Range anxiety

 So I was on the M25, in a slow queue (as usual) and I noticed my voltmeter was showing 12.8v. I've mentioned before that I haven't been getting more than 13.3v recently but 12.8v is basically battery charge level ie. the alternator was not charging the battery. This is not a good thing - means that everything electrical (sparks, lights,ECU etc) were running off the battery alone. I'm not sure how long the battery would last like that but I couldn't take the risk, so I got off and went home.

What this did mean is that I lost the £80 MX5 drift session I had booked up in NW London!! Urghhhh....

Today, I did some serious staring at Zedster...and my knackered old brain remembered something. The brake warning light on my dash actually has 3 functions; tells you when the handbrake is up, if the brake fluid is low and, crucially, it is part of the exciter circuit for the alternator.

My light has always been flaky; the handbrake sensor is bolted (just) to the side of the handbrake and the plugs keep fouling on my gaiter, so the plug comes of quite easily. The light has not been working for a while (about the same time as my voltmeter has been showing 13.3v, in fact) but I didn't put 2 and 2 together. Until now...

So, 10 minutes to get the gaiter off, put the plug back on, started up and, voila, 13.8v on the voltmeter!!

Now, I have form for thinking I've fixed something, dancing around like a nutcase, only for it to break again a week later, so I'll hold off on calling this a fix until I'm sure. But looks promising...

The ride quality on Zedster has been a bit hard lately, even more so than usual. Some research (which I should have done BEFORE I bought them) tells me that the new Avons are utter junk in all areas but especially hardness; it seems there are several reports of premature cracking and hardening. Great...I don't want to give up on them just yet (£380 worth of tyres and they're only a few months old) so I took them off today and clicked the shock absorber settings softer by a couple of clicks - see if that helps. Also checked the rear pads (about half worn) and checked nothing else loose or hanging off - all looks good.

Booker Prize winner

 A few bolts and bits arrived so took 30 minutes this evening to finish off the new armrest:

Feels pretty good - I bent the door frame a little at the front to get it to mould to the side panel better and looks promising.

I've also started the process of getting this blog made into print. I realised that I'm currently trusting Google to keep this blog alive but if they have some sort of system failure or cleanup one day, I might lose it (this happend to an old website of mine). I do keep a backup but it's just in XML format, so not easily viewable.

So sent of the first year's worth (2015) which cost me £80, so this isn't going to be a cheap process. But the result is very nice:

Hardback, glossy pages - very nice. However, this company (Pixie) have a bit of a limited choice of options and they've also just lumped the photos at the beginning of each entry, so they aren't in the right place in the text. I've ordered the next year from a different company, which was more expensive (£90) but that is set out better - should arrive soon, as will my Booker Prize entry, obvs. 

Arms outstretched

 Finally got my lazy bones into the garage to start on some upgrades. First of was the passenger side armrest, a very similar process the drivers side I did a while ago.

Started with a sheet of ally and an architect-quality plan:

Cut out and folded: 

Foam added:

Finally, the vinyl:

I haven't got the bolts yet to put it on the door but fits neatly:

Feels nice to have made something.

I'm normally too lazy to do preventative maintenance but everyone else does and I guess I should have a go, so I'm going to take the wheels off, check discs, shocks etc.