Well.... the story so far...
Saturday:
I'm not sure what I expected of a car that hadn't run for almost 9 months, and had gone through a complete strip down and rebuild..... Andrew had told me more than once during the build that she'd likely chug like an old diesel on startup, due to all the grease and oil used to lube and fit parts during assembly. So, standing a safe distance away, in case any miscellaneous parts made a bid for freedom, and armed with both a camera, to capture this momentous occasion, and a fire extinguisher, better safe than sorry!, I awaited the show. She fired up right away and ran for a few seconds and died, having used up the fuel in the carb, and then fired right up again and this time she ran. There was nothing to catch on camera, no blue "diesel" smoke gushing forth to engulf us, just a little puff of smoke from the tail pipe and that was it! I have to admit, I was a little disappointed after all the build up!!
We ran her for about 20 minutes, she didn't seem to want to idle much below 2000, but once the thermostat had opened she settled down a bit. The engine note sounded crisper than I remember and definitely more throaty.
Later in the afternoon, after she'd cooled down again, Andrew checked out everything on the underside... no oil leaking, nothing that needed tightening etc, so I hopped in the drivers seat and we bled the brakes, checked all the lights, indicators etc, and decided on an early Sunday morning maiden voyage.
Sunday 8:00AM:
Like kids on Christmas morning, we were in the garage and ready to go soon after 8. I'd decided I was taking my Escort and Andrew was driving the Ginetta, I wanted a backup vehicle capable of towing the old girl if it was required!! So, tools were in, tow rope was in, fire extinguisher was in!!, 2 way radios were in, she was already running and warming up, so I jumped in the Escort, drove down the driveway and waited for him to get her out of the garage.... and waited... and waited.... walking back up to the garage I discovered that while we had all four forward gears, that was checked on Saturday, we didn't have reverse! So I pushed her off the ramp and between us we got her turned around on the driveway. The roads were deserted at that hour and I led us for 77 miles on a variety of quiet back roads, taking in long straights, a few bends, hills and traffic lights before finally coming back into town. The reports coming over the radio were good and the pilot sounded confident and happy! Driving along with my windows down I could hear her behind me and I have to say the old girl sounded fantastic, clean, crisp, smooth and definitely hitting just the right note. He kept her below 4000 rpm the whole time. The Imp Owners Manual suggested 100 miles at between 3 – 4000 before stepping it up a little at a time.
At the end of the drive we pulled into the parking lot of a small strip mall (where coincidentally, I knew there was a very good coffee shop!). Andrew took the opportunity to open the rear up and check everything out again.... I stood with my hand resting on the opened "boot" and suddenly realized it was very greasy, in fact, it was covered in a very thin bloom of oil! And so was just about everything in the engine bay, there was even a small amount of oil in and around the distributor.... but it wasn't engine oil, it wasn't dark! There were no apparent leaks, and not being able to do anything about it in a parking lot anyway, we had our coffee and then headed the few miles back home.
Once back on the ramp we were able to determine that the source of the oil appeared to be from the breather vent at the top of the transaxle, which was odd as we'd measured out the exact amount of oil as stated in the Users Manual. The issue with reverse gear was more worrying. As there is very little you can get to from the underneath, if it doesn't prove to be a simple fix we'll have to drop the engine and trans again. On the other hand, we can get by without reverse for a while if we're careful. While the engine was out, we’d installed the “new” transaxle, which was lost last year by UPS (remember that story?). It had been refurbished and built up beautifully be Dennis Allt at TransImp in the UK, knowing his work, and having met him and talked to him on many occasions, we found it hard to believe he’d made a mistake… what seemed more likely was the selector plate was not quite aligned.
Monday:
Andrew called up Dennis and they discussed our issues…. we now have reverse! Andrew managed to disconnect the linkage, and by gently poking about with a screwdriver he was able to slightly re-align the plate! Dennis confirmed this was the likely cause too. The spring is a little stiff but it’s wearing in. As for the transaxle oil… Dennis has heard of this on race cars under very heavy braking. Some racing Imps go as far as having a catchment bottle attached to the breather vent… but we’re neither racing nor braking heavily, so it remains a bit of a mystery. We’ll have to see if it continues. She’s still not idling well, Andrew suspects the carb needs some fine tuning, you have to keep it at about 2000 or she’ll happily stall on you!
Next drive is Wednesday night, when we take her to our local car club Cruise In night, where I’m sure there will be a bunch of gearheads with opinions on the oil from the trans!
RG /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/england.gif
Hi Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
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Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
