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Post by kiwicanfly on Mar 14, 2017 20:48:13 GMT
Too embarrassed to confess it was so bad.
Also I don't think the farm buggy that towed me off the track could reach reach 60!
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Post by pocketrocket on Mar 15, 2017 0:27:30 GMT
do tell
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Post by kiwicanfly on Mar 15, 2017 2:18:23 GMT
Well on the first run I forgot everything I had been told/read/watched and sat on the line waiting for the light to change to green and for me to notice the light had turned green. Result being a reaction time of 1.4 seconds! After leaving the line spinning my wheels I was so surprised at that I then promptly forgot to change gear and hit the rev limiter. 2nd to third I completely blew ending up in 4th and in my desperate effort to go faster I pressed so hard on the Joker peddle I actually bent the top of the peddle where the cable passes through Time was 10.47 seconds Run two was a little better but still I had trouble with the gear changes. Run three saw more of the same issues but, for interest, it was accompanied by a horrible smell of a burnt clutch. These three runs were seeding runs. After a break we moved to elimination runs. By this time I decided to have a good look at the pneumatic's due to the horrible gear changes I was having, it was then that I saw that one of the lines had a perfect 90 degree bend in it right at the fitting. Things then slotted into place, this kink was massively restricting the air into, and out of, the cylinder and most probably was the cause of the bad changes. When the system was hot not only did it kink but it totally flattened due to softening. It also explains why leisurely road changes would be flawless but quick changes in events would be bad. I was so pleased to find this that my confidence increased and my biggest danger was going to be disqualification for breaking out because I knew the breakout time was a good second above personal test times I had done previously. Then I made the BIG mistake, I told a fellow club member I had probably solved the problem and I was set for action, then adding the caveat that it was probably dangerous to make a statement like that as something might now go really wrong. So onto elimination runs, gearbox is now changing really fast but is awfully noisy, no worry there's racing to be done, no-one said drag racing was easy on the car, and more importantly, there's a point to prove. Did my burnout. Sat on the line. Green light. Huge launch, change gear, crunch rattle bang, limp off and roll to a standstill with nothing working in the gearing department There endeth my day. Drag racing is pretty tough on clutches.
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Post by h20boynz on Mar 21, 2017 18:47:24 GMT
Yikes a 10.47 quarter is pretty quick! It must get the power down to the ground very well!
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Post by kiwicanfly on Mar 21, 2017 18:55:12 GMT
Yikes a 10.47 quarter is pretty quick! LOL that took a while people Not all drags are run over the 1/4 mile. I will say no more
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Post by h20boynz on Mar 21, 2017 19:28:10 GMT
Yikes a 10.47 quarter is pretty quick! LOL that took a while people Not all drags are run over the 1/4 mile. I will say no more Lol I was going to ask about an 1/8th but didn't want to be rude if u did manage a 10sec 1/4 lol
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Post by kiwicanfly on Mar 21, 2017 20:54:37 GMT
This is what the clutch pressure plate looked like at the end of it all. Yup it was not one of my better days but if you are going to break things then make sure you BREAK them
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Post by kiwicanfly on Apr 9, 2017 7:34:28 GMT
Well after much frustration, swearing and having taken the cat to the vets due to the kicking it got I finally sorted my clutch. Getting a replacement was not too hard in reality, although not a common size and therefore being limited in choice other than a direct OEM replacement I found a company that could sort me out with something a little better. Ended up with a carbon/kevlar disk and an uprated pressure plate. The spring loading on the pressure plate was around 80% greater than the original. Had the flywheel ground as well. So all was received and I started the install, flywheel in and torqued up, clutch mounted. Made a simple centering tool at work to centre everything. Then the "fun" started, I had removed everything with the engine in the car which went well but religning was not so easy to say the least. Eventually got the gearbox mounted on three bolts and used them to pull the box in. Things seemed to be going ok but in hindsight I should have wiggled the box on further to ensure alignment because all of a sudden there was a loud crack which I knew was either something popping into place or something breaking Yes it was the latter and the clutch plate was cracked right across the middle After a large amount of cursing and swearing I rang up the supplier and admitted what a total idiot I was and asked what my options were. After listening to my tale of woe he said to send back the plate from which he would remove the facings and put them onto a new plate at no cost Needless to say I was a lot happier at this point but still furious at myself for being such an idiot. Anyhow all's now back in place and I put a good few km's on it this afternoon, feels a little harder on the peddle as you would expect but certainly not too hard and very drivable. It will all be coming apart again soon though when the LSD arrives but this time I am borrowing an engine lifter!
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Post by pocketrocket on Apr 10, 2017 10:15:34 GMT
you wouldn't be the first that has done that & you sure won't be the last.
Doesn't matter the trail you take to get their as long as you arrive at the destination
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Post by kiwicanfly on Jul 31, 2017 5:23:08 GMT
Sooooooooooo it's been a while! Few changes made. Fitted a LSD. Replaced the entire gearbox gear set with a brand new set from a Fiesta ST150 giving a closer ratio. Fitted an electric water pump. Added an inch to the width of the cycle wings. damn it doesn't look much when listed like that though
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Post by griffalo on Aug 2, 2017 17:56:44 GMT
Hi Kiwi Can you let us know how the car runs with the new gearbox internals. Did you do it yourself or take it to a specialist? Matt
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Post by kiwicanfly on Aug 2, 2017 19:29:25 GMT
Will hopefully have everything finally together and running this weekend. Did the rebuild myself, there were moments when I was wondering if I was being too adventurous with this one but looking back I'm glad I did it myself, that might attitude change though if it falls apart on the test run Well myself is not entirely true, I actually did it with our apprentice as an exercise for one of his unit standards, this allowed the job to be done outside of my lunchtime Started a thread a while ago on it, will get round to finishing it shortly.
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Post by kiwicanfly on Aug 6, 2017 10:20:18 GMT
LSD/gear install here mevowners.proboards.com/post/97725/threadTook it out for a spin yesterday. Can't say I could really differentiate between the old, slightly wider, gearset but the changes were quick, smooth and silent. Not had that in a long time. Now need to get out a push it a bit more, especially through the corners. Will add pictures and detail about the other changes I made over the next few days now I have got to grips with the new system.
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Post by kiwicanfly on Aug 7, 2017 9:43:20 GMT
I have had, on odd occasions, severe overheating in events. In a hillclimb earlier this year I was crossing the line with the expansion bottle actually whistling In the end I decided this was to do with cavitation of the belt driven pump at full revs so decided to install an electric pump. First job was to remove the pump impellor and block the resulting hole so I made an aluminium blanking plate, this allowed the pump housing to stay in place in order to easily connect to. Then removed the thermostat unit from the housing and replaced it with a simple aluminium plate to maintain the thickness for the o'ring. New pump in place and new shorter belt fitted. Control unit on tunnel. This also takes control of the fan away from the Omex. A really (in my mind) good feature is the run-on feature, after the engine is turned off the pump and fan run on for three minutes or until a 10 degree temperature reduction is achieved. All seems well on the first outing although I intend to up the target temperature from the default 85 degrees to 90 or 95 as I believe 85 is a little cool for a Zetec.
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Post by kiwicanfly on Aug 8, 2017 9:01:35 GMT
Decided to increase the width of wings as they had to be lifted too high to prevent rubbing when I use the 205 tyres and actually look pretty naff like that. When I first installed them I mounted them on tubes rather than simply bonding them to the stays, this proved beneficial as I was able to move them in and out when changing the wheels due to having different offsets, this also made the modification a lot easier to do. First I simply split the wings along the whole length with a slitting disk. I then placed a 25mm spacer made from the same aluminium tube in the gap to set the new width, I sealed edges with araldite to prevent epoxy resin getting into the gap. The wings were mounted on bars to which I gave a good coating of release agent just in case I did have any resin leaks. Two layers of chopped matt on the inside. On the outside I bevelled the edges out at a shallow angle and used a number of layers of fibreglass tape. The bevelling was to give a greater edge length for the tape to adhere to. Taped Then filled and levelled with bog and sanded back. Under the screw, left in line with the stay, I glassed in a small aluminium plate which has been tapped through to take the fixing screw, one for each stay. Whilst they still need a coat of paint they look load better as they now fit the tryres properly and can run really close without rubbing.
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