slowdude Posted May 18 Share Posted May 18 17 hours ago, JohnCh said: I'm running Racetech mechanical gauges on the Westfield for water temp, oil temp, and oil pressure and like them, but opted for an AiM display on the Caterham. I'd prefer to keep that minimalist dash aesthetic and not add any standalone gauges. The good news is the pigtail was the issue. A multimeter confirmed the 12v+ wire had a problem, showing fluctuating positive resistance vs 0.00 ohms for the other two wires. It's most likely a failed crimp at the plug end. A multimeter has been my best friend with this car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCh Posted May 18 Author Share Posted May 18 1 hour ago, slowdude said: A multimeter has been my best friend with this car. It's been Guinness and creative swearing for me. Although typically not in that order. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCh Posted May 21 Author Share Posted May 21 I've had a chance to confirm the effectiveness of the small LEDs in the lower grill used as DRLs. They work well when viewed head-on from a distance but are a lot less effective off axis. Given my primary use case is for oncoming traffic on long straights of undivided roads, they meet my objective, but I can see the need to supplement them with the headlights in some situations. So not perfect, but reasonably close, and unlike the headlights, there is no need to remember to turn them on and off. -John 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCh Posted June 6 Author Share Posted June 6 The intercooler scoop on the top of the 620 nosecone is covered by a metal grill glued to the underside of the fiberglass. Unfortunately, production tolerances being what they are, the front of the grill section on my car touches the top of the radiator in two places. It's not enough to notice when installing the nosecone and not so much that a piece of paper can't be pushed between them. However, as I discovered a couple of weeks ago, it's enough that when things are moving around while under way, the grill was wearing away the radiator. Not good. A thread on BlatChat this week from someone having an even bigger interference issue with the same 620 nosecone/SV chassis combination spurred me to address this before taking the car out this weekend. The fix was simple: drill new mounting holes on the radiator brackets 10mm lower than stock. These new locations are highlighted in red in this old photo of the brackets. Given I'm a measure thrice, cut twice kind of guy simply because I invariably measure incorrectly the first two times, I opted to print up a quick jig to perfectly locate the new holes. It inserts into the original bolt holes via extrusions and has two much smaller holes sized to accept a center punch that dimples the exact starting points for the drill bit. This is one of these areas where 3D printing comes in really handy. It only took a few minutes to get the measurements, draw it in CAD, then send to the printer. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you haven't explored the world of 3D printing yet, you should. The lower mounting position required slight rotation of an oil cooler hose to maintain clearance with a chassis tube, but no other issues...yet. I'll test the car over the next few days to make sure I didn't introduce another problem. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCh Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 A few updates. Now that the low-level fuel feed issues have been resolved with a proper positive displacement pump, I swapped out V2 of the in-tank fuel assembly setup for my original version. Those keeping track at home may recall there were initial concerns that those fuel feed issues were due to additional plumbing restrictions in V1 which used a remotely mounted Hydramat attached to the tank floor. In contrast, V2 used a smaller Hydramat attached directly to the bottom of the pump but that placed it slightly above the tank floor. Unfortunately, I don't have good photos of either setup but these will give an idea of the difference. The top photo is the outgoing V2 with the positive displacement pump alongside, and the bottom photo is V1 but without the fuel sensor installed (the long silver tube in the V2 picture). While doing that job, I decided to map the Centroid fuel level sensor's output by slowly adding fuel to the nearly empty tank and taking voltage measurements after every gallon. I could then update the 0-5V sensor map used by the AiM to ensure accuracy throughout the range. What I didn't realize at the time is the sensor has a built-in empty to full detection capability triggered when certain conditions are met. I appear to have unintentionally met those conditions, creating all kinds of accuracy issues such as reading full with less than 3 gallons in the tank. After redoing it a couple of times with troubleshooting assistance from Centroid – whose support was excellent – things seem to be sorted but they did advise to watch for future anomalies as there remains the possibility the sensor has a random issue. During the mapping, I was also able to confirm the SV tank really does hold 41 liters. With the Hydramat, I should be able to access nearly all of it, rather than just ~35 liters as with the factory setup. This weekend I had my first opportunity to drive the car in hot weather. I'm happy to report the factory heat insulation works just fine. After one hour of driving in 90F weather with a very strong sun, temps were similar to the Westfield which has never had an issue in this regard. The unused fastener holes for the 3-point seat belts have been bugging me; they look unnecessarily unfinished. To rectify, I printed some plugs (don't worry, they add under 1.9 grams each) and popped them in place. -John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBuff Posted July 10 Share Posted July 10 I like your fueling solutions. Something about not being able to use the last couple of gallons bugs me more than it should. Love the hydramat. Maybe a long term project so that I can use the fuel that's in the tank. Thanks for the inspiration. Your 3d printing and obsession with finishes is appreciated here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCh Posted September 3 Author Share Posted September 3 I drove the Caterham Saturday and the Westfield Sunday. That second drive confirmed the MOG seats are definitely more comfortable for me, but I also noticed they are slightly more reclined, which is a contributing factor. I experimented a bit today with rake on the Caterham's seat and ended up increasing it another 10mm; the equivalent of one Tillet spacer. Rather than use those spacers or washers, which only have partial contact with the seat base given the base isn't parallel to the runners when tilted, I decided to print spacers designed to fit. Certainly not necessary, but it soothed my OCD. A proper test will need to wait until this weekend, but based on a short trial in the garage, comfort seems a bit better. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdb Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 OCD FTW! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCh Posted September 3 Author Share Posted September 3 6 minutes ago, wdb said: OCD FTW! Hmm... Perhaps I should rename this thread to something along those lines? It would be more reflective of the content. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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