RGJ767E aka "Boris" Hillman Imp Super Spring Special - The adventures of !

[John A. Ross]

The advenetures of Boris

We all have a love for this little car as it really has not required a lot of attention and from the get go when we bought the car, we drove it the 350 mile trip home with the Mercedes Sprinter struggling to keep up at times !


Having been left pretty much as is and sprayed with cavity wax regularly has survived with some attention over the years pretty much intact. The paint is showing its age now after being out in the sun for so long but the 5,000 plus happy imp miles in it but he is a n old boy now and we love his character just the way it is.

When we got him there was an oil leak, the tarnsaxle was great to use, changed gear great but the stink of hypoid oil in the garage was just too much so we dropped in a new transaxle which had just been done by Dave Weedon along with new mounts and a new clutch and cylinders.

The old transaxle was then dropped into storage as all it needs is oil leaks fixed (someday)

[John A. Ross]

IS our faithful friend a show car, well the answer owul be no, he is a drivers car and rewards you by being faithful and not having its backside fall out.

For most of the summer he is my daily car, never fails me.

To be honest a good structurally sound shell in an imp, way more important these days in my opinion than shiny paint.

[John A. Ross]

GEAR LINKAGE REFURBISHMENT

But Boris would not be an Imp if he did not need some love

So far I have repaired

Gear linkage, the lower ball totally disintergated in my first week of ownership which I started to think was a bad sign but its a common wear item, one of these items you can still buy new thanks to Malcolm and Bob Allan

The symptoms : Gear change is rough and fills like stirring soup !!

The JR Solution, pull the lot, gear lever to transaxle and refurbish. I am not a fan of patch repairs as you go, saves time and reliability long term.

Parts Needed

New lower ball for the cup : I bought this from Bob at Club Spares (membership required) but these are re-made by Malcolm Anderson
4 Stainless Rivets : Any local store as you need to drill out the blank pressed ones if the ball has not been changed before
Lower ball joint gaitor if split : I bought this from Bob at Club Spares (membership required)
New throttle cable while we are in there : I bought this from Bob at Club Spares (membership required)
2 x new shaft bushes : I bought this from Bob at Club Spares (membership required)
1 x rear linkage coupling : NOT AVAILABLE NEW ANY MORE ! I was lucky I had one !
Plenty grease and some enamel paint.

First remove the under tray. All 7/16" headed bolts, note these are short lengths as they would protrude into the car too much, in fact the middle ones would
end up hitting the seat cross braces at back.



Remove the gear knob and the inner rubber gaitor

Then the rear coupling needs disconnected which is a 7/16" headed bolt and a tab washer at the transaxle gear change shaft, the bolt locks through a flat on the shaft so needs removed completely, it may offer some resistance from releasing from the shaft if it has been on a while like this one, DO NOT HAMMER THE SHAFT on the trans- axle for now just remove the bolt.

Keep the bolt to hand as it is s special high tensile bolt (same as steering rack coupling).

Disconnect the choke cable from the carb and pull through from the engine bay so it is hanging down, coil it and tape to the gear change shaft. Why ?, well the choke lever attached to the actual lower gear level assembly and its one unit so unless you fancy faffing around upside down, no elbow room take it off in a oner.

Then remove the rear gear change support bracket (two 1/2" head bolts)

Then remove the bolts securing the actual lower gear lever and choke assembly ( 1/2 " head ) and the whole assembly will drop down free except perhaps the flexi shaft would still be stuck to the transaxle.

Drop the assembly so you can fully rotate the gear leaver assembly and gently rotate so that the coupling comes free from the transaxle. Dont use hammers, chisels or anything else to open up the clamp on the transaxle flexi shaft, whats inside the transaxle wont like the punishement long term



When it comes free pull the lot out so you can work on the bench.




Now its time to split the lot, much stickyness and grease to come !

Biggest effort is drilling out the 4 rivets if they are stock ones, I find it easier to file the tops flat until close to the surface then centre punch and drill. Pick rivets same size as you are drilling.




Above is the assembly split, dissasembly is pretty obvious as is how it goes back together. Note the position of the detent ball at bottom of the gear lever, it must go back in same position.



Other than that its cleaning (or media blasting in my case) get all the parts stripped of brown stuff and coated.

Note the shaft tends to wear at the plastic bushes and even with new bushes will be loose. The crumbling brown stuff with grease in the mix makes for a good cutting compound :

A cheap and chearfull solution is to put a hard 2K enamel coat on the whole shaft and put an extra 2 or 3 coats at the travel areas for the bushes, this will leave it thicker than standard so you need to flat it off with say 320 grit until you feel the shaft is a bit more back to standard thickness. You can of course measure but you can tell by eye.

Plenty grease throughout.

Note that the ball I used here was already drilled through, the current ones supplied at this time are drilled at one side only leaving you to drill all way through, remember and always UNDER size the hole a little compared to the locking pin as it needs to be held in press tight. The existing collet with the pin in it is no longer used, there we go, the expected bits left over

Again plenty grease

Reverse order to assemble and the gear chage is lovely and very responsive, huge difference.

You can of course change the ball in the car withought remove the assembly but then you cant attend to the shaft and other two bushes. Owners choice.

Total cost was about £45 in parts for full overhaul (excludes flexi coupling) plus the time to do it. It certainly transformed Boris gear change

[John A. Ross]

Everyone Loves Boris

Tis true of any imp but this one is a familly favourite as well

Even our cat loves Boris ! not he is over seeing the tidy up in the front bonnet area !



And on a chippy run up the fife coast road



At Imp Ecosse for a spirited drive, did not stop Scott Fanning in his BMW powered clan from overtaking me and the car behind me in a second or two after that pic was taken



Then out to a meet and run in Fife, Jim Fraser heading for his Chamois Coupe in background :)



And the Edinburgh Imp Club meet next to Paul Coulters ex-kent police car PKE 321 M



The kids adore it, they think its a toy car !



So does helen, she loves Boris to bits, just does not like me driving it haha




And finally at home with its partner in crime hogging the garage !

[John A. Ross]

Boris purring away warming up for the trip home from work

You dont really appreciate the look of these cars at night but there is just comething cool about old fashioned rear lights (like candles)

And another couple of Boris heading up motorway closely followed by Paul Conroy in Little Basket BHT908J

[John A. Ross]

And here again starting first turn on a sunny but cold morning

And a couple of Boris taking on the modens with motorway driving

Ready to go, the 930 purrs !

And here is the bad boy known as Boris chasing KNT a BMW K100RS powered Chamois Spring Special and keeping up with little effort

Rootes power still a good option !

[John A. Ross]

And anothr amusing one, Rodney ABP590G our old Twin Headlight Chamois MK 3 and Boris purring away in unison, you can always tell the sound of an imp !

Same cars hanging out in storage or at home with friends, it is amazing how imps group together

[John A. Ross]

Sometimes Boris just got to share space with moderns and other imps under repair I am afraid and he did not like it !

[John A. Ross]

And a few more of Boris out and about with his imp friends



And a rare sight, paul Coluter at the Edinurgh And Fife imp club meeting, we are all heading in to pub in background but Paul seems to have other ideas ;) to be fair he is suually first to the bar !



And on the summer runs with the imp Club

[John A. Ross]

And a few more once again out and about with other imps locally.

Between the Linwood Area Centre and the Edinburgh and Fife centres we have a very strong Imp presence across central scotland and beyond







And at one show we had a cut away engine on loan from Clark Dawson which ended up attracting more peeps than the cars did !

[John A. Ross]

As can be seen when used as a daily, Boris was an ever faithfull buddy waiting outside my office window to go home

[John A. Ross]

And a few more of Boris "hanging" around at work, customers never failed to notice the cars and it was always a great talking point, could not have got as much attention out of full page glossy mag ads than just driving around in Boris !

Hail, rain, sleet, darkness, Boris does not mind in that colour he is like a faithfull labrador :):D

[John A. Ross]

And a present from my brother on last brthday, everyone loves an Imp although growing up thats the ONE car he never wanted to drive !

Not sure he modelled it on actual pictures though, is it too anorak to say it has the wrong grille :o:o

[John A. Ross]

WE have some great local roads up and over the hills, a few have the most stunning views, Boris just loves climbing a hill or two and the Imp is agile enogh for most any road.

[John A. Ross]

And a few more out and about

As you can see Boris like to be out and about and rewards me with a really enjoyable drive every time.