The Cobra Adventure
Discussion
PugwasHDJ80 said:
Amazing work OP- love the car and the authenticity
THe kist are so varied- i've always fancied a Gardner Douglas 427 (or maybe a t70 replica) as i love their engineering- you need to accept that its not a replica though....
I remember looking at Kirkhams a while ago which always impressed.
Did you seriously consider buying anything new, and were there any you might have gone for?
I did look at Ali bodied DB427's but at £120k they are too far our of my 'man maths' range......THe kist are so varied- i've always fancied a Gardner Douglas 427 (or maybe a t70 replica) as i love their engineering- you need to accept that its not a replica though....
I remember looking at Kirkhams a while ago which always impressed.
Did you seriously consider buying anything new, and were there any you might have gone for?
his car is testing my love...
Finished work early, weather was sunny, let’s take it out...
Fit the new airfilter and it’s securing stud. Set the ECU to relearn so it doesn’t give up on itself after the filer change.
Crank, nothing, crank fires and dies.
Do this a lot. Get annoyed.
Got into the ECU live feed and there’s no rpm signal. So redo the wiring to that and it starts, but I’d fouled the plugs with fuel, so it ran like a bag of s**t for the first few miles.
Put some fuel in, it starts first time, happy days.
Drive around a bit, give it some and the fan belt starts squealing and doesn’t stop (it’s the original 2004 belt and I have it as tight as I dare).
Then the front left starts squealing too, ffs!
Drive home. Switch it off, and find fuel leaking from the filter again!
Cut the fan belt off, which goes with a proper bang. Then sit and call it a c**t.
Where the hell do I get a new one for a 1969 Ford Windsor..... measure it, then search and search and search, it’s the same as some s**t Citroen thing, bonus, £8 from eurocarparts for a contitech one.
I’ll fit that and attempt again at fixing my leaky fuel filter. Might just order all new AN fittings to be on the safe side.
As for the front wheel which squeals when you go right, I have no idea. The brakes are greased to death.
Only thing I can think to do is fit new top mounts and ball joints.
Finished work early, weather was sunny, let’s take it out...
Fit the new airfilter and it’s securing stud. Set the ECU to relearn so it doesn’t give up on itself after the filer change.
Crank, nothing, crank fires and dies.
Do this a lot. Get annoyed.
Got into the ECU live feed and there’s no rpm signal. So redo the wiring to that and it starts, but I’d fouled the plugs with fuel, so it ran like a bag of s**t for the first few miles.
Put some fuel in, it starts first time, happy days.
Drive around a bit, give it some and the fan belt starts squealing and doesn’t stop (it’s the original 2004 belt and I have it as tight as I dare).
Then the front left starts squealing too, ffs!
Drive home. Switch it off, and find fuel leaking from the filter again!
Cut the fan belt off, which goes with a proper bang. Then sit and call it a c**t.
Where the hell do I get a new one for a 1969 Ford Windsor..... measure it, then search and search and search, it’s the same as some s**t Citroen thing, bonus, £8 from eurocarparts for a contitech one.
I’ll fit that and attempt again at fixing my leaky fuel filter. Might just order all new AN fittings to be on the safe side.
As for the front wheel which squeals when you go right, I have no idea. The brakes are greased to death.
Only thing I can think to do is fit new top mounts and ball joints.
I think I’ve found the cause of my squeal.
Ordered some top mounts, started with the one from the noisy side.
Well.....
There’s no grease in the baring, only sand.... that California life! The baring doesn’t even spin!!
New one on, will do the other side tomorrow too.
New above, old one below.
Ordered some top mounts, started with the one from the noisy side.
Well.....
There’s no grease in the baring, only sand.... that California life! The baring doesn’t even spin!!
New one on, will do the other side tomorrow too.
New above, old one below.
Edited by Waitey on Monday 19th June 10:26
Also the spark plugs are a right mission on the drivers side!!
New belt on, you have to be really strong for that job. Zero give in it.
Then while dicking about I notice the throttle pedal didn’t want to return very well.
I’ve known for a while the cable outlet needed re aligning, it was one of those CBA jobs.
Looks like it was fair hammering the cable!
New belt on, you have to be really strong for that job. Zero give in it.
Then while dicking about I notice the throttle pedal didn’t want to return very well.
I’ve known for a while the cable outlet needed re aligning, it was one of those CBA jobs.
Looks like it was fair hammering the cable!
Edited by Waitey on Monday 19th June 10:34
Soooooo the fun continues.
Go out for a little blast while the Mrs is on call annnnnnnd
Ping noise and now I have no speedo...
Cable is still fitted on both ends so it looks like I’ve snapped it. Check the big book of cobra bits to find out what cable I need and I find out that in 5800 miles it’s had 6 cables..
So, the issue is the routing at the gearbox end, which I can’t change, so I have a few options:
1) Import a $100 custom cable for it to break in 1000 miles ish.
2) Take the feed from a VSS sensor on the diff, like a E36 would, run it through a $300 converter and potentially still have an issue with the 90 degree gearbox behind the gauge
3) Buy a $360 GPS to mechanical converter (not strictly legal in the uk) and potentially still have an issue with the 90 degree gearbox behind the gauge
4) Spend £300 on a new electronic gauge and a gps feed unit
Leaning to option 4 atm.
Go out for a little blast while the Mrs is on call annnnnnnd
Ping noise and now I have no speedo...
Cable is still fitted on both ends so it looks like I’ve snapped it. Check the big book of cobra bits to find out what cable I need and I find out that in 5800 miles it’s had 6 cables..
So, the issue is the routing at the gearbox end, which I can’t change, so I have a few options:
1) Import a $100 custom cable for it to break in 1000 miles ish.
2) Take the feed from a VSS sensor on the diff, like a E36 would, run it through a $300 converter and potentially still have an issue with the 90 degree gearbox behind the gauge
3) Buy a $360 GPS to mechanical converter (not strictly legal in the uk) and potentially still have an issue with the 90 degree gearbox behind the gauge
4) Spend £300 on a new electronic gauge and a gps feed unit
Leaning to option 4 atm.
New (to me) Smiths reverse sweep Cobra speedo is here.
I’ve rigged it up to work from a 12v plug supply as I have a little project I want to try with it.
As you can see it’s on 1547 miles. My Cobra is on 5900ish.
I want the mileage on the new speedo to match. Smiths in all sensibleness make them neigh on impossible to manipulate the mileage (for good reason).
So I need to think laterally. Each mile requires 16000 pulses to the speedo. If I set it to a feed at 761hz using an Adrino I’ve programmed it should set/run the speedo to 170mph... the stepper motor will have a fit if I set it to over 180mph, so 170 has a bit of safety built in.
I need to add 4350ish miles to it, so it’ll have to run for 25 and a bit hours.
In that time it’ll deliver 69,600,000 pulses and bobs your uncle the mileage will be correct on the new gauge.
Should be fun.
I’ve rigged it up to work from a 12v plug supply as I have a little project I want to try with it.
As you can see it’s on 1547 miles. My Cobra is on 5900ish.
I want the mileage on the new speedo to match. Smiths in all sensibleness make them neigh on impossible to manipulate the mileage (for good reason).
So I need to think laterally. Each mile requires 16000 pulses to the speedo. If I set it to a feed at 761hz using an Adrino I’ve programmed it should set/run the speedo to 170mph... the stepper motor will have a fit if I set it to over 180mph, so 170 has a bit of safety built in.
I need to add 4350ish miles to it, so it’ll have to run for 25 and a bit hours.
In that time it’ll deliver 69,600,000 pulses and bobs your uncle the mileage will be correct on the new gauge.
Should be fun.
Edited by Waitey on Monday 19th June 10:36
B'stard Child said:
nice calcs on the mileage correction 
Is there any reason for a "reverse sweep" speedo - Is it period correct or replicating the original equipment
I think my head would struggle with it
For some unknown reason (to me) some original cars had reverse sweep ones.Is there any reason for a "reverse sweep" speedo - Is it period correct or replicating the original equipment
I think my head would struggle with it
I had one in the TVR which was reverse sweep for revs so I can read it but it does take some getting used to.
wolfracesonic said:
You’ve really not got this vehicle clocking sussed have you? You’re supposed to make the mileage decrease not increase
Have you visited this site btw, ERA replicas? Lots of info in the faqs. Love the car btw.
The conversation with Smith's went that way too, 'So you're trying to clock it, but in reverse' haha Have you visited this site btw, ERA replicas? Lots of info in the faqs. Love the car btw.
SturdyHSV said:
As you know the number of pulses, have you got it set to just pulse up until the known mileage and then stop?
Although I suppose even if you overshoot, you only need to do an extra mile or whatever on the original speedo in order to keep things 'accurate'
It’s set to stop on a timer.Although I suppose even if you overshoot, you only need to do an extra mile or whatever on the original speedo in order to keep things 'accurate'
Just over 7 hours left. I’ll be watching it at the end though to get it spot on....
In other news… turns out I had a squeak and a chirp.
Top mounts fixed the squeak.
The chirp is still there… new wheel bearing ordered.
Bearing seemed to pull off nicely, till I saw the inner race was still on the stub.
Had to take the grinder to my small pulley puller, to make it pointy-er. Then with some cable ties and mole grips the inner race came off.
New bearing on, went on lovely.
Brakes all back together.
Took the studs out of the old hub and they were copper greased in! Cleaned all that s**t off and re fitted them in the new hub with some loctite.
Hopefully give it a drive this week to see if it’s all fixed.
Top mounts fixed the squeak.
The chirp is still there… new wheel bearing ordered.
Bearing seemed to pull off nicely, till I saw the inner race was still on the stub.
Had to take the grinder to my small pulley puller, to make it pointy-er. Then with some cable ties and mole grips the inner race came off.
New bearing on, went on lovely.
Brakes all back together.
Took the studs out of the old hub and they were copper greased in! Cleaned all that s**t off and re fitted them in the new hub with some loctite.
Hopefully give it a drive this week to see if it’s all fixed.
Edited by Waitey on Monday 19th June 10:52
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