First Trip Out

Greetings! A few notes on today's expedition - first proper trip out on the open road, and results of the MoT.

Been looking forward to this for some time...

Started early, the MoT slot was booked for 0800, so in order to get the legend dug out from the back of the workshop, had to be up there for 0600.

Still dark!

I picked up Trev who kindly offered to come along and try and look for things I might have missed. It was still early and the roads were very quiet - although it was raining hard and bitterly cold - we got absolutely soaked on the way there.

Arrived, cold, wet but exhilarated

Happy

The drive there was, indeed, pretty awesome. The car handles sweetly, the brakes worked perfectly, suspension wasn't too harsh or too soft (although the dampers need setting up) and the noise was awesome. However, the misgivings over the performance are still there - full throttle in 1st and 2nd gears gave nothing more than "above average" acceleration - it really should be knocking your socks off. Plus there was a bit of play in the steering as well. OK so onto the test then:

Pulled onto the ramp, both us and the car still dripping. We then spent the first 5 minutes trying to negotiate the car into the VOSA MoT computer system - kept getting an awful lot of "computer says no" due to their being no number plate, GKD not recognised as a manufacturer, VIN isn't yet applied via the DVLA etc. In the end he got around it by inputting the info manually.

First check - all the lights. Obviously, all fine. The headlight alignment, which is one of the main things I wanted the test done for, was also spot on; only a teeny tweak required to have them spot on. That's good news. 

Underbody check next -  few pickups here. One or two nylocs where there isn't much thread visible, most on the suspension uprights. Not a huge problem, just have to get some longer bolts. One of them is the lower suspension upright bolts, the 2 and 3/4" UNF bolts that you have to cut. Evidently I've cut them a bit too short; which is what i suspected at the time. Oh well, easy fix. No leaks or drips though, which is good.

Next was the wheel bearings, brakes (system appearance, function check comes later) suspension, Steering, exhaust, engine etc. etc. Few minor things, the O/S handbrake cable was a bit close to the spring, and the front brake flexis cable tied to the cycle wing brackets need a bit of rubber tube to prevent chafing, but otherwise OK. 

He did, however,  uncover a fairly major defect in the steering rack. There is now quite a bit of free play, and if you grab hold of the rack on the O/S you can wiggle the ball and socket at the end of the rack and pinion excessively. Might need to speak to Peter on this one, as I'm sure it shouldn't be like that; it's a brand new rack after all. Did make me drive a lot more carefully on the way home though!!

Next up was the biggest headache I think I will face - emissions. As you can see from the readout below, not looking too clever. CO was way up, two nearly three times the limit and lambda was way out. HC wasn't looking too bad though, so at least it's not burning oil.

First round, quite poor

 After it failed, the machine prompted him to do a more in-depth test. This entailed much more "settling", "conditioning" and "calibrating", all whilst at a fast idle and then some. It was at this point I discovered the cooling fan seems to be working OK, which is a relief!!! And if it can take that much abuse in terms of revving the nuts off it whilst it's stood still; should be OK for the IVA. 

After all this revving and the computer counting down from 200 seconds etc. The lambda worked itself back in and scraped into the green (not seen below) but the CO was still way off.

2nd time, bit better but still no pass.

So onto the last bit of the test - brakes.

Using the VIN plate weight as a guide he set it onto the rollers. The "service brake" e.g. the foot brake; was absolutely spot on. Balance front-rear was superb, and he recorded some decent kg figures (see below). Imbalance was only 7% and they all locked up, so a resounding happy feeling about the brakes being screwed together properly. Not quite the same for the handbrake though, poor efficiency on both wheels, as I suspected. I think it's do with the arrangement of the BMW cable into the VW caliper, and excessive travel in the lever - must try harder!! I know I'm out of adjustment on the cable so have to think of something else on that front.

And then finally, all finished.

Survived!

 So results / points for action:

Braking - front axle (n/s 188kg, o/s 212kg) pass
rear axle (n/s 166kg, os/ 169) pass
imbalance - 7% pass
Parking brake (n/s <20kg, o/s 83kg) FAIL.

1. Play in steering rack (excessive)
2. Nuts too short for nyloc x 6
3. handbrake cable fouls on spring n/s only
4. parking brake (low efficiency @8%, excess travel)
5. steel braided brake hoses chafing on cycle wings
6. Emissions

 Actually, a pretty good set of results I think. As a big bonus, and something else I was worried about, the  Cooling system worked well and the engine didn't overheat or complain the whole time.

And it had even stopped raining at that point, so the drive home was a little more enjoyable

Generally quite happy with progress, now need to think about how to address the issues.

Thanks for reading, see you next time.

Finished... Actually, this time

Happy to report that I have indeed finished.

The last two jobs on the car before it's ready for the automotive equivalent of crufts... A throttle return spring and the front number plate.

The throttle wasn't quite returning to home properly, possibly because of the routing of the cable giving extra friction. So it was a simple case of drilling a hole in the throttle body and looping a strong spring around:

Spring in position, just below Throttle body at rest...

And at full stretch. Snaps back beautifully now, need to trim the extra coils off though.

And with a bit of aluminium plate, a hacksaw, some satin black spray paint and some rivnuts, the front number plate was mounted:

So that's it then!

First of the tests will be a bog-standard MoT, which is booked in for next Saturday. Hoping to learn what the brakes, headlights and emissions are like - pretty well the only things I can't check accurately myself.

Step 1 in getting the project roadworthy. Exciting times!