What went wrong and what went right?

[DaveKent]

Team 95 , Red pi mk2
As Roger and I hadn't finished my spitfire in time for the run, we ended up borrowing a car for the run, Tom Key's red Pi. We whad little time to prepare it, first working on it thursday night before the start of the run. We weren't overly concerned because Tom uses the car regularly, so assumed all would be well.
An oil change, a wheel alignment adjustment. new wiper blades and some general checking over saw the car ready for use, and luckily no real issues with the car apart from massive fuel consumption on the first part of the journey.
Having no experience of PI we entrusted genius Andy Thompson to set up the metering unit at JOG, we had been using an AFR meter continuously so correct settings were easily attainable and what a difference it made!
All was good until just before Lancaster services when a PI pipe rubbed through due to its close proximity to the bonnet catch. Again no real drama as Dave Langrick provided us with a spare and it was quickly fitted. By this time most crews had passsed through the check point so we thought we'd get on our way. the starter then failed, and as the car was auto, we couldn't bump start it so out came the trolley jack , and a few taps to the solenoid with a hammer saw the engine running again.
Time to fill up with petrol, so we drove the car round to the pumps and left the engine running while we filled up, not wanting to address the starter issue again. A quick check of the new fuel pipe saw it was split and leaking and on lifting the bonnet a small fire started, Myself and Dave Picton responded immediately with fire extinguishers and all was well!, we did't have any more pipes so called the AA.  a very nice man helped by providing some new rubber pipe and after 3 hours at Lancaster we were on our way again.     A few miles down the motorway the car came to a halt, but the problem was diagnosed immediately as a loose wire to the ballast resistor so off we set again.  
After that no real problems except for the inability of rubber fuel hose to cope with the pulsing of the pi pump, causing poor running. and again Andy and Doug Thompson came to the rescue with a replacement pipe and injector at Bude. Thanks guys.

[Jason]

Thanks for all the info guys, keep it coming.

I wonder if a trucker could have helped with the PI fuel line? The pipe is the same stuff as used on truck air brakes. Also, having had a "small fire" myself (not in this car) I always carry an extinguisher in my PI, I don't think small fires stay small in PIs.

[Hurricane 1600]

Only real issue for us was the doors moving about on the hinges and nolonger shutting properly (same on last years 10 cr)

they just dont seam to like 2000 miles of hard driving


think this might be an issue unique to plastic cars though  :)


will have to look into how to improve this for next time

[cook1e]

trigger wrote:

will have to look into how to improve this for next time

You could just take the doors off and leave them at Home!

[Velocita Rosso]

Regarding the run,marshalling ,signing in etc .....spot on no issues
The car? Hmmm
Next time ,even though four brand new tyres , take a spare(even if you have to strap to a rack on one`s head due to no room in a Spifire)
Stupid three fuse holder.....wipers stopped ,jiggled the fuse,wiper started, rear lights went out................as advised by a flasher on the M6 (eg "youve no b.....y lights on)
PS at the same time no gauges !
Brakes? need to dismantle today to find out why long travel.......Im sure a cylinder has gone................even though could have changed, had 4 new on board
Other than that........nooo problems

[AlanChatterton]

Well........ where do I start.

First of all, I'm no novice to this lark, thing being my 7th RBRR, but for me this was the worse one for reliability issues! The car in question was a loaner anyway (thanks Craig, sorry I broke it!) and although I had several weeks to rebuild and prep it, this clearly was not enough time.

On the 2008 RBRR it was using a bit of oil, burning it on overrun...... but nothing excessive. So, Craig had decided to take the head off and get it done...... and finished there. So, I just popped on my spare good PI head, did the wheel bearings and the brakes, usual service items and off we go.

The problem we now know, is that the rings were shot. Putting on a good head which sealed the top of the engine just exaggerated the problem to biblical proportions. What we should have done was ring and shell it whilst the head was off........ but we didn't. I actually now think we may have a broken ring or two, as the oil consumption was just epic.

I shall humbly apologise now to all who either got covered in oil, or covered in the smoke cloud that was billowing from my car. what wasn't being burnt, was being pressurised out of every orifice it could find and dripping everwhere....... I reckon google earth should find the route by the oil drips.

So, failures were;

1) Oil consumption. Wait for this, we used 9 GALLONS of oil................... 9 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2) Speedo cable snapped on the A68 at Corbridge........ god bless GPS sat navs with speedo's on!
2) Exhaust fell apart.............. the bobbin snapped and we didn't notice, which pulled the top fixing out of the top of the pipe before the rear silencer, leaving a 2" hole in the top of the pipe. This was a sport system, with no other silencers, so our exhaust was a 2" stainless steel pipe with no silencing...... god it was loud!!
3) 2 of the driveshaft U/J's started clicking at Pimperne, decided to ignore it and carry on. I had a spare shaft with me but just lost the will to change it
4) Fuel gauge stopped working at Blythe.......... guessing the fuel by the miles
5) Not exactly water-tight........... footwells filled up, but at the least the screen didn't leak
6) The byproduct of the oil burning and the exhaust was that the cabin was filling up with fumes and oil smoke, to the point where we had to do the last 1000 miles with the back windows open to try and vent the car.............. not good. No wonder I'be got a headache!
7) Clutch hydraulics gone..... needed re-bleeding every 300 miles otherwise we lost the clutch. Suspect master cylinder gone.

By Oswestry I was ready to retire. I just considered it sensible to stop and go home..... but Bradley made me carry on and I'm very glad he did. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and already looking forward to 2012 in the Lines V8 estate.

I need to say a huge thank you to Lord Sorbington and RoyBoy who found me some oil for me to collect at Oswestry. 20/50 is getting hard to find! Craig Bennet lent me a gallon, Amanda Johnson (Colin Radford's partner) came out to Blythe with a gallon, and many others who pooled bits of oil to lend me over the weekend, I really appreciate it. If anyone needs me to replace or pay for this, despite offering and being declined at the time) then please let me know. Also to Dave Pearson who gave me an exhaust clamp when we thought this might be the issue and to all the support we had when trying to haul the "Torry Canyon" around the RBRR.

See you all for 2012!

[MURPHIT RITESPIF]

I thought my Dolly was bad at 7 litres of oil but  41 litres (9gallons) Alan  you sure that you wern't just trying to polish the inside of the engine ;D
Only issues were a Vynil roof that detached itself on one side only so had to rip it off. A slack Fan belt that we changed at Chester. And the noisy Bearing on the centre carrier of the Propshaft even though i'd changed it prior to the event.

[FloydP]

Hi all, here's my list of woes,
Overdrive clutch started slipping just before blyth and became gradually more and more unusable unless the throttle was used incredibly gently (like thats ever going to happen) and by lands end had given up completely (my ears are still ringing from the engine being a 5k revs most of the time).
Water temp gauge went to max after leaving sterling, car was running fine, no steam from the bonnet, normal heat from heater so went to nearest services and had a look, all seemed fine so we carried on. Assumed it was a faulty sender and ignored for the rest of the run.
Fuel pouring out of the carbs, arrived at the crossroads motel with the car not idle-ing to well, popped the bonnet and found petrol pouring out of the rear carb. Had breakfast before sorting it and got a few tips from doug. So armed with a hammer I tapped the back carb until it stopped leaking, only to find the front one wanted to join the party, no amount of hammer action was sorting that one, so a strip down and blow through was called for. problem re-occurred a few more times but thankfully only the hammer was needed to rectify the situation. Big thanks to Shuey Mcfee for the breakfast and Benny for clearing up the petrol.
Oil used about 1/2 a litre, glad VR1 stays so thick as I'm sure thats why so little escaped.
Fuel consumption without overdive could have been worse but I reckon around 32mpg.
So those were the few black spots on what was a fantastic weekend, apologies to all the people who I would love to have had a chat with at the finish but me and the co-driver were like zombies and the hour drive home was about all I'd got left in me.
Cheers,
Floyd.

[willows40]

the story of car 17 mk1 pi estate, only decided to take this about a month before event, First proper run was to drivers meet and found it was set up all wrong and doing 14mpg, Took it over to anglian triumph who sorted it and it was running lovely, Coming up the a68 it started to misfire and by the time we got to edinburgh airport it was running on 4/5 cylinders,Dale had a look and noticed the grub screw was missing from the rocker shalf and it had rotated starving itself of oil, Took shalf off and tried to turn it back a put a screw in but no joy it was total solid so that was the end and recovery home.
If i do it again next time know not to change car at last moment and use the car i use as a daily drive
Car now home and fixed having a rocker shalf in my spares box took all of an hour to do longest job was adjusting the tappets

andy

[cook1e]

MURPHIT_RITESPIF wrote:

Only issues were a Vynil roof that detached itself on one side only so had to rip it off.  

And I thought it was kind of strange custom Job with a half black, half white roof  ;D

[cook1e]

I've spent the afternoon emptying the car, cleaning the mud it imported from the highlands from the exterior, suspension, underside and Engine bay and checking it over to find the full extent of the damage.

Damage from our off road excursion seems to be.


Rear nearside tie rod bent and adjuster screw snapped.
Clevis Pin from Offside handbrake cable missing
Rear Valance Dented and split
Both Front Quarter Valances dented and scraped
Front Offside Wheel Arch Lip Dented
Exhaust flange Gasket leaking  with nut missing from 1  Flange to manifold stud
Exhaust Bracket (part of rear box) bent
Exhaust box strap hanger almost broken in two and close to snapping

Unfortunately we didn't get the insurance details from the Stag   ;D. So looks like I'll be fixing it rather than claiming and getting a bad insurance record and increased premiums for Mark and myself.

[Russell]

Team 48 2000 Estate.

Dave and I couldn't believe our luck when we got to the end as we completed the event without a single problem  :) , first time in 4 RBRRs (3 in this car). Really pleased with how the car just kept plodding on. It could do with more power, but I'm loathed to touch the engine when it's done so well.

Preparation was an oil change (engine) and check (gbox/diff), 2 new front tyres and just using it. 3 weeks before this weekend, I took it to Cornwall on holiday (700 mile round trip fully loaded) and it was a 300 mile round trip to the drivers meeting, so a 1000 mile shakedown helped alot with confidence.

Found the only issue when I got home, the rear passenger footwell was sodden, probably from driving the A30 river on Sunday morning. Think it's coming in through the drain bung, or the vibration strap bolt - will investgate with a hose later. Carpets out and drying in the shed.

A great, great weekend - thanks all, it made up for us missing 2008.

For 2012, we've vowed to use something other than a big saloon.

Russell

[thescrapman]

9 gallons, thats nothing!

I'm sure we used 10 in 1990 and we had 2 cylinders less.

We were due to use the same car this time, but didn't get time to replace the engine. It has only been on the road for 1 year since the 1990 event.

Perhaps it may come out and play in 2012, though power seems to be the order of the day now. We seem to remember the 1990 event was 400 miles less.

You didn't have the worst blue smoke cloud either this year, there was one saloon that was far worse.

Cheers

Colin

[Nick Jones]

Hah.... smoke is good - proves there's still some oil in it...... 'tis when the smoke stops  :o

Nick

[steve_1360]

1850 Dolomite. Only 2 problems until we retired, one was a leaking oil pressure switch which was replaced with one from the spares list. Thanks Nigel. The other problem was the overdrive dropping in and out until it just stopped working. Found at JOG that the wire had been rubbing on the propshaft so that was a quick fix. Not sure why that wire moved.
Then the accident with a flock of sheep messed the car up but you cannot do much about that. The main problem was then broken lights & smashed cooling fan. I had bulbs but with broken lenses i didn't think they would last long in the rain. We did pick up some lense repair tape from inverness and made some side/indicators from that, gaffer tape and bits i picked up off the road!

[Deleted User]

Team 27 Blue 1300 FWD
We never made it to the start, not for lack of preperation or spares but bad luck.
About 30 miles from home on the 250 mile trip to the start our fuel pump failed, this was replaced with the spare we were carring and all appeared fine, however this pump also started to play up eventually failing in 4 lanes on traffic in the roadworks on the M25 with no hard shoulder, not a nice place to be at 7pm on a Friday night! the free recovery seemed to take ages to get to us.

What can be learned from thia? It only takes a few minutes to swap a pump so use it on the car to make sure it works before you go, this could also apply to other things like alternators, distributors etc.

To make things worse after 2 hours waiting in the junction 22 holding compound our recovery provider informed us that they had not suitable vehicle available a the moment  to recover our Triumph 1300 motor bike!
:(

[Tim Hunt]

Tim Hunt/ Mike Hockaday. Car 19. TR4A NGP 86D.

15th completion from 17 starts and 12th with Mike. My only real problem this time was a classic example of if it ain't broke don't fix it. I was unhappy with charging rate. with reconditioned dynamo and correctly tensioned fan belt car would only just hold a charge with headlights on, o/d solenoid holding coil energised and wipers on. I adjusted the control box spot on as per manual, both electrically and manually. However, on my next trip out, two weeks before RBRR, the headlamp dipped filaments blew within a few hundred yards of my house. I noticed, incredibly, over 30 amps charge rate on the ammeter and when I tested voltage to the headlamps found 19.2V. No wonder they did not like it. Tweaked the regulator down and thought I had cracked it. Ordered 2 Philips Extra Vision H4s in time for the Run.  As we started car to leave Plough I realised dipped beams had failed again and noticed very high charge rate on the ammeter.  Drove in gloom on side lights and fog lights to Potters Bar and found somewhere under cover where I could fit spare bulbs and readjust the regulator. I set so just holding at 2,500 rpm with headlights/od/wipers and heater fan, almost back where I had started and no more 30 amps nonsense. No further electrical problems for rest of run but the diversion cost us at least 45 minutes.

The only other problem was when Mike woke me on the A68 near Corbridge complaining of a worrying screeching noise. this was quickly diagnosed as the tacho drive cable and rather than fiddle I just disconnected it. It's hard to over rev the tractor engine anyway!

Here's to the 2012 running and commiserations to all those not fortunate enough to finish this time.

We forget voting slip at finish but our vote this time goes to Mike Helm's very proper T3.

Tim

[Keith]

Tiim,
Is your regulator box an original Lucas one or is it a repro? If so it could be that the repro ones have a different curve so the open circuit voltage setting may be different.
Wish I could get 30 amps out of my dynamo!

Keith

[ferny]

Bill's Dolly ran extremely well. I'm beginning to see the appeal of a reliable car and I'm starting to consider getting one for myself.

Carl did an excellent job preparing the car. The only things I can list are the n/s indicators failing towards the end and the exhaust getting noisy. The car used no oil and also stayed clear. Not even a slight colour change from how it came out of the bottle. Ash wasn't taking it easy either!

bobyspit wrote:

Well after a pint at home and some hot food I decided I was being a big girls blouse and phoned Steve at about a quarter to eight and asked him if it was too late to come to Lancaster, Steve being the great guy that he is said no problem and picked me up and we attended Lancaster to say hello to the rest. I was again really gutted to see everyone continue on without us in tow.

I hope the man hug raised your spirits (and only those). I've not forgotten it. In fact, I'm never going to wash again, just so I can keep the contact sweat with me.

[mikeyb]

Car 1 White Sprint (again)

Oh and I forgot to say what went right . . .

The "trackerjack" front brake upgrade - awesome, I so want all my other cars to stop as well as this one.

The 4 new Yokahama A539 tyres, superb grip in dry and wet - proven on several occasions when my two co-drivers terrorised me by belting around corners in the rain that I new we would not be making it around had the old tyres still been fitted!

My (unplanned) sleep from Conan Bridge to Sugar Loaf - 6 hours plus, ably assisted by IPod with noise cancelling earphones, eye blackout patch, several pillows and a sleeping bag. This left me totally refreshed and able to have a wicked belt through the remainder of wales to Gordano, take a 1hr break between there and Exeter before doing the rest of the stretch to Lands End and back to Scorrier. I still felt good for the rest of the day, driving another couple of sections later on without issue. I only started to feel tired again back at the Plough!

Can only be done with 3 in the car though!

[TwoFiveEss]

Car 37

Only problem for us was the propshaft UJs, which we initially thought was propshaft UJ failure, a second opinion suggested gearbox mount and a third opinion suggested clutch plate failure. It may well have been all three, but nevertheless we carried on when we probably should have knuckled down and changed the prop UJs at some point.

I suspected the prop was marginal before we left, but as there was zero vibration and could not detect any movement in the UJs, decided to leave it - money was also a factor, I'd already cleared out my bank account on other prep and provision for fuel, so I took a chance.

Under the car on arrival home confirms the front prop UJ is completely shot and rattling around in the cups with about 4 mm of movement in all directions. Most of our fillings have fallen out and the strong vibration at most RPM really limited our driving style.

Other than that, the car ran perfectly. Only used about 2.5 litres of oil on the whole trip, high twenties, maybe even thirties fuel consumption (I suspect this was artificially helped by our limited driving style, see above), ride, handling and roadholding was excellent (new strut brace really made a difference).

Anyway, the moral: should have acted upon my suspicions and fixed the prop. before the trip.

[Howard]

My co-driver moaning loudly about the problem he was having selecting 3/4 gears kept disturbing my sleep!

[Radders]

901 wrote:

Car 37

Only problem for us was the propshaft UJs, which we initially thought was propshaft UJ failure, a second opinion suggested gearbox mount and a third opinion suggested clutch plate failure. It may well have been all three, but nevertheless we carried on when we probably should have knuckled down and changed the prop UJs at some point.

I suspected the prop was marginal before we left, but as there was zero vibration and could not detect any movement in the UJs, decided to leave it - money was also a factor, I'd already cleared out my bank account on other prep and provision for fuel, so I took a chance.

Under the car on arrival home confirms the front prop UJ is completely shot and rattling around in the cups with about 4 mm of movement in all directions. Most of our fillings have fallen out and the strong vibration at most RPM really limited our driving style.

Other than that, the car ran perfectly. Only used about 2.5 litres of oil on the whole trip, high twenties, maybe even thirties fuel consumption (I suspect this was artificially helped by our limited driving style, see above), ride, handling and roadholding was excellent (new strut brace really made a difference).

Anyway, the moral: should have acted upon my suspicions and fixed the prop. before the trip.

Believe or not..........I had a spare prop for a saloon, but I only loaded it in the car last minute so it never appeared on the spares list! :-/

[CHRIS211083]

Didnt Do the RBRR just went to spectate and offer spares as the car has only been on the road for a month and is untested after the last owners 14year Resto that never happened . I was really keen, i got up at 01.00 had a coffee and left the house at 01.15. I only live 15mins away and wanted to catch the action from the beginning. However i got 15 feet down the drive and the Lighting switch on the steering column failed "FOR FU*K SAKE"(H4 headlamps not relayed yet) After a 15min head scratch i found the problem and just held the high beam on.  Arrived at about 01.50ish and still caught the beginning of it on camera. The spares that were handed out were just Electrical connectors and some insulation tape. I then Fixed my Lights with a dash mounted switch and drove home after failing to help fix a six cylinder Rocker problem(sorry who ever it was). Really wish id been with you guys and hopefully next time i will. Congrats to all!!!

[willows40]

2402 wrote:

Didnt Do the RBRR just went to spectate and offer spares as the car has only been on the road for a month and is untested after the last owners 14year Resto that never happened . I was really keen, i got up at 01.00 had a coffee and left the house at 01.15. I only live 15mins away and wanted to catch the action from the beginning. However i got 15 feet down the drive and the Lighting switch on the steering column failed "FOR FU*K SAKE"(H4 headlamps not relayed yet) After a 15min head scratch i found the problem and just held the high beam on.  Arrived at about 01.50ish and still caught the beginning of it on camera. The spares that were handed out were just Electrical connectors and some insulation tape. I then Fixed my Lights with a dash mounted switch and drove home after failing to help fix a six cylinder Rocker problem(sorry who ever it was). Really wish id been with you guys and hopefully next time i will. Congrats to all!!!

chris
it was me with the rocker problem, Thanks for your help called recovery in the end got it home yesterday and running again within an hour.

cheers andu