Ti Motorsport

Gearbox Maladies

This week has been mainly concerned with sorting gearboxes. Gary Barlow uses an F13 box with Quaife gear and had selection problems with 3rd gear.

The broken synchro ring being the culprit.

Martin Head didn't get off so lightly following his gearbox failure at Longcross. Problem not caused by a Quaife failure but by the cross pin in the Gripper diff failing at the oil groove and throwing the broken end out through the casing. Not only the standard PG1 half but the Quaife casing as well.

While there is no damage to the gears the crown wheel has taken a hit & will need to be replaced.

R2 Problems Resolved

After hours & hours of trying to find the problem with the wiring on our R2 Citroen we have finally sorted it out & once again have lights & wipers & useful things like that.

A faulty BSI board. For those of you who dont know what a BSI is & I have to admit that I didn't its a Built in Systems Interface.

So it looks like all systems go with that C2 while the 1400 is still fighting us a little.

Great Service

Nice every now & then to get a result. Having sent our faulty diff from the Honda back we have just heard that the repaired unit will be back with us on Tuesday in time  for a quick rebuild before I head off for the Isle orf Man.

Faulty component repair free of charge. How good is that.

Honda Disaster

Not the result we expected when we came to change what was a suspected broken drive shaft on Richard Phillipsons Honda after last weekends Quinton  Rally.

With less than a week before the next round of the WAMC Championship we have a major panic on our hands to try to repair the diff which has grenaded for some reason.

Gripper will have the LSD back today [Friday] & have promised to try to get it back to us in time for the event.

Running at last

At long last our second 1400 has sparked into life, not before time either. The 8 valve unit will run the standard fly by wire throttle body instead of the cable throttle of its sister car and is currently running with a 1600 GT ECU. & GT exhaust. It will use the same suspension spec as the other C2. Using the BRC Challenge rules the car uses vented front discs & a disc brake rear beam instead of the drum set up of the standard car. The ABS has been disabled and a proportioning valve fitted.

The plan is still to fit the 16 valve engine as soon as the loom issue is resolved

New car problems continue

Our new 1400 C2 is turning into a bit of a mare one way and the other. What started out as a basic copy of our existing car but with a 16v power plant instead of the 8 valves in the Decantae car is still causing major headaches.

Plans to put an 8 valve engine in while we sorted out the 16v wiring loom are even causing problems as so far we have had 2 engines delivered neither of which were compatable the latest version is due to arrive on Friday which of course is too late for this weekends Quinton Rally which means that instead of using the C2 Dominic Hodge will use our Peugeot 205 instead.

1400 16v Nightmares

Just when we thought we had the car sorted or at least not far off being ready for this weekends Midland Rally someone upstairs threw a massive spanner in the works. The engine was in just waiting for a new o/s mounting as it is different from both the 8v & 1600 variants and it was just a case of connecting the engine loom to the car loom. I should have remembered the problems we had when we converted our first car from 1100 to 1400.

The donor car was a 1600 GT so stupidly I thought OK 16v 1600 to 16v 1400 no problem. Ha! Ha!

The 1400 car has sequential injection unlike the 1600 which uses wasted spark technology & the 1400 also has variable cam timing. How we get over this without spending half the national debt with Mr Citroen remains to be seen but get over it we will.

Otherwise the car is fitted with an OMP cage, electric cut out & extinguisher & uses Citroen Sport seats, runners & under guards just the same as the Decantae car & the R2

Following some problems with the radiator fixings on the Dukeries we have made significant changes in both sump guard & lower radiator location and these mods which are similar but not the same as the R2 are now on both cars . This has also enabled us to raise the front of the sumpguard. The lower radiator is now mounted directly onto the sumpguard mounting rail as in the R2 & retains the original upper mountings. The standard rad is retained.

The exhaust system is also undergoing a bit of a make over as to now we have been using the original 1100 item.

Frantic Activity

With The Rally of the Midlands only a couple of days away we are frantically trying to complete our new C2. Another 1400 but this time usung the 16 vale engine as used in the C2 Stop & Go. Lets hope the new car does just that. As this car is being built to comply with the BRC Challenge regs we are preparing it to Gp N regulations. The car is not actually homologated  but the regs allow you to build to Gp N spec.

We are using vented discs unlike the std version & a disc brake rear beam unlike the drum system we use on gravel. We are using the same Leda/ BAD hybrid dampers but will run the car somewhat harder in the spring department.

For this event the box will have the 1600GT ratios but without an LSD. This will be something we hope to change before the next round on the Isle of Man.

The car will run on 14" Silverstone rubber and use modified Mintex pads otherwise it will be identical to our 8 valve car.

C2R2 electrical gremlins

Following the electrical problems on the Jim Clark rally last month we have, we hope found the source of the trouble. As we still run the original style loom as opposed to the optional competition loom our main fuse box is situated in the engine bay and is quite vulnerable to the elements. We had previously replaced the circuit board so started looking there for any problems. On the Jim Clark we had checked the board & the main connections but  it seems one of the smaller connectors got missed & when we looked at it in the workshop the connections were a little corroded. Once we had cleaned it up the problem APPEARS to have gone away. We are hoping that we will confirm that everything is OK at Chatsworth at the weekend.  

PUBs 2008 Rebuild

A little later than planed our 504 Peugeot Coupe has finally made it into the workshop ready for its 2008 rebuild.

Following its last outing in Kenya in 2007, its seems so long ago, we have shed loads of mods to do. Many of these relate to making life easier to service the V6 which we ran for the first time.

We also have to find a new diff, the old one having been destroyed on a particularly rough stage.

Anyone knowing the whereabouts of a 4.6 crown wheel & pinion or a complete diff the moneys waiting