KA Championship rally car rebuild

[paulwoodford]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

Well yesterday we took the car to Rasp, where the suspension set up and corner weighting was carried out by John Cudmore, who was responsible for the development of the Hyundai WRC programme at MSD. Some really interesting cars to oggle at, and a good day resulting in the Ka feeling like a completely different car - result!

Some photos from the day:

First rig up with the van, car and trailer - it's a tight squeeze on the trailer too with the wide track!



Arrival at RASP...













Oldskool race geometry set up - brilliant!

Just trial fitting the dry cut slick tyres which are on the 15" lightweight Speedlines - depending on the stage temperatures we may start on these at Blyton.



AND, with only 2 weeks to go, we finally have our new reg and the car is officially a UK registered vehicle - excellent!!

[rallyladgaz]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

nice one keep us posted

[paulwoodford]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

Bit of history here, been doing some research on the car...

The Ka in the hands of Simon Mauger on its way to the 1999 Ford Ka Rally Championship



Following this, with Demon Tweeks' Rob Chalmers at the helm on the 2002 Rally of Wales





And on the 2002 Jim Clark Memorial rally shortly before a huge accident which would see Ford Racing and Racing Promotions sourcing the last available LHD motorsport shell from Germany in order to rebuild the car in just 10 days ready for the Manx.



It's quite a well known car, and I'm getting quite excited learning about its competition history!!

This is the second famous Ka I've owned...!

[paulwoodford]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

We started final preparations today. Tank and sump guards are fitted, along with cut slicks hoping the event will start dry.

First time we've fitted a set of the lightweight 15" Speedlines - I think it looks great on them! What do you think? Few pics before the car got locked back away...

[paulwoodford]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

Well after the disappointment of retiring 1 mile into the first stage in the back of our minds, we set about stripping the engine down today. What a mess! Basically, the Cam shaft has failed - the teeth on the pinion that drives the oil pump had broken off, causing the oil pump to stop and the shells to eat themselves. Ouch!

Anyway, the damage in there, and the mess that was floating around, together with the fact that Ford charge £400 for a new crank (!) means that we have bought a fresh engine to use the bits we need from. We pick it up tomorrow, so the bottom end from that will be used, along with the performance bits and a Kent 12 cam which should actually give more power than the Ford Racing one anyway, or at least bring the band in sooner.

We need to source a LHD steering rack for less than small mortgage money so if anyone can help with that, please get in touch!

As usual, we are constantly updating the website at www.teamwoodspeed.com so please take a look if you get a minute - because of the amount of contact we have been getting through it, we've decided to add a 'Your car' section for those people building/running a competition car - why not check it out and submit some pictures and a spec :-)

Anyway, a few pics from the day:

The guilty cam gear



Funked bearing!













Big thanks to Ben and Tom for their help today - legends!

I'll keep the updates coming, next event will hopefully be the Armstrong Massey Stages Rally in Yorkshire on the 5th July.

Cheers

Paul

[rallyladgaz]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

sorry 2 hear about the car m8 hope u get her up n running again soon keep us posted

[team_zi]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

I'd put money on that failure being the oil pump siezing, causing the cam to strip its gears. Best replace the pump anyway Paul, just in case.

[paulwoodford]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

Oh I'd definitely not put the same pump in, chances are it's suffered damage either way.

Someone else has suggested that it could be high oil pressure causing the cam failure. Hmmm

[paulwoodford]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

At the moment no, it's all go.

The engine is built and ready to go in when we can get the car across.

Luckily the rather special and expensive head wasn't damaged in the failure...



We do have a spare Ford Racing cam but I think we'll Ebay that, certainly for now we've gone the Kent route...







Paul power!!



Also, I'm replacing the steering column because of some play in the one that's on the car - we got hold of a RHD one and there doesn't seem to be anything different between the two...





So by the end of next week we want to have the engine in so we can run it in and get ready for an entry at Driffield.

We're still learning loads, and this car just keeps getting better. I'll update soon!

[paulwoodford]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

The engine is now completely ready, just waiting to get it in the car - things didn't go to plan this week when I spent Thursday night in A&E with my mate who had cut his hand open. Luckily I'd been at his workshop messing with my engine when he came in leaking blood DOH!

Anyway, the airbox intake platform was cracked when I bought the car, so I'd made one out of 3mm foamex. This hadn't done the job though so I wanted something a bit more 'Rutty proof' lol! So I got a template made up in 4.5mm polypropylene. Great stuff, and together with the brackets I made should be a lot stronger and effective.

Old one:



New:



And some padding where it meets the bonnet scoop:




I also got round to fitting the oil pressure gauge in a small piece of carbon for the dash. Shape is for mounting behind the dash with the gauge visible through the centre heater hole:




More involved, and a bit more important was the steering column, which is now all in place. Because the standard pinchbolt is a puny little thing, and the bottom universal joint takes a lot of stick on the stages, we decided to drill it out and put a heavy duty nut and bolt through there to hold it all in place. What a pain in the arse that was! The metal was so hard to drill through we've gone through 2 new cases of drill bits - should be worth it though for the additional strength.



That's all for now :-)

[paulwoodford]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

Tonight I got round to doing something I should have done before the rally - wired up an oil pressure gauge. Mike will have a big "WATCH OIL" scribble on top of his pace notes next time out lol!



Should help keep us out of trouble!

[paulwoodford]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

We've got the engine back together and running - need to get some miles on it now then get it set up properly. It sounds much, much better than last time with the lairy cam. Feels very positive and the steering is also much sharper which is great!

I've also made and fitted a vertical lever for the hydraulic handbrake - something I really needed to do and I'm pretty pleased with the results...

Before I began:



Take one heavy duty alloy bar:



Shaped and drilled to fit the bracket:



Finished off ready to fit:



In situ:

[paulwoodford]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

Oh, and our entry has been accepted for the Armstrong Massey Stages Rally - it's a rally I've always wanted to do since being little and wandering round the cars at scrutineering.

http://www.bdmc.org.uk/am/2009/entries/entries.php?type=u

:-)

[team_zi]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

Doesn't the hand brake lever get in the way of the gear lever?

[mk2stu]

Re: KA Championship rally car rebuild

does look abit tight especially going into 2nd and 4th or does the picture not show the angle well?

hope the next event goes better for you anyway