New Marlin Cabrio

[marlinmick]

Hi All

I took delivery of this little beauty last week brought from a very nice man in Ramsbottom it was his late Fathers car which he very obviously cherished during his ownership. I had my first drive in it today after spending the weekend sorting out a few issues with its fuelling system basically the Weber 32/36 DGVA carb needed a good clean and a blow through of all the jets and passages, it now runs like a dream. It booked in for an MOT in the morning but looking at it I cant see there being any problems (fingers crossed) Incidentally my short drive in it today revealed a few problems for me the seat is way to low and I have to stretch to reach the pedals even with the seat right forward, but that's the beauty of kit cars you especially ones you haven't built yourself you can tailor then to suite your personal requirements. So I already put some 2" blocks under the seat but have now got to play with the seat angle and the pedal reach taking into account the steering wheel position which is the only fixed point, so it looks like breaking out the lathe and welder and making up some pedal extensions, you tall guys don't know how lucky you are!

[dogoncrazy]

Re: New Marlin Cabrio

That'll keep your Roadster company Mick. Must get round to your place to view! Or you to me as you haven't clocked mine yet.

[greyV8pete]

Re: New Marlin Cabrio

Congratulations on your new acquisition. It looks really smart. The whole pedal box on the Cabrio* is separate from and fits through the front bulkhead. My sons old Hunter had originally been built for a shorter person so the pedal box was moved back flush with the front of the bulkhead. This gains about 2” so may be your best option. You could either use spacer box section and longer bolts, or re-weld the attachment brackets to achieve this. You will also need to shorten the outer casing of the speedo cable by the same amount, as that is not attached to the pedal box but to the bulkhead itself. Peter.

Note* - It has occurred to me that the above comments apply to factory built Hunters. Home built Cabrios normally use the standard Sierra pedal assembly which is a different design. A similar approach may be possible and could be worth investigating. Peter.

[wiggiesworld]

Re: New Marlin Cabrio

Congratulations on your new acquisition. It looks really smart. The whole pedal box on the Cabrio is separate from and fits through the front bulkhead. My sons old Hunter had originally been built for a shorter person so the pedal box was moved back flush with the front of the bulkhead. This gains about 2” so may be your best option. You could either use spacer box section and longer bolts, or re-weld the attachment brackets to achieve this. You will also need to shorten the outer casing of the speedo cable by the same amount, as that is not attached to the pedal box but to the bulkhead itself. Peter.

Veeeeery interesting. My Cabrio LWB came with blocks on the pedals, which I actually need being 'only' 5' 8". As I'm currently working on it this is an area I can now look into.

[chris_cussen]

Re: New Marlin Cabrio

Strange. I'm 5'8" and the pedals are in exactly the right place and the steering wheel is also exactly where I want it. maybe because I built the car myself.....

[marlinmick]

Re: New Marlin Cabrio

Hi All

She passed her MOT today with a bit of tweaking of the Carb Air-screw it was reading 4.4 on the Co Meter and is should be below 3.5 but the boys at the test station persevered to get it within spec its final reading came in at 3.1. It seems to run better now as well but I'll keep my eye on the colour of the plugs in case its to lean. Just a couple of advisories, the nearside rear brake was binding so suspected a sticking wheel cylinder through lack of use and slight play on the steering inner ball joints both sides. They adjusted the headlight beams for me as well to get them aiming correctly.

I removed the wheel when I got home and freed off the sticky wheel cylinder, its working fine now. I might get the Test Centre lads to do the rack work because it'll need re-tracking afterwards anyway. If your anywhere near the Derby area I can thoroughly recommend JD Performance, Chequers Road Derby DE21 6AW they know their stuff and they always welcome something different from the norm.

I have a slight dilemma I have found that my Cabrio has had a new cambelt fitted about 300 miles ago but 6 years ago in time! Do I change the cambelt? I think Yes!

I have fabricated a set of foot pedal extenders today to bring the footpads back by about 50mm, unfortunately due to the weather I've not had chance fit them them yet, my garage is too full of previous projects to get the Cabrio in, a clear-out is underway.

Looking forward to a long drive out in it.

Regards
Mick.

[Patrick]

Re: New Marlin Cabrio

Nice, looks really good

[marlinmick]

Re: New Marlin Cabrio

Hi All

I made up and fitted a set of prototype foot pedal extensions today they have brought the pedals into my comfort range and I now find the car more positive to drive (I feel more in control) I had a 10 mile run out in it and found my extensions satisfactory. They bring the pedals back about 50mm. Once I am happy that they are right I will try and come up with a better design that look more the part.
While having my drive out I discovered that I couldn't get more than 55-60 mph out of it so its definitely out of sorts the engine just would not pull. Carried out a compression test and found 3 cylinders at 190 and 1 at 170 so nothing to be immediately to concerned about. A thing that did cross my mind was that a few years ago it had a new cam belt fitted but has not been used much since and from a previous experience with a 650 cc single motorcycle engine when a new cam chain had been fitted one tooth out it started and ran perfectly well but would not pull more than about 50 mph, correcting it later the bike pulled like a train - mmm I wonder! I'm just about to fit a new cam belt this weekend so I'll be checking the current set up very carefully before I remove the belt.
Of course it could be anything but I'll have loads of fun and enjoyment sorting it.

Prototype Pedal Extensions R.jpg

[meverett]

Re: New Marlin Cabrio

You may be on to something with the cam belt being a tooth out.
Over a year ago my daughters Kia just would not pull under acceleration, it started and ticked over perfectly. The problem turned out to be the crankshaft pulley which had worn and effectively made the whole timing a tooth out. Replaced the pulley and aligned all timing marks and it ran perfectly until the new pulley had worn the same (Kia pulley manufactured from cheap steel).

[dogoncrazy]

Re: New Marlin Cabrio

Wheni aquired my last Cabrio [now in Peter Seabrook-Harris's hands] it wouldn't pull cleanly. Started up fine but shunted back and forth at around 2000-2200 rpm. Took me a while but eventually found that the new cam belt when installed had been positioned one tooth out. Presumably , this confused the ecu into feeding wrong amount of fuel to injectors/ignition timing issues.
Once corrected it was a completely different machine!

[greyV8pete]

Re: New Marlin Cabrio

As well as having the marks on the timing wheels opposite each other it is also necessary to have them exactly in line with the centres of the cam and crank shafts. It requires careful checking with a straight edge. I learned this the hard way on my first old car but luckily discovered the error before putting the timing chain cover on!

Note - The above refers to an engine with a single camshaft. Twin cam setting up is different. Also the trick of carefully cutting around the old cambelt and sliding the new one half way on, before cutting the remainder of the old one away, has to assume that the original was fitted correctly in the first place! Careful checking of the existing timing marks before belt (or chain) replacement is always prudent.