September-October 2012
ARB Bush Split
Following work on the calipers to try to solve an annoying knock I eventually found the cause, not sure how I missed this to be honest lol.
They had only been fitted few months back. Knowing that Powerflex had a lifetime warranty on their bushes I got it photographed and sent email to their customer service with all the details they request.
Within 24hrs they got back to me saying it looks like the bush had been over compressed and a likely cause was that the antirollbar was too large or bush too small. Measured my bar and was a bit on the large size (+1.4mm) but this could have been powder coating coming away from the bar etc as I could only measure just before it enters bush.
James Bourn (who dealt with my issues) told me that all their bushes are manufactured on the small size to ensure a tight fit and in my case of my ARB measurement it might be too much for the bush. He quickly arranged for another set to be sent out to me and asked me to try to clean the bar dia down to as close to 23mm as I could before fitting.
When going through my paperwork I later found that the original supplier of the ARB bushes, whom I will not name and were not powerflex supplied the smaller 22mm bushes to me even though Clio 182 cup/trophy was specified.
Cant praise Powerflex enough on helping me here, brilliant customer care and felt at no point were they blaming me or the installation and worked with me to solve the issues. And also supplying me with new bushes which tbh I wasn't expecting. Awesome company.
Speaker Grill
As I'm trying to tidy all aspects of little red I got to work on interior. Since I got it the speaker grill had a scratch on it. Had bought a replacement ages ago and finally got round to changing it lol. Tried changing the heater panel too as the symbols have stared to wear away but that's a job for when I have a lot more patience lol.
Old
New
Fitted
Yanoo Stiff Shift Kit
After years of hiding away I got my a** into gear and got this kit sorted. As my car is my daily drive I decided on sourcing a gear shift mechanism to fit the kit onto then simply swapping whole assemblies over.
At this point I looked at getting a Ph1 gear shift to get rid of the standard base model knob as fitted to Trophies but after seeing the prices and the condition of them it just wasn't going to happen. Looked at buying a new Ph1 knob but again price and availability was not on my side. Looked at Richbrook ones and fancied a satin finish one but didn't want the slant one so looked at the polished finish silver one.
As for the gearstick I had look on here but no avail, onto ebay it was and picked one up for a good price.
Had look around for knob and best price I found was Demon Tweeks. Few days later had these waiting for me at Mam and Dads farm.
As soon as I opened the gear knob up it didnt look half as shinney as I expected and a quick mock up inside car showed it pretty much matched the door handles in car so to save me the hassle decided it'll do as it is.
Set up in my kitchen
Had to take it to work as I found out the knob wasnt coming off. Was in two minds now about keeping the knob on as it was in such good condtion but the usual blue tinted leather swayed me and I got the stilly out to try to get it off.
Eventually decided on a hacksaw and got it off.
Remains of gear knob
Off with the retaining circlip
All out of the plastic housing
The standard rubber housing removed. Theres so much movement here, not only in the material but the fit of it too.
Standard and Yanoo's kit housing side by side
At this point I got a bit stuck. After cleaning and cleaning the pivot ball I could not for the life of me see how it would split for me to fit the poly ball inside. The ball seemed solid enough so couldn't work this one out. PM'd Yanoo here along with photo and within no time he got back to me stating that mine was a 3rd version (later) that can't be split and doesn't need any modifying as it's well made as is.
Sanded/filed down the plastic pivot rings so they fit inside the new housing tightly then got them down to size so that the pivot ball is tight but not too tight (trial and error) Thanks again Yanoo for making a video to give me an idea of how tight/loose it needs to be.
All greased up and back together
Shinney Gearknob on
All done. Now have a new Yanoo stiff Shift kit fitted along with metal gear knob ready to be swapped over and will still have a complete unmolested Trophy gear shift assembly
Two new tyres ordered and ready to be booked into Birchdown to fit parts and little reds 84k service