Early Imp tests done in Africa

The Imps were tested in places like Canada, Spain and also in Africa.

This was fifty years ago and Imps are still running in Africa today!

Early Imps were tested for suspension and dust control, the rear engine was sucking in too much dust on our dirt roads and eventually export cars were given a 2" air intake pipe from the front of the car to the Solex carb at the rear.

pictures were taken from the Imps4ever web pages, my thanks to them.

Check the dirt all ove the car.

Roy

Cooper Climax F1 engine

Last year and around the first week in Febuary 2012 we had again the Springbok Series Revival weekend at the Killarney Circuit, just outside Cape Town, I used to race a 998cc Imp there 41 years ago and in the same event came second in my class.

The Coventry Climax name is a direct link to the Imps engine of course.

Cooper Climax by John Cooper, photos by Roy McBride.

I am sorry to tell you that the event was cancelled for 2013, what a loss to the South African race callender.

Roy

Imp, Singer Chamois goes to the beach

Seen here at the car park that serves the Hout Bay beach area, our 1967 Singer Chamois looks new in the early morning sunshine.

The car is on the light coloured brick pave, not the sand!

http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-new-discovery-lost-hbyc-club-house-is.html

Check the link for the full story, plus many more pictures.

Hout Bay, is at the rear of Cape Towns Table Mountain, South Africa.

Roy

Roys Imp at the Killarney race circuit sprint

In this picture, the Imp is the Argus series class F car, built up and driven by the owner/driver Roy McBride.

The car was banned from the Argus series due to having twin Webber 40 dcoe carburetors, the Argus class rules allowed only as many chokes as the cars maker sold the car with.

Who is driving the sports special, who is the guy at the back of the cars, who is the lady with the nice legs, she was one of the organisers on the day.

The period was around 1972?

A Mk1 Imp engine is a runner

After some weeks of slow work, the eventual outcome was success and an engine that starts first time. Work done was to strip and clean the engine, two days work before the bead blasting process alone!

Weeks of soaking the pistons, first in petrol and diesel which did nothing to release the piston rings and gudgeon pins, then two weeks in an oxalic acid solution. This saw sucess and
 the 0.030"over sized pistons could be cleaned, they were in good condition and the rings were near perfect when cleaned up.

This is not that engine, Google will not allow access to my recent pictures files, this was in a Picassa file with some of my own pictures in it.

The picture is of my own Mk1 Hillman Imp 998cc race engine and around 1972 when I raced the car at Killarney Circuit, Cape Town. The Mk1 block and very early cylinder head are a close match to the engine I have just rebuilt.

Very few Imps came out with this cylinder head patern, they were on the early 1963 cars we think and not for long.

The engine number on the Mk1 now restored is B41/1/501572 WSO, the last three letters mean its an  export en
 

Bench testing a re built Mk1 Hillman Imp engine.

Having rebuilt Imp engines many times I have never then set it up on the bench and test run it, I always placed the motor back in the car and did it that way. Whats involved and what are to pros and cons of doing the bench test?

Number one is just who clean and accessable the engine is. This engine is destined as a display engine and has no actual car to be fitted in, so in this case I have time to spare to work slowly through the test.

The engine is a very very early Mk1 Imp engine and dated 1963, its number is B41/1/501572 WSO the wso means its an export engine and the 1572 means thats the number of engines built to that time.

Test one was to ensure all the oil galleries were filled, once the Shell Oil was in the sump and I had turned the engine over, the oil filter bowl had taken its fill and the sump could be topped up.

Next is to make a jig to offer better support, then do electrical connections, fit a small petrol tank and fire up the motor! Its now 49 years old by the way, it will become 50 years old after the Imps launch date which was May 3rd 1963, this engine will be from that early series.



Roy

Imp transaxle spiders

This subject is probably unknown to many Impers?

Only the very early transaxles had the captive spiders as far as I know, just as well, its impossible To service the seals without taking the large nut off on those boxes, I wonder who thought that idea out?

Note the differences on the corners, the one next to the camera has sharp corners which are best removed if serious hard work or rough roads are expected, as the sharp corners will bite into the rubber drive coupler.

An early Imp drive spider, note the groove at the end of the shaft, the groove held a circlip which stopped the shaft from being removed from the transaxle, only the early Mk1 boxes had this?

The later shafts looked like this and could be removed from the transaxle so that the lip seal could be replaced.

The early shaft with its circlip groove.

Roy

A comment in from an expert is below:

Roy,

I have seen some of the spiders with the the large nut to hold them together.

The spider is also locked into the transaxle by a circlip cut into a groove on the inner spline.

I hope we are not getting confused,over this.

My warning was about the end of the half shaft coming from the rear suspension to the donut.

The end has sharp edges from the way it was forged.

Because it moves in relation to the donut, the sharp edes cut into the donut.

Donuts usually break when the car is accelerating hard, putting a lot of load on the donut, then the donut is also twisted by a lot of compression or droop on the suspension.

The other circumstance is rally stuff, where one wheel is say dropped into a hole and spins, then suddenly finds grip.Then the sequence above kicks in, and the donut shears. The sharp edges will cut and nmake this happen sooner.

So make the end of the drive shaft look like the middle spider and not the one nearest to the camera.

PS Also avoid racing, rallying or anything which might cause exceitement..............life gets so boring.

   

Regards, 

Colin

Colins picture, which was what started the discussion.

You can do this with the shaft still on the car easy enough with a mini grinder and suitable disc, wear the correct eye protection!