alanrichey

We don't want to waste this glorious driving weather so the East of Englan team were out and about again today.   We went to Sywell Airfield, which has the advantage of a large car park and a great view over the airfield while having a picnic.   It's also a good run for alll of us with journey times between 40 mins and 1:20 hrs.  We parked in our usual place in front of 2 other classics (a Hunter and a Jetsream for non-aircraft spotters) and watched all the activity, inclusing 2 spitfires and a Mustang giving joy rides, a microlight and lots of small aircaft.

Great day.

Not as windy as it looks, those trees have grown like that 

Of course we care, but we also have to be realistic.   We have a limited amount of space on our host server and at present we are already hosting 20,576 pictures dating back to 2003, so we have to limit the size for each post and image. 

So all we ask is that you are sensible.   If you pre-shrink your picture to a reasonable size to display then you can post more pictures without any change in the display.   For example a raw picture from my iPhone is 4000 px by 2000 px.   The maximum we allow is 1200 px by 1200 px so you cannot post it as it stands.  But if I shrink it to 20% it is only 800 px by 400px yet still displays perfectly on the screen.  

We also limit the overall size of the post, and unfortunately as you are not a member you will be severely limited as to the number of pictures you can post as well.   Members have a much more generous allowance and can post almost as many as they like.  

There are many free programs available to do this shrinking (technically called ‘resizing’) operation, personally I use paint.net.

Hope that helps.

Al (Webmaster)

June was not good.  We lost 10 members and only had 5 new members join us.   So we welcome:

Username                            Location                   Area Secretary

Mitch1991                      Chesterfield             Andi

Matt82                           Sheffield                   Grim

WillB                               Thatcham                 ThanasisPolitis

mmarksx19 (Michael)   Leeds                        Grim

Ax2020 (Luca)              Italy/Spain 

 to the Club

Had confirmatio  from the organisers that we have a nice discrete club stand next to the castle but near the back (Square 46 on the site map).    All the relevant details are in the attached PDF file.    Any questions let me know.

Kimbolton 2025.pdf

120 mph !!  Shan’t be trying that

Lovely day for a runout and picnic (unless your car cooling system isn't up to scratch.).    Nice surprise when we arrived as the parking machine was broken so we parked for free.   Three kits and one tintop (41-year old starter motor failure on 4th kit), And a couple of hours looking out over Rutland Water.   It doesnlt get better than this.

A good day for a visit to GBS.   A good turnout, enough to allow everone to park in the car park but not too many so you can't move, and a good variety of cars,  Cakes still superb   I had an 1-hour run each way and weather was just right.   Looking forward to the next one.

Three members from the Club attended, all of us regular visitors.    Should really be more ?

With the good weather now firmly with us (apart from last night ) we are going to kick off our summer 'picnic' phase with a run out to one of our favourite places overlooking Rutland Water.   We are meeting there at 12:00 on Thursday 19th.    If anyone wants to join us just contact me for directions.

Al

Ansolutely right   I must admit I had always assumed that it worked like every other potentiometer I have come across.   That is earth at one end, 12V at the other end and the gauge operators as a voltmeter sensing the voltage at the wiper.     Turns it actually works as an ammeter, pushing 12V to the wiper and measuring the current flow (and hence the resistance) which will vary depending on how much of the potentiometer coils it has to go through.

At £47 each !!!!    I would buy one of these for £0.75, cut the 2 sender wires and use it to swap them over 

A bit naughty having the thick pipe just going to the outside in these high enviromental standard days.   But if it passes the MOT then tyou are OK.   As you might know, in the original Rover build it had a carbon canister to absorb any fumes and then dumping them into the intake to be burnt up.   RHE decided not to implement that 

As for the slow filling.  I actually replaced my Filler/Tank pipe with a proper fuel pipe.  Previously it was 2 suspension gaiters tied together.   Having fitted it I could see what route it was taking and made sure it first curved to the left and started being horizontal..   That way I can put the nozzle in almost horizontal and rest it on the spare wheel to ease any pain in my back.  And becasue the fuel then has a strainght shot from the nozzle into the tank without aiming at the sides of the pipe I don't have any problem.   Not sure if there is any mileage in you attempting a sumilar exercise.

Also, one of the favourite modifications of all Robin Hood owners was to move the filler cap to the top of the car and just put a blanking plate over the hole that is left.   That way the filler pipe just drops down before going into the tank.

And now your have determinded the position of the gauge with a full Fuel tank you can calibrate it's behaviour as I have said before.   Once it gets low carry a gallon of fuel in the car and run it to dry then you know exactually how it behaves.   I must admit I haven't done that yet, I just fill up when she hits a quarter 

10:00 to 14:00

I’ll probably join you there, the cakes are good  

Al

It’s not the pump that causes the gauge reversal, it’s the way the potentiometer on the sender is wired.  Although Ford used the same unit for many of their models, some were wired one way and some the other way.  So when you replaced the unit you had a 50/50 chance.

As far as the slow fill is concerned you need to check the breather pipes on the tank.   You should have a small one in the middle of the tank that releases air as the petrol level drops.   Then you should have a larger one (roughly 1/2” diameter) the allows the air to be released while you are filling up.  The destination of that pipe varies.  In my case it goes up and joins the filler pipe about 1 1/2” from the outside.  That means the nozzle of the filler goes past the join.  As long as I don’t push it in too far so the rubber collar on the filler seals the opening I have plenty of room for the air to escape out of the pipe.   So I can fill at full speed.  I know other Superspec owners where the breather just goes underneath the car.   Maybe yours is blocked ?

As far as the gauge is concerned I would bite the bullet and fill the tank.  That will tell you if it is wired correctly.   After that you don’t actually need to use the gauge, just fill up every 200 miles (you could probably squeeze another 50 miles but I wouldn’t recommend it).

As far as the gauge behaviour is concerned, it will depend on the status of the potentiometer.  After a few months I know my gauge sits on full for quite some time, then fairly quickly drops to 1/2, then stays there for a very long time.  Then it quickly drops to a 1/4 and waits for a bit, then falls of a cliff  So I always fill her when the gauge is at a 1/4.   But watch out, when I first filled the car the gauge stuck at full as the float had jammed.   Hitting a big bump in the road fixed it, but the next time it happened I had to take the pump/sender unit out and release it.

The joys of kit cars

4 hours ago, Jon Green said:

Vacuum pipes.... Our pipe to the rocker cover is snapped off and our connection to the ECU is 'sloppy' and certainly not air tight.  Would these cause none injection?

No.  We have seen a car where the vacuum tube wasn’t even connected.  The engine ran very roughly but the owner managed to get it to Stoneleigh so we could test it.

Pity, I hoped that would fix it.   However the 'plugs out' does look better, assuming you switched the ignition off between the 3 cranking efforts ?   Otherwise you are looking at a wiring problem between the CPS and the ECU.

Next step:   Borrow our injection assembly ?   Much bigger and heavier but still sendable via inPost.  

I'm still concerned about the cranking speed though.   That was the fundamental problem with Wayne's car.   Does she sound as though she's cranking at a reasonable speed ?    Can you post a video (with sound ) ?

Al

The AGM was held at the National Kit Car Show.  The main points were:

1.   All the present members of the Committee were re-elected to their positions, while the Event Secretary post remains unfilled.

2.   Because of the lack of input from members and the increasing distribution costs it was decided to switch to just two magazines a year rather than the present four.

3.   The Club is in a solid financial position with income slightly exceeding expenditure.

4.    The membership remains relatively stable in the mid-300s with new members almost matching the leaving members.

5.    The main discussion point was the lack of interest from members to join in meetings and events.  It was decided the Club is providing sufficient opportunities but if members were not interested there was nothing that could be done.

A full copy of the Minutes and associated reports is attached.

Al  Richey (Membership Secretary)

AGM REPORT FROM MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY 2025.pdf MINUTES FOR 2025 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE UK KIT CAR CLUB.pdf RhoCar Accounts 2024 - 2025.pdf RhoCar Accounts Money Spent 2024 - 2025.pdf

Well done Jez. Thanks for making the effort.  It might improve though, this time yesterday there was just one car as well (The Chairman ).   But by 14:00 we managed a staggering 6 cars.

 It’s very depressing for us old-timers when we recall the days of 100+ cars on the stand.

May turned out to be a zero-cost month with 9 members leaving and 9 tmembers joining.  Hopefully the new members will be more active than the ones that left.

So it's a warm welcome to :

Forum Name                 Location              Area Secretary

Andi Dunsmuir                 Kirkaldy                Has volunteered to be Area Secretary for Scotland

Jim Pailing                       Marylandsea          ThanasisPolitis

Andy King                        New Milton           ThanasisPolitis

Barry Chown                    Colchester              ThanasisPolitis

Jake Gully                         Isle of Wight          ThanasisPolitis

Richard Joel                      Chesterfield           Andi

Edward Parks                    Minehead               Robbie 2B

Christopher Bryceland      Shilbottle               alantoon

binto01 (Robert)                Northern Ireland    toriitom

Plus £1000 for the IVA

Those look very similar to mine, and the Superspec uses an Escort steering rack.

What hasn't been mentioned of course, is the sensible option to buy a ready-built one and then customise it to how he wants it to look.   That has the advantage that he isn't thrown in the deep end and won't have to put the car through the IVA.   I am sure when I started I would not have been able to build a car from scratch, but after 12 years of tinkering with mine I think I have learned enough that I could probably build one now (Except I am too old now ).    Cars regularly appear on EBay, just make sure they are correctly registered.

If he is going to be building one then the IVA Manual is absolutely essential reading

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/iva-manual-for-vehicle-category-m1

Just to confirm the AGM will be held on Saturday at 15:00 in the teme hall, which is located near the GTM owners club stand

It’s on its way, although I can’t guarantee it’s working, as I haven’t tested it.  But it came off a working car so I have no reason to think it’s not working.

But we have to remember that what we are seeing on the trace is simply the status of the connection between the ECU and the sensor, not the actual signal it is sending.  But it does no harm to try it.