cook1e

Well, I just won a working used Tacho on ebay for £26 that's going to be a lot cheaper than getting one reconditioned and no wait for mine to be restored either.

I had a noisy and erratic tacho on the GT6, I replaced the cable and it cured the noise and it stopped being erratic, for about 100 miles, then the new cable broke. Just investigated and the tacho has seized solid, looks like time to get it reconditioned. I recently had my Speedo reconditioned and found a place that was a much better price than anywhere else. They did a good job on the speedo so I'll be using them again. https://thegaugeshop.com/

Just build a large wooden workshop/garage in the garden, providing it's below 2.5M high (3M if it's more than 3M from the boundary) , is not built further forward than the property building line  and not more than 50% of the land outside the main building is used for outbuildings then it doesn't need planning permission as it comes under permitted devlopments as a temporary structure. I was looking to move last year and that was my plan if a place didn't have a garage or only had a single garage. £10K would buy a good quality wooden garage.

On 12/10/2023 at 16:35, GT64fun said:

Andy

Your luggage area was almost full of spares and tools. No evidence of luggage or food!

I think in 2016/18 we got the balance about right and luckily didn't have to use any.

Ian

The tools and spares were all stashed on the parcel shelf behind the back seat and under the parcel shelf around the spare wheel  except for a small trolley jack in it's box which was on the seat. The rest of the back seat was filled up with luggage for the Sunday night hotel stay, snacks, warm/waterproof clothing and drinks. GT6s have quite a bit of room in them, I've done two week camping tours in Europe with tools and spares as well as the camping gear and luggage for two in the past.

All sorted now, I needed to pull the left hand selector back to be level with the others which was then neutral and it all went back together fine. I'll leave this post up in case anyone has a similar issue in future

I'm having trouble reinstalling the gearbox remote extension on the top of my GT6 3 rail gearbox. I can't seem to get the selector lever in pace properly if I fit it I can't get it out of gear, I thought it was in neutral when I too it off! Can anyone identify what gear the car is in from the position of the selectors from above in the picture below. If I can put the remote in the right gear before reattaching then I'm hoping that'll sort it. I thought it would be 4th gear but that doesn't work.

2 hours ago, andy5 said:

Hi All

Team 66 we had a failing Alternator within 10 Miles of Skaich, filled up with fuel then lifted the bonnet to see the belt had come off. On inspection I found the bolt securing the alternator had sheared off, we tried every way to change the fixing but all failed we pushed on with the belt just making 11v and the belt being re-fitted every few miles. We made it to Helmsdale when we decieded to call it a day [or night], I wedged some foam that was wrapped around a spare alternator and tried to get some purchase on the alternator belt. This lasted about 1/2 mile when the engine stopped [no power], we had a "power charger"and started the car, then with zip ties made a chain to the suspension turret, this got us to Inverness for breakfast. We added a second chain of zip ties and carefully made our way back to Somerset, we managed to avoid most of the queues and were dry by the time we got home just before midnight. 

Tools used ; Zip ties and a chunk of Foam.

 

Having had to result to using zip ties on Howard's TR7 on the 10CR a few years back when we lost the long alternator bolt, I now carry a length of studding in my spares stash on the long runs, this can be cut to length with a junior hacksaw and used to replace any long bolts. It can also be used as a get you home bodge even if the bolts is a larger diameter by using big washers ate either end!

I've now started my post run repairs.

We had a problem with the car intermittently conking out and traced it to a dodgy connection in the ignition switch in the run position.

I got around this by running a permanent 12v hotwire to the ballast resistor from a 12v feed on the relay used for my air horns, I did prepare properly as I had some cable, crimp connectors and a crimp tool in my tools and spares carried on the run. Worked a treat, but the car did continue running after the key was removed so we had to open the bonnet and disconnect the hotwire to stop it when parked!

Green wire in the pics is the hotwire.

On previous RBRRs in my GT6 I always consistently achieved just over 33 MPG. This time I achieved just under 35 MPG. I have changed the diff since last time from the standard GT6 overdrive 3.89 ratio to a Spitfire 1500 3.63 ratio, this obviously decreases revs when high speed cruising which has probably resulted in the improved fuel consumption, before the diff change at 70mpg measured accuratly on a sat nav it was doing 3500 RPM, now at 70 it's doing only about 3100 RPM.

The speedo packed up after 408 miles so we were using the satnav and a GPS speedo, but I worked out the mileage from Google Maps, we did make a couple of wrong turns and also took a different route from Falls of Shin to Gartosh so did a few extra miles, I calculated the mileage we covered from Google Maps and we did 1999 miles on the run using just under £450 of fuel, all but one stop was E5 Super.

Our unusual story was after the Falls of Shin when we took the alternative route down the A9 and looked for a Tea and Coffee stop about halfway in Pitlochry. We saw a sign to Hotel and Lochside Cafe down a narrow lane so decided to check it out. We looked for the cafe but could only see a very posh hotel so assumed the Cafe was part of the hotel. 

We walked into the hotel looking wet and scruffy and asked where the Cafe was expecting to be directed to a Cafe within the Hotel, the guy behind the reception said it's further down the narrow lane and may or may not be open. Then he said , we offer out Hotel guests free tea, coffee and cakes, I'll ask my boss if we can let you have some tea and coffee. His boss agreed so we walked through to the hotel lounge, feeling out of place amongst the  posh guests and had a nice freebie!

This is the posh Hotel, although it was a bit wetter when we visited! The Green Park Hotel... We were certainly impressed by their hospitality but at £190 per person per night, I don't think I'll be staying there anytime soon!

In car RBRR video footage on my blog, tried to share it to RBRR banter on facebook and it was declined by admin so trying here! 

This is the link

http://cook1e.blogspot.com/2023/10/video-footage-from-round-britain-run.html

1 hour ago, Radders said:

Are you telling people to park up in front of the sign and go to sleep? Thus spoiling the chance for other people to get a decent pic? 

If you get there early its no good for a pic coz it's still dark so you have to have a kip to wait for the daylight before taking a pic, done that a few times!

The way to get around for this is to put your foot down and get to Lands End early near the front of the pack, park up in front of the sign and get your head down while waiting for the Hotel to open. Slow coaches are penalised even though it's not a race!

So I really hope the next RBRR won't be using Just Giving anymore as they are ripping off our sponsors by adding a default tip on top of their donation.

It is possible to remove this but they don't make it easy or obvious. You have to enter a custom amount on a slider and set it to zero.

A few of my sponsors have refused to use Just Giving this time around, some have sent me the money direct, but I reckon a few will have just given up on sponsoring the team when they are confronted by Just Giving's rip off default tip.

OK just found out by reading the road book in detail that tea and coffee will be for sale at the start in the signing in barn so jobs a goodun!

On 29/09/2023 at 07:16, Alex said:

I’ve always put the stickers on the rear wing with no issues. 
I actually think they look good there…. Maybe it’s the magnetic backing causing the issues. 

The charity stickers are much bigger now, the same size as the club Triumph ones. Also there is no chance of fitting one to the nearside wing even with the small stickers like the old Macmillan ones on a GT6 as the filler cap is on the wing right where you fixed your sticker.

I know tim mentioned at the drivers meet that there will be no food available at the knebworth  start this time. However will tea/coffee be available to purchase.

We are going to be there a few hours so will need some and if there is not going to be any available it would make sense to bring a camping stove and kettle or at least a thermos flask.

just put in my request to join.

On 23/09/2023 at 08:32, thescrapman said:

Get the Marshalls to put bags over the cameras?

If not I guess we all need to remove our number plates just prior to arrival. 

 

or a strip of gaffa tape applied over the plates before the entrance which can be quickly removed after exiting.

Oops a bit late now I have Paul on the front and Nuala on the rear, but I don't suppose it will notice that much. Also, there is not enough room on the rear nearside wing of a MK3 GT6 for the charity sticker due to the filler cap, also even on the offside it's not a good fit due to the swage line. Therefore I've done the same as I have in previous RBRRs in the GT6 and put both the CT and the charity stickers on the doors, gives a similar look as the charity one is behind the CT one. 

On 24/09/2023 at 20:26, Karl Reilly GT6 said:

We had a mooch around the museum too and were surprised how empty the car park was.  We were leaving relatively promptly because my son is my crew for the RBRR and he'd not driven my GT6 before Saturday!  It was an excuse to get a lot of miles in as preparation.   I'm pleased / relieved to say he handled it well. 

Were you driving up the M11 during the late afternoon/early evening following the drivers meeting? My sister was driving up there in her camper van and she thought the saffron yellow GT6 she saw there was me LOL.

So Cant see it written down anywhere, but if I remember rightly from the Drivers meet the rally plates are supposed to be Paul DErbyshire TR7 on the front of the car and Nuala Dowie Spitfire on the rear, is that correct?

And the CT Sticker on the front door and Huntingtons sticker on the rear door/rear wing etc. I seem to remember on the GT6 it wasn't very good on the rear wing due to the crease in the panel and I usually put both on the doors. Mine are stuck to magnetic backings anyway so can be moved if necessary

6 hours ago, Clive said:

Don't chuck the old angle drive away. They can be repaired with a little time and effort. And an old speedo cable...

Or to make a more resilient angle drive you can replace the short cable bit of the angle drive with a solid square bar (about 1/8 inch square), I did that on my GT6 about 30 years ago and it's been trouble free ever since.