Work on the car progresses slowly, mostly planning and preparation due to the weather, and also due to a really tender finger end which now has no fingernail on it where I managed to trap it under the trailer ramp. It's the second finger of my right hand, so it looks like I tried to say goodnight to the boss whilst standing too close to a ceiling fan. Also it's bloody cold and wet outside.
Still, last night was licence night, so I am now £85 lighter in the wallet, for a junior and a mens licence for our team of dad and Son.
And we now have our race number S99Y. Thomas is working on fantasy paint schemes. At present the car is purple, but I'm fairly sure it will change to something lairy once he's finished with his felt tip pen sketches.
Saturday 31 January 2015
Monday 26 January 2015
We Have a Runner!
With the correct fuel pump arriving today, even though I had just finished a night shift I couldn't resist going and fitting it on and trying to start the little Micra. How rewarding it was to hear the old girl chug into life for the first time n months, with the little 1.0 litre power plant revving like a good 'un. Young Thomas has been through a tough weekend due to problems at school, but at least I can cheer him up with the news his car is now a viable race car once more. So, after a little tidying up of the wiring loom and fixing stuff down it will be ready to go for a roll cage very soon.
Wednesday 21 January 2015
Under pressure
The title sort of reflects the fact that the new season starts in just over six weeks and at present I still don't have a car ready.
But I think I have finally diagnosed the problem. The wiring is all replaced and correct but the car will only tick over for a few seconds and refuses to rev at all. This strongly suggests that not enough fuel is getting through. A quick check on the fuel pump and my original bargain buy proves to be a bit of a error. Somewhere in translation (I bought from China - big mistake) 0.3 Bar has become 3 Bar. The Micra fuel system runs at 2.5 bar, so a 3 bar pump is just fine, but one that can only provide a tenth of the fuel required is not. No wonder the poor thing wouldn't run, I had it on a weightwatcher diet. The new part should arrive Friday from a reputable UK supplier, and I expect the engine will then roar like a lion.
But I think I have finally diagnosed the problem. The wiring is all replaced and correct but the car will only tick over for a few seconds and refuses to rev at all. This strongly suggests that not enough fuel is getting through. A quick check on the fuel pump and my original bargain buy proves to be a bit of a error. Somewhere in translation (I bought from China - big mistake) 0.3 Bar has become 3 Bar. The Micra fuel system runs at 2.5 bar, so a 3 bar pump is just fine, but one that can only provide a tenth of the fuel required is not. No wonder the poor thing wouldn't run, I had it on a weightwatcher diet. The new part should arrive Friday from a reputable UK supplier, and I expect the engine will then roar like a lion.
Tuesday 20 January 2015
Progress at last
At last a little progress on the Micra Autograsser. You may recall that I had some major wiring issues resulting in what Rolls Royce engineers would undoubtedly call a failure to commence. The troublesome NATS was removed, but still we had a refusal to start, probably due to me using my fists of ham to cut out what i thought were unnecessary parts of the wiring loom.
In desperation I decided to start again from scratch and bought another Micra, reasoning the the first could be used as a donor of spare parts, such as wheels and body parts as and when the shell inevitably took damage. I bought unseen off Ebay, always a good idea (not!) I then realised I had bought more trouble, in that not only was the car rotten in the rear sills and both front wings, but more seriously the front crossmember had more holes than a Swiss cheese. To cap it all the cut off date for Autograss Micras is January 2000 and on receiving the V5 I found this one was registered in May 2000. striping back some of the interior trim showed a date coding of around September/October 1999 so I could probably have argued the date of manufacture prior to January 2000, but the general state of the car meant it probably wasn't worth it.
So plan C came into play. This meant stripping all the useful parts of the second Micra and scrapping the remainder, the most useful part being the wiring harness and ECU, which have now been transplanted into Micra number 1. I ran out of daylight tonight, but first impressions are good with the engine now starting but running rough, probably down to the air filter system being off the car and it being very damp, plus the petrol has probably gone off. Tomorrow we'll see if we can get it running right, and if so I then need to find the man to build the rollcage.
In desperation I decided to start again from scratch and bought another Micra, reasoning the the first could be used as a donor of spare parts, such as wheels and body parts as and when the shell inevitably took damage. I bought unseen off Ebay, always a good idea (not!) I then realised I had bought more trouble, in that not only was the car rotten in the rear sills and both front wings, but more seriously the front crossmember had more holes than a Swiss cheese. To cap it all the cut off date for Autograss Micras is January 2000 and on receiving the V5 I found this one was registered in May 2000. striping back some of the interior trim showed a date coding of around September/October 1999 so I could probably have argued the date of manufacture prior to January 2000, but the general state of the car meant it probably wasn't worth it.
So plan C came into play. This meant stripping all the useful parts of the second Micra and scrapping the remainder, the most useful part being the wiring harness and ECU, which have now been transplanted into Micra number 1. I ran out of daylight tonight, but first impressions are good with the engine now starting but running rough, probably down to the air filter system being off the car and it being very damp, plus the petrol has probably gone off. Tomorrow we'll see if we can get it running right, and if so I then need to find the man to build the rollcage.
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