Tackling the coil springs

So, one of the MOT failures was due to the springs popping out of place when the car is jacked up. Solutions that have been suggested include using garden twine to hold them in place, cable ties or a clamp and bolt set from the likes of Rimmers, although SprintMan fromn the TRDC has suggested that these don't work.

Enter Paul. And his seat belt idea. Get 4 seat belts, cut off the bit that anchors the belt to the car body and join them together to make 2 straps. Whilst the spring is in it's I am about to fall out position, measure the shock and drill holes in the body to attach the strap too. The other end will fit on the bolt that holds on the bar thing that lives by the diff. 

This might help:

See the hole in the top centre? That's the one end.

This weekend, Simon and I also had a fairly good go at balancing the carbs. Paul then strobed the distributor. It doesn't backfire as much as it used to!

Rewiring the fuel pump switch

It was decided that the fuel pump switch needed to be off an ignition feed rather than simply hot wired to the battery. Makes sense really. During the process, the chief electrician decided to rewire and snap away useless or not used wires. This took longer than expected as he must have knocked another of the Beast's dodgy earths! Following are pictures of the process and of the mass of wires removed.

M O T

Sod it, I thought, I'll take it in and see what else is wrong. We have done all of the things that we knew about. The original TO DO LIST all that time ago is now complete or defunct and thus it is time to work on another. To do that, I needed to take it to MOT man. To do that, I had to part with £120 for insurance. I limped it up the road to the closest one a few hundred yards away called TyreSales. 

Oh dear! I knew it wasn't running well and needed a tune, but decided that rather than spending £s getting tuning done, I ought find out what else was wrong as potential big bills would mean another year in the garage. I was rather light headed at the end - the whole of the unit was clogged with rich v8 petrol fumes. I think the tester let me off a few things as he was slowly being poisoned!

The failure list then:

1. o/s/f brake application uneven
2. o/s/f brake binding
3. n/s headlamp not in good working order affecting beam image
4. n/s/r coil spring not correctly located
5. n/s/f coil spring not correctly located
6. o/s/r wheel nut missing
7. exhaust emissions carbon monoxide content excessive (5665 against a limit of 1200!)
8. exhaust emissions hydrocarbon content excessive
9. front brakes inbalanced

Next time I have a mid life crisis in another life in an other world, please encourage me to buy a Mazda MX5?

Bloody Wiring Part 3

I forgot to mention, look at my new switch panel! Behind is the new switch box of tricks thing and the relays. I can't add anything else now as there is no room left! And here is a picture of a new fuse that powers all of the new stuff. Don't the gold terminals look pretty?!

Bloody Wiring Part 2

The amount of wires wrapped around here and there in the engine bay was quite frightening. It would appear that whomever did the v8 conversion used the SD1 wiring, mixed it with the TR7 wiring and was too scared to throw anything away. Also, lots of the wires were joined here, there and everywhere, with various crimps and connectors of all shapes and sizes. It was a mere miracle that anything worked at all. Once the tape was removed, this is what we were left with:

The unnecessary wiring was removed completely. The joined 15 times wire was removed and replaced properly. It was then all wrapped up nicely in some plastic trunking stuff. Much better! Below is all the crap that was removed, Lionel's new little helper, and the finished work:

Reverse Light Switch

Also fixed was the reverse lights. It was decided that the switch must be at fault as the resident electrical genius managed to get the reverse lights working by adding feeds to various cables in the boot. I really ought pay more attention. So how to get the old switch out? Crawling under the car proved impossible, although Line was able to confirm that the wires from the loom to the switch were ok. We need a pit then. This is when we recruited a Paul.

My fat fingers were usless here so (just for a change) Lionel and Paul did the job, Lionel in the car and Paul underneath. It was switch then as we now have reverse lights! However, whilst messing with the reverse lights, it would appear that we disturbed some ore of th wiring in the engine bay as the car only started with a wobble of the mass of wires that were enclosed in tape. Which now brings us on to Bloody Wiring Part 2