Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

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820Vitesse
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Re: Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by 820Vitesse » Sun Apr 21, 2019 5:48 pm

No not long, aiming for early May back on the road.
I made a mistake with the MAC valve plumbing, now corrected but meant I had to reroute a hose, make a bracket to clear the metal brake pipes and also repositioned the solenoid on a rubber mount.

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Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by scoobyh123 » Sun Apr 21, 2019 10:09 pm

The valve looks better like that Jim! :wink: :D
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
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Re: Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by 820Vitesse » Tue May 21, 2019 10:06 am

I think your right but the pipe routing is not so natural and bit bit tight. Now needs to go on the rolling road to get it working properly and a few new parts have been fitted since it was last mapped.

The lightweight Redtop 20 battery is no longer up to the job, it must be about 10 years old, still has good voltage but cannot crank the engine more than once or twice, first start of the day it can take a few minutes of cranking to get this engine started so until I do another track day and weight saving is high on the list I will be using a big full size battery.
So I had to make a new big battery aluminium tray to sit next to the adapted Rover Redtop 20 tray currently removed while not in use.

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I will most likely do away with the adapted Rover tray and make a new insert for a Redtop to mount in this new aluminium tray

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Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by scoobyh123 » Tue May 21, 2019 11:50 am

Try a battery desulphator on the lightweight red top battery Jim. Put it on trickle charge with the desulphator connected and leave it a month or so, usually recovers batteries to a good standard!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-BATTERY- ... 3796828805

http://extralifepulse.com/

It's cheaper to buy on fleabay than on their own site because of free P&P on the bay. They do work and i've extended the working life of several batteries now. :wink: :D
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
'99 Jag S Type 3.0 V6 SE


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'94 827 Sterling saloon
'88 Volvo 760 V6 Estate
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Re: Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by 820Vitesse » Wed May 22, 2019 1:45 pm

Thanks for the link Dave, I will look into it but I am a bit sceptical this battery can be recovered enough, saying that though it only needs to be able to start a hot engine that starts pretty much on the button so maybe there is hope. I will do a better test on the battery and find out what the voltages are before, during and after cranking.

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Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by scoobyh123 » Wed May 22, 2019 4:10 pm

I was sceptical too Jim, the theory is sound though and it's worked for me on several batteries, in fact all except one that was too far gone (had a duff cell) but all the others that were sulphated (and hence reduced capcity) it worked well on.
Because batteries start to sulphate from the moment they're made, anything that can reverse this process is going to keep them alive longer and also revive a "lazy" one.
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
'99 Jag S Type 3.0 V6 SE


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'94 827 Sterling saloon
'88 Volvo 760 V6 Estate
'95 827 Coupé LPG gone but not forgotten!

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Re: Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by 820Vitesse » Thu May 23, 2019 11:02 am

Oddly the battery is accepting a longer charge now it is removed from the tray and stood upright (been on its side pretty much since I bought it)
I cannot test it on the car yet as currently sorting out some ECU issues so the fuel pump and some sensors are disconnected and plugs removed, once that is all back together I will test it again.
If it has improved then I may well give the desulphator a try.

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Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by scoobyh123 » Thu May 23, 2019 11:47 am

Is it a Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) or Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) battery Jim?

If it's SLA, first by turning it upright, you may have washed some sulphate off the plates for a start but the main pint is you'll have more area of the plates covered in electrolyte. If you get a plastic ice-cream tub, fill it up to about 15mm below the top with water and fit the lid.
There's now about a 15mm gap between the top of the lid and the top of the water. Now turn it on its side and suddenly the gap between the top of the water and the uppermost side is a lot more.

Still the same volume of water and air inside, just spread out differently and potentially not covering as much of the area of the plates as it should for effective operation.

Of course if it's AGM, this probably doesn't apply as they are designed for weird orientations but do prefer being upright.
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
'99 Jag S Type 3.0 V6 SE


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'94 827 Sterling saloon
'88 Volvo 760 V6 Estate
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Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by scoobyh123 » Thu May 30, 2019 7:00 pm

With AGM, the liquid is absorbed by the fibreglass matting so shouldn't make any difference on orientation but i suppose at 10 years old, it's possible it's gone a little dry and turning it upright moved the "wet" part of the matting onto fresh battery plates. I think that makes sense but the brain cell is having a wobbly just now.

Nice work on the battery tray/clamp as well! :wink: :D
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
'99 Jag S Type 3.0 V6 SE


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'94 827 Sterling saloon
'88 Volvo 760 V6 Estate
'95 827 Coupé LPG gone but not forgotten!

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Re: Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by 820Vitesse » Thu May 30, 2019 7:22 pm

I think it is AGM Dave, after 10 years on its side it could well be the case that some parts of the plates are left exposed, it has been upright for a week or so now, I will be testing it tomorrow.

To secure the battery more safely in the tray and to reduce the loads on the top straps I fitted an aluminium bar to the car body for the lower edge of the battery to wedge underneath, for something so simple it took hours to make and fit but battery feels solid mounted now.

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I had to raise the ride height slightly all round to avoid the new exhaust bottoming out just getting out my drive. I put the mount bar underneath with the idea if the weld breaks at least it still supports the exhaust but it was to low, it is pretty much central between the front and rear wheels so the lowest point when going over slopes, I could not spin it round so the bar was on top because the pipe is offset to one side.

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So the bar was cut off and a new bar made to fit on top

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With the pipe spun round 180 degrees and new bar welded on now has better ground clearance

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The tailpipe was a little to long so shortened that while the system was off the car, it is more shin friendly now.

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Re: Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by 820Vitesse » Thu May 30, 2019 7:32 pm

Although the cam belt has only done a few thousand miles it is over 6 years old so new cam belt, alternator belt, engine oil and filter and gearbox oil change was done this week while the ECU was away for a software update.
One of the last genuine Unipart turbo filters with non return valve for the T16 turbo engines, I dont think you can even get these from behind rocking horses. I bought a few of these years ago but cannot find them or an equivalent anywhere now.

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New cam belt, alternator belt and some more nice shiny titanium bolts for the cam pulleys

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Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by scoobyh123 » Thu May 30, 2019 9:16 pm

Oooooh, more shiny bits! :wink: :D
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
'99 Jag S Type 3.0 V6 SE


Image
'94 827 Sterling saloon
'88 Volvo 760 V6 Estate
'95 827 Coupé LPG gone but not forgotten!

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Re: Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by 820Vitesse » Fri Sep 06, 2019 4:31 pm

Been a bit slack with updates lately, for good reasons though as I have actually been using the car.

So to bring a few jobs up to date, I rubbed down and treated the rusty areas on the windscreen finisher panel, painted it satin black and glued the seal back on with Araldite after restoring the rubber edging by cleaning with Scotchbrite dampened with thinners then treating with glycerine, this restored it like new.

Gluing the rubber edging back on was a slow process
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refitted
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The black paint on the A pillars was peeling so rubbed those down and painted them satin black at the same time
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The car is a sleeper come track day car, it has never been a show car (its a Rover) but this summer I have attended a few shows for the first time so been trying to tidy up the outside
Trouble is now I started to tidy up the outside a bit I realise how many scratches, dents and marks it has accumulated over 25 years and 105,000 miles. It even has a bullet hole in the drivers door, it hasnt gone right through fortunately so they were a long way off or had a rubbish gun.
Anyway for now it will have to wear its scars with pride a full respray will have to wait till the sunroof panel is dealt with.
What I really want to do is get back to Brands Hatch for a track day.

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Re: Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by 820Vitesse » Fri Sep 06, 2019 4:39 pm

The gearbox has taken some abuse and whining a bit once warm, it has a mix of ratios from 2 or 3 gearboxes with a diesel 5th for top speed, I don't need this set up at the moment so a good time to rebuild it.
I also have a straight cut dog box with a set of rally ratios, I want to fit this temporarily if I can. It came from the Gartac Montego so a very early PG1 casing and slightly different to the later versions and not suitable for the 800 but I have another later casing with similar internal bearing set that I will try to transfer the Quaife internals to.
It is completely unsuitable for the road, close ratio straight cut gears and straight cut diff, dog engagement and a Quaife limlited slip plate diff.

Early casing
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Later casing
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The two side by side, early Gartrac Montego casing on the right
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I painted the later casing when it was fitted to the Vitesse many years ago, it now looks pretty rough so stripped the old paint off.
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Many hours later it looks much better
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Plan now is to paint the casing gloss black, then reassemble with the Quaife gear set. If that will not work then it will be rebuilt with the standard 220 Coupe ratios. If the Quaife set is ok then I will try it for a while but from my calculations 5th will be too low for long journeys, might be ok for track days though. I have not driven a dog selection box before so I if nothing else it will be a new experience.

New mainshaft, countershaft and diff bearings, a mix of makes because some of these bearings are no longer avaiable from the original manufacturers.
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to contrast the planned metalic black casing I cleaned up a couple of sets of casing bolts and had them bright zinc plated.
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Re: Re: 1994 BRG Vitesse Fastback

Post by 820Vitesse » Fri Sep 06, 2019 4:42 pm

The new exhaust system is noticeably louder so needed testing before booking the next track day. I went to Brands Hatch when there was a track day on and noise testing, I wasnt booked in but took my crash helmet along just in case there was a space, anyway it did not pass, static test at 4500rpm was 108.4 dB.
I searched all the tracks in the south for noise limits above 108 dB but no luck. So an extra silencer will be added to the system, probably over the winter so no track days this year unfortunately.

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