It's Registered!

Yup, got the plates and everything. Now I can drive it legally on the road, which is nice. More importantly, I can start to get into the various events around the place, from nice country drives with the local clubbies group, through to AMS events.

Registration was actually a lot less trouble than I thought, although it didn't start well. The inspectors opening comments were 'I hate these cars. You can't steer 'em, can't use the pedals, and they're unsafe. If it was up to me, I wouldn't register these things'. But once he'd had his rant and seen that the lights all worked, indicators flashed, and took it for a 30 second drive, he signed the paperwork. And that's actually all that I really needed from him - the opinions were an extra I could do without ;-)

A word to the wise though - do a final check before you take it to be registered. Sods law says something will have come loose. In my case, it was a wire to the front left indicator - a five minute job saved me from failing the rego ;-)

I've also resolved the water temp gauge problem - I just needed to earth the engine to the chassis, which removed a lot of the electrical noise from the system.

Now it's back at Franks - I know, you were all thinking that once it was registered, that would be it. But there's still work to do before the rally:

1. Fit the cross-member. If you remember, the bellhousing is below the line of the removal able cross-member, so Frank will fabricate a new one
2. Re-do the water lines
3. Play with suspension settings

But at least now I don't have to worry about the Police troubling me for my rego papers...

Final fitting, and Fabcar

The car is around at Frank's at the moment, getting the buzzer fitted for the indicator and the immobiliser done. Then I have to raise it up a little, do a wheel alignment, and put the VIN number on, and it can go over the pits. Planning on doing that sometime this coming week.

In addition, I've signed up to the somewhat camply named Fabcar 1-Day rally, organised by the same team that does the Classic Challenge and other events around Perth. For me, this will be a learning experience, as whilst I know what the car is like at low speeds, or high speeds in straight lines, I haven't yet had a chance to throw it at a corner to see what happens. So that's what I'll be using the day for.

The idea is that it's 16 different circuits including motorkhana, drag racing, street circuits etc, all done in quick succession around Perth. So you get all sorts of types of driving in, under all sorts of conditions. There will be around 6 Birkins along including several people new to this sort of thing, so we can all laugh at each other. Frank's should also be on the road, all tricked up, so it will be great to see that running again. Let's hope he avoids all walls this time.

The link for the event can be found here: http://www.classicrally.com.au/1-Day%20Rally.htm I'm going to do the rounds with my Dad, which should be fun. I'll have to see how badly I can scare him ;-)

Things may be stabilising

The title of this post may come back to haunt me.

Anyway, this weekend was a quick run up north to meet up with Kerry and his Birkin, before heading over to Gary's for a BBQ. The weather was looking a little dodgy (so dodgy that the Perth clubman run scheduled for the same day was cancelled - cowards!!!) but Kerry and I committed ourselves early to making the run.

I might also point out that a few others piked on driving their clubmans up for the day - all I can say is that if you wait for perfection, you never get to drive it. Oh wait, that's what I used to say in the UK, and this is Perth where perfect weather is the rule rather than the exception. Still, can't let a few drops of water get between you and a good day out.

So I got to see whether my windscreen wipers worked.

Actually, it's not all that bad. When you're moving, the rain stays out of the cockpit. The only trick is my head is above the windscreen line, so the rain that comes off the top smacks into my forehead and runs off the back. I just need a decent rainproof hat to sort that out. Luckily I have installed a Quick Dry Head(TM) that means there's no irritating hair to get wet.

What I also notice is that my car isn't too stable in standing water - I think that's more to do with my cooked tyres and poor front wheel alignment than anything else. That's on my list this weekend to sort out.

But overall, the car ran really well. It still idles like it should (which is a record - two days in a row), even actually a little low as it tends to stall a bit. Plus the accelerator pedal needs a bit of a push before the TBs open up, so there's some adjustment to be done there as well. But nothing serious. All I needed to do was top up the oil as the pressure was a little low at temp, which has fixed that up.

So this coming weekend should see me do the following:
1. Wheel alignment - at least sort the front out
2. Front roll bar - get this fitted properly...
3. Tidy up some wiring - get a few cable ties applied
4. The weekly bolt check

I think I may start writing down lists of bolts to check on a regular basis, then create a check-sheet for myself and a service routine. You know, check this bolt to this torque setting every three months or 1000km. I'll probably need something like that, or I'll miss one one day and it will cause problems. Besides, I like lists.....

5000 viewers

I note that my counter has moved past 5000. I can ascribe this popularity to my engaging writing style, wit and wisdom. Or it could the fact that I check my blog 20 times a day to see how many people have read it. One or t'other.

Paperwork

Today I went in and paid for my exemption on my seatbelts. Apparently, the vehicle liensing division have an aversion to four-point harnesses as unsafe and un-usable, but if you give 'em $50 they're happy.

I'd also have had to get an exemption for the side-exit exhaust, except that it's OK apparently to have it on the drivers side. So the Zetec guys need to pay another $50 for an exemption for the exhaust, but I don't because it's gassing the driver not the passenger. Go figure.

Anyway, the guy at licensing says there's nothing holding up the paperwork, so I should have it in a few days. Then it's over the pits.

I've taken the car out for a few more short runs, and nothing has fallen off. However, it's idling at 2000rpm again, and running lean, which speaks of more air leaks in the induction. So that will probably come off again this weekend.

More shakdowns, or should that be shakeloose?

The last post (?) had a few things to resolve. You can add to the list a really odd squeaking noise on start-up and shut-down.....

OK, so the fuel gauge light was fixed, and is now gone again - I think something is blowing the globe for some reason.

The seatbelt warning light is still an issue - not entirely sure what's going on there, but without a doubt it's another loose wire somewhere.

The overheating problem seems to be mostly resolved, mainly by fixing the fan wiring. There was a loose wire in the fuse box that meant the fan wasn't being switched on by the thermostat. The temp still swings a little too wildly for my liking, so the thermostat might get moved to it's original position, and we'll see what happens from there.

Now for the squeaking - turns out the throttle-bodies had worked their way loose, so the squeak was the air leak getting in behind the throttles. Most embarrassing. However, I've chucked on some longer bolts (the old one's weren't holding on with enough thread), and done them up tighter, and I'll check them regularly. But if I hear that noise again I'll know what it is.

The car has now done around 200km, so hopefully most of the loose bits are doing their thing now rather than later.

Shakedown run

Took the car out for run last night - just a quick 20 minutes around the block. And it has shown up a few more issues:

1. the light in the fuel gauge doesn't work
2. the seatbelt warning light comes on when I accelerate
3. the water temp guage rapidly moves to 100+, then eventually 120+ (basically off the scale)
4. the fan doesn't come on
5. cylinder 4 is now lean

The first two aren't worth worrying about (except I will have them fixed for rego). Number 3 and 4 are of concern.

I wasn't driving hard, and it was a cool night, and I wasn't stuck in traffic. When I pulled over, I couldn't hear any boiling, and if it was overheating I'd assume the overflow tank would have been filling up rapidly. My gut feel is that the guage or sender aren't right - the temperature actually fell when I stopped moving. I'm wondering whether the water level is low, the sender is faulty etc. Something to check tonight now that it has cooled down.

The fan not coming on is also annoying - I'll have to check the wiring etc to see where that's going wrong.

On the lean cylinder, that's just a case of fiddling with the throttle bodies once more. They're starting to be a little annoying, as they're quite fiddly and don't seem to be too stable - once they're set, they tend to move again.

Anyway, just more things to do on the weekend....

In other news, the trailer is up for sale, having spent all that time and effort painting it a lovely green, I decided it was just too heavy to move around. So when Frank mentioned someone might want to buy it, it's come back to Perth to hopefully move on to a new owner.