From Germany with love

A major shipment of parts from an Isetta/600/700 specialist in Germany finally showed up this week. Among the parts was a transmission seal kit. I decided to replace the input shaft and two output shaft seals due to what looked to be cracking and a little seepage. I also, pulled off the differential and gearshift covers in order to inspect the bearings and gears. So those gaskets got replaced as well. And, while the covers were off, I checked several end play and gear lash measurements laid out in the service manual. Man am I glad to have one of those. Since it was included in the kit I did the speedo output seals too. I also thoroughly cleaned the inside of the trans before installing Mobil 1 synthetic hypoid oil. All of this might seem like overkill, but I need to be sure the gearbox will handle the extra power I'm planning on getting out of the engine. At any rate, the trans is ready to go, now on to the engine.

Wheels and tires are in

I got some Superlite GTR wheels last month. I had them powdercoated black cause I didn't like the logos on the rim. They just didn't go with the look I want for the car. Too modern and tuner car. The guys at Tires Plus in Longmont installed a set of Bridgestone Potenza all season sport tires on them today. The wheel wheel next to the Superlite is one of the four that were on the car when we got it. Those weren't the original wheels anyway, they are two piece aluminum wheels with Opel stamped in them. Those wheels and tires are the exact size of the originals steel wheels that came on it new though. Anyway, the new wheels and tires are 165-65-13's instead of 145-80-12's meaning the tires are almost an inch wider. The tire calculations put the new tires as 1.5% larger in terms of the circumference of the originals. The complete wheel and tire combo weighs just one pound more than the Opel set-up meaning they should still be lighter than the OEM steel wheel and smaller tire combo while providing considerably more traction. Not bad, now hopefully I got the backspacing measurements right and we won't have to run spacers.