De Ja Vu

It's not going to rain today so out came the Beast for it's first run out of 2014. And once again, it's a pile of crap. I appear to have lost several cylinders again. I had to keep my right foot constantly bipping the throttle through fear that the engine was going to stall, braking only on the handbrake. At least that works. Why didn't I buy an MX5?

Eight Cylinders

After weakening the mixture to nothing to get it to pass, Phil "tuned it by ear", the old fashioned way. I can now drive without the choke; it sounds like it has eight cylinders; (ignore the fan belt), here it is:

More Carb Action ii

Forgot to add this video. This was going on near the end. WTF is going on with full throttle?

More Carb Action

Springs, linky thing and needles

OK, so here we go again. We (Simon) got the springs and the linky thing and the needles ready and started at 1100. 

Went from step 1 to step 26 on a downloaded SU booklet. Got it to sound like this ... check out the flames! ...

And the linky bar thing doesn't appear to fit!

By 5, it was ticking over much much better but not quite right. 

ill fitting linky thing

Good Money After Bad

Rimmer Brothers must love me. They'll have me on speed dial in the near future. To try to un-kill the car, I have now added to the long list of bits that have/have not been required to get this ungrateful piece of green crap to simply run properly:

Rimmers love me

2x SU Damper springs, 2x SU BAF needles (this is the second set of carb needles I have now bought), a clutch slave cylinder (as that is still leaking) and an SU link throttle (to replace the snapped one).

Plugs and Leads

I've got some new plugs and some new HT leads to see if I can fix the lumpy not running properly thing. If it ever stops raining and/or my cough/flu ever nobs off, I'll have a go at fitting them. Due to both of the above excuses, I have not used the car for about 3 weeks. I do wonder if it's all worth it sometimes.

Uh oh!

On Monday, I limped the TR to the doctors as everything we can do with her has now been done. It was a very unpleasent journey, thankfully Simon followed behind, as did a couple of hundred other cars. I managed to get into 2nd gear a couple of times and once hit 20mph! The V4 didn't sound too happy. Simon enjoyed informing me that when I changed gear the reverse lights flashed on! That'll be the switch then.

I went to see the old girl on the way home from work. It wasn't there, it was at Travel Gas where the v8 man was having a look at it before the MOT. Phil had managed to get it running better, but reckoned that it was now a v6, and that there is something fundamentaly wrong somewhere. That don't sound good!

Good job I sold that Rover! Anybody out there got any more crap that I can sell on eBay!?

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!

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?

The great starting debacle pt 10

Never mind all of that sensible Frank stuff below! We have a breakthrough! last night, Ben (Who's Who) popped around to finish off his work. he was convinced that he had the answer. Last time he paid a visit, he had set a Top Dead Centre thing up which was incorrect apparently, as the piston is already at the top when at TDC and thus wouldn't ignite the mixture - or something like that. So, we removed the plugs (I am getting good at this bit!), he gapped them and I replaced them, except #1.

He then set the TDC thing which is somewhere at the front next to the fan, to 6 degrees. I really need to find out what all of this means! Whilst I turned the crank via the big nut on the alternator, he played with #1's hole. Following that, he shone a light somewhere around the distributor. It was at this point, and not for the first time, that he tried to explain what he was doing - it was something to do with checking the earth on the coil I think. I felt rather like a spotty GCSE kid asking a nuclear physician to quickly run through how to make a fission bomb.

Once all that was done, the cap and leads went back on. The Beast was a little desperate, and I could see the strain on Ben's face, but it eventually went. It was a fantastic - but not a very pretty noise. We are backfiring and popping even more so than before. But who cares ... the Beast lives! "The great starting debacle" is over. Raise a glass for the new series: "The great tune up".

Clunking, Banging and Popping

Banging and Popping

This week has been a good week as I have managed to take the beast to work 4 days out of 5. Wow! The journeys have not been completely plain sailing though - as you could imagine if you are somewhat au fait with the content of this blog.

Typically, the beast starts with a bit of choke first time with no worries at all. It is obvious from the engine tone that it doesn't really want any choke and the smell of the engine is very petroly - too rich I am led to believe. But, and here is the dilemma, I can get over 3k revs if the choke is out but I can't idle without the choke in. If I rev it with the choke in, the v8 burble turns into an SAS firing range with bangs and pops all over the place.

So what's that all about ... the SU's still or the fuel pump or not a blue distributor cap? Meanwhile, I am getting damned good at heal and toeing!

Clunking

This week has seen the almost end of MNX500V as Geoff Something has agreed to take it away for me in exchange for a few bits from one of the other 7's that he has in a dismantled state in his warehouse. Geoff has been driving these ploppy cars around for many many years and thus, just might take Guru status off Ed. He suggested that the clunking is infact the trailing arm bushes as the bush hole has a tendency to oval itself after time.

The custard monster strikes again

Remember the custard monster? He has struck again.
All has been well thus far since the tune. It ticks over properly and sounds fantastic. However. On the way back from Stourport [the longest journey it has had since DDay!] earlier today, the 3000 revs thing started again.
What is so magical about 3000 revs? Do I need to get Paul Daniels in? Or maybe that tool who is hanging from his nackers somewhere in New York?
So. Back to Basics as some pea eating bloke used to say.
The clunk can wait.

My poor poor wallet

It's gone in. It just about made the 1 mile journey although I had to use the handbrake to stop as removing my foot from the right hand pedal would have resulted in stalling and non starting for an hour!

I have a horrible incling that a set of spark plugs and a twiddle with the carbs just isn't going to be enough.

I have suddenly remembered why MNX500V was taken off the road.

I await a call ...