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Old 19th October 2019, 20:48
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Default Not a good week....

Sometimes things just don't go well......

It started off OK and I was looking forward to re-starting my engine. Before that there was just a few things to complete.

I made this cover from aluminium mesh to stop things falling into the alternator cooling duct.

Alternator air duct cover by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

Also, since fibreglass is flammable I have fitted a heatshield above the catalytic converter. I used Cirrus GIIIX 3 Layer Heat Shield from Demon Tweeks. I mounted it with a 10mm gap from the body to allow air to flow both sides of the shield.

Exhaust Heat Shield by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

But then things turned bad.....

Whilst under the car fitting the exhaust heatshield I noticed a brake fluid leak from the rear brake deceleration valve.

Brake fluid leak by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

I think it is just a case of not tightening up the front joint enough but the brake fluid had damaged the paint on the bracket so I had to remove the valve to clean it up.

After finding this brake fluid leak I thoroughly inspected every other brake line joint. I then found brake fluid weeping from both rear calipers where the flexi line enters the caliper.

Brake caliper leak by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

After dismantling the hose I found that the copper washer had not been crushed, even though the joint was very tight. I found that this was because the fitting had bottomed out in the hole before crushing the washer.

Brake caliper leak by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

I have now cleaned everything up and refitted the hoses each with two copper washers.

I then moved on the fuel system hoping for better luck.

I put 10 litres of fuel in the fuel tank and proceeded to prime the fuel lines. I disconnected the supply line from the ECU to the fuel pumps and temporarily connected a wire from the battery to the fuel pumps. Hmmm, just a click from the HP pump but not the whirring noise I was expecting. I then noticed the temp wire was getting hot, not good!!

Long story short, I worked out that the low pressure lift pump in the tank was working fine and drawing about 1.5 amps.
But the HP pump was jammed solid, not pumping and drawing more that 20 amps. I bought the pump (a cheap Chinese copy of a Bosch pump) from Rally Designs and a call to there technical department was less than helpful. Basically as it was out of warranty they weren't interested. That was yesterday.
This morning I removed the HP pump and mounted it on my bench. I reconnected it to the battery but still had very high current and only the click noise. With nothing to loose I gave it a good talking to with a rubber mallet and after a few more clicks it started to run but sounded very rough.

A new genuine Bosch pump is now on order!!

So I have a brake system in pieces and a fuel system in pieces as well.

Hopefully next week will go better........


...peter
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