Thought I would catch up with all the going ons of this winter.

Last winter I decided to take the blue 027, AM74-5 apart for refurbishment.  The original Farley engine was 4 years old and starting to show loss of compression and leak down.  Since Curtis has retired from the business I move to a local Colorado engine guy, Pete Christensen of Total Precision Engines, http://www.totalprecisionengines.com.

We decided on a new block and rods and pistons.  Total rebuild looks good on the dyno!

At the same time I shipped the engine I crated up the Hewland to go to Taylor Race Engineering.  Handed off the crate to the trucking company here in Santa Fe and on the way to El Paso to transfer trucking companies, the crate was LOST.  What?  How do you lose a 100 pound black tool box in 50-75 miles?  Learned a valuable lesson.  Insure your freight.  I didn’t insure and the trucking company was willing to settle the loss for 10 cents/pound!   Lots of phone calls etc.  Finally issue was resolved when Vice-Pesident of company admitted they lost and we settled on a value of a used Hewland gearbox.

I was able to take a spare Hewland and ordered the stub axles to convert it from cv’s to donuts.  Also that box was a 5 speed and I changed out the lay shaft to a 4 speed.

All of this took and incredible amount of time waiting for parts etc. I probably wasted to much time waiting for the trucking company to resolve the loss/claim.  Anyway May 8 the blue Elden was at Sandia Speedway for its first shakedown.  Mostly everything was okay but a nagging handling problem needs to be addressed.

Red Elden #53, AM 73-79 ran in a solo event last October.  When we unloaded it from the trailer found a broken rear stub axle.  The Hillman Imp axles are very weak.  So I went on a search for an upgraded solution.  The Lotus Europa uses the same axles and several ideas have been used.  Couldn’t find a supplier.  Finally found a sastisfactory replacement.  Still need a long term solution.

In the last solo event the engine would bog badly at launch.  Found timing way off.  At the first race the engine seemed weak.  I bought this as used low time engine.  But to make the story short, wrong jets in carb, timing off, # 2 cylinder down on compression and leak down on # 2 -18%!   Other cylinders at 1-2% leak down.  So sending the head to Total Precision Engines for a head rebuild.

So we are now waiting for engine parts.  Trying to evaluate the shift mechanism.  Went back through the u-joints and eliminated all slop.  But the shift 1st to 2nd is almost 2 1/2″ throw.  The rotation from 2nd to 3rd is nearly 3″.   My Van Dieman FC the throw is 1″ and rotation is approx 1 1/2″   So I’m looking to change if possible.

Next race is Sandia Speedway with SWMS, http://www.swms.org, June 1-2 and immediately June 8-9 at Pueblo Motorsports Park with RMVR, http://www.rmvr.com.  Goal is to take 2 cars to each race.

Will update after the June races.

Today we got AM73-79 out to Sandia Motor Speedway in Albuquerque, NM for its initial outing following restoration.

We got this car from Tim H in Tulsa, OK back in 2013.  Jay Davis a previous owner of this car actually stopped and saw the car several years ago and helped with its history.

I ordered a new body from Marchant and Cox, minus the radiator shrouds.  Car ran good.  I’m worried about those small aluminum radiators in our heat and dry air.  It was 90+ degrees out and I limited rpm’s to 5500 and water temps sat at 90 deg C  and oil was 90 deg C.  So there is hope?

I changed the location of the shifter down an inch and it seems much more comfortable. Can’t wait to try AM74-5 (Falconer bodied) which has the same change.  Change was necessary as the sheet metal plate that holds the front end of the shift rod at the bulkhead was severely cracked  allowing excess movement.

So now into the shop for inspection and getting it ready for some solo work the rest of the year.  Maybe track time if things work out.

Larry

My shop has a very non-level floor, 3/4″ drop in 8′ in various places  So I built some scale holders that have leveling feet.  Each leveling pad is made up of 1 1/2″ angle iron I had around the shop.  I welded a tube on each corner that is threaded for 3/8″ leveling pad.  One half of the assembly has 3/4″ plywood with 2″ high density foam as a resting pad when you want the car off the scales.  The other half is for the 15″x15″ scale pad which is used for all measurements.

I then laid out on the shop floor the wheelbase/track of the Elden and marked the floor for the leveling pads.  Took a large level and established level on the Left Front Scale Pad and projected that level across the other corners.  Put a small level on each pad and iterated leveling the pad to it’s self and its other pads until all pads are level to themselves and all others.  Marked floor for future use.

One issue I had as I began to use this setup pad was that each pad assembly would move each time the chassis was lifted, the camber change would move the pads sideways.  Also I didn’t have a good point to measure and set the ride height.  So I added a cross brace to the pads and that eliminated lateral movement and reliable place for ride height.  Not gorgeous but cheaper than a full setup pad.

I grew tired of trying to align the Elden’s with the various wheel/tire combinations I have.  So I decided to build my own wheel/hub stands..  Took a 1/2″ plate Al 6061, 3″ Aluminum 6061 angle and 4 casters to build my hub stands.

I drilled various holes to allow the wheel center line to move in 1/2″ increments to simulate the various wheel diameters I may encounter.  The hub stand eliminates the wheel/rim and sets on the scale pads.  This allows setting ride height, castor/camber and toe much easier. On the center line of the hub stand is a 12″ bar I use to establish toe of the wheel.

Another problem I had was trying to locate the chassis center line and setting the track at that center line. Once I found the center line by measuring many different points of the chassis pickup points and using the drawings found earlier.

Then made a permanent mark on the top chassis front/rear.  I then took a 6 ft level-attached a 6 ft tape measure on the top of the level, and installed a pointer on the level at 3ft to indicate the center line mark on the chassis.  I then spanned the level across the wheel/hub stands to measure the track.  Using plumb bobs at the end of the level equidistant from the center line, adjusted the a-arms. This is difficult on the front, as the a-arms have a very narrow range to use and I found a pickup point had been bent.  The rear this was much easier to establish.

For more details on how I make this all work please write me a note and I will try to elaborate more.