New Cat To Join The Family

[Guest Tim Norman]

Picking this up next Saturday. Initially for Alice to learn to drive, cheap to run and insure. Well as cheap as any car can nbe when you add a young deriver on a Provisional license. Bizzarely if the insurance was just for me it would only be £90. Add a young Provisional driver and it goes up ten fold!. It is the rarer saloon version rather than the van like estate.

Might look into getting another and sticking a bike engine in it, but not the R1 that usually finds their way in. Possibly a V twin or a Beemer engine to utilise the shaft drive.

Kittley though will remain as is.

[speedtripledan]

Seen a few of them with v8,s in and drivers seat pushed to the back seat

[Guest Tim Norman]

Not yet. Might buy another to play with once I get Alice through her test.

[Guest Tim Norman]

Got the kitten back home on Saturday. HAd a smile on my face. I left London the same time as Sue in the Mondeo and got back just 15 minutes after she did. It has some serious vibration and it pulls left. I have already bought a full set of brake shoes and wheel cylinders and wheel bearings all to be fitted on Sunday. Then It needs tracking as the inside edge of the drivers side is fairly well scrubbed.

The engine is proper gutless and the selecting a gear is like stirring fog! I have managed to source Red Top engine and box which was good enough to push the Robin to 100mph in standard trim. I pick that up on Saturday and will take some time cleaning and doing a little porting here and there to make it breath a little better before fitting it.

 

Oh and I get Bobson Tuned on Friday.

Spend spend spend!

[richyb66]

Just for the benefit of anyone that might not have seen this before:

 

http://www.beardmorebros.co.uk/website%20pages/reliant_kitten.htm

[Guest Tim Norman]

not so much a kitten more an engine wearing a kitten shaped suit.

 

I like the idea of putting either a shaft drive BMW bike engine or my favourite at the minute is utilising the Suzuki TL 1000 engine. Its a V twin so I keep the V theme going. It will of course be a street sleeper, so very well silenced and the twin exhausts hidden from view to maintain the illusion!

[Guest Tim Norman]

I will try to be a little more subtle than the V8 although many will tell you subtle is not often a word I am associated with!

[Guest Tim Norman]

Kitten is fighting me all the way.

I have changed front wheel bearings

Rear brake cylinders

Brake master cylinder

Replaced shoes all round

 

Took it out for a test run before Alice gets behind the wheel and it ground to halt with brakes locked on solid.

10 minutes of searching couldn't find the problem so RAC called.

 

A quick look with a torch and a mirror revealed the pedal box had snapped!

Thinking back it has always been like this and explains why the brakes were always sh1t and needed pumping to stop!

 

We disconnected the push rod and I drove the mile home with no brakes. Well apart from the still locked on set I had earlier although they were slightly looser now. I think the angle the pushrod was in the bore suggests it may well be buggered and not releasing the pressure. So pedal box out and a spot of welding required oh and possibly a new master cylinder. :-(

[Guest Tim Norman]

Well the engine is now repaired , rebuilt and back in and I have shifted my attention to the outside. A few cosmetic changes.

http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad24/bobsmate1001/Kitten/Kittenfront.jpg

 

Temporarily fixed to see how it looks and to sort ground /wheel clearance