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:

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 :-)

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.... 

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. 

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?