GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

that sure was a large crack in the turret must have been close to popping the top off all together good to see the old girl getting plenty of action that is what they should be doing not polished and taken to shows on trailers

Just about held on with the cage reinforcement!

[123-lorrydriver]

GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Brilliant write-up!!
Gutted about the tree and the oil cooler. Sure you'd have had another good finish otherwise.....nice 1 👍👍

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Good write up Gavin shame about the tree incident

One of our cars left a door mirror around there thanks to that tree!

I’m glad I didn’t do it in the escort now but I was gutted not to be out

Do you know what width the 2.8 Capri springs are?

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Those ones were 50mm wide so I just put 5mm washers either side on the shackle to make them the right width for a Mk2

[onecamohv]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

great write up!

what actually happened to the leaf springs Gavin if they were ok when you put them in, did they actually bend?
looks nearly broken in that pic !

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

great write up!

what actually happened to the leaf springs Gavin if they were ok when you put them in, did they actually bend?
looks nearly broken in that pic !

Yes they bent past the point of no return !
There's a mark on the chassis rail where the leaf spring clip was hitting it

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I've been getting on with the repairs...

How she looked after stripping some bits out of the way



Started by winching the spotlight mount out, but this split the front panel...




After removing the engine and box I managed to jack it out from the inside, and welded up the split so it shouldn't need much filler



With the engine out, I've fitted new bearings just to be safe, removed the sandwich plate and put the engine back in
I've also straightened or repaired everything else at the front (spotlight, mount, grill, bumper, etc), had the radiator recored and the ally tank repaired

[clarky205]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Gav,

I have a load of 14" knobblies some brand new, most very good second hand. No longer have the car the fit them on! Maxsport, MRF, Pirelli and Dunlop, all have been dry stored in the dark. If your interested PM me and I will sort out some pictures when I back home next.

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Gav,

I have a load of 14" knobblies some brand new, most very good second hand. No longer have the car the fit them on! Maxsport, MRF, Pirelli and Dunlop, all have been dry stored in the dark. If your interested PM me and I will sort out some pictures when I back home next.

Thanks - I've sent you a PM

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Bagger Road Rally - 26/27th Jan 2019

So after doing as much straightening as I could myself, Fly went off to James (Oddy) for a freshen up and looked very tidy when I picked her up a couple of weeks later



A few days work and everything was ready for the Bagger Road Rally - one of the toughest road rallies in the country!



74 cars started and only 22 finished the 200 mile route using the lanes of Somerset and Devon, unfortunately we weren't one of them

We got the whole route plotted at the start with 20 minutes to spare and were catching crews on the first few sections, but dropping time at most of the controls
There was a short link section after TC7 to allow us to make up time and we were just outside the top 10 at this stage
I was driving sensibly quickly (i.e. not flat out) as we knew just finishing would be an achievement

Coming down a narrow yellow I hit an unexpected yump quite quickly and we took off and landed with a loud bang from the rear end and the car was all over the place. Hoping it was just a link bar bolt had snapped, we stopped to check but everything was still attached.
It soon became clear that I'd snapped a shaft - the yump was so unexpected I didn't manage to lift off before we landed and I assume the shock of landing was enough to snap the shaft - they've been in there for over 15 years, but should be unbreakable with the power I've got.

We carried on slowly for a bit with one wheel drive but it was clear we would have to retire so cut route across to a control to find a marshal. We lost all drive going up a hill but I discovered I could drive very slowly in reverse, so managed to turn round and reverse up to the control at a junction - we were off route so didn't get in the way of anyway else. There was no marshal at this control so we parked up and walked 1/2 mile to the next control and found Tom Jefferis and his son marshalling. Tom competes on the Exmoor and very kindly leant us his car so we could drive back to where the trailer was parked, collect it and return his car, before loading up Fly and heading home.

Yesterday I gave Fly a good clean and removed the shafts in the workshop - the passenger shaft had snapped just where the splines meet the main shaft.
At least it wasn't the diff or CWP, but I'll strip the axle and put new friction plates in the diff as I'm sure driving with only one shaft won't have done it any good!

My next event is the Bath Festival Targa in March so a bit of time to sort everything out

[onecamohv]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

snap! literally !
hard luck Gavin, great report as usual - i got about 5 feet yesterday - start of test 1 i was home by 10am
time for an upgrade

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Oh dear - mine looks very similar to that

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Stripped the axle today so I could work out which parts I need to replace
Before I removed the diff, I taped a very strong magnet to a spare shaft and removed a lot of broken pieces of shaft and metal swarf from the axle casing, but couldn't get the last piece of the shaft out
Luckily the shaft had snapped almost flush with the end of the diff so it came out of the casing with a bit of leverage

The side bearing was completely trashed - it takes a lot of force to split the inner race, so I think I will replace the diff end plate as well as the bearing to be safe



Like most shafts which break, the splines had started to twist - whether this happened as part of the breakage or it had been going for a while doesn't really matter...



I also checked the casing - I was worried that the tube which had come loose a few years ago had come loose again, but it's fine and was on the other side anyway
It's going to be an expensive day tomorrow!

[onecamohv]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

its like looking in the mirror! hard luck gavin. I ended up breaking the spider gears too, a very expensive experience!

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Bath Festival Targa Rally - Sat 3rd March 2019

I was out with George on this event, seeded car 1 out of 60 cars, with Owen Turner & Rachel Vestey (MG ZR) at 2, Jason Stone & Cath Woodman (BMW Compact) at 3
We started from Westbury Country Park in the afternoon for 3 tests in the daylight, before the first petrol halt (to wait for it to get dark), then 6 more tests to the second petrol halt and another 7 tests before returning to the finish around 10pm

We started well, quickest on the first test on a small part of Keevil arfield, but were only 5th quickest on the next forest test after an overshoot and stall at a hairpin just over a crest (we went about 20 yards past it backwards ). The 3rd test, Southleigh Woods, was smoother than last year, but greasy in places - we were 2nd quickest, 12s behind Owen.
Although we didn't know at the time, we were leading by 4s at the first petrol halt from Owen, with Jason having gone off on Test 3 and retired.
A quick half turn on the idle screws made sure I wouldn't stall it again on the later tests.

The next 5 forest tests were good, but we lost time in one of the Longleat forests when we caught another Escort going round Shearwater lake, and then a 106 on the second Alfreds Tower test - he let us past but it still causes a slight delay. There was a short tarmac test before the second petrol halt and the top crews all set similar times.
Still no results at the second petrol halt, but the Steward said we were lying second, about a minute behind Owen which sounded about right, and we were expecting a penalty for failing to stop at a Stop/Go (we didn't see the board, too busy watching another car!)

Onto the last tests, some repeats of the ones we had done earlier and some run in the reverse direction. We were still going well, but a few seconds behind Owen on each Test, and we had a few problems on the penultimate Test when the codeboards were at ground level marking them very difficult to see!

At the finish we were pleased to be 2nd overall, just over 2 minutes behind Owen & Rachel, and nearly a minute ahead of Paul Tod & Rich Aston (Proton Gti) in 3rd

Some pics from M&H Photography - the first 3 at Keevil, and the last one at Frome Showground