RobinJI
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Posts posted by RobinJI
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Haha, yep, he's some mental guy who crops up in loads of alien conspiracy type 'documentaries'. Main one I can think of's the "Ancient Aliens" series. Hence the meme, as he's always enthusiastically coming out with insane theories about aliens. Most of them are on Youtube, and make kind of amusing viewing. I've watched a few as they tend to lead me to reading up on some interesting (completely non-alien related) stuff from history that they've highlighted as some sort of 'proof'.
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Shush, how the heck was I supposed to know?
Haha, glad you got it sorted, especially with such an easy fix. I've done it my self and I've seen it done plenty of times. Luckily I now own 2 cars that's leads can't go on the wrong cylinders!
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Paul, check the plug leads are on the right cylinders. It seems silly but it's way too easily done at the end of a long stint of working on it. I know I've done it before and it does exactly what you describe.
Sadly my k-jet knowledge's non existent, so I can't help further than that
I really need to carpet my boot properly. I'm bored of the car getting really loud and tinny sounding when the seats are down.
Long shot, but does anyone know good places to get MX-5 parts? My usual resources of GSF and ECP seem to list sod all and MX5parts.co.uk seem a bit expencive. Main thing's that they list head bolts at £5.76 each! That's £58 just for the head bolts. Maybe I've just always been spoiled by how cheap bits are for VWs.
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you keep using the term TT?
Transmission Tunnel? I can see what it is, some sort of external casing that the prop runs through?
Interesting that so much of the box is actually hung behind the rear axle, must have great weight distribution!
Yeah, it stands for torque tube, as they deal with the torque reaction from diff. 924's are actually a few % rear heavy. Arguably the box at the back but infront of the axle (like a corvette or the exotic rarity that is the Volvo 340/360) would be better, what with inertia and stuff, but they 924 set-up's still nice. The 924 box is basically the same configuration as you'd find up front on a Passat/A4, but with a massive spacer shoved between the bell-housing and block to push the box back far enough to drive the other axle. Clever engineering, cheap/easy to produce and develop as well as being technically rather good.
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I'm sure you can get them cheaper than Halfords, but at least that gives you the part numbers to look for elsewhere.
Craig, it's a really cool stage yeah. Nice weather meant there was a decent turnout of spectators, we dashed up between servicing and I shot that short exterior clip. We got 2 graves stages on camera too which I'll stick up once Ben's uploaded them.
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Halfords sell/stock bars to suit, you can search by reg and having stuck Mikes in it looks like there's a changeover in the fitting method in mid 2005.
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Nice progress Paul. Should be much nicer with everything cleaned up and painted. Not to mention working properly!
Ben's (the guy I co-drive for) just uploaded this video of his Dad competing in the Astra we use. This is his dads first time on stage in over 20 years:
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Ah, fair enough then.
I've spent most of this afternoon scrubbing away with de-greaser to get the MX-5's engine looking a bit smarter and make it much nicer to work on without a coating of grime everywhere. The old things done a fair few miles and it looks like there's been a slight oil weep from the front of the engine for a good number of those so it had a thick coating over loads of it. Sadly I forgot to get any before pictures, but it was really caked, you could barely tell what shape the steering rack was and most of the front of the engine was in a similar state.I'll replace the seals/gaskets that are the most likely culprits before it goes on the road, and now it's nice and clean it should be fairly obvious where it's coming from if it's still leaking. In fact I'm probably going to pull both manifolds off and give the block a damn good clean and a lick of paint sometime before it goes for a test.This is how it was looking when I locked up, a massive improvement in my eyes, much more inviting to take the spanners to:
This is the bumper I'm thinking of fitting, I'm not 100% about the look but at least it's relatively subtle/plain looking. The main thinking's that it eradicates most of the overhang which will help reduce front end lift and should cut down drag a bit too. It'll make fitting a proper splitter easier too. If I don't mind the look of it once fitted then the spotlight holes will probably eventually get used as vents for ducting to the brakes and air intake (split horizontally). As I said, it needs a little repair work!
It feels lighter than the original bumper too, and loosing weight's one of my main aims with this car, there's quite a bit of weight to be lost from it once I've removed the previous botched repair work from the back too, so it should give a decent weight saving in an important place once repaired properly. -
Anyone local-ish to RG45 got any axle stands I can borrow? My exhaust should be turning up tomorrow or tues and I want to fit it weds on my day off
Probably worth buying some isn't it? They're pretty much essential if you want to do your own servicing/maintenance.
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So I went and got the MX-5 at the weekend:
Yes, that is a very big, gay wing.
By the end of the weekend I'd checked it all over and pulled the front bumper off:
Then this evening I spent a while playing with seating positions (trying to get the seat a touch lower) before having a look at my idea of fitting a 1.8t VW throttle body. This is because the MX-5's throttle body doesn't have a proper position sensor in it, and has a messy and somewhat clumsy by-pass idle control system on the side, as well as bits of vapor control emissions stuff built into it. The 1.8t VW throttle body controls idle by simply electronically tweaking the throttles position and has a proper position sensor in it. Also, I've got a spare.
It looks promising, amazingly 2 of the mounting holes actually line up and the air-path its self's easily close enough that I can port out the manifold to match it nicely. The other 2 mounting holes are close enough that slotting the manifold slightly will get them in. Just need to look into the mods the ECU will need to control the idle with it.
I knife edged the butterfly while I was at it too, probably won't make any difference, but every little helps and I felt like tinkering with something as the sun was shining.
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I'm a bit in the middle on this one. I completely agree that a car should be presentable and shouldn't look like it's destined for the scrap yard, but I also think it should look used. It's the battle-scars; the dinks, the scratches, the warn paint, the scuffed bumpers etc.. that gives a car its story, it gives it a sense of history and shows that someone's had a lot of fun in it. But it does come across in an instant when a car's just not looked after, rather than being used hard. It just looks tatty and abused, which removes that sense of history.
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A colleague's got the one you linked to and it's impressive for the money. Definitely decent value and worth a go.
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Just booked a Beavertail to go and get the MX-5 on Saturday. Looking forward to getting it home and starting tinkering.
Adam, out of interest, what suspension set-up do you run on your race car? I recall you mentioning it in the past, but it's a LONG thread to check back through!
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It seems that 2013 summer was the last in russia(shot today), I'm going to live in UK, at least it haz summer.
Out of interest, why the UK? Out of the 189+ countries in the world, what makes it the UK that's the most appealing?
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Pop into a local tyre place for a free alignment check. You'll get to see if your alignment's ok, you'll get to have a good look around under the car for any potential issues, and you'll be able to see the exhaust clear as day.
(PS, Personally I'd make it a branch of a big chain so I wouldn't feel bad about wasting their time, unless you think you might actually get them to do the tracking, in which case just go somewhere good!)
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I think I should go onto a New-Zeland based forum and start posting about how hard life is, because there's no mountains near by to do my hobbies, and the waves here aren't as good, and it's colder here, and lands expencive etc...
Oh wait, what would that achieve?
CriminalRider, the point you keep trying to dig up is that quality of life in England is generally better than in Russia. The fact is, that may be so in some cases, but you could have it a LOT worse than you do, and a large portion of the world does, the difference is they're out there making the most of what they do have, rather than sat on the internet moaning about what they don't. A well off person in Russia will have a better life than a poor person in England does, so it's not like you're stuck in a completely hopeless situation like a massive proportion of the world population is.
Most of this forum have been lucky enough to be born into a world that it's relatively easy to stay comfortable in, and very much possible to prosper in with some effort. I'd like to think most of us appreciate that fact and enjoy our lives for what they are. It's not like we're ramming it down your throat or trying to convince you that everything's fine in Russia, so I'm not sure why you're constantly moaning to us about it. I'm sorry to hear you've not been lucky in the same way, but you've just got to think positively and be grateful for what you do have.
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Basically this:
http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=uk7dayx7;ct=5973~Chard;sess=#forecast
6 deg C, 8-13 mph east-south-east wind, dry and cloudy. Otherwise known as 'normal'.
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Sorry if I'm rather thick but can anyone answer these two questions:
If a spring and shock absorber (coilover) is mounted to the steering knuckle the suspension leverage is 1:1 right? Regardless of the amount of wheel spacers and ET? The same would therefore apply to the rear.
Yes and no. Technically speaking, the shocks inclination and the swing axle length will effect things too, but on the whole, the effect of these on a McPherson strut's small enough that you don't need to account for them. The inclination won't be effected at all by wheels or spacers, and on a McPherson strut the swing axle length won't really be effected enough to matter either.
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Better than my MX-5
Really? Mine always used to manage 30ish, dropping to high 20's if thrashed.
My Scirocco (with a 1.8t engine) manages 40ish mpg at 70 on the motorway and 45ish at 60. My old commute on open a-roads returned ~37 average while my current steep back-road commute manages ~31 average. Weighing 400+kg less than a Cupra I'd expect worse on the hilly stuff, but probably a little better on the motorway thanks to the longer gearing with big wheels.
I really must get a diesel box for the Scirocco, it should help the economy on the motorway a fair bit.
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Oh yeah, also, we got this working again at the weekend, I'm massively jealous of my friend who owns it:
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I just updated my Scirocco's thread over on Retro Rides, incase any of you are interested:
Well nothing ground breaking's happened to the Scirocco recently. It has required a little TLC since starting a new job with a somewhat rough back-road commute though.The good news is, the new job keeps my hands clean during the day which has massively boosted my mojo for working on my own car.Since Christmas it's had 4 new wheel bearings, and the new track-rods I fitted in October are feeling a bit tired. I've also fitted 4 new 195/50R15 toyos and having a little more sidewall's transformed how it drives. I actually prefer how it looks too, it fits with the '80s OEM+ look that I'm swaying towards.The front left wheel bearing was truly ruined! It had started getting a bit noisy, and then the rumble turned into a clunk, I changed it as soon as I had a chance and the old one came out in quite a few bits! This was the outside inner-race :-S:
And more worryingly, at lunchtime on a Saturday, 50 miles from home, the drive flange was SHAGGED, the cut in it wasn't me, that was there before taking the bearing off, and the inside inner-race had spun on it wearing the drive-flange to the point that the new bearing wasn't even vaguely tight, let alone the interference fit it should be.
Amazingly, a quick trip to the local GSF revealed they had one on the shelf for under £20! Success! So a nice new drive flange was thrown in with the new SKF bearing.
And all back together (well, hub-nut aside anyway):
Then it was onto the rear bearings, which went smoothly:
While I was working on it, it dawned on me that considering this is an engine-swapped car, there's very few engine bay pictures in this thread, so here's a quick lazy phone shot of the engine, I'll try and get some proper ones sooner or later, but it's very much function over form in there (I really must replace that header tank!):
Having finished that, I drove the car outside and it thanked me for the TLC with some truly horrible noises and a refusal to move under any real load. Yep, an inner CV exploded. I think it may have been dislodged while I was working on the car, but I'm not really sure how, the shaft didn't move any more than you'd expect when taking the hub off.This lead to a lot of arguing with the RAC over their definition of 'specialist equipment'. They quite fairly state in their Ts & Cs that modifications resulting in the use of specialist equipment would make me liable for the cost of the specialist kit. Seems completely fair yeah? until they try and tell you they consider anything but the silly fold out things in the back of a van that a LOT of standard cars wont go on to be 'specialist'. I've never had any issues with them on this front before, but I think the guy just couldn't be arsed on a Sunday night, so he reported it to their head-office as being my fault he couldn't tow it, and I had to spend around 2 hours on the phone to them to get them to send a real tow-truck. Still, they got me home in the end.
I threw a new GKN joint on the next day and it was back to being the good old workhorse it is, well, except for a rather obvious wheel bearing rumble... B-|
Yeah, I'd replaced 3 of the 4 bearings, as I knew I'd replaced one front one a couple of years ago. Turned out that one had died too. Cocl. And balls.The MPG had also dropped right down to around 24 average, a lot lower than I was used to, so since then I replaced the Lambda sensor (which I was 90% sure was the culprit) the coolant sensor (because they're cheap) and the MAF (because I had a spare) which got it driving much better again, as well as bumping the MPG back to where they should be:
I also replaced the final wheel bearing this weekend, and it's lovely having a nice quite car again. Scirocco's are good solid feeling cars when everything's in good order, and it's nice to have that feeling back properly. I need to drop by the local alignment place this week but otherwise, until a decent brand of TCA's are back in stock anywhere it'll be left alone for a while. (Well, I may potter at a few cosmetic bits.)I find Scirocco's are one of those cars where people often imagine them at a different scale to how they really are. They do look quite big, and it's easy to think of them as a 'medium' sized car, but the reality of it is that they really are small cars. The low roof-lines one of the things about them that I really like, and it's views like this show their real size:
The wax I put on back in December's still working well too, as soon as I clean the car it goes back to beading nicely:
At some point in the middle of all this I got bored one evening and went down to Lyme Regis for a couple of quick photos. Not many came out well, but I was pleased with this one:
(PS, sorry about the quality of some of those images, Photobucket seems to have decided it can't be arsed with even the lightest pretense of quality.)-
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Looking good Alex. painting is a black art for sure! I've never had the patience myself!
Just a quick in car clip from late in the day at Bedford on the South / East / North circuit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWicOd6qPTo&list=UUMvpraYm_RLFjfGZaZZ_YtQ
I'd like to spend more time on the suspension really, it's SO stable now it's crazy, but it does understeer a touch in the mid and low speed corners, but gives LOADS of confidence to pile into the higher speed corners without fear.
I'm somewhere between stiffening the rear ARB, or softening the front, or perhaps both, and playing with damping to make it a bit more lively.
It used to be a nightmare sliding around everywhere, but now it's just so stable, i could afford to live dangerously and make it rotate a bit more on request!
Sounds good, maybe make the mechanical grip balance a little more tail happy but then pitch the wing a touch more to keep the high speed stability?
Heading up to look at the MX-5 again later and sort what bits are coming with it as the current owner's back from Germany for the day. Be nice to have a bit of a better look with an eye towards making plans. Looks like I'll be collecting it in 2 weeks time, just need to sort someone to trailer it home for me.
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i guess usa are a little unhappy that putin has taken crimera under his wing -as crimera has a good amount of resorces that the usa wanted !
But sheep generaly dont give a tosh-
But its my duty as a truther to post such things -even if if does fall on deaf ears
How to guarantee no ones gives a toss about your opinion in one easy step: Refer to people as 'sheep'
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... turns out my springs are loose when both fronts are off the ground (quite embarrassing)...
Am I right in thinking you've got coilovers on it? If so that's pretty much the norm. Just fit helper springs if it worries you, but it's fine to leave it really, as long as they re-seat when you put it down without being guided it's not an MOT problem.
The Aliens meme - REVAf**kINGLATION?
in Chit Chat
Posted · Edited by RobinJI
Bob Fossil surely: