Volvo PV444 wins 1957 Petit Lemans at Lime Rock!

[blueosprey90]

Had dinner at Frank Guido's Little Italy in Kingston New York. Next day toured the area with the VSCCA Nutmeg XXV Rally/Tour. Oct. 21-22, 2022

[adammerve]

If the centres are off-centre there is no cure and you will be lucky to find anyone who can straighten them if otherwise OK. 192.168.100.1 192.168.1.1 They can be spun up in a big lathe and forced back in line but you then need to heat treat them as well or they will just go back to the previous shape.

[blueosprey90]

The Old Four Seater, after spending the winter tucked into a garage in the Adirondacks, started up quite easily on Saturday. Took it for a short test ride without incident.

Yesterday, Memorial Day, was glorious, so we took it for an early morning drive the long way to Keene, NY and stopped in at the Dartmore. Then back home to Elizabethtown where we stopped for the tail end of the Memorial Day service, then back to camp.

I had 180 pounds of girls in the back seat, and the car rode with a lot less vibration than usual from back here. My guess is that the springs in the seat bottom need tightening.

The car ran surprisingly well.

[blueosprey90]

Well, the old four seater has behaved rather well. It has been up in the mountains, and I have mostly driven it to the barber shop every few weeks when I need a haircut. I have done no work whatsoever - haven't even washed it.

My dilemma today is whether to take the trailer, pick it up and haul it back home. I will be at the track in two weeks, but there will be a huge car show on Sunday and I think I might like to bring the heap.

[blueosprey90]

I was racing the MGA at Lime Rock Park over Labor Day weekend and did pretty well, in that my three year quest to solve the misfire was successful.




But I also brought the Volvo up to the Gathering of the Marques on Sunday - a day when no racing is held. I'm not a car show person and I made a huge mistake by not making a display board showing the race results of the 1957 Lime Rock Petit Lemans, where the Volvo PV 444s were the first four cars to finish.




I didn't hang around with the Volvo much as I was cross country in the paddock helping the guy next to me trying to replace his blown engine so he could make the races on Monday.




As a result, I missed Matt Stickley who showed up in his 544.




And some other interesting cars.




These last few days, I've been moving the cars around for winter storage. I need to repair the starter solenoid on the Volvo.

[blueosprey90]

I need to get a modern car!

I've been having intermittent trouble with my starter - to the point that I was forced to whack the solenoid hard with a big wrench in order to get it moved out of storage to home. This was a spare starter that had been pulled from the engine by the prior owner, but the newer starter had also failed and left me stranded



and in the swapping out, the old starter was recommissioned.

I was going to try to clean up the solenoid, but tht would take a bit longer than the time available, so I installed the old, new starter.

But, since I needed to remove the oil filter to install the starter, I decided to install the spin on oil filter adapter that i had acquired several years ago. It is a nice piece, but now I am unsure of what oil filter to use. It seems like it is designed to use a filter that is smaller than the OEM canister.



I'm assuming that the filter material in a modern high end filter is much better than what they had in 1957. The after market spin on oil filters that I use for the MGA race engine seem to fit nicely, but they have an anti drain back valve that may not exist in the B16 engine. The B10/B20 oil filters seem too large and will leave a gap due to the tapered outside edge of the spin on adapter.

Oh well, just another puzzle. But I've probably decided to use the smaller filters that I use in my MGA race engine.

[blueosprey90]

As noted above, I decided to install the spin on oil filter adapter that I had acquired several years ago. It is a nice piece, but I was unsure what oil filter to use. Initially I was going to use a B18/B20 compatible filter, but it seemed like the adapter was designed to use a filter that is smaller than the OEM canister; and as a result, I used a NAPA Gold 1348 filter – the same filter I use on the race car.

But then I decided to change the oil - only about 800 miles since the last change - but two years ago. I used the Valvoline VR-1 SAE 20W50 motor oil. Resultant oil pressure was higher than previously – on the 4 bar oil gauge, more like 60 psi rather than say 50 psi. I checked under the valve cover and the top of the engine seemed to be getting oil. I was a bit nervous that my oil pressure was too high when compared to my previous experience. But it appears that I was running 10W30 oil previously.

I assuming that the filter material in a modern high end filter is much better than what they had in 1957. The filter has an anti-drain back valve that may not have existed in the original B16 engine filter arrangement.

As for the starter, I continued to have a lot of trouble. The old “new” starter that I had installed turned the engine over a few times then died. Consequently, I stripped down the solenoid of the “old” starter that had been in the car. I couldn’t take it completely apart, but I sprayed electronic component cleaner on all the areas of contact, put it back together and returned it to the car. I also cleaned the electrical connections – and now it seems to work again. I got the car started.

And of course, the old “new” starter that I had installed and then pulled, worked just fine when I retested on the garage floor.

In hindsight, I'm thinking that my big problem has been with the wire powering the solenoid. I have it connected with a spade connector, but maybe the connection hasn't been good - or that the wire is undersized. But of course this theory may be bogus because I attempted to power it up with a test wire without success.

[blueosprey90]

Today, before I got too cold, I was trying to channel Ron Kwas.

Last summer, I had lost my headlights completely as I triggered my dipper switch to engage high beams. After multiple attempts depressing the dipper switch without success, I pulled over and shut off the car. When i turned it back on, the lights came back - but needless to say, I didn't touch the dipper switch again. Once I arrived home, the lights seemed to work "properly".

So today I tried to explore the world of "voltage drop" - not that I know what that means. Power to the light switch (on the firewall) is always hot; and the switch itself seems to work on a mechanical, sliding basis. In other words power doesn't go through the switch on the dash.

I puzzled over the process a bit until I figured how to measure "voltage drop". Within the switch itself, I was getting a voltage drop of 0.44 volts for the headlights, measuring from the input to the output leads, lights on. I jury rigged a spare switch (not to the headlights, but to a chassis ground), and that seemed to give me a voltage drop of only 0.01 volts.

I suppose my first order of business will be to replace the switch.

[Ron Kwas]

bo90;

VDrop occurs when you conduct Current through a inadequate switching device or connection, when there is a less than good conductive path...I suggest you have a closer look at that Light Sw or its connections/connectors and see what's loose or green with corrosion...if this is external to the switch, it will be able to be corrected fairly simply, so you may not need to replace the switch...and if the poor connection is internal, it can often still be corrected...see: https://www.sw-em.com/Amazon%20Light...ng%20Notes.htm

Thanks for channeling...I think!

[blueosprey90]

In early September, I lost all headlights after using the low/bright dipper switch. I was unable to get the lights to work, but when I turned the car off and then restarted, the lights were working. I drove home without using the dipper switch.

I started to assess the situation a few days ago (channeling Ron Kwas) to try to find the weak link in my headlight circuit. No smoking gun was apparent. I did have a 0.33 volt drop at the headlight switch, and although I bought a new switch, I managed to lose the hardware that came with it. I’m deferring installation hoping that the lost hardware turns up. I also pulled the headlight dipper switch, but that seemed to work just fine. I shot some electrical component cleaner into it for what that might be worth, but I did not try to disassemble. I also checked and cleaned the contacts at the splitter and pulled the ground to chassis (both at the at the left front) and all of that looked good.

I’m thinking that the weak link is at the fuse box. The fuses seem to have a very small top contact area in their holders; and if the fuse is not placed “just right”, they do not carry current. And they are not held in with much “spring pressure”, so I suppose that can be jarred out of position with relative ease.

In any event, I think I was falsely accusing the headlight dipper switch.