slomove

:cheers: - as for the driveway: I don't have a choice, the "garage" fits the Birkin like a glove. But then it is SoCal: No rain for the last 2 months or so and I can leave it sitting halfway outside. - the frame is pretty stout. But in weighing shootout with other Sevens we found only minimal difference to similarly equipped Caterhams. Maybe 10-20 pounds more. - The Miller box only holds the loose bolts and nuts. I don't drink that stuff. However, I did go through two boxes of Sam Adams.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_242PlvPtVpE/TIxPLxB-EEI/AAAAAAAACB0/riuNh0etlZI/s800/P1020416.JPG Minor snag...... http://lh5.ggpht.com/_242PlvPtVpE/TIxPMmhCNxI/AAAAAAAACB4/iv3FFmcYhJU/s800/P1020420.JPG The drill is your friend. http://lh3.ggpht.com/_242PlvPtVpE/TIxPNl8M_sI/AAAAAAAACB8/-yhH2jYG8S4/s800/P1020423.JPG Shock and hub installed, so far so good. However, the new shock mounts are M10, while my shocks have end rings for M12. I did not want to use a bushing and just reamed the holes to 12mm. I also tapped the blind holes for the steering arms and brake mounting plate much deeper than delivered. The 8-9 mm depth in the aluminum casting did not give me much confidence for an M8 bolt. FWIW, these are shorter steel steering arms than the stock aluminum arms (had them already before), to get quicker steering response. The nub on top of the shock bracket is the new mounting point for the headlights. http://lh3.ggpht.com/_242PlvPtVpE/TIxPOlyAEOI/AAAAAAAACCA/Z7RdyXzRc3o/s800/P1020425.JPG Almost ready to roll again. Height, camber and toe-in roughly adjusted, all bolts torqued. That is it for now. Next step is ARB and radiator install, re-route the brake plumbing, find a new home for the remote oil filter and related hoses, reinstall the coolant overflow and refill fluids. Oh yes, I still need to fix the idle problem and see if the rebuilt starter really works.

I mentioned recently that I am rebuilding the front suspension of my Birkin with a (factory supplied) widetrack kit and KiwiBirkin asked if I could post a few build pictures for reference. Well, here it is. Other people have done that before and I found it not too difficult so far. The whole thing was not really planned but came as "one-leads-to-the-other" sequence of events. It started out at the Monterey historic racing event where Alaskossie almost lost a rear wheel. Actually the same day my Seven became a bit sick: the starter motor failed and the idle needed foot work to keep running. Not a good combination: on the way home I needed push starts at the gas stations and did not drink much to avoid peeing. Anyway, I made it home, although the exhaust became really loud, too. At home I had the starter rebuilt and took the exhaust can off to stuff in more glass fiber, only to find the noise was from a large crack around the inlet tube. I welded that up and, looking for the reason I found the left motor mount damper element to be separated. I had bought new ones a while ago and replaced both of them. While I was at it I went to check the wheel bearings (with Tom's fiasco in mind), and found one of the front bearings a bit wobbly. Took the hub off and found it to be corroded. Somehow water had gotten in. I removed both front bearing (a real pain in the arse) and ordered new bearings. Now that got me thinking since I had already many parts off to take the whole front end apart and replace other wear pieces, clean and repaint. http://lh6.ggpht.com/_242PlvPtVpE/TIxPIxSOJJI/AAAAAAAACBk/cllnMvgppuc/s800/P1020404.JPG That is how it looked like stripped to the bone and with new primer. But I found it not so easy to get the ball joints from (I believe) a 1975 Fiat 125 (my Birkin is a bit older) and looking around it just became obvious that the Birkin widetrack kit would solve a bunch of problems: new wear parts and wishbones, new rubber bushings, shielded new type ball joints (old ones were open and needed regular greasing), easy turnbuckle camber adjustment, and of course a few inches wider. Once that thought took hold I just had to convince myself that this is the best $1600 I would ever invest: http://lh5.ggpht.com/_242PlvPtVpE/TIxPJ5opNPI/AAAAAAAACBo/j4Qlr9Snf6Y/s800/P1020405.JPG These are the pieces: upper/lower wishbones, shock bracket, steering rack bracket, new ARB and (not in the pic) new uprights. Nice elliptical wishbone tubing and all very pretty TIG welds (I wish I could do that). I had to keep the steering arms and the axle stubs. It will also work with the old shocks and springs, provided they have a rate of 300-350 lbs/" http://lh5.ggpht.com/_242PlvPtVpE/TIxPLfyrV-I/AAAAAAAACBw/TFwnSAKl9k4/s800/P1020412.JPG Test fit, looking good so far. To be continued.

To be politically correct, it is "tire weld" :jester: But what do I know.... I am German.

No spare either for over 30k miles. But I did have a flat (actually lost pressure due to underinflation) a few years ago and the car rolled fine without, if a bit slow. Just too light to squish a normal car tire.

O.K. I can do that. But I am not the first to install that widetrack kit on a Birkin. Anyway a good idea to take a few pictures before it goes back together.

Makes me feel bad, too. We have some earthquake supplies but they are so old a coyote would probably refuse to eat them and I would not be surprised to see a thriving biotope in the water. Got to replace that sometimes soon.

Does he have little support wheels?

I have also my arms angled a bit in my Birkin (with Cobra 7's seats). Feels more natural and having them straight is just not feasible without power steering. My outboard elbow actually rests comfortably on the "door sill" while my inboard elbow rests at similar height on a custom cushion that wraps the parking brake. Very comfy and I can drive like that a full day without the shoulder cramps I get in most "normal" cars. There is still enough room the move the steering quickly on the track but I have the shortened steering arms.

Did you try having it rebuilt? The local shops in our area do that for a flat rate of $40-50, as long as the major parts are still usable. They will replace bearings, sprockets, solenoid contacts, brushes, plastic caps, re-solder, blast and repaint etc.

Well, that is what the web site says, anyway....double check your results. But I compared some of the common bolt configurations with the usual tables on the Internet and it matched quite well. I used it to identify the most reasonable tap depth for a M8x1.25 - 12.9 grade metric bolt in an aluminum upright. Beyond a certain depth (about 20-25mm) there is no advantage anymore. Do I believe the recommended torque (19ftlbs lubed)? Maybe. But better than torquing to finger feel.

Maybe old news.... But I finally found a tool that calculates torque for unequal material combinations, e.g. stainless bolt in aluminum thread or Grade 8 in 4340 alloy steel. American or metric thread, dry or lubed: http://www.futek.com/boltcalc.aspx?mode=metric

We did Emigration Canyon last year. That was one of the nicest blatting roads I have been on with spectacular scenery. Not much traffic early morning.

Did you try Gustafson? http://www.gustafsonmachine.com/

Entire frond end stripped to the bones, so no blatting :cuss: But is was anyway 103 degrees yesterday 90's today, so wrenching makes more sense (except that I am doing the wrenching in the driveway...) Yesterday, I sanded and primer painted the chassis tubes, today and tomorrow the steering rack will go back in with the new widetrack suspension, next weekend radiator and Laminova with oil plumbing, another weekend caliper rebuild, headlight brackets and other small stuff and I should be back on the road in no time

If the springs don't have too much preload you can use 2 or 3 long worm-drive hose clamps routed through the top and bottom last accessible spring windings. Working them one by one you can pull the spring together quite a bit. You will however scratch the paint of the spring.

I did not take a pic specifically for the lowered seat but here is one I took for the propshaft cage and you can see some of the lowered driver seat floor behind it. While that drops the floor over 2" (compared to stock with sliders), the net gain is actually smaller because my Cobra seats are taller at the bottom than the stock Birkin seats. The height is perfect for me, looking through the top 1/3 of the screen. But even my 5'2" tall wife can drive with no height problem whatsoever. However, having shorter legs and arms she needs a special 4" thick rigid foam seat back spacer/cushion for her and a 2" block for the clutch to get the right position for the pedals and steering. She does not use it very often but has been driving with that a full day on some of our long tours. No complaints. If I had to do this again, I would probably avoid the additional floor pan and riveting and just hammer planish the floor sheet to create an integrated pan. http://lh5.ggpht.com/_242PlvPtVpE/SyVWauzVHUI/AAAAAAAAA6U/nIrDeF7FuDM/s1024/P1000845.JPG

Not sure about that one. Once you spin, other traffic can hit you at random angles. That said, I don't have a cage at all :toetap05:

I cut out the slide rails altogether, made a hole in the floor, welded 2 bent steel strips 1/8" x 1" as seat carriers and riveted a 1" lowered aluminum pan under the hole. The seat is bolted through the pan to the steel strips. Overall that dropped the seat over 2".

Ah, something like that is maybe what I need. In the meantime I removed the starboard engine mount and found the rubber sandwich to be completely separated. That means the engine was mainly held in place by gravity, except for the metal cup around the mount. No idea how long it has been like that but I will check the other side today. So, that may have to do with it.....

Thanks guys....looks like everybody is doing this somewhat differently. Another aspect is that my motor mounts may have got a bit soft and led to more engine movement than necessary. I will replace them and try to attach a rubber damper to the muffler inlet pipe so that I don't get too much resonance vibration. I believe it was mostly the idle that did it. Otherwise I will just weld it up every 10,000 miles and replace the can when there is more than 10 pounds of welding wire on it ;-)

Glad you enjoyed it. So maybe you and Jeannie come along next July to Wyoming/South Dakota? The bugs are much bigger there: http://lh6.ggpht.com/_242PlvPtVpE/SmuLDPUq9qI/AAAAAAAAAfo/_ARCLghCYNA/s1152/P1010492.JPG

I have one of these fancy Raceco cans with the titanium shell. Nice light and quiet but after 4 years the inlet cap now cracked the second time around the inlet tube weld due to fatigue. Not a disaster since it can be welded easily (the cap is stainless steel) but quite annoying. I am beginning to wonder if I should do more to reduce vibration. Right now the exhaust is only attached in the front to the engine and in the rear at the side exit tailpipe with a minimally flexible steel bracket. How do you all hang the exhaust? Is there a bracket in the middle and should I better use a rubber vibration damper on the rear end? Thanks.

track wheels: 13" Real Wheels, spun rim, solid dish, no spokes, nothing fancy, just "the works", approx. 10 lbs + tire: "Form Follows Function" http://lh3.ggpht.com/_242PlvPtVpE/THdJAW-W1PI/AAAAAAAAB-c/jMFDPhqqRR0/s1280/IMG_6243.JPG

Based on some smart folks' advice I welded 3 knobby beads to the inside of the race surface and got them out with a pilot bearing puller. The heat shock probably helped breaking them loose. Pretty easy once you know how to do it.:willy_nilly: