Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[myglaren]

Was far too hot yesterday, spent most of it inactive hiding in the bedroom too. Was bright sunshine today too until about 10min ago when it quickly clouded over and I fancy I heard a rumble or two of thunder... Would be nice to have it clear the air a bit. (oh yes, definitely thunder... rain is here now too )

Here too (Washington)
Just managed to wash the car and cut the grass when the heavens opened to the Queen theme.

[Zelandeth]

Wishing it would just hurry up and have a storm here to be honest, we really need it to clear the air.

Today the main achievement has been successfully tracking down the correct software to speak to the Lada's ECU (EFILive) and a schematic for the interface cable. So I'll look at getting the bits I need to make that ordered in sometime shortly.

Software is over here...

Also for those curious...here's the schematic for the PC interface.

[ekjdm14]

Well, not much of a storm in the end as it happened. A few good flashes and rolls of thunder & 5 minutes of biblical rain that washed the gutters out & soaked one of the cats (he's always been a housecat until this year, so unlike our other male who was a stray/feral for 2 years he hasn't the foggiest what to do or where to run if the heavens open!) He just ran round the front garden in a panic before doing the same at the back, then finally hearing me at the door calling him & ran inside... It did look funny, all his fur spiked up and drips coming off his underside

It has helped with the humidity somewhat though, even managed to give the Xantia a wash & wax earlier without melting so it must be better. Hope it's a bit more pleasant down your way now too.

[Zelandeth]

Well haven't been able to get the motherboard from that portable to boot again. One thing which does spring to mind that that the heatsink compound had long since turned to powder, so I do wonder if the CPU may have overheated and cooked itself. Sadly I don't think I've got any suitable alternative CPUs to test that theory with.

I do have a similar multi-purpose small PC motherboard floating around in a box somewhere, but from memory it's even more obsolete than this one.

I have just ordered a HDMI to LVDS converter though, so at the very least I can throw some video at the display panel and find out whether the fault with the display is in there or in the video drive circuit - so long as that works at least it should be pretty easy to get another computer built into the original case.

I don't really see the need for anything more powerful than a Pi in there to be honest...I'd be more interested in stuffing a silly big battery pack in the remaining space and making something that could run forever and a day on a charge...the Pi has demonstrated that it's more than capable of dealing with most regular day to day computing needs...

[CitroJim]

It could make a nice housing and screen/keyboard for a Pi Zel

Hope the screen is good

[Zelandeth]

Even if the screen is bad, it shouldn't be too hard to find another 15" panel to replace it with. Thinking about it, there's entirely possibly one floating around in one of the "boxes of computer rubbish" at the back of the garage. Spent a good hour this afternoon trying to throw XP onto an older machine today, after an hour coming to the conclusion that trying to install XP from a USB stick is a pain if you don't first have a machine running Windows to prepare the drive.

Had the first fill up since fitting the EFi system to the Riva today, which showed a bit of a drop in economy - but there's a lot of variation from day to day anyway, and I've not done a huge amount of regular driving since it was fitted...so we'll see how it goes once I've got a few tanks worth used and can see how the average is looking. She's actually just due an oil and filter change as well.

Had a few things I was going to get done on the cars today, but instead got totally sidetracked by another project I've had going on for far too long without any real progress so wound up losing a significant chunk of the afternoon before I realised that I'd totally lost track of time (seems to be something that I have a knack for).

[CitroJim]

Have you got the EFi running closed-loop now Zel? Is the oxygen sensor good?

If it's not running closed-loop then economy might well not be optimum...

[Zelandeth]

As far as I'm aware she is running closed loop - given the static map is for a 1.7 I'd expect it to be pretty obvious when warm if it wasn't. Will hopefully get the bits ordered in soon to make the ALDL interface cable then I'll be able to confirm for certain.

It seems the non-functional CEL is a known thing with some ECUs, and nobody seems to know what the issue is...they work fine it seems in every other aspect, just that output that's non-functional. I'll pull the cover off and see if I can fathom out the signal path anyway and see if I can work out what's going on. I have a sneaking suspicion that the answer will be that the track just disappears into a proprietary chip after a couple of passive components... I've played this game before.

I took her out on a proper high speed road yesterday for the first time since the conversion. A 70mph cruise can now be achieved with roughly the same amount of throttle as used to be needed for 50. It used to feel very much as though the car could *do* 70 if you really had to, but wasn't really made for it...now it's quite happy there with enough torque in reserve that it's quite possible to squirt a fair amount of extra mph on for an overtake without needing to drop a gear or cause any drama. Looks like hills have far less effect on forward progress too. Also glad to report that the usual spatter of oil droplets on the tailgate (and soot on the corner with the tailpipe) were totally absent...looks like I might have sorted the oil leak. *Crosses as many fingers as he can*

This afternoon I relocated the fuel pump. I investigated the metal lines on the car, and they are just as thick and feel like the same material as the rigid lines from the injection cars, so I've decided to use them. The only bit I wasn't 100% happy with due to a bit of surface corrosion was cut out to allow siting of the fuel pump anyway. Turned out when I looked at it off the car it was just fine anyway. Just needed a rub down and paint.

The pump is now situated just ahead of the fuel tank under the car. I need to make it up a proper bracket long-term, but for now the old standby of cable-ties (to the brake bias valve linkage bush in this case) are keeping it still. Not as though it can really go anywhere anyway...but MOT tester's tend to like to see things like this firmly attached...

Plus side is that it's vastly reduced fuel pump noise levels in the cabin. It's now just a quiet, unobtrusive hum at idle rather than the hiss/whine which used to make you want to claw your own eyes out after about five minutes.

On the way home from that test run though there was an obvious clatter of something that had plainly dropped off the car bouncing off the floorpan, and suddenly the offside front brake started making scrapy metal-on-metal noises. That will have been the remains of the friction material off one of the pads (will be the inboard one, always is) parting company with the pad then. In fairness I've been suspicious of the state of the pads one account of a less than stellar pedal and horrendous levels of brake dust (they're not binding and I've checked the wheel bearing (taper bearings) adjustment) for a while so already have a set ready to go on. May well do the flexi hoses while I'm in there too...good excuse to bleed fresh fluid through after all it's probably never been changed...

Be curious to see what difference it makes to the brakes...

Edit: corrected two glaringly obvious autocorrect caused typos...

[CitroJim]

That's a great result of all your work Zel It's made one heck of a very positive difference and improvement!

Hope you find noting serious in the braking department ...

[Zelandeth]

So I had a free hour this afternoon, so figured it was time to attack the brakes on the Lada. We all knew this should be a 20 minute job, but we also know what those estimates are like!

First off, the brake dust issue...This wheel was spotlessly clean less than a month and a couple of hundred miles ago...It's not exactly being caned around the Nurburgring either, even though I do accept that MK is a bit hard on brakes!

Wheel off, and confirmation as I hoped that everything was easily accessible.

Bit closer, and yep...think I can safely say that the pads have had it!

Actually was dead simple...The little spring clips pull out, which allows the two pins to be withdrawn, then you just lift the pads out (try not to get hit in the face by the anti-rattle springs as they attempt to ping their way off into an alternate dimension - I've done this before so had a hand in place ready to catch them!). Getting the pistons pushed back required nothing more sophisticated than a screwdriver to get it to start moving, then was done by hand once it was on the move.

This looks a bit healthier now...

...as does the other side.

Had the wheels back on and was on the test drive in less than half an hour. Pedal travel is a bit better but not *great* but the brakes definitely have a lot more bite, even though they're obviously not bedded in yet. I want to do the flexi hoses as well anyway (just on account of not really trusting brake hoses from 1993), but didn't have time nor fluid on hand to do that today, so that might be a job for next week. The fluid that was pushed back into the reservoir when the pistons were pushed back was disgusting, so time for a change I think! If I'd had my brain in gear I'd have picked some up today beforehand.

Interesting that the nearside pads still had over a millimetre of material left on them, but the driver's side was down pretty much to the backing (though there was actually still a bit of material left - it was just the lip on the disc that was touching the pad backing). Both looked to have 93 date codes on the pads, so I'll keep an eye on balance as time goes on.

[CitroJim]

Those calipers look very well designed and engineered Zel!

Pleased it was all very straightforward

Interesting that the nearside pads still had over a millimetre of material left on them, but the driver's side was down pretty much to the backing (though there was actually still a bit of material left - it was just the lip on the disc that was touching the pad backing). Both looked to have 93 date codes on the pads, so I'll keep an eye on balance as time goes on.

Another manifestation of Milton Keynes-itis perhaps? The phenomenon that causes uneven front tyre wear due to all the roundabouts....

[Hell Razor5543]

Maybe somebody should suggest that, to balance the brake and tyre wear, Milton Keynes manages the road system better. One day you take roundabouts in a clockwise direction, and the following day you go round them anti-clockwise.

[Zelandeth]

Maybe somebody should suggest that, to balance the brake and tyre wear, Milton Keynes manages the road system better. One day you take roundabouts in a clockwise direction, and the following day you go round them anti-clockwise.

No thanks...Did the going around a roundabout the other way thing last time I was in the US and it seriously messed with my head!

Thinking about it, that may be a factor actually though. Being a taper bearing here with a setup where there's always a tiny bit of play (if you nip it up so there's none at all you'll cook the bearing in no time), so continual heavy loading of the nearside front wheel may have some impact on pad life...who knows! If anything the car tends to pull a little to the left on braking (you'll rarely get a Lada that will brake in a completely neutral way!), so I'd half expected that to be the one that would show the most wear.

The calipers are nicely designed, dead easy to service - though I imagine it could be a right pig if the pins were seized in place. Having said that, the way they haven't been out of these since 1993 and pulled straight out, so that's got to stand for something!

Noticed that the castings of the actual hydraulic components look to be identical from left to right...Just the hub itself that's side-specific. So they've obviously re-used identical parts on the production line where they could get away with it!

[Hell Razor5543]

Noticed that the castings of the actual hydraulic components look to be identical from left to right...Just the hub itself that's side-specific. So they've obviously re-used identical parts on the production line where they could get away with it!

Citroen have been doing that on THEIR brake callipers for a long while as well (the rear callipers, at least).

[Zelandeth]

Doesn't surprise me to be honest, the only cars I've done a real amount of brake work on are Saabs, and they're very definitely designed to be side-specific from the start...or at least it looks that way.