Today I mostly .....

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Geoff Stainer
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Geoff Stainer » Thu Apr 12, 2018 10:07 pm

Thanks for the update.

Good luck.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Thu Apr 12, 2018 11:05 pm

Thanks!

Have to admit it's really surprising me just how much I'm enjoying the work on it. It's surprising how well engineered it is, and how much it's generally co operating far more than I'd expect...

Really wants a good run though!
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Neil Chowney » Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:23 am

... still think you're missing a trick by not fitting nitrous........
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Sat Apr 21, 2018 10:34 pm

...having now heard the truly biblical levels of noise that the various bits of this thing make at speed - even when it's firmly affixed to axle stands, I think any attempts to get major performance improvements are...ill advised.

Have tested that the variomatic system and it seems to work as it should. The cones move and the gearing changes accordingly - it also drops into a "fixed ratio overdrive" at roughly 45mph as the manual says it should. I briefly had 65mph on the speedo before I bottled it. The noise levels were honestly alarming, and I didn't want the thing to vibrate itself off the axle stands!

Not much more to happen on this till the other donor car shows up I think beyond getting the main jet out the carb (now I know where it's hiding) to clean it.

Today I mostly...

[] Took the Xantia over to my tame local garage and had them stick it on their air con servicing machine. It passed the leak down test just fine (somewhat to their surprise), so was gassed up. Now the climate control is working exactly as it should. Which was nice today...

[] Reminded by the fact that the tax reminder dropped through the post yesterday that I've had the car six months now, she was due an oil and filter change and a general check over. The oil filter isn't the least accessible example I've had to get to, but it's not a million miles off. The main air inlet duct to the throttle body and the idle air control valve (I think) are in the way. Luckily I've got skinny arms so was just able to squeeze in behind that lot, and managed not to drop the oil filter.

Only thing I noted during my walk round was a duff number plate light bulb, easily sorted. Even had one in stock. The other one looked about ready to go the same way, so I swapped them both. I did also spot when waiting for the suspension to settle while checking the LHM level that there was a bit of excess slack in the throttle cable, so nipped that up. Not like this car needs any more go, it's well capable of getting me into quite a lot of trouble as it is... really dinners to get this one to a track day some day to see what it can really do.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Thu Apr 26, 2018 9:16 pm

Today I mostly...

Got the new fuel tank fitted to the Riva. What a faff. Would have been a doddle if the tank breather was situated more easily...however trying to get the filler neck and breather to co-operate at the same time is a major pain.

It's a 2/10 for technical difficulty, but an 8/10 for awkwardness.

Hopefully get the wiring done tomorrow and tidy things up, then have a working car again at the end of it.

Image

Get it booked in for an MOT shortly, hopefully get it out to some shows soon.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:07 pm

Finally got the rear part of the Lada's fuel system put properly back together. I was 95% of the way there last time, but didn't have time to get to the wiring side of things.

I do appear to have done a pretty good job of burying the Invacar in the last few days with concentration being fixed on the Lada for the most part.

Image

The Saab will also be moving on to pastures new this week with a bit of luck - so some of the stuff here has been decanted out of the boot of that too. Will be sad to see it go, but at the same time glad to see it having a good shot at getting back on the road rather than just decaying in the corner of my garden.

I only really had one glitch today - and that was the discovery that the gauge sender/pump connector on the fuel pump I've got is different to the one used on the TBi Nivas...it's a 4-pin in-line connector, rather than the square 2+2 one the Niva uses. No biggie, easy enough to figure out what's what with the meter.

...Until the multimeter decided to for reasons unknown, turn itself into a doorstop. This took me a good ten or fifteen minutes of chasing my tail to figure out though, as it was giving me feasible but nonsense readings.

So wound up dragging the old standby downstairs and using that to see what was what.

Image

Got the wiring sorted out in short order then, and glad to report that everything seems to work just fine. To say the new pump is "a lot quieter" than the original one is an understatement if ever there was one. Car also seems to be running smoother, though whether that's down to the fuel pressure regulator now having fuel delivered to it at a pressure and volume closer to what it was designed for or my having gone around the engine bay and eliminating a couple of possible vacuum leaks, I'll probably never know.

Hopefully get it booked in for an MOT this week. Pretty sure it'll fail on the windscreen - but it will be nice to know if there's anything else I've overlooked. Especially as I don't own an exhaust gas analyser, so don't really have a proper idea of how well or not the injection system is running - especially given the check engine light doesn't work, which is unhelpful.

Really looking forward to getting to drive the old crate again.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Thu May 03, 2018 10:36 pm

Sold my Saab.

First time since 2004 I've not had a Classic 900 on the fleet.

On the plus side, it does sound like she's got the best possible shot at being restored with the new owner, so I'm taking some solace in that.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Mon May 07, 2018 9:06 pm

Lada is in for an MOT tomorrow. Know I've a missing exhaust hanger and don't have one in stock, so will try to track one down on the way to the test. No Biggie if I can't as if a missing exhaust hanger is all I've got to worry about I'll take it!

Fuel lines all tidied up by the tank, some duct tape applied over the rusty wing tops and checked out all the lights, horn, windscreen washers etc.

Crossed fingers time now!
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Current fleet: 02 VW Caddy 1.9SDI, 90 Mercedes 208D Autotrail Navajo, 85 Sinclair C5, 78 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6GL, 73 AC Model-70.

Geoff Stainer
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Geoff Stainer » Mon May 07, 2018 11:10 pm

Good luck. Hope it goes well.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Tue May 08, 2018 11:13 pm

Well, could have been worse.

Aside from an advisory for my cable tie tailpipe hanger (no idea where the original one vanished to), and for some surface rust on the o/s outer will (already planning to paint that along with the wings), we were looking good. Got a compliment on general condition.

However she's running very significantly rich. 4.9% CO. It's stable, so looks to be running closed loop I *think*. The coolant temperature sensor looks to be slightly out of spec, but giving a hotter rather than cooler reading in theory, and I know the table is approximate.

Going to probe the lambda sensor lines at the ECU connector tomorrow as unplugging that I think should cause a very obvious change, and it didn't do much at all. Would be nice to be able to see if there were any stored codes...but can't because no check engine light to read them by...bother.

Really wish I had another ECU I could slot in as a test, given I already know something isn't 100% with this one because there's a dead circuit for the check engine light...at least I'd be able to prove/disprove if there's an issue with it. ...plus I really wish the light worked, it bugs my OCD.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Wed May 09, 2018 8:26 pm

Continued to investigate the rich running issue on the Lada.

Yesterday I checked out the coolant and air temperature sensors and confirmed that they were giving sensible values. Today I decided that the next step was to have a look at the lambda sensor signal...

The lambda sensor signal ground (which should be a solid ground, not just a floating notional zero volt line) is sitting at 1.5V with relation to ground...Which is essentially imparting a +1.5V offset to the lambda signal...which should vary between 0.1 and 1V...so is simply erroring out as "out of range" I suspect.

Some further poking around revealed that the input line is sitting equally immovably at 0.7V, irrespective whether there's a sensor connected to it or not. Hmmm...The wiring measures out okay too...so that 0.7V is coming from the ECU. Hmmm...It does appear that we've got a stuffed ECU.

Reckon that I need to get hold of a known good ECU before going too much further here or I'll be chasing my tail I reckon.

Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that I've just tracked down the fault which originally took the donor vehicle for my injection system off the road...
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Tom. » Thu May 17, 2018 9:37 pm

Found you one :D .....Comes from what was a good running car before it was put into storage several years back. If you agree with the terms and conditions.....If all is good after receiving and fitting the ECU to your car and you're 100% happy then the price will be the equivalent of a Russian bottle of vodka + the P&P for sending it. If you agree the owner will remove it and post it to you next week. :)
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Zelandeth
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Thu May 17, 2018 9:46 pm

You're a bloody star Tom!

They can have mine as well if wanted so the vehicle isn't immobilised at least (it'll start and run as it is, just run too rich to get through an MOT).

Happy to pay for a bloody decent bottle if it sorts things out! Will be a very careful wiring check done before fitting as well just in case the current ECU was killed rather than just dying of natural causes...as if a new one went the same way it would be... annoying to say the least!

Would still like to find a definite model that uses the same ECU for future reference though, as it would be useful to know for anyone in this position in the future.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Tom. » Thu May 17, 2018 9:53 pm

Car its coming from had no known ECU running issues. The rest of the car will be broken for all the specific TBI and RHD parts and kept for future needs.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Thu May 17, 2018 10:49 pm

Good good. I'd feel bad if I were taking an otherwise likely to be sorted car off the road.

It's a bit surprising how hard some TBi bits have become to come across now...though I suspect that's actually because it was pretty bullet proof back when the Niva was more common...there was no money in TBi bits for breakers, so they didn't keep anything beyond the cat itself!

...I know I stripped bits off a few scrappers, wound up binning a lot of it as nobody wanted any of it. Kicking myself now...

At least the Riva AFR modules used to sell because they did tend to fail (or got drowned).

Really curious now to see how well the car drives with the mixture actually being managed properly.
LOZ: Oddball cars, lighting information, and anything else I remember to upload!
Current fleet: 02 VW Caddy 1.9SDI, 90 Mercedes 208D Autotrail Navajo, 85 Sinclair C5, 78 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6GL, 73 AC Model-70.

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