The problem with the richness looks to be solved. It was a problem with the lambdas, but not in the obvious way.
After spending a shocking £80 on a new lambda, I did some more testing on the old lambda sensors, and, after heating them up with a blowtorch, the faulty one came back to life. I ended up replacing it anyway, as this and other data suggest that it's on the way out. So, new lambda in place, I ran the engine and attached a multimeter to the lambda output, expecting to see it start to cycle between rich (close to 5v) and lean (closer to 0v), when the engine went into closed-loop mode. Unfortunately, this didn't happen: it stayed rock steady on about 4.8v (i.e., rich).
After much head-scratching, I plugged in the laptop, and noticed that the laptop was reporting 0v coming from the lambda sensors, even though they were outputting close to 5v. A quick scan of youtube (apparently, some people like to video their sessions of plugging a laptop into their car, and in this case I'm glad they do, although in general they should probably get some kind of hobby) yielded a video of someone running the same software on the same engine, which was clearly reading correct (non-zero) lambda sensor values: so the software is clearly capable of displaying correct values. A quick check of the wiring from the lambda sensor to the ECU showed that the wiring was OK, so the evidence pointed, improbably, towards an ECU which functioned fine in all respects except that it couldn't read the lambdas properly. If the ECU thought it was seeing 0v, then it would think that the fuel mix was too lean, and inject extra fuel to try and solve the problem... hence the emissions issues, and the numbers I was seeing from the lambdas.
The theory was promising, but I needed a new ECU to test it (number four, if you're counting - the first two had immobiliser issues, and the third had the lambda issue). This also meant a new immobiliser (they are paired with the ECU) and a matching key (again, the chip in the key is paired with the immobiliser). Fortunately, they are cheap on Ebay (about £50), but unfortunately most of the breakers who sell them are absolute cretins. Example email exchange:
Me: I need the ECU, immobiliser and keys - here is a picture to avoid confusion.
Cretin: Just to confirm, you just need the ecu and the key.
In the end, I found a seller who seemed to understand that I needed three items, not two, so I ordered it. Sadly, he turned out to be useless as well, and I didn't get it until four weeks later. He claimed he was snowed in (in Glasgow), but I'm not convinced the snow lasted for four weeks.
It was worth the wait though: I plugged in the new bits, swapped the chip in the key over and ran the engine. After a short warm-up, the lambdas started cycling nicely between rich and lean readings, suggesting that the engine is no longer running rich.
Assuming there's no snow on Saturday, it looks like I might get to MOT before Christmas after all, although I will probably freeze to death on the way there. I hope they don't object to the new ECU having reduced the milage by 60,000 miles.
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Friday, 19 November 2010
Long overdue update
On the bright side, the seven continues to provide a rich learning experience, so to speak. The less cheery way of looking at it is, it still doesn't work, and in fact has even regressed in some ways.
After the failed MOT, much time was spent looking over the brakes and trying to figure out why they were seizing. The most significant factor turned out to be insufficient slack in the pedal: since the pedal (and hence the master cylinder) couldn't return fully, once pressurised, the system could never release fully, leaving the brakes dragging somewhat. As they dragged, temperatures rose (considerably), raising the pressure... which is why the car didn't make it to MOT without a rest; nothing to do with the handbrake, which was adjusted just fine.
A secondary factor, which Will and I spent quite a bit of time looking at, was the fact that even with this sorted, I still got about 3 ft-lbs of drag from each rear wheel. (For perspective, the diff on its own, being an LSD, takes about 7 ft-lbs to turn, which is just about turnable by hand using the discs, or not too hard to turn using the bigger radius of the wheels - so this roughly doubles the resistance at the rear). We tried winding back the pistons (no improvement); checking the callipers could slide freely on the pins (they could); checking the discs were central in the callipers (a washer was added on one side as a spacer to achieve this); with no improvement. Eventually I got the bench grinder out and ground the pads back by 1mm or so, trying not to inhale too much, and now they are fine.
Unfortunately a slight mishap occured while up on axle stands fixing the brakes: after everything was sorted, I started lowering the front of the car... and the rear fell off its axle stands. Happily, Emily's bike and Chris' lawnmower took most of the hit and absorbed a lot of the impact, but one rear wing of the car was damaged. It's an easy replace, but very, very annoying.
Brakes sorted and wing gaffer-taped up, I tightened up a couple of loose-ish unions that had leaked under the high pressure, topped up the fluid at the last minute, and had another go with Will following, and Becky looking nervous in the passenger seat. No issues getting there this time, but on arrival Will told me he was seeing big clouds of black smoke every time I put my foot down...
As half-expected, the engine indeed turned out to be running very rich. So rich that I hope the cat hasn't been destroyed - I don't think it's been run enough to seriously damage it, but we'll see; it was certainly another MOT fail (along with some a couple of loose nuts which will be trivial to sort out).
I've spent this week trying to figure out why the car is running so rich. I thought I had found the answer when I looked through the throttle body and saw this:
But unfortunately, inspection of a friend's healthy 328 revealed the same thing, so I don't think this can be the issue. I've ordered a new CCV valve (the bit that's supposed to separate out the oil vapours before feeding back into the manifold) anyway, which I will fit anyway, as this is probably on its last legs at 100k miles (as indeed the state of the manifold suggests).
I had a bit of a poke around the fuel rail and discovered that all the injectors click at a sensible rate, so it's unlikely that one is stuck (and all the spark plugs are equally sooty anyway, so I don't think it will be a particular cylinder that has issues). Unfortunately I don't have anything suitable to measure fuel pressure, which, if too high, would explain things, but I will look into this.
Finally, last night, I had a bit of a breakthrough. After much research into lambda sensors, I removed mine, and tested them by heating with a blowtorch (which gets them to operating temperature - about 500º - and deprives them of oxygen since it's being consumed by the flame), and measured resistance as I did so (multimeter needs to be set to read at 200kΩ). Initially it should read infinity (lots of oxygen = lean conditions), then, when lacking oxygen (rich conditions), a finite value. One of mine just reads infinity, so it's always telling the ECU that there's not enough fuel...
Fingers crossed a replacement (£80!) will sort the engine out. I'm tempted to not bother and just wire up the working one so that the ECU reads it twice, but I suppose I might as well get it right. Also there's the possibility that the ECU fuels each group of three cylinders differently, as each one feeds its own lambda sensor.
This weekend's plan, then, is to replace the broken lambda, do a lot of tests to see if the engine is functioning properly, tighten up the loose nuts, and then the car should be in a fit state to pass MOT. Assuming, of course, that the cat is still OK - it will be expensive if it isn't.
After the failed MOT, much time was spent looking over the brakes and trying to figure out why they were seizing. The most significant factor turned out to be insufficient slack in the pedal: since the pedal (and hence the master cylinder) couldn't return fully, once pressurised, the system could never release fully, leaving the brakes dragging somewhat. As they dragged, temperatures rose (considerably), raising the pressure... which is why the car didn't make it to MOT without a rest; nothing to do with the handbrake, which was adjusted just fine.
A secondary factor, which Will and I spent quite a bit of time looking at, was the fact that even with this sorted, I still got about 3 ft-lbs of drag from each rear wheel. (For perspective, the diff on its own, being an LSD, takes about 7 ft-lbs to turn, which is just about turnable by hand using the discs, or not too hard to turn using the bigger radius of the wheels - so this roughly doubles the resistance at the rear). We tried winding back the pistons (no improvement); checking the callipers could slide freely on the pins (they could); checking the discs were central in the callipers (a washer was added on one side as a spacer to achieve this); with no improvement. Eventually I got the bench grinder out and ground the pads back by 1mm or so, trying not to inhale too much, and now they are fine.
Unfortunately a slight mishap occured while up on axle stands fixing the brakes: after everything was sorted, I started lowering the front of the car... and the rear fell off its axle stands. Happily, Emily's bike and Chris' lawnmower took most of the hit and absorbed a lot of the impact, but one rear wing of the car was damaged. It's an easy replace, but very, very annoying.
Brakes sorted and wing gaffer-taped up, I tightened up a couple of loose-ish unions that had leaked under the high pressure, topped up the fluid at the last minute, and had another go with Will following, and Becky looking nervous in the passenger seat. No issues getting there this time, but on arrival Will told me he was seeing big clouds of black smoke every time I put my foot down...
As half-expected, the engine indeed turned out to be running very rich. So rich that I hope the cat hasn't been destroyed - I don't think it's been run enough to seriously damage it, but we'll see; it was certainly another MOT fail (along with some a couple of loose nuts which will be trivial to sort out).
I've spent this week trying to figure out why the car is running so rich. I thought I had found the answer when I looked through the throttle body and saw this:
Oil in the inlet manifold.
But unfortunately, inspection of a friend's healthy 328 revealed the same thing, so I don't think this can be the issue. I've ordered a new CCV valve (the bit that's supposed to separate out the oil vapours before feeding back into the manifold) anyway, which I will fit anyway, as this is probably on its last legs at 100k miles (as indeed the state of the manifold suggests).
I had a bit of a poke around the fuel rail and discovered that all the injectors click at a sensible rate, so it's unlikely that one is stuck (and all the spark plugs are equally sooty anyway, so I don't think it will be a particular cylinder that has issues). Unfortunately I don't have anything suitable to measure fuel pressure, which, if too high, would explain things, but I will look into this.
Finally, last night, I had a bit of a breakthrough. After much research into lambda sensors, I removed mine, and tested them by heating with a blowtorch (which gets them to operating temperature - about 500º - and deprives them of oxygen since it's being consumed by the flame), and measured resistance as I did so (multimeter needs to be set to read at 200kΩ). Initially it should read infinity (lots of oxygen = lean conditions), then, when lacking oxygen (rich conditions), a finite value. One of mine just reads infinity, so it's always telling the ECU that there's not enough fuel...
Fingers crossed a replacement (£80!) will sort the engine out. I'm tempted to not bother and just wire up the working one so that the ECU reads it twice, but I suppose I might as well get it right. Also there's the possibility that the ECU fuels each group of three cylinders differently, as each one feeds its own lambda sensor.
This weekend's plan, then, is to replace the broken lambda, do a lot of tests to see if the engine is functioning properly, tighten up the loose nuts, and then the car should be in a fit state to pass MOT. Assuming, of course, that the cat is still OK - it will be expensive if it isn't.
Monday, 8 November 2010
Saturday, 6 November 2010
Deferred success
The good news is that the engine now appears fully sorted. The two problems that I'd observed - low compression and a faulty MAF can be blamed on a faulty compression tester and a bug in the laptop software. Phew. A lot of time wasted trying to track down non-existent problems due to faulty diagnosis tools, but at least I'm happy with the state of the engine now. Better wasted time than a dead engine, although it means no M3 engine for now...
Pete lent me a different compression tester, which produced numbers in the range 160-175 (cold, dry), which is slightly above what Haynes says I should expect, and all within 10% of each other - so this is completely OK and suggests that there is no compression issue. Assuming, of course, that Pete's tester is not faulty - but given that he's used it before and mine has only been used on the seven, and also that I wouldn't expect it to run at all, let alone with no obvious symptoms, with a PSI of 35 (which is what mine measured), I'll assume mine is broken.
The MAF issue seems to be simply that carsoft wasn't displaying sensible values for airflow on the laptop. We replaced it with a pot, and twiddling the pot made the engine stall, so the ECU is obviously reading it and using the data from it. But still the laptop displays non-changing values as I twiddle the pot, which fairly clearly points to a software bug. Unplugging both MAF and throttle position sensor causes a stall, again, as expected; unplugging just the MAF causes a little twitch in the revs, again, normal. So all signs suggest a laptop software bug.
On Thursday, Will came over and we spent the day going over the car before MOT. Will spotted a potential issue with how the handbrake attached, and very kindly went and made up some pins to attach it with on his lathe (although I secretly suspect he was just missing his lathe after a year apart from it). He also managed to resolve the dragging rear brakes... or so we thought. We also tightened up the suspension bolts, cleaned up some wiring under the bonnet, and probably did some other minor things that I've forgotten.
Today was MOT day. I'd stupidly booked it for 8am so had to get up at silly o'clock to drive there. Insurance sorted (turns out sevens are really cheap to insure, which is cool), we set out, me wrapped up in snowboarding gear. It was wet and cold, so I didn't try giving it much in the way of throttle, so sadly can't report on how nippy the car felt.
Unfortunately, halfway there, the car was getting less and less responsive, and I had to pull over and stop. It turned out that the rear brakes were well on their way to melting - I'm not sure if this was because the handbrake had been on very slightly, or Will didn't get the rear brake adjustments right. I suspect the former, because both were equally affected... wonder if I should have fitted a handbrake switch. After ten minutes, we decided to try carrying on, which probably would have worked, if I hadn't run out of petrol.
I sent Emily off to buy some, and eventually we made it to the MOT centre.
Unfortunately, the short of it is they abandoned the test due to a loose steering rack, and leaking brake fluid. I'm sure the former is just a case of being loosened by the vibrations of being driven for the first time, so an easy fix (tighten the bolts). The latter might well be the fluid having boiled, since I had zero drips in the garage (although of course this was the first time I'd used the brakes significantly), but I will need to investigate this and make sure all the connections are tight.
I trailered the seven home (thanks Simon for the use of the trailer)... repairs start tomorrow; the MOT is now next Saturday. Technically it will be a first time pass as they didn't perform the MOT today, just took one look at the fluid leak and didn't bother, so that's what I will be telling people.
Videos of the first drive to follow...
Pete lent me a different compression tester, which produced numbers in the range 160-175 (cold, dry), which is slightly above what Haynes says I should expect, and all within 10% of each other - so this is completely OK and suggests that there is no compression issue. Assuming, of course, that Pete's tester is not faulty - but given that he's used it before and mine has only been used on the seven, and also that I wouldn't expect it to run at all, let alone with no obvious symptoms, with a PSI of 35 (which is what mine measured), I'll assume mine is broken.
The MAF issue seems to be simply that carsoft wasn't displaying sensible values for airflow on the laptop. We replaced it with a pot, and twiddling the pot made the engine stall, so the ECU is obviously reading it and using the data from it. But still the laptop displays non-changing values as I twiddle the pot, which fairly clearly points to a software bug. Unplugging both MAF and throttle position sensor causes a stall, again, as expected; unplugging just the MAF causes a little twitch in the revs, again, normal. So all signs suggest a laptop software bug.
On Thursday, Will came over and we spent the day going over the car before MOT. Will spotted a potential issue with how the handbrake attached, and very kindly went and made up some pins to attach it with on his lathe (although I secretly suspect he was just missing his lathe after a year apart from it). He also managed to resolve the dragging rear brakes... or so we thought. We also tightened up the suspension bolts, cleaned up some wiring under the bonnet, and probably did some other minor things that I've forgotten.
Today was MOT day. I'd stupidly booked it for 8am so had to get up at silly o'clock to drive there. Insurance sorted (turns out sevens are really cheap to insure, which is cool), we set out, me wrapped up in snowboarding gear. It was wet and cold, so I didn't try giving it much in the way of throttle, so sadly can't report on how nippy the car felt.
Unfortunately, halfway there, the car was getting less and less responsive, and I had to pull over and stop. It turned out that the rear brakes were well on their way to melting - I'm not sure if this was because the handbrake had been on very slightly, or Will didn't get the rear brake adjustments right. I suspect the former, because both were equally affected... wonder if I should have fitted a handbrake switch. After ten minutes, we decided to try carrying on, which probably would have worked, if I hadn't run out of petrol.
I sent Emily off to buy some, and eventually we made it to the MOT centre.
Unfortunately, the short of it is they abandoned the test due to a loose steering rack, and leaking brake fluid. I'm sure the former is just a case of being loosened by the vibrations of being driven for the first time, so an easy fix (tighten the bolts). The latter might well be the fluid having boiled, since I had zero drips in the garage (although of course this was the first time I'd used the brakes significantly), but I will need to investigate this and make sure all the connections are tight.
I trailered the seven home (thanks Simon for the use of the trailer)... repairs start tomorrow; the MOT is now next Saturday. Technically it will be a first time pass as they didn't perform the MOT today, just took one look at the fluid leak and didn't bother, so that's what I will be telling people.
Videos of the first drive to follow...
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
MOT with a broken engine
The past week or two has been mostly spent trying to understand the various engine issues.
Firstly, after noticing the quantity of smoke produced, and the appearance of some white-yellow mayonnaise-ish looking gunk under the oil filler, I tried a quick compression test, with alarming results.
Expected range for this engine is 142-156 psi (when hot). I couldn't easily get the engine hot without driving it, so I did it cold / warm, and ended up with values between 35 (cold, dry) - 90 (warm, wet [i.e. with a drop of oil in the cylinder]). This was pretty inconclusive, but:
Firstly, after noticing the quantity of smoke produced, and the appearance of some white-yellow mayonnaise-ish looking gunk under the oil filler, I tried a quick compression test, with alarming results.
Expected range for this engine is 142-156 psi (when hot). I couldn't easily get the engine hot without driving it, so I did it cold / warm, and ended up with values between 35 (cold, dry) - 90 (warm, wet [i.e. with a drop of oil in the cylinder]). This was pretty inconclusive, but:
- cylinder 2 looks a bit lower than the others, indicating head gasket issues or liner wear
- all these numbers are very low
Other issues: the car is, or has been running, very rich, hence the smoke.
However, after discussions with Will and others, I've come to the conclusion that there are no symptoms directly attributable to the low compression, so I am inclined to ignore this until I find otherwise, as the fixes are either expensive (head gasket) or very expensive (liner wear = new engine).
We plugged the car into the laptop, and using that and a multimeter, decided that the MAF (airflow sensor) was probably not working, which would explain the richness. Will tried hooking up a pot in place of the MAF and twiddling it by hand to achieve a good idle, and we found that the car would stall when it was twiddled too far, proving that the ECU is indeed using a reading from the MAF. So it was duly replaced with a second-hand MAF off Ebay (new ones are £200, hence the preference for a £20 second-hand one).
However, results with the new MAF are not very clear. The car runs much the same, and again the laptop does not show a change in airflow when I blip the throttle. However:
- wiring between ECU and MAF has been tested and found good
- The signal coming off the MAF is in the right range and responds to throttle blips
Tonight I tried hooking up a pot in place of the MAF again, and seeing what the laptop had to say. It turns out that the laptop still didn't display useful data, even though the car would once again stall if I twiddled it too far - the obvious conclusion being that the software isn't displaying a correct value.
So, the way forward seems to be to assume that the MAF is working OK, that the over-fueling is a thing of the past, and see what happens at MOT on Saturday. The emissions tests will hopefully tell me some useful things. It might even pass.
Longer term, I doubt that the engine is in good shape given the compression numbers, but I guess I can always look for an M3 engine when my bank account is a little healthier - I suspect the engine will probably run for now.
Sunday, 24 October 2010
First drive
Lots of progress on various things this weekend. Saturday was mostly electrical: sorting out the reverse light wiring, and extending the wires on the lambda sensors. Unfortunately it turns out that they use solder-defying wire, so I had to use two sets of bullet connectors to insert an extra section of wire, which was a bit tedious, but should work fine.
While I was at it, I got annoyed with the ECU reporting an error for the missing fuel vapour valve (on a proper car, it takes fuel vapour from the tank and feeds it into the air intake when getting a perfect air/fuel mix isn't critical [i.e., part throttle with a warm engine]). I don't have this facility on my car, so I removed the valve. Since the ECU complained, I measured the resistance of the valve, which was about 42 ohms, and stuck in the closest resistor I could find instead (200 ohms), which seemed to keep the ECU happy.
Today was mainly spent working on the bonnet. Emily helped me fine tune the shape, after which we attached the bonnet clips. I'm not completely happy with the fit, but I think it's about as good as we're going to get without cutting a new bonnet from scratch from a fresh aluminium panel.
The plan was then to drive out onto the drive and set up the geometry, but it was a bit dark, so in the end we just tidied the garage and drove back in again. Still, first drive: it went well, although there was a fair bit of smoke from the engine. Will suggests that it may be too rich, caused by faulty air or coolant temperature senors, or maybe just the lambda sensors not being warmed up. Need to try and figure out what's going on here or it will likely fail MOT. Fingers crossed it's not burning oil because of fatal engine issues...
I let Emily drive the car back into the garage. Happily, she didn't crash.
While I was at it, I got annoyed with the ECU reporting an error for the missing fuel vapour valve (on a proper car, it takes fuel vapour from the tank and feeds it into the air intake when getting a perfect air/fuel mix isn't critical [i.e., part throttle with a warm engine]). I don't have this facility on my car, so I removed the valve. Since the ECU complained, I measured the resistance of the valve, which was about 42 ohms, and stuck in the closest resistor I could find instead (200 ohms), which seemed to keep the ECU happy.
Today was mainly spent working on the bonnet. Emily helped me fine tune the shape, after which we attached the bonnet clips. I'm not completely happy with the fit, but I think it's about as good as we're going to get without cutting a new bonnet from scratch from a fresh aluminium panel.
The plan was then to drive out onto the drive and set up the geometry, but it was a bit dark, so in the end we just tidied the garage and drove back in again. Still, first drive: it went well, although there was a fair bit of smoke from the engine. Will suggests that it may be too rich, caused by faulty air or coolant temperature senors, or maybe just the lambda sensors not being warmed up. Need to try and figure out what's going on here or it will likely fail MOT. Fingers crossed it's not burning oil because of fatal engine issues...
I let Emily drive the car back into the garage. Happily, she didn't crash.
Emily, not crashing or speeding. Phew.
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
The road to Hell
... is paved, they say, with good intentions, and so it proved for me over the weekend.
It started well: it looked like some bits for attaching the clutch switch weren't going to turn up on time, but I was rudely awakened on Saturday by a knock at the door, which turned out to be the postman with the clutch switch. Glad I got up to answer it then.
Plumbing it in was relatively painless, surprisingly - I cut the braided clutch hose, following Peter's advice to use side-cutters, and then switching to a hacksaw when they proved ineffective (the hacksaw worked much better, though I recommend wrapping the hose in tape first to prevent fraying), and attached new end pieces to the cut ends, which, as they have not leaked so far, seem to be good. I cable-tied the switch into place (more on this later), and set about bleeding the clutch.
This went surprisingly badly: despite the reservoir having plenty of fluid in, nothing was coming through. In the end I gave up for the day.
On Sunday, Will came over and had a poke around the car for me. He pointed out that the gearbox switch was clearly going to fail IVA, because it caused the wires to rub against a panel, so after some deliberation we decided to chop the switch down with a hacksaw. Despite very limited access, we were mostly successful, although some work still remains to be done to insulate the wires which now occasionally touch and randomly light the reverse light.
He also pointed out that I could do a better job of mounting the clutch switch. This was clearly true, so with the best intentions, we made up a bracket to mount it onto, and tried to attach it. At this point I snapped off a bolt in the block and after much cursing, was unable to remove it.
Will left me to it at this point, but undeterred, I made up a new bracket which conveniently covered up the mess I'd made with the previous attempt, and got the clutch switch mounted in a much more satisfactory way.
Whilst tidying up, I noticed that the clutch hose was now a little twisted. Once again with good intentions, I detached it from the master cylinder, rotated the end by 180 to remove the kink, and reattached it... at which point I cross-threaded the bolt and damaged the thread in the master cylinder.
This evening, then, was spent removing the master cylinder to get decent access to it, running a tap down it, and reattaching it. Fortunately the repair process was painless and after a couple of hours, I had everything back in place, with the clutch properly bled, and the switch functioning properly.
Now that I no longer need access to this part of the car, I permanently fixed on the drivers-side front wing, and then the exhaust. It's looking very nearly ready for an MOT...
It started well: it looked like some bits for attaching the clutch switch weren't going to turn up on time, but I was rudely awakened on Saturday by a knock at the door, which turned out to be the postman with the clutch switch. Glad I got up to answer it then.
Plumbing it in was relatively painless, surprisingly - I cut the braided clutch hose, following Peter's advice to use side-cutters, and then switching to a hacksaw when they proved ineffective (the hacksaw worked much better, though I recommend wrapping the hose in tape first to prevent fraying), and attached new end pieces to the cut ends, which, as they have not leaked so far, seem to be good. I cable-tied the switch into place (more on this later), and set about bleeding the clutch.
This went surprisingly badly: despite the reservoir having plenty of fluid in, nothing was coming through. In the end I gave up for the day.
On Sunday, Will came over and had a poke around the car for me. He pointed out that the gearbox switch was clearly going to fail IVA, because it caused the wires to rub against a panel, so after some deliberation we decided to chop the switch down with a hacksaw. Despite very limited access, we were mostly successful, although some work still remains to be done to insulate the wires which now occasionally touch and randomly light the reverse light.
He also pointed out that I could do a better job of mounting the clutch switch. This was clearly true, so with the best intentions, we made up a bracket to mount it onto, and tried to attach it. At this point I snapped off a bolt in the block and after much cursing, was unable to remove it.
Will left me to it at this point, but undeterred, I made up a new bracket which conveniently covered up the mess I'd made with the previous attempt, and got the clutch switch mounted in a much more satisfactory way.
Clutch switch bracket (attempt no. 2). Note cross-threaded banjo bolt.
Whilst tidying up, I noticed that the clutch hose was now a little twisted. Once again with good intentions, I detached it from the master cylinder, rotated the end by 180 to remove the kink, and reattached it... at which point I cross-threaded the bolt and damaged the thread in the master cylinder.
This evening, then, was spent removing the master cylinder to get decent access to it, running a tap down it, and reattaching it. Fortunately the repair process was painless and after a couple of hours, I had everything back in place, with the clutch properly bled, and the switch functioning properly.
Now that I no longer need access to this part of the car, I permanently fixed on the drivers-side front wing, and then the exhaust. It's looking very nearly ready for an MOT...
Nearly ready for MOT?
Edit: props to Emily for her brainwave when it came to fitting the exhaust. (Using a jack to raise the manifold up slightly made it a lot easier to get it on).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
