Howlers

I understand that, it is said by the the Islamics, perfection can only be attained by Allah - which is why every Persian rug (no matter how expensive) always has one small flaw, as perfection would be an affront to God. Here are some of my "little imperfections".

Exhausts

As with most Cobra builders, one of the main reasons for putting a V8 lump into the front of the car is for that distinctive engine sound. Ever since I got my Sumo on the road, I was slightly less than overjoyed about the sound my Cob was giving out - although it did sail through the SVA noise level test. Initial thoughts were that I needed a bigger engine with more grunt so I started making enquiries about changing the engine for a bigger Chevy but was not looking forward to taking the current engine out  now the bodywork was in situ. Fortunately I was dissuaded when I heard another Cobra at my first Cobra Club run out that had the same engine as mine - it made a awesome noise. The main differences were that he had shiny chromed side pipes and an Edelbrock carburettor, so that was my next line of enquiry.

The option of changing to the side pipes including new headers, supplied by Pilgrim, would come in at £1,300 – worth the money to hit that note but will have to wait for a little windfall. I managed to get an Edelbrock 1404 from the USA (smuggled in by a friend who was there on business – but that’s another story) and fitted that with a big shiny air filter. Looks the business but did not give any more power and still no big noise. In fact, the carb was plug and play as everyone said it would be but I couldn’t get it tuned right to perform even as well as a Pinto engine – have I got a duff engine?

I took it to Andy Soar – he’d know how to set the carb to give that neck breaking performance, so off I went to Bressingham – with a top speed of 50mph @ 2500 rpm – something is definitely wrong. He checked out the usual tuning stuff (spark, timing, mixture, etc.) all of which were not far out. He then noticed that there wasn’t much exhaust coming out of the back – could there be a blockage. We tried sticking a broom handle up the pipe to no avail. “Let’s take off the back silencers and see what happens” so up on the hoist and half of the exhaust system was removed. I started her up, and had an instant grin wide enough to challenge a Spitting Image puppet of Tony Blair – “I’ll have more of that sound please”. Better still, I took her out on the open road and was blown away by the difference in performance – that was the problem alright! When we held the silencers vertically a whole load of black wadding fell out which must have been crumbling away ever since the day it was fitted.

Now, where could we get a pair of new silencers on a Wednesday afternoon in Bressingham – more to the point, having found this noise, do I really want to muffle it? A better solution was that Andy chopped the flanges off the old silencers, welded on a 45° pipe and the chrome end pipes so that the remodelled exhaust system now comes out of the side just in front of the rear wheel arches. She now sounds like she should, and goes like she sounds. Thanks, Andy.

Update: The remaining front silencers were starting to block up so back to square one - time to get it sorted properly. Andy fabricated a complete new system out of shine stainless with new headers (so that the gases can flow out the manifold rather than fighting their way out). The business!

A tank of Petrol

It's MOT day so I can take her out on the open road, pre-registration (no number plates!). After dropping Hannah off for the school bus, I stopped off at Heath Road filling station to fill up with petrol. It wasn't until I'd put in 30 litres of petrol that I realised I'd left my wallet at work the previous day. Gingerly, I went into the shop to explain my plight. The obvious option would have been phone Mary to meet me there with her credit card but she had recently had surgery on her foot so was not driving. The people at the Shell garage were very understanding and had (a very legalistic) form to fill in. Name and address wasn't a problem. ID would have been easier if I'd had my driving license - but that was in my wallet. We got by with colour, make & model of the vehicle but, when it came to registration number & I replied "it doesn't have one", it took a little time to sink in.

I've just filled up with petrol, with no means to pay, and I'm driving a car with no number plates - but I'm an honest guy - really - trust me - I'll come back later and pay in full - honestly :-}

Headlights

I spent hours of endless fun trying to get the headlights to work properly. The problem was that, when the switch stalk is in the position for dipped lights, the headlights come on. Push the stalk forward to select main beam and all headlights go off. The flasher, does not.  After checking all the wiring for the umteenth time I was convinced that I had wired it as per the connection list that came with the loom.

After delving into the Haynes Sierra manual and pouring over the wiring diagram, it was becoming clear that the connection list had some errors. The connection list received with the loom for the DIP switch is as follows:

I think it should be as follows (with function in brackets)

Basically, they got the Brown/Yellow and Brown/White the wrong way round. This was confirmed by tracing out the disconnected column switch. Swapped round the wires and it should work perfectly.

Not quite. Main beam and flasher is OK but no joy on the dipped lights.
Back to the ohmmeter which proved that the Blue/Red wire, which should go to the relay, in fact go directly to the headlamp. Alarm bells ringing (not actually ringing which would be another electrical fault) I looked at the wiring diagram and found that a Blue/Red wire does go (in parallel with the one to the headlamp) from the relay to the fog lamp switch connector. Oops, the loom manufacturers have go it wrong.

Cut the wire to the fog lamp switch and connected it to the Brown/White column switch wire and, Whey Hey, the lights work. Just to finish off I connected the other Blue/Red wire to the fog lamp switch connector.

Castor

I was reading a very interesting article about wheel alignment on the Cobra Owners Club site - http://www.cobraclub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8303 . It got me thinking about whether my wheels were set up for positive or negative castor (if I've lost you here then follow the link above) as I was talking about it only a couple of days previous. I also remembered having to think long and hard about which way round to fix the front radius. I went out to the garage and noticed that the upper ball joint was behind the lower one so I had positive castor - "that's good" I thought. A little while later I looked down at the wheel and thought "that's strange, this wheel has negative castor - I'm sure I just convinced myself that it was positive." It then dawned on me that the offside wheel had positive castor whilst the nearside was negative. Damn! I'd put one of the radius arms on upside down - too negative castor is not good (and would probably not pass SVA) but having a mix is darn right dangerous as the steering will pull over to one side.

It only took me about 15 minutes to strip down the suspension on one side and turn the radius arm, over but it could have been a much different story had I not realised - thanks Cobra Owners Club.

Gearbox - In, out, shake it all about.

Read the story from http://www.v-8.org.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1155

Size Matters

Pilgrim recommended that I use a long wheelbase Ford Transit to collect the chassis, as they knew, from experience, that the chassis would fit in this vehicle whereas there were problems trying to use other vehicles. I phoned a number of local van hire companies to check availability of vehicles for hire, and stressed it had to be a LWB Ford Transit van as no other make was acceptable. Several companies had vehicles available on my chosen weekend but could not guarantee it would be a Ford Transit.

Anglian Self Drive came up with the goods and confirmed it would definitely be a LWB Ford Transit, even after labouring the point. I arrived at their depot fifteen minutes before closing time on the Friday evening and started to complete the paperwork. It was then that I noticed the make of vehicle on the form said “Merc”. I queried this, to which I received the reply that the vehicle I was hiring was a LWB Mercedes Sprinter van, the one parked outside the front door that I passed on the way in. I reminded them that I had booked a Transit van and the reasons why I had been so specific. They reassured me that the Sprinter was actually bigger than the Transit – in any case they did not have a Transit and it was too late to get one from anywhere else at this time of night.

Reluctantly I accepted it so Hannah and I headed off to Small Dole early the following morning. When I arrived at Pilgrim’s factory, the guy who was going to load the chassis into my van sucked his teeth and was dubious whether it would fit. We tried loading it the normal way (tail first) with the forklift but the chassis was an inch or two wider than the van’s wheel arches. We then tried manhandling it to go in front first, which was an improvement, but the Sumo was a few inches longer than the van. We then started to dismantle the inside of the van, taking out the wooden panel separating the cabin from the payload. This gave us a couple more inches, but not quite enough to permit closing of the rear doors, which had to be secured with rope the best we could.

Hannah & I headed off back to Suffolk with a steady stream of exhaust fumes and icy cold winter air attacking us through the gap in the rear doors. We made it back after a couple of stops to fend off hypothermia and purge our lungs of carbon monoxide.

When I returned the van on Monday morning, the receptionist made the mistake of asking “Was everything satisfactory?” – she got the FULL story, with feeling. After comparing the internal dimensions of a Ford Transit and a Mercedes Sprinter, she tried to pacify me by saying there was only a couple of inches difference. With even more feeling, I explained that it was those few inches that made the difference between satisfaction and misery – in this case, size does matter!!!