keltik

I'd just like to state for the record I am not a Nazi or a left wing nutjob... But I AM going to comment on Teslas since there have been a couple in for WOFs this month.

General durability after a few years seems pretty similar to current BYD/GWM/Generic Chinese auto maker.  Not great, not terrible. 

 They are fucking diabolical to try and get parts or service info for in NZ.

How are other people in the trade finding them?

33 minutes ago, fletch said:

What made it need the manifold off? I had a bit of struggle on the passenger side but wasn't a major.

The manifold might be a different shape than on the gs350.  It's impossible to get 2 of the 3 coils out without removing it.

And removing it is complicated by the hybrid power cables being bolted over the top of the rear manifold support bracket... And the cables being very difficult to unclip from that bracket because there's feck all room between them and the firewall

Thought I'd throw some spark plugs at the new whip. Toyota. How hard could it be!?

What an absolute cunt of a job.  Non hybrid would be a fair bit easier.

55 minutes ago, Roman said:

I'm mostly wondering if high rpm makes the lifter squash down. As there's no way to really see if it's happening.
If the lifter is squashing down then it means the valve isnt going down instead. So you lose heaps of duration and lift.
I'm not sure if there's really any way to know, short of installing a camera or something. 
So going to a solid lifter might just be best idea either way.

Could you dykem/blue up the shaft of a lifter and see how much it compresses after a hearty nang?

Not exactly easy tho but probably cheaper than a high speed keyhole camera

To the other fellas with the GS450H, do you find it has a bit of a thud when going from coasting to being engine driven on the motorway? 

I only notice it in eco mode being nice on the loud pedal. If I put the foot down with authority - it's fine.  There's no thud at lower speeds so I don't think it's a sloppy diff, engine mount or UJ etc...

The drivers door makes a very non-premium sounding clang when you shut it. Found the inner door skin reinforcer has come unstuck.

Anyone know what the right product is too stick this back on? Otherwise it's getting Sikaflex marine urethane because that shit is good for everything/what plants crave

18 hours ago, Vintage Grumble said:

Yeh hybrid on a v8 in a huge car does seem pretty silly. 

I just love how audaciously pimping it is.

The hybrid gubbins fills in that spot low down in the revs before the v8 has achieved maximum rotations. 

The jag used a supercharger. I prefer that.

You're too old for a IS, time to move on to a GSF

Perhaps the F-Sport version is less boaty

19 hours ago, Vintage Grumble said:

Trying to talk the wife into this:

I saw this listing you may be interested in: 2013 Lexus LS 600 LS600H F-Sport https://www.trademe.co.nz/5102308221

Took a couple of those for a Hoon before buying the GS. Must say it was a bit underwhelming. 

Sure they go ok and are rather comfy.... But there's just so much unnecessary wank. I found the ride to be a bit too boaty and the car itself is a big unit. 

If I was being chauffered to work each day - yeah maybe. But it would suck driving one to the supermarket.

1 hour ago, Nominal said:

Been eating a lot of bugs by the look of it too.

The joys of black cars 

Boat yard guys must be paid per job. Lifted out at 8am, washed and wet sanded by 12.

Patched, masked and dry sanded by 2.

Sprayed by 3.

Tomorrow they'll re-coat the propeller. On Friday morning I'll refill the gearbox and replace the zinc anodes on the prop then back in the drink that afternoon. Just in time for Sundays race

Installed a slightly larger gear oil header tank and fitted it a little higher. Hopefully this slows the water ingress until my new seals turn up. Thanks Mazda 626 at pickapart

Sailmaker has got the design of the new sail sorted

And I've been trying to art up a logo for a crew shirt

Yeah the antifouling paint is pretty chooched

And my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard

The battery is flat in my flat key and holy shit it's an odball size - CR2416

Just ordered one from Toyota cos I needed some service bits for the wife's whip anyways

7 hours ago, jessemk2 said:

Key reminds you got the f for fast version,not sure if the f sports got it though.

Just realized it's got metallic in the black on the key.

No F sport badge or sparkly wankery for me 

Ridiculous rumors. Everyone should buy British. The empire will never die! Mushy peas and a cup of tea for me please. God save the king! 

Yeah the jag wouldn't come out of park before Christmas and I got annoyed. 

Part of the job is tensioning the rigging in the new position.  In the first attempt - I just cranked the rigging screws up to what felt right.  This is one of those jobs where too little tension can cause the mast to collapse so its better to be sure.  So i went out and bought a hilariously overpriced tension gauge.

Was shooting for about 950kg of pre-load on the main support wires, my previous attempt to what felt good'n'tight was only about 500kg.

The other wires control the shape of the mast.  Basically, we are trying to pull the top of the mast down so hard it bends in the middle a little.  Then we can limit the amount of bend using tension on the other rigging wires. We're shooting for a nice even curve all the way along the mast.

The pre-bend is used to ensure the mast stays bent in the correct direction.  If we get enough load into the rig to over-centre or reverse the bend - the mast isn't supported in the other direction so it will collapse.  What's the ideal amount of pre-bend?  That seems to be a bit like asking whats the best engine oil.  You'll get a bunch of opinions that might be right but never seem to agree.  So I dialed in a bit of bend that sorta looks right compared to a bunch of the other boats around me.  The sailmaker reckons its adequate.  There's still room for adjustment and getting the settings right will be a lot easier with the tension gauge.

I'll put up some pics of the new sail being made, the process seems pretty interesting.

In the meantime, my new prop shaft seals still haven't arrived and the gearbox oil is getting milky again.  There's also a sad amount of pubes growing along the waterline on one side - the side I've been cleaning most frequently.  So its really time for another lift out and a new coat of antifouling paint.  I was hoping to postpone it a bit longer and do it in time for the winter series, but the growth is getting bad enough I cant ignore it.  Since we're getting lifted out to do the drive leg oil - might as well throw more money at it.

Hanging a rope straight down from the top of the mast to the deck is the generally accepted method of measuring mast rake.  With my adjustments, I've managed to move the line forward around 60cm.

Is this enough? Maybe.  Went for a sail with the new angle and things felt better.  I don't want to go too far forward or will end up with a different set of problems but things seem much closer to balanced.  It looks a lot better.

Time for the next project, the main sail is very much on its last legs.  The fabric has worn to be paper thin in places and there's 2 or 3 small tears developing.  I think its about 10 years old and has been used hard in that time, so its justifiably end of life.  As sails wear, the fabric stretches and they lose a lot of the nice airfoil shape - making them more draggy, less efficient and harder to trim. 

Talked to the sailmaker about getting a new one - the new sail will be made to suit the shape of the rig, so If we're not happy with it, now is the time to change things.  So what is the current issue?

Weather helm.  Here's my simplified understanding as a novice;

The boat rotates around a point somewhere in line with the keel.  If the front and back sails don't produce equal amounts of torque around this point, the boat will always try to turn itself into the wind and the helmsman will need to apply opposite rudder to counteract the force.  This creates drag and makes the boat slower.  A small amount of weather helm is considered good, but any more than 5-10 degrees of rudder angle is universally agreed to as being bad.  The boat currently has a LOT of weather helm when the wind angle is at 70-90 degrees.  This can be countered by reducing the amount of power the mainsail is making, but thats reducing overall power and speed.

At the moment, our mast is raked backwards quite a lot.  Most online sources think 3-4 degrees is a good number.  My bucket trigonometry estimates we have around 6 degrees.  We want to move the whole sail plan forward a little relative to the pivot point.  This can be done by reducing the amount of rake and putting the center of effort closer to the pivot point (around the keel).

So this weekends project is to adjust the rigging to take some of the rake out of the mast.

The art is in trying to keep a 15 meter long aluminium extrusion arrow straight using only tension on the supporting wires.  I've never tried this before, but we'll see how we go.  Unfortunately, a bendy mast profile with fractional rig and multiple swept back spreaders is one of the hardest configurations to get right.

With adjustments needed on 3 different stays each side of the mast to keep it straight and tight and inducing the correct amount of pre-bend.  Reading can only teach so much.  Only one way to learn I guess.

Let me assure mr creme_de_la_canna that a Miata will not and did not make light work of the echo

Lessons learned: 

Sail changes are a lot harder in choppy seas. Do them early. 

I knew beating into the wind is hard work but underestimated how miserable it gets on a long trip.

Fix that shower drain pump and sink drain and make sure the same thing can't happen to the toilet outlet.

If lots of smart people leave the day before, they might be on to something.