Bit more tunneling and brakes

With the new CV boots on the GT6 it was time to set up the rear brakes, with the manual brake adjusters taken up to just before the brake shoes bit. Wishing I had done it when the body was separated, I set to replacing both handbrake cables, the rear one having stretched two inches, removing any scope for adjustment.
I replaced the rear brake cable on my old Spitfire a few years ago and find that to be a right pig of a job, but the GT6, having the cable guides on the body instead of the chassis, was a lot easier to do as you can get your hand through the opening in the body for the top of the differential to help guide the cable through. After threading it through the rest of the guides, it was covered in grease and worked back and forth a few times to help spread it along the guides.

Further forward, I bit the bullet and got to completing the gearbox tunnel. It was a job I was dreading, as I knew it would involve a lot of fitting and re-fitting if I was going to have any chance of it fitting properly.

First fit:


Clamped down ready for first welding:


Partially welded:


Copleted-ish and painted:


Inside coved with reflective sound deadening:


Meanwhile the 2000 saloon has been receiving a bit of attention as a few weeks ago I noticed a bit of slack in the steering of my MkI 2000, but recently it got worse and instead of it being a track rod end, as I thought it might be, it turned out that the slack is due to the coupling adaptor at the bottom of the top steering column.
So I striped out the steering columns, after removing the upper pinch bolt, the upper column sipped round in the joint all too easily. I thought the column was going to be a pain to get out, having had to remove the one in my GT6 a few times, but the saloon was a lot easier, once I had the indicator unit out.
The evidence was clear to see:


Fortunately, I had a spare steering column from the spares front end, which came with the car, so that was fitted in place, along with the intermediate shaft. The whole lot is much better and tighter now, just as well as the MOT is due in a few weeks and then after that, 2000 miles of the RBRR.

A few more steps forward

After last weeks run, a few more issues with the GT6 identified themselves, no surprise really as I have never had this car running even semi-properly before.
The rear brake cylinders have now been replaced and bled through again. At the same time I had a look at the brake adjusters, just as well as both were seized, one had to be replaced, but the other was still serviceable, so these were reassembled, with a light smear of coppaslip on the moving adjuster faces and plenty on the main adjuster screw.

Looking back, I notice it was back in September 2006 when I first assembled the Jones/Bowler CV conversion on the GT6. Back then I was considering the clearance between the inner CV boot and the chassis and was hoping that when the rear spring settled it would give more clearance. Not surprisingly to me now, there was no great increase in clearance as the inner boot is not going to move that much as it's position is mainly fixed by the diff, which doesn't tend to move around that much either. To get round this, I ordered and fitted a pair of 'fast CV boots', much neater now.



I am finding it very useful at the moment to keep a note book with me whilst working on the GT6, this way I can make a note of problems or issues as they come up, with the moral boosting activity of being able to cross off jobs as they get done, though the list seems to be growing faster than I can cross them off at the moment.

It lives

I brought a can of petrol after work yesterday evening and got my GT6 started for it's first run after switching from domed to flat top pistons and having all the running gear semi useable.

At the moment the engine feels quite tight, hope this is just down to the new rings bedding in.

Although the braking system is all as new, one of the rear brakes is dragging quite a bit, must be something to do with not being used for at least three years, despite the fluid going in only last week

There are a few minor water leaks also, so I will need to sort those before going too wild.

But for the first time in my ownership, I have been able to drive it, well chuffed

The sound is really poor on my little camera, but it is proof it has run, idle is way to high at the moment.

Coming together

It's been another quite bust weekend, with the decision to finish building up the engine in the GT6. For now I am using a cylinder head I had reconditioned ready for the 2000 saloon, when I had the time, inclination and parts to do it.

One part which was always going to be a pain was the main exhaust pipe, the engine having been moved back six inches making extra problems of preventing it from hitting the chassis rails. When I brought this GT6 a couple of years or so ago, I was given a exhaust downpipe, believing it was for a GT6, but now in cutting it around to make it fit my car, I found it had a part number on it, TH125, which turns out to tell me it is for a MkII Vitesse, so it was never going to fit my car without modification anyway.

I have managed, I hope, to solve the problem with the errant flashing lights. This was traced down to two wires being soldered in the wrong position when I added the more modern combined hazard light switch and repeater.Most of the electrics, which I have connected so far, seem to work, but many of the exterior facing lights, indicators, side lights etc.. required a bit of wiggling around of the bulbs to get them to work, indicating poor electrical conducts, so I will need to go round and check them all out.

The fuel system has also been re-fitted, this time a mechanical pump being used, one which I had picked up on eBay a couple of weeks ago, the advantage being that it will also fit the saloon in a emergency should I need it.

If all goes to plan, I hope to get the GT6 started in the next few days, should be a good moral boost eh?