akciddento

gaH! catalogue errors..

here i am, supposed to be packing to go to the big bang race meet with a thousand and one things to do and what am i up to ?

trying to fix the errors on the hard disk on the laptop, catalogue b tree errors that norton utilities doesn't want to fix, kinda irrelevant but if i can't fix it then no laptop dj sessions in the pits tonight and akciddento FM (88.1 fm !) will be strangely silent...

hacked at it with apples disk first aid, made an abortive attempt to buy alsoft's disk warrior and then hacked again with norton disk doctor, seeme like i might be winning,

we'll see....

doh !

(and i'm exhausted and all i want ot do is have a nap...)

typical!

it's the morning we should be leaving for the pod and last thing last night i was testing the new mini fm transmitter i got for the laptop (to dj off in the pits, so you just tune all the buses and cars within radio range to 88.1fm and hey presto! the biggest pa in the world !) and i started loading mp3 tracks to play in traktor (from native instruments the best dj software i've yet seen !) so that other people can sit down and search through and hopefully find tracks they want to play..

so, i have 7 DVDs with my record collection (a long story, some time ago i realised that i was mostly pluggin ngmy laptop into the steroe and liostening to music on random rather than actually plaing any of my cds, i even found cds i'd had a year that were still in cellophane. So, over the course of a few weeks i ripped all the cds to MP3, backed up onto dvd and sold all the cds, making enough money to buy a flash new macintosh just as a music player in the lounge)
so...

i loaded about 9Gb of new music tracks on to the laptop and checked it all out then -Foom-
sad mac...
so here i am, the ecu in the bus needs re mapping, the bus needs loading and a million and one other thinsg and i'm running norton disk doctor on the hard drive (how long before i need to start running norton on the bus ? how long before i need a firewall in it ?)

strange days, see you all at the pod!

:)

a little while later

after what seems like the longest break i'm back here at the diary again...

it's the night before racing again. tomorrow we head off to the big bang at santapod.... exactly a year ago i was getting ready for my first ever race....

and here I am..

after the disaster with the engine at the easter thinderball there's been a flurry of activity with me making late night long hauls criss crossing the country to lug parts and dead long blocks off to be inspected and then rebuilt.

well, the engin eis back in, and so far all seems well... as ever i have had very little time to put miles on it and tune it and settle it all back in but i did finally install the new oil pressure gauge and while i was at it relocated the oil tempo gauge with it to a position on the top of the rollcage. just about where trhe sunvisor used to sit...

got it all wired up and felt very smug at having taken the time to slow myself down and do it properly (ish) heatshrink wrap on all the joints, even dug out my 12v soldering iron, routed all the cables neatly and then to cap it all!!!!!
i spiral wrapped all the cables! how mad is that ?

(i even fixed the earth on the dashboard clock so that lights up at night too! (it doesn't keep time but it does look nice at night now)

had another late night last night cutting out cloth and pinning stuff in a bannermaking stylee.. also did a full stocktake in advance of setting up stall at big bang (oh yes, i forgot to tell anyone ! we've got a stall at big bang too :) )
off to get -stuff- this morning....

more later...

:)

'twas the night before racing...

and all through the house.....
...were piles of tools, bedding, camping gear, spare parts and assorted flame retardent clothing....

all seems well..

vwsp21 aka ollieslammedbay has his bus back with an engine, MOT and road tax

and he has a new pair of fireproof boots, care of Kevo...
(i blagged them off kevo as a freebie at the AGM last december and i finally washed them and tried them on... call me captain flipper feet!)

vwsp97 is ready (ish) with its new window graphics (picked em up this morning and apart from being the wrong size and wrong material they're great...

View image

got the bus tuned up yesterday and ran a diagnostic and cycle test on the injectors and the coil pack from the laptop... seems that they';re all ok...

it's running better but still lumpy and very rich... the fuel consumption is astronomical.

i even got emily tuning the bus...
she's keen to find out about it all and thinks she might like to be a car designer and rally driver. superstar!

the major result of the race car preparation is that the headlining cloth turned up and i was out in the dark last night fitting it...

:)

priorities priorities !

so, i think we might be nearly ready...
off to Santa Pod tomorrow morning to get settled in for a long weekend of racing at the Easter Thunderball. If you're there then come on up to the pits to say hi!. it looks like we might be a bit more organised this year, we've even got **ed** and Mr. Zwitter crewing for us so i know we're in good hands and i can so my usual stressed headless chicken thing knowing that someone else will be there to tell me what my nake is and remind me how to tie my shoe laces.
Ed has also promised to do a dj set out of the two buses (we have a clever plan for wiring the two of them together to make a mobile PA system) so

onward and upward! time for a bath, a swift beer and an early night!

See you at the 'Pod!

oh....

well, the new engine is in and running...

the only clue is this... i forgot just how deafening it is... with the solid mount gearbox it's punishing to drive long distances...

all the oil over the back of the bus if from the old engine (flywheel oil seal dontchaknow) the oil seal is now fixed and the engine is being loaned to ollieslammedbay so he can race this weekend at easterthunderball...

i've done about 600 gentle kilometers in it but it's still not right, the plugs in number 2 and four cylinder are sooty and wet and fouled. there is a spark but its weak and seems intermittent. i tried swapping the leads around and that makes little difference. i think there might be a problem with the coil pack or there's an earth leakage somewhere. it runs lumpy and rough and is smoking rather too much for my liking...
...and it appears to have started leaking oil from behind the pulley.

and it's raining and the new headlining material hasn't turned up yet.

of course.

on a lighter note scooter boy from scooterblog (bristol to the greek islands on a scooter) turned up today to pick out new ak gear to wear on his epic journey.
we're proud to be sponsors of scooterblog! checkout the progress and suggest placs to vist at www.scooterblog.com

and here he is ! scooterboy modelling on e of the new embroidered akciddento baseball caps.

let's get digital...

well, after the success of yesterday it's time to sort out the snaggings..

popped out this mornign and tracked the short on the oil temp gauge and some other bits. donwloaded the new Map for the fuel injection ECU into the laptop and off to tune the engine. it's running lumpy as a lumpy thing. even lumpier than me infact. to be honest i'd say it's lumpier than custard. *

so with luck the new map with cure lots of things

more news at eleven !

:)

*this may not translate to other countries, milage may vary. sold by weight not volume, contents may settle during transit.

it lives !

after a mornings fiddling and twiddling sorting out the last of the plumbing and wiring loom all iss ok. fill with oil and crank over to build pressure then wityh bated breath i go to fire up the new engine for the first time....

of course it doesn't fire.

does it ?

well, to cut a long story short i spend 3 hours with a test meter trying to work out why the ECU for the fuel injection won't switch live... tracking everything...

then I realise that i've attached the flying lead for the live supply to an earth by mistake....

doh...

then, it fires !

:)

it's alive, after running for fifteen minutes or so and checking things over i pop out for a spin to the jet wash....

how big is my grin :)

back where it belongs...

after a few late nights fitting up the porsche fan gear and some other twiddling the race engine is finally ready to get back where it belongs, in a bus. my bus :)

so, this afternoon it got carried out into the front yard and plonked infront of the yawning empty engine bay

and after much slow preparation, untangling the fuel injection wiring loom from where it'd been zip tied out of the way since december, sorting oiut the high pressure fuel lines, reinstalling the breather box, new fram filter and hoses and a million other little bits it's back it...

slotted in, bolted up and pretty much all plumbed in. some more bits tomorrow and maybe crank it over before the end of the day...

the porsche fan shroud has made one VERY important difference. The 4th bolt, the one that comes through the top right of the bell housing from the started motor, the one you can never get your arm to.. especially with twin carbs... well, with the porsche fan you can get to it EASY! i found that i could lie under the bus with one hand up over the starter motor holing the head of the half moon boltin place and actually get my other arm into the engine bay, over the shroud and get the nut on!

how cool is that !?^&*!!!!

(if you're not sure just how cool that is, trust me, it's cooler than a very cold thing!*)

* it's also been proved to reduce atmospheric pollution due to excessive swearing by up to 19%!