Running repairs

Sun visor

There was a rattle, but at first I couldn't work out where it came from. Then I found it was from a sun visor. A grub screw on one of the visors had worked loose and fallen out. I couldn't find the screw, so had to buy an M4 x 5mm replacement grub screw from eBay (4 for £1.18).

Apologies for the poor photo. Little grub screw can be seen here

Cooling fan mounting

Two of the four fan mounts had broken after only 1,200 miles, as I previously reported. So I ordered a new fixing kit from Car Builder Solutions for £12 plus postage of £4.20. When I received the parts, the old mountings were removed by undoing the caphead bolts from the rivnuts, which held the fan in place.

Fan mounting point and rivnut can be seen here

The new mountings were then fixed in place.

New mounting fixed with a dab of nut lock

Coolant pipe fixing

I had damaged the jubilee clip which secured the hose from the thermostat to the radiator by tightening it too much. So the coolant leaked from the hose. A sticky mess! A replacement W4 stainless steel clip was bought from eBay for just £1.05. The hose did not have to be removed to do this. The jubilee clip was simply fully loosened, then fixed over the hose (after removing the old clip). Then tightened.

Burley in Wharfedale Car Show

There was a Classic Car Show just down the road at Burley in Wharfedale, so I decided to take the Cobra.

My Cobra at the Burley in Wharfedale Classic Car Show

A great show with over 200 other petrolhead's pride and joys. And it was free to show and to come in to look at some mouth watering cars. Look out for the 2018 date in February (the show will be in August).

Leaky Cobra and broken fan mount

Coolant leak

I have had a coolant leak for some time from the thermostat housing. Unfortunately there is no drain point in the system, so a hose needs to be disconnected. Messy!

First I drained down the system and removed the thermostat housing. This was cleaned up where it mated to the block. Next I applied Hylomar blue sealant to the mating surfaces. After a bit of fiddling I got the thermostat and housing back in place, bolted up and filled ......... but it still leaked. So I repeated the process. It leaked again! So a glass of wine was called for.

After relaxing a bit, I thought of three reasons why this may be happening - the thermostat was not being correctly aligned, the bolts were too long and not allowing the housing to be nipped up or both.

So the next day I checked the bolts and sure enough one was not going in to the block far enough. The bolt was shortened a little to allow it to screw in fully.

Next I fit the rubber thermostat gasket in to the housing, using sealant in the recess where the rubber gasket sits. Then I put two tie wraps through the top of the thermostat and threaded these through the housing. I located the thermostat in place, making sure that the pressure release thingy was in the correct place (there is a recess in the rubber seal). Next I fixed the tie wraps around a bolt to secure the thermostat in the right place and so that it could not be moved whilst fixing. Sealant was applied yet again to the clean mating surface, before the housing was offered up and bolted in place. The tie wraps were removed, the hose reconnected and the jubilee clip tightened. The system was then re-filled gradually, making sure that no air was trapped (tip - get the front of the car higher than the back). Success!

Thermostat housing re-fitted

Radiator fan

Whilst messing about stopping the leak above, I noticed that two of the fan fixings on the driver's side had broken after only 1,200 miles!

Broken fan fixing. Tie wrap can now be seen below it.

What I should have done was to fit tie wraps as well to help stop the mountings moving. I have ordered new fan fixings to replace the broken ones. Guess that is the problem of such a big fan.

Damper set up

Andy at GD will set up your new GD suspension at no additional cost. My car is a Euro so should only need the dampers setting, as the rest is set as part of the rolling chassis build. The car drives well now, but does 'float' a little over crests in the road and also feels a little unstable particularly at speed on the motorway, which does not instil total confidence when pushing on. The dampers (or shockers) control oscillation of the springs and keep the tyres in contact with the road. So this is what I needed to sort out to address the minor handling issues.

I didn't really want to take the car to the factory, as it is a 2.5 hour drive each way and I have no weather gear to combat the vaguaries of the British summer. A quick call to Andy and he explained the way to adjust the dampers and that it should correct the issues above. The dampers are set using just one knob for both the compression and rebound. If I made a pigs ear out of it, there is no real harm done as it can be corrected!

Andy knows the feel of the cars and the changes needed to correct the symptoms. It also depend on the weight of the driver, passenger and junk/tools etc carried in the boot (if a lot of weight in the boot you may need more clicks at the rear). He suggested that damper settings of around 4-6 clicks clockwise are likely to be about right, but that I may need to amend this to my preference. No change is required to the spring rates or toe. However, for the track more clicks may be required e.g 12/13!

The first job is to set the ride height. Mine is set to clear local speed bumps (see a previous post).

Collar for ride adjustment can be seen here

This is achieved by adjusting the collars up (using a C spanner) at the bottom of the springs.

The lower the car the less it will roll in corners (lowers the centre of gravity) and the better it will handle, but the car is more likely to come into contact with speed humps (legal limit for a speed bump on a public road is 4" I think) or raised road surfaces/metalwork - so you have been warned!

Next I needed to back off all four dampers fully (they were set to 5 clicks at the factory) - turning the knurled knob fully anti-clockwise, so that the knob will not turn any further (don't force it). You should be able to do this with the wheels on. The knobs are at the bottom of the dampers - on the inside at the front and on the leading edge at the rear.

Front nearside damper knurled knob (faces away from wheel)

Rear nearside damper knob (faces front of car)

Then turn the knob, say 6 clicks clockwise (which is one full rotation of the knob). For road use/touring you do not want the car to be too stiff or it will be uncomfortable and thump over every road imperfection. I set mine to 6 clicks. With 7 clicks it handled well but was a tad too hard. If you have a roll bar fitted the setting is likely to vary

Now the good bit. Once adjusted, test the car on your favourite road 😆. If it is not quite right, further adjustments can be made. Extra clicks will firm up the dampers, backing it off will reduce the damping effect. Note, this is not the spring rate, but the speed at which the dampers move and allow the car to roll in corners, control the car over undulations and dive (or not) under braking.

Wet passenger legs!

We had a drop of rain on the North York Moors Cobra Club run. If we went fast enough the rain went over the top of us, unfortunately I had not sealed the windscreen stanchions properly and it dripped in to the passenger foot well. Not too bad as it was on to the passenger's legs and not mine!

Gap down side of stanchion let water in

In addition the rubber seal of the windscreen had a kink in it, so GD had supplied a new one without the fault.

Kink can be seen in photo above

So I had to remove the screen. This is a time consuming job, as you need to remove the sun visors, mirrors, wind wings, centre bracket, before unscrewing and lifting out. But a tip, remove the passenger under dash tray and one of the bigger gauges on the dashboard. Now you can get your hand in to remove the nuts holding in the central screen bracket. This is a lot easier than removing the whole dash!

Whilst the screen was off I re-did the drivers side stanchion sealing. The escutcheons needed removing to do this job properly. The new rubber seal went on easier with some Vaseline to aid sliding in to the channel on the under side of the windscreen.

Stanchion re-sealed

New rubber seal without the kink!

So, hopefully dry legs now. Not that it goes out in the rain .... well it is not planned anyway!

North York Moors Cobra Club run

North York Moors

Arranged by Mike Hammond, the North York Moors Cobra Club run was superb.

Cobras outside hotel on Saturday morning

Not sure what a gathering of Cobras is called

We only did the Saturday, bailing out at Malton. A great hit with a fabulous turn out of Cobras and members/partners. It was amazing going through the towns and villages, a long line of Cobras really turned the heads and the cameras came out too.

I thought that I had "done" the area, but Mike had chosen some great sweeping roads with tremendous scenery that we had not seen before. The only negative was a shower, and the Cobra doesn't do rain, but go quick enough and the rain goes over you. Except I found a leak, or rather Carol did, in the passenger foot well. So a job to do next. Hopefully next year Mike will sort the weather too!

My car back fired frequently on the over run and made the sheep jump, so Noel Hirst Christened it the 'sheep banger'. Not sure that was a compliment! I will ask Dave from Canems to look at the ECU settings.

Harewood Hillclimb

The following day I took Russell Naude up to Harewood in the Cobra to see the racing and some old rivals of mine. Good to see real racers on the hill and in the paddock. Cars ranged from Austin Healey 3000s, through Caterhams, Subarus, Peugeot 205s, Minis, Elises to a multitude of single seater race cars. One of my old rivals, Dave Banner, took fastest time of the day in his OMS.

There was also an event for the Fueled Society, with some nice custom cars on display. Good crowds and a great way to end the weekend.

Just topped 1000 miles!

The Cobra is now ready for its first oil change after 1000 miles. I needed to do this before the Northern Cobra Club North York Moors Run at the weekend.

Almost 5 litres of  Mobil 1 and a new K&N filter from CarPartsForLess were used. The new filter, an HP 1007, has a 'nut' fitted to aid removal, however it is a little longer, but when fitted it is still above the lower extremity of the exhaust so should be ok.

The front of the car needed jacking up to get at the oil drain plug and the filter. A plastic carrier bag helped to catch the filter and the oil from the filter and an oil drain can caught the old oil.

The new filter rubber ring was coated with engine oil and the filter was partly filled before it was fitted to help with the process. After pouring the new oil in to the engine, it was allowed to settle before checking the level with the dipstick. When it looked to be at the correct level, the engine was run for a few minutes to circulate the oil, before finally topping up.

Job done!