Friday 24 December 2021

Gates of Heaven

My gear lever has always been a noisy so-and-so; not a gearbox problem, just the play in the GBS quickshift mechanism so it vibrates at almost all speeds.

Combined this with watching a video of an old Ferrari with its metal gate for the gearshift and I decided to try make my own. 

To start, a cardboard template cut a little at a time to get the basic H-shape:


I bought an 8mm thick ally plate and transferred the shape from the cardboard template onto it. The cardboard template wasn't the most accurate; I re-drew the shape on paper and made some minor adjustments in the dimensions. Not very scientific; look at the lever, see where it isn't quite right on the cardboard, subtract a few mm. 

I don't have the equipment needed to make this look even vaguely decent so I took the plate and measurements to a local metalwork shop. He did charge me a fortune (£200) but the result was AWESOME:


Some sandpaper to clean out the letters and a few coats of primer, paint, lacquer:



The next part was pretty crucial; getting holes drilled in my tunnel top in the right place. Much agonising later and it was done:

It looks great, I think but does it work? Ish... the lever slots in fine and in 1st, 2nd and 5th, the rattle is gone. However, 4th and especially 3rd is worse than it was before; now a full-on metal-on-metal rattle. Doh! But I think some strategically placed neoprene underneath the gate will do the trick - we'll see.

Otherwise, I love the look and adds something different from the norm.


Saturday 11 December 2021

Keeping it Cleaner

While watching a repeat of Wheeler Dealers, the guy on there was talking about the oil scavenging system on a Volvo. He was explaining what it did (redirected fumes from the top of the engine back into the inlet manifold, so that it reburnt the fumes/oil, making the exhaust emissions cleaner) and he dismissively mentioned how older cars might just vent these fumes and oil to air - and guess what Zedster does? Yup, this is my setup:


I have never liked this setup, mainly because it does add an oil mist to my engine bay, as you can see in that pic. So, a bit of shopping found a nice, shiny oil catch tank for £30 and, with a new filter, it was pretty quick to fit, looks good and should keep the bay a bit cleaner:


Its got a sight glass on the side so will be interesting to see how long it takes to fill up, if ever. 

Sunday 28 November 2021

Chill out

 A beautiful winters day, bright sun and a chilly 2 degC, was a great excuse for breakfast out. There was a run this morning with the SKCC but just too early for me; they meet at 7am - I got woken up by the dog barking at the postman at 9.30 :-o

So a nice run out to the Chalet Cafe:

Always some interesting cars and bikes there; today was just a group of MX5s. On the right of that picture is an MX6, a car I briefly owned in the mid-90s. With a 2.5L V6, it promised so much but was a bit dull - I don't remember much about it.

I have a cunning plan to improve my gear lever, which rattles about in all gears (not a problem with the gearbox itself but the GBS quickshift). I'll leave the details until I've actually done something - it may not work out. 


Saturday 30 October 2021

Ticking over

 Well, I've joined the ranks of the afflicted - 2 weeks of a positive Covid test isolation. I did feel very crud for that time, no breathing issues but just aches, lethargy.

I've had a few minor runs out just to keep Zedster ticking over - starting issues seem to be all sorted after the starter button install and new starter motor, which is great; lovely to have faith that Zedster will start first time, even after 3 weeks of inactivity. 

Went out for a quick run in the sun today, mainly to warm the engine so I could change the oil, which went fine. Just for my reference, this is the oil filter I used:


Surprisingly annoying to find the right size oil filter...

I've joined up with the Rogues again for a week-long trip in May in Central England - really looking forward to it BUT I may have to cancel last-minute; my wife has had some very bad news about her dad, whose cancer has spread. This is going to be a very hard Xmas and New Year... 


Friday 24 September 2021

MOT, shmemOT

My MOT was on the Wednesday before the Wales trip (bit risky but I had no choice) but there was little to worry about. My main concern was the emissions (which shouldn't be a problem with a Lambda sensor continually adjusting) but the guy at the garage couldn't get the probe far enough up Zedster's exhaust to get a reading, so he could only do a smoke test - much simpler.

He said one headlight was a little high but let me off and he had a good laugh at the 'efficiency' of the wipers and  wash. He had some funky suspension testing device which jacks the car up and then vibrates and turns the wheels, presumably checking for play. It's good to have that checked and know it is all ok.

The brake test did highlight the fact my left front disc is not running totally flat - unlikely to be the disc itself, I'd imagine, so possibly some rust between disc and hub. I've had that once before and it was greatly improved after removing the disc and sanding down the mating surface, so I'll try do that again shortly.

Next up is an oil change...

By the way, an alternative and far more detailed account of the Wales trip can be found in Tony's blog. He has also done some great videos - day 1 is here and others will soon follow:




Tuesday 21 September 2021

The Land of Worried Sheep

 The annual SKCC Rogue Runners trip to Wales was a resounding success, with no disasters to mar the event.

You'll be deeply upset to hear that I didn't take my video camera with me and I didn't take a huge number of photos, so I've grabbed some others from other people.

Friday - home to Llangollen (320 miles)

As usual, the trip started with a stupidly early meet at Newlands Corner - 4.15am is no hour for a man to be up IMO. It was so early, there was fog around, which took a while to burn off as the sun came up. Only 4 of us met here, the other 6 were all at the hotel in Newport, which was our target for breakfast. The route to Newport was the same as last year - nice quiet roads (as you'd expect at that time) and we didn't join the M4 until Bath.

Breakfast was...average...but we met up with the rest of the group; 4 Elise's including new guy, Alistair's tweaked 300bhp beauty, a Caterham, Tiger, Quantum Extreme, Quantum coupe, an MX5 and me. Our merry band set off over the Brecon Beacons and, amazingly, we managed to stay together for the first 30 or so miles (about the only time on the trip we would manage that).



I'm afraid I really can't recall names of places very well, sorry, so you'll have to bear with me. The route up to Llangollen was a mix of some great roads with some traffic to lots of single track lanes with no traffic and sometimes, green grass down the middle.

About the only mishap of the trip was the Quantum knocking it's exhaust off on a speed hump - this was me helping Tony fix it:

We eventually arrived at The Hand in Llangollen, where the usual Tetris parking ensued:



Saturday - Llangollen Circular route (220 miles)

As 2 of us (me and Rob in the Quantum Extreme) hadn't filled up with petrol, the rest of the group, in true Top Gear fashion, set off and left us to catch up. We started off up the famous Horsehoe pass, a great road followed by many miles of good tarmac. As always on these trips, groups formed and broke up all over the place; often, someone arrived at a junction with 1 or more others arriving from a completely different direction - despite the fact we all supposedly had the same sat-nav route!

The route took us to Caernarfon in the west, down to Barmouth in the south (I'm reading this off the sat-nav route - I had no idea of these names at the time) and back to Llangollen, via Snowdon, the Llanberis pass and various other places.

At one point, I was separated from the others and found myself on a great road with a shiny Audi RS4 (I think) right on my tail. I'm a little shamed to admit that I drove like a maniac, certainly on the edge of my ability, for about 5 miles, with the Audi 3 inches from my rear - man, he was quick. I hope he thought the same of me - it would be embarrassing if he was drinking coffee and driving one-handed!

A rare occasion when we all met up at a coffee stop:


A great run through the Elan valley (one of 3 routes we took through this great area):



A great day, with a curry for tea at a local restaurant to cap it all.

Sunday - Llangollen to Llandrindod Wells (220 miles)

Similar to the Saturday; great roads, less-great sump-polishing lanes, groups of differing numbers all over the place. The Elan valley was done twice over the day (I think) using different routes:


We managed a couple of stops with most of the cast together:


...and all ended up at the Highland Moors hotel in one piece:


Monday - Llandrindod Wells to Merthyr Tydfill (210 miles)

 Initially, we were supposed to do the Elan Valley again but there was a closed road right in the middle, so we had to skip it, adding a 10 mile detour to the route. We still managed a 2nd (or 3rd?) stop at the  Two Hoots cafe in Devil's Bridge.

A superb run up the Black Mountains road, to that same car park I took pictures at last year:



 There were a few too many tiny lanes today and the going was slow. The initial route was 250 miles - our group of 4 at the end of the day chopped off the last 40 miles as our sat-navs were estimating an ETA of 7.30 pm - too much for our old bones. We arrived last at the B&B - everyone else had also cut the route short:

Tuesday - Merthyr to home (210 miles)

A day tinged with sadness - it had been a truly enjoyable trip. A few left for home immediately while 5 of us set off on a vague route east over the Brecons again. What threatened to be pokey little lanes again turned out be some lovely, sweeping roads and continued on into England and the Cotswolds. I had a great final 50 mile blat with 3 of the Elise's:


I left them at the M4 to head home, arriving at 4pm.

This was my 3rd time on this trip and probably the best; the roads seemed a little quieter and, apart from those single lane tracks, great drives. 

However, the highlight was Zedster; completely reliable, no problem keeping up with the Elise's and sounding awesome. One of the Elise drivers asked me if I had a turbo because he kept hearing the whistle from my air intake, even over the noise of his 300bhp exhaust.

I was so proud of Zedster, I washed him when I got home - he was that good :-)


Tuesday 14 September 2021

Beauty and the Beast

 Regular fans (?) may recall my column shroud I made years ago was an unfettered gargoyle of an item which I always promised myself I'd replace as soon as I could. Well, almost 5 years later and after a chance conversation with Tony-who-owns-a-3D-printer-and-knows-how-to-use-it, this has appeared:




How awesome is that?! Took 3 days to print, I'm told... really pleased with it. 

Many thanks, Tony.... 


Saturday 11 September 2021

Let's make a start

 So more work on the starter button - I spent some quality time in the toilet (true) to sort out the wiring and decided to keep it as simple as possible:


It took a while to take apart the old wiring and redo it, splicing in the new wire from the starter panel. I've done this so often now that I haven't got a huge amount of play in the wires, so the splicing had to be done with a couple of terminals - not ideal. 

I also fixed the washer button - somehow the positive wire to the switch had completely vanished!? 

I then added a plug to the panel under the tunnel top:



The moment of truth (don't forget I also had the new starter motor in) - connected the dash back, flicked the safety up and switch on, pressed the starter and.... Ignition! Not just ignition but almost instantaneous - no churning away. 

Damn, I'm good! Well, today at least... 

Spent a bit of time taping up the wires and the final result looks great:

It is weirdly satisfying pressing a button to start the engine - I'll probably get bored of it but it's fun at the moment. 

I have my Wales trip next weekend and, annoyingly, my MOT is due. More annoyingly, the dodgy guy I took it to last year isn't free so I have had to book it in with an unknown garage, the only one I could find who had a free space next week. My only concern is the emissions - I've lost the economy map I used to get through IVA, so I'll take my laptop and hope they'll let me adjust the map on the fly, if needed. 

Thursday 9 September 2021

Starter no. 3

 Much as I'd like to have just fixed my starter motor, calling round a few specialists suggested it was no cheaper than just buying a new one and would take longer anyway. So, for £97, a new one was ordered. I tried to get one of better quality but they don't seem to exist - they all seem to be reconditioned. I guess that makes sense for what is essentially a 20+ year old engine design.

In a desperate attempt to try get this one to last longer, I've covered it in heat reflecting sheeting:


May not help but the stuff was only £5, so no big loss.

Fitting the starter motor back in is a huge PITA - I had to take the bash plate off and that's tricky - it's not held in very well because it was so difficult to get rivnuts into the chassis rails. Taking it off was also a shock - it's taken some real whacks, with a big dent I had to hammer out and even an inch-square hole! I didn't realise it was getting hit that much. Much swearing and sweating and the motor was back in. 

Now, when I've been having starting problems, one of the things I noticed was that one of the wires from the ignition was getting warm. I'm told this is because the wire is just too thin for the connection to the starter (it doesn't go through a relay). So I've decided to redo the wires and fit a starter button while I'm there. I found a great little panel with button and fighter plane-style cover for the job.

I decided to fit it to the tunnel panel, between the gearstick and aux panel. First thing was to cut out a hole for the panel:

That's as far as I've got so far - more next time. Let's hope I get the wiring right, hey?


Monday 30 August 2021

Car'd out

 Wow, it's been a busy 2 weeks for car stuff:

Aug 21st - British Motor show

Held at Farnborough airfield, this was a surprisingly good event. My son pulled a sickie and joined me - lots of current cars, classics, customs etc. Best of all, other events have finally cottoned on to what makes Goodwood so great - cars running. This event just had a big arena for some supercars to drive round but its just great to here a Lambo up close, even just idling. I'd rather see and hear one Lambo than a stack of static car displays. Best was the DeTomeso Pantera (excuse the spelling) - man, that was loud and blew my sons mind (and ears).







Aug 28 - Stoneleigh

Later in the year than usual, the show was reduced to 1 main hall with only a handful of the usual manufacturers in attendance but there were a decent number of kits outside and quite large crowds - hopefully next year will be better. 










Aug 29th - CarFest South

Our second time at this event and it was great - a reasonable number of cars and quirky stands (vintage caravans for example), some great music to sit and chill to and a small track for cars to blast round (sensing a theme?). With so much to do, we plan to take our caravan next year for the whole weekend (although it's damn expensive). 







We were there until 11pm listening to the music - a great (but exhausting) day. 

While at Stoneleigh, Zedster wouldn't start, a problem I thought I had fixed, so I took the opportunity to ask cleverer people than me to have a look. Their opinion is that it is a sticky solenoid on the starter motor and banging it with a spanner did indeed eventually kick it back into life. 

So today, I took the motor off in an attempt to remove and 'clean' the solenoid. Unfortunately, looks like I have a motor with an almost sealed in solenoid so the entire motor will have to come apart. I've asked (on a forum) if anyone thinks this attempt is likely to make any difference or if I should just buy another starter motor. 

A productive day - while removing the nosecone, I fixed one of the smaller indicators that was hanging loose, noted one of the bolts holding the nose on had vanished and fixed a loose wire that was ocasionally causing one headlight to not come on.