First formal outing complete. Including ups and downs.
DAY BEFORE JAPFEST
The clutch was really bad by mid last week and I was concerned.
So phoned around on Thursday and managed to get a clutch that’s apparently rated to 450hp delivered next day.
I also remembered a conversation with the guy I bought the Soarer who mentioned it could do with a rear main seal.
Got one of those from Toyota as well.
Stripped it down on Saturday morning to find some oil behind the flywheel, not enough to get to the clutch and definitely not coming from the rear main. Looks to be coming from either the back of the cam covers or/and back of the sump. Either way that wasn’t being fixed immediately!
The clutch in it appeared to be a Chinese special and probably wouldn’t have lasted long in a go kart (was already installed in the Soarer when we got it).
New one
Got that bolted in (eventually), put some thicker oil in the gearbox to reduce the volume of the whines it makes (future Russ problem).
Then as daylight faded we took it out for a test drive.
Clutch worked great, we felt confident so popped back to the workshop to put a selection of tools and things we may need for the journey to Japfest, patted ourselves on the back for a job well done and headed home for a good night sleep ready for a 4:30am start.
THEN -
Exited a roundabout and nothin! Literally totally dead. No electrical power whatsoever, coasted to a frustrating stop, looked at each other saying swear words and started poking at it.
*Note the appropriate shoes.
A couple of hours prodding at it with my legs in the road and Iain waving a yellow microfibre cloth at cars in the hope we didn’t die, the car was still dead. Oh and it started pouring with rain and we still had to get up at 4am!
In the end I bypassed a couple of relays in the fuse box and got the engine running but that was it. Snuck it home in the dark with no lights or wipers and continued poking on my drive in the rain where my legs were at less risk of being run over.
Kept poking and testing and it suddenly came back to life. Great that it worked but not great that we didn’t know why and had to drive a couple of hundred miles the next day.
We decided to risk it anyway. Had a much too late night and didn’t sleep much with the confidence that we would be spending a lot of time on the side of the road regretting our life choices!