Ti Motorsport

New Author on the Block

For the next few weeks Christine will try to keep you up to date with what's going on.

A Day of Set Backs

With the prospects of a bit of spirited driving to look forward to after the navigation teach in at Newbury, there just remained the final plumbing in of the second fuel pump before heading off.

That's when the first problem arose. The return pipe refused to seal on the new pump. I started by using the teflon lines hose, followed by reinforced rubber & finally some softer rubber with a steel outer cover. No matter what I tried the fuel kept leaking. Eventually the trouble turned out to be a faulty seal at the end of the pump.

You can just make out the little alloy cover to the right of the 3 pipe fittings next to the boss for the electric connections. We are now going to have a bit of a panic rethink before tomorrow to try to overcome the problem.

By the time we had found this out it was time to leave, to learn once more, all that we had forgotten about navigating our way around.

Our event organisers had put together a bit of an insight into how the event is going to be run, from the use of our GPS units, the use of the Yellow Brick for passage controls & the road books & the navigation for our first night in Kent. To round it off & to get us use to the timing there was a 20 mile exercise.

We made it to TC 1 on time. TC 2 & TC 3 however eluded us & we cut to the final 3 controls. Not looking too good for Kent.  On the up side, making the ones we did find on time, was not a big issue, so our prescribed pace seems to be about right.

In mitigation, we hadn't calibrated our trip, Richard hadn't been thinking "Navigation" "late afternoon = darkness" so the potti was back at work, which meant reading the map wasn't the easiest of things to do.

A really, really useful exercise learnt loads that I used to take for granted.

 

Check Straps

As per our Safari cars, we have run steel cables around the castor bars to prevent the strut coming back into the arch in case of breakage.

Rear droop is controlled by straps, which should also help extend shocker life.

 

Second Fuel Pump

The last remaining big job is just about finished. The  new fuel pump, for the second tank, is now fitted & wired up. The fuel lines are in & we just have to join the 2 return lines.

The 2 tank sender units are also wired up & sit on the co-driver panel.

Tomorrow we start loading the car ready for the trip.

Belt & Braces

Although the electro magnetic fan seems to be working again, I decided to take Thanos's advice & fit an extra electric fan. It has meant repositioning the oil cooler.

We have used a 205 fan assembly & cut down the cowling to suit.

In order to try to eliminate as many potential problems as possible we have made this one purely manually controlled, so no problem with the temperature switch etc.  

 

 

 

We have moved the oil cooler to the right to accommodate the fan & also repositioned the horns. It seems that we now have our bases covered.  

           

 

 

 

Sealing

Having just spent some time sealing the plug caps, coil leads & distributor cap, I thought here's another photo op, to show the old distributor with its traditional points system & the new 123 dizzi with it's uncluttered base plate.

It was instantly noticeable how much difference the new one made just on the smoothness of tick over.

 

Our mud flaps are now complete according to the organisers spec & the car is now in for a few final jobs. The cooling fan problem, which showed it's ugly head in the traffic jam on the M25, turns out to be a contact problem with the carbon brush & brass ring on the electro magnetic motor, which is being resolved.

We have optimised our seating arrangements, having fixed seats, it's a good job both Richard & I are of similar height & build.

After our 2 day Christmas break it will be a matter of stowing the various bits of kit & the few spares that we are going to carry, before the navigation training day & then the off.

Figures

Here are the plots for the 2 cars.First the saloon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The differences in the 2 engines is very apparent in the comparison plot

Rolling Road

Our trip to the rolling road was not without it's moments, 2 accidents meant very long waits, which in turn meant us being very late for our appointment with the Steve's. The long wait did also cause us a lot of concern over the engine temperature in the stationary traffic. It seems that the electro magnetic part of the cooling fan may not be functioning. A good job it was a coldish afternoon & not in the heat of some part of far off Africa.

With none of us ever having had anything to do with the Kugelfischer injection system, even with the "Help" of the Peugeot workshop manual, we struggled to get the mixture somewhere near right, finally compromising the idle CO for the correct mixture in the range where we will be most of the time. I am sure that Thanos will be on to me saying how easy it is & make us feel quite silly.

What we have ended up with is bags & bags of low down torque & a power figure just a little shy of that from the Coupe. With our choice of tyres, it means that 70mph is achieved at around 3300 revs so that should be fairly stress free on the engine.

The long delay + our potential cooling problem have meant that we were so late that we are postponing our test tomorrow to sort out the problem.

Richard had his first taste of driving the car, as he had the dubious pleasure of the return trip around the M25,which, as it happens had been uneventful, until it started to rain & one of the wipers decided it wanted to jam. I seem to remember that the old taper spline fittings were a bit prone to that sort of thing when they were a bit worn. One more job for tomorrow.

Testing

It's action stations for the next couple of days. Tomorrow[Thurs 22nd] we are off to Track N Road for a rolling road session. We have now fitted the 123 distributor, replacing the old points set up with modern electronic technology. This is the same type distributor that we fitted to the Coupe.

Following our rolling road time we will make our way to Ludlow. On Friday we are booked to test at Phil Prices.

When we come back, it's a couple of days off for Christmas before packing the car ready to go.

Gear Selection Issues.

Since installing the 5 speed box, we have been plagued by an intermittent problem selecting 2nd gear. It has obviously been a linkage problem, rather than an internal selection problem. While we were waiting for the wheels to be balanced, it seemed like a good opportunity to have a look at the linkage & try to sort the problem or at least identify it.

The problem was not enough clearance between the gear lever & the mounting & was eventually sorted by using a longer gear link rod , meaning the lever didn't come so far back & so end of problem.