slomove

I had the spark plugs drown in heavy rain several times. Very embarrassing with people watching you take off sputtering and stalling. It helps a lot to park the car in a slope nose up. Then the water will run out of the rear drain holes of the valve cover and not run into the plug wells (at least that is for my older ZX1 with silver top). But the real solution was to just cover the bonnet so that the water does not get in. Even better might be a custom sheet metal shield over the engine. Maybe I do that sometimes.

I would go with the above mentioned guesses. The only reason I have *heard* of acceleration affecting electrical equipment performance is that at wide open throttle the absolute compression in the cylinder is higher, requiring higher voltage before the spark fires an thus more electrical noise. I know this happened to a camera pan servo setup I used to have that became a bit jittery when accelerating. I would be surprised if that is what is happening to your speedo but, well, just to mention another possibility.

Not sure about the shampoo but WD40 is an excellent deodorant. Very manly and distinctive. You can sweat all day and nobody will notice.

I have a Birkin, too and for highway driving I do have the left foot under the clutch. Shoe size 11 and with driving shoes I can navigate around the pedals just fine. I mean, in the worst case if the left foot should get stuck while braking, well I would just have to stall the engine but that has never happened. Driving with sneakers or other wide shoes (which I do occasionally) is a different story. That requires some practice and well choreographed synchronization of clutch and brake so that the feet don't block each other.

Sounds like fuel pump cavitation, i.e. fuel boiling in pump. That may happen at higher temperatures (when the vapor pressure of the gas is also higher) and when the fuel suction line from the tank is somehow obstructed (clogged filter or pickup tube).

Very cool! I want one. Since you normally drive without passenger, you could do the next 7s tour with the new toy. Imagine the savings in gas! Are you going to get it street legal? Oh, what is the meanest engine you can upgrade to? Another idea....you can strap it to the stern of the Caterham as a dinghy?

I hope you are aware that engineers on average are wrong 9.473% of the time :willy_nilly:

I would try the new electric pump with the old impeller in place. These are very simple centrifugal pumps and it may well be that the impeller has negligible pressure loss (compared to the other channels and orifices in the coolant path) when standing still. But you can indeed toss the thermostat if the pump has an own temp switch or is controlled by the ECU.

Sounds like a plan. Actually I do have a reverse spinning water pump on my Contour ZX1 from a European Escort. But that won't help you much on a ZX2. Totally different pump setup. If you don't want to do much fab, the electric pump may be an easy out. One thing you may run into, if your alternator mount does not have some flexibility, the belt stretch with heat and time may make it squeal again (especially after starting with high battery recharge load) and require frequent adjustment. A spring loaded idler does have some advantage.

If I see it right, the belt wraps around the driving crank pulley only about 30-45 degrees. That is not much and will require serious belt tension (not good for the bearings) to avoid squealing in the first place. If you can add an additional idler pulley somewhere to increase the wrap angle you will be better off. For the math see here: http://statics.marcks.cc/friction/pdf/belt_friction.pdf

I don't know.....I would be hesitant to rely on typically flimsy (ahem light weight) boot frame tubing of a Seven decelerating a 400 pound trailer when braking seriously. When I fixed the rear end damage to my Seven earlier this year I could straighten out these tubes with a few rubber mallet strikes.

In the garage I just throw an old bed sheet over the car when not driving for a long time. I know I am cheap but it works as well as anything else. On tour I used to have a custom fitted rain cover for the cockpit but that got damaged on the GBB tour. So I bought a small green tarp for the whole car, tied down with 4 bungees. Once again cheap and functional.

I have a similar design on my trailer, see below. Not exactly sure where I found it, though.

Key? What is a key?

I would not have known but looked it up on the Montana map and you are right. It is not exactly in Arkansas but you seem to know your way around there (or you cheated with help of Google maps and the street signs ) I picked the snippet because it was one of the spots to rev the engine at least somewhat.

I looked/listened at the latest results with the Drift Ghost HD again today on the big computer and better speakers. Actually not so bad, see short video/audio sample below. This is with the $30 Radioshack lavalier omnidirectional mic tucked with weatherstrip tape into the nook between windscreen frame and scuttle. The rubber weatherstrip insulates against direct body contact noise. This mic does not need a battery, apparently it gets its bias voltage from the camera. The camera mic sensitivity is set to minimum. https://www.dropbox.com/s/s5igxuhpqs8dxeb/SoundTest1.avi

Oh well, that's it. Vacation over :cuss: I am back home again, no incidents to reports. Working on the photos already. Gert

Forgot.....once I get home, I will sift through the pics and post some highlights. I took also a ton of video clips and if I ever get around to editing a movie I will post it. However, given that I am still 5 years behind on editing old tour videos don't hold your breath.

Nah, we are not lost. Actually we left the tour yesterday. The lucky ones got to go to Vancouver Island for a final blatting opportunity while I dropped Rosie today at the airport and stated the trek home all by myself. It is raining here in the Seattle area, and I got stuck at the border for 2 hours. Needless to say I was mildly pissed off. Fortunately I found a brew pub/bistro here in Monroe,WA and after 3 pale ale, one Knob Creek, an onion soup, stuffed pork loin and a creme brulee I am looking forward to tomorrow's 500 mile drive to Boise.

We got it all sorted out. The missing ECU power was my own fault. I forgot that the big red button not only operates the battery cutoff solenoid but also cuts off ignition. So, although we disabled the solenoid, the button must be activated to run. Doh... We did not have a need to use the wiper again, weather is very nice now. And since it has ben working eventually i have no way of troubleshooting the intermittent power. So far so good and the more exciting news from other tourers will be surely posted.

Yes, just a long heavy bike lock cable. The can't drive it away without the special key but somebody might roll it away without a mechanical lock. We are in Jasper now and met the tour group. This morning we almost thought we got stuck. First the remote battery disconnect solenoid packed up and I had to remove it. I had problems with contact corrosion for a while and 2 days in the rain probably gave it the final blow. Then the entire switched 12V dropped out, but probably nor rain related. So I had to hot-wire the ECU power to get going at all. Then the weather turned really ugly, heavy rain and fog and the wipers crapped out suddenly. Put some Rain-Ex on with little effect but after driving for 20 minutes with minimal visibility the wipers came back. Fortunately the sun came out occasionally and rain stopped on the Icefield Parkway so that we could enjoy the scenery. I guess it is scuttle-off time tomorrow to evict the various electrical gremlins.

I made another attempt taking video on our trip from Los Angeles up to Canada to join the Grizzly Bear tour. This time I tried to do it the simple way(without the servo controlled swivel gadget I used to have) using a Drift Ghost HD attached to the windscreen frame and a remote mic behind the (full) windscreen. The matchbox size remote control is strapped to a steering wheel spoke. The camera can run in standby mode for 4-5 hours. Video appears to be pretty good and the audio is also not bad in principle. No wind noise at all. However, I noticed when cruising long distance at e.g. constant 3000 rpm in fifth gear, the hissing noise of the tires on the road is usually louder than the exhaust or intake, except for the occasional burst when passing. But even the constant engine drone when cruising is not that appealing. Not sure what to do with that. Maybe I need to find some appropriate background music, after all.

Soggy Slomove....

Thanks Pi7ot and special thanks to Linda and Steve for the hospitality! Going good so far. 1670 miles and we have not even started the tour yet. Yes, it was raining hard yesterday after we arrived in Calgary and through the night and the next couple of days look like the same. Our half door wind deflectors and the roll roof keep us dry from direct rain but the atomized water mist from the tires and other vehicles get in after a while. Oh well, all part of the fun.

We just made it to Kalispell, going to Pincher Creek tomorrow. 2 towing days and 2 driving days and so far pretty good. Hope to see you guys soon.