Another SC Jupiter rebuild

[Keith Clements]

The bulkhead was also carried by Joe and I . Whilst I did not even draw breath, Joe was panting and puffing. The younger generation do little exercise, not walking or cycling 6 miles to school and back up some long steep hills , not doing a 5 or 10 mile cross country run every week, not playing competitive aerobic and anaerobic sport or digging many square yards of garden, things I did before I left school. That continued at University when I ran 6 miles every day.

We live in a virtual world.....

[jowettgeoff]

I found the safest bet is to sit on the chassis whilst supervising. We had some debate as to which is the lightest end - but decided there isn't one. Talk about the Forth Bridge. And the back axle isn't much better. The words 'engineeered' and 'over' spring to mind. And Keith - stop bragging about your athletic past. You're making my hernia twitch.

[RichardMc]

Welding
Well it looks like I can remember how to gas weld, and it didn't look like a seagull had visited either. I made myself busy patching up a few holes in the rear chassis tube while Geoff continued the front suspension build. We might have some front wheels on in a few weeks. No pictures today, because I forgot, but I'm trying to get some more time in the garage at the end of the week so I'll take some then.

[RichardMc]

OK so we have been quite busy with all the little bits that need doing. I welded some new sections into the rear chassis rail and welded up a patch under the fuel tank strap mounting point, obviously somewhere that dirt collects but never gets cleaned. We had a bit of an issue with the front right to suspension mount, no matter what we did the aluminum top plate wouldn't sit flat. It would pull flat when bolted up but it was about 5 thou out of alignment across the diagonal. After much messing about we found that the bottom of the chassis plate was sitting proud, it might have been like this from the factory as there isn't any sign of impact damage at the front and everything else checks out straight with the alignment rig. Might just have been one of those 'within tolerance' things but we weren't happy putting additional stress on the top suspension mount. Geoff did a sterling job with a power file / sander and eventually we got it to sit flat on the mounting plate. I kept myself busy welding and painting the chassis, always one to look for the easy jobs!
The next task is building the suspension up, so I drew the short straw again and have the rear axle to re build. We have temporarily misplaced the speedometer so I can't be sure of the mileage but the backlash if fairly minimal and the bearings seem to be in a good condition. I was thinking about changing the diff to a Le Mans 4.1 spec but I now think getting the car on the road using what we have would be a better plan and then change things later. We have a set of suspension bushes on order from JCS, again I was going to go Polybush but JCS have rubber in stock so that is the path of least resistance.
Next up is bolting all the suspension back on and fitting some wheels, then the hard part starts, making the body fit again.

[Forumadmin]

Keep up with documenting the rebuild. It may be useful for a future Classic Car of Year competition or magazine article.

[Edmund Nankivell]

Richard. the Superflex replacement for the rubber front suspension bushes are (by design) as flexible as the rubber bushes they replace. A harder material is Nylatron, which gives tauter handling in line with Jupiters with the earlier metal-bushed front suspension. Also, instead of the complexity of superchaging, how about twin 34mm single-choke down-draft Weber carburettors? These are fitted to the R1 and work well and have been accepted by the authorities.
Edmund

[jowettgeoff]

Thanks for that Ed. I'm just in the process of assembling the front suspension with Bill Lock-supplied rubber bushes, so if number-one son wants different ones - hard cheese Ref the carbs, I have a brand new pair of Del Lortos in stock which we could use - but supercharging would be an interesting way forward. The Wylie Jav seems to hold together ok, but I understand Alan Fishburn has been less fortunate. I also still have the manifold I made up for NHX to utilise a single Weber 28/36 progressive choke carb. This made the engine very smooth, though I don't think performance was much improved, if at all. I have a theory that split-porting the heads would be a good move, to take twin downdraught Webers or Dells, but it would take some intricate engineering to achieve - well beyond my limited abilities. Another solution I never got to trying were Reece Fish venturiless carbs. These worked very well on VW Beetles apparently. All food for thought - but we still have the small problem of building an engine and fitting the body back on yet. First things first eh?

[Edmund Nankivell]

Geoff. Have you thought of the liner modification that I atrribute to Donald Bastow: the water-jacket part of the liner is machined down and fitted with a finned aluminium sleeve, shrunk-on. This gets over the problem that, as the engine warms up, the gasket nip force is reduced, due to differential expansion of the ally crankcase ans the steel liner. This mod was tried at Jowett in a few engines I think in the R4 development days.

[NoelStokoe]

Hi Richard....I do not come come on the Forum as often as I should do, but I have spotted your thread this evening and would like to wish you, Geoff and Andy good luck with the Jupiter!
Best wishes,
Noel

[RichardThom]

hello my name is Rich and I am attempting to get my dad ,s jup, David Thom, back on the queen, s highway after 40ish years of moving from shed to garage to leanto to barn etc. it will be a total referb including building an engine from the many spares to be discovered In fathers sheds.This is all new to me as I have mainly stuck to old motorcycles but I have some great support from some guys I meet at a meeting from the severnside section plus many others have offered help.Back to the shed now ,regards Rich T.

[Forumadmin]

Well Rich you know where to come for advice!
Keep us posted on progress, make an effort to post something every week, this helps motivate both you and others to help.

[jowettgeoff]

Nice to know another Jup is on the way. Good luck Rich! Our 'Rich' (McAuley) has been very busy building up his new business, and Dad is allergic to the freezing garage, so not much has been done lately. But the chassis and back axle are all painted up, and the front suspension fitted. When the temperature climbs above zero, we'll get cracking again, and progress WILL be made in 2013!

G McA

[Forumadmin]

Geoff, What you need is a wood burner. My garage now gets above freezing within about half an hour. I light up at 8, go and have breakfast and then can go back to a warm garage. Yesterday the fire was shutdown when leaving at 21:00 and was still going the following morning, so just needed the throttle opening. Unfortunately that day was to be grit blasting on the body, so the big fan was started up. The wind chill factor was quite something!

[jowettgeoff]

That's all very well Keith, but my garage is so cold that wood won't burn. Matches won't light, and my oxy acetylene flame breaks when you try to weld. Shackleton, Scott and Ranulph Fiennes could not traverse the length of my garage without dying.

[Jack]

Rich, Geoff, what's the latest with these rebuilds? We need photos! Updates! Anything we can do to help?

Jack.