Started to Restore My Roadster

[David]

Re: Started to Restore My Roadster

So Meriden 1987, thanks Andy...and here are 3 more from that year

Look forward to any other Marlin pics you may have

Rgds DC

I think I was in the same place in 1985 where I somehow picked up the 1985 Marlin Owners Club Driving Skills Award, to think that I went on to rally for a number of years who would have known. Not quite as successful, usually in the top 15% of the final running order but that's better than last!



David.

[b_caswell]

Re: Started to Restore My Roadster

What's a budget?

Answer " a very small colourful cage bird" or is it a very large hole in my wallet.

[andyf]

Re: Started to Restore My Roadster

That's right, a lot of them ended up in Ireland doing the tarmac events. After I sold mine it got written off at longcross by the coarse closing car of all things!

[andyf]

Fixing the fuel surge issues

At the weekend I decided to try and fit the non-return valve on the petrol tank breather and the anti-surge valve on the filler pipe.
20140906_211810.jpg
This picture shows the 1/2" non-return valve
20140907_132448.jpg
And here it is spliced into the breather pipe. I decided to add this because what I found was that when the tank was full it tended to siphon off fuel and it always smelt of petrol in the cabin with the hood up so I hope that this will fix that problem.

20140906_211840.jpg
This is how my filler pipe is laid out, as with most roadsters it's quite low and almost a straight run out from the tank. The inlet pipe on mine is from a ford escort which has the same ID (45mm) as the MX5 fuel filler.
20140906_211756.jpg
This shows the MX5 anti-surge valve
20140907_132423.jpg
And this is how it fits into the filler pipe.

So it all fitted just fine, the only problem is the the cork gasket from the body end of the filler pipe has fallen apart so I'm waiting for a sheet of gasket cork to arrive courtesy of Mr ebay

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Fixing the fuel surge issues

great idea!

[twissy]

Re: Fixing the fuel surge issues

Liking the MX5 bit, and looks like an answer to one of my problems. Do you have a source for them?

[andyf]

Re: Fixing the fuel surge issues

Liking the MX5 bit, and looks like an answer to one of my problems. Do you have a source for them?

I got mine from here http://www.mx5parts.co.uk/fuel-fille...25-p-2643.html

[Mike]

Re: Started to Restore My Roadster

How do you anticipate the non-return valve working?
It must let air in as you consume petrol, and allow air out as the fuel vapour heats and expands on a hot day, particularly with low fuel levels.

Be careful not to pressurise your tank when fuel levels get low on a hot day......, or create a vacuum on cold days!

The Sierra has a simple floating ball valve, allowing air both in and out, but the ball acts as a fuel cut off if the car is rolled, or fuel rises in the chamber.

The ball valve is the small cylinder on the right, mounted as high as possible in the boot, with the outlet piped to the rear of the boot below the floor using the standard Sierra vent pipe. The whole lot for £2 from the local breaker.

[lil_red_roadster]

Re: Started to Restore My Roadster

Dad had a new SD1 once with a non-functioning fuel tank vent...by the time he'd used half the tank of fuel the tank itself had started to deform.
You need a specific breather valve similar to this...I've yet to find one that fits the Escort vent hose without the need for reducers.

https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/p/roll-over-valve-in-line-with-5-16-8mm-push-on-tails-m-trl88

[twissy]

Re: Fixing the fuel surge issues

I got mine from here http://www.mx5parts.co.uk/fuel-fille...25-p-2643.html

Many thanks, just ordered one!

[andyf]

Re: Started to Restore My Roadster

With the filler cap that I have I have effectively doubled up on breathers so in the case of the tank becoming pressurised during a hot day I think I'm covered. If you don't have a breathing filler cap then a valve similar to the one listed by lil_red_roadster would be better, but you do have to be careful how you mount it if it's horizontal or the wrong way up it will not work properly. By the way I have noticed that my garage smells a lot better now that I have got the valve fitted.

[andyf]

Re: Started to Restore My Roadster

One thing that's been worrying me is that I have noticed a stress fracture in the bulkhead running up from the transmission tunnel to the peddle box. For now I've trilled the end and put a bolt through with a large penny washer each side to relieve the stress on the end of the crack. Out of interest I downloaded the build manual that Steve posted on KeepAndShare. As I thumbed through it I noticed that at some point a stiffening bracket added that triangulates the bottom of the peddle box to the inner wing. This would stop the flexing that I'm seeing which has caused this stress fracture. So, I'm going to add a triangulation bracket but first I wondered if anyone had a picture of one installed?

[h_m_cumming]

Re: Started to Restore My Roadster

Hi Andy,
when I was building mine I new that there was a problem with the bulkhead flexing, particularly with the non servo setup, and I pop rivited a piece of angle alloy right across the angle below the pedal box as I could see the weak point was at the corner of the tunnel.
You can see it in the attached pic. I also siliconed it as well so it's well solid. After 24 years it's still good.
The angle bracket idea came out after i had modded mine.

[stevejgreen]

Re: Started to Restore My Roadster

Not totally unusual as Hugh says particularly non servo models. The triangle bracket was a standard Marlin Engineering fix for the problem.

[andyf]

Re: Started to Restore My Roadster

Unfortunately I can't get a length of angle in there now :-(

I think I have a plan which will triangulate the peddle box to the chassis using some angle aluminium, a length of trusty steel gas pipe with a tab welded to each end... I'll post picture once I've got it done.