Craig Bennett

This was a great event yet again! Thanks to Dave for agreeing to be my co driver at short notice! Obviously enjoyed it then!! Car went brilliantly overall. Considering only had it a few weeks I am well pleased. We managed to do the whole run with the roof down and did get very wet in Scotland!! Having done most of the run with little or no heater it had been working sunday on the way up from Devon when of course weather was warmer anyway!! The cooling fan had given up aswell nr Salisbury! No problems until we got stuck on the M40 and the temperature starts creeping up! No cooling fan and cold air out of the heater means the gauge is soon heading towards the red zone! Had to pull over as soon started to boil up and oil pressure was dropping! Quick repair by wiring fan direct to battery bypassing relay and temp sensor saw us on our way again! Was fine on way home as cooler and no traffic so fan was disconnected. Must check out the wiring and relays again. A big thank you to all the organisers for all their hard work to make this event possible. I am sure I speak for many of us in congratulating them on a job very well done!! Roll on 2016!

You did well there! When I left looked you would be there all night!! Excellent work!!

Looks like we have a working cooling fan even spinning the right way!! A big thank you to David Walker for breaking off from his own wiring marathon to sort this out! Just got back and now have the fan working off a proper ignition feed and automatically cutting in with the temperature sensor connected properly. Result!!

Well that was clever! Changed the terminals round on the cooling fan and it didn't work! Changed back and still didn't work! Powered the fan up off the power probe and spins the other way pushing cool air through the radiator as expected. Checked fuses and relays and still no action off the switch so going to have to rewire it tomorrow evening!! Thought had better put the hood up and check it is okay as not really taken any notice before! Seems okay!! Boot partially packed, stickers on!! Getting there!!

Thanks Tim. Yes thought of reversing the wires. It currently runs anti-clockwise. The blades are obviously shaped and will work differently clockwise but I think I might just try it anyway! Not sure what brand the fan is though. Just looked through the many receipts that came with the car but nothing for the fan! Craig.

Fingers crossed we are getting there!! After finding some nasty previous owner bodges I have carefully gone through as much as I can with the Stag! Not long been back from more prep work! Been at my friendly MOT testers with the car on the ramp! Thanks Ian!!  Managed to cure a few exhaust leaks, do all the grease points, change diff oil. Have also changed the gearbox oil as opinion seems to be LT77 should run on ATF. Mine had well skanky EP90 in so have changed for fresh ATF and now change seems better!! One thing not sure about is the electric fan in front of the radiator! We had car running for a while to check exhaust leaks and I noticed warm air being pushed towards the front of the car as in the fan is drawing the air towards the front? Surely it should push the air through the rad towards the back of the car? Presumably this would help with the under bonnet temperatures as everything seems to get very hot to me!! Cooling does appear to be a tad marginal if gauge is to be believed of course! Heater given up again now aswell. At least it is polished and got the stickers on though!!

Well it looks like the decision has been made! Going to have to be the Stag. More by default though really as Pi needs some welding which I am going to struggle to get done in time now!! The sills had been done a few years back. My now ex stepson did some welding on it in recent times and his repair on the rear inner wheel arches fell off when MOT man poked around. He had also welded the offside sill so that is worrying!! Offside rear subframe where floor joins inner sill  area is crusty now and really needs doing. Other than that was fine!! Need to find a new competent welder and get the car done properly!! So going to collect Pi tomorrow and get the Stag on his ramp to give it the once over and see if any other horrors are lurking!! Have since discovered the Stag heater is not working so might be prudent to check that out!!

Yes that is the worry as to any other bodges on the car!! We had virtually decided yesterday to use the Stag and see how far we could get with the roof down!! Having just bought the Stag and not knowing the history (pile of garage receipts though) I am now thinking maybe the Pi is a safer bet. Although not used for a while I do know the car and work done as have owned it for over 7 years. Decisions! Decisions!

More progress today!! Managed to find a new co-driver at the Drivers Meeting so all good. Welcome to Dave Kent and I hope you don't live to regret it! Jury still out on which car to use but we did find a rather alarming and potentially disastrous fault with the Stag today. Just before purchase PO had all the brakes done. New discs, calipers and master cylinder. It had puzzled me why the brake pedal sat well above the clutch pedal. You had to consciously move foot up onto brake pedal. This was on the 'to do' list. I presumed something was set wrong or adjustable etc. However in the car park after the meeting while people were looking round the car David Walker leapt in and investigated under the dash. That was a very wise move as it turned out!! Looking at the brake pedal the clevis pin and split pin were fine but the clevis pin wasn't attached to the pushrod end!! Whoever fitted it back together missed the pushrod with the clevis pin and it was just wedged against the brake pedal. Must have been like this for a while and I have done about 150 miles in the car!! Bearing in mind that I had got stuck in traffic and then subsequently been 'making progress' on the M40 this was a rather worrying discovery!!! Quickly sorted though and now brake pedal sits at the right height!!! All in all a good day!!

Made some progress today! My Pi has not been used for ages due to work and family commitments. It is not even run in from the engine rebuild yet!! Got some jobs to do and get MOT which is now booked for Monday! Several weeks ago though I  bought a cheap Stag with 3.5 V8 and Hotwire Efi. This has complicated the issue as has been used recently with plenty of recent work and may be a better bet for RBRR. However gearchange on the LT77 box was terrible. Much messing and investigation of the badly modified linkage later and now vastly improved!! Not perfect but you can get the gears now!! Thanks to David Walker for help and parts donation this afternoon. Will try it out to Gaydon tomorrow and see how we get on!! Other minor detail is my co-driver (daughter) is not well enough to do the run so got to cajole another victim into the hot seat!! Happy days!!

Top work!! Well done!! You are an inspiration to us all. Look forward to seeing the car at the start!!

I have had the Witor 575lb springs on the back of my pi for a few years now. Car sits well, handles well. Even when laden with RBRR gubbins or towing caravan doesn't sink on back end. Would certainly recommend them!!

Well I have finally managed to make a start!! Got the cylinder head over to machine shop for unleaded conversion. Making a shopping list of engine parts required for bottom end rebuild. New injectors are on the shopping list aswell. BWK now under cover and cleaned up. Hopefully be rebuilding engine next week so can get engine and box back in as soon as possible. Hopefully won't use so much oil this time round!! Need to get it up and running by end of month to get some shakedown miles on the old girl. Needs an MOT aswell and plenty of other minor jobs but hopefully will get there!! Better keep an eye out for any cheap back up cars on ebay though!!! Back up plan so far is my TVR. Does use Triumph steering U/J and TR7 switchgear so there is a link however tenuous it may be!!                                    

Have used Valvoline VR1 in my P.I and TVR. As Tim says holds a better pressure when hot and under load such as trackday or RBRR. Price not too bad either but I do get it through the trade. Don't use it in my old Range Rover though as don't really need to rev it hard being an auto - Unipart  finest 20/50 does the job in there at £10 for 5 litres!