brumster

I would suggest a build thread in the proper section of the forum... with a better topic title, and pictures, and updates as you go along. I visit these technical sections of the forum less; I always thought of them more for questions rather than statements. I suspect you'll get more interest.

It's what I did. I used quality Mikalor clamps, I would suggest the same, their profile is relatively low. For IVA you will need to position the clamp bolt to the back, between the pipe and the bodywork, so that it can't be impacted by the test sphere (or you can wrap it with exhaust wrap to protect the sharp edges if you wish - but for me this wasn't necessary).

edit: https://www.304stainlessexhaustparts.com- they are very helpful, sensible prices, good quality steel and they are happy to make up a sleeve to any drawing you provide... can swage in the ends/slits too.

It should be M18x1.5 - I've got one also if need be

Yeah we heard the rattle too just before it happened - it sounded like the exhaust; Lily and I were trying to understand where it was coming from but it was buzzing at a certain low RPM and it honestly sounded exactly like a baffle or somesuch in the silencer... ahh well

What a cracking weekend, despite the variable weather!

Set off on a lovely Friday morning, joined up with the guys en-route as planned. Got to Telford and the heavens proverbially opened up on us, totally and utterly drenched, a quick 20 minute push through it to the Montford Bridge to get the Surrey top fitted - a bit of a case of closing the gate after the horse had bolted, but it made for a nicer journey from there on in, even though the weather let up a little. Got to Nefyn pain-free, no real issues bar a minor throttle cable niggle for one member.

Saturday started off great, a little cool but it soon warmed up, we managed to do a portion of the Evo Triangle before meeting up at Llyn Brenig. Had a nice little razz up the hill, was the first time I got to give the Zero the beans on a proper road. Was good fun. Even got to watch a motorcyclist attempt to morph himself into a half-man-half-2B genetic hybrid with Trev, but (probably thankfully) the attempt failed. Twat.

Weather turned in for the rest of the Saturday and it's probably fair to say it was pretty miserable but to be honest I was chuffed with how the car handled it all, everything worked wonders from the 'roof', to the wipers, to the demisters, it was fairly pain-free as long as you accept a few drips and drops are going to find their way in one way or another. Lovely hospitality at Trawsfynned from Martin, an event-free potter back to Nefyn and a few beers in the hotel lobby - happy days!

Sunday unfortunately took a nose-dive for the worse suffice to say I made it home by 5.30pm in the comfortable warmth of a recovery truck after the engine decided to drop the tensioner and slip the belt... borescope tells me bad news; pistons and valves have decided to have a little soiree without asking first, so it's engine strip time. Ah well. Genuinely bemused as to how the tensioner loosened but, well, *bleep* happens as they say. Maybe the ragging on the Saturday didn't help but, oh, she screams so beautifully up those hills it was hard not to give her a beating . Shame, she was a joy to drive all weekend...

Just to echo my thanks to all the members who made it such an enjoyable weekend, particularly Rich and Jackie who organised it all and very kindly helped transport my daughter around to horsey type affairs on the Friday, and the forest fun on Sunday (looks like I missed a laugh there!)...

Link to pics of some of you :

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5TDkkgFHHeei92TW8

"You 'ent sin me, roit?"

In the space of 6 hours, daughter and I have made a trip to Jacksons of Old Arley and with the aid of her sewing, cobbled together a rudimentary surrey top just in case. I'm dead chuffed with her efforts! Hopefully we won't need it though

See you tomoz...

Maybe so. Basically, the story is this. Due to revised suspension geometry, my rally car needs slightly longer shafts but thankfully the Peugeot 309 had ideal shafts - they were 10mm longer than the 205. But the OE stock has dried up and they are no longer available. So in trying to buy some brand new shafts, I was told the best they could do would be to take some new shafts from another model (ie. way too long), cut them to the desired length and then friction weld them together. I'm no engineer, but I distinctly remember saying to them (via my supplier contact) that they did realise these were for use in a competition vehicle, right, and I was a bit worried that the weld would present a weak spot. They assured me the weld would be strong, in fact the shaft would break elsewhere before on the weld.

On my first loop out (thankfully the last stage prior to service) the shaft snapped while absolutely tickling it through a tight, nadgery spot - it basically hit a bump in the road and the shock snapped it in half right on the weld.

You can see in here (fast forward to 6:05, it happens at 6:15 but you can see at this section it's really bumpy and we were taking it really easy!)

We got back to service, swapped for the other one, and then later in the day it did it again on another stage in equally mundane circumstances.

After that I moved to hollow shafts from a Peugeot 306, shortened, sleeved and welded around a joining insert (V-grooved around the join) and those have been reliable.

I've since spoken to Dave Mac (who are making my new shafts, so it happens!) and they are not surprised. Don't rate friction welded shafts at all. My new shafts being made up for my new gearbox are solid shafts but they're F1-grade S155 steel, with a lifetime warranty from Dave Mac so I guess I'll just be breaking CVs now lol

It sounds like you're genuinely happy and having better experiences, which is great, I just figured I'd chip in in case it was all a bit "new" to you - which clearly it isn't !!

Definitely friction welded. Well, it sounds like you've got better experience than myself, so I'll sit back down !! Maybe I was just well and truly conned with some cheap knock-offs...

driveshafts are now with the friction welders

I have to chip in here just to say my experience of frictional welding of driveshafts is NOT good. Despite being assured by the well-known manufacturer that competiton use wouldn't break them at the weld, they both popped straight across that very point after very mild use on-stage. If you go this route, I would suggest you be very gentle with them... maybe for sensible road use, without sticky tyres or any clutch-dropping antics, you'll be fine, but.... well... just saying

Yes, I am talking for experience....

Does this work for everyone...?

https://goo.gl/maps/k8wNoxwj9NS2

It might be worth checking the rear chassis too, depending on age of yours there may be some additional support that they added in to brace the rear lower wishbone mount. Definitely a mod worth doing, along with the front wishbone "top/back" support. There were some other bits like nosecone mounting tabs, and they also relocated the seatbelt lower mounts for IVA compliance, and added the steel arch-shaped pieces over the rear wheels.

They are all shown in my build thread in the members section, forgive the "hard sell" but if you were a member you'd get to see them

Pre-2011(or so) they didn't fit them. GBS will supply them to you to weld on, which is what I did

Ok, why not change the Truckers Rest to the BP garage just the other side of the M6, on the A5, here :

https://goo.gl/maps/NQCTYw4RCPS2

It's practically Dobbies (just before), but should be easier to get out of, not being a garden centre ...

For the Midlands meet guys, just thinking about what route we can take and meet up before the suggested midway point at the Montford Bridge Cafe. I'll be going A446 to Weeford, then A5 all the way to it. We can meet up anywhere along the way; I think there were some suggestions of places on the A5, some of you were meeting up further down before I join, so I can maybe hang around at the Truckers Rest Cafe where we met last year for the Ponderosa run...?

What times are people targetting getting there for? I figure I'll set off some time after the mad rush, say 9.30 to 10ish... but I'm easy really, I'll fit in with everyone else...

Do we want to aim for the Montford Bridge at a certain time so we can all meet up there, in which case we can just work the timings backwards from there.

I don't want to have to be explaining strange noises to the daughter, so if you can keep it down, that would be great ;)

and probably rather obviously, but, be consistent with fluid type - whatever is needed for your system (Sierra?).... DOT4 presumably? Don't go for 5.1, if memory serves me correctly it doesn't mix with the other types.... (3/4/5)

correction: after a quick google, seems DOT 5 is the odd one (silicone-based) and doesn't mix with other types well...

1 - Do i syringe the old fluid out the master cylinder and then drain each brake in turn?

2 - Does it matter what order I drain each brake. My thinking is the furthest from the MC first to avoid any `backwashing'?

3 - Is filling just the reverse? Start at the closest and work to the furthest?

1 - No, as said above, just pump through. You may well notice a colour change between new and old fluid so it's probably easy to spot when the new stuff is all the way through

2 - General practice is to start with the link furthest away from the master cylinder (rear left?), then rear right, then front left, then front right. It doesn't really make a massive amount of difference though.

3 - As above, don't empty then fill. Just push new fluid through system until signs of old fluid are gone.

There might be some value in thinking about whether you want a combined silencer and cat anyway, or whether it would be more practical to have a separate cat closer to the engine anyway, and one that is hence replaceable without the other (and vice versa). You can pick up 200 cell cats for £100. And, not that I'm advising this or suggesting it makes any difference, but a separate cat can sometimes "fall off".... <cough>

Well, each to their own, but I would go a few fractions toe-out myself.

I remember when we finished the Exmo back in the 90's, it had just been registered and our first outing was with the club to watch some racing at Hednesford. It was November time, because there was a firework display on there; it was cold and damp, a fine mizzle in the air. I'd built the car 50/50 with a mate and we tossed a coin for who was driving there, and back. Chris was there; I was driving back. So while he was getting ready I said I'd nip it up the road to the petrol station and fill it up so we could get going.

At this point we hadn't bought any nice wheels/tyres for it, so it was on the original Sierra 13" rims with some no-name remoulds. As I left the petrol station, on the mildest of throttle openings it snaked about 200 yds up the road despite a short-shift into 2nd gear! It was frickin' lethal.

As we set off I handed the keys to Chris and said "Mate... it is really slippy. Like, I mean, REALLY. Be careful!"

First roundabout we came to, he arrived into it at a pace that would normally be gentle but, I guess I hadn't impressed on him just how bad it was, because I started whincing as we turned into it.... sure enough the front washed, then he applied a bit of lock and power and we were broadside in seconds. He caught it fine, but he looked at me and shouted "You weren't f***ing joking, was you :-o ?!?!"

Kev, if you speak to TRS they will make you up a harness to pretty much any spec you ask them...

Just mentioning it as a backup. They are very helpful.

So from memory (bear with me, this was a long time ago for me!) RHE supplied a radial bearing in the kit to put on the top of the damper along with a large washer to take the spring. But the bearing would crush after a short amount of time since it wasn't designed to take loadings that way, and would effectively do bugger all anyway. Probably why the car is the way it is - to be fair, it's hardly any worse than what RHE envisaged at the time

A thrust bearing would be ideal but I was worried about it staying located/togeather, and dirt ingress, so I kind of went half-way-house and fitted tapered roller bearings, figuring they would at least be able to take a degree of side-loading without crumpling into bits. Have a browse around on somewhere like simplybearings.co.uk and find one that suits the size needed for your inserts. They do one, because that's where I bought mine, but I can't find any receipt for the ones I bought, sorry

1x Beef & Ale Pie with gravey

1x Chicken, Ham and Leek Pie with gravy

1x Fruit Crumble with custard (apple and blackberry I think)

1x Ice Cream

Mk.2 Escort racks are easily found... and I have one for sale if you need one

That front flywheel is the crank pulley and if the engine is still attached to gearbox then put it in first gear and and make sure hand brake is well on then you should be able to undo it with a breaker bar

That would make for a f**king strong handbrake

Might want someone to stand on the brake pedal while you're at it, nelmo! Or else lock off the flywheel ring gear into the block with a suitable large flat blade screwdriver or proper locking tool - but just be very, very careful that if you go this route you are putting it into a part of the block with some strength, not a little tab sticking out that will snap off under the torque