16th Feb
The plan for this weekend was to change the gearbox. As already discovered, Humphrey popped out of 5th gear, which wouldn’t be so bad for the actual sprints but might get rather annoying on the long drives to and from the tracks.
As you can see, we had plenty to choose from:
The two in the picture were the most easily accessible, although if the worst came to it, we also had one in Mister-Two. One of the ones in the picture were out of The Red One, and the other was an absolute bargain. Phil got it on eBay for 99p, although ended up paying a fiver for it in the end as the guy he bought it off gave him loads of other MR2 bits too. Obviously it’s a bit of a risk as it’s a complete unknown. Watch this space…
The plan to get the gearboxes changed was to raise and lower one side of the engine, using a rather lovely engine hoist.
This plan worked rather well, although it was difficult to get the bolt back in to the engine mount at the end of the day. It took ages! Phil tried all kinds of methods including getting into the engine bay himself:
However, in the end, perseverance and hammers did the trick.
I caught a sly pic of Phil working under the car:
Whilst Phil was doing the gearbox, I was stripping the interior. I’ve got a bad back again today for a change so took quite a long break, but I’ve got to the point where there is just carpets left in there:
It is just a case of unscrewing every screw you can see, and then finding a few you can’t!! Tomorrow, the carpets will come out and then the seats and centre console will go back in. We aren’t sure which seats yet as we think we have someone interested in Humphrey’s, but we do have two other sets to choose from! There is also the option to put in a proper race seat, although we are currently trying to think of a way to make one adjustable as my legs are slightly shorter than Phil’s!!!
The exhaust will be going on tomorrow so I thought I’d attack those tailpipes with Autosol.
It’s a bit battered anyway but much shinier now!
We need to pay the final part of our entry fees this week and have also been told that we can buy spectator tickets at £3.50 rather than the £7 they will be on the day. Does anyone want to come? The first sprint is at Waterbeach (Cambs) on the 16th March. It would be great to have some support!
The plan for this weekend was to change the gearbox. As already discovered, Humphrey popped out of 5th gear, which wouldn’t be so bad for the actual sprints but might get rather annoying on the long drives to and from the tracks.
As you can see, we had plenty to choose from:
The two in the picture were the most easily accessible, although if the worst came to it, we also had one in Mister-Two. One of the ones in the picture were out of The Red One, and the other was an absolute bargain. Phil got it on eBay for 99p, although ended up paying a fiver for it in the end as the guy he bought it off gave him loads of other MR2 bits too. Obviously it’s a bit of a risk as it’s a complete unknown. Watch this space…
The plan to get the gearboxes changed was to raise and lower one side of the engine, using a rather lovely engine hoist.
This plan worked rather well, although it was difficult to get the bolt back in to the engine mount at the end of the day. It took ages! Phil tried all kinds of methods including getting into the engine bay himself:
However, in the end, perseverance and hammers did the trick.
I caught a sly pic of Phil working under the car:
Whilst Phil was doing the gearbox, I was stripping the interior. I’ve got a bad back again today for a change so took quite a long break, but I’ve got to the point where there is just carpets left in there:
It is just a case of unscrewing every screw you can see, and then finding a few you can’t!! Tomorrow, the carpets will come out and then the seats and centre console will go back in. We aren’t sure which seats yet as we think we have someone interested in Humphrey’s, but we do have two other sets to choose from! There is also the option to put in a proper race seat, although we are currently trying to think of a way to make one adjustable as my legs are slightly shorter than Phil’s!!!
The exhaust will be going on tomorrow so I thought I’d attack those tailpipes with Autosol.
It’s a bit battered anyway but much shinier now!
We need to pay the final part of our entry fees this week and have also been told that we can buy spectator tickets at £3.50 rather than the £7 they will be on the day. Does anyone want to come? The first sprint is at Waterbeach (Cambs) on the 16th March. It would be great to have some support!
