All Activity

@Adoom, is this of any use to you? Do we need to confirm the longitudinal dimension?

Shit yeah beave! Saw this on marketplace. Even though small bikes are so punishing, there is some amazing charm about them. I've got a few a100 donks in stock if you need when the time comes. Also, you don't want the RD back do you? hah, it really doesn't like Broadmeadows hill! Haha.

Crappy idle and suspicious fuel delivery issues... Have you had the injectors cleaned and flow checked? Especially likely in old cars with rusty fuel tanks that have probably eaten a lot of stale fuel. And impossible to figure out if you don't have an o2 sensor measuring fuel trims

Maybe if I possessed one. I could buy one and insert it here with the appropriate tee piece, but the normal-looking Jaguar fuel fittings probably have some horrible thread pitch.

@Kelvin sorry just saw your post, yeah bought the wheels from minispares in the uk. Weren’t the cheapest wheels to buy but they look bloody nice.

Yea I'll give it a test, clean contacts etc. Yes as a cut off. However I have a new relay on order that will work off the coil signal.

Won't have an oldschool vehicle running but we will be showing up this year. Yes I know, shock horror!

Fiiiine Doug's happy 4x4 key arrived before the weekend, fortunately. We put it somewhere safe until it was time to crack back into things. It is indeed 4x4mm on the dot and has a fair bit of length for me to play with. I gave it a quick test when i got it to see how it fit, and it seems to be as people on the interwebs describe it should be - firm, but no need to tap it in, and no play. I tidied up one end, cut it to length and tidied the other. Fits gud! This let us complete the timing chain, but not before a bunch of thinking to make sure that the chain links were 100% where they should be. I'd rotated the crank twice with the plastic key when verifying everything, so the chain marks had moved on. Nothing some link counting doesn't solve! The oil pump/chain case goes on next. The bolts were a bit manky so I tidied them up, We schmooe'd the edges and this one little bolt hole in the middle, Girlface lubed up, Then we increased how much the engine looks like an engine by at least 15%. This also completed the water pump job, as the final bolt goes through to the block. The next morning it was time to tackle the crank pulley. I cracked out some iron and some old bolts to hand-fashion a special tool to hold the crank in place. At about 30 degrees (out of the 70 desired) it was clear that this wasn't quite enough. It's times like these I wish I had a welder, and the knowledge to use it. But I don't so... I hammered it back to straight, tapped it into the pulley for extra seating, notched the bar (weakening it further but what can you do) to allow the socket to still fit and then found an old socket to sit on one of the bolts to provide some rigidity against the other side of the bar. It barely worked, but it worked. Nextly is the cover, with a nice shiny new gasket and two tiny blobs of permatex where the oil case cover meets the head. While I was at it I spent some time removing that shitty aluminium tape on the cover, and some copper tape on the oil cap - both still present in the picture below. I don't know what it was for. I think the previous owner was genuinely mad. Then, since I don't like open holes, I cracked out the new spark plugs I'd been procrastinating installing back when I got the car. The gap spec is 0.7-0.8mm. They were pretty good out of the box, but some very light taps (mild drops, really) on the anvil got them all a little better. I put them in and followed up with cleaned and dialectric greased coils. The oil pressure switch called for a certain torque that I couldn't provide, thanks to its 24mm socket size and my lack of anything deep enough for that. So girlface and I cracked out the maths to figure out how to torque it using a socket wrench attached to a torque wrench. One of the scary things here is that it doesn't seat all the way into the block, there are exposed threads, so if you were a visual person you'd just send it and break something. Really glad I held back. Then we came back and swapped torque wrenches post-maths. It was at spec already. Calling it good ... Things started getting on so kind of skipped a few photos. - Got the water pump pulley on. - Alternator's in there too baybee - Mulled over why there's an empty hole in the case that doesn't seem to have a purpose. Decided it was always empty. - Got the idler pulley and tensioner on and situated, ready for belt. - Wondered why we never ordered a new belt.

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/574825/how-do-i-use-a-12v-led-indicator-light-for-an-alternator-i-have-seen-some-on-t No doubt with your googling you will have seen something like the info in the above link, and you know to ditch the LED and fit a filament lamp. Also as a temp trial remove fuel pump line and power from ign switch. Is fuel pump fed from here as a protection should engine stop with ign on? As in a crash?

Battery voltage should be measured at least half an hour after they’ve been taken off charge. You’ll always get an artificially high number otherwise. 12.7 is a perfectly normal voltage for a decent lead acid battery in good, fully charged condition. 13v is still normal range but high end. Some modern battery chemistries do seem to give higher resting voltage. Those kind of voltages will not harm your starter. Hell, they’ll generally survive 24v - for a while. Could just be the solenoid contacts are shot. Maybe accessible to clean up. Otherwise motor has problems. Hopefully nothing worse that worn/stuck brushes.

what does your boss drive?

I guess the actual questions I have are; Will overcharging leave the batteries at a high but slowly diminishing voltage? Will running the alternator signal to a relay rather than the charge light fuck the alternator or convince it to put out way to much voltage? Its a shame I cant just start the engine to check the voltages when running. I have ordered a voltage gauge which will help things...

Flat six in Cut away under the seat base and the tunnel as per on the green imp. The air saw was so perfect for much of this job which means much less grinding dust everywhere. I've marked out where I'll cut away a little bit more. I'd rather give it extra clearance now than ending up with it potentially knocking against the steel on a bumpy road etc later. Cut off a couple of superfluous tabs sticking up on the transmission for the same reasons as above. Oh I also couldn't resist a photo of the two power plants next to each other. It's hard to gauge sizes from the pic though as the Datsuns wheely stand 2000 is much lower.

Can you bodge a fuel pressure gauge onto the fuel rail, before the regulator? (don't use non-pressure-rated hose DAMHIIKT)

Kind of win/lose situation fitting the crossover pipe low in engine bay it allows heat to piss off under car, but it's complicated the intercooler pipes. Have heard horror overheating stories from most that run them higher so happy with the choice. Made up a stainless lower radiator pipe today with intention to put some fittings In to water cool the turbo. Its quite close to the crossover pipe so should help it survive down there. As for the intercooler pipes I think if I squeeze pipe oval may squeeze under headlights. Could be wrong will see.

The pump gets a continuous supply of whatever voltage the alternator's putting out (square #35 in the diagram below connects to the battery). The supply is switched via a relay controlled by the ECU, therefore supply would be either on or off (not variable). Even if the alternator drive belt decided to slip at high rpm, the pump would receive a minimum of the battery voltage minus some losses. If the supply is 'iffy' as in too low, it must be magically reducing (but not switching off) through unknown means, and only at high rpm I've previously measured the voltage at the pump terminals to be around 13V at idle. If the supply is iffy as in too high, I don't think I'd have a fuel starvation / rev limiter effect at full power Although I don't think I'd find anything, I could connect a meter to the pump's terminals, set it to min/max logging mode, and then go and do some pulls. I really doubt that's the problem though. I believe that my XJ-S has an open-loop fuel injection system with no oxygen sensor. It probably makes assumptions about the fuel pressure and fires the injectors based on the airflow meter or throttle position or something. This would mean that it has no clue that anything's going wrong. It couldn't make any adjustment in response to low fuel pressure / lean mixtures, let alone log some kind of fault code once the injectors reach 100% duty cycle. It would just idle poorly and shrug, suddenly lose power at full noise and shrug...

I just checked both again, no load. The old one is 12.7v, new 13v. Also the solenoid clicks, I'll grab the starter off and check it on the bench tomorrow.

Any load on the batteries when measuring? Try chucking a bulb or something on it and measuring. Unlikely that a little extra +v would hurt the starter I would think?

Plans are to get it running properly, give a few other things a once over (cables are pretty stiff and sticky) and then see how it rides. Whilst the v50 has proven itself as the ultimate adventure bike, I do want to build up a proper small motorbike (rather than step through) so perhaps this will be it. More likely than not will result in a repower to achieve what I'm after so will make the decision once I've taken it for a few proper rides. An A100 engine would be nice to keep it in the family.

After realising a 50cc nangmaster 3000 wasn't quite the ticket for me, I sold the RD50. Fast forward a few months and a FB market place listing for this popped up in a group chat. Local and the price was right. Another 50cc 2 stroke! 1981 Suzuki A50-II. The guy I bought it off, it was his old man's and he recalls riding it around as a kid, but since then it's just sat in the shed. Last registered 1995 and looked every bit like it had been sitting gathering dust since. So got it home, gave it a soak and a wipe down and it's bloody solid. Hit the chrome with CRC and Goldilocks and whilst it is far from mint, its solid. Shows its age but doesn't appear to have had a huge amount of use. Fuel in the carb and fuel tap had turned to gum so stripped and cleaned those. New fluids, check for spark, and it fired into life first kick and idled straight off the bat. It goes and stops (ride around the lawn) but no signs of life from any of the lights. Indicators run off the battery so they go. Fuel leaks from the carb so that needs attention but otherwise a solid start to getting it back in the road.

So as expected the little Fiat failed to start while i was home today, all the connections to the starter are doing what they aught so it must be the starter itself. Obviously my first thought was the battery was flat, and for some reason the alt light has not been lighting up at all. Basically this is either a loose connection or blown bulb. I had done a cursory check on the charging with a multimeter and I recall it showing a reasonable voltage, around 14.5v I think. I didn't check higher engine speeds tho. I recalled that I had put LED bulbs in there and my google fu tells me that that circuit needs an incandescent for the alternator to excite. So I will need to sort that out. However I checked the brand new battery and the one that was in it and the new one was reading 13.4v and the old one 12.9v. This seems high. To add to the mix I am now using the alt out signal to fire a relay to run the fuel pump, but this was well after the charging check. Is it possible that some combo of the above has meant I am overcharging the battery? And would that result in such high voltages in those two batteries? And could that voltage have toasted the starter? So many questions, such a thick bastard.

Did some more stuff on this today got it to a point it it runs and drives ok few gremlins to chase is still horrendously rich and idles like a sprint car. I've got a 1500rpm idle so could be an IAC valve fault (likely) It shot its plunger across garage, or a vacuum leak. Intercooler pipework no easy route unless I cut holes in Bodywork then it's piss easy but battery has to go elsewhere. Exhaust into rest of system 2-3 bends and a v band shouldn't be too hard 89mm V bands are ridiculously huge how to not warp that..... Some more wiring and a bit of a road tuning session should be a happening thing. Jeeze it sounds like a fighter jet though very happy turbo takes about 30sec to wind down when you turn it off.

Yes. Thanks!

LIke that?