Lagonda Rapiers

3 minute(s) of a 484 minute read

Peter Meyer has now sent me his "start up" Instructions so once I can get my head around those I should start to make some progress.
Right now I am really starting to feel my age. Working under the car to remove the box, then lifting it up on to the bench has all taken some considerable effort. This along with working to a very tight deadline to get the car ready for shipping to Europe adds a lot of unwelcome pressure.  So far today most of my time has been making a waranty claim for a "Leaf Blower". There is absolutely nothing wrong with either the battery or the blower itself. It is just the battery charger that has mysteriously failed.   Rather than just replace the battery charger I had to come home and return with the "Full kit". So now I have a completely NEW blower, battery, and charger which despite being replaced under the three year warranty, leaves me a nice round $100 out of pocket. Oh yes! I do have everything new and this time provided that I register it "on line" it will have a Six Year warranty.  I just wish someone would give me a Six Year Warranty........

It is the little things.....
Just looking at yesterday's photograph reminded me. Those extral holes in the "back-stop" for the "change gear" pedal have just one purpose. All these little details remind me of "KG's" earlier life.  The arm of the pedal itself deserves some extra scrutiny. Note especially the bolt head.

1-30-2019

Slowly the ENV 75 Gearbox is going back together, hopefully this will be the last time I rebuild of this gearbox. I still have my spare wide ratio box that I will have to put together some time in the future, preferably when I have lots of time to do everything carefully the first time.
Today I have had fellow Rapier owner Bruce Rodgers as assistant surgeon. It really is a little like a most delicate surgery, it is critical that each piece goes back in the correct order and to a predetirmined space/clearance; down to two thousandth of an inch! Likewise it is ultra important that the self adjusting nuts that ensure that each gear change is smooth and positive must be free to run along the threaded end of each "pull rod". I do not know how many of the people reading this would be confident to strip and rebuild a fully automatic transmission. There is probably not all that much difference other than these ENV Preselector gearboxes are controlled by the driver right down to the "change point",  that and of course these are over 80 years old and built at a time long before CNC machining. That they work precisely as the designer intended depends very much on the care and attention to detail of the person doing the assembly.