83 Triumph Acclaim Sprint

Closing on 3.0 KG I would think

Years of fixation on power to weight ratios.

Today I have been measuring and making poor choices.

A conversation with a chap on the book of farce, led me down a path I didn't expect, so I was telling this guy about the flow bench testing I had done with DS's help, and he swears blind his engine needed more air and the air box was the restriction, I was a little sceptical, until I realized I had taken my modified twin inlet air box to test not a standard one, bum hats. So how come his engine needs so much air, I don't hear you ask, well he's found that a late 70s civic 1500 has a 74mm piston has the correct gudgeon pin size, and there's a few sets in the US on eBay

Ooh I thought, that might be worthwhile 1428cc that's almost 100ccs more and a healthy hike in compression ratio, but then I thought head gasket, how big is the fire ring, and today I measured it to be 74mm, so today I purchased a set of 4, 74mm pistons with rings and pins for £120.
Oops
Dan

For some time I've felt Frank didn't seem quite quick as he once was, today was the Maple Garage Auto Test and I found Frank's fizz.
Yesterday I got Frank ready, which wasn't much, I checked the oil level and decluttered the interior, fitted a standard exhaust manifold to quieten the exhaust a little and swapped out the 195/50/15s 5 spoke wheels for some 195/50/14 minlite style wheels. BINGO, what a difference they made, 80mm rolling radius and 15mm smaller in diameter = different car.

Today at the Auto Test I had so much fun hooning around, but seeing as I was with 3 stripped out Novas, a Mini, well a Mini floorpan and bulkhead, a Caterham, a stripped out MX5 and Toyota Yaris all with limited slip diffs and hydraulic handbrake conversions. No surprise that I came last, over all, in my road going Acclaim, But first in class.
It's making me rethink Frank's future.

Not being one to give up any holiday day owed to me, I took my last one of the financial year today. I was hoping to take the Mrs away for a long weekend, but our son came home Saturday afternoon, having driven back from Swansea to drop his car off before leaving for that there London, on Sunday afternoon, so that didn't happen.

Craig had decided to take up a last minute bargain holiday in Turkey, so I couldn't put down the floor in Tina's garden office, so I went to the scrapyard (u pull it york) and spent a not too disappointing afternoon acquiring parts, this is what £70 bought me


the complete rear brakes from a Honda Jazz mk1

I had hoped to use Mk2 jazz rear brakes as measuring mine the wheel flange to axle flange appeared to be within 2mm of the acclaims, but when I got to the breakers, I found the stub axel is part of the rear beam so no flipin use, but the Mk1 stub axles are bolted on, the flange to flange is more like 4-5mm more than the acclaim, I think there will be enough room for the tiers, if not ill roll the arches further out.

The stub axle bolts holes almost line up too




I'm not sure how to proceed with this bit, options I can think of,

A file it out with a round file.

B fill the whole with some bar stock and re-drill

C send it to a machine shop for them to fix.

Brake hoses should be fairly easy the acclaim has braided hoses, if I can find a 90 deg banjo to brake fitting adaptor to join them or ill get the rear hoses remade.

What I thought was going to be the biggest problem the handbrake, all the handbrake cables at the U pull it were seized or had the car parked on top of them, new sets are £60, I also picked up the handbrake and the bolt on cable clip that holds the ends of the cables, it looks like if I can lengthen the adjuster to go through the floor with a tube nut and some all thread that will put the balance bar on the outside it should all work rather nicely.

Master cylinder I fetched a 7/8's one from the same car but didn't pick up the brake booster and of course, it doesn't fit the acclaim booster so ill have to order one of those too.

Any thoughts are as always welcomed.
Dan

Option C sounds sensible - some quite big forces going on - going to modify the Jazz or acclaim bits to fit ?
James

I've been reading up on rust removal, and came across reverse electrolysis, I have a plastic bucket, plenty of steel and a power supply, the only thing I was missing was some washing soda, £1.10 later and the necessaries are in my possession.
So I put this


along with the rest of the parts in turn, in here


this fell off


then all went for a blast in here


and ended up looking like this


I got an acclaim rear strut out of storage and had a play

The only way I can see to make it fit, means having to take the caliper off to bleed it, but thats not the end of the world.

Here's my pln

First the back of the acclaim knuckle needs a spacer making to fill the 42.25mm locating hole and a new one drilling out at 20mm to a depth of 10mm to suit the jazz locating pin

the recess in the back of the original locating hole is about the right depth, it just needs squaring off.

Get the face of the jazz spindle milled down a couple off mm to an even clamping surface,

for a 5mm thick spreader plate, to bolt it to the knuckle and drill the jazz spindle out to the new bolt pattern.

Please discuss.
Dan

thanks cord

A Little update, on Sat 15th May I ordered some parts for Frank, A bottle of Aldi's Jammy Red may have been involved in the decision.
I ordered, A Gasket and a seal and bearing kit for Frank's gearbox, a NOS engine mount, and an M Factory helical limited slip diff from Civic Garage in Australia and as they were out of stock a pair of Super Pro inner poly bushes for the lower front suspension arm from a place in Yeovil.
The gasket bearing and seals arrived from the other side of the world 5 days later on the same day the poly bushes arrived from Yeovil, go figure.
Then today 13 days after ordering, this arrived