The Birkin

The Birkin
The finished article

Thursday, December 11, 2008

New Tyres, New Brakes

I had the car in the workshop yesterday, and did a few small tasks.

First up was to replace the rear brake pads - not because they needed it (1200km only), but because they weren't doing much. The compound in there was too hard, so gone with a Mintex racing pad to try and get them to contribute more to the braking effort. Might help with the locking of the fronts if the rear is helping to slow the car more.

I also found a few more loose things to tighten, which to those who know me will come as no surprise. The clunk from the rear (which I thought might be the rear sway bar) turned out to (probably) be the rear sway bar, as I hadn't done up a locknut. Wouldn't have caused a serious problem, but nice to have it squared away. Also retorqued some of the diff mounts, checked over the suspension bolts, and noticed an oil leak from the diff.....

It seems that the half-shafts aren't sealing into the diff, so there some small weeping going on from where the shafts enter the diff. I've cleaned it up, and as soon as the car is down again I may look at topping the diff up.

The gearbox is also weeping oil again, probably from the top plate. I'll keep it topped up as well, then when the engine is out next I'll have to redo the seal on that. Just another step in the process of improving the car incrementally....

The wheels are off to the tyre guy today to have their new rubber fitted, so I'll have the car back on the road this Saturday. I'll be heading up to Barbagallo to see everyone else tear around the track, but I've missed out this time.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi, how's the car going? Or is the blog at an end now? Just got my Birkin on the road and scratching around looking at other people's ideas. Yours looks great - good hunting!

JDoc said...

Hi Patrick,

Yeah, it's all gone quiet, but that's just because things have been really, really busy on weekends at the moment. I have made a committment to myself to spend more time with, in, and on the car over the coming months.

For example, next weekend I'll be back racing (using that term loosely) at the AEM Motorkhana once more, so more videos and commentary to come.

Where are you based with your Birkin?