Tuesday 28 May 2019

My Kingdom for a car lift

A job that would take 5 minutes with the car up in the air (removing the starter motor) takes me an hour of sweating, lying awkwardly on my back, frantically checking that the axle stands aren't going to somehow give way with my head under the car.

So the repairs following my track day weekend are under way. These are:

1. Replace HT leads (done - not exactly tricky).
2. Rewire the plug into the coil pack.
3. Fix/replace the starter motor.

Once the starter motor was off, the problem is more obvious - the 12v terminal has come loose (arrowed in pic below) and as the vibrations have moved it about, I think it snapped the copper wire that was soldered inside the body of the motor. So, the motor worked on the lucky times the wire (circled in the pic below) made some contact with the place it used to be soldered to and other times, contact was lost and no starter motor. The track day made it worse but it was a problem before that.


As you can see, I've pulled it all apart, so it's history and I'm going to have to get a new one - great.

Sunday 19 May 2019

The next Mansell....

...might have been at the track day I went to but it certainly wasn't me!

Yup, my first track day is done and I'm in one piece - not too sure about Zedster but more about that later...

First up was the 160 mile drive to the track in Llandow, near Cardiff. Friday afternoon traffic out of London is always bad so it took me 5 hours, with a couple of stops. Tent up and a few beers with other members of SKCC. Slept slightly better than normal in a tent which is to say, a solid 3.5 hours rather than 2.

The paddock in the morning was full of very serious racers; slicks, multi-function steering wheels, vans of equipment, a hive of activity. I attached my camera and took my doors off - that was about it.







After the briefing, we went out in groups which were supposed to be by ability. I said I was slow and rubbish but my group seemed to contain several people who didn't quite match that description. However, everyone was very well behaved, there were no idiots and it was AWESOME FUN!!!

I've been on a track for a few laps in a single seater and a Ferrari on 'track experiences' but this was much better; no limits and all the time you need - brilliant fun.

Here's some video for your delectation:


In total, I did about 50 miles on track in 3 sessions - I could have done much more but I didn't want to put Zedster under too much strain and he had run flawlessly all day.

 

Sadly, it didn't go well on the way home...

I decided to take the scenic route home - I couldn't face another 4 hours on the motorway, I'd rather do 6 hours on nicer roads. I had just found an amazing road (my sat-nav said 17 miles to the next turn!!) when Zedster started misfiring. Just a little hiccup at first but within a few miles, it was so bad, I couldn't drive - it was like the engine was switching off and on, not just 1 cylinder.

After 5 minutes, I had run out of ideas so I called the AA. The guy who came out was brilliant - an ex-Ford mechanic who knew the Zetec inside out - just what I needed. Sadly, 3 hours later and he still hadn't fixed it. He was sure it was ignition-related so he changed the coil pack, HT leads and spark plugs, among other things, which seemed to improve it but still not perfect. He finally admitted defeat at 11:30pm and I asked to be trailered home, only to be told my cover wouldn't pay for it all - I'd have to cough up £250!! I'm far too much of a tight-wad for that so I set off, keeping to a max of 60 mph - any more and it seemed to make the misfire worse. Finally got home at 4am!!

And to add injury to insult, he pointed out that my starter motor is knackered - the 12v connection is hanging by a thread and that is the cause of my recent starting problems I mentioned a few posts ago.

So Zedster is off the road and it may take a while to sort out, as I have no darn idea what the problem is. An old thread on a forum from someone who had the same problem turned out to be their HP fuel filter but I don't have one - maybe my HP pump is not working properly under load?

Fun and games...

Monday 6 May 2019

Stoneleigh once more

It's that time of year and the annual pilgrimage to Stoneleigh for the National kit car show.

This year, I met up with a few people from SKCC and we took an enjoyable run through Berkshire and Worcestershire. I had planned to make a video on the run but my cheap camera decided to not work (I may have to bite the bullet and buy a GoPro).

The show itself was as good as always and slightly busier than last year, despite the weather not being as good. As always, there were the usual rumours that this would be the last year of the show which, strangely, I heard a lot last year as well 😊










As magazine editor for the UK Kit Car club (aka RHOCAR), I was re-elected at the AGM which is always held at Stoneleigh. The club is doing quite well now,  membership up to 200 which is good news.

Because of the AGM, I didn't leave Stoneleigh until about 6.30pm but the run back was good fun - some great roads and not a huge amount of traffic at that time. I thought I was 'making progress', overtaking a few dawdlers, when a fire-breathing Holden V8 flew past me.

Ten minutes later, I noticed my voltmeter had dropped down to 11v  - not a good sign. As background, I've often had concerns around the wiring into my alternator because my battery light is always on which, in theory, means something is wrong. The night before Stoneleigh, I had been fiddling around with the wires and one came off the spade terminal! So I had re-crimped both plugs and they all seemed fine on the way up.

So, I pulled over to have a look and when I gently pulled the wires, they came out of the butt connector further up the line! With no crimper handy, I just twisted the wires together and, for the first time ever, I've used gaffer tape to get Zedster going 😊 - I didn't have any insulation tape to cover the join.

Early in my build, I posted a question on a forum about how best to join 2 wires; butt connectors or soldering. The responses stretched to 3 pages and the result was a 50/50 split. As my soldering skills are rubbish, I decided to use the butt connectors and I now wish I hadn't - this is the 3rd time I've had problems with dodgy electrical connections and my loom is dotted with butt connectors 😕

Anyway, got home of and, apart from the electrical problem, Zedster was superb; 250 miles in the day, about 70 of those at high motorway speeds - superb!

Track day in 2 weeks 😨