10CR Preparations (#6 and final episode)

• Check wear pattern on front brake pads and address some light squealing under light braking;
• Give the car a good polish and check tools, spare parts etcetera;
• Drive the car some more and final checks;
• Load the four stages of the route into the GPS and copy the route to a road atlas as back-up (just in case);

Or I finished the to-do-list over the past few days. With the most important item being a proper test drive. This was done last Saturday. And I am glad to report that after well over 300 kilometres there were no problems. Though the brakes still are a far cry from the very firm and very effective brakes fitted to ‘t Kreng. But they do work when they need to, as an emergency stop proved quite clearly! And with this test drive over, it was time for some final checks. The first one being the front brakes and wheel bearings.

I had expected some problems here, but everything was fine. The pads were worn straight and even. So these could be refitted without any extra attention. Though I did take some extra care re-fitting the pads and anti-squeal shims in trying to get rid of the irritating noises under light braking.

Though I didn’t notice something was missing! But that came to me last night when I woke up for no reason at all. When I took delivery of the callipers they came with the brake pads fitted. And as they slipped over the discs without problems, I didn’t bother removing the pads. As a result of which I didn’t notice the pad retaining springs were missing! That explained the squealing and partially should explain the long pedal travel. So first job of the day was a trip to local brake specialist C&C Parts to get a set of the correct retaining springs. And within an hour I was back home, with the correct springs and ready to start on the final jobs on the car. Fitting the springs was rather straightforward.

Though slightly uncomfortable as the Sun was shining directly underneath the car port!

With the retaining springs in place I switched my attention to the back axle. In an attempt to get a firmer feel in the brake pedal I tried the old trick of carefully and slowly pressing the brake pedal (with one brake drum removed), and listen to the adjuster moving out one click at a time, checking if it was possible to re-fit the drum after every click. This to allow the shoes to settle further out, and shortening the pedal travel. In my case I got to three clicks of the automatic adjusters. Hopefully this has firmed up the brake pedals’ travel. I’ll find out tomorrow when we will head for the start!

And while working at the back axle I thought it a good idea to check the axle’s oil level. As the oil was changed in 2015 and the car has only covered some 11.000 kilometres since, it wasn’t necessary to change it. And the level was still spot on! More fluid level checks were carried out under the bonnet The coolant level was slightly low so just for peace of mind that was topped up. This was also necessary for the oil level in the carburettor dampers. Slightly more worrying was the fluid level in the clutch master cylinder. That looked to be slightly lower than normal. But I did remember that while refilling it a few months ago I didn’t fill it till the mark. And as there was no visible sign of a leak I topped it up and left it at that. Something to keep an eye on the coming days!

But while checking the engines’ oil level it looked like it had risen slightly. So for peace of mind I decided not to take any chances and fit my spare pump. The life span of the modern pumps has gone down a bit as the old one was fitted only 5 years ago!

The final check were the tyres and their pressure. As the car will be fully loaded for the run I decided to set the tyres pressure at 2,1 bar all round. Maybe I’ll lower that to 2,0 bar (the normal setting I use for this car) during the run Also found that one of the tyres’ valve caps was missing and one was loose. Both very easy to rectify 😉 And with this the preparations of the car were finished.

In between the work on the car I also carried out some of the other preparations. To start with updating the maps and uploading the route files to the GPS device. This didn’t go to plan, and needed assistance from the GPS suppliers’ helpdesk. In the end it turned out to be a problem with Tom-Tom's internet site. Lost me a few frustrating hours, but that’s sorted now! As is the backup I prepared in the shape of a road atlas with the route marked up, just in case. The final job was to give the car a good wash. And tomorrow around noon we will be heading South towards our hotel near the start of the event in northern France.