Post Spa - Winter Overhaul

Winter Overhaul:

It wasn't until the Christmas break that we opened the garage and looked at the car. Still dirty from Spa like some LeMans homage - it definitely needed some TLC - starting with a wash! 

There is always a list jobs, and it only gets bigger the more we want to improve the car.  Stand still and you're ging backwards is the saying.  

The biggest issue from Spa was the clutch slave cylinder which was bodged together.  We had a genuine Sachs replacement to fit and the process of bleeding the clutch is both difficult and tedious and requires a combination of manual pedal movements and pressure bleeding.   Air will be in both the pedal end, the long line and the rear cylinder.  

Another casualty of the Spa clutch change was that one of the Gearbox mount bolts got cross threaded.  The nut is welded into the bracket that needed replacing.  It was handily the left hand side - so made access to the Clutch slave easier too.  

It took 2 attempts to get the correct bolt length and thread pitch which is a fine 0.75mm version.  

Our front drop-link boots are torn and the bottom bolts are also bent from the strain put on them - likely from hitting the kerbs. I had ordered new set before Spa - but never got the chance to fit them.  

Weight Saving:

For a long time we've know we had a lot of excess wiring still behind the dashboard and into the doors.  We but the bullet and removed the dashboard completely and set out pulling the individual wires back from the doors towards the centre of the car and the fuse box.  

Short Shifter Upgrade:

We've also been struggling with gear selection so decided to upgrade the Ebay short shifter to a fully bearing based version from Ben Auto Designs.  The difference was immediately noticeable.

Finally -  A standard oil and filter change was completed and we also flushed the brake fluid through all four corner callipers followed by setting of ride height and wheel alignment.

Shakedown:

With the car ready - we booked a track day at Snetterton as a shakedown to before entering the first race of the year.  

However mid way though the morning we started to get issues with the clutch not returning to position.  This is a sign of air in the system - but we'd bled it so many times there had to be another issue.   After further looking we could see the Clutch Master Cylinder (located at the pedal) was pushing fluid back into the reservoir so it's seals were gone.

That spelt the end of an otherwise productive day and signalled the need for yet more clutch bleeding!