Light the fuse

 So finally got round to investigating the starter circuit problems; dashboard off, multimeter out and 0V to the aux panel, hence why my USB, horn and other buttons had stopped working. It wasn't clear why that affected my starter until I remembered my starter button got its 12v from the same source as the aux panel.

Starting with the basics, checked the fuses and voila:

My kingdom for a fuse....I'd checked a few obvious fuses on the day of my breakdown but not the 'aux panel' fuse.

To try not miss a blown fuse again, I've bought a load of LED fuses which light up if the fuse blows and replaced all of them - see how that goes.

Also had to replace my broken wiper - simple job, huh? Oh no...a few years ago, on a very wet day in France, both my wipers had gone all loose and almost flew off. So I had used thread lock on the screws...wowsers, didn't know how strong that stuff was! Could I unscrew the wiper arm? Nope...

In the end, I had to drill right through the screw and then use a screw removal drill bit (has a reverse thread) to get the darn thing off.

So, on coronation day I've CROWNED a successful garage session with a windscreen SCEPTRE...(jees, that's bad, sorry)

Pride before a fall and rise

 So I decided to try sort out my temperature gauge - it hasn't been working for months.

I'd checked the wiring and sensor and I knew both were OK so I decided to try dredge up some knowledge from my electrical engineering degree 30 years ago (I went into software and forgot most of my electrical stuff). 

Working on the fact that the sensor is just a load in the circuit that includes the gauge, I decided I needed to lower its resistance to allow some voltage to move the gauge needle. I recalled that placing another resistance in parallel with the sensor should achieve that. Not knowing what resistance I needed, I bought a £3 variable resistor, wired it in parallel with the sensor and stuck the resistor on a convenient surface:

Now, before fitting it properly, I jury-rigged the wires to make sure the theory worked and, Holy Shit but it did - with the ignition on, I altered the resistance and the gauge needle moved accordingly! I was seriously impressed with myself and I almost fired off an email to my university to congratulate them on their teaching abilities. 

Anyway, I then wired the resistor up properly, which involved snipping off the old spade terminals on the earth and sensor. While doing the earth, I noticed some dirt under the terminal, which i unthinkingly removed and crimped on a new terminal. 

Once wired up, I connected up the laptop so I could read the coolant temp and adjust the rheostat so the gauge matched it. Once started and running for a minute, I could already see the needle rising on the gauge. 

Hugely proud of myself, I went off for a drive to check it worked at all temperatures. A mile down the road, however and the gauge read 110 while the laptop showed 95 so I stopped to adjust the rheostat. But I found that no amount of twiddling would get the needle below 80 - I should have been able to set it to anything I wanted, in theory?! 

And then it dawned on me - the sensor was working correctly, without the need for the rheostat. To prove it, I cut the wires and voila! A working temperature gauge! 

So all I had needed to do months ago was remove the earth and clean it (and maybe the new, shiny spade terminal also helped). 

Doh! 

So a lesson learned - the simple things first before dusting off the old grey matter. 

Is the honeymoon over?

 A lovely sunny and chilly day meant a run out with my son in his latest fire-breathing monster; a 300bhp Hyundai i30N. The damn thing is stupidly fast and my son stays 3 inches from my rear panel at all times...i may have to start charging him rent to stop him buying these cars.

We started off driving to the Riverside Forest Row meet, just it's second start since Covid. Sadly, it's not back to its best yet so we strung it out for an hour; a couple of nice V8 mustangs and a very original looking 50s Jaguar thing (sorry, couldn't find the owner to ask what it was).

We then went cross-country to Hawkhurst Fisheries for a nice lunch; took some bumpy B-roads to get there, which weren't great but some nicer A-roads back made up for it. 

Unfortunatley, my temp gauge still doesn't work; it does move very slightly now but that's it. I'm suspecting an electrical reason but no idea what. My voltmeter is also showing only 13.3 volts on the move, a good 0.6 volts too low which doesn't sound like a lot but is a little worrying.

My coolant leak is still there, small but there and not obvious where it is coming from. 

More of a worry to me is that I'm not enjoying my drives in Zedster as much recently. The ride seems worse than usual (I have just bought new tyres by the way - Avons and maybe they're stiffer? I chose them mainly because they're supposed to be good in the wet, where my previous Toyos were not) and Zedster just feels less stable, with road holes causing crashing through the body and pushing the car offline - it's just not as comfortable as he used to be. 

I think I need to bite the bullet and get a rolling road session to sort out the cold running (Zedster won't idle for the first few minutes of any drive) and at higher speed, coming off the throttle causes a strange hesitation in fuelling, possibly caused by the new short throttle pedal? 

But today was the first day where I considered selling Zedster - I feel like a traitor even typing that. Hopefully, a tune and some sun will bring me back to my senses. 

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. 

Grounded

 So time to improve the earth points. Turns out my alternator DOES need my engine earth - a short drive with earth disconnected showed my battery getting no charge. So, short job to sandpaper the chassis point and replace the flat washer with a spring washer, in case that helps.

Next step was an extra earth from the negative battery terminal to the starter motor mounting bolt. When I took the bolt out, it was very dirty - maybe it hasn't been making a good electrical connection with the block? 

I bought a cable from Halfords which had ring terminals attached to save me having to wait a few days for cable and separate terminals (I didn't want to miss out on the amazing weather forecast for the weekend) - it wasn't quite long enough so I've had to route it across the battery. Not ideal but hey... 

Engine fired up immediately so looks promising - see how it goes on a drive over the weekend. 

It's a Kind of Magic

 Electricity hey? Can't live with it, can't throw it in the bin...

So I felt my starting problems were electrical but I couldn't work out why. Then I came across a diagram showing a typical alternator /battery/starter motor setup and I realised that the starter motor has a 12v input but no obvious earth - it is earthed through its body and the engine block. 

To test this, I taped a ring terminal from the body of the starter motor to the negative terminal of the battery:

Voila! Starter motor sounded much healthier and instant engine start! 

So, bad engine earth, you say? I had already removed that earth and cleaned it up but, Ok, let's try again. Engine earth looks like this at each end:

Removed it completely, connected my temporary wire to the hole in the chassis and still started fine, suggesting the earth point is ok. However, for a laugh, I then removed the wire completely, with the earth cable disconnected and, guess what?

Yeah, engine still started fine. 

So my engine earth is doing bugger all? Maybe the alternator needs it but it is probably earthing the same way the starter motor is, wherever the Hell that is (gearbox, propshaft, diff?). 

I'm getting close to the hair-removal-while-screaming stage... 😕

More driving, less fixing

 So I took the injector loom off - the injectors themselves checked out fine. I took the plastic injector plug case off:

and after unwrapping the loom tape, none of the wires dropped out of the the butt connectors, which is what normally happens when I usually unwrap my wiring. I did a continuity check of the earth's to each plug and they were fine, as were the common signal wires. But I couldn't easily test the signals from the ECU.

I really didn't want to redo all the wires - that really needs to go back to the ECU plug, remove numerous panels to get to the loom, unwrap it all and then rewire it, having to reverse engineer it etc. That could take weeks at the pace I work, with no guarantee it would be any better.

So I just put it all back together and went for a drive... I've decided to be like an ostrich for now and just suffer the difficult starts.

*Sigh

 So my starter motor not kicking in is definitely an electrical problem and it seems to be the wiring from my ignition switch, which I thought I has sorted out weeks ago. I know this because when I try to start and the starter motor just clicks, if I wiggle the wires from the ignition, the starter motor fires up fine.

So there is that and my hot-starting is still a problem - starter just churns away but nothing from the engine. Starts up first time when cold and also OK if I leave it 5 mins after a run but any longer and no joy until its been sat for at least 30 mins. 

Very annoying - research needed to find out what to do about it. 

Sadly, my Alps trip is off - looks like France won't be accepting tourists for a while. I've got a plan to have a little UK trip of my own in May/June instead - see how it goes. 

In other news, my 17 year old son passed his test just before Xmas and I had bought him a cheap, old Toyota Yaris which he loved - for 3 months. Then, he was given 2 extra days at work so he's been earning a vaguely decent amount of money and, obviously, he can't just save that money, oh no! So he started looking at better cars - long story short, he's bought himself (well, I bought it but he is paying me back) a 10 year old MX5. 

Yes, I'm a bad parent but it is SUCH an awesome car. For £3.2k, it feels like new, is beautiful to drive and my son is almost sleeping in it, he loves it so much. Weirdly, the insurance was £300 LESS than the 998cc Yaris? I just don't get it...

Today, with my help, my son changed the oil and filter - a surprisingly difficult job because we had to get the car up on my ramps to get to the sump and that was no mean feat. But he really enjoyed it - a future kit-car builder? Who knows... 

We have ignition...

 Lockdown boredom finally overcame cold and drove me into the garage, although with a little electric heater going, it was fine.

The plan was to try get the engine firing, something I have been unable to do recently. The problems feel like it is my starter motor and I have had the new battery on the trickle charger for the last 2 weeks - so imagine my shock when I test the battery and it shows 12.2V, less than the 12.5V I left it at 2 weeks ago!! I can only assume my trickle charger (it is very old) is kaput - wonderful.

So after some advice from my Alps partner, Graham, I decided to disconnect the starter motor and clean all the contacts. I was planning on doing the same to the main engine earth connection but when I tested the voltage from the battery positive terminal and a point on the engine, I was getting 12.25V, slightly more than across the battery terminal itself! I THINK this means my earth is OK, no?

After cleaning the starter motor terminals, it seemed to make no difference to the starter motor BUT the engine fired into life immediately. Either there is some weird circuit linked to the starter motor which affects something else (ECU, coil pack?) or I knocked some other wire which was preventing the engine start before. The only wire nearby is the crank sensor - is the connection dodgy? I just don't know...

Anyway, took the opportunity to go for a short drive to get car bits moving and oiled, and to test out my new camera setup. That worked pretty well - the quality isn't great but good enough for me and it is nice and stable. Also good to see that Zedster can still get his tail out, although not too tricky with the wet,, greasy roads out there at the moment:

Will be interesting to see if Zedster starts next time I try...

Un-tangle the Snakes - part IV

 Well, wonders will never cease...re-wire finished and everything STILL works. Miraculous...

I did have to change from one 12-pin DT plug to a 6-pin and 4-pin but fortunately quite simple to remove the pins in a DT plug, so not a big pain. I had to do that because some of the wires come from the dash, others come from the main loom on the scuttle:

I routed the rear camera cable down the centre tunnel and wired the main unit into the ignition circuit, so the camera comes on with the ignition. Wiring behind the aux panel is now much neater:

Finally, in what was a productive day, I fitted a rubber cover round the gearstick rose joint, while the tunnel panel was off, which is supposed to cut down on the stick vibration. I bought this a few months ago but I really could not understand how it was supposed to get round the rose joint without me cutting it in half, like I have done. This doesn't look right but I can't work out how I should have done it, it only cost £2 and I'll be amazed if it makes any difference, even if it doesn't drop off in 5 minutes:

Most importantly, with the dash back in, all the electrics still work and my horn works again. I'll hold fire on calling this a complete success until I go for a drive and check it stays in one piece.

Un-tangle the Snakes - part III

 Taking a while this project - most people will probably do this in a day. But I am trying, for a change, to do a decent job.

I've drawn up a circuit diagram but it's always difficult to translate that to a real set of wires; you can't decide lengths without being in front of the actual kit, for example. Also doesn't help when you have a brain-freeze and suddenly forget how electricity works - but I got there in the end.

I created 2 wires for the positive and negative feeds, spliced wires into them and heatshrunk it all up:

Two of my switches have those horrible 13A plug-type screw terminals which are rubbish in the heavy vibration environment of a car. This is why my horn has been so hit and miss, with my horn failing every time I do anything to the aux panel. 

So I bought a box of shoelace ferrules (never heard of these before) which should work better. As the name suggests, they look like the end of a shoelace, with a small metal cylinder and a plastic boot. The problem is, they're rubbish; my set came with a special tool to crimp the plastic boot onto the wire but it is just nowhere near firm enough - the wire comes out with gentle pressure. However, the cylinder on the end is what I want, so I hacked the boots off and soldered the cylinders onto my wires, tidying up with heatshrink:

Looks pretty neat, I thought, and should hopefully be much better. I now have everything on the aux panel going into 1 DT plug:

Still looks messy but much better than it was and hopefully less prone to bad connections, with all plugs crimped AND soldered. 

Next stage is to do the other side of the DT plug which is going to be a it trickier as I have to do the soldering sitting in my car, rather than on the bench. 

Un-tangle the Snakes - part II

 The camera I bought has a front and rear camera but, unlike my bike version, the 2 cameras look the same and the wonderful Chinese-English translation in the manual neglects to help in suggesting which is which (the front camera is higher resolution). So I took a punt on it and, guess what? Yup, 50/50 chance and I got it wrong! So I'll need a few minutes to swap them round - lucky I tried the thing before fully installing it.

So this is the snakes nest I'm trying to tidy up:

First job is to label everything before I take it all apart. I've drafted up a rough idea of where the wiring currently goes and how I'll need to wire the DT plug - I have 9 inputs, so I'll use the 12-pin plug.

Next stage is to work out an efficient wiring diagram, without the 4 separate positive wires I currently have, for example.

Un-tangle the Snakes - part I

 So time to do something reasonably major; sort out the damn wiring behind the aux panel!

After my quickshift was repaired, which required the aux panel to come off, my horn stopped working - damn wiring AGAIN! 

So I'm going to do 2 things; re-design the circuit to hopefully simplify it and use some more professional plugs and crimping techniques. I've spent some research time on YouTube, investigating good crimping techniques and I've bought some DT-type plugs, which are waterproof (not that I need that) and have an excellent clamping method. But the idea is to rationalise the 3 plugs I currently have to undo to get the aux panel off, down to 1 larger DT plug.

Obviously, with wiring, this could go horribly wrong but I'm sick and tired of something stopping working every time I so much as look at the aux panel.

Included in this rewire, I'm installing a front and rear camera system (same as the one I have on my motorbike). This has a 3-fold purpose; as a dash cam in case I have an accident, as a reversing camera but mostly so I always have my drives recorded, so I can always make a video if something unexpectedly good happens. At the moment, I have to fit my camera and then turn it on at the right time - as the battery only lasts an hour, I regularly find I think I've recorded something but then find out the battery died 5 minutes in and I've got nothing.

First thing tonight, though, was to test out my LP pump. Someone on the forum had a similar starting problem that I have and it turned out his LP pump had died, so the HP pump was having to suck the petrol all the way from the tank. Seemed like a possible cause of my problem but, after pulling the pipe off the swirl pot and turning the pumps on, petrol came out, so the LP pump is working - damn. I spent some time cleaning the filter which had some paper strands in it (like a mouse has made a nest in my tank?!), so maybe that will help? Unlikely...

While I had the rear panel over the diff off, I made a start on the rear camera. After some thought, I decided to attach it to the top of the number plate light, so I drilled a couple of small holes in the top of the unit and then, scarily, a hole in the rear panel for the wire:

A grommet and that's done - not too intrusive:

The wire will go through the tunnel up to the dash and the main 3-inch screen. I have yet to decide where to put the front camera or the display screen - that's for next time. It has to be integrated into my new wiring, as it needs an ignition-switched power supply.

All legal and above board

 So, today was MOT day...

The main beam problem was, as always, wiring. As soon as I took the dash off and wiggled the wire on the main beam switch, it came out the stupid butt connector. I don't recall but I must have had to extend the loom wire, which I did using a butt connector...out with the soldering iron and all fixed.

Following a recommendation, I booked in with an MOT garage that has experience with kit cars. Now, I'm not going to name names here but the test was a tad...brief. I know Zedster was fine but, if he hadn't been, this test would have been unlikely to detect that. To his credit, the guy was very thorough with the bits I don't check (brakes, bushes etc) but there were a few glaring omissions I won't go in to.

Suffice to say, it was a pass and we're all legit...

Saying that, a new problem has arisen - hot starting. I switched off when I arrived and waited 10 minutes for the paperwork to get started and when I tried to restart and drive into the bay (I sat in the car the whole time, which I liked), Zedster wouldn't start. After a few minutes, he did eventually but it wasn't reassuring.

The tester suggested fuel starvation but said there were lots of possible causes - I'm wondering if I have knackered my HP fuel pump after a couple of very hot days in the Alps on my recent trip. Also, the battery was very low after 2 weeks sat in the garage - maybe it's just that? My GPS speedo has a permanent live feed direct to the battery which is supposed to only use a few micro-amps but I guess this might add up if left for weeks? I've got the trickle charger on now.

Another couple of minor fixes needed - all the extra wiring I added for my high-level brake light needs more cable ties to keep it in place; they keep dropping out the bodywork and getting perilously close to getting tangled up in the wheel. 

Also, one of my bonnet catches keeps popping up. I noticed this in France and it never caused an issue but could do with sorting. It may just be enough to renew the rubber strip I put on the chassis rails that the bonnet sits on. It's very worn in places now and compressed - a fresh set may give some extra depth for the bonnet catches to hold on, if that makes sense.

Need to do all this before my Wales trip in 2 weeks, a repeat of the trip I did last year. Really looking forward to that...

Back to the grindstone

 So, 2 weeks after my mega-trip, I went on a family holiday - to the French Alps! A very different holiday of rafting, cycling, walking - anything but driving (apart from the drive there and back).

It was actually a good comparison of a proper sports car and a modern family car, in this case my Lexus Rx400. Twice the power of Zedster but almost 3 times the weight, and it showed. Whereas Zedster scoots round corners with minimal roll and need for brakes, the Lexus rolls like a ship in a big sea and understeers horrendously. Obviously, not a fair comparison but interesting...

So time to get Zedster ready for his first MOT. 

First up was the reverse light which hasn't worked for a while. This was just because the bulb holder was a dud from when I first got it, so it doesn't make a good connection. Not wanting to have to replace the whole unit, I thought I'd change it to an LED. Obviously, I couldn't just put in a new bulb as it would have the same connection issue. I ordered a weird collection of LED pads and bulbs for £3 on ebay - they took 2 months to arrive! But the little LED pads are pretty good and I wired 2 of them up to the existing wiring and stuck them (they have adhesive pads on the back) to the inside of the lens, facing the reflector - job done.

Next, the horn which hasn't worked for a while. Turned out to just be the wiring (no, shock!) - replaced a couple of spade terminals and all good. While there, I noticed another wire dropped out of a spade terminal, which explained my non-working LED interior light - now working. 

The last thing to do is the main beam which hasn't worked for a while. A definite wiring problem because the main beam flash works but needs the dash to come off - job for another day. 

Electrickery part 347

So took some time today to, hopefully, fix my TPS wiring. As I thought, I had used crimped spade terminals originally and as soon as I took the loom tape off, one of them pulled out immediately with no effort - not good. Another one was similar...

So out with the trusty soldering iron and it looks much better (I have taped it up further, so the 'after' pic isn't strictly accurate):

Before                                                 After

A short drive proved at least I hadn't made things worse but I need a longer drive to see if I have actually improved anything.

Currently, my Alps trip is going ahead but it may be very short - I love Zedster but reliability is not his forte. But this is partly what I built him for - tootling around Surrey is fun but I want adventure, man! I want to be like those early car pioneers, who took their rickety bucket of bolts on European trips, rebuilding their cars as they went - ok, I'd rather NOT do the rebuilding but you know what I mean...

Back down to earth

Ah well, I was almost right...

Went out for a long, 300 mile day trip to Cheddar Gorge with SKCC. The weather was supposed to be good and it was in patches; unfortunately, between those patches were torrential downpours!

A nice 7am start, and all started well - a good 80 mile thrash to the first coffee/petrol stop, nice chinwag with the others, then on our way again. Dark clouds loomed and there followed a series of 60 second monsoons. After the first couple, I decided to put my roof up, whereupon the rain stopped and the sun came out. Thinking it was clearing, I took my roof off and, yup, you guessed it; grey clouds, dark clouds, rain. During the day, I took my roof on and off about 5 times and only once did I time it right to save a soaking!!

Still, some great roads and reasonable traffic made it enjoyable - until my misfire returned!!!! Arrrgggghhhhhhhh!!!!

Initially, it was very gentle, just a slight hesitation, and I thought that might just be down to not having recalibrated the TPS after I replaced it but it got worse and worse, finally returning to pre-TPS replacement levels.

About 100 miles from home, I stopped and wiggled lots of wires, pushed injectors etc on and VOILA - no misfire for the rest of my return trip. So I'm returning to that perennial bugbear of mine - butt connectors instead of soldered wires. The wire to my TPS, I recall (need to confirm), has a load of butt connectors (I had to extend the wires because they weren't long enough) and I think one or more of them are just about in the connector but, after a bit of time vibrating, they are hanging by a thread - the same issue I had with my ignition wiring, which have been fine since I soldered them.

So, moral of the story: do NOT use butt connectors, they are cr*p!! Well, maybe they're OK if there is some technique for using them that I don't know but otherwise, steer clear.

Of course, this may be another false dawn but it worked for my ignition wiring which have been fine for months now, so it's time for the soldering iron on the TPS wiring. I'll let you know how it goes...

A soggy-looking picture of us at Cheddar Gorge (it wasn't actually raining, which you can tell because I have my roof up!!):

So most of the run was good fun, especially the last 100 miles after I fixed the misfire - I just set my sat-nav to 'scenic' route and followed it part of the way, until I recognised where I was. I took a route that is normally very busy but I must have just timed it right because it had a few cars as target practice but the rest was lovely and clear and when Zedster is running smoothly, he is a blast.

Wonders? Ceasing? Nope!

Unbelievably, replacing the TPS sensor has worked! OK, just a quick 5 mile drive but no sign of my misfire - I am a bona-fide mechanical genius! 

It amazes me that this sensor can have this problem and annoying that my previous research never brought it up as an issue. Only now, when I looked up TPS senor, I found a page that showed symptoms of TPS failure which matched exactly what I had.

So hopefully fixed just in time for a long day trip on Sunday to Somerset and then should be ready for the Alps in 4 weeks or so....

Oh yeah, wiggling the wire for my temp sensor kicked the gauge into life as well... 

Speech Therapy

So Zedster has started stuttering again - time for therapy...

Last time this happened, I improved the security of the coil pack plug and that seemed to fix the problem - until now. So I decided to make it even better - the cable to the coil pack has always been pretty tight, so I convinced myself that was the problem and decided to try get some slack into the system.

I cut off the existing plug, bought a new one with wires already fitted, dug out the soldering iron for the wires, more holes in the bracket I made previously for another cable tie and voila!

Before                                                                         After

Looks much better, less stress on the plug - good, huh? No. Made no difference - back to square one.

I have previously replaced all the HT leads, spark plugs and coil pack so it seemed unlikely to be them. To be sure, I took all the plugs out, checked them for any obvious problems - all fine. Checked the resistance of the HT leads - all seem reasonable.

The next step was to try use the Emerald datalogger software. I have tried this before and, to be frank, without experience, it never really helped but I'd run out of other ideas.

So out for a short run and, amazingly, I may have found something:

That yellow trace is the throttle position and that is what happens when my misfire occurs - it should be a nice, straight yellow line (purple is RPM) but it's spiking down - either the TPS sensor is kaput or my wiring is. The ECU is getting a signal to say I'm taking my foot off the pedal, so it shuts off the fuel but then, milliseconds later, it gets a full signal again and pumps a load of fuel in. Because it is reacting so quickly, I get the stuttering/misfire effect. Sounds plausible?

To be honest, I suspect my wiring more than the sensor but as it is fairly cheap and simple to replace, I've ordered a new sensor. If I'm right, I'm a fricking genius!!

While mucking about, I've broken the connection to my temperature gauge (wonderful) and I also have the dread of my first ever MOT in the next few months and I have a few issues:

1. My horn isn't working.
2. My high beam isn't working.
3. My reverse light isn't working.

The first 2 are wiring issues (who'd have guessed?!) and the reverse light is a physical problem; the cheap light unit has always had a defect meaning the bulb doesn't get held in place well and keeps dropping out. I've got a cunning plan to fix that...

And my Alps trip may be back on!! German/Australian guy checked with immigration and they said he would be OK to cross borders and France has dropped it's quarantine rules (I think -  the wording is a bit ambiguous), so we'll make a call nearer the time.

In, out, shake it all about

IN - Great run out today.
OUT - My misfire is back!!!

Had another 6am start for a run with the SKCC club and it was a doozer...about 20 cars turned up at the start point in Edenbridge, 8 of them Elise's. There were 2 different runs that had been arranged separately - the Elise's and a couple of kits went off one way, we went the other.

A great run, much less bumpy than last week, some great roads, not too much traffic. I was near the back, right behind a snorting Caterham 620R which kept flying off and I could only just keep in sight but HUGE fun. The advantage of following someone faster than you is you realise how much quicker you can go, in particular, how quick Zedster will go round corners.

I was having great fun until about an hour in and my misfire reared it's ugly head again. I stopped to try fix it, assuming it was the same coil plug problem I had last time. The plug did seem to be not seated right and after pushing it back in, it was ok for a while but it must have worked loose again as the misfire returned for the rest of the run and my journey home.

The endpoint of the run was a fisheries (Hawkhurst?) - also there was another Lotus 7s car club, so there were about 20 kits in total - and 6 or 7 Porsche 911s turned up shortly after us - a petrolheads delight:

My trip back was marred by the misfire, although there were a few brief moments of smooth fun.

I think the problem is that the wire to the coil plug is only just long enough - it needs some slack to stop the vibrations loosening the plug. I'm going to work on that...

Sadly, my Alps trip this year is definitely off - my German benefactor is actually Australian and because Australia won't let anyone into Australia, no-one in Europe will let an Australian into their country. Its amazing that governments can be so childish but there ya go...will just have to wait for next year.