Leaderboard

Sigh, It seems like my life is a never-ending cycle of messing with KJet fuel pressures. But hopefully, this will help My quality German made KJetronic pressure testing setup arrived. Huge thanks to MissingParts on eBay, as this is some proper quality gear, and for less than I paid for the other setup. Nicely crimped ends, with quality rubber and fabric braided hoses The seller has a great sense of humour. "For oldtimer cars" I hooked the new setup up, which was a lot easier with the banjo fittings, rather than the generic screw fittings Now it was time to confirm the readings from the old gauge. Previously the cold control pressure was stone dead on the gauge, at near enough zero psi. This gauge, not so much. We want cold pressure here, near the green line (depending on ambient temp), otherwise it's too lean when cold So, what about the system pressure, which wouldn't go over 5bar, no matter how thick of a shim I fitted? Off the gauge; over 6bar And we want that at 5-5.5bar, on this green line. Too high and the control pressure will be too high also. Well damn. No wonder it still wasn't happy. I pulled the two additional shims out, and we dropped to 5bar system pressure. Better, but not perfect. I knocked the adjustment on the WUR to get the control pressure down to the required half bar, but the car wasn't running right. The next step was to step back, reset everything and presume that everything I had done with the old gauge was buggered. Because the system pressure was a tad low I wanted to add my small extra shim and see how that increased pressure (i carefully measured it when I made it, to add 0.5bar). Hah, perfect! I found this amazing step by step guide, which I followed and it worked perfectly. Big thanks to the author of that. The first step was to make my WUR adjustable. This is so that if I knock the pressure adjustment down too far I can use a nut to pull the pin back out, instead of having to remove and disassemble it to tap the pin back out by hand. I drilled and tapped the pin to M5x0.8 and using a screw, nut and washer, made it adjustable. The guide that I used is here. The basics of the mod are that you screw the screw in tight (or Loctite it in so it cant turn) and then tighten the nut down to pull the pin out of the body. To push it back down you wind the nut completely out, against the head of the screw and then use a punch and hammer to tap the screw/pin down again. It would be a lot easier to use if the screw didn't have a flange as there is limited space when mounted on the car, but its what I had on hand. With the WUR apart again I replaced the O-Ring for the diaphragm and flipped the thin metal diaphragm to the other side to even up any wear. Following the guide, I found that my initial pressure with no springs/strip was OK, and the pressure could be increased to the correct level by hand. Good. The next test had me checking the heater works, which when holding it in my hand with power applied, I could confirm it did get warm to the touch. Good. Next was to test the pseudo-warm pressure by reassembling the WUR with the springs, but without the heater/strip. This applies pressure to the mexican hat and diaphram, to emulate the warm pressure. This should be 3.5bar or HIGHER. I had just under 3bar. Not enough. This is where I had to get creative and work out how to adjust this. On other WUR, there is an adjustment screw under a brass cap on the base. You drill through that cap, and there is a hex screw to raise or lower the platform the springs sit on. I tried drilling what I thought was the cap, but turns out the base for my platform is actually a pin pressed into the housing. Its the recessed circle with a hole drilled in it. So, with callipers in hand, I tested/measured to see if I could use a hammer and punch to also adjust that like you do the cold pressure pin. Sure enough, some careful whacks of the adjustment tool, and I had raised the platform, thus increasing pressure on the springs. 4bar is perfect. I fully reassembled the WUR, heater/strip and all, and reinstalled on the car to test/adjust the cold pressure. I got this easily down to a solid 0.7bar (within the margin of error for the ambient temps, I didn't want to mess around too much getting it lower) I connected the heater and watched as the pressure slowly increased. The heater and strip were working perfectly. I got it near the required 2.9bar, but it was still a tad low with the engine running at temp, so I used the one last adjustment available; tapping the main circular unit on the WUR down. This is the part that the two fuel hoses bolt onto. This is also pressed into the body, and like the other two adjustments can be carefully tapped down with a punch. This takes very little to increase the pressure, but be very careful not to punch it down too far or the WUR had to come completely apart again to tap it back out. I alternated tapping the punch on both sides, where the arrows are pointing. This resulted in a nice 2.9bar when warm. Excellent. After some tweaking of the idle and CO screws, the results were immediate and obvious. The car ran and idled better than ever, including idling under 2000rpm for the first time. I set the idle to about 1000rpm, which is higher than factory spec, but it felt happier there than the 800-900rpm recommended. http://youtu.be/3VVylMr5BVI The only thing left to do was to put on my big boy pants and try taking it for a run. The last time it was on the road it constantly tried to die on me and left me blocking intersections. Not ideal, and no wonder I was nervous. This time, it started and was driving perfectly. It was pulling strong and felt good... until the hesitation kicked in again at high RPM under load. The exact same issue as before I rebuilt the Kjet system. I came home with mixed emotion. The car ran and drove well unless I got on the throttle. Kind of a win, but also a fail. Mrs Petrol and I were discussing the issue and she reminded me that her old Alto used to buck and hesitate if the fuel was too low... Surely that's not the issue? Nooooo If you look at the design of the tanks, the feed to the pump is at the front of the tanks, toward the front of the car. It's possible that under acceleration the little fuel in the tanks was sloshing away from the outlet and starving the pump. Maybe. The orange arrow is pointing to the fuel outlet on that tank, the other is on the other tank in the same location. Well, I guess I limp the car to the gas station and chuck some gas in and see what happens. Well, what does happen is that if you don't have both fuel caps open when you try to put any fuel in the tanks it all comes rushing back out and pukes down the side of the car and onto the ground. Oops. I added 20L to each tank, at great expense, and guess what, my Wife was right (like usual), the hesitation is completely gone, and it will happily rev out to redline under WOT. Amazing. The sound and feel of the car is crazy. It's so loud, but makes a great noise. You sit so low, but the car feels big. Even when it's not moving everyone is breaking their necks to see what it is. It's not a car for the shy. It does leave me wondering a little, if I had just filled the tanks when I first got the car, would it all have been OK anyway? The main issue I had before I rebuilt it all was that hesitation issue. In saying that, it's starting, running and driving better than it ever has since I got it, so the work was well worth it regardless. I'm stoked. Still some things to tidy, but it is almost ready to go for a WOF check.

Watch in HD. (may still be processing)

Ha Left it till the last minute before drag day, finally got around to getting some 50 thou shorter pushrods 5 years later. Put them in tonight but a bit late for road testing and waking up all the neighbors, but it did start, and didn't rattle Also rock auto to the rescue again, got a distributor with a vac advance so in another 5 years I might get around to putting it in

finished up the water pipe that goes under the manifold. it had to be modified to clear the superdupercharger manifold. 2019-12-09_08-34-58 by sheepers, on Flickr once i got that finished i thought it would be a good idea to rig up a pressure tester and test all the welds. 2019-12-09_08-34-45 by sheepers, on Flickr the only bit that leaked was the one bit i hadn't touched at all. the chem wash the block went through at the engine builder must have dissolved the schmutz holding it on. it was this plate. ive glued it back on now, but apart from that everything else is sealed up. 2019-12-09_08-34-36 by sheepers, on Flickr now i can put the manifold on for final. one step closer to a finished motor.................

New radiator support panels and lower crossmember in. Rust repairs done and new front panel all spot welded on. Happy days !

Still fixing rust, waiting to get my CO2 cylinder back before I can continue with that side of things. Enough rust in this thread so will keep that progress to a minimum. Bit of boot rust to sort, one corner example. Tacked up, have since finished this ready for primer/fill/paint. Doors are next, had some sheet folded up to have a nice straight bottom edge on the doors. Was going to patch it in sections, but it would take longer and i'd likely have ended up with an averagely not straight edge. Before: With new section clamped in place, no gas = no metal gluing. Etch primed some bits with Zinc-It, then black Zinc-It on top. It's not as good as epoxy primer and a top coat. But all the parts are sound enough that I just wanted to tidy them up, will last for years anyway. Plus some parts like hub faces, steering knuckles, I don't want thick paint layers on. I don't spray the epoxy, so brushing on doesn't really suit. Bits: I need to knuckle down and get rust sorted by the end of the holiday (funnily enough that's what I said about a year ago...). I have most of the parts needed now, just need to paint the engine cross-member and get that installed back in. Then I can reinstall all of the front end, sway bar, steering rack etc. All bushes up front have been redone. Pressed in new ball joints this week, wheel bearings are next. The brake disc bolts to the rear of the hub, so I need to have the brakes all finished first, as I don't want to take the hub off once bearings are in. Still a huge list of things to do. Snookered myself with the brakes as I can't roll the car on 13's up front anymore with the discs installed. Can't roll it without them either as it will mean the hub is installed with no brakes and will have to come to bits again. On the hunt for a pair of 15's to get me rolling. Wheels aren't finished being polished yet. But if I can get them done by xmas I will hopefully get some tyres thrown on and have it moving again. Anyway, a smaller teaser to finish off 2019.

Two tyres the same size make a good bit of difference

Big news! I ran over a screw: This meant I had to get a new tyre, so I asked the shop to check the balancing of all my new wheels at the same time. They were all out of balance. With them balanced, vibration on the motorway is finally OK. Then the Jag was due for a WOF, but its handbrake had stopped working. This was a bit annoying after the expense of the rear disc replacements. I took the car to the local one-man-band Jaguar Barry who'd been too busy to replace the discs for me last year. He repeated that only certain handbrake pads could be trusted, but he also basically said that the Jag handbrake is a marginal arrangement. It needs to be set up correctly and used carefully to avoid ripping the pads out. My handbrake cable was rusty, causing a lot of friction and making the handbrake heavy to apply and tricky to release. Barry has sorted it now though. WOF obtained (after a second new tyre). Unfortunately this handbrake drama took a while and meant that my Jag was not available for New Plymboes, so I took my company car. Not only was this not exactly 'limited' personal use, the manner in which I got busted wasn't the best - by some extreme fluke, I overtook my company's human resources lady on the wrong side of the road. Soooo.. I took the Jag on a work trip around the Waikato to make up for it. Although the car feels fine around town and has plenty of grip, at open road speeds it still feels sketchy. Not only is there tramlining from the lower-profile tyres, there's the (excessive) rear steering effect that Jaguar built into the rear suspension. Also, there's this: Whether because my car's a 'sports' variant or because someone already modified it, the steering rack mounts are packed out with these rubber bumpers on the outer side. This looks like it should limit movement of the rack, but I think I'll try new rack mountings anyway. Finally, because of that screw in my tyre, I'm now guilty of violating this rule: On the idle issue, I did a compression test. Ignore the oil on the last two plugs. The compressions are only a bit uneven, but they're all much too high (meant to be 160-170psi). Faulty gauge? Carbon buildup? Just lucky? This ain't no technological breakdown, Oh no... This is the road... ...to Hell!

All footage acquired. Lemme see what magic I can conjure up. Aim to have it out late tomorrow night. But end of the weekend at the latest. Cheeeeeeers people for being amazing.

Small update - a whole post on brake calipers... My last set I ended up using on another Range Rover to get it on the road so I had to do the whole process all over again. This time I had them HPC coated in their HiPerCoat, which should not be effected by brake fluid and all that and look great for a long time. The finish came out amazing! Shame I will never really see them.. Brake and gearbox bits back from the electroplaters

Looks like I might finally have the KJet pressures right. Its running and idling much better. First time its idled under 2000rpm.

Couldn't just let this absolute gold go to waste. Filmed by @anglia4. @Beaver Dam Sharns.

The most fun i have had on two wheels! A massive thank you to J5/shadow garage crew for organizing the epic ride! Big thanks to @MopedNZ for supplying parts and advice, cheers! I have linked some photos that i took. sorry for the shit/hazy spec pictures my phone has had a rough life. https://imgur.com/a/KL4QYC3 Very pleased with Gemima the GN125 for hauling my ass 581kms. She has done well. Not sure what bike i will get for next year but keen for something different.

I think you'll find they were already ruined.

This shit has been the bane of my life for the last 5 years, clogging everything up. Read today online that the best way to get rid of varnish is with caustic soda, so off to miter 10 I went and bought 500g of sodium hydroxide. Put it in with 7 ish liters of water.. Neck minute.. Beer anyone? That was extremely satisfying. Why the fuck I didn't do this all those years ago I'll never know but the results speak for themselves.

Years and years ago I made up a little bracket to go on the end of a home-made clamp, for valve collet removal / installation. It was a case of 'I'll buy a proper one, one day...'. However, this thing still persists, and still does the job :-). A bit more mucking around trying to remember how this goes back together and which way around things go, and its all sorted. Just need to torque up the cam bolt and it's ready to pop on the motor. Have set all the valve lash really roughly, hopefully it'll sit in the right position to get the cam belt on, otherwise I'll loosen all the rockers off again, get it timed right and then re-set. They'll need to be re-set hot anyway. As mentioned the cam was ground at Kelfords, pretty standard specs, should pep it up a bit Waiting on some parts from Amayama, an oil pump gasket and the head dowels being the bits really needed to pop the rest of the motor together. Its great being able to get good prices on factory parts, but the shipping time is pretty extreme. Oh well, no rush eh? The engine has been sitting under the bench for years as it is.

I had way too much fun at Te Uruweras this year but I felt like the RGV150 was just too much bike. So this just happened... I swapped it for an FXR150 I had surplus. Its a 1973 GT50 powered by a TF100. Sporting the best of Aliexpress petrol tank and seat, it looks quite tidy. Theres a few things I want to tidy up on it. The upside down flat(ish) bars will be the first thing in the bin. I went down that road with my CB650 and won’t be doing it again. Most importantly it has a very healthy ring and solid ding so I’m happy.

This thing got a good dose of mud and dust during Te Urewera Undertaking a couple of weekends ago. It performed great and didn't miss a beat over the whole 550km distance! Only issues to report were the rack failing on Day 1 due to too much weight bearing onto the rear guard. It bent rack far enough that the rear wheel caught the numberplate and folded it upwards (folding the guard in half at the same time). The guard pulled straight (enough) and my tools rode in the service wagon for the rest of the event. Notice the relocated number plate too. Hah. The other issue was on day 3 when my fuel can (now strapped to the seat) came loose and blocked my exhaust! It happened just after going through a ford, so I was looking for wet spark components. The plug, coil etc were all dry as a bone and it wasn't until a few minutes later that I noticed the fuel can was blocking the pipe. It was super close to burning through and could have turned me into a fireball . Such a great way to spend a few days and I'm already hanging out for the next one! It's given me some inspiration to start working on the blue MX again, so I'll start chipping away on that over summer.

In other news, got a couple of other fittings to plumb up the fpr, Shows the proximity of the return line in relation to the fpr mount.. Worlds shortest bit of hose, And all together, also put a 45 degree barb on the outlet to bend the hose so when the engine rocks is not jamming straight up into the fpr.. Started her up after I put the tank back in tonight and its definitely seems better, not surging like it was before. Readjusted the pressure to 40psi at idle, so hopefully I can take her for a drive.. Really need to get an O2 sorted, maybe I need to get my hands on an innovate..

I have purchased an appropriate* wagon. *appropriate due to being oldschool, hasn't been on the road since 2000, has lots of rust, no brakes and doesn't run and is located in the wrong island.

Nice and clean.. Gave it a rinse out with detergent and plenty of water, the half a litre of meths to get all the water out, let it sit in the sun for everything to evaporate while I had a beer.. Still a bit of the white oxide around but I'm not so worried about that, hopefully now I can have some trouble free motoring instead of stopping (sometimes every 5 km) to try and get rid of a blockage..

I better rustle up some quality sharns for next year Please select from the following Driving piles with a crane from the 70s and a 3T hammer Thermit welding train tracks Detroit powered jetboats The complexities of driving a shipping tug

Where I'm up to now. Just needing to purchase spark plugs and waterpump really, might do dizzy cap and rotor while I'm there as they are looking pretty manky. Really hoping to get this all together and back in the hole and running over the next 4 weeks

Yeah top work Callum. Had a special screening last night in Speedcucks territory. Then did some more Lifan skids

I bet someone told you previously that setting up that system was a 'black art', it took me a few decades to realise this means 'I have not bothered/I am incapable of understanding this system'. You just need to dive deep right into it and get a fundamental understanding. You have done this and it is a pleasure to see...

I power washed my GN yesterday. My jacket is pretty well impregnated with dust. Do you think we should box it up and send back? I know how much Tama Iti hates the white man taking his land

Managed to get acouple of 35mm film photos at DGR too which didn't turn out too bad decided i should check out what was wrong before Te Urewera, pulled the rocker cover off and one of the adjuster grub screws for the rocker arm had worked its way out and had a bit of a party in the top end i dug it out and it looks to have been smashed about by the valve spring, i put a new one in and got it going mint. top end is a little rattly now but it works so im not touching it. Rode the Te Urewera ride weekend just been and had a hell of a time so much fun smashing the bike about, getting confident on the gravel hooning around a corner got thrown off and high sided the bike bending the foot peg and breaking the front leaver off and grassman came to the rescue and had a spare fa50 leaver that worked, front brakes proceeded to lock on randomly after that, thanks to the boys for helping me rebleed the cable discs, managed to rip the rubber intake manifold resulting in 5000rpm idle for the last half of sunday and assisting in trying to throw me off the outside of corners which was fun. Just to finish it off the bike fell over on the trailer on the way home in the dark and we didn't notice, ripped my seat and broke the clutch leaver. the bike is in a sad tate now but will motivate me to finish making my new seat pan and get the seat finished and powedercoat the frame while im at it, Thanks to J5 and the other boys for organising the ride and everyone else for a good time!

Post Te Urewera ride update. Bike went great. I was incredibly impressed at how it handled a very hard 540+ kms of poorly maintained, and overly maintained roads. Things i noticed compared to similar bikes; this bike is definitely lacking in the top end department. My speedo was showing an optimistic 110+ kms downhill and dicing with other small 2 strokes, only to find out it was more like a GPS verified 85-90. womp womp. It does go very hard for what it is up hills though, i think it was geared too tall for gravel and slow climbing, in the tight stuff i could barely get out of third, but second gear pulls very well up hills and was able to maintain good pace on climbs. The ride wasn't without its setbacks; first stop at Matahina Dam i noticed i had lost the nut for the swingarm and exhaust, i must thank @Duke Blackwood and @anglia4's old man for bringing his mobile workshop, and was able to tap out an m10 nut to an m12 with his handheld vice and tap kit on the roadside. That was probably one of my favourite memories from the trip. The battery also exploded, lol. Heard a massive boom under my legs. thought the bike was backfiring. I lost all electrics which i assumed was just the gravel vibrating all of the earths loose. Friday night i pulled off the side cover and found the battery had done itself a mischief and there was lead acid goo everywhere! perhaps stator is throwing out too much juice at max rpms. Here are some snaps of the bike in action. I am definitely keen to go on more motocamping missions. Camping was legit and now knowing that a $6 warehouse tent will not suffice even in tropical conditions i am on the hunt for a decent one man tent. I also painted the side covered silver to match the tank. It was an off the shelf rustoleum silver gloss which looked suuuuuper sparkly when applied, but dried to a very nice finish. Almost identical, stoked. The next part of this project is now focused on power. The motor that's in it showed good compression when i checked it but i definitely feel it should go a bit faster. So i've ripped the barrel and head off a spare motor and will get it bored out for a 1mm oversized piston. Might even look at the porting while im there... but thats another story.

It’s been over a year since I have done anything with this and it’s still the same lol. 2 Door GT is off to paint shortly so this is next in the queue. Trying to decide what engine to use in it. I have a 140BHP Precrossflow with all the good gear and a Lotus Twincam which I really want to put into something. Lotus engine is a bit more work as battery goes in the boot etc.Body and interior will be all original Ermine White with Black Trim.

finally stripped out this courier, had a lot of things I needed on it so was pretty stoked. going to get some little welding jobs done on the floors to sort out some pin holes and patch where someone has butchered the radio hole in the dash and holes someone cut in the inner guards, then hopefully swap out the gearbox and driveshaft and try get rid of an annoying vibration it seems to get at approx 50-60kph.

Despite being side tracked with work family life in general there has been some good progress. All the side window are in. I had a problem with the left rear door, the channel that the rubber goes in was missing. This was a door I bought to replace the original. I bent up a channel and pop riveted it in. From the factory this was spot welded but since I have nice new paint the welder was staying far away. The next job was the rubbers and channel then drop the window in the hole. the whole process felt harder than the other side I did a while ago. When I went to put the quarter window and channel in I found the gap was 5mm too small. Managed to carefully spread the door using a couple of small pry bars. Managed to scratch the paint on the inside of the door on the first go, second go worked like a charm. Spent hours making up hard fuel lines. The rubber bits joining the hard lines have been done.

So I have managed to find an awesome friendly panelbeater to carry out the rust repairs. Any panels I can't buy he is fabricating.

One of my favourite images from the ride, a wide eyed, knowledge filled Bort asking beave how hard the power stations go for what they are

I definitely have full tuck BORT a few times. Blooooooody epic. Showed the Swedish tourists (male sorry) at work today some of the footage and they were shocked at that many bikes turning up for a ride like this.

The only things I want to schedule for Wagnats are: 1. Turning up 2. River float (to a degree for max floaters) 3. leaving

Still doing this... More on the mechanicals.... Bought a valve seat cutter, refreshed the head. Inc new stem seals. Rough hone out of the cylinders. And start of the rebuild.... unfortunately I could only save 3x of the std 998 pistons so I'm on the hunt for another one. Its proving difficult...

The second one...

I've had a lot of people tell me "kjet is rubbish, you'll never get it running properly", including from the TVR "specialist" who decided it was less work to rip it all out and convert to EFI. Glad I chose to stick with the KJet tbh. Its a relatively simple concept at the end of the day, there is just a lot to get your head around and its so sensitive to multiple variables. One variable not quite right, and the whole system falls over.

Yay replacement arrived today...

So a few months back a hotrodder on the book of faces had stripped a Thames van that he is turning into a rod and had offered the standard front and rear ends "free to a good home". The van has been sitting in a paddock for a good few years so everything is covered in a good deal of surface rust but otherwise seems fairly solid. Since my current plans are to keep the stock upper and lower wishbones and stub axles I figured it was worth having spares. Only problem was that he was based in New South Wales. Anyway, beggars can't be choosers, so yesterday I completed a 1,200 km round trip and am now the proud owner of a bunch of manky looking Thames bits. Gotta read up a bit on setting up a "pickling bath" so I can start to get things cleaned up, so keen to hear how others have gone about this. Anyway picture time or it didn't happen.

Mesh filters for the carbs arrived yesterday. Should be pretty cool.

This was one of the churest bikes on the trip I reckon. I was right behind you when it decided it wanted to lie down and swing some O's by itself, lols.

Well, hallelujah, real progress that actually looks like something, for once! The car is so small that the actual painting takes very little time. So, after months of slow stripping and prepping, all of a sudden it's starting to feel like it might actually be done one day. Next up is a coat or two of filler primer to sand back and get everything as straight and sharp as poss, then colour.

The Link G4X has landed! Only Atom and Monsoon versions for now. But some cool new features. 1000hz logging with more onboard memory. Math channels so you can create new variables which can be used as a load axis or switch trigger or whatever. Proper MAF support. And a few other cool bits. Might get a Storm when they come out / fixed first few rounds of firmware haha

Shall we do this? 18 dec ellerslie burger fuel 7pm ish?

If anyone is after a cost effective Dial Gauge, I picked one of these up today and its shockingly decent for the price. Has a certificate of NZ calibration, and has a decent heft to it, doesnt look or feel cheap. https://www.saecowilson.co.nz/#/Product/info/M339A Same with the magnetic base, better built than the price lets on https://www.saecowilson.co.nz/#/Product/info/M329

My Vruzend kit arrived so had a play with it. I bought used batteries so had to clean up the old spot welds on the terminal ends with a dremel grinder. Then just systematically assembled the kit. I just used body weight and bits of wood to seat them in the holders... And when all clicked together and locking screws installed you add the parallel strips... Then a figure 8 pattern to series them up... And the other side similarly, but offset. Had to take care not to short anything out cos there's a bit of potential there when series'd up... And still got the BMS to hook up... Looks straight forward enough but still have some connectors to arrive before I start soldering things up. Also pretty keen to cover exposed bus, but not bad effort for the day after crate day...

Reminiscing by little river band plays