PollyMobiles Rebuild

[pollyp]

my guess why there is an extra reservoir in the tank: if you drive hard corners and the fuel lewel is low, the fuel pumpe might suck air... which is no good neither for the fuel pump nor the engine, injectors...

Look at the videp 1275 posted. the newer model had an even more closed reservoir where the pump is in.

Also my guess is that your old model releases the reservoir the same way, as the new models. Engineers like to keep stuff the way they were, like the tank itself

yea I think the small central reservoir tub housing the pump acts similar to an oil pickup baffle/trap door tank,
it helps keep the pump submerged for few sec during abrupt motions due to the slim/wide shape of the tank where fluid would slosh to the very edges during high loads away from the center. the more enclosed reservoir tub of the later pumps may also help stop the fuel inside from spilling out during those few sec of sloshing.

just brought a spare facelift tank so I'll soon find out how this preface reservoir comes out

 

[pollyp]

I remeasured the valve clearances hot & cold but this time more gently "feeling" the gap rather than pushing the feeler gauge through the gap and the readings are much better on target ?

 

[pollyp]

brought some J30R9 fuel hose to replace the J30R6 hoses as precaution for the E10 fuel after I recently spotted a cut/crack on the fuel return hose

 

[pollyp]

2022-11-01 Replace Faulty Charging Wire

Noticed recently that the battery voltage has dropped from 12.6 to 12.0v again like it ain't being fully charged.

I measured the battery was only receiving 13-13.3v (high/low load), not enough to properly charge it
The alternator itself was producing 13.7-14.28v (high/low load), which seems normal.
But the voltage drop from the alternator > through the fuse box > to the battery terminal was a huge 0.5-1.10v! (low/high load)

The same huge resistance as before I rewired the alternator loom (which had bad crimping),
but while all electrical load was on max (full beam, full heater, all LED lighting) I saw the fuse box wiring was smoking! and the charging wires felt really really HOT

Something is causing lots of resistance & heating the wires during high loads, so time to remove the fuse box to investigate

Hmm a big clue is from this charging wire that supplies alternator 14v over to the main battery fuse, where the electrical tape wrap has been cooked together & the crimp joint felt really stiff

Removed the charging wire and yup that's the issue, the bad crimp I did 7yrs ago (using some copper brake line to join two thick wires) has corroded inside causing a huge resistance

Opened up the crimp and can clearly see the copper pipe had moisture and oxidised inside giving a bad connection

With thanks to Jack sheen for providing 2 spare sets of loom (one from 98 and another from 2000),
a facelift fuel tank (the reservoir housing will fit the small walbro pump better and is removable),
and a crusty fuel filler pipe (will only use the fuel cap screw thread for making the stainless filler pipe).

Stripping apart the 1998 fuse box

Noticing the charging wires from the alternator to battery is slightly thicker than my old loom, even though they're technically from the same year (current loom 1998 preface SLX, spare loom is later 1998 where drivers fusebox uses micro fuses)

Top: early 1998 charging wire (4.4mm dia)
Bottom: later 1998 charging wire (5.4mm dia)

Power wires after the main battery fuse are also the same thickness

Crimped the newer power wires to the ignition loom

Shrink wrap & crimping new terminals to the fresh charging wires

All reassembled & worked nicely

After a short drive to charge the battery,

Now the battery is receiving a full 13.4-14.24v (high/low load)
Alternator producing 12.97-14.31v (high/low load)
Voltage drop is only 0.05-0.15v (low/high load)
& the wires are stone cold at full load

Fixed

 

[pollyp]

let's inspect the spare tank

compared to my earlier tank, the whole assembly on this later one was really easy to slide out, complete with pump/reservoir/return line/sender

eek, it's been sat around long enough to collect rust flakes inside the tub and the pump is rusty too. certainly not gonna risk using it.
I notice the return flow goes straight back into the reservoir on the inlet strainer, whereas on my earlier tank afaik the return goes outwards into the tank

this sender doesn't have the additional low level detector for the fuel light, so ain't using it

the pipes within the top cover is rusty, won't be using this

here's the check valve that goes between the tanks ventilation breathing and the carbon canistor/outside air.

curiously blowing through it whilst tilting to check operation and found it will only flow freely when it's perfectly level & steady.
it will close if tilted over 5deg or when accelerating/braking/cornering.

so when parking the car on an incline (as the fuel evaporates & pressurises inside), or driving the car aggressively for long periods (high g-forces whilst the fuel level goes down & creates low pressure), the check valve won't be able to open long enough to equalise the pressure inside which might be the cause of the common fuel cap hissing

 

[pollyp]

gave the tank a little wash ?

 

[pollyp]

2022-11-11 Measure Fuel Tank Levels

I filled the spare tank with water & measuring jug to find where the levels sat at various points

when the pump runs dry below 10.4L the level is only halfway up the reservoir

here's a look inside the tank and where the fuel sits.

sitting still at a low 10-13L the water is only halfway up the reservoir and wouldn't fill it up (since it's a sealed tub)
however by sloshing the water (accelerating/braking/cornering) it seems to splash over fill the reservoir up briefly.

It takes 47L to fill the tank until it begins to spill out the breather hole.

once the tank is sealed up on the car, it takes 48.13L to fill the entire tank, the filler pipe & filler breather pipe.

 

[pollyp]

another circuit that I crimped badly with those copper tubes is the ignition switch. I also noted that the ecu voltage only says 13.7v and I measured the fuel pump only receiving 12.3v whilst idling.

so here's the bad ignition switch extension I did few yrs ago

yikes, can see the red 12v live wire is already corroded ?

uncovered the copper pipe crimps, pretty sure they're all oxidised inside

grabbing a spare fresh ignition switch & loom, I crimped them to the old loom with a better crimp & tool this time

and now the ecu is getting a full 14.4v
fuel pump receives 12.75v and sounds abit higher pitch/louder too.
going for a test drive, she seems a tiny bit more responsive too probably from the improved spark & fuel flow

 

[pollyp]

checking the falken tyres before the upcoming road trip.
rear end obviously doesnt wear at all while the front end has approx 1 yrs worth of tread remaining

front & rear pads wearing very slowly

 

[pollyp]

2022-11-14 NC500 Road Trip: Day 1

I've not done a solo roadtrip of the NC500 since my first one in 2007, so I booked a week off work & prepped the car ready

The first trip was a long tiring route to a travelodge at Inverness ?

3/4 the way in the mountains I was running low on fuel, and had to take a 30min detour backwards to reach a BP otherwise I'd run out ?

arrived at 8pm, got a double room for just £45 which was awesome. tesco/asda/maccyD was conveniently next door

 

[pollyp]

2022-11-15 NC500 Road Trip Day 2

After a relaxing monday rest, the 2nd day was to head North towards John O Groats

Leaving inverness to cross the Cromarty Bridge ?

coming closer to the top there were a lot of long straight roads to take a cheeky photo.
the weather also got alot wetter with high winds ?

arrived

and then my drivers wiper decided to give up ?
was fearing if the linkage had popped off and I need to remove the scuttle panel in this high winds?

one hand holding the bonnet against the breeze while the other loosens the fasteners...
I then noticed the wiper nut was really loose, ahh that's why it came off ?

after quickly tightening it with the impact gun it worked fine, which was a relief ?

near 2pm the daylight is now running out fast. I've already booked a hotel down Ullapool and there's no point going 4-5hrs around the top north west coast of the NC500 route in the pitch black

so I decided to drive back down the A9 east coast and then cut cross the pitch black A837 mountain single lanes for 3hrs, which took a lot of concentration ?
really challenges my eyes & Osram headlight bulbs ?

arrived in Ullapool

there was no check-in reception, I simply walk in to my room and everything was there, was quite pleasant.
can't believe I had this lovely double room with lots of tea/cereal/biscuit, bathroom & netflix for just £60 ?

was another chilled out evening after all that driving

 

[pollyp]

2022-11-16 NC500 Road Trip Day 3

wednesday looked like a good clear day

was suggested on FB to visit applecross & skye and then I found a cheap hotel in fort williams

there were sooo many stunning mountain / forest sights along the way, took a photo at Glascarnoch Dam

had to stop on a long straight road to take this autumn tree scenery ?

more scenic valleys near the Ledgowan Forest

filled up at Lochcarron

the extremely calm flat river near Tornapress caught my eye ?

beginning the applecross pass with a nice grassy sweeping single lane road overlooking the stunning sun-lit valley below

taking some stunning photos in the shade near the mountain pass ??

this steep hairpin mountain pass was a really nice challenge. I thought these sorts of road were only in europe/alps as seen in Italian Job, didn't expect to see one in scotland ?

at the top was a fantasic landscape, makes a good desktop background ?

arriving at applecross

there wasn't enough daytime to reach Skye so I went back up/down the applecross pass to head towards Fort Williams before night time

stayed at a 3 star cheap £55 hotel. was bit meh, does the job and morrison/maccyD was also down the road for food ?

 

[pollyp]

2022-11-17 NC500 Road Trip Day 4

was a really wet day, time to travel 6hrs back home.
the mountains were really misty/foggy ?

cruising back home on the motorways was really boring compared to A/B roads ?
the heavy misty rain, dark damp slippery roads, my 1/2 worn old tyres and insanely glaring modern headlights during rush hour made it really stressful ?

relieved to be home ?

 

[SuperUno]

Looks a great trip, fancy doing that myself... But it would be ~5hrs drive to your starting point!

 

[Chie]

Very nice. Scotland is beautiful
Glad the car held up well

Sent from my SM-F926B using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[pollyp]

Looks a great trip, fancy doing that myself... But it would be ~5hrs drive to your starting point!

that'd be a full week long UK road trip ?
?

 

[pollyp]

Very nice. Scotland is beautiful
Glad the car held up well

Sent from my SM-F926B using Micra Sports Club mobile app

cheers ?

absolutely ?

 

[pollyp]

2022-11-20 GizFab Meet

In memory of Scott Murrell who sadly passed away this year ? Eden at GizFab had organised a micra meet to bring everyone together ?
It was a pleasant surprise to see soo many turn up, meeting familiar m8s like Alan, Eden, Andrew, Jack, Douglas and a few new faces ?

it was getting dark & cold after 3, but had to take a night photo over a shiny puddle ?

filled up at a very cheap spar station nearby with Jack & Jonny during our convoy home ?

 

[pollyp]

after sending my broken diff back to Gripper in hopes they'll repair it under lifetime warranty, they replied that my 2011 diff was older than when they began their lifetime warrantys on 2016,
soo it ain't under warranty ?

they said they could machine a new cover & open up the oiling holes in the casing for a whopping £250 & £18 post ?

feck that!
told em to send it back ?

I'll make the cover myself ?

Jack's been having issues with his Panda again.
We prev checked compression, fuel pressure, vacuum/clogged exhaust, replaced fuel rail & reg, all showed ok but the mid-range flat spot & random hesitation was slowly getting worse.

When I compared his datalog to mine, noticed the MAF & thus injector duty was slightly lower than mine at idle & WOT, pointing to a faulty TB

So we swapped around some TB, calibrated the TPS/IACV and now the MAF & injector pulse reads much closer to mine, the acceleration felt much smoother/linear ?

Only odd thing is the IACV on my 1998 ECU (on a 1993 chassis) rests at 17% whereas the Panda never drops below 24% (although I can force it lower using datascan) ?

Maybe an ECU map version thing?

 

[pollyp]

2022-11-21 Repair Broken Lathe Controller

For years this mini lathe had struggled with maintaining a steady rpm and then before my recent roadtrip the lathe suddenly stopped working ?

removed the control box to test

stripped apart, noted the wiring & tested each component

seemed the potentiometer was irratic & the integrated switch was stuck.
opening & cleaning the carbon tracks inside with alchohol fixed the rheostat but the switch is sealed.

next the tachometer display never worked.
tried supplying 5-17v to it but looks like the 5v regulator on a separate board had fried the display chip and no longer works ?

here's the rotary switch that controls direction, it tested having a slightly different connection to the manufacturers diagram so I opened it up

only to find one of the microscopic springs pinged away never to be found ?
improvised with a spring from a pen ?
inside is just a series of cams & contact switches

reassembling the cleaned components it still didn't work ?
further testing the board it seems 240 mains voltage is getting to the board but it fails to output any voltage to the motor amature meaning I need a new one ?

here's the auxilary board which contains the 5v transformer/rectifier/regulator for the tacho display on the left,
and the motor directional relay switch on the right side

note this original control board is the KBLC-240D which outputs upto 180v to the motor,
these are worth over £160-250 online ?

on ebay I managed to find a "lite" model of the KBLC-240DS (pictured as version 3375F),
costs £45, only outputs 90v although tbh I normally only use upto 50% power of my older board anyway

the board seem to look identicle to mine (only difference is the motor load-resister, which are both removable)

what I received instead looked very different to the photo.
I was sent a KBLC-240DS version 3375B which is a much earlier/primative version ?

mine vs spare board

the original KBLC-240D board uses a 0.1 plug-in resister rated for 0.25-0.33HP motors
whereas this spare KBLC-240DS board uses a 0.015 resister rated for 0.75HP motors ?

swapped my original resistor into the spare board to match the motor rating

connected directly to the motor to quickly test and it works ?
now I just have to clear up all the wiring

 

[LordJunk]

Only odd thing is the IACV on my 1998 ECU (on a 1993 chassis) rests at 17% whereas the Panda never drops below 24% (although I can force it lower using datascan) ?

weird. Mine doesn't get below 30%. (measured with ECU-Talk; 1997 ECU wit NATS2, euro, LHD, but i think older ECUs i tested were the same)


As for cables and crimping: I found "solder connectors" to be very useful.


And the NC500 looks like there could be some nice rallytracks

 

[pollyp]

weird. Mine doesn't get below 30%. (measured with ECU-Talk; 1997 ECU wit NATS2, euro, LHD, but i think older ECUs i tested were the same)


As for cables and crimping: I found "solder connectors" to be very useful.


And the NC500 looks like there could be some nice rallytracks

I'm not sure what controls the IACV warm idle Min value ?

I'll have to give those solder heatshrink a go someday

yup there's soo many nice challenging roads up scotland night or day ?

 

[pollyp]

comparing the KBLC-240D(4711E) to the KBLC-240DS(3375B)

had to swap the spare board onto the old heatsink plate in order to screw it inside the housing.

simplified the wiring, removing that faulty relay/regulator board.

all working nicely, back in action ??

 

[pollyp]

2022-12-05

so recently my offside wiper has been struggling to wipe a specific spot and suspect the spindle is worn loose, not applying enough pressure.
jack gave me a spare wiper linkage to see if it's any better condition

stripped apart, cleaned

and nope it's just as worn loose by upto 0.5-1.0mm

so my only other option is to fabricate a ball bearing steel version of the wiper spindles.
ordered some ball bearings for the wiper and 2 spare lower ball joint bearings for the upcoming MOT incase it fails.

 

[pollyp]

2022-12-08

the 110mm dia x 50mm round steel billet arrived for making my LSD diff cover someday ?
this is one big bugger that'll push my tools to the limits, gonna have to fix my broken bandsaw next ?

 

[pollyp]

2022-12-11

early december was a surprisingly frozen period for 2wks ?

a useful trick for defrosting my other daily car is to run a hairdryer on extension cable at full blasts inside the car for few mins while u get ready in the morning. (car heaters are useless on cold starts since they rely on colant which are stone cold too)

the heated air inside will warm up all the windows making it much easier / faster to clear plus the cabin ain't freezing cold while you drive to work

while looking for more hot water bottles in tesco it's amusing to find em with kassandra's name ?

 

[pollyp]

2022-12-17

MOT coming up, time to prep her.
swapped the center cat back on for emissions

my PAS cooler was leaking after rubbing against the center bonnet-catch vertical bar

so a quick fix was to slide some silicone tubing over the leaking hole of the cooler to seal & cusion against the upright bar. stopped the leak

havent driven her for over a wk cos wanted to keep her away from all that snow & salty roads. but now that it's warmed up, time to take her for a test drive to check things iver & recharge her battery

surprisingly she passed MOT with only 2 minor advisories ?
*one tie-rod slight play (which I already have a spare for and easy to replace)
*rear tyres near limit (which I was gonna replace in few months anyway, waiting for the fronts to wear down enough to replace all 4)

 

[BaioX86]

I'd advise greatly against using that airdryer. I used to have one in a mount to reflow graphics cards (I didnt have a hot air gun at the time) and after 10 minutes (maybe less) it caught fire. It started melting from the inside out

 

[pollyp]

I'd advise greatly against using that airdryer. I used to have one in a mount to reflow graphics cards (I didnt have a hot air gun at the time) and after 10 minutes (maybe less) it caught fire. It started melting from the inside out

why would you use a regular consumer hair dryer (designed for intake temp 25C, output temp upto 60C) to reflow something extreme like solder which could require over 200C?

if you were putting it in a tiny insulated oven enclosure to intentionally recirculate the hot air enough to melt solder, the intake temp will be well beyond the consumer hairdryer original spec till the coils got white hot & that's why it melted.

and if it was a hairdryer that took in 25C and output upto 200C enough to reflow solder and cause 3rd degree burn, that's not a hairdryer that's a heat gun

in my case, I'm only using it for a short 5min period within a spacious frozen cold cabin, hairdryer intake temp approx 0-15C, only trying to raise the car interior temp by few deg enough to just soften the ice outside the glass.

 

[pollyp]

2023-01-03 Ball Bearing Wiper Pivot

The drivers side wiper has been struggling to wipe any heavy layer of water especially at higher speeds.
I wondered maybe the plastic pivots have worn loose and affecting spring tension on the arms?

So I ordered some ball bearings, steel rod & plate to make a new solid mount

Machined one end down to 26mm to fit through the scuttle panel hole

Inserted through the steel plate

Marked the triangular shape to fit within the contoured hole better

Welded the rod onto the plate

Machined the holes to snug fit the ball bearing

Fitted the 3 stainless fasteners

Removed the old pivots to swap the drivers spindle over to the new ball bearing mount

But then found another problem. The spare wiper pivot has a shorter body than my older longer bodied pivot, note the position of the circlip groove on the spindles

Had to waste some time making this 3.5mm spacer out of a thin nut to take up the slack

Attached the linkages

Installed

So it swipes smoother / quieter with reduced friction of the ball bearing pivots BUT the drivers side still struggles to wipe the heavy water that's carried over by the passenger arm without lifting/streaking ?

If I swap the shorter blade over to the drivers arm (smaller blade, smaller area, higher blade pressure) it wipes the water better.
so is one arm stronger than the other to match the blade size?

Drivers arm (top) has a shorter leverage arm. Measuring 155x365mm = 520mm total.
Passenger arm (bottom) has a longer levered arm. Measuring 115x415mm = 530mm total.

In theory the shorter drivers side arm should exert more force assuming both springs are the same tension? ?

Swapping the longer passenger arms over to the drivers side has moved the blades closer till they foul but now the drivers side with the passenger wiper arm is wiping abit better suggesting the passenger arm is pushing harder

Also noting, the passenger arm on the drivers side has this abrupt kink shape which fouls the scuttle panel

Whereas the drivers wiper arm on the passenger side has this long angled tilt which clears the scuttle panel

Why on earth do the two wiper arms have different geometry?

To conclude, I think the drivers wiper arm has lost tension and needs replacing

 

[pollyp]

Checking up the brakes & tyres

front tyres half worn & wearing at a steady pace.
rear tyres (rotated from the front) are very near their end, getting slippery and need replacing soon ?

pads in good thick state.
front inner pad not engaging evenly (maybe the front slider is slightly sticky?)
rear inside pad grooves are always clogged with dust.
once again all 4 inner brake pads always wear out faster than the outer pads (pistons maybe not retracting fully, making the inner pads drag slightly?)

still plenty of pad meat left. rear inner pads seem to be wearing faster, maybe it needs another overhaul.

discs are fine

 

[pollyp]

2023-01-15 Increase Windscreen Wiper Angle

Often found the drivers side wiper doesn't wipe enough.

I measured it only sweeps at 77.5deg
So it either parks low on the windscreen but doesn't wipe the last 20mm of the edge,
or it wipes the very edge of the windscreen but parks really high above the bonnet, awful for appearance & aero ?

Passenger side is ok at 90.5deg

Modelled the wiper mechanism geometry and calculated the drivers mech arm needs shortening by 4mm to increase the angles enough.
During it's parked state you can see the length difference of the drivers arm.

at it's top stroke you can see how the 4mm shorter drivers arm has increased the wiping angle from 77.5deg to 83.5deg upto the very edge of the windscreen

marked out the original drivers arm

carefully cut & chamfered

welded

assembled the linkages

with the increased rotation, I can now position the wiper blades to sit parked neatly at the very bottom of the windscreen

drivers side now sweeps up by 83.5deg just missing the very edge of the windscreen

 

[pollyp]

The drivers side wiper was still skipping so I brought a pair of arms off ebay for £13

compared to the old ones the spring is noticeably stronger

tested at high speed (where the old one normally skips badly from the extra aero drag)
and these new stronger wiper arms are definately wiping properly, clearly with no more skipping or streaking

 

[pollyp]

28-01-23 Drill Bit Sharpener v2

Designing a new jig to sharpen all my blunt drill bit.
First modelled the angles of each grind

Then design the jig to make the 1st cut like this

and then the finishing 2nd cut on the edge like this

3d printed the jig along with all the adapter sizes to keep the drill bit held centered

1st cut

2nd cut

testing on some steel. this large drill bit has never cut soo smoothly before

just 22 more to sharpen

 

[pollyp]

28-01-23 New Engine Cover Gasket

The sides of the engine has been getting a bit oily recently probably from the rocker cover gasket, so removed the cover, checking valve clearances whilst there.
Turns out all the stainless screws tend to vibrate loose till the gasket leaks (due to different metal expansion & vibrations). I'll have to fit some lock washers or in worst case lock wire em when I'm bored lol.

Old gasket seems to be OEM 13270-99B00 but rubber feeling slightly firm

Found a similar Victor Reinz 71-53084-00 gasket on ebay for £10

Reinstalled cover, cleaned up the bay & freshened up the dizzy

 

[pollyp]

all cleaned up for sundays car meet at NY500 cafe in Malton in memory of ken block

 

[pollyp]

2023-01-29 NY500 cafe car meet

In memory of Ken Blocks recent passing, the NY500 cafe had a local car meet

I was then asked by Mark-On-Motoring if he could interview me for his youtube channel
I was unprepared for the moment but meh went with it

Was awquid thinking of answers on the spot whilst being filmed
I'm cringing at watching & hearing my own voice/accent on video & thinking I could've given better answers but he asked some gr8 questions



later after lunchtime we headed down to The Motorist cafe near Leeds

 

[pollyp]

brought some stainless spring washers to help stop the rocker cover screws from shaking loose over time & leaking oil out the sides

and after a few heat cycles it's worked, they stayed tight. should've done this yrs ago

 

[pollyp]

Thought the clutch cable was getting slightly sticky & stretching recently, with the cable feeling loose, bite point getting lower & having to move the adjustment fully tight.

So I brought this BKC1285 cable off ebay for £21,
only realising afterwards that I've only fitted this previous ADN13831 cable since last yr lol, woops

Comparing the 1yr old ADN13831 to the new BKC1285,
Inner cable: new = 910mm, old = 915mm, stretched by 5mm.
Outer cable: new = 730mm, old = 710mm, a massive 20mm difference meaning the adjuster will sit right near the end of the inner cable.

I had to remove all the rubber cusions on the outer cable ends just to lengthen the inner cable to reach the adjuster & have enough travel without it binding up.

This new cable doesn't slide as smoothly and clutch fork seems to creak from the strain. I dunno if it's the mechanism getting dry or if the clutch fork is about to snap again

 

[pollyp]

2023-02-02 Making exhaust flange for janspeed exhaust

I've been curious of fitting my old Janspeed backbox to see how it sounds/performs but since I've modded all my exhaust mounts & v-band joints and I don't wanna cut the janspeed exhaust incase I sell it, one option is to mod my 2.25" decat pipe to fit onto the janspeed flange.

Rather than buying a flange for few quid, I already had this 10mm thick plate I could drill & machine into a flange

Clamped it onto the lathe 4 jaw chuck to bore the hole upto 50mm matching the Janspeed mid-pipe diameter

Bolted onto the mid-pipe only to realise the janspeed flange was slightly off-center by 2mm, it'll do

Before cutting one of the v-bands off my 2.25" decat pipe, I needed to know if the current downpipe flange was male / female so removed the cat to inspect.
Downpipe has a male flange

Honeycomb looks healthy in the cat

Chopped the male V-band flange off the decat pipe to weld the new regular exhaust flange onto it for the Janspeed mid pipe

Machined a new lip onto the v-band flange I just cut off, ready to be re-used.
It's a really nice soft stainless material to machine easily.

To make some gasket for the new flange I tried machining these hole punches to pierce the material but that was a massive failure.
They only dented the steel mesh gasket sheet (the punch only works for softer cork/paper gaskets)

Ended up having to cut the slots & holes with a cutting disc

Clamped up

The next steps is to remove the 2.25" powerflow exhaust,
(a PITA cos it requires removing the bumper & dropping the axle I really have to relocate that V-band, which fouls the fuel tank during removal),
Weld a new adapter frame to join the Janspeed backbox to the custom chassis bobbin mounts (without cutting the existing hangers),
Weld the 2.25" decate pipe onto the new machined janspeed exhaust flange.

 

[pollyp]

ordered another rocker cover gasket for when I rebuild the spare engine

and brought a new release bearing ADN13308 to replace the current one which is slightly damaged from when the clutch fork snapped a few yrs ago

 

[pollyp]

the battery has been slowly draining by 0.05v per day
if I unplug the battery, it'll hold a stable 12.6v perfectly fine for days, so the battery is good.
alternator is charging the battery fine at 14.3v with minimal voltage drop, so the new wiring I did last yr is still good.
testing the parasitic draw when resting, it only pulls 10mA which seems normal.
so what could be draining the battery soo much?

whilst still measuring the 10ma voltage draw, I pulled out every single fuse one by one with no change in mA until I removed this green 30a fuse in the engine bay, which is for the ignition switch.

according to all the diagrams I've seen, there's only 1 white/black wire that goes from this 30a fuse directly over to the ignition barrel switch.
I unplugged the ignition switch itself from the loom to try isolate the source, but it still reads 10mA?
so somewhere between the 30a fuse in the bay and the ignition switch connector, something is drawing power

the engine bay loom passes through the a-piller bulkhead & connect to the main loom here.
the 10mA reading only drops when I unplug this big white connector which contains the thick white/black ignition switch wire

hmm so somewhere between this big white connector and the ignition switch, either another circuit is connected onto it & drawing power or I may have a tiny short/bad connection?

 

[pollyp]

2023-02-11 Swap to Janspeed Exhaust

My current exhaust is a custom 2.25" stainless system with a large Powerflow straight-through silencer, which was developed to reduce back-pressure for when she was turbocharged.

Nowadays she's running NA and I've been curious to fit my old Janspeed 1.75" mild steel cat-back system stored in the garage to see if the smaller pipework helps improve gas velocity/scavenging/low-end torque and see how different it sounds

Comparing the janspeed system to the powerflow system.
Notice the janspeed silencer is smaller but very long, which may foul the suspension, and the resonator is slimmer.
Janspeed system weighs 11.8kg
Powerflow system weighs 13.2kg

Fitting the janspeed system in place, it's originally had fitment issues.
The mid-pipe here rubs closely against the sway bar especially whilst cornering

The bend over the axle going to the very long silencer would foul the rear upper trailing arm bracket when going over big bumps

The long silencer also sits pretty close to the rear bumper.
So overall the pipework needs a slight adjustment

Finish making the gasket between the silencer & mid-pipe

Marked & welded the 2.25" stainless decat pipe to the exhaust adapter flange I machined

To correct the clearance/angles of this janspeed system, I had to narrow/shorten the mid-pipe by 40mm.
I used a piece of cereal box to mark the section to cut

Used the chopped section as a sleeve to hold & seal the join

Welded up. now you can see the pipe clears the sway bar much better

To mount the silencer to my modded chassis without altering the janspeed hangers (incase I sell em), I made this simple hanger

Welded onto the silencer (it can be chopped off in future)

Mounted onto the rubber bobbins

With the new angle, the pipe now clears the upper trailing arm bracket

But due to the long silencer, I've noticed it sits really close to the panhard rod by 28mm.
The rear suspension has 45mm of bump travel so it will definately hit when going over speed bumps

Everything all reassembled & ready to go.
Needs painting soon afterwards

That big shiny rounded tip is looking much better than the old 2.25" stainless straight tube

Hearing from my seat, they both sound similar at idle, cruise & high rpm.
The main difference is a deeper louder boom/drone at low rpm / high load (probably due to the smaller silencer/resonator)
and more pronounced/raspy gassy sound at the tail-pipe when rapidly blipping near idle (maybe due to the funnel shape of the tailpipe acting like a trombone).

Torque-band kinda feels slightly broader but I think that's probably due to the de-cat and a colder night air.

 

[pollyp]

brought a cheapo cordless grinder on ebay for £22, thanks to jack for the link

 

[pollyp]

marked out where I need to chop the Janspeed back box to clear the panhard rod

there's just enough room upto the bottom of the pipe to chop the required 17mm out of this edge. the bracing will obviously need relocating to the top side

before any more welding, I'll need to repair this poor old ground clamp

 

[pollyp]

fixed the MIG ground clamp

chopped the lower bracket off the silencer to expose the corner I'll be cutting

chopped this section out. the steel is 1.6mm thick.
inside is the usual long glass fiber weave

CAD template

welded this 1.3mm steel in place

welded the bracing bracket on the top side of the pipe

and now there's enough room for the panhard rod to swing without hitting the silencer

 

[pollyp]

2023-02-15 Smashed Huawei P20 Pro Phone

So whilst fixing the peugeots broken exhaust and tidying up my tools I had a bad habit of briefly resting my phone on kassandra's roof (so it doesn't fall out my pockets) but I stupidly forgot about it when I decided to go test drive her new mended exhaust.

Few miles down the road I noticed my music, which usually plays from my phone via bluetooth, lost signal? that's when I realised my expensive phone is missing! oh fck I didn't leave it on the roof did I??

Racing back home, desperately trying to re-establish the phone/stereo bluetooth, which usually locks when within range, but no luck.
I grabbed my parents phone to call it, it rings so it's stil working. I ran on foot along the same route while calling it & listening out for the ringtone on the busy roads, nothing! It was like the feeling of losing a loved one/pet/child

Fearing someone might've stolen it by now & almost giving up, I decided to try drive the same route looking out for it.

And just down my street at the T-junction before joining the main road was a shiny silver smashed block on the road, which turned out to be my poor phone probably ran over by few cars

The screen, backplate & speakers were smashed. Only the faint LED light & vibrate worked so I was lucky to find it

Feeling really down & unable to think all my precious photos/notes/contacts/etc where on there (I only manually backup via USB occasionally and never trust in sharing everything in the cloud).
Plugging in the USB ain't responding, not without unlocking it via the screen

So I ordered a new screen (hoping it'll allow me to unlock it & then backup the data)
Plus found the same Huawei P20 Pro on ebay for £100.

After 3 painfully long days without a smart-phone, the new phone arrived.
ooh it has this see-through twilight cover, not sure this is factory but looks really cool?

Compare that to my original P20 Pro which had a solid twilight back cover

The replacement screen also came the same day

The screen ribbon runs under the battery which is glued to the chassis I just need to get the screen & USB working, so I simply plugged it in with the screen upside down

Yay the screen & USB works!!

Immediately backed up all the data and transferred the files & settings to the new phone

All the essential data are now swapped & working, phew what a relief

 

[pollyp]

the old Clarke bandsaw guide rollers have this vertical bearing placed soo far away from the two lateral rollers, which tends to bend/buckle/damage the steel belt if it's really mis-aligned. It needs to all be closer together in the same axis

so I cut out the mid-section & drilled the new hole straight across the two existing holes

so now the lateral & vertical rollers are all touching the belt in the same plane.
the mid-section I chopped out just needs some alloy plate welded on to make it rigid.

the v-bands on the stainless 2.25" exhaust needs moving to make it easier to remove the backbox, so I chopped it off

machined the welds off the flange so they're re-usable

Ps: yay 10,000th post

 

[pollyp]

after cutting a section out of the bandsaw guide roller mount to relocate the roller bearing, it'll need reinforcing with some plate.
unfortunately I discovered it's made of cast Alu, sooo I had to dust off the TIG welder & practice my stevie wonder alloy welds
once again it's frustrating to weld such material but eventually I got it joined

now you can see all 3 rollers are placed closer together to help secure/guide the saw blade without damaging it.
also lathed the 17mm top nuts to clear the bearing nearby.

working as intended now