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

Bloody Wiring

Whato. Yes I have been working on it and no I haven't been blogging much. So an update ... the wiring isn't very good. I have had my favourite car electrician person around every Sunday for weeks now fixing things. Just as we fix one bit, something else unfixes. The pics below show the front fogs, repeater lamps, side lights and indicators being completely redone.

A selection of the crap that was removed

Lionel also hooked up the front fogs too. So now we have front and back fogs all working nicely. Similarly, the side lights and cruise lights are all wired up properly.

Also since we last met, he has sourced a magic fuse box thing. It has been wired to the battery via a groovy fuse (I'll get a photo of that too). The idea is that the stereo and rad fans have a separate feed and relays so as to ensure that the car doesn't set on fire. Or something like that. This fuse box has been installed behind the switches, which is quite spectacular as there is not a lot of room behind there. The new relays are also on show.

Twiddling The Distributor

There wasn't too much time available this weekend for a great deal of playtime with the Beast. I took it out of the garage to make some room for a clear out and had no real intentions to mess at all. But, after revving a few times and shooting even more flames up the road, I decided to have a bit of a play with the carbs - armed with a screwdriver and a bad printout off the interwebnet. I looked at the SUs, had a cup of tea, looked at them again, gave up and then undid the nut holding the disributor in place. A twiddle to the left later and things sound much better! A quick run up R Road was completed without a splutter nor backfire. Groovy! Although between last weekend and this, the fans have decided to stop. Ungroovy!

Another Update

It's still in the garage. It still don't run properly. I still can't be arsed. The 75's doors are still broken. And now so is the tumble dryer. Summer 2011 at this rate.