Ti Motorsport

Carbatooters

Before we left for Kenya, I had been asked by Jasmeet Chana, for some advise on jetting the carburettors on his new classic car, a Datsun PA10 with an FJ20 engine.. The engine had come from South Africa, complete with a set of 48 DCO SP2's Webers. 

Having determined that the engine was still in stock spec and listened to the symptoms, we decided that the car was over carbed. The 48's will be fine when the engine is rebuilt to it's final spec, with high compression pistons and modified cams, but for now on it's 9.1 cr and 150 bhp, 40's or 45's would be the way to go.

Having done a little research, talked to the Steve's at Track'N'Road and the guys at Eurocarbs, we came up with some settings that we thought would work. All we needed was a pair of carbs.

As I had a couple of pairs laying around, that wasn't a problem. They did however need a thorough overhaul. The chokes were changed to 34mm.

Emulsions, main fuel and air jets were all changed, as were the air correctors. Time would tell if we had got it right.

As we were on a fairly tight schedule with Gogi's Escort, we arranged for the car to come to Bhadur's. Just as well, it was miles out.

Although somewhat better, the fuelling was still hopelessly out. Time to swap carbs.

These are the SP2's and you will see that there is no cold start mechanism on them [Choke]

 

The 40's, 45's & 48's all share a common flange size, so there was no problem changing them. Obviously the manifold bore is bigger but that wasn't an issue. We were able to use the cars own fuel lines and the throttle linkage required very little change.

With the new carbs fitted, it was a matter of balancing them and setting them up. Our jetting turned out to be pretty much spot on.

I had taken a set of jet drills, just in case.

 

Time for goodbye

The time had eventually come to ship the 504 home, we were told that there was a change of plan. Surprise, surprise.

The car would be transported to Mombasa and loaded there. We would get a phone call when the transporter was near. No time soon then.

And so it transpired.

Andy & I just on with 'stuff'. Mainly getting the Escort engine onto a pallet, ready for shipping.This of course meant  blocking all all the oil hoses etc, but in the end, we decided to remove all pipes and ancillaries.

By lunch time, we were beginning to wonder what had happened to the transporter, Bhadur had returned with the news, that the driver was 'just down the road', but that had been two hours previously.

Eventually, it arrived. Not at all what I had expected but it did provide us with a LOT of amusement. It was one of the transporters used to bring cars up from Mombasa and a load to go back was a bonus for the driver. The trouble was, having driven into the yard, he was unable to turn his rig around. After trying for about 20 minutes, the lads decided to unhitch his trailer and turn it around manually, then reconnect it. Like many thing in Kenya, many hands make light work. 

It was the same thing when it came to the pallet. Half a dozen lads managed it, sort of no problem. Meanwhile, it was time for me to fire up the 504, ready to load.

As the car needs to go into the container with no fuel, as soon as it was on the truck, we used the dry break coupling to drain the tank, before removing the battery.

With one 504 on it's way to Mombasa, it was time to finish the strip of the Escort. It was quite annoying to find that a few odd additions to the wiring had been be done with no real thought for future maintenance. A case in point was when the coils had been moved at MRT. Instead of putting in a second connector, they had hard wired two together. This meant the only way to remove the coil pack was to take out the rest of the front loom. Although it was going to come out anyway, I cut the pair and fitted a connector. I will also made a little change to the headlamp loom. At present, the terminals on the connector onto the headlamp bulb have to be removed in order to take the
headlamps out. I plan to put in another connector outside  the headlamp housing. Andy meanwhile, had got his head down, removing the loom inside the car. 

As the car was going to the body shop, I have left them to weld the pillar.

In order to make their life easier, we took the old branding off.

It too ended up on a transporter, this time though, for a shorter trip across Nairobi to the MRT bodyshop.

 

 

 

A day off

Bus man's holiday really,. We had a plan on Wednesday night, when we left Bhadur's, it involved a trip to the industrial area, which is the other side of town and not something to be undertaken lightly. We would try to find some 504 panels and see a man about the Nissan pickup engine.

As Bhadur had a few things to do before we could leave, Andy & I carried on where we had left off, with the Escort. The pile of bits was starting to rival that of the 504, the difference being, that they weren't destined for the rubbish bin. 

Travel in Nairobi is a nightmare, there really isn't another word for it. Nobody seems to obey the accepted rules of the road, it's every man for himself [pc version would probably read person], but it is exciting in a way. You are in the capital city, you have skyscrapers next door to corrugated iron sheds, new cars, side by side with hand carts and the odd cow or two wandering along, thrown in. 

By the time we had crossed town, it was time for lunch [no surprise there then] but as we were sort of celebrating a friends birthday, we rounded lunch off in style.

Blown today's calorie count in one.

Time to get over to Impala Spares, the oldest Peugeot spares place in Nairobi, I'm told. Last night, I had gone through the 504 parts catalogue, so armed with part numbers for all the bits I was looking for, I took my place in the queue. It's quite normal here, for the counter to be behind bars, with little slots for parts to be handed through, once you have been to the cashier to pay.

We didn't have to wait too long, unlike some previous visits, but the wait was in vain, they had none of the panels. To be honest, I would have been amazed if they had.

Time to talk to a man about an engine. Some interesting things came out of that meeting. In the UK, if I want a block bored or linered, I pop along to Howards or whoever else I might use, give them the block, they measure it up and if you ask, they supply the pistons, bore the block to suit and present you with a suitable bill. Not here. Here you take your block along, they measure it, tell you what size, then pat you on the head, send you off to buy some pistons, which you then take back to them. They then bore your block to suit. This is all very well if the block cleans at the size they have said. I didn't ask the question.What if it doesn't.

We were then back on the hunt for panels. One of Bhadur's contacts had suggested another Peugeot spares place, which we eventually found, in a slightly more dubious section of town. So while the others sat in the locked car, I was sent out to search. The place was like an Aladdin's cave, every sort of mechanical bit you might ever need, but no panels at all. They did however tell me to go up the road a bit further, there was a place there that might be able to help. I have to own to being a trifle nervous, as I walked up the road, not really knowing what I was looking for. It was a bit like walking past some of those restaurants, where they try to lure you in, but the guys were really helpful and I finally found Nirvana. My somewhat hesitant enquiry about Peugeot 504 chassis rails, was met with a 'Yes I have those' what about a headlamp panel, yes, again. I was amazed. Of course there had to be a snag, 'How much?' I asked. When he told me, I had to write it down and get my calculator out. I must have missed a nought off. No, my 2 chassis rails and a complete front panel were going to set me back the equivalent of £180.00. Time to find the others and to figure out how we were going to get them home.

We had now had confirmation from the shippers, that the car would be loaded tomorrow [Friday if you've lost track] and the carnet had finally put in an appearance.

An early` start was called for.

 

Tuesday and time for a proper look at the new 504. We had emptied the stores of all parts Peugeot and as the carnet still hadn't shown up, we were stuck on that front.

After taking a few photos, mostly depressing, we got the jack out, stuck the pimp mobile on stands and started ripping bits out. The pile of discarded bits grew and grew.

And that, was around the time, that Andy got a message from a mutual friend back in the UK. There had been terror attack in Nairobi,' were we OK?'. First we'd heard of it. Seem to remember something similar, when we were here, a couple of years back. For some time, we were more interested in what was going on in town, than cars. The local TV had crews out at the scene and there were some pretty horrific pictures being posted on social media. The phones were going all the time, as family members were checking up on each other. This attack, like the Westgate one. was only a couple of miles away from us. The death toll started to mount and there were conflicting stories about the number of terrorist, how many had been killed, all the usual media speculation.

Time to try to get back to normal, or as normal as possible under the circumstances  and the 504. The rear end was fairly solid, there was a little bit of rust around the rear light clusters, which would require some new sections welding in, otherwise a serious clean up job.

The rear shell layout is completely different to the IRS version, so a whole lot less work for us than we had originally envisioned.

The big, big problem was the front of the car. It reminded me of Dave Dockree's Sunbeam, with chassis rails and floor pans that needed replacing. The likelihood of getting replacements, even in Kenya, seemed remote, but you never know. At some point, the car had had a biff on the nearside front, so that would also need looking into.

 

 

 

Global shift of goalposts

Monday's breakfast proved enlightening, to say the least. A couple of odd remarks by Bhadur, regarding the Escort, had me wondering. This complete respray, inside and out, was a novel concept, but I thought there may have been a bit of a mistake in my interpretation of said remarks, so I decided to ring Gogi. Of course, there is a three hour time difference between the UK and Kenya, so that would have to wait. Meantime, there were all sorts of things to be getting on with.

As a rule, one of our first jobs is to get the cars up and running. Time to shake out the cobwebs, the odd little lizard, that's made it's home in the car and perhaps the odd giant slug. I really hate those things. Anyway, Andrew connected the battery and the 504 fired up it's fuel pumps and after a couple of pumps on the accelerator, the engine chirped into life. Happy days.

We then moved on to the Escort and not such a happy tail. Reconnecting the battery resulted in a score worthy of a British song in a Eurovision song contest [perhaps we wont be invited when we leave] NIL VOLTS,  not even a measly one. Not something that's happened before. Time for that charger to come out of hiding  and earn it's keep. 

Moving on and the Pimp Mobile. There was never any chance on earth that it was going to start, BUT  in order for us to make some more informed decisions, we needed to start it. As our sole battery charger was engaged in giving the kiss of life to the Escort, that too would have to wait.

Surely this merited a cup of tea.

My stress levels were elevating, with the absence of any news regarding my container and the inability of people to give me, at least a hint, that all was progressing at warp factor Kenya.

More tea, I think and a chat with Gogi. I hadn't got the wrong end of the stick at all. Rolling shell to Multiple, so a new ball park.

Time to start taking a more positive approach. No 1 priority, get my Peugeot spares together, for their return journey . And that,  saw the climb of another rung  on  the  stress  ladder.  The  carnet  was  elsewhere. I was told it would be back later in the day. The man who does the monthly taxing of the car had it. The only minor snag to this, was my need to see if there was a returning spares list attached to it.

It's surprising how long some seemingly minor jobs take. Perhaps tomorrow, we will be more productive.

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Ti Ke

To make my life easier and to prevent you from having to switch from one place to another, I have created a rather grandly titled Kenya Workshop Category.

As this particular visit has Andy and I flitting between 3 cars, it just made a bit of sense. [something I am repeatedly told, that I: have not a lot of].

So if you are all sitting comfortably I shall begin.

As you should know from elsewhere, the ORIGINAL sole purpose of this visit was to organise the repatriation of my 504 to the UK. Time and motivation permitted, we would also take a look at the 'pimp mobile,' as we have nicknamed my latest 504 acquisition and possibly take a look at the Escort crank,which is still harboring a broken bolt within it's steely heart.

The repatriation hasn't changed, but is proving to be just a little bit stressful, what has changed, is the Escort side of things. After a meeting with Gogi just before we left, he outlined plans to contest the Safari Rally in July. This is of course the WRC tester event. So far, so good. What wasn't so good was his decision to convert the car from using a Type 9 gearbox, to the bigger T5 box. This was a box that we had looked at when we installed the 2 litre lump, but as the car was an original Mexico, the tunnel is too small to take the T5. Andy & my new mission, fit it. This trip, we would take out the engine [this would make removing the broken bolt easier], strip out everything necessary for the car to go off to MRT's Porsche body shop, to have the larger tunnel fitted and then come back in March to do the install.

This of course was cutting into the time available for pimping my ride as it were.

So, off to Nairobi courtesy of Rwandair.

Arriving on Sunday, at lunch time, we took the rest of the day off and reacquainted ourselves with our Nairobi 'home'. Our old favorite room has been converted in a gym of all things, so we have moved two doors down. The big change for us, was the complete removal of the buildings across the road from our hotel. Our seedy bar had already disappeared in the aftermath of the Westgate terror attack, the Nakumat supermarket was a shadow of it's former self following a falling out between the partners but everything else had seemed to be running fine, so to find a totally flatten open space was a bit of a shock.

The Westgate centre however, had seen big changes. The arrival of 'Shoprite', a South African supermarket chain, had replaced the old Nakumat and the arrival of a 'popup' village had added a host of small stalls and restaurants to the mix.

Monday would see us at Bhadur's and time for some work and the first of the moved goalposts that always seem to pop up over here.