Snap to it

 With another sunny but cold day beckoning, I popped out for a short run with my son in his car. All going well until - PING - there goes my throttle cable again!

Luckily, I was able to roll to a convenient layby where my son then watched some quality Heath Robinson jiggery-pokery to lash up a new cable using a bicycle brake cable I keep for just this sort of emergency. I managed to limp home and I've ordered a new cable from GBS.

I have also decided to buy their short throw throttle conversion kit - basically, a new pedal with the fulcrum a few inches lower than the standard pedal. This means a shorter movement of the pedal for the same effect, which actually doesn't sound great to me because I imagine at slow speeds, that might be quite jerky?

However, the advantage of this kit is that it includes a solid steel bracket with built-in throttle stops in both directions. So the pedal should be firmer (mine has always been a bit wobbly) but, more importantly, I won't be stressing the cable as much when I go for full throttle, which is probably what has contributed to it's short life.

In a way, I'm quite glad this has happened - I've always worried about the strength of my throttle setup; this has given me an excuse to improve it. There is a YT video from GBS showing how to install this kit and I noticed that they have also strengthened the pedal box using an extra plate, which makes a lot of sense. With my existing setup, you can see the walls of the pedal box bending every time the throttle is moved, so I'll be adding that same plate.

Before the cable went, my son caught me on his dashcam attempting some feeble power slide - it felt much more impressive from my point-of-view (and you may well agree with my son's comment on the video):

Winter cobwebs

 With the cold weather still upon us, I felt like a drive would do me good, so I arranged to meet up with a couple from the SKCC club, for breakfast at the Chalet Cafe. This place is turning into my goto destination; a choice of fun roads to get there, a big menu and always interesting vehicles in the car park.

Today was no exception - half the US WW2 5th cavalry unit turned up:

... as well as the Smart car club:

... and an old classic:

Me and the Elises's:

Nice, slippery drive and cleared the cobwebs - I even washed Zedster; it's becoming a habit. 

RIP John Gillingwater

 I cringe now at the title of my last post - 30 minutes after I created it, my father-in-law died 😔. From an initial cancer symptom in May, terminal diagnosis in October and to end on Xmas eve, of all days, it has been a horrendous and sudden shock to the family. 

The last few weeks have been miserable - my poor wife is distraught and her mum is even worse (they were married for 54 years). The funeral was a week ago but things are still rough.

To make matters worse, my poor son had a minor car accident in his beloved car that he's spent a fortune on. But because the car was only cheap to buy, the insurers wrote it off straight away. The accident damaged ALL the doors (he was hit on one side and pushed into another car on the other) and broke one front wishbone - repairs would cost much more than the £2.3k he paid for it. He'd just spent £1500 on 4 new wheels and tyres as well...

And to put the cherry on this shit-cake, I got an infected cyst that needed sorting - it's been drained but now needs a couple more painful sessions to get cleared up. 

Sorry to be so maudlin - I'm sure there are people having a worse time but this is easily the lowest point of my life.

In memory of John Gillingwater (1943 - 2021), a man who deserved far longer on this earth. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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...