose cone, which is modified to take a concentric clutch release bearing, had a new oil seal fitted before being bolted into place.

The plan is to turn the bellhousing into a quick release unit but the method of running the hydraulics to the release bearing need sorting first.

The existing system uses a plate bolted to the bellhousing, with bulkhead unions. These have to be undone before the gearbox can be removed & then the pipes on the inside of the bellhousing have to be undone before the release bearing can be removed. Not a recipe for a quick box change.

Maps

  With the Gaydon training day this weekend & the arrival of the Africa maps to transcribe the outline route onto, everything seems to be getting suddenly a lot closer.

The need for a second passport, as I will need my present one while the multitude of visas for next years trip are gathered, also caused a bit of anxiety. I needn't have worried though, as Travcour, the agents for that sort of thing on last years aborted event, were very helpful & 7 days later my new passport arrived.

While been very thoughtful about the maps for Africa, I did forget all about the ones to get us to the ferry in Venice, so more hurried searching needed.

I hope that we will be able to get some answers to a few more questions at the weekend, insurance & things of a legal nature for driving through all the different countries.

I am sure it will all be in hand but it would be nice to have some detail.

 

 

One of the mandatory items to carry is a satellite phone.

What a minefield getting one of those is. I thought there were enough plans for mobile phones, but the satellite boys seem to have taken it to a whole new level.

Pugfest 2011

This is the first time we have attended a Pugfest & it was a really great treat. We had been invited to take our 540 Coupe down to go on display. I had no real idea what to expect, other than a lot of Peugeot's in one form or another, so it was very nice to be met & guided to the display area. With a space already for us there were a couple of others & they were expecting a 405 T16 & a 205 T16. These turned up a little later & were in fact ex works cars.

The 205 T16 was an ex Juha Kankkunen San Remo car & the 405 T16 GR was an ex Vatanen, so very very good company to be in.

And it got better because Guy Wilks's S2000 car was just next to the ex Francois Delacour 306 Maxi.

So well done to the organisers for gathering such a good display of cars.

By about 10 o'clock, action started on the hill, with everyone who had come along wanting a run, joining a very long queue. And it stayed like that all day. The runs were not timed & everyone going up   the hill had to attend a drivers briefing.

We spent a very entertaining  half hour watching some of the runners & riders. Some good, some not so good & some just ****** awful.

The club house was open for business & apart from serving a very nice lunch, they were showing the German Grand Prix, so result all round.

As you would expect there was just about every variation on the Peugeot theme & some very very nice conversions                                                                                      

 

Favourite car of the day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to the Peugeot Sport Club UK for the invite

Modular Electrics

The original ceramic style of fuses are notorious for their unreliability so we are going to change to a more reliable style.

Having given the whole the thing quite a lot of thought I have opted to use a modular system.

Supplied by Vehicle Wiring Products

This is the first time we have used this system and early signs are very encouraging.

This is one of four modules & holds 20 mini-blade fuses & should cover all our needs.

The terminals are all connected so you can configure your fuse block as you wish. A feature which proved very useful in copying the original Peugeot one, where there isn't a continuous bar but several some linked on the power side & some linked to earth.

So the original wiring has now been transferred to the new holder & it is so much neater & we still have the 2nd bank of fuses available for our auxiliary needs. 

Fuel Pipework

For the through the car fuel lines we have used teflon lined steel braided hose. This hose uses the same type of fitting as Aeroquip style brake hose. Being -6 hose, it is much easier to fit the fittings than the corresponding items on -3 hose.

It is also smaller outside diameter than conventional hose and means we have been able follow the panels contours more easily.

This is particularly useful as we will be having 3 pipes running through the car, 2 feeds & a Common return.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's the easy bit, now it's a matter of sorting the plumbing to the 2 electric high pressure pumps

A bit of steel in the box

  As we had problems on the last Safari with the second gear synchro, we have opted to fit steel baulk rings.

The ones we have chosen are Quaife items & have to be lapped in, a bit like you  do with valves.

Not the easiest of jobs, but I came up with a way that didn't take too much skin of my hands.

Just wrapping some string around the gear allows it to be turned quite easily. A little cutting paste and get on with it.

After a few minutes, any surface imperfections in the ridges of the grooves on the steel ring have been removed & the ring locks more or less instantly on the gear. Just what you want.

3rd,4th & 2nd were no problem, 1st however has become a little more problematic & it only became apparent when we started to assemble the box. As soon as the intermediate bearing went on fully enough for the circlip groove to show, the gear locked onto the baulk ring. Somewhere along the line, we have lost about 15 thou. Not a lot, but enough to lock everything up.