Preparing a Mark II Zephyr for Racing
Part 2 of a continuing series
In the last episode, we were waiting for the engine to be
finished. After more delays waiting for an oil pump, Philp
Brothers completed their part of the job. The partly
assembled engine was delivered back to Joe's for
installation on Monday 29th November, around 8 weeks after
it left.
Joe thought he would have it finished on Tuesday - nope, not
Wednesday either, as he broke a stud and a flywheel bolt.
Should be ready Thursday night, so I arranged to have Friday
off to get a pink slip and get it registered. Rang Friday
morning at 10am, still "a bit of a problem". When I went up
they were trying to stop the bypass tube from leaking. That
was eventually fixed after Joe had to go and get new 'O'-
rings and then filled it up with silicone. The next hurdle
was trying to fit the new rotor in the distributor. It was
too loose - apparently sometime in the past 36 years,
someone had a non-standard rotor so filed out the slot in
the dissy shaft. Joe pulled one out of one of his Mk I's
and that was fixed. The big moment arrived - time to start
the engine (3 pm by this).
The starter motor wouldn't turn the engine over!! We took
it out and it looked as if it had been overhauled in recent
times as the sticker and wiring looked new. Joe took a
started motor out of the Mk I but it was a different shape.
I then went to an auto-electrician to see if he had a
replacement; no luck. By this time it was 5pm. I made a
few phone calls and finally found that Isabel at Blacktown
had a Mk III that she was wrecking - luckily she had the
starter motor.
Back to Joe's early Saturday morning, fitted the starter and
after a bit of a struggle, the motor fired!! Hoo-bloody-ray!!
Joe then had to set tappets and timing etc, other fiddley
bits before it ready to roll at 10am.
My usual garage doesn't do Pink slips on Saturdays so went
to another nearby. The mechanic is a young fellow who has
an EK Holden (1963), so was interested in the Zephyr. He was
fairly lenient with the condition of the balljoints - put a
grease gun on them to tighten them up, replaced a bulb in the
parking lights and then out for the road test. He has one
of these new computerised brake testers which has a switch
which sits on top of the brake pedal to measure the amount
of effort. After finding a flat bit of road, he then tried
to set up the computer. It had an almost flat battery as it
kept resetting itself. He couldn't complete the test as once
they start using the computer, they can't go back to the old
G-meter.
I then tried to find a garage that would give me a pink
slip, all the way to Hornsby without success, so had to wait
until Monday when I returned to my usual garage. Here there
were no problems so I was on my way to Cammeray RTA with
Pink Slip in hand. All the Inspector had to do was check
the engine and chassis numbers and I was issued with new
plates.
It was Monday 6th December, more than 4 months after buying
the car.
During the running-in process I took it to Newcastle and it
went quite well although I didn't push it too hard, but it
pulled up the hills quite strongly and sat on 60-65 mph
easily.
The next thing to need fixing was the front suspension, so I
took it in for alignment and fitting of new rubbers. This
made a big difference to the handling, particularly on
bumps. It still needs stiffer struts in the front and the
rear lever shocks aren't too good either.
The gearbox then started playing up with the synchro not
doing much and jumping out of second gear on over-run. I
bought another box and took it to Joe as I didn't have the
knowledge or the time to do it myself. He pulled it apart
and found that the extension seal was no good, and that the
bearings weren't too good either. I rang Yesterford and
ordered the parts, asking that they be sent Express
overnight. That was Monday 17th Jan. The parts didn't
arrive on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday!!!!!
On Friday morning, I waited 'til 8:30 and rang the Post
Office before going to work - still not there!!! Joe had
been expecting the parts and put other work off so that he
could finish it. I decided to take the day off and see if I
could get the parts myself. I rang Gardiners at Carlton and
they had the extension seal and the rollers but not the
bearings. CBC had the front bearing (Joe had the back one
amongst his many spares). This took until 1pm
to chase up. Got them back to Joe who tried to heat-shrink
a protector ring over the circlips to stop them from
breaking. His stock of rings was low, and didn't have the
right sizes, so I had to go without.
I then had to go and get paint and thinners for the painting
arranged for the weekend. When I got back to Joe's, the
gearbox was still in bits and he was inside doing bookwork.
I stressed the need to have the car mobile that night and he
said he would do his best. I rang at 9pm to see how it was
going, he had just returned from somewhere and was working
on it. I went up to give him a hand, and we had it
assembled at 11pm. This included putting a new spring in
the selectors to stop it jumping out of gear. Joe was tired
so that was it for the day. Then he told me he had to go
somewhere in the morning if it was fine!!
I didn't sleep very well that night and when I woke in the
morning I saw the sun shining - I knew Joe wasn't home. I
then had to ring the other Joe who was going to paint the
car and explain that I wouldn't be there at 8:30 as
promised. He was annoyed because he had put off
other work to do mine. I said it would be there at lunchtime
and that if the car wasn't painted this weekend then there
was no point, as I couldn't put it on the track the way it
was. He agreed to do it if I got there by lunch. I rang Joe
at 9, 9:10, 9:20 ... until 10:10 when he answered. He was
just about to put the box in, so I went up to help. We
finally had it in, with a new pinion seal at 12:00.
Out for a road test and guess what - still jumped out of
second!! There was no time to worry about that, I had to get
to the other Joe. He did a great job despite my lack of
preparation, at least it was glossy even if there were lumps
and bumps underneath.
Back to Joe for the gearbox - an even stronger spring and
rivet cured the problem so I was ready to race!
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