GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Well I took Fly up the road this evening and the gearbox is f**ked

Its a Quaife Pro 5 speed I bought off eBay in Feb, the guy had bought it as a spare with some broken gears and rebuilt it himself new parts from Quaife, but never actually used it. Well all I can say is he didn't put it back together very well

Sitting there on idle it was rattling like mad, drive up the road and its even worse, you change into 5th and there's no drive at all, even though the gear lever's in the right position
5th gear's probably sitting on his bench at home still

Anyway, looks like I'll being putting the Quaife Clubman back into tomorrow night after work, and trying not to break it at Curborough on Sunday pray:

Tooks some pics of Fly back together on some fat tyres, front suspension not properly set up yet, should be a bit lower by Sunday but just being careful with the front wing clearances at the moment

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Big thanks to Barney who came down last night and helped me change the gearbox

Just been out for a quick lap of the countryside and what can I say

Bring on Curborough

[PERKY]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

How did it go at Curborough?

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

How did it go at Curborough?

Very well, no problems at all

I did first practice on the intermediates I'd turned up on, didn't bother tyre warming and had excessive wheelspin off the line without even trying got round in 40.29s

Barney complained I was lifting a front wheel on the tighter corners so we tried to lower the front but the spring seats were locked solid so we just bolted some old SB10's on and removed the passenger seat to save some weight and went out for 2nd practice

Bit of tyre warming this time (there's a specific area just before the start line where you can spin the tyres to warm them up) and got off the line better, a bit sideways round the final hairpin and across the line in 38.64s

Then a rather long lunchbreak before 2 timed runs in the afternoon, quickest time to count

Couldn't think of anything else to do on Fly as everything was working well, warmed the tyres up and cut a few of the corners and got down to 37.32s - almost too sideways round the hairpin and had at least 2 wheels off the track - if all 4 are off you don't get a time

Bit of drizzle on the start line for the final run but not enough to wet the track, kept it a bit tidier and finished on 37.02s


A few mods are planned for the next round which I hadn't got round to this time - I've got some AP Monte Carlo's to go on the front, harder springs and adjustable top mounts and I'll get everything lower and set up the camber properly and dig out some softer SB20's to run on
Hopefully the Quaife Pro will be rebuilt and I might even go to a rolling road to make sure the engine's set up OK - although that might have to wait to just before Millbrook

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Got a few bits done this weekend as I'm out at Shelsley Walsh next Sunday

Fitted some shorter & harder springs to the front and my new top mounts - Driver's Side


Passenger's Side


I've left them in the middle to start with until I set the camber

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Having had a very narrow atlas casing built (47.5"), I was having trouble getting shafts short enough to fit my Gp4 Quaife Hubs

After speaking to Gareth from WWRS, he thought he might have some that had been specially made a few years ago for a customer who ended up arching his car so last weekend I spent an hour round there looking at shafts, hubs and diffs. After failing to find these specials I discovered a solution to my problem - fit a Quaife Gp4 flange to a Gp1 Shaft
This is the top one, with a 15mm spacer instead of the bearing and I've cut 12.5mm off the end with still leaves loads of spline length
Middle is my old Gp4 shaft which I'd cut down for Curborough but with no where near enough spline to last reliably
Bottom is a bare Gp1 shaft


Close up of Flange ends


Close up of diff ends - plenty of spline to go even shorter - the one I'm using is on the right


And a pic of the hub waiting for the shaft & flange to go back in

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Rear Axle all back together now with new Gp4 link bars and 5/8" Rose Joints to replace the club spec bars and 1/2" joints that've been on Fly since it was 5 linked in 1994

2" lowering blocks and shaft fitted in the hub with plenty of silicone sealant to stop oil leaks, and lock wire through the hub retaining bolts


Final pic showing Fly about 2" lower all round - I've got another 1" I can go at the front before the seats run out of thread - can't decide whether to do it now or see how first practice at Shelsley goes


Still got the front brakes to do, but no gearbox sorted as yet so I'll still be on the Clubman

Quaife Pro has been stripped and the professional opinion is that it's knackered and could do with the input shaft & another 7 gears replacing - everything that the previous rebuilder hadn't done - about £1k to make it perfect again - might as well buy a new one
It rattles like mad cos the input shaft are so worn but the gear below it is new
Previously it looks like the layshaft has either snapped or the needle rollers have disintegrated, allowing the layshaft to drop and the gears to be mangled, it probably lost all its oil and was driven until it exploded - it's been built into a different casing
The lay gear cluster has been smoothed on the inside with a die grinder to try and remove the scorch marks, then refitted to a new layshaft with standard ford needle rollers
so that needs replacing
All the other original gears are black and going rusty where they've overheated and then been left for a few years so have probably lost their hardness and will wear very quickly if they're not replaced as well
Oh and it wouldn't engage 5th because the selector block had been fitted the wrong way round
So that'll be an interesting phone call to the eBayer who'd done 3 miles with it to make sure everything was ok especially when I tell him I want my money back

[Barn]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Good work buddy, a mammoth task you have done there mate, especially as i know what you've been up against.

We're both looking forward to you coming up on saturday
as well with chickens in tow

Can't wait for Shelsey, i might try he Quail egg with en -croute at lunchtime with a nice lemon drizzle pastry

This sprinting & hillclimbing lark is awfully civillised and laid back compared to the stages

All said and done though Gav, well done on getting FLY all sorted and done.

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Thanks Barney

No lemon drizzle pastry at Shelsley but the Pork and Apple Butties were very tasty!

Anyway, did Shelsley Walsh last Sunday, had a nice little wooden/tin shed to park your cars in which was handy when it started raining

Walked up the hill first thing, only 1000yds long but quite steep, a few wiggles to start with then up to the Esses, a steep 90L/90R combination, then straight to the finish

First Practice in damp murky weather on some part worn PB20 wets, time was 42.72s and 79mph over the finish.

Second Practice slightly wetter, got down to 40.71s and 79 over the finish.

Lunch break and it just started pouring, fitted some brand new PB20's and went for the 1st Timed Run, could hardly see it was raining so hard, nearly went off on the first bend when I aquaplaned on a stream of water which put me off a bit and I only managed 40.98s and 79 over the finish.

2nd Timed Run in similar weather, went for it a bit more and managed to keep inside the stream, lovely drift out of the 90R, finished on 40.49s but still 79 over the finish

Happy to come back in one piece, not sure how the handicap will work but at least I was faster on the timed runs than practice.
I'm back there at end of June, hopefully in better weather

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Today was Loton Park, bit closer to home being near Shrewsbury and a more interesting hill than Shelsley and a decent length at 1475yds so not far off a mile.

Decent class as well this time, 11 competitors in my up to 2l Mod Prod class, 4 x Peugeot 205's 3 of which had Mi-16 engines, an immaculate white Mk1 and a lovely beige Mk2 RS2000, both with nice Pintos, a double driven MR2, an Astra and a Tigra.

Had a long walk up the hill, too many corners to remember but best to have a good look, a few tight wiggles near the start, a downhill straight into a hairpin right called Triangle, a tight kink R/L before a long 'straight' up the hill with another small R/L kink which can apparently be taken flat, a hairpin left at the top then a crest into a tight hairpin right, then a little straight to the finish.

1st Practice it was pouring down similar to Shelsley, I still had the new wets on the front but had old slicks on the back following a rolling road session yesterday, too wet to change so went out anyway, had a lot of trouble getting off the line and did an embarassingly slow time of 79.34s

Lined up for 2nd Practice with wets on the back this time although the track was drying quickly by now, and then a minor incident called for an early lunch break.
1hr later the track was completely dry so I fitted some rather old SB20's for second practice and was a lot happier with a time of 66.58s although Fly was understeering quite a bit.

Checked the tracking and found it was toeing out a bit so adjusted that hoping it would help.

1st Timed Run in glorious sunshine, did a 65.37s with a 25.52s split time into the Triangle bend, still a bit understeering though.

Bit confused now as Fly was turning in lovely at Curborough on old slicks and since then I've just fitted harder springs and new top mounts. The only other difference was at Curborough you had a nice drive down to the start which got some heat in the tyres. At Hillclimbs and Sprints, you can spin your wheels before the start line to get some heat in them but it's very difficult to heat up the fronts!
Anyway I had some Dunlop slicks in the van cut to an intermediate pattern and they seemed softer so I tried them on the front to see if that would help.

2nd timed run, very similar split of 25.56s into Triangle but turning in a bit better so took the kink on the straight flat this time, braked a bit later for the hairpins and did 64.20s and finished 4th in class, well behind 3 of the Peugeots who were under 60s.

Very enjoyable day and nice to spend a bit more time in Fly.

Thanks to the dozen people making up the fan club who came for the afternoon to see how I was getting on

Busy week coming up to prepare Fly for Millbrook, long list of jobs, mainly little things like mud flaps, air horns, passenger seat which you don't need for Sprints and Hillclimbs and a few bigger jobs like changing the gearbox - my new one is due on Wednesday pray: when I've got a couple of days off work - fit an oil cooler and put the Monte brakes on the front (still haven't had time to do that)

I'm seeded at 14 which is quite high so I better be on the pace from the start

[Barn]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Well done buddy

Ive got the flatshift ECU and software to fit and work out on Tommy before Millbrook

Re-pack the exhaust AGAIN.

And then i have to fit the spare Power Steering Column which is an arse of a job

Then iv'e got to fix the transit as it keeps cutting out

Then all thats left is to tell the missus that im doing the event on the day of her mums party , i could probably be in for a right earful if im that lucky, otherwise it will be for me

Seeded at 40< so should be good to make the way up the board

[Retromotorsport]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Good couple of write up there Gavin, glad to see your getting time in Fly again and enjoying her.

The understeer... "harder springs fitted", could that be it ???

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

The understeer... "harder springs fitted", could that be it ???

I think so - it was suggested yesterday but I didn't have the old ones with me or the right tools to change them

I've gone from 200lb to 325lb mainly because my old car had ran 325's with the cossie engine, and it handled perfectly, but also had compression struts and 190lb rear springs and coil overs

I'll put the 200's back on this week and do some road mileage - I've got to scrub in some moulded slicks for Millbrook anyway and raise the suspension a bit and test the brakes!

[Barn]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Well what a day of electronictrickery i had yesterday

The Geartronics flat shift is fitted and what can i say WOW

It has just unleashed the power of the engine, i have to do some small tweaks on the software as the change from 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 4th is a bit clunky but from 4th to 5th and 5th to 6th is a dream

I had the problem of trying to find 2nd gear in a H pattern stlylee when turning round on the duaLlcarriageway which was a bit hairy but as i got a bit more used to it, then i can see why they are so so good.

The one thing that i will have to get used to is the noise of the box engaging gear, the whole car shakes and rattles like its being shot at! and all i do until i get drive is,pray that its going to go into gear pray:

But fab when its on full chat

[Sideways]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Good read Gavin, well done & fly is looking well now


Barn, what gearbox are you using? and are you using the geartronics flatshift?

CheeRS
Steve