VitesseEFI

Outstanding. Looking forward to the further developments in the everlasting quest for perfection 🙂

Dunno about in NZ but here in the UK you can’t purely judge value by cost and bottle size as the full pressure also varies. Bottles are good for up to 300 Bar but not all are filled to this pressure. BOC here for example fill to 230 Bar whereas Air Products use 300 Bar on some of their cylinders sizes and other smaller suppliers only fill to 200 Bar. Really complicates the comparisons 🙄

Quick and dirty trick on the SU…. When it falls on its face, pull the choke out. If it recovers and takes off, it’s lean. If it drowns, it’s rich. What is the carb originally from? Pop the needle out and look for the 3 letters stamped in the shank. Then pop the letters into this http://www.mintylamb.co.uk/suneedle/ as your baseline….. and start comparing. Haynes SU book is useful for looking up OE needles and springs. Springs are also important. A stronger spring makes the needle richer throughout by increasing vacuum above the jet. Timing wise, you can find and mark TDC. You can also measure the diameter of the pulley, work out the circumference and divide by 360 for mm/degree. You’ll typically want about 30 deg “all in” at around 4000rpm

Mine has a tell-tale lamp in the switch which lights when the screen element is energised.

It’s a German thing. My A6 has it also. This is supposed to trigger a latching relay with a timer in it that turns it off again when it times out or when you turn the ignition off. Relay borked or wrong one fitted.

You need stainless steel wool…..

Perfectly rebuildable if the parts are available and they are not run to destruction. But much better to do the maintenance (oil, filters, sludge removal) or even pre-emotive bearing swaps as Alex says. Seems like a very practical vehicle!

Some classy metalwork happening there 🙂

Agree. HIFs are a more elegant design than HS….

That’s quite rowdy 🙂

Looks really nice 🙂

Well, this thread took a search….. Bad news on the fuel system gumming up. Assume the Bosch pump is one of the canned ones with the crimped end? assume it’s still drawing current, just not spinning? You could try taking it off, applying power and tapping on something solid. This seems to work better than just smacking it while on the car, though you could try that too. Don’t leave the power applied for more than a few seconds at a time and if it runs don’t run it dry. If the above fails then you can try emptying out the old fuel and tipping a bit of fuel system cleaner or solvent of your choice in instead. This is a bit of a PITA as there’s a spring loaded NRV at the discharge end, so you have to shake it out of the suction end and tip solvent in the same way. Leave to soak and repeat power/tap process. I’ve saved a couple like this. If you are keen and careful it’s even possible to uncrimp the end, extract the workings, clean, free off and reassemble. I’ve done 2. Both worked after, but one had a weep that was a bit much to use, so bit of a desperate measure. I had more time than money at the time and a pile of stuck pumps. Good luck….

If it was a high spot on a crank journal it would show up as weird wear pattern on the bearing shells after 15k running. I was thinking about a bent rod, but the same is probably true. I’d still have a really close look at the bores and piston skirts for odd marks though. Difficult to see what else it could be. Presume it’s not just when all pistons are mid-stroke so you’ve got maximum ring drag from all?

You’re right, something like Dave’s mega-revs V6 would be far more appropriate Seems like the original Dorito spinner is fit enough for now, which is a result!

😀 That made me chuckle. It could be as fast as the original, go 4 times as far on a tank of fuel and upset so many people. Obviously it would sound and smell completely wrong….,

Ah, Lorne sausage. I’d forgotten about that. Looks more like meatloaf than sausage to me…. Not sure I’ve ever had it but looks more appealing than haggis. (I’m Scottish born but of Sassenach parents and exported to Africa on first birthday, so no expert on Scotland)

But still out of their heads on deep-fried mars bars…..

Jimny has a proper tail shaft housing too as the transfer case is separate (like the SJ). The Carry gearbox (UK market anyway) has some wacky selection mechanisms, maybe for column change? The 1:1 5th on the later ones is a bit of a pain as the usual reason for conversion on the British tat I’m usually working with is to get a taller top gear!

Jimny box should bolt up. Separate transfer box…..

Looks like typical Fiat behaviour for that era - or even typical Italian car behaviour. Mate had an Alfasud with holes in roof FFS….🤷‍♂️

Biofilm is certainly a thing in washer bottles and it doesn’t take much snot to block everything. It has a bad habit of coming back, though hopefully the bleach has done the job. Bloody awkward spot for the bottle.

Yeah - was going to comment that my bone-stock one always had too much brake at the front, which led to a few twitchy-ring situations. On the mushy pedal, you just need a bigger bore master cylinder - just have to work out what donor has one…. They do rot with enthusiasm. Especially the earlier ones….

Have 4kW solar on SSE facing roof (UK!). This has a solar diverter to immersion heater (originally an Immersun, which literally blew up, now iBoost +). Added a 10.4KWh battery last year. Now buy almost no power from late April to October (though not doing well today as pissing down all day!). Pity the bastards keep jacking up the standing charge…..

But yes, you were right on the money querying the pilot bearing clearances…. Wish I knew whether it’s purely a clearance thing or if we’re dealing with some misalignment as well. There'll be a gap in progress now as he’s gone on hols and when he comes back I’m off to drive around some of Europe’s hillier parts in another old British car with a dodgy gearbox conversion…… This one’s done 50k miles or so though and can be considered semi-proven.

So, to update you, it’s all apart again. At least two problems…. This is the scarier one. As assembled, the oilite spigot bush was an interference fit in the back of the crank and a nice running fit on the input shaft. Though apparently not at the same time…. No specific measurements were made to determine the degree of crush inflicted by fitting to the crank nor was a test fit without clutch done. I would have done these things. My son was not (yet) that paranoid. He is now! He merely noted that the gearbox “went on pretty easily”. Input shaft is heat marked but not really hurt. Bush picked up on it and spun in the crank. You can just about see a small step on the right which is the original OD (21mm) vs. the “self clearanced” which is about 20.75, perhaps tapering very slightly to the left but no more than 0.05. Lots of oil came out of the bush. This self-adjustment can only have occurred during the “started in gear” periods, which amounts to less than 60s run time. I’m struggling to reconcile this with the “gearbox went on easy”! More investigation needed here for sure…. The other issues (actually two related) is that the friction plate used (8.6mm uncompressed) is a bit thicker than his original test one (8.1mm, matching the OE Ford one) and apparently slightly too much for it as it significantly increases the release distance. Might have got away with it except the over-stroking from the bigger m/c crashed the back of the diaphragm fingers to the cushioning springs. Surprised we didn’t hear that! This is fairly easy to sort as his original test friction plate is now proven to release well within the stroke of the smaller m/c (which is originally tested) and has the springs further out. Development and learning curve….