the life of rolie

[yellowperil]

Hey Pom B
One SU fuel pump would be troublesome, running 2 would definitely drive you to the cider

Good luck with the rebuild/s.

YP

[Pombellett]

I can assure you YP, at any given moment in time, there's only ever one working.....I think they take it in turns to go on strike.
This clip is for you classic car fans who have short attention spans....impressive quality, but I was left wanting more....waddya think?
http://youtu.be/p3TxtzLY35w

[yellowperil]

When I got the Triumph Stag it had 2 SU fuel pumps as well, with one obviously not a factory fitted job.

I replaced them with one of the new electronic versions which I got right on your doorstep from Rimmer Brothers. It has the same attachments, same threads and everything but with solid state electronics in it. I've never had any trouble with it at all.
URL below

http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-GRID005208

YP

[Pombellett]

That's good advice YP, and have been meaning to do just that for quite a while now. Trouble is, the old Riley rather takes second place to the brassy little newcomer in the stable

Talking of which......pop quiz....the gearbox that came with the front cut (G160??), pictured below,

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although it has a slightly different casing, are the ratios the same as the earlier (G150?) box that came with Rolie? We're looking to close the rather obvious 'torque hole' between 3rd and 4th.
Any ideas?

[Pombellett]

Obviously a bit of a grey area then!........so, we've gone down the experimental route. I've bought a late Sunbeam Rapier box, which we reckon might share some parts with the Bellett. If it does, according to the charts, all the ratios will be much closer....it's a bit of a stab in the dark, but the box wasn't expensive, fingers crossed.
Still on the subject of ratios, this weeks Rolie report can reveal that Santa has come early to Bellett UK, Rolie currently runs the standard 3.7:1 diff, but we've found one of these.....

photo.JPG (1.95 MiB) Viewed 168153 times

4.11:1....The theory is, that as we move the power band up, the 'torque hole' will only get worse, this will help, especially as most of the tracks we will go to will be slower than Goodwood.......it also gives us something to do whilst we wait for the engine parts.

[Nappe1]

Obviously a bit of a grey area then!........so, we've gone down the experimental route. I've bought a late Sunbeam Rapier box, which we reckon might share some parts with the Bellett. If it does, according to the charts, all the ratios will be much closer....it's a bit of a stab in the dark, but the box wasn't expensive, fingers crossed.
Still on the subject of ratios, this weeks Rolie report can reveal that Santa has come early to Bellett UK, Rolie currently runs the standard 3.7:1 diff, but we've found one of these.....
...
4.11:1....The theory is, that as we move the power band up, the 'torque hole' will only get worse, this will help, especially as most of the tracks we will go to will be slower than Goodwood.......it also gives us something to do whilst we wait for the engine parts.

Interesting project, I must say... I'll just speculate here from the base which I have "tuning" the virtual version of GTR. (yes, it is still in works, though sort of taking break.) So, take it grain of salt...

It does help acceleration, but unless you get the max rpm up, you'll lose some top speed, which (if I understood right from finnish club forum) is big minus for Spa-Francochamps, as track consists long straights and very long fast downhill section.

The guys in finnish club are better source, but there's ultra short ratio gearbox homologated for GT/GT-R... First gear being around 2.3 or something like that. But then again if you lack low end torque (as you should when getting the max torque up in rpm range) you need to rev up quite bit to get the car moving. Not sure if the gearbox / gear set possible to find anywhere.

[Pombellett]

Yes, you're right. But we do intend to get quite a few more revs from the engine when finished, but also, don't forget we're running on 14 inch wheels, and the tyres we have to run are a very high profile.
Most of the competition cars run in Finland look like they run on 13s and little skinny low profiles, reducing the need for lower ratio final drives...........also, don't you boys spend most of your time spinning your wheels on the loose stuff?

[Nappe1]

Yes, you're right. But we do intend to get quite a few more revs from the engine when finished, but also, don't forget we're running on 14 inch wheels, and the tyres we have to run are a very high profile.
Most of the competition cars run in Finland look like they run on 13s and little skinny low profiles, reducing the need for lower ratio final drives...........also, don't you boys spend most of your time spinning your wheels on the loose stuff?

Don't ask me, I am soon closer to 35 and also Mini freak. And as you know, it's not that cool have a lot of wheel spin in a Mini, unless you are driving sprints like John 'Smokin' Rhodes.

Probably most of the competition cars here are track day cars, not using any kind of homologation regs what so ever, and you are going for historics so technically everything should be like in homologated car had in mid-60s. What's the tyre size you are using / allowed use? 165/70r14? High profile 14" wheels will provide higher top speed than 13" of any kind, so most likely the 4.111 is better fit.

Only if I would know the torque curve, max rpm, tyre size and exact gear ratios, I could test how's our virtual GT-R does with different rear ends in Spa-Francochamps...

In ideal world, you would have every single homologated final gear and enough to change it based on track. Unfortunately we have this thing called reality.

[PR91]

that front cut looks like it's a late alloy head G150, not a 160.
a G160 would be from a PR90 GT.

all G150 sedan boxes have the same ratio's, but the early ones didn't have syncro's between first and second where as the later ones did.
GT box's have better ratio's and are the same as the common Gemini box, but there are a few different Gemini ones as well.
unfortunately Bellett and Gemini stuff like that isn't interchangable....

i believe the very late Rapier's had some things common to Bellett's, but i don't know if that extends to include gearbox stuff.

[Glenn]

I recall seing an ACT white Bellett sedan in Albury years back (Nats) that had a Gemini box bolted up to a Bellett engine.
Bit of a bodge as he just cut out the starter section of the housing.

Glenn

[PR91]

i saw that too, but as u said, very bodgey....
is nowhere near a bolt up job, and hacking things like that isn't allowed in historic motorsport.

[Glenn]

what else is a problem when doing this conversion ?

...... assuming one did the cut-out thing 'better' eg had it pro welded etc

are there differences in shaft length, bearing etc

glenn

[Simmo]

You can bolt up the c-series diesel rodeo front gearbox housing onto the gemini box and it will bolt straight in, looks factory too.

[yellowperil]

Hi all
Simmo is exactly correct with the Rodeo diesel "conversion. Unfortunately they are very difficult to find nowadays. I will be happy to stand corrected on this but it seems that the only compatible case is the KB Rodeo diesel which was an early 80's model and getting very rare to find, even moreso because they are sought after by Gemini enthusiasts as well because it seems(?) that they are compatible with the ZZZ which came out in the early 80's and is still used for rallying.

I found a complete broken down KB Rodeo diesel here in Tas advertised privately and contemplated buying it for the 'box but the asking price was $500 and the seller wanted to sell it complete and didn't want to wreck it ( my dearest told me that if there was another car in the yard I'd have the yard to myself and the house). I was told by a wrecker that $500 was what some people would actually pay for a KB Rodeo diesel box but I left it.
YP

[Pombellett]

Hmmm, interesting stuff guys, I wonder if the Rodeo made it here, maybe under a different name. I'll have a look.
In the meantime I've picked up the Rapier box, and although there's some similarities, I haven't had a good look yet....here they are side by side. Bellett on left.

IMGP3498.jpg (3.32 MiB) Viewed 168031 times

IMGP3499.jpg (3.15 MiB) Viewed 168031 times

My missus thinks it's a bit sad taking photos of gearboxes....I haven't told her I'm thinking of making these pics into our next set of Christmas cards.

[Glenn]

to add to the Xmas card, anybody have a picture of the right Rodeo box ?

a GT box and std Bellett box, too, taken from the side also would be handy

[PR95]

That remote on the Rapier box looks a lot like Bellett GT

[Pombellett]

At last I can issue another Rolie Report, although it'll may only interest the real techno heads amongst you.....we've finally got the drawings for the rods and pistons

G159 (Isuzu Ballet)_PR01_14-03-12 (1).pdf

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1219.8300.00 - Isuzu Ballett - 23-03-12(1).pdf

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They don't mean that much to me really, but they sure as hell look pretty. And hopefully they'll give my Isuzu 'Ballet' a bit more 'get up and go'

[Glenn]

I once did a casting course and one of the 'student's worked for a Aus. company making pistons. They are quite complex beasties (read expensive) to tool up for.

One would imagine this little lot is going to costs many Pounds. What do they say? "Speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?"

All the very best with the project and i hope it releases many reliable HP.

glenn

[Pombellett]

You're right Glen, this is beginning to get pricey, but I'm afraid I can't resist it. Having found the car handles so well, the general consensus over here is that there's a great deal of potential there, and we could give some of the more established (and better funded) teams a real run for their money.
Talking of high value racing....Nick Swift's Mini (pictured a few pages back) sold for £59000 the other week...I think that works out to about $90900 Aus It's probably the quickest correct Mini over here, but it has no real provenance, and it'll be seriously high maintenance, what with a ten hour engine and all.
I'm going to spectate at Castle Combe on Monday. This is the circuit where the first TC63 race (Rolie's lot) is being held. This should give me some idea of the quality of the opposition for when we finally have the engine ready.....I'll take some pics.