So, remember last time, when I told you the starter motor was buried at the back of my engine...
Werl, I was wrong.
Yes, I feel like a complete tool. Turns out it was right at the front and my mechanic gave me a vague description of where to find it. Also shows I don't know weird modern french cars.
Happy I didn't rip the exhaust off trying to get to it. Phew.
P.s. still doesn't change what I had to say about planned obsolescence though.
Wednesday 25 June 2014
Wednesday 18 June 2014
Impossible jigsaw puzzles
As you've probably worked out, I don't mind doing a little wrenching on cars. In fact, given the time and space I quite enjoy it.
But not today.
It's not wrenching or the time today. It's packaging. For a few reasons I wanted to have a quick look at the starter motor on my wife's car. It's not that the starter had died. Rather I wanted to check a few things and just make sure everything was as it should be before we go on holidays in the not too distant future.
EPIC fail.
I'm not a specialist when it comes to Peugeots. However, I'm usually able to identify the different parts and put my hand on connections and bolts when looking any car.
I say, "usually able", but not this time.
After an hour of pulling the battery out (which meant pulling the airbox out first), jacking the car up and climbing all over the front end. Fail. My usually mechanic told me it was on the back of the engine against the fire wall. I knew that.
All I could make out was 2 square inches of what I believe to be the mounting flange. That's it.
Heck, I'm still not even sure that it WAS the starter motor. It might have been something else, because it was buried behind a maze of exhaust manifolds, front subframes, pipes, wires and other assorted plastic junk.
Here's a pic of the top of the engine. Underneath is immeasurable worse.
Now I know French cars have a reputation for being a little kooky. Sometimes the kooky is 'good kooky'. But not in this case. When you have to pull the whole front end of the car to get to the starter that is BAD.
Don't get wrong, I understand packaging can be painful.
Prior to my current beetle, I built a dune buggy with a late model Subaru engine. I learnt a LOT of lessons about packaging, many of them I learnt the hard way. I also know that those crazy French car guys are used to packaging engines. In fact, a number of manufacturers have been known to make it hard to stop people taking them anywhere but the dealer service centres.
STOP IT!
Sorry, I don't usually get worked up, but the car is 8+ years old. The dealers don't really even want work on it now. Which brings us to another issue. What this all turns into is... Planned Obsolescence.
Planned Obsolescence really is a serious problem.
As the car gets older it needs more repairs, the more money it costs to fix a hard to maintain car. This means people will tend to throw the car away/wreck it, rather than fix it.
Frankly, it's TERRIBLE for the environment.
Here's the interesting thing about my beetle. Next to this Peugeot, it's like building mechano.
Really it is. Which is why I'm always shocked when people tell me they're hard to work on. Ok, sure, you have to bend down a little. However, you can still fix a beetle without owning a proper hoist or thousand of tools.
The upshot of this is EVERYONE fixes beetles.
For all that beetles are not common road vehicles these days, they will outlast our current car purely because they are like lego to work on. The sad thing is, in the mean time, millions of otherwise useful and fixable cars will be tossed aside like plastic coke bottles because...
They're impossible jigsaw puzzles.
Could it be that cars destroy our planet not by emissions and everything to do with pointless and avoidable waste?
But not today.
It's not wrenching or the time today. It's packaging. For a few reasons I wanted to have a quick look at the starter motor on my wife's car. It's not that the starter had died. Rather I wanted to check a few things and just make sure everything was as it should be before we go on holidays in the not too distant future.
EPIC fail.
I'm not a specialist when it comes to Peugeots. However, I'm usually able to identify the different parts and put my hand on connections and bolts when looking any car.
I say, "usually able", but not this time.
After an hour of pulling the battery out (which meant pulling the airbox out first), jacking the car up and climbing all over the front end. Fail. My usually mechanic told me it was on the back of the engine against the fire wall. I knew that.
All I could make out was 2 square inches of what I believe to be the mounting flange. That's it.
Heck, I'm still not even sure that it WAS the starter motor. It might have been something else, because it was buried behind a maze of exhaust manifolds, front subframes, pipes, wires and other assorted plastic junk.
Here's a pic of the top of the engine. Underneath is immeasurable worse.
Now I know French cars have a reputation for being a little kooky. Sometimes the kooky is 'good kooky'. But not in this case. When you have to pull the whole front end of the car to get to the starter that is BAD.
Don't get wrong, I understand packaging can be painful.
Prior to my current beetle, I built a dune buggy with a late model Subaru engine. I learnt a LOT of lessons about packaging, many of them I learnt the hard way. I also know that those crazy French car guys are used to packaging engines. In fact, a number of manufacturers have been known to make it hard to stop people taking them anywhere but the dealer service centres.
STOP IT!
Sorry, I don't usually get worked up, but the car is 8+ years old. The dealers don't really even want work on it now. Which brings us to another issue. What this all turns into is... Planned Obsolescence.
Planned Obsolescence really is a serious problem.
As the car gets older it needs more repairs, the more money it costs to fix a hard to maintain car. This means people will tend to throw the car away/wreck it, rather than fix it.
Frankly, it's TERRIBLE for the environment.
Here's the interesting thing about my beetle. Next to this Peugeot, it's like building mechano.
Really it is. Which is why I'm always shocked when people tell me they're hard to work on. Ok, sure, you have to bend down a little. However, you can still fix a beetle without owning a proper hoist or thousand of tools.
The upshot of this is EVERYONE fixes beetles.
For all that beetles are not common road vehicles these days, they will outlast our current car purely because they are like lego to work on. The sad thing is, in the mean time, millions of otherwise useful and fixable cars will be tossed aside like plastic coke bottles because...
They're impossible jigsaw puzzles.
Could it be that cars destroy our planet not by emissions and everything to do with pointless and avoidable waste?
Tuesday 10 June 2014
Unexpected motorsport - the results
I opened my phone to find an email from the car club today. That meant just one thing...
RESULTS!
Now, of course, no one is racing for sheep stations (trophies), however, it's always good to see how you're going and how far off the pace the car was across the day.
Before you ask, no, I didn't win outright.
What I did post was a respectable 20th outright, and 10th in the most popular class on the day. I'm pretty happy with that. It put me a little over halfway up the field with another 22 competitors behind me (42 all up).
Here's a pic of the results...
The overall win was taken by a WRX that was pretty well driven. The next two places were taken by two great drivers in front wheel drives, both in my class.
The cool thing is that every car above me (and behind me) had at least double the power. Also, as you can see, my record is completely clean with no 'WD's or 'f's. It pretty clear that a good number of the drivers ahead of me would have done even better if they'd avoided flags and gone the right direction.
As far as pace, werl, the car seems to have little if any.
At best it was 6 seconds off the pace, which is not bad. However, mostly it was a whole 15 seconds or more slower than the fastest time. I guess the good news in this is, I can only go up from here in... and the car has already shown some improvement.
A quick phonecall to my engine builder today confirmed the new motor is still some way off. Oh well, I guess I'll have to work on other things til it's ready.
RESULTS!
Now, of course, no one is racing for sheep stations (trophies), however, it's always good to see how you're going and how far off the pace the car was across the day.
Before you ask, no, I didn't win outright.
What I did post was a respectable 20th outright, and 10th in the most popular class on the day. I'm pretty happy with that. It put me a little over halfway up the field with another 22 competitors behind me (42 all up).
Here's a pic of the results...
The overall win was taken by a WRX that was pretty well driven. The next two places were taken by two great drivers in front wheel drives, both in my class.
The cool thing is that every car above me (and behind me) had at least double the power. Also, as you can see, my record is completely clean with no 'WD's or 'f's. It pretty clear that a good number of the drivers ahead of me would have done even better if they'd avoided flags and gone the right direction.
As far as pace, werl, the car seems to have little if any.
At best it was 6 seconds off the pace, which is not bad. However, mostly it was a whole 15 seconds or more slower than the fastest time. I guess the good news in this is, I can only go up from here in... and the car has already shown some improvement.
A quick phonecall to my engine builder today confirmed the new motor is still some way off. Oh well, I guess I'll have to work on other things til it's ready.
Sunday 8 June 2014
Unexpected motorsport
On Thursday, two days before the event, I noticed a facebook post announcing there were no places left at the skidpan motorkhana on Saturday.
Fantastic (sarcasm).
The only skidpan I could get to in months and I find out about it then. I vainly posted a request to keep me informed in case a spot became available at the last minute.
Yeah right. Like that was gonna happen. These events fill up super quick. :o(
Friday night, I was playing a fill in gig in a band on the other side of Sydney. To my surprise, the organizer texted me to let me know there was a space. Needless to say it wasn't a hard decision to make.
Woo hoo!
So on Saturday morning (after not enough sleep), I loaded a jack in the car and fueled up. I arrived 10 minutes before the end of scrutineering, but no dramas and I was ready to race. As per usual, there was a mix of cars there from a Lambo to WRXs, mirages, an evo, bimmers, skylines, MX5s, a boxster, a 180sx, a commodore, an early MR2 and even a Datsun 180b.
My beetle was by far the oldest, slowest thing on the paddock.
I was initially a little worried about blowing the car up, but I reasoned, "it's only 8 sets of 2 minutes". There wasn't much that could go wrong on a wet skidpan with no power.
The overall aim for the day was consistency.
The biggest concern in motorkhana trials is going the right way around the cones. After that, you want to make sure that you don't hit cones/flags or overshoot. Every cone you hit is an extra 5 seconds. The wrong direction (WD) means you get the slowest time plus and extra 5 seconds or so. Overshooting the stopping area is another 5 second penalty.
Hitting one or two cones, plus over shooting can push your time out by 15 seconds. Do that in a few tests and you're right off the pace... and way down the field. I spent much of the day trying to help a young guy in an overpowered skyline fix these sorts of problems.
So I worked hard on the basics.
After the first run, I tightened the handbrake cables and remembered I had to have my seatbelt super tight. This helped me to be able to throw the car better without falling out of the seat. I also found I couldn't get the car to slid unless I'd got into 2nd gear, speed wise.
What was letting me down (besides lack of power) were the 135 tyres on the front. I'd aired up the back 165s with 44psi in the morning leaving 32psi in the front. Even still, with the weight on back end, the front was scrabbling round and I could feel it struggling to hold on.
I learnt a few important things from this run. Firstly, I could push the car harder. Sure the front end was understeering slightly (a typical beetle trait), but the car wasn't ploughing or leaning over much, unlike a number of AWDs and FWDs on the day. Secondly, if you get up enough momentum coming into a tightening corner, the car will lift-off oversteer and you get off the throttle.
Normally that's what causes swingaxle cars to roll over, but the camber compensator stops that happening.
$100 well spent there. It also meant on the next test I could lift-off oversteer the car round the final cone without the handbrake or slowing down.
By halfway through the day I was consistently getting (a little) quicker while other drivers went the wrong direction or hit cones. I was trying to throw the car a little more and drive harder, but the 135s made that pretty useless, so I just got on with being as clean and neat as possible. The fact that I was getting consistent understeer also demostrates how much more confidence I had over the last skidpan session.
The other thing I noticed was the need to change back between 1st and 2nd gears at different times. I think more than anything it's a mark of the narrow power/torque band of the motor... and just how worn out it is.
The poor old thing just doesn't want to rev and it was blowing a little smoke all day.
After a big figure eight style test we finished up just on 4pm and headed home without hitting any cones, no over-shoots and getting the direction right in every test. By this time, people were starting to take notice of the car and even the own of the lambo remarked on how well the beetle was doing. This is one of the cool things that seems to be changed.
People love seeing the beetle compete.
A few people in the club were telling me a few months back it was inappropriate and the car was "too good" to race. That isn't happening anymore. Instead, they're genuinely pleased to see it out and being driven properly.
Many of them have a new respect for it I think.
At the same time, I'm hankering for more power. My new trans arrived freshly rebuilt this week. There are host of other new parts just waiting to go on the car. I'm really looking forward to getting them and the new motor in the car. Can't wait to see how much better it is on the skidpan with that.
Course the other thing I should probably looking into is fitting a front anti-roll bar and some better front tyres, like some decent 165s, hmm.
I'll be interested to see the results too...
Fantastic (sarcasm).
The only skidpan I could get to in months and I find out about it then. I vainly posted a request to keep me informed in case a spot became available at the last minute.
Yeah right. Like that was gonna happen. These events fill up super quick. :o(
Friday night, I was playing a fill in gig in a band on the other side of Sydney. To my surprise, the organizer texted me to let me know there was a space. Needless to say it wasn't a hard decision to make.
Woo hoo!
So on Saturday morning (after not enough sleep), I loaded a jack in the car and fueled up. I arrived 10 minutes before the end of scrutineering, but no dramas and I was ready to race. As per usual, there was a mix of cars there from a Lambo to WRXs, mirages, an evo, bimmers, skylines, MX5s, a boxster, a 180sx, a commodore, an early MR2 and even a Datsun 180b.
My beetle was by far the oldest, slowest thing on the paddock.
I was initially a little worried about blowing the car up, but I reasoned, "it's only 8 sets of 2 minutes". There wasn't much that could go wrong on a wet skidpan with no power.
The overall aim for the day was consistency.
The biggest concern in motorkhana trials is going the right way around the cones. After that, you want to make sure that you don't hit cones/flags or overshoot. Every cone you hit is an extra 5 seconds. The wrong direction (WD) means you get the slowest time plus and extra 5 seconds or so. Overshooting the stopping area is another 5 second penalty.
Hitting one or two cones, plus over shooting can push your time out by 15 seconds. Do that in a few tests and you're right off the pace... and way down the field. I spent much of the day trying to help a young guy in an overpowered skyline fix these sorts of problems.
So I worked hard on the basics.
After the first run, I tightened the handbrake cables and remembered I had to have my seatbelt super tight. This helped me to be able to throw the car better without falling out of the seat. I also found I couldn't get the car to slid unless I'd got into 2nd gear, speed wise.
What was letting me down (besides lack of power) were the 135 tyres on the front. I'd aired up the back 165s with 44psi in the morning leaving 32psi in the front. Even still, with the weight on back end, the front was scrabbling round and I could feel it struggling to hold on.
Here's my last run before lunch.
I learnt a few important things from this run. Firstly, I could push the car harder. Sure the front end was understeering slightly (a typical beetle trait), but the car wasn't ploughing or leaning over much, unlike a number of AWDs and FWDs on the day. Secondly, if you get up enough momentum coming into a tightening corner, the car will lift-off oversteer and you get off the throttle.
Normally that's what causes swingaxle cars to roll over, but the camber compensator stops that happening.
$100 well spent there. It also meant on the next test I could lift-off oversteer the car round the final cone without the handbrake or slowing down.
By halfway through the day I was consistently getting (a little) quicker while other drivers went the wrong direction or hit cones. I was trying to throw the car a little more and drive harder, but the 135s made that pretty useless, so I just got on with being as clean and neat as possible. The fact that I was getting consistent understeer also demostrates how much more confidence I had over the last skidpan session.
The other thing I noticed was the need to change back between 1st and 2nd gears at different times. I think more than anything it's a mark of the narrow power/torque band of the motor... and just how worn out it is.
The poor old thing just doesn't want to rev and it was blowing a little smoke all day.
After a big figure eight style test we finished up just on 4pm and headed home without hitting any cones, no over-shoots and getting the direction right in every test. By this time, people were starting to take notice of the car and even the own of the lambo remarked on how well the beetle was doing. This is one of the cool things that seems to be changed.
People love seeing the beetle compete.
A few people in the club were telling me a few months back it was inappropriate and the car was "too good" to race. That isn't happening anymore. Instead, they're genuinely pleased to see it out and being driven properly.
Many of them have a new respect for it I think.
At the same time, I'm hankering for more power. My new trans arrived freshly rebuilt this week. There are host of other new parts just waiting to go on the car. I'm really looking forward to getting them and the new motor in the car. Can't wait to see how much better it is on the skidpan with that.
Course the other thing I should probably looking into is fitting a front anti-roll bar and some better front tyres, like some decent 165s, hmm.
I'll be interested to see the results too...
Wednesday 4 June 2014
Ok, I get it - Miles Davis & Peak hour driving
It's pretty clear from this blog that I like old things. Let me rephrase...
I LOVE old stuff.
What might surprise you is, there are various parts of old cars that I just don't get. In fact it's not just that I don't get them, I openly mock, disrespect and in some case, despise them.
I despise carburetors.
Sound like a weird thing to say, but I reckon carbs (and points) are the things that make old cars evil. They get junk in em, they foul, they wear, they ice up. They're fiddly and they're about as complicated as a toilet...
Of course I'm exagerating, but carbs as we know it do generally work, like a toilet.
The 'needle & seat' arrangement in the fuel bowl works in the same way a the valve in a toilet works. A float rises and stops the fuel bowl overfilling with fuel. While that happens, air rushing through the carb pulls fuel out through the 'jets' where it mixes with the air.
Sounds simple right?
And for the most part it is. The thing is, carbs are just not that efficient. They do a few things well but, unlike EFI, they can't be tuned properly across the whole rev range on any engine. They become an impediment. So I really hate them...
Well at least I did, until other day.
Sydney traffic is pretty awful these days. Peak hour lasts 2-3 hours. I found myself sitting on a 'motorway' for an hour and a half to do a trip that should have taken 30 minutes. All in a 60 year old car with around 25hp at the wheels and a piddly carburetor. Which is when it hit me...
"For modern traffic, this is all I need"
That's right. No heater, no air con, AM radio, 3 pedals, a gearshift and a steering wheel, and that's it. If I put big tyres on the back it would be similar to driving a tractor. Not once during the 90+min trip did the carburetor fail to deliver everything I needed to get home. Not once did I need to accelerate faster than the car could manage.
So Miles Davis was right.
During the heyday of 1950's motoring when my car was made, he created with a new form of Jazz that totally flew in the face of the music of the day. Spartan, open, less notes and yet every bit as effective as John Coltrane's supercharged bebop.
Less was more, than enough.
Why was I building a 120hp engine when this got me home without an issue? Why was I swapping over to EFI and intercooling when I couldn't have used it on this journey?
Needless to say, I felt like a tool... again.
Smog tests and modern regulations have killed the carburetor in the west. No doubt about that. But I am left wondering if we've done something silly in demanding systems we don't need to fix issues that didn't need fixing.
Sorry little carb, you are owed all my respect.
Course, the next morning I realized why I was building a newer stronger engine when I checked the oil. The current engine is drinking it like a camel at an oasis...
Apparently; less power = using more oil.
Oh well.
I LOVE old stuff.
What might surprise you is, there are various parts of old cars that I just don't get. In fact it's not just that I don't get them, I openly mock, disrespect and in some case, despise them.
I despise carburetors.
Sound like a weird thing to say, but I reckon carbs (and points) are the things that make old cars evil. They get junk in em, they foul, they wear, they ice up. They're fiddly and they're about as complicated as a toilet...
Of course I'm exagerating, but carbs as we know it do generally work, like a toilet.
The 'needle & seat' arrangement in the fuel bowl works in the same way a the valve in a toilet works. A float rises and stops the fuel bowl overfilling with fuel. While that happens, air rushing through the carb pulls fuel out through the 'jets' where it mixes with the air.
Sounds simple right?
And for the most part it is. The thing is, carbs are just not that efficient. They do a few things well but, unlike EFI, they can't be tuned properly across the whole rev range on any engine. They become an impediment. So I really hate them...
Well at least I did, until other day.
Sydney traffic is pretty awful these days. Peak hour lasts 2-3 hours. I found myself sitting on a 'motorway' for an hour and a half to do a trip that should have taken 30 minutes. All in a 60 year old car with around 25hp at the wheels and a piddly carburetor. Which is when it hit me...
"For modern traffic, this is all I need"
That's right. No heater, no air con, AM radio, 3 pedals, a gearshift and a steering wheel, and that's it. If I put big tyres on the back it would be similar to driving a tractor. Not once during the 90+min trip did the carburetor fail to deliver everything I needed to get home. Not once did I need to accelerate faster than the car could manage.
So Miles Davis was right.
During the heyday of 1950's motoring when my car was made, he created with a new form of Jazz that totally flew in the face of the music of the day. Spartan, open, less notes and yet every bit as effective as John Coltrane's supercharged bebop.
Less was more, than enough.
Why was I building a 120hp engine when this got me home without an issue? Why was I swapping over to EFI and intercooling when I couldn't have used it on this journey?
Needless to say, I felt like a tool... again.
Smog tests and modern regulations have killed the carburetor in the west. No doubt about that. But I am left wondering if we've done something silly in demanding systems we don't need to fix issues that didn't need fixing.
Sorry little carb, you are owed all my respect.
Course, the next morning I realized why I was building a newer stronger engine when I checked the oil. The current engine is drinking it like a camel at an oasis...
Apparently; less power = using more oil.
Oh well.
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