Vintage Race Prep

Finally, I get to start on preparing the Fairlady for the next Vintage Race Series that's organized by the Manila Sports Car Club. The first leg will be on July 22. A lot of things have been done, but today I started on the steering and braking components before having the wheel alignment done.

 The left front tie rods are already worn. Definitely needs replacing.

Disassembling and checking the steering and suspension components just took less than an hour. The mechanic was pretty fast and very experienced!

Definitely, one of the culprits for the steering play...a worn-out tie rod. The right side of the steering and suspension components were still in good shape.

Toyoda Gosei (a Toyota brand) brake hose to replace the cracked old ones. It says in the packaging that's it's guaranteed for 40,000 kms. I hope so! But it does look like a good quality product

 The mechanic installing the new brake hoses for both sides.

Brand new brake hoses. I really feel safer already...especially after seeing the old hoses previously installed in the Fairlady!

Brake hose part number for future reference. The fittings are standard size in metric.

 SAE rating printed on the hose.

 This is the old front brake hose. It's really really worn out and it's full of cracks on the surface of the rubber. The rubber also has hardened already. Very unsafe indeed!

 It's full of cracks! And the fittings are starting to rust!

I also replaced the DOT 3 brake fluid with a much better quality and higher boiling point fluid by Wurth. It's DOT 4 rated and exceeds U.S. requirements (+250C dry boiling point, +160C wet boiling point), which offers a bit more margin of safety especially when racing around the track the whole day.

We had to bleed all four brakes to be sure that the new DOT 4 fluid gets to the entire brake system. Good exercise!

 Cool NGK sticker that I got.

It was hard to find a replacement part for the tie rod ends so I had to bring to a reputable machine shop to have them pressed. The pressed tie rod end.

 This linkage connects the steering box to the idler box. Both ball join ends needed to be pressed.

 Worn out rubber boots.

The rubber boots need replacing. I was able to buy P15 boots to replace the torn ones. These are locally manufactured boots made by TCL with part number TC-444(also the same manufacturer of the brake seals/rebuild kit I use on the Sumitomo-Dunlop calipers). I got spares as well. Good buy!

The pressed tie rod ends for the front left for the steering system. The front right tie rod is still in good shape along with the upper and lower ball joints.

I also adjusted the steering box to lessen the play. Steering feels much tighter now with a bit of play as recommended by the factory specs. I can't wait to test drive the Fairlady!

 

 Tools needed to adjust the steering box - 11/16" socket wrench, box wrench, long screw, and a pliers.

 New rubber boots being fitted to the tie rod ends.

Tie rod linkage being installed.

I also got to repair the brake master leak a few weeks ago. I had to remove the reservoir to get to the rubber seals. One of the seals was worn due to some rust in the brake master. I just cleaned it and reinstalled the reservoir with a bit of automotive silicon sealant. So far no leaks.

 Brake master still in good working condition...it would be a waste to replace it immediately. The culprit was just the rear rubber seal holding down the reservoir.

R16 engine start-up

I also did a tune-up for the R16 motor. Plugs were still clean. I just had to balance the twin carburetors, since idle and acceleration was a bit rough. It's much better now and less backfire through the exhaust.

NGK BP6ES Spark Plug

The plug on cylinder 1 shows a good burn indicated by the light brown/tan on the electrode ceramic tip.

The plugs on cylinders 2-4 show a lean burn in the combustion chamber. Will definitely keep an eye out on these plugs and the jettings. The engine might overheat with a too lean fuel/air mixture. At least these are not fouled. I also had a nice high speed test drive with up to 4,500 rpm on the highway (approximately 145kph) with smooth acceleration and cruising. Steering still needs some adjustment though...a bit tight from the newly pressed ball joints on the tie rods. I also got to use also Petron's new Blaze 100 octane formulation which is Euro 4 compliant. I felt better acceleration and engine response from the R16 engine.