HELEN FROM THE DRIVER'S SEAT
HELEN FTDS February 2010
Finally up to weight, near enough, even as the Bear makes life harder by insisting I take one of the lighter, solid propshafts.
With all the interior nailed in it really does look stupid in there. It's going to be awfully quiet.
HELEN HITS HER TARGET, AND FALLS TO PIECES
Most-played in the garage this week - Bon Jovi, Bounce.
Injury of the week - knee vs rear subframe mount.
Helper of the week - The Bear.
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And last of all, the metalastic mounts. One of them's bust. Rubber peeled away from metal. They were all new in March. Which makes them an annual service item. £77 for those plus bushes. Yeah, really cheap this roadgoing class you know. I think the rules must be written by people without any idea about running a class D car. We're meant to be the cheap class you know...
We like box.....
It's at this point that the car suddenly makes sense. Even after the repairs of '09 it never quite felt right, and now we know why. The diff was twisting in the subframe, but taking the bottom arms with it, and with them working against the subframe it's no shock it broke. Every time I hit the power the diff was trying to rotate clockwise, and with the bolts bust trying to push the nearside wheel into the floor harder, as it lifts the offside. The boys have been telling me that the car appears to have a diff that's on the way out, but could it be that it's a perfectly good diff simply not mounted correctly?
If I'm breaking this stuff in a humble class D car, imagine the damage being caused to the modified cars, and how many racers are running round with broken cars? I'll wager 75% of the grid never get in this deep. And they wonder why our cars are so much faster? Must be cheating.
The repairs continue....
Extra beef?
The tale is not done yet though, because 2 of the crossbolts that attach rear arm brackets to the diff, and hence to the subframe, are broken. Nearside rear and offside front, both of them broken clean in two and flapping about on their lockwire.
Chalk marks the
cracks!
Instead it's the subframe itself that shows the problem. The bolts holding the diff to the cage show large cracks around the rear pair, which are immediately welded up again, and then reinforced with extra steel. To reinforce the rest of the subframe, inch box - steady - is welded onto the 4 "arms" to stop any more breakage. At this point we're talking about something far more substantial than Jaguar had in mind.
Subframe out, it's a
30 minute job, but it
ruins 2 radius arm
bushes every time you
do it - don't reuse
them if you're at all
serious about this
game.
Subframe out first, the broken cage that so ruined the season has to be repaired properly. And straight away there's a problem. Not removal, that's easy, a trolley jack and block of wood, don't believe all you read in more glossy Jaguar publications about 3 jacks and dismantling half of it before you start.
...and yes, that's the
back seat sawn up and
fitted too...
Yep, that's the tread-
plates refitted.
Door trim fitted, it
took a LOT of time
to make these fit
round the cage like
this.
With the ludicrous messing about done we turn to real work, car prep. We like this bit.
We're replacing the exhaust, maybe the cylinder head, adding body strength, beefing up the rear subframe, changing brake pad compound, fettling some of the bodywork in an attempt to make the car a bit more slippery, there's a lot to be done. Thank God for that, after a fairly bland winter it's good to be back at it.
