Whittie

Well, good news is the brakes work properly and feel amazing!! Bad news is the head gasket didn't last 20 laps

It's worth noting here that the brakes were provided as a kit by Beta Motorsports in the US. Sized according to the brake caliper dimensions that we provided to him. So, the kit is good. However, the installation was by a local mechanic who made the new brake lines. I see what you mean tho about the adjusting shaft being able to move. However, it has to have some room to move otherwise when the shaft moves through it's arc (rest to depressed position) it would bind up. It doesn't need much room and currently has too much, but you can't have the unit bound up tight or it wouldn't work either. You are correct that this would be much easier in person with a can or two. I will try and make a video if I can, detailing the current setup and how we're adjusting the unit to get it correct. D3c0y: Just sprints and hill-climbs for this baby - oh, well, regularity too I guess which is as close to 'real' racing as we'll get.

Yes, it's been sized correctly. You can see from the photos that the old man posted tho just how much offset is required on the balance bar at the rest position to get the correct applied pressure position. At no point is the balance bar binding, it's still free to move through the full range, it's just a matter of fiddling with all the adjustment options to get the setup we're happy with.

Bingo, Except it's been trial and error at this stage adjusting the at rest position and the brake pedal position to allow the MC piston to move as far as it needs The balance bar can't fall out due to the pivots of the MC pistons on the balance bar. Adjusting the central bearing (by rotating the balance bar) moves where it is in the black sleeve and you can only go as far as the threaded section of the balance bar allows before jamming on the MC piston pivot. The pivots (silver tear drops) of the MC pistons do not allow any more movement (left right) of the balance bar than the clearance between them and the black sleeve. It is a racing regulation in some places to have a cap on the end of the balance bar, but it can't actually come out anyways unless you disconnect one of the tear drops and unthread it. At this point (tear drop not connected to MC piston) you'd have no brakes anyway, locking nut or otherwise.

The balance bar has a conical joint in the center that is screws through - adjusting the pivot (center line in your pic) The initial issue was that the stroke was all wrong so the front master cylinder was bottoming out without full brake pressure, you can see how now the front brake MC has much more rod length available to displace the brake fluid in the MC Thanks for the tip about the dirt road - will gave that a shot en-route to track to get the ballpark set right.

It's hard to know without experience, this from the wilwood website: Either way, we'll have it 100% working by the afternoon on Wednesday

In the end it was a simple fix, the neutral position of the pedal box was with the balance bar parallel to the firewall, when that is how it should be on hard braking, so I just had to lengthen the adjustment nut on the front cylinder and then move the brake pedal back a bit so it was loose with no pedal pressure. The master cylinders were sized according to the brakes we have, so the proportioning is correct but the stroke was setup wrong and the fronts would run out of travel without full pressure being applied, resulting in all subsequent pedal pressure going to the rear only. Now they're sorted out all 4 wheels lock at the same time with the balance bar set in the neutral position (testing in the local industrial area with the street tyres - so not conclusive). So, some more fine tuning on the track and she'll be good to go.

We didn't know what we were doing with the brake bias adjustment and were trying all sorts of things. Turns out it was WAY out of whack, with far too much rear bias. The result was lots of locking rears, under braked front and hence glowing rears but not fronts. We couldn't work out how to make it any better and nothing we did made a difference, so I just left it and kept going. Later in the week I spent a few hours researching pedal boxes and worked out that the brake mechanic we paid to install the brakes didn't do it properly and the piston stroke was all out of whack. I re-adjusted the piston stroke, which required changing the brake pedal position amongst other things and now it appears to be working properly again. Next outing is Wednesday and item #1 on the list is get the brakes working properly, followed by lots of hot laps, in car footage, photos and hopefully a decent lap time to take home!

I ended up going with Cover Craft and the NOAH range: http://www.covercraft-pacificshop.com/carcovers/custom_fit_noah.html It's on it's way, so I'll let you know what the product is like when it arrives, but $289 ($259 + $30 del.) manufactured and delivered within 2 weeks sounds good to me

Haha, those videos are great! It's worth noting that on the 'launch control' version I just had my foot buried flat to the floor until the wheel spin stopped (and got stuck on the limiter right before changing gears), so it wasn't a fast getaway by any means. Looks and sounds good tho! I think the launch control will be good once we get to grips on the level of throttle to hold as obviously above enough to get 4,000 rpm there is no more revs for your throttle position. In circumstances such as drag racing, this will work fine, however, on the circuit and hillclimbs, etc, the limiter also prevents revving above 4,000rpm on down-shifts unless the clutch is entirely depressed and not just 'engaged enough to spin the gearbox' which is non-ideal as I found out on sunday. I guess you could always turn it off once you're moving, but I've got no problem with punishing clutch's - that's what they're built for!!

Thanks Guys. Now that I've got something, I'll deal with this and start thinking a bit longer term for a decent one. I will follow up on the links above and see what comes of it. Billy, with regards to the fitting of yours, will it cover a bobtail wing and big front spoiler or is it a super tight fit for a standard car?

it's just a thin plastic and I don't overly like it, so I won't be spending much time on it. I have to use sheets to protect the paint, but then it's not water resistant. I will give Repco another shot tho and see if they have anything of better quality that I could stitch down, that's a good suggestion.

The car arrived this morning with a temporary one from Repco. I looked around locally and couldn't find anything and I already had this one (I didn't know that I did, but there you go) so I will take a longer term view and try to get a nice fitted one and hopefully not break the bank

I may give one of these a shot: http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/classic02q02

Nobody has a decent paint job that they keep under a wrap?!

SOOOOO keen for the next one!

Hi Folks, Well my car is going to spend some time outside at my place next week and I'd rather it wasn't visible, or exposed to the elements (or the dog!!), so I'm looking for a decent car cover. I've had generic ones in the past and they were OK for what they were, but this time I'd rather have something fitted and one that won't scratch the paint. Lots of websites claim to sell 240/260 covers, but none show photos of one on a zed so I suspect they're generic. Prices also range from $50-500 so there seems to be plenty of chances to choose the wrong one! If anyone has one they'd recommend I'd love to hear from you. Also, the sooner I can get a hold of it, the better.

Don't worry, I've thought the same myself on pretty much every post that the old man has put up!

Took the missus for a drive through the hills yesterday for her first outing in it. I was a little unsure of how it would go, but things went pretty well I think. Grins all round, car ran flawlessly and she even said "I think we should keep it" You little ripper!

Fan belt in 3. 2. 1.

Video upload is so slow!!! Next one is up here

Video #1 uploaded More to come tomorrow!

Dropped the tyre pressure for a 69.1 60's baby yeah!