fruitbat
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Posts posted by fruitbat
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I'm not sure whether the metalwork in the front of the caddy is that different from the Mk1 hatch, but I successfully fitted a Mk2 front bumper to my Mk1 hatch without fitting the whole of the Mk2 front end.
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Safety Devices will only make them in batches (I think 10) now... I have a weld in one from Custom Cages, it was about £500, but as Jim says for National stuff you could easily make your own, although I think it's best to have a decent one with everything tied into it - safer and makes the car handle way better.
I'm not sure that's true, Darren. I bought a new Safety Devices cage for my Felicia in 2009. It took a good few weeks to come, but I only ordered one.
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James do you get any problems at full lock with those 4pots on there? Do they bind anywhere?
No, not so I've noticed anyway. I did have to change to 14" wheels to fit them in - I used the smaller Powerlite calipers on the old car, which were too small for a car as heavy as the skoda - I think they are really for lightweight kit cars and the like
cheers
James
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What brakes are you using upfront James?
I've got Wilwood Midlite 4-pot calipers on custom brackets, with 256mm vented discs off a post-2001 ABS-equipped Hyundai Getz (they fit straight on to the Skoda hubs - same stud pattern, centre bore and even the little grub screw lines up)
Not really tried it all in anger yet - hoping to get an entry in for the Lindisfarne rally on Otterburn on 11th September.
Cheers
James
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I'm running Golf GTi rear disks on my rally Felicia. Used the Felicia handbrake cable (golf one is far too short) but I shortened it at the caliper end by cutting off the crimped ends and welding on some new ones. Making up a spacer would work just as well I guess.
I'm running an Audi 200 master cylinder (23.8mm, as opposed to the standard 22mm).
cheers
James
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The 25mm Audi M/C that Tom mentioned is both cripplingly expensive and rare as rocking horse droppings. Th 23.8 mm one is a bit easier to come by (I found mine on ebay). The non-ABS MC is 22mm, IIRC.
Plumbing a two-outlet MC just requires a bit of extra pipework - I used a T-piece and made up a small length of copper brake pipe to connect it to the MC outlets.
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You could try either an ABS Felicia master cylinder or one off an Audi - the part number is 4A0611021D - both are bigger than the standard non-ABS felicia MC. The audi one is 23.8mm, think the Felicia ABS one is too. It's not a straight swap though - both have only two outlets.
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I usually just hammer a ball-joint splitter (The fork type) between the bottom of the hub carrier and the top of the ball joint. Have you removed (if it's fitted) the anti-roll bar link?)
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James: Did you have to get the input shaft pressed apart to change 3 and 4?
I don't know. I had Steph at MST build it all up for me, service my gripper diff and build it all into a newly bead-blasted case all at the same time - he did an excellent job for not much money - one of the new gears needed some grinding (which Steph explained was not unusual) to make it fit.
Even though I've moved up to 14" wheels, the lower gearing is quite noticeably on the road - 4th and 5th are much more useable now.
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I bought some parts from Ivan Sixta in Czech - a 4.24 final drive and lower ratio pairs of cogs for gears 3, 4 and 5 for my Felicia rally car. They are from the Fabia Challenge specification gearkit, apparently...
Sixta was helpful - he doesn't speak English, but he will reply to an email in English eventually - his son speaks English, but doesn't live with him, so it takes a little while before he replies!
However, I'm pretty think they are all standard skoda parts from the Fabia 1.4 MPI gearbox and (if you can find them) Fabia 1.0 gearbox (not sold in the UK, but had a 4.86:1 final drive).
I believe that the standard ratios are 3.308, 1.913, 1.267, 0.927, 0.717 and the lowest final drive in the Felicia box is 4.118:1
Mine are now 3.308, 1.913, 1.357, 0.975, 0.795 and 4.24:1. A useful improvement without going the whole hog and fitting one of these (which would be much better, undoubtedly)...
Cheers
James
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You shouldn't have to pay any extra duty or tax to import something from Czech. They're in the EU. I bought some HP Sporting shocks - just paid the price on their website plus postage.
They do answer emails in English, but they prefer German.
Cheers
James
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If your Dad's car hasn't got fuel injection, then it's is a carburettor you need, not a throttle body.
However, I've never seen a carb-fed Felicia in the UK, so although I could be wrong, I suspect that your mixing up the throttle body for the single-point injection felicia, and the post-97 Multi-point injection ones. As far as I know, the TB's are different between the two models.
Cheers
James
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I'd guess that your problem is a combination of front wheels that need balancing (the wobble) and the tracking being out (the pull to the left).
I think it's very unlikely to be a bent driveshaft - for a start, the Skoda shafts are pretty strong, and second the vibration from a bent shaft would be unbearable at all speeds, and unlikely to get better the faster you got.
cheers
James
Hi all,
I finally got my brake lights working so i decided to take my "new" favorit for a proper spin.
From 1mph up to sort of 50mph the steering wheel rocks from side to side, getting faster in proportion to my speed. and after that (50mph) it feels smoother but i think the wobble is happening so fast i cant feel it. If i let go of the steering wheel the car pulls to the left, but if i hold the wheel straight the car goes straight as expected and if i hit the brakes hard it does not pull any more to the left so i dont think its the brakes or the tracking. Im thinking a bent drive shaft?
Im planning to jack up the front and put it on axle stands and then put it in gear and see whats wrong, but has anyone had this before? and what should i be looking for?
Thanks in advance
Courior
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Not sure if this is allowed within the forum rules, but I wanted to post a link to an entry I've just made in the For Sale section for a Kit Car exhaust manifold...
I know that not a lot of Felicia stuff gets advertised in there, so I wanted to make sure folk who might be interested didn't miss it..
cheers
James
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I think the issue is more with wings and spoilers. Non-homologated wings are definitely outlawed (And a wing is defined as something that has airflow both above and below it, as I understand it, unlike a spoiler, which just has airflow over the top). I've yet to hear of anyone being asked to remove a roof vent. But given the perfidy of the MSA and unpredictability of some scruitineers, I'm not saying it hasn't or wouldn't happen.
I've never ventured as far as Wales to rally yet - just the North of England and Scotland. Which event do you suggest, Llanigraham? (preferrably North Wales, if only because it's closer!)
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Looking good, James!
How's it looking for things like sump and tankguard, etc?
Are those the sill protectors your mate made up? How far under the seam at the bottom of the sill do they go? Is he selling any more?
What are the inner door handles off?
Oh, the roof vent - is that legal, with all the hoo ha about homologated bodywork/silhoutte I've seen recently?
Top work though, I felt exactly the same about setting fire to mine when I was building it, for sure.
The self-same sill protectors. My friend Tim from Yorvik Engineering (YES)in York laid them up for me using a pair of brand new sills that I bought on ebay for buttons. He still has the sills in his workshop, so I'm sure he could lay up another set really easily. They basically follow the shape of the sill and overlap (but not tuck under) the bottom by a few mill. Tim did the dash flocking and refurbed the alloys for me too. I'm in the process of trying to acquire a felicia floor pan so he can make up some similar guards for the rear footwells - which as you'll know, get bashed a lot. He's a good chap - give him a bell and mention my name.
The front sumpguard mounts are all welded up - a big bit of angle iron with captive bolts attached through the bottom of the front crossmember (under the radiator) and then with some 3mm plate braced up the sides to join the chassis rails. The rear I haven't yet finished, but it will be some big Landrover engine mounts and the remains of the old sumpguard mounts salvaged from the old car. Fibreglass tankguard is fitted, but I'll probably fit a big alloy "skid" too.
Interior door handles are nicked off a Renault Clio that we used to autotests at one of the Motor Clubs I belong too, until it died, and was abandoned at the club house!
I'm not sure about the roof vent - so many cars have them that I can't imagine anyone would get excluded from an event for having one, but we'll see. THere's two bloody big holes in the roor to fill if it is a problem!
Rainbowforce - Fitting the Fabia motor is a bit involved. I ended up fitting a felicia flywheel to the fabia crank and making an engine mount for the water pump end (Fabia Water Pump is different to the felicia one, and when I fitted a Felicia pump, the belt didn't line up with the crank pulley). I think there may be easier ways of doing it. I suspect the Fabia flywheel would mate with the Felicia box OK but it's more shallow than the felicia one, and wouldn't fit the Felicia competition clutch I had already bought. Apparently there's a trick using a PAS water pump pulley that allows you to use a Felicia water pump and integral mount, but I've not tried those out.
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is that a fabia 1400 engine in there?
i wonder if you can get plastic wings and tailgate/bonnets for a felicia?
It is a Fabia engine, yes.
Jorily used to list plastic tailgates. And you can certainly buy plastic replicas of the "kit car" wings. But I haven't seen any plastic "standard" bonnets and wings - even on the Czech websites.
Thanks for all the nice comments, everyone. It's been a labour of love and hate, I can tell you!
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My new rally car sat on its wheels and moved under its own power for the first time in a very long time today. It's not "finished" (are they ever?) but it is perilously close to being MOT'able.
Some pictures...
The "MSA Log Book" shot!
Looks almost mean for a shopping trolley...
Inside...
I'm quite pleased with these home-made, carbon-effect door panels...
Another interior shot...
From the rear...
In through the driver's side slider...
And under the bonnet..
There were times when I wanted to set it on fire. There were times when it set itself on fire. But I'm really quite pleased with it. Another couple of years and maybe I'll be able to bring myself to enter a rally in it...
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My bike-throttle bodied 1.4 Fabia-engined Felicia rally car will run OK on normal unleaded, but was mapped on V-Power, and I discovered that unless it's run on V-Power, it runs a lot hotter when used in competition. I've stopped running it on normal unleaded.
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How about something along these lines, using the content of an old Octavia 4x4 (or even a written off Audi TT)?
If you can get the equivelant inside a Corsa, surely it will fit in a Felicia?
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Looks absolutely fantastic - really nice job all round.
Right, that's it. Had enough work (or at least surfing the web pretending to work) for today - going to go and play with my Felicia whilst there's still an hour of sunshine left.
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This is the engine from my rally car - here before it was fully fitted into the new shell.
Fabia 1.4 motor, Kent Cam, ported/skimmed head, balanced bottom end. "Kit car" inlet and exhaust manifolds with twin injectors per port and Suzuki GSX-R throttle bodies. Kit car 2" exhaust system.
Made 116bhp at the flywheel on the rolling road, 95bhp at the wheels.
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Not quite, but it's getting there. Just a taster to avoid taking Tom's thread totally OT...
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do you know if there's a skoda part number for that part?
There is, or rather was.
I've got a Skoda Motorsport catalogue from 1997 with a collection of parts listed for the Group N Trophy Felicias.
The bottom gearbox bush was MS230041N, but I'd be astonished if you can still get them from the factory.
I've bought stuff from Speedpro in Czech before - paid by bank transfer, and all was well. I think their price for that item works out at around £10, not including P&P. (It was £4.73 from Skoda Motorsport UK in 1997!)
They also do the solid mount for the Felicia Water Pump and the rear mount of the Front Wishbones.
Cheers
James
Felicia rear disc brake conversion
in Skoda Favorit, Skoda Felicia, Skoda Fun and Skoda Forman
Posted
Hi Tom,
Sorry for slow response - took me a while to remember to take pictures whilst the wheels were off.
Anyroad, here's a couple of pictures of the Midilite installation. They use 256mm Vented Discs of a Hyundai Getz (ABS model) which fit exactly onto the Felicia Flange (the little grub screw hole even lines up).
The calipers are radial mount, and I had the brackets made up by a local engineering company. The design isn't elegant, but I had them made in steel for strength, and I just designed the most simple shape that would work.
Here's a pic from the outside...
You'll see I needed 5mm spacers to make the wheels I'm using fit - VW 9 spoke alloys. If you got wheels with a different offset, that could be avoided (I've got 16 of these wheels!)
And the inside (this one's not too good, but you get the gist I'm sure)
Here's a little schematic of the measurements...
And a 3d picture. I designed them in the eMachineshop tool just for fun, but the machine shop I used just based them on a wooden template and my measurements...
As for the master cylinder, it's Audi part number 4A0611021D, and is 23.8mm diameter. I was lucky enough to find a NOS one on eBay. It only has two outputs (one for the front, and one for the rear on my car) rather than the standard Felicia M/C's four outputs.
I used the car in anger on the Lindisfarne rally on the Otterburn ranges in Northumberland yesterday, and the brakes were pretty damned impressive, though I think choice of pads is worth playing with. I tried the Wilwood Smart Pad type A, which is great by very noisy as a road pad. I then swapped to the Mintex M1155 (available from Rally Design, but not in their catalogue) which is quieter, but to be honest, I don't think it's as good a pad for competition use. EBC also do pads for the Midilite caliper.
Any more questions, just ask.
CHeers
James
P.S. In return, would you mind sharing your design for the 1.4 16v motor right hand engine mount with me - or possibly even selling me a mount if you've any more spare?