Getting ready for the road again

[Anders Dinsen]

That's a nice looking fuse box. Really nice to see this whole build process.

Thanks - getting there slowly!

[Anders Dinsen]

I got some more rivets done this weekend so now the tub and right front fender is fitted appropriately. Riveting is not easy, but easier with the right tools. I have a large dual handle riveting tool, but I still had a problem with the lower rivet in the left side of the tub which did not catch. I couldn't get my head down there well enough the see what was going on so for now I've left it empty.

I've also finished painting the cover plate for the cabin fan so that's ready for installation.

Also, I've got the engine running reasonably well. With the AFR meter I installed last year in the exhaust getting the mixture right is becoming exact science. I'll be posting a video later!

Finally, the vacuum for the headlight is connected and works without any leaking

[Anders Dinsen]

I've been cleaning up and reorganizing things in my garage this week, and that turned out to be a slightly bigger project than expected, but the result is good. I now have my parts well organized in boxes. The car returned to the garage by its own power, but it could not make it out as my gear shift linkage turned out to be incorrectly adjusted with 5th and reverse being out of reach. The area behind the garage slopes downward so we just pushed the car out. I've been paranoid about brakes before doing this, but they're perfect, the handbrake as well with the new cable sourced by Roy with grease nipples works perfectly 

I've offered my son space for a gokart or two in the garage. They will sit on cross beams above the Murena. It's a tight fit, but his budget is also tight so I have stepped in and reorganized things to help him, and it was a good opportunity to work together 

I'm getting the body panels ready for repair. I'm working on fixing an old go-kart seat before starting on the panels. That's my practice piece of epoxy work before I start working on the panels. My wife has accepted that the roof of the shed/workshop in the back of our garden is now decorated 

[Anders Dinsen]

I maintain a list of todo items and on that list has for a while been an item about figuring out why the headlights solenoid did not activate when I turned on the headlights.

Another problem, not on the list, but which turned out to be related, was that I couldn't activate the high beam.

Now, since my car is under restoration, I do not actually have any headlights (or rear lamps for that matter) connected yet, if I had, I would have had more problems than what I saw.

The great thing about my todo-list is that I can pick from it when I have time, energy, or just a lust of solving some issue. And whatever I don't get solved, fixed or feel I need to work on later, I can put back on the list. So yesterday evening, I took my multimeter and started looking for issues. Here's what I found:

• There was a few hundre mV of measured directly on the solenoid when turning on the headlights
• Between battery - and the two diodes on the fuse PCB was 11.8V
• Also measured between the plus terminal to the solenoid and battery -, was 11.8V
• The ground circuit (110A) on the solenoid had about 5.5V

Ah, of course!  

The last bullet made me realize I had a ground issue.

And indeed I had. The ground wire runnig along with the brake pad wear sensor wire was not attached to it's designated tab on the inside of the LH front upright. I completely forgot about it!

The other grounds in the car were ok, so the car ran and dash worked.

Ground circuits are always separated in order to avoid creating ground loops. If you have worked on audio amplifiers or the like, you'll know that ground loops create a wealth of problems as small differences in potential across chassis ground points will cause currents to flow in strange places. The usual effect in an audio amplifier is hum. In a car, the problem will be corroding terminals, and probably more.

I forgot to take a picture of the terminal while I had the wheel off the car. If you're courious, I suggest you reach behind the left front wheel on your own car and find the terminal to feel it's there. It's on the plate holding the speedo cable in place.

If you're the adventurous type then I suggest you remove the terminal and note for yourself what happens. Failure modes are good to know, and chances are that this terminal might actually one day corrode or even fall off

Todays picture shows the three radiator covers installed. I bought new (old stocks) covers from Simon, but had to modify the two side covers with newly drilled holes 7 mm from the ones made on the factory to offset the covers a bit more forward to accomodate the new beefier radiator. This is a nice aluminum radiator with the correct ventilator attachments, also available from Simon. The silver colour of the covers is aluzinc coating, as on the headlight lifting rod. The chassis parts visible were cold galvanized some seven five years ago...  

/Anders