Alpine 1968 Renault R8

[Steve Swan]

The rack is not adjustable, unless you get creative, the cars are not great from the factory. Rear hub play is as design, single ballrace. Hubs need to be tight though. Don't try doing anything with the original motor, it's not a Cleon, the Mains and big ends are not as big and the block is much weaker around the mains.

 

[Adey]

great seeing you again Adey, well chuffed you won an award. hopefully RRG will turn into a thing for us lot, been great last few years.

And you buddy, RRG is one of the 2 bigger meets for TR. Attendance wasn't the best this year vs previous but still good. Will push it again next year, I want to try and get along for the whole weekend if I can.

 

[Wheelers Workshop]

And you buddy, RRG is one of the 2 bigger meets for TR. Attendance wasn't the best this year vs previous but still good. Will push it again next year, I want to try and get along for the whole weekend if I can.

Hi Adey,
Good to see that your project R8 is giving you some driving pleasure now, and having read your recent threads regarding the temperature light and loose rear hub, in my 50 odd years of experience with these cars, its the factory design rear wheel bearings which are not very good, they did add another ball bearing into the Meca parts ones, but wheel play is always present as the half shaft is steadied at the box end by the splined universal joints, and the sun wheels in the diff, each of these components has generous clearances from new and mileage does not help.
If you do replace the std bearing with a new one, the half shaft can still be wobbled with your fingers at the box end within the axle tube due to the machined bearing clearances for heat expansion etc.

There is now a kit available to add a double row high angular contact bearing in a new housing, which is from a FWD car, hence zero play at the wheel results.
The R8 has as I mentioned a few messages ago has a tapered cone washer and fairly big splines on the half shaft , when the large castellated nut is loose it galls the hub taper and the cone, effectively machining away the metal faces, its scrap. I would source another std R8 hub ,shaft and cone combo and replace the damaged parts.
As you can appreciate when using 7" wide rear wheels like I do on my Comp Car,this extra stress on the hub can pop up as an annoying grounching sound, but tightening up the big nut is only a short term quick fix, this usually throws up another issue with the split pin, as usually aligning the hole in the end of the threaded shaft with a gap in the castellated nut may require for shims to be added behind the nut, its trial and error. It might be worth also considering using Loctite Bearing Fit on the splines during reassembly.

Regarding the warning light coming on, this is a fed from the thermo switch bolted to the rear of the head, its either on or off, its not a conventional water temperature sender, you will need to tap the water pump between the heater hose spigots [M18] and fit a sender, the R8G has this as std. Also a dash mounted matching water temp gauge.
Cheers
Dave

 

[Adey]

thanks for the info as always. I've still not test driven in to see if the noise has improved. There was no noticeable gauling or wear on the cone washer or where it sat but I've only checked one side. I need to get out and check all 4 corners really. I cant seem to pin point where the noise was coming from when driving tbh. I need to get it driving and hot so it does it again and try and get someone walking along side the car to see where its originating from. As soon as you pick up any sort of pace (maybe 5mph) it disappears

Not in the 8, but I took a drive out to a place today who had some horded R8 and 10 parts (plus a complete chassis rail from a Dauphine) All from old projects so bought the lot so will see what turns up when its delivered Friday. Maybe some parts available soon

 

[Adey]

soooooooooooo

the rear brake is dragging on the rear left (pass side) Got it to make the noise so whipped the calliper out of the way and all was silent. Thats when it all went wrong.....

I think the piston is seized in there as it isnt easily moving back. There's a funny lock nut and thread poking out of the back @Turbell @Steve Swan @Wheelers Workshop whats the purpose of this? the nut came off but the the stub just spins? thought it may wind back and allow the piston to retract? I don't want to squash or wind the piston back without ascertaining what that part does....



Happy I've found the noise, unhappy I may need a new caliper

 

[Turbell]

Autodoc were doing calipers, strangely cheap, mate bought them expecting a faux pas, but they were golden, all four , but think there was a surcharge for old units which was worth swallowing, think we'll have plenty of bits available, up to you, you need to pull piston out, threaded stud and nut are for adjusting.
There's a sequence which I can't remember cos my mind is a mush of useless , long forgotten information....round section seals, square section seals ...blah blah blah

 

[Steve Swan]

It is an odd set up. The piston is simple enough, but there is a snap ring inside it with a bolt and nut That locate through the back of the body. I think it is a means to stop the piston knocking back, remember this was the first car with discs all round, so it was a learning curve. Now that the nut is off you can push on the threaded bit to push the piston out of the body after carefully removing the dust seal and clean it all up. Pay attention to the orientation of the parts ESP. the groove in the snapring if you get it wrong it will trap air inside the caliper. From memory the gap in the snapring should be at the top of the caliper when fitted and the dot on the piston face in line with the bleed nipple There are 2 seal types round and square and they are not interchangeable. Not an expert on these, I tend to throw them away and use something that you can get better pads for.

 

[Adey]

Cheers guys. I've been back out after some reading. Pushed the piston forward and lifted the boot. Greated with fresh shiny piston. I didnt fully release it though. Sprayed in some lube and pushed it back through. I did note that the dot wasn't in the correct place so rotated it around to line up with the bleed nipple. Refitted it all and it seems OK. I do think I actually may have had the handbrake over adjusted and dragging when off? Not totally sure after removing it all but the adjuster isnt in the same place... Piston moves freely by hand now I know I'm not going to feck it up....

Fingers crossed and if not it'll get some new callipers. I've left the car in the air, might aswell bleed it all tomorrow before giving it a test drive.

In other news I nearly have all the bits for adding more modern adjustable tracking at the front. Just waiting on some boots. Not sure if I can do it in place or I have to remove the whole steering rack to changed the inner track rods?



Cheers for all the help guys and thanks for reading

 

[Steve Swan]

You can do the rack ends in place. Loctite the fine thread in the rack bar.

 

[Wheelers Workshop]

Cheers guys. I've been back out after some reading. Pushed the piston forward and lifted the boot. Greated with fresh shiny piston. I didnt fully release it though. Sprayed in some lube and pushed it back through. I did note that the dot wasn't in the correct place so rotated it around to line up with the bleed nipple. Refitted it all and it seems OK. I do think I actually may have had the handbrake over adjusted and dragging when off? Not totally sure after removing it all but the adjuster isnt in the same place... Piston moves freely by hand now I know I'm not going to feck it up....

Fingers crossed and if not it'll get some new callipers. I've left the car in the air, might aswell bleed it all tomorrow before giving it a test drive.

In other news I nearly have all the bits for adding more modern adjustable tracking at the front. Just waiting on some boots. Not sure if I can do it in place or I have to remove the whole steering rack to changed the inner track rods?

View attachment 219695

Cheers for all the help guys and thanks for reading

Hi Adey and Steve,
The rear pistons always stick as they are only 32mm in diameter, check very carefully that the chrome is fully intact on the piston, and lightly polish it, as Steve say carefully cleaning the seal recess is paramount as crud forms there causing the seal to swell a little and just enough to seize it. I guess yours will be square in section.
"BIGG RED" in Worcester [ I always use them] stock all the seals and boots, and I think they also do 32 &36mm stainless steel replacement pistons , The automatic pad wear mechanism as Steve refers to has to be aligned again as Steve states other wise a bubble of air remains and wont bleed out. So the empty casting must be clinically clean and not corroded or scored, re-assemble with lots of rubber grease and pack the dust boot as well. This also applies for the fronts as well.

The piston retractor tool is simple to make, with a 6mm steel plate, tapped for a M10 bolt, you will have to push in the pistons fully home if new thicker pads are also fitted.
I will be interested in any Dauphine bits for my '58 restoration project.
Cheers
Dave

 

[Adey]

Worcester isn't far from me at all and I know of big red. Cheers

 

[Adey]

Whilst at RRG I overheard some one made a comment about the car having some old school gentleman race car vibes. Its was a thought for a look I was tempted to try out for a while now, kind of Cafe Racer maybe.... I've been having some back and forth with @Paul B from diamond performance who helped me previously with stickers and decals on the daily and on the old Dope Dauphine. You would have seen him running around at the Quick60 event in his yellow MX5

He came up tops with these for me I'm liking the look though I may remove the "8" off the bonnet one.

 

[Renny 5]

Love it!!!

 

[Paul B]

Dude, it's awesome.. don't you dare touch the bonnet or I will come to your house and sticker the front of it.. and you know what I'm like I love It.

 

[Turbell]

Straight off Bonneville salt flats....

 

[Steve Swan]

It did used to invalidate your insurance to have Competition numbers on a car on the road. I know these are not that, but might just be worth checking, before anything unfortunate happens. When Liz and I raced we had the same numbers all season, so used plain white magnetic plastic circles to cover the numbers when on the road.

 

[Wheelers Workshop]

It did used to invalidate your insurance to have Competition numbers on a car on the road. I know these are not that, but might just be worth checking, before anything unfortunate happens. When Liz and I raced we had the same numbers all season, so used plain white magnetic plastic circles to cover the numbers when on the road.

Hi Steve and Adey,
I often wondered as to how the "Herpie" VW beetle tribute model was legally allowed to run and our roads as I believe they came with comp numbers fitted as in the Films.
On a serious note, MSA Competition License Holders like us, would most likely be up before the MSA beak if we did not remove our Comp numbers before driving our cars on the Kings Highway, Not sure also as how Motor Car Insurance Companies jointly view the Car Comp Numbers issue on road cars.
Cheers
W

 

[Adey]

I had a look into this and I haven't found anything from a "legal" or "police" thing yet.

The only thing I found was MSA saying it wasn't allowed, possibly in the blue book?? But that was for them and their rules, to which I'm nothing to do with.

I've not been pulled over yet

Need to check with my insurance next

 

[Adey]

Took a trip over to Caffeine and Machine with Renaultsport Wiltshire club. Car ran sweet as a nut, all the noises have gone so the brake clean and handbrake reset seem to have worked well. Covered 80+ miles, cruises around nicely at 50mph everywhere. I do have an issue I think. A small one, I've lost some coolant again, though I'm not currently sure where it is going

here have some pics

 

[andybond]

The last pic is