Following on from the great weather of June and July, August and most of September was also good and allowed me lots of trips out in the car but not to any major events as I seemed to be working every weekend that there was a show on I wanted to attend.

One event I did manage to get to was the monthly pub meet of the East Anglian Tiger Owners Club who I had gone out with in June on the Lincolnshire run. This monthly meet happens on the third tuesday of the month at a pub in Saint Ives, Cambridgeshire and happens to be quite near the first RAF unit I started my career at, so on the run down in August I decided to run past the camp gates and see what had changed. In the 28 years since I last left RAF Wyton I can say they have certainly updated the security around the perimeter fence and I'm not sure the airfield is still in use but other than being updated, the main gate and Canberra aircraft gate guard were still there and brought back alot of memories.

Having left RAF Wyton, I then drove on into Saint Ives and was planning on taking a drive through the town to continue the nostalgia trip but it was closed due for road maintenance and so ended up going straight to the club meeting point. Upon arrival I could tell I had the right place as there were a few other kits there already, some of which I hadn't seen before on the previous run out. The main one that stood out for me was the MEV Exocet which I have seen pictures of before but never one in the flesh. If you think most 7 style kit cars are open then this gives it a whole new meaning and there is no hiding in this being exoskeletal. A really nicely made car and I had a good chat to the owner with one of the main points being the LED headlamps I had fitted and how they had improved when driving at night. With time ticking on I left at about 10 O'clock as it would take me about and hour to get home, this was the first real test for the LED headlights and I can say they have improved the view vastly over the original headlights. One thing I did notice was that the Acewell dash reflects back onto the windscreen at night so I will have to extend the shroud over the top of this as part of my winter updates.

There were some lovely warm days in September and so I took the oportunity to take the car out for some runs on the local roads, unfortunately I seemed to be working every weekend there were runs out with other local kit owners but it was still good be out in the car with the nice weather.

Drive out with the East Anglia Tiger Owners Club

With the fantastic dry weather being experienced throughout the UK and Europe over the past few months I have used the Fury a lot of times for drives out and also commuting to work.

At the start of July with the weather predicted to be warm and sunny and me not working, I contacted the East Anglia Tiger Owners Club who I knew were having their annual run out in Lincolnshire and asked if it would be okay if I joined them for the day. Having been contacted by Rachel, one of the group’s organisers and approved to join them, Jackie and I set off on the Saturday morning to meet the group at the first fuel stop nearest to us.
First there was a trickle of one or two other cars which were also meeting at the same place which was then followed by ten or twelve others making quite a site at the local services. A good half an hour was spent meeting everyone and chatting about all things cars and once everyone was ready after fuel and toilet breaks we set off in two groups with me joining the first. Pulling out onto the busy A17 was challenging but soon we were all grouped together in a convoy, routing through Woodhall Spa where a few other cars joined the group. Some spirited driving on through some great driving roads for the next hour or so past Cadwell Park and onto the next fuel stop just outside Louth. This was just a brief stop where half of us topped up our tanks and then it was onto the lunch stop which was The Jug and Bottle Carvery up the road in Holton-Le-Clay.

The site in the car park was good to see with probably around 20 cars displaying which was of interest to many of those who had also stopped off there for lunch. A very nice lunch followed by a chat with some of the club members in the restaurant which then moved on outside where we chatted around the cars finding out about the various cars and their owners. When everyone was ready we then drove onto the next point in the route stopping at Mablethorpe for tea and ice creams, this was a longer stop than originally planned as we somehow lost a few members on the way and waited at the car park until they arrived. A few members even went off to the beach and had a paddle in the sea.

This was the last stop off for us and we had a good run back through some twisty roads back down to Boston where we carried on down the A16 with a few others while the others turned off onto the A17. Overall we had a great day out really enjoying the driving, scenery and general feeling with the group and must say thank you to Rachel, Giles, Griff and all the members that made us feel so welcome. The membership form will be in the post just as soon as I get round to it…sorry for the delay.

Since we have been having the hot weather I have realise I need to make a few modifications over the winter to make things a bit more bearable in the cockpit as it does get quite warm when really sunny. The tunnel next to our legs gets very warm with heat radiating from the gearbox and back from the engine so that will require some heat matting putting in the tunnel. I am also thinking of opening up the slots ontop of the bonnet and putting some vents on the side of the bonnet to allow some of the hot air out.

Stoneleigh Kitcar Show 2018

A fantastic weekend of dry, hot weather greeted the early May Bank Holiday, meaning the annual Kitcar show at Stoneleigh was well attended and my first one in the finished Fury. I finally managed to meet up with people I have spoken to over the years and put names to faces have a good chats with people about my car and also their projects. Several have been following the build via this site, so that was good to here that my efforts are being followed and helping out.

The Fury was parked up on the Jeremy Phillips Sportscar Club area with a whole collection of other Jeremy Phillips cars including 10 Furys at one point, all very different.

Updates

A couple of minor issues I have noticed since running the car, one is that the brake pedal wobbles about a bit and also the throttle cable guide onto the throttle body had managed to pull through meaning it shortened the throw. The throttle cable was sorted by fitting a new guide but while I was at it I also moved the pedal 30mm back and fitted a drilled bolt to clamp the cable onto the end of the pedal
While down in the footwell I removed the brake pedal and found that the bush in the pedal was 0.6 mm smaller than the hole and also the bush was drilled slightly offset.
To cure this I turned down a new bush which is only 0.1mm smaller than the hole in the pedal and also have drilled it centrally so it should sit better and not wobble around anymore.

Android Tablet Update

Having fitted the Android tablet last month I managed to get out in the Fury when we had some dry weather and tried out the tablet. Unfortunately what I have found is that the open cockpit allows the sunlight to glare on the screen and even with a matt anti glare screen protector on the screen it is still unviewable. What I am thinking of doing is making some sort of shroud for it and see if this improves the situation, time will tell but at the moment I have removed it and have been enjoying the good weather.

With some dry weather I took the chance to take the Fury to work on some night shifts, it was a lovely drive into work with the warmth but was a bit chilly in the morning but still a great feeling enjoying the drive. During one evening I selected the headlights on and took a picture to show how much better the Fury is now I have the LED headlamps fitted, I can see where I am going now.

Chassis Setup

Once I had a few days off work I took the opportunity to take the car to be setup at AB performance. Andy Bates has a great deal of experience of setting up Furys and also the newer Arion S2 cars which are doing so well in the 750 motorclub race series.
The Arion S2 chassis is a work of art with full adjustment all round including front and rear anti roll bars and there is now a road going version which was in the AB performance workshop while I was there. Once the setup work was done the car feels so much more stable through the corners and less twitchy allowing me to push it harder when cornering.

Final Settings

Cambers

• FL - 1.6 Degrees Negative
• FR - 1.8 Degrees Negative
• RL - 1.4 Degrees Negative
• RR - 1.3 Degrees Negative

Toe

• FL - 0.5mm
• FR - 0.5mm
• RL - 0mm
• FL - 0.2mm

Corner Weights

• FL - 172.0kg
• FR - 172.5kg
• RL - 195.0kg
• FL - 205.0kg

Ride Heights

• FL - 122mm
• FR - 120mm
• RL - 155mm
• FL - 154mm

Again, I had a great drive home with dry weather and almost 100 miles each way without a problem.

Android Tablet Sat Nav/Music Player

For some time I have been looking at using an old Android tablet as a dashboard Sat Nav, Media controller but also having the Torque app installed which can be used as a diagnostic tool and gauge display. I had an old Google Nexus 7 lying around which is no longer used as it has become quite slow with all the latest software updates put on it but hopefully installing a custom ROM and only the basics apps installed on it should be okay for my needs.

The first thing to do was to install the custom ROM and root the device to allow me to do what I needed. To do this I used the excellent piece of software called 'Nexus Root Toolkit' which allows you to carry out software installs, ROM updates, unlocking and rooting to all Nexus devices. With a custom version of Android 6 installed and the Play store the only app this will hopefully run better than it currently does. The next things I installed were, 'Automate', 'Google Play Music' and the 'Torque' app as the basic apps I will be using, one other item was 'AutomateIt Pro' which allows you to set a group of rules which I have used to set when to power down, switch off bluetooth, WiFi and other tasks. With Google Maps installed I also download a map area so it can be used when not connected to the internet. For media playback and directions I will use a bluetooth receiver for now to playback through headphones.

With the tablet ready I made a frame from MDF to surround the tablet and also one to cover just the front edge and hold the tablet in place. With it cut to size I rubbed it down and shaped it and then covered the MDF with the same vinyl wrap as used on the dashboard. With the angles used it was really difficult to get right and took several attempts but is okay for now. There are a couple of places I am not happy with but it will have to do for now, overall its not too bad and I'll see how I get on with it.

LED Headlights

Having bought the headlights last month, this month I set about making the Ali spacer rings and the circuit to control the indicators.
With the parts bought for the circuit I soldered the components onto a circuit board and added wires that would be spliced into the lines for the lamps. To recap, the Headlamps have a halo ring which can be used as a DRL and incorporated into these is an indicator. For the indicator to work the halo ring has to have power to it which is fine for the majority of the time but they would then not work if the hazards were selected. What I had planned was to use a relay that when no power is on the indictor lamps I already have fitted are selected and when power is applied to then select the halo ring indicator. I also added two feeds to power the lamps, one that comes from the original wired in DRL feed and also one using the side light feed from the current headlamps with a resistor fitted to dim the lamp slightly when used as a side light. With two power feeds I also added a diode to each side to stop the power back feeding.

Having built the circuit and wired the lamps up the selection side worked as expected but the problem was the indicators when selected hyper flashed. With an electronic flasher relay already fitted due to a mixed setup of normal and LED bulbs in the indicator circuit I was expecting this to cope with having the full LED setup too. I thought this may be a problem with the relay I had fitted so I ordered a slightly different one hoping that it would make a difference but the indicators still hyper flashed. So for now I have wired the lamps to work without the LED indicators and kept the originals but maybe I will go back and try to get them working another time. I have just adapted the circuit to only use the DRL and side light feed with a 12ohm resistor to dim the lamp when used a sidelights.

Mounting the lamps

I know others that had tried fitting these lamps had stated that the larger rear and heat sink stopped the lamps mounting directly into the original rear bowls so my plan was to make a spacer ring which would house the lamps and allow adjustment while retaining the rear bowls to try and prevent water ingress behind the headlamp covers. Having ordered a 170mm diameter piece of aluminium bar, I turned down two 10mm spacer rings on a lathe at work which would be mounted on the front of the bodywork. What I found when I kept the bowls mounted through the bodywork was that this pushed the lamps out too far and they would rub on the lens covers so I have mounted the bowls inside the bodywork and the aluminium mounting rings in front which spaces the lamp out enough to clear the bowls but not too far to rub on the lens covers. To mount the lamps I have used the original chrome rings that hold the outer rim of the lamp and this then uses the adjusting points which I have tapped into the mounting rings along with threaded holes to attach the rings to the bodywork and also hold the bowls in position too from behind.
One problem I have found since mounting the bowls even before doing this is that with the steering on full lock and under braking the tyre can sometimes rub on the bowl, this is something I will have to keep an eye on and if it become a problem I may have to make some new adapter versions out of fibreglass using one of these as a mould. To be honest the very bottom of the bowl is nowhere near the lamp so could be cut away quite easily.

Once the lamps were fully fitted and functioning as required I took the car round to a local garage and had the lamps realigned so they are pointing correctly. With the lamps now aligned I refitted the lens covers and happy that eventually I have managed to get this all sorted, just testing them out on my driveway they are a vast improvement but time will tell if they are better when driving, now I just need to wait for some decent weather so I can try them out as there is too much salt and snow about at the moment.

Engine and Gearbox Out

As I mention in my last posting last year, when fitting the gearbox/bell housing to the engine all those years ago I forgot (or didn't even think about it) to fit a gasket between the gearbox and the bell housing. The result of this is that the gearbox on the Type 9 weeps oil out from the point where a rod comes through from the top point on the gearbox and goes into a drilling on the bell housing. Now it is only a small weep but after a couple of days in the garage once the car has run, there is a small film of oil residue on the floor and some evidence also on the bottom of the bell housing.

With it only being a small weep I guess I could have left it but the thought that it was weeping would annoy me knowing that things were not quite right. Also the level in the gearbox would drop (although only slightly) but as the gearbox level checking point is on the side and inaccessible once fitted in the car I would have no way of checking the level. The only action was to take out the engine and gearbox to fit the gasket.

Having worked all over the Christmas and New year period I had a week off so made a start on prepping the engine for removal. I was hoping that I could remove the exhaust manifold from the engine and twist it out of the way without having to remove the sidepod and lift the engine out but fell at the first hurdle when one of the nuts on the manifold would not turn and just started to round off. The only thing left to do was remove the side pod and exhaust. With those bits removed I disconnected all the other items connected to the engine and also removed the bonnet to give clearance to take the engine out.

Splitting the engine and gearbox

Getting the engine out was fairly easy using my engine crane and once on the floor, removed the clutch release bearing, clutch pivot arm and then the bell housing. Looking inside the bell housing there was very little dirt or debris inside meaning the dust plate I had made was doing its job of stopping rubbish from getting inside the bell housing and also no oil reside either, so there are no leaks from the crank into the bell housing or oil leaking from the gearbox, which is a good sign and meant the clutch had not been contaminated and require changing while I had the gearbox off.

While the gearbox was off I removed the top cover and inspected the gears and also topped up the gearbox oil which was probably only about 100ml. With the cover off I also double checked the breather hole was clear which has been known to become blocked and is often a cause of oil leaks past the front and rear oil seals.

Refitted

Once the gearbox and engine were back together (with the gasket fitted this time) I enlisted the help of Chris, my eldest and Mrs Martin as an extra pair of hands and eyes to assist me with refitting the engine back in. Once hung in it took me a further day to get everything reconnected and squared away but overall everything went well including refitting the side pod which I was dreading but actual went back on okay.

With the fluid levels restored and the engine running well with no apparent leaks, I took it for a quick blast around on some very slippery roads just to make sure everything was running okay. Four days work to change a gasket but fingers crossed that's the last of the leak. Roll on some good dry weather.

Headlights

Near the end of last year I took the car out one evening but once the sun started to go down I used the headlights for the first time and was shocked at just how bad they really were. I know others have said that the lights were bad but I didn't think they would be that bad and I really struggled to see where I was going at all. When I purchased the original headlights I upgraded the bulbs to be the brightest I could get but these are still nowhere near good enough and I have been looking at various options to replace them. Come the New Year and Furore Products who supplied my Acewell Digidash were having a January sale on some items and were giving 20% off of headlights, now these are not cheap units but with 20% off I couldn't really miss the opportunity.

The rears of the headlights being LED, have a heat sink and so are quite a bit wider at the back than the standard 5 3/4 inch headlamps I currently have fitted meaning these new lamps do not currently fit in the headlamp bowls.
So far my current plan is to make some aluminium spacers which I can then place in front of the bowls and hopefully this will space them out far enough for the heat sink to clear the bowl. Another potential issue is that the lamps have an indicator which is good and is also a Halo DRL around the outside of the lamp, but the problem is being that the halo ring has to have power all of the time for the indicator to work but this will mean that the hazards will not work as no power is applied to the lamps when they are switched off. What I will probably do is keep the current indicators in place and use those for the hazards lamps and then use the halo ring indicators the rest of the time. To get this to work I will need a relay to switch the circuit to the halo when power is applied and then back to the other lamps or the hazards. For now I just slaved one of the lamps in place to compare it to the current unit and they are definitely brighter and give a far wider spread of light.