Nick Jones

Yes, Q1 is the one - thanks! Going over to my father s at lunch time to try it in the Vitesse - direct methods! Had enough messing about! Cheers Nick

My stim is REALLY trying my patience. Changed the frequency generator chip and transistor to night. Does it work? Does it hell. With the transistor removed the chip generates a pulsed output - so thats alive but I cannot get the amplifier bit to work. This irks me considerably as it's not complex! I think the issue may be that the Stim I have is version 2.2 and the latest schematic I can find on the web is V2.1. They are not the same but I've been working on the basis that they were very similar..... Maybe not siimilar enough. Schematic shows a 2N3906 transistor. Mine had a BC557A in it (but I have a vague memory I did that). If anyone has a Ver 2.2 stim it would be much appreciated if you could read the transistor number of the flat side and also confirm that the transistor is mounted as shown on the silkscreen. If anyone has the Ver2.2 schematic that would be even better - but there doesn't seem to be one online (amazingly) even a couple of queries on the MS forum have drawn a blank..... Cheers Nick

Car is sat on the drive with the front in the air. I'm awaiting a couple of exhaust bits from Chris Witor as a clamp fell to bits when I was trying to refit last Sunday. Should turn up tomorrow..... but I can't do alot during the week as it's very dark on my drive. With the exhaust clamp, about half a day to finish reassembly and get it running. Saturday I hope...... Nick

Hey - Jon's alive you've been much too quiet for last......hmmm.......3 years? Welcome back! Cheers Nick

In these days of CO2 tax ratings, emissions does mean economy. Virtually all OEM installs on cars have the injectors close to the head, firing at the back of the inlet valve - and it works. On bikes, the extremely high rpms mean that there is some benfit to sitting the injectors back a bit. Somebody (Vizard?) even tried pointing injectors the "wrong" way, firing against the airflow But we are talking about iron donkeys designed in the 50s/60s..... so it really won't make very much difference. I wouldn't go out of my way to fit injectors in awkward places or to fit two sets, not worth the effort and additional complexity. I've always used the close mounting and pointed the injectors at the back of the valve. If nothing else, it keeps the back of the valve spotlessly clean - and that is worth power! Cheers Nick

I know. I wanted to check that it would fire actual injectors with both banks and thus prove that the problems Tim has been getting are external to the ECU (or not, as the case may be). Unfortunately the Stim is refusing to supply a tach signal so it won't even try to pulse injectors..... Everything else works fine though. No problem connecting to the ECU with the computer....... I would just plug it into a car and try it, but one possible victim is not here and the other is not in a firing-up condition yet (but I'm working on it). Nick

Might be making your life over-complicated for future spring removal or adjustment if you mount there? Why not pick-up on the two body-mount points further out - the chassis is probably stronger there too. Nick

Yet to be determined fully. The V/F converter chip is getting hot so is presumed dead. This is a bit of blow as it's the only component on the stim board that costs more than about 15p. Seems to be the result of the stim being knocked about a bit on its travels causing the tips of the tach-out driver transistor to be bent and touch - which I didn't notice until the damage was done. Changing the transistor (which was cooked) has not fixed it. None of this impacts on your ECU other than it prevents me from testing the bits I want to test..... New chip ordered from Rapid...... Nick PS, I know it is the 13th today so it's probably just my crappy luck, but do you have some kind of jinx.....?

Got some bits for it today - will have a crack at it shortly.... Nick

Haven't finished with it yet...... might be becoming a W58 - Triumph 6 bell housing! Didn't you have the offer of another? Nick

I feel your pain....... Have some spare bits of hood frame if you get stuck. Don't recall needing extreme force to modify the hockey stick parts. Just extreme patience for the whole damn job! I also suffered complete sense of humor failure. Quite rare for me...... though the PI seems to be able to cause it at will.... Nick

It seems my stim is not well....... (tach out transistor fried.....) Yes sorry - dodgy megasquirt talk..... Nick

Seems to be mostly alive at least. Just trying rediscover the temporary mod that makes it work properly with the stim so I can get an rpm signal. What's with the D13 mod? Cheers Nick

Sounds more clutch related to me - though it's probably fair to see the gearbox is also a bit weary. Nick

Well, if not well funded then all the more credit to your energy and ingenuity - you're doing a good job there - I like it You'll find plenty of appreciation for this kind of work on this board...... some of us are even fairly local! Not me though - I live on a small, overcrowded island in the north Atlantic - currently frozen solid - work on the current project is halted until the icicles on it melt! If you are worried about the engine, borrow a set of carbs from Greg, swap 'em over and fire it up like this.... if it's nicely mounted in the chassis- so much the better! (apologies to those who have already see this bit of craziness) Seriously though - these engines are very solid things (the weight gives it away!) so if the chain case at the front isn't squashed and the pulley still rotates true, it's unlikely it was hurt. Only other area to check could be the back plate where the gearbox attaches. Cheers Nick

Guessing, but I'd estimate 8mm basic thickness of the plate reduced to 4 - 5mm at the flange - which should acceptable. The strength in "torque" to resist wheel rotation is not in doubt due to the size of the plate (as you point out) - the potential issue would be lateral flexibility -which is addressed in the above design by the "wrap-around" design. I'd be quite happy with that. Plate wants to have a decent radius where the thickness is reduced - looks like the one in the picture has this. Nick

James, when considering sandwiching stuff between the bearing housing and trailing arm, bear in mind that the snug fit of the shoulder of the bearing housing in the bore inside the arm is what takes most of the cars weight and cornering load - not the feeble studs therefore you need to leave as much of this engaged as possible. I guess you gain no more than 3mm removing the backplate, and I'd reckon on an absolute maximum of 3mm "spare" on top of that - so there is your limiting factor. I think the driveshafts would handle that! Nick

I think that the front suspension is probably based on Dolomite/Toledo but has been messed with and messed up. Firstly, the damper/spring unit would have originally been attached to the upper wishbone at the ball joint (you can see the bracket in one of the photos), so now the major loads (weight of car) are being put through the lower balljoint, in tension rather that through the top balljoint (which is designed for it) in compression. This is dangerous in may opinion. Secondly, in the donor car, the steering rack is behind the axle line, whereas here it is in front. Presumably the vertical links have been swapped from side to side to acheive this - not sure what effect this will have had on the steering geometry but probably not positive! Thirdly, the origin of the original problem, massive bump-steer, seems to be that the rack is far too high (or the steering arms too low, maybe as a consequence of being swapped side to side) resulting in very different angle (and thus length) changes between the suspension arms and track rods. There may also be a problem with the rack length (between the inner balljoints) as this must be a Spit/Her/Vit/GT6 rack, not from the donor car. This on its own might be fixable, but the changed ball-joint loadings bothers me. In summary - dangerous dogs dinner! If this is the way it was intended by the chassis maker then I think we know why they are no longer trading! How to correct? - bit difficult to say sat here as I can't see much of the chassis structure, but one possible route would be to use the complete suspension assemblies from Spit/Herald/GT6/Vitesse. Care will still be needed with the rack positioning to eliminate the bump-steer problem. Might need a different length rack too. Another possibility would be Mk3/4/5 Cortina (different wheel pcd). Nick

It is indeed..... Nick

Interesting. Mr Clutch Monkey is energetic and seems well funded! Pity the orginal car got squashed - some thump that was! Rear suspension is interesting. Like the way the spring is NOT hung off the diff. Rear hubs are off something FWD I reckon as the additional arms to the hoop over the diff are going onto steering arms and now being used for tracking adjustment. Don't recognise it. Notice that the original car had UJs at the inner end and they magically turn into CVs during the new build. Wonder if he knows where the parts are from as he didn't build the original car.... guess he must have had to find out by now! Nick

That's lovely. I really like the original RX7 shape. Nick

Which sort of Subaru lsd is it? I believe they come in various flavours? That ally casing is machined ok is it? Cheers Nick

Yes, I have Tims ECU. Tomorrow I'll also have my stim back, so will hopefully get it checked out over the weekend. Though it occurs to me that I don't have a car to attach it to for the final testing as the PI has just a bare engine hung in it and the Vitesse is away in kennels.... I will be putting the PI back together though - provided it is dry and above freezing...... (not looking especially hopeful though - winter..... ) Nick

Club Triumph forum appears to be dead. Wasn't working at lunch time (at work) and isn't working now at home - I'm assuming it isn't just me.... Nick

Not many people read books these days either! There are some deep and disturbing truths in that cartoon and a good demonstration of why history is an important part of education. Nick