Well Christmas has come and gone and spring is around the corner. It still seems like ages away though. Monthly meetings have continued to be well attended during the winter months and always with a core band of 4 or 5 even though there have been no hoods in attendance. Barry did promise to bring his, but I talked him out of it the last twice due to it being his birthday in Dec and we had a drink in Jan. 

Anyway it has been really great to see some faces from those that are between us and the North West area and Sheeny’s tales of his Moss’s re-body saga have kept us entertained. Peter has finally managed to SVA his Super Spec, although at the last meeting about THREE weeks after SVA he still hadn’t been out in it. I think I’d have needed a new set of tyres by now.

Personally I have been during some winter work. My old S7 came off the road in October as the clutch was obviously about to disintegrate. Whilst the engine was out I have taken the opportunity of doing some work. First was the gearbox. It whined a bit in top and occasionally jumped out of 3^rd so off to a re-conditioner. At some point someone has fitted a drain plug. Very handy as it’s not standard on a type 9, unfortunately a consequence of drilling the casing was to smash the magnet that was inside resulting in mangled bits of magnet floating around the box. I’m told this is not healthy for a gearbox. Anyway all sorted now. Then a new prop shaft was made to replace the one that retained a Sierra rubber doughnut thingy. I didn’t fancy it shearing when it’s right next to my leg. A new shiny black one was made by an excellent firm in Bradford with re-greasable UJ’s and to the same length as the old one. £115.00 plus vat, which I though was good value.  I replaced some gaskets on the engine, and then I decided I’ll drop the sump whilst it’s on an engine stand. Then I decided to change the main and big-end bearings. I managed to fit with them with the crank in place so I didn’t mess with the cam timing (the cam is the bottom on my V6 driven by a gear). Well it’s all back together now and I’ll soon be ready to drop it all back in and start connecting it back up. A lick of paint on the engine,  and I aim to have it back on the road for March as I’m due to head off to Wales in it for a trip then.

Back to the meetings, we discussed a different venue in the summer. Not permanently but a trip probably over to Leeds for one month. Might be May or June. I’m banking on one of the members from Leeds sorting out a decent venue. I will try and email everyone and post details on my website. www.lees7.co.uk a bit nearer the time.

It’s a shame that Stafford is cancelled as I enjoyed the early run out last year. I should definitely be attending some of the shows this year. At the least I would envisage Newark and Stoneleigh. Barry and I normally travel down in convoy so if anyone wants to tag along please get in touch. The more the merrier.

Anyway that’s enough of me rambling. Hope everyone managed to sort out those winter jobs, hope builds are progressing well (Will we see Grizzly’s 2b this year??) and happy belated New Year to all. Bring on the spring…….