A progress update!

After some months, finally we've managed to get back to the garage (and laptop), and make some progress on the car, and put an update on here.

So, in the last few months, what have we been up to? We went away to get married, went to the Renault world series day, went to Normandy to visit the D-day beaches and museums, and some work on Ruby. Like:

Fitted the alternator into its bracket, complete with the VR sensor bracket and alternator belt - which involved fitting the alternator to its bracket and fitting it to the engine about 600 times, cutting a gap in the VR sensor bracket to allow the belt through, and get the VR sensor lined up to where the trigger wheel would go, and took us about all weekend!

We cut the distributor into pieces as we don't need that any more, this was much easier than expected! 10 minutes with a hacksaw, then cut out a circle of ally to top it off, and a bit of chemical metal to hold it down. We had to do this as a) we don't need a dizzy any more b) the dizzy wouldn't fit under the throttle bodies and c) you need the bottom shaft of the dizzy to run the oil pump!

We made a bracket for the coil pack at the back of the engine, and chewed up quite a few dremel cutting discs doing it, and fitted the HT leads nice and neatly to the coil pack..

Sorting out the inlet manifold came next, adding chemical metal to the lumps and bumps, then smoothing them out with file / sandpaper. While the chemical metal was out, we also filled in the holes in the throttle bodies left when we removed the secondary throttle spindle. The throttle bodies are fitted to the inlet manifold with fuel filler hose and clamped tight.

We figured out where the megasquirt would be going (under the scuttle, so we can get to the serial port and it's out of the weather), and fitted it, along with the JAW we got from one of the guys on locostbuilders, and the EDIS unit, on the top of the scuttle panel under the bonnet, so it's close to the coil pack.

Next, we started with the wiring. This started on paper, with me figuring out the conncetions between the EDIS, megasquirt, Jaw and the main loom. then, with a load of terminal blocks, we started connecting stuff together, to then test what works and easily troubleshoot and fix any problems that come up....

Finally, this weekend we had the trigger wheel drilled to fit on the crank pulley, which we've done (we had to wiggle the holes about a bit to get it to fit), then carry on with the wiring (fitting all the earth straps and earthing points on the chassis). Next, we started to test the electrics.....

after wiring up the ignition plug, we fitted the fuse for the fuel pump, wired up the battery, and turned the key..... Nothing happened! turned the key to the ignition stop and the fuel pump started! Obviously we've got the ignition switch wired in wrong, but the pump does work! Letting it build up the pressure to the throttle bodies, fuel started leaking out of the joints into the fuel rail itself - the hoses are fitted OK, but the fir tree fittings aren't sealing properly - they got up to 2 bar before letting the fuel out - a copper washer should sort that out. It's nice to know that the rest of the fittings are good!

Next up is to fix the ignition switch wiring, then carry on testing the electricals, before starting the engine..... maybe not next weekend, as we're off to the Race of Champions at Wembley. I'd like Ron to check over my wiring before we blow anything up as well!