The All New, New "What have you done to your Bay today" thread.

I put the rest of the spaghetti hanging down round the engine back in the right places, and after a lot of cranking, probably 2 minutes in total, the engine started running.
There was basically nothing wrong with it except it had been sitting on wooden blocks under the back of the bus for 2 months so it was probably all a bit damp. It started on 1 and 2 and then 3 and 4 came in after many tries.
I could definitely tell that there was HT around the place as my fingers twitched in time with the sparks if I rested them on the leads..

I then drove it forwards and backwards about 2 feet, realised the clutch cable I had pre-adjusted had settled so the biting point was way down near the floor, and the handbrake needs a bit more tweaking, as I have been using chocks instead of a handbrake after changing the rear drums and shoes.

Tomorrow- tweak cables, tidy up the mess of 2 months of use as a shed and then see if I can take it for a drive to test the recon gearbox. Then sort out the computer that decides not to report CHT (but I had upgraded it to add two more temperature sensors - for things like - "how hot is the exhaust riser" and "how cold is the intake manifold below the carburettor" ). I added a little circuit board with a shift register to select each of the thermometer chips, and I suspect I made a mistake there.

 

I adjusted the clutch and the handbrake- needs washers on the clutch cable ideally, as I have run out of thread and the pedal goes down a bit too far (the clutch cross shaft is a different more solid design with welds round more of the diameter of the shaft, the top of the arms get in the way of a socket spanner on one of the bellhousing bolts).
Today it started perfectly everytime I tried it - moving it on the drive a few times.

It was suddenly decided that I should drive to Sainsburys for various items we needed.
So I drove in the bus, and after getting used to where the gearchange positions are now, and a tiny amount of initial noise which rapidly quietened down - probably the oil finally getting everywhere inside, it seems OK, and so I got the shopping and returned home.

I think what happened yesterday is while fiddling with things, I let the choke warm up while the engine was cold, and it didnt like that when I tried to start it.

 

So do I.

 

A bit more filling and sanding today, I filled in the marked areas after taking this photo and that side is now getting close to being ready. Now for some etching and Dolphin Glaze*



* No animals were hurt in the production of this tailgate

 

took it apart

 

No picture but turned a green roof into a white one!

 

And just been out and polished the roof.

 

Fixed the various bits of monitoring and display software on the engine bay and dashboard computer - for some annoying reason a bug in my code that hadnt caused issues for about 4 years started hitting regularly.

Definitely getting close to replacing the dashboard computer board with one that can do CAN bus then both the engine bay and dashboard will be able to cope with CAN rather than a crummy serial link.



Discovered my compressor fridge/freezer cool box has bitten the dust - the date codes inside say its 25 years old. It has a dead short on the compressor 12 volt DC input where it goes into the sealed vessel. Probably the compressor got too hot working too hard and it melted the insulation. It then blew the controller board's switching transistor. Interestingly the fan that comes on with the compressor was still running, powered off a different circuit.
We loaded it up with the remains of a takeaway yesterday , a large amount of room temperature food, as the main fridge in the house was still too full..


So now I am trying to work out which of the Vevor brand portable compressor fridge/freezer units is the best fit - there are about 5 in the range that will sit in the walkthrough , but some have side opening lids that may be a problem. Prices in the £160-240 range so not too bad.

 

Not exactly today but reminiscing.
Relay and auxiliary lights wiring.

 

Very neat, Sir.

 

Touché.

 

I tweaked up the handbrake cables twice as Swansea is hilly in places..

Deliberately went on a 15 mile round trip to get petrol, only to find the filling station was shut, so then had to queue for some time at the next station for the only pumps selling 95. Then I looked around after I filled up and realised actually the queue was due to a succession of motorists who insisted on paying in the kiosk...

Using the two extra temperature sensor channels I fitted during the gearbox hiatus (total 10 weeks ! )
Started measuring intake air temperature and the temperature of the bottom of the casting in the inlet manifold (thermocouple in air flow up top, and another pressed against the casting down below. 31C at the plenum above the carburettor, and the inlet manifold got to about 55C using the exhaust heat risers.
Just proving that despite the Wisdom of the Samba, having a 4 into 1 header and symmetrical heat risers it actually does get hot-ish where the manifold splits. .

Stopped at the filling station, heat soak took that to 40C up above, 60C at the manifold.

 

Jumped in, fired him up. Drove to That Salisbury. Drove home again. Put him to bed.

 

I'm doing the same trip tomorrow to visit my Aunt for New Year.

 

That's the scenic route

There's some strange folk round Fordingbridge, mind...

 

She lives in Sainsburys? I thought I was joking when I said to my wife “You live at that bloody Asda..”…