October 21st. New driveshafts!

With today's weather so appallingly wet I decided not to go anywhere and to have another dry day in the garage instead. One of the biggish jobs on my list was to finally fit the new driveshafts I bought from Mike Papworth some weeks ago.

These driveshafts have a slightly different spline set up to the norm, but also have grease nipples fitted on so you no longer have to remove a driveshaft to grease up a spline. Laziness being one of my key features, this will suit me down to the ground.

The new shafts also come with new UJ's and just need the hubs fitting to them to make them complete. While I had the driveshafts off of the car I took the opportunity to remove the coilover shock absorbers that I fitted for the RBRR and refitted the standard ones. The coilovers are great when you have lots of weight in the boot and a three man crew, but make the car quite skittish when travelling light.

 

With the new shafts fitted and the car back together, I turned my attention to a couple of other issues that have come to light very recently. One is the starter motor. last year I had an issue with it failing to engage on numerous occasions. I had it reconditioned by a company in Grays and it has been fine until now. However, it's now doing exactly the same as it was before. It doesn't click or anything, it just doesn't seem to make contact and wont even try and crank the engine. I shall be taking it back to the same company tomorrow and be asking them to look at it again. This is a pain in the ass removing this as it wont drop out of the bottom of the car because of the 6-3-1 manifold and wont come out  through the top until you remove the throttle linkage, air filter box, K&N air filter, air horns and strut brace!

The second one is a clutch issue. Every now and then, and more so when you hold your foot on the clutch for a while, it seems to lose pressure. Pumping the pedal restores the pressure, but it does seem to be happening more and more frequently. The slave cylinder is reasonably new, so my money's on the master cylinder. Best get this sorted before the Nachtrit in Holland in a fortnight methinks!