JPS Coupe #3 has gone home

Last Saturday I picked my silver JPS Coupe and drove it home. It is beautiful and ride and drive as I expected. There are still some minor details that John still need to take care and I will take it back in the next few weeks. John addressed all the major points that I asked him to do and since this is a hand built car, I expected a longer time to get everything the way I want it, but I am confident that John will take care of it and make sure I will be happy with the car.

Knock on wood, so far there is zero oil leak. I have not gone under the car to see it, but nothing on the floor of the garage. It now already has more than 200 miles of both freeway and surface street. I am very happy with the coupe

Congrats, Eddy! Very nice!

Eddy -

Hope to see you at one of our future SoCal SOC'ers cruises!

That's great news! Hope it is a ton of fun!!!

#2 has also come home too - yesterday!

Major congrats to both Coupesters! The pix are a little short on resolution, so can't really appreciate the finish, etc. But if the work there is anything like that on my JPS Speedster, it is dazzling. Pls tell which engine you have there -- the 2332? And if so, does it come w/ extra breather lines from valve covers, and a breather box?? Just curious. Have seen pix of Tom's refit, and wonder if that is now "standard" for these mills at JPS. Good thing you are near to the source, and so can drop in for adjustments. Dealing from the east coast (I knew this going in) takes a lot more patience. In a 1,000 mi or so, please give a driving impression report. Happy trails.

Tom,
Glad you got it back in a timely manner.... fill us in on the details, ~Alan

I would eagerly sell my beetle for one. In pail yellow but with this new engine in it. The combo would realy give you the porsche treatment.

I am happy for you But wish I had one in my yard.

The paint finished is really... really good, yes, the pictures don't do justice as the resolution is low. Now I understand what people are raving about JPS paint finish. I am just not sure if the paint as it is being applied to fiberglass will be as tough as paint applied to steel, or is it a matter of the hardness of the clear coat (I am not a paint expert)

I have the 2332 engine like Tom & Kelly, however, it does not come with the valve cover breather like Tom. Tom is "special", that is why he got the breather as I believe the standard 2332 engine does not come with one. However, John said for me to drive it around and if it really need one (which he belief it doesn't) he will work with me on that. Looking forward for the weekend to drive around and look around under the car.

I am in the process of putting a bi Xenon headlight, I hope it works as advertised

I install this breather set up, it works.
Note the barely visable two black hoses under the breather box, they are routed to the L & R valve covers. ~Alan

Congratulations on Number Three! I hope you're able to work out any "Bugs" that come up -- stay on the phone with Tom and Kelly if you have problems. They've about got that company "dialed in."
Looks GREAT, from what I can see!

Eddy:

Just hopin' you can give another "driving impression" report. How's it going? Do you run your car in the rain??

She's a beaut! Hope she's trouble-free for you!

......

The brake is good, but spongy, I am not sure if this can be improved or not, but it stopped well with the 4 disc. It seems that it stopped straight, however, once when a lady on a cell phone driving a Mercedes decided to make a U turn in front of me and I have to brake hard, it pulled a bit to the right. I don't know if that is because I yank the steering wheel to the right or if that is the brake. I have not tried braking that hard again as I want to have the brakes settle in without warping the disc.

I think I am getting more used to it and getting more comfortable driving it even in a traffic jam, but I am still working (and hoping) to be able to quite the cabin drone down a bit and getting the engine running smoother.

Some update on my driving impression on the Silver Coupe :
I have now about 850 miles on it, combination of LA famous traffic jam, freeway driving and curvy mountain road at Angeles Crest Highway. So far no mechanical problem (knock on wood), no oil drip, I have to tightened both intake manifold a little bit because I could see a trace of gasoline residue, but after tightening the bolts, no more residue

As far as rain driving, I have not done so, we only got 1 (one) rainy day, and that was last week, and since LA people does not know how to drive in the rain, I decided I don't want to slice and dice with them. I have not even gotten a chance to wash it, so still can't report on any water leak.

As far as cabin air leak, I also have the leak on the hood hinge. On this board I saw people talking about making box out of fiber glass. I certainly would like to have that, but I don't have any experience working with fiberglass. Instead what I did was trying to find the leak inside the gas-trunk. There are a lot of leaks and holes there. I close the holes with duct tape and since they are hidden, I don't mind. The hood latch is also open to the bottom, again, I use duct tape to close it. Not the best solution, but until I can find a better solution, that is what I have done. I also put a strong flaslight in the gas-trunk at night, turn off all the garage light, and lo and behold, I can see light coming from inside the gas-truk. The front seal is not even touching the hood. So I have to move it a bit and get additonal seal. On the hood hinge, again I use duct tape under the dash, but I can only do it on the driver side as on the passenger side, I have the hanging air conditioning which at this time I am not touching. The end result, still a little bit outside air, but since we have the "mild" cold here, when I close the back window and turn on the electric fan for the heater, and put some jacket, I am O.K (at least now).

At this point, I still think my engine needs to be tuned properly. It idles well, between 800-950 rpm, but it still pop and puff (or chuff) and when I accelerate, on lower rpm it is bit rough, kind of stumble a bit. I hope on my 1K service, John will tune the carburetor or the valve adjustment or timing to make it smoother. I can feel the torque on this 2332 engine. At this point I only rev it to about 4500 rpm and I have gone as fast as 80 mph for a very short time.

I am trying to get the cabin drone noise down when I am doing over 70 mph because it can get tiring after a while. Maybe some sound insulation coating will work. I still need to talks seriously with John what he has done and what he think he or I can do

As far as the steering is concern, it is a bit sloppy, but it track straight. I guess you can't compare these with rack & pinion steering, but after driving it for a while I am getting used to the "sloppiness". The car handles quite well on the curvy Angeles Crest highway, however, not having that much experience with a rear hanging engine, I did not push my luck there.

The manual gearbox seems to be loosening up a bit making it much easier to shift. The first time I took it home, I always struggled to find 1st gear from stop. However, after taking it back to John and he re aligned the gearbox, it shifted much better.

... to be continued

Hey Kelly,

I understand that you replaced your fuel pump on your speedster. How easy/difficult is it? I looked at mine it is on the left side next to the left intake manifold and looks like a p.i.a to change it. Do you have to take out the intake manifold to change it?

My fuel pump clicks for a while after I started the car and stopped after a while. I am wondering if that is normal. Do you know if the original pump is a rotary pump or not.

Thanks

Eddy

Eddy,

I've been trying very hard to be extremely gentle on my brakes since they were fixed by JPS when it went back to CA. I had a very hard pull prior to that. I notice now that I still get a pull to the left if my wheels are turned to the left at all when I brake (even gently). If my wheels are straight it stops straight. I'm not sure what to make of that. I have been very easy on the brakes per JPS insruction as you say to "seat them properly".

Let me know how you make out with your "drone". I don't feel mine is too bad, but still nosier than I would like. I have plans to add more sound deadening in the future to improve it as well.

I have the louvered deck lid on and it really looks great. I need to get some pics posted.

Hope you are enjoying your car. I'm finally getting somewhere (I Think) with getting my leaks resolved. By Carlisle she should be pretty darn good.

Fuel pump: I found it not too hard to remove. I may have a little more room in my eng. compartment compared to the Coupe w/ A/C. I have no A/C: when too hot, I put the top down - hahaha. Anyway, the pump was fit to the side of the engine compartment with a self taping screw. There was a litte bit of hassel considereing the tight working environment, but that is pretty normal for stuff on this car, and there was nothing really awful about it. It did not require special tools or removing anything else. I have some pics, I think, on my gallery. As to fuel pump clicking, I did not notice any clicking initially, but did note it later, during the time when the pump must not have been working right. [Note: I have an old pick-up truck that I put an electric fuel pump on years ago, and that unit clicks and clacks like crazy. If it was not such an old worhtless vehicle that I only drive once in a long while, I'd look to replace that pump. Since the pump clicked from day one, and seems to work correctly, I assumed clicking was normal.] On the Speedster, the pump I used to replace the original makes almost no noise. If you put your hand on it, you can feel it working. Based on my sample of one, I'd never have another pump like the one that JPS uses. If you have no leaks, but suspect the pump might be overpressuring your carbs, go to a speed shop and buy a small low- pressure liquid (fuel) pressure gage. They make really tiny ones that you can mount just about anywhere. You could hook the gage up to the pump output, and see what is it putting out. Supposed to be ~3.5 psig. Your symptoms: poping and chuffing under some conditions, are exactly what I started to notice, and then went away after I put on the new pump.

Hope that might help some.

I was looking at some pictures in my file, and I wonder why there isn't a double grille on the silver JPS.
Is that the way you ordered it, Eddy?

I'm running a very quiet (none of that common pulse noise) rotary fuel pump from CB. It features a constant 3 1/2#'s of pressure which is perfect.... My experience with too much fuel pressure on Webers is not something I want to relive. Additionally, I always mount my pumps up front below the tank (where there's plenty of room) to isolate them from the heat generated at the motor. If the key is turned off, fuel flow (Pressurized or gravity)is blocked from feeding an engine fire.
My 2 cents!
http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=577

Cory - the JPS Coupe is a replica of an "A Coupe." All the A's are single grille cars...Speedsters & coupes.
Twin grilles didn't appear on all coupes until 1962's T-6 B's.

Thanks, John!

Ernie,

Actually I just bought that exact rotary pump last night. I should get it sometime next week and slowly work on putting it under the fuel tank as some people has suggested

Eddy mentioned "sloppy steering". I have a newish VS and it tracks straight like it was on rails. Zero play in the steering at all. It only has the old VW steering set up but it must be new as there is no play in it at all.

Eddy--that is one georgeous car! Congrats----Jack

Steering boxes. I believe they are adjustable, at least the worm and ball ones I hade years ago were. You could set the clearance or lash of these w/ a screw on the top of the unit. Maybe the VW ones are similar? Trick is not to overdo it; if take all the slack out, and load the ball in the screw, you'll get excessive wear. As I recall, there should be just the slightest, barely perceptible hint of slack (dead zone) in the steering box when wiggled side to side. As to tracking, that is all in the toe-in. Have it checked.

I guess "sloppy" is a bit strong, it is more "vague", not as accurate as rack and pinion (which I kind of suspected). However, I am getting used to it, because the first time I drove it, I was a bit surprised that after you turn, the steering does not return to straight as I am used to on my Acura with rack and pinion steering.

It track straight, so I don't think it is the alignment, so I think it is just the nature of the type of steering system (worm & ball?). I guess either the car needs to be adjusted, or I need to adjust to the car and I think I have adjusted to the car somewhat. I am having fun with it

My steering feels very tight and accurate. Be sure you check your coupler. My original was damaged, Bolts pulling through the rubber isolator.

Eddy, your standard box with the proper caster and toe in the front end should try to go straight on it's own including unwinding itself (with little help) after a corner. Have an alignment expert check things out.

I'll second Rick's remarks. The wheel should want to find center absent any input from you. This would not be a function of worm gears vs. R&P. If not, something is not quite right. Visual inspection of the coupler, as Tom suggests, is easy to verify.