RBRR and trackday prep

The following things have been done over a few evenings during the past week.

First job on HOE, our chosen steed for this year's RBRR, was to change the large (baked bean can) subframe bushes at the rear. This also gave me a good excuse to try out my new high lift, long reach trolley jack, which I have been tripping over for the last few months in the garage. It was worth the expense.

I was lucky enough to source some NOS Avon Metalastik bushes to replace the repro items I had installed about three years ago. They had a little storage surface rust on the outer steel casing which I treated. This is how they looked after painting and curing in the boiler house at work.

The tell tale wiggle or twitch at the rear which can signify a weakness in the bushes had returned. An MOT advisory on the nearside one had prompted some action, they never usually look too bad from the bottom which you see with the car on the ramp. The picture below shows the top as installed, that you can't see when looking at them under the car. The central sleeve has clearly parted company from the rubber of the bush..........NOS, or poly is the only way when replacing these bushes!

Replacement is done by raising the car for access, supporting the subframe, undo the cental bolt and withdraw it, loosen the other end of the anti-vibe strap and push it to one side, undo the two fixing bolts and it's out.

The nearside rear hub has in the past had an advisory and I was sure had a noisy bearing. A spare shaft in stock felt OK apart from the inevitable knackered UJ. Fantastic, my favourite job in the world! Changed that and the shaft was ready to install.

Iffy handbrake on oneside I think was down to worn self adjusting mechanisms, the footbrake was perfect. Luckily I had some NOS shoes with new adjuster mechanisms on the shelf, so as the drum was already off on oneside to change the halfshaft, it seemed like the best time to do them.

Some play had been detected in the top of one front strut, these were rebuilt by a PO just before we bought the estate. So fearing the worst I had a good look. Turned out to be the strut top nut had not been tightened properly, which was easily sorted.

So just the front wheel bearings to replace and the car to roadtest to see if the 'new' halfshaft has a quiet bearing. Fingers crossed.

The end of next week sees me at Blyton Park for another trackday. The pi seemed fast enough on the straights but very wallowy cornering. My mates in spitfires could have cornered faster, but weren't able to pass me on the straights or outbrake me. With this in mind I had sourced some 205/400 Chris Witor springs. The front struts had been overhauled by me last year so removing the old springs and installing these was relatively fuss free. Look at the difference in free length between the original and progressives.

Two hours later and they were changed and I had been fed too. Lucky I had the front wheels off, the pads in the Stag front brakes were a little low, not ideal for a trackday.

The difference between the worn pads and NOS astbestos laden Ferodos is easy to see. Discs are perfect still so the pads I took out must have been old stock as well, they have always left lots of dust on the front wheels.

So I now need to do the front wheel bearings on HOE and slacken the much improved handbrake, check the fluids in 'box and axle and grease the prop UJs and we should be ready. I also have something to put in the windows but more of that in the future.