First Day Out

First club run of the year, not the first run for the car, but the first “high performance” run, but before that the speedo had stopped working, I took the dash out & found a broken wire – easy fix, I put the dash back in but couldn’t test is as there was a car on the drive. So on the day of the run I set off in the misty early morning to find the speedo still wasn’t working & neither were the rear fogs or the screen heater. But I enjoyed the run & the car is now significantly better to drive than it was last year from a pedal point of view.


There were also lots & lots of interesting cars about I was particularly taken with these two....

After breakfast I drove further east to my son's house where we put the last of his house's electrical gremlins to bed. This also presented the opportunity to take him out in the car for the first time. I think he was a little shocked by the difference to his wife's Hyundi I10.

Then when we were finishing off, his wife said "it looks like it's raining" so it was a wet drive home with the roof up.



This evening I've taken out the dash & mended the speedo & the switches, I also found out why the radio wasn't working yesterday - the volume was turned right down - DOH!

Mmmmm - Shiny

It's been a while since I posted any pictures on here, so to make up for the lack of visual treats I'll post a little porn:-

 Yes, the new shocks have arrived in all their aluminium shininess. So hopefully on Saturday the old steel spaxs will be coming off & these will be going in their place. The front springs will get transferred onto the new shocks, but there are a pair of slightly stiffer (150lb vs 130lb) springs to go on the back & hopefully keep the car off its' bump stops.

 

End In Sight

Well I think a corner has been turned. I've taken the Fury to work each day since the snow (yes, even in -3C) & so far nothing's gone pop. In fact, since I did some fettling last weekend it's all settled in nicely. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'd had all sorts of problems with the brakes. They'd got air into the master cylinder when I fitted the new reservoir & I thought the air had scuttled off to the back where the brakes were new & the slave cylinders were dry. There was a further problem in that the brakes on the Fury are fitted 90deg to how they were fitted in the Sierra, so instead of the bleed nipples being at the top, they are at the side, so any air is trapped between the upper piston & the nipple.

The pedal had 50% free travel, so I CAREFULLY took the drums off, CAREFULLY took the springs off, CAREFULLY moved the shoes to one side, CAREFULLY took out the upper pistons then topped up the slave cylinders, replaced all the above & tested the pedal. It was the same.

So I started bleeding the front callipers - this was laborious as NONE of my family were available to push the pedal. Tiny tiny bubbles were coming out, as if I'd filled it with prosecco. But slowly slowly the pedal came up to the top & is now, not perfect, but good enough to drive.

The throttle has been a revelation, originally it was "geared" 1:1 off the throttle, but this resulted in the car being very sensitive & jerky in traffic, meaning I had to slip the clutch & coast at anything below 30. With the non-linear linkage, the first 10% of pedal movement open the butterflies 5%, so bimbling along is now easy & smooth.

Similarly the clutch, in spite of what I've said above about having to use it a lot in traffic, was HEAVY to the point of hurting my foot. The new linkage was much lighter - much MUCH lighter. I took the car round to Sainsburys to fill the tank & found I had to push the pedal right to the bulkhead to change gear - this would not make for speedy changes. On the way back I seemed to have to push it as far as it would go & the gears still clunked - the cable was slipping - Eeek.

I got home OK & set about taking the pedal out & moving the pull rod to the bottom hole in the pedal (meaning I had to cut a little more bulkhead away). Then found the clamp bolt on the cable wasn't tight. Had I not tightened it, or had small movements in the cable loosened it off? I fitted a wire locking lug & fitted two nuts to the clamp, the top one of which is wirelocked back to the lug. The next time I took it out the clutch operated over 50% of the pedal travel & has a little more "heft" to it (which is a good thing) & the cable seems to have stayed put.

The car was still hesitating coming off idle though, I noticed that as the throttle opened, No.4 lagged a little (No. 4 drives the Throttle Position Sensor). I took off the airbox & adjusted the link for No. 4 & it's all much improved. So I'm a happy bunny.

MoT this Friday & assuming it passes I'm ready for this years road trip - except .........

..........while fitting the rear brakes I'd noticed the rear shocks needed replaced, so in a day or two, four shiny new ProTech aluminium shocks will arrive with slightly uprated springs for the back, then there's a geometry check & corner weighting session at Boss Racing & THEN I'm ready for the road trip. 😂😂😂😃

The Fury's BACK!

This evening I taxed the Fury & took it down the road to get some fresh fuel. The throttle feels really good, progressive & smooth, the clutch is also much lighter & more progressive, but to fully disengage it needs to be pushed right to the bulkhead, so when I get some time, I'll move the pull-rod to the outermost hole in the pedal, which will add weight & reduce travel.





But the main difficulty is the brakes, the pedal has way too much travel, but the handbrake has hardly any at all, so it's not just out of adjustment. I need to get someone helping me bleed them.

 

Braking Point

I'm getting REALLY fed up with these back brakes!

My plan was to un-bolt a slave cylinder, turn it 90deg & get the air out, but the bolts were stuck fast & an odd size hex, so I pushed the upper piston down & pumped the brakes & got several large bubbles out.

On Friday I was early out of work to get the brakes working yes? No.

First I discovered that there was something wrong with the way I’d adjusted the handbrake, so had to take the top off the trans tunnel again, then I thought I’d take the upper piston out of a cylinder & top up the fluid directly, this seemed to work quite well until I tried the same with the off side, but the seals were weeping, so I went in & ordered a new pair of slave cylinders. Which is annoying because the old ones are going to be a git to get off with the seized bolts & also because the slaves out of the 9” drums are the right size, but the wrong manufacturer, so aren’t interchangeable.
 

An Expensive Shock

I've rumbled on with the mods to the car, I took off the enormous rear drum brakes (9" - like they put on Transit Vans) & fitted the more suitably sized 8" ones. This has saved 4.5Kg in unsprung weight, 3KG or which was rotating too! But they have given me a bit of a problem.

I'm still wrestling with bleeding the brakes. I think, there's air in the slave cylinders - on the old 9" brakes the nipple was directly above the hose (OK - insert own joke here), so all the air came out. On the 8" they one beside the other so I think there's air trapped above the bleeding point. Still considering what to do about this.

Also at the weekend, I thought I'd raise the rear suspension a bit, when I got under the back, the rear shock absorbers were in a bit of a sorry state, the bump stops on the shafts were MASHED, the rubber sleeve thing over the top of the shock body was MASHED & the upper spring pan had welded itself to the body so was impossible to adjust. So I've just ordered a set of Protechs (EEEK! - £££££)  from Fury Sports Cars. The annoying thing is that the front pair are seemingly immaculate - hardly a scratch on them. Maybe someone in the SKCC will want them.

Controls Under Control

Well, after a couple of little ooops' I think I'm about done with the controls.

Ooops one:-
I tested the clutch with only one bracket, so when I fitted the second bracket, re-tested it & the pedal went down & stayed there it must be the second bracket distorting it yes? getting the bracket off isn't an easy thing, but I managed, un-bolted it from the car - & it made no difference. I'd over-tightened the clutch pedal (another awkward to get to part). So that's all now sorted.

Oooops 2:-
While that was going on I'd also fitted the new brake master cylinder & hoses, but the following day saw a small pool of brake fluid on the chassis. A quick feel around underneath revealed the source of the slippery wetness (insert your own joke here) - it was coming from the seal around one of the new fittings. So off with the reservoir again, sqidge the fitting right down, & this time I made some rubber washers to pre-load the fittings into the seals, this seems to have worked, but obviously I shall be watching it closely.



So, flushed with success, I started the engine, pushed the clutch down and engage first gear! letting the pedal up again made the car move!! I should explain that while I appreciate that's what supposed to happen & there are millions of cars where that is exactly what does happen - I'd been concerned that the pedal was so light, it wouldn't have enough travel to fully disengage the clutch plates. But that doesn't seem to be the case at all.

Now if the brake fluid stays put inside the pipes & hoses, it shouldn't be too long before they are fully sorted & the car's drivable again.