Winter Maintenance

With the forthcoming Scotland trip all booked up, thoughts turn to preparation and getting the car ready. Nothing major – more like tinkering really.

  Front brakes – replace pads with softer compound for more effective braking 

  Mintex MDB1175M1144 

Quite straight forward job (even with a garage temperature of 3 degrees). The old pads and the discs themselves were hardly touched after 7000 miles – can’t be driving hard enough. The pistons needed a little bit of cleaning before greasing up and re-assembling. Job done and much improved.

  Steering Wheel

I replaced my 280mm wheel last year with a 330mm deep dish and added a quick release. This purposefully moved the driving position back so I could push the seat back for a better driving position. I think I overdid it with the deep disk plus the depth of the quick release. Swapped the deep dish with the old flat wheel today – much better. Will keep an eye out of a flat 300mm wheel

  Cables -  Identify and procure spare clutch cable and accelerator cable

Kitspares £30 – throttle cable RHD Plenum

Kitspares £21 – Clutch cable RHD

  Cold starting

Two turns clockwise on the idle stop screw – done. Far too much - warm idle now 2000rpm. Wound it back to initial position and added a very slight adjustment for warm idle at c1000rpm.

  Air Filter - Change the air filter on the plenum

Was 85mm Neck Cone filter Piper Cross (KitSpares £38) – going to try K&N RC-8040.

K&N fitted without issue. Engine breathing fine and I think also improved cold starting.

Tyres - Swap around the tyres to even out tyre wear

  Fuel Filter - Replace the fuel filter and check the fuel hoses

Tried the Syntec SSF2070 fuel filter. It's s higher capacity flow that the Kitspares original but is physically bigger (60mm diameter and 80mm length). There is plenty of space back there and the mounting is easily modified via the use of a tyewrap - Done

Fuel hoses in the engine bay show signs of cracking on the outer casing. Those not exposed to the heat of the engine bay i.e. those connecting the LP pump and fuel filter at the rear, look fine.

Replace the engine bay 8mm fuel hoses with SAE J30R9 rated hoses

·         High Pressure pump to fuel rail – 680mm

·         Fuel rail to swirl pot – 880mm

·         Fuel feed to swirl pot – 370mm

So roughly 2m of hose - Done.

  Crank Breather - Replace the crank breather filter and check the overflow

This filter is often choked with oil and there is signs of oil escaping through the filter onto the block. Will try 15mm pipe in place of the 8mm perhaps that will allow better breathing.

·         Crank to catch tank – 320mm

·         Catch tank to filter – 150mm

So roughly 0.5m of 15mm

  Nose cone

A few things annoy me about the nose cone (other than being palmed off with old stock - but that's a different story):

a)      The badge position – too far forward where there is a clear position for the badge (in the sunlight)

b)      Nose cone not straight against the bonnet - move the cone up and back. It now sits straight against the bonnet front lip, although the lip now protrudes upwards slightly. I'll try some subtle bending of the bonnet.

c)      The stock indicators - I would prefer a smaller format LED, but that will need a new flasher relay fitted also. I will wait until show season and pick some indicators from one of the trade stands.