Hit & Miss and then I was OUT.

The bad day at the office continued but it did get better before it got worse. As I mentioned in my previous blog I eventually narrowed my mis-fire down to being the rev counter and as such from there on it should have been a walk in the park to fix. (Ha Ha). A new rev counter (bigger and better and more expensive) was ordered and duly fitted in the week after the last race of 6 June. All other minor and trivial checks were diligently performed where after on Saturday the 19th 'Mr Datsun' took it to the track to test and only to discover that the misfire was still prevalent above 7000RPM and in addition he was notified that the Datti was smoking unusually. So back to the workshop it went and on the Sunday it was stripped down entirely. The crank was attended to, new bearings, rings and even valve guides replaced. Urrrr.....what has that got to do with a misfire??? Dunno. The carburettors were stripped.....again.....cleaned.....again, serviced and finally put together again. By Wednesday late afternoon all the parts had been returned and assembly could now at last begin. In the interim I had arranged to have a complete new electronic distributor done complete with electronic module and coil, all pre-wired and ready to simply put in. I arrived that Wednesday evening (due to heavy soccer world cup flights already pre booked closer to the weekend) and by 22h00 that evening she was fired up. This time we had now put back half of the mods that were originally put on and then taken off in search for the misfire we had encountered on the 6th June. All satisfied with the assembly we let the engine run hot where after we switch off and went home. Thursday morning at 06hoo the under carriage was washed clean, re-torqued the head and the new electronic dizzy was fitted WITH new plug wires, new distributor cap and a new rotor. New ignition wiring was also done, an additional earth strap was made and attached to the engine casing. Again everything was tested and all sounded OK. What more could we still do. OH yes....fit the new SQP rev counter. Such was done with great attention to detail and great care to the wiring thereof. Once done a further test was again done and you will not believe it, the rev counter after all of this was still jumping erratically as it did before we started this whole effort that we had now gone to. F$%^^&*ck me what a waste of time.

Ok, calming down, we scratched our heads and started a process of elimination. First we also then noticed the alternator charging light not coming on when switching on the ignition. We disconnected the alternator and still the same resulting erratic jumping of the rev counter. Eventually frustration got the better of us and we called upon an auto electrician to provide further assistance. The charging module was subsequently also found to be faulty and was duly replaced. Now the charging light at least worked correctly. We demonstrated the erratic rev counter issue we were still faced with and even he (the sparky) was eventually puzzled by it all after all we'd done. Even the digital Alfano timer which incorporates a built rev counter was now also erratic as was the analogue rev counter. To cut a long story 'square', the 'sparky' then requested that we remove all external attached devices and only connect the timing light which had its own rev counter. We obliged as requested and again fired up. Smooth as can be. We then attached the new rev counter just bought and there it was back again. Final proof that 2 rev counters later, one used and one new, both had the same fault condition. We scrounged an old Mallory rev counter last used in 'Mr Datsuns' oval track days, wired it up and 'wha la'......we're back in business. It was now 16h00 on the Thursday afternoon. I attached the A-frame and hastily took it to the track to do the final test. By lap 3 I finally confirmed that all the gremlins had now been resolved and parked the car at last satisfied, washed it and put it back into the garage. As my tyres were of substandard rubber by now, I did NOT practice on the Friday so as to try and save what I could of the now defunct slick tyres and of which there is simply NONE in the entire country to buy.

Saturday Morning it was up early as per usual and down to the track. The car was fueled (minimally) and the tyre pressures adjusted accordingly. At o8h30 we had our qualifying session and the gremlins of a different nature were still upon me. On lap 1 going into turn 5 the car simply died (mors dood, vrek) and I was not able to restart it. I coasted into the pit and was further pushed to the pit garage. Eventually after a while it fired again and for some unknown reason which I cannot explain it was OK thereafter. I somehow hoped and prayed it was a shortage of fuel although I have doubt upon such theory. Race 1 was off at 10h30 but somewhat delayed due to a huge oil spillage which then first had to be cleaned up. We were then again afforded 2 warm up laps after the oil had been cleaned up and not having officially qualified or having posted a time I was rightfully placed at the back of class B and as such found myself right behind the HUGE back bumper of the V8 Studabaker, that of Andre Mouton, next to him Dave Alhadeff in the 2.0l Alfa GT with both 2.0l Scirocco's ahead of the 2 of them. I was tucked right up to Moutons back bumper and at lights out I nailed the 'loud peddle' and dived in between the Studabaker and the Alfa going into turn 1 and managed to take the V8 Stud before turn 1. Alhadeff in the Alfa held the inside line goinmg into T2 and I took to his outside holding him right through and I managed to take him going through the 'kink' and lead him into T3. At every conceivable corner I was tail sliding into the corner loosing time and feeling somewhat uncomfortable. I simply put it down to the worn tyres. What do I know afterall? On lap 5 I must have over done it going into T3 and the back simply got away having no grip (or so I thought) and resulted that I clipped the new T3 inside 'shark teeth' sidelining me with a damaged left front lower control arm. Although we had spares, the state of the tyres simply didn't warrant that we make all the effort and possibly have a bigger disaster through negligence or poor decision making. (I have also just been informed while still typing this blog that the likely result of my spin in T3 was as a result of either the lock diff or a side shaft breaking with drive now only to 1 wheel as confirmed by 'Mr Datsun.)

That allowed us to then spectate the rest of the day in T3 in the icy cold wind along with some die hard classic car supporters.

The moral of the story is, The Datsun GX and NOT the driver is still BOSS at this stage!!

A huge thank you again to my boet for making all the effort during the week and at night to get my car back on track for which I am forever grateful. Our next race will be the PE Ford & Friends Festival after which we will only be back at Killarney (by forceful persuasion) on 4th September.

Thanks ' Boet'