Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

About 70mph, (I'm told), on the A34 through Oxfordshire.

[Manky Monkey]

Chris said he'd seen a big yellow dog heading the other way. Chris says some weird stuff sometimes so we didn't believe him!
I recognise it though. It's an inflatable advert for the Battersea Dogs Home & usually sits on top of an office block near the Hoover Building, on the A40 going into London.

[Manky Monkey]

Loony says the truck looks like it holds the road well & appears "well planted" on corners. Had one occasion where I took a roundabout a little too fast & didn't have quite enough steering lock to make it round -had to haul pretty hard on the steering wheel to make it. The original Ford Pop steering box is quite a delicate aluminium casting & I worry about breaking it, so might swap it for something more heavy duty, like a Landrover box, at some point.

[Manky Monkey]

.

[poprodder]

looks great andy.  you've rear steer controled by ya right foot!!!  lol

[kapri]

/\ That's how the POS was driven as it also had limited lock , mini roundabouts where always fun.

[Manky Monkey]

Yup, I'm getting the hang of braarrpppping out of corners now!
And safely back to the workshop.
It's rough & lumpy & after 75 miles you know you've driven 75 miles, but that's just what my trikes & hardtail bikes were like. It's the basicness of it that makes it fun I think, but lots more refining to do yet.

[trev]

i really do like the colour of it as it is !

[Manky Monkey]

Grubby?

[spanners]

Grubby?

almost Manky 

[kapri]

What was the timing set to? both Steve and myself said how quiet the engine was, the oil light did not come on at all when we were driving it and even had to switch it off to see where the oil light was. The car was very quiet itself and it seemed like you were sneaking up on people who would just walk out on you (And Steve)
As I said, I would take it home and run it as it is  (Reminded me of driving the Mini, the same amount of leg room and as I was sitting nearly in the back and nearly on the floor.) When it started raining we thought "That's it" but the wipers worked very well and the outward view was very good (including the mirrors).

Standard SD1 timing, think it was 6 btdc ? Have to admit the brakes nearly 'broke' me , we did get there in the end though !

[cunningplan]

What was the timing set to? both Steve and myself said how quiet the engine was, the oil light did not come on at all when we were driving it and even had to switch it off to see where the oil light was. The car was very quiet itself and it seemed like you were sneaking up on people who would just walk out on you (And Steve)
As I said, I would take it home and run it as it is   (Reminded me of driving the Mini, the same amount of leg room and as I was sitting nearly in the back and nearly on the floor.) When it started raining we thought "That's it" but the wipers worked very well and the outward view was very good (including the mirrors).

Standard SD1 timing, think it was 6 btdc ? Have to admit the brakes nearly 'broke' me , we did get there in the end though !

I thought the brake were great and worked well with a nice feel to them, when I built the Mini I used a remote servo, but only after a few weeks I disconnected it as it was too fierce and used it that way for 4 years or so with not problems.
I was talking to Steve today about the steering, it works and with a good pull can turn quite tightly. when we set up the steering on the dragster, on the original car the rod from the steering box to the drop link in the middle when above the one going to the front of the car. This way, there was only half turn lock to lock and you could hardly turn the butterfly, so we changed it over and it got 1 1/4 turns each way, its still hard to turn but as long as your moving easy to steer. Steve said a small change of ratio (Making one arm longer or shorter) would solve the problem,
We would love to be able to spend a day on it to sort out the niggle bits. (Steve said about turning the idle up a little might help with the chugging as, as soon as you put a little throttle on it, it clears.) 

[cunningplan]

Before I forget, with hard work we were up and running again just after 3 and ran to the 5 curfew 

[kapri]

The biggest problem with Andys is the lack of lock due to the split wishbones .As you say a change is arm length would lighten it but also slow down it's reaction time. Moving them inboard a tad would help or alternatively some spacers on the front would give both more lock and possibly lighten the steering due to kpi / cater intersection point moving .

I think both arms are stock Pop at the mo ...Andy ?

[Manky Monkey]

The stock Pop steering box has it's original arm, with a cross-steer rod connected to a lug on the standard Pop link rod between the 2 wheels, rather than to a cast arm on the back of the hub like most set-ups. It's actually not that bad once you're used to it & gets a lot lighter out on the open road. It's only heavy at carpark speeds, where the huge turning circle also hampers things a bit, (I had to do a 3 point turn to get out of Brock's parking spot in the pits yesterday). As you say, it requires a hefty pull on the wheel at low speeds & I worry about cracking the casting of the steering box as we managed to break one while we were building it. Brock's got a standard Reliant box, but Landrover would probably be stronger & easier to replace if needed.
I wasn't there when Chris Eames fitted the electronic ignition, so not sure if he re-set the timing or not.
The brakes need re-bleeding. They work really well once they've been used a couple of times, but after 20 miles or so of dual carriageway driving on the A34 yesterday, I had to double pump them to bring the pedal up when I reached our junction. Kev spent many, many hours -weeks in fact, getting the remote servo system to work. You did good Kev!
As I said, if I could get it to perform as well as my daily driver I'd be very happy with it. I don't plan to race it, (though I did take a crash helmet & driving licence with me to the drags yesterday, just in case!), but the original SD1 must've been a fairly smooth running car for the Police to use them as patrol cars.
I know "many cooks spoil the broth" & all that & everyone has different opinions on what needs doing so it'd be easy for one guy to undo what the previous one's achieved, but I'm happy to admit I'm no mechanic, (I'm a creative genius don't you know  ), & just as happy to accept help from the clever guys. When would you like it delivered to Brock's workshop Tony?!