UK MOT testing time

UK MOT testing time
09th July 2014.

The buggy was now starting easily the RTX starter and the new coil certainly made the buggy become a pleasure to drive. My MOT was booked in at my local BMW garage although I always fret about MOT failure . I do believe it is a positive thing for your car as it does always find things which have become loose or have failed. This year was no exception. The test day arrived and a failure notice of the rear offside wheel had excessive play and my wash wipe failed. Now most  VW enthusiasts will be aware of the checks needed on wheel hub nuts as they need to be checked to ensure the bearings are tight.  I was pleased this had been found as I had missed it.  My Wash Wipe on the other hand was strange as it had been functioning as i drove up to the test center. When I eventually got this apart I found that the switch had failed . This was a straight forward repair. Whilst I was looking at this I had a good look at my wipers . I renewed the blades with Citroen 9" blades. I noted that one arm was not pulling the blade onto the wind screen. I bought a new arm for this but it was not the same as had been fitted . I removed the spring from the new arm and replaced it in my old arm. This cured the problems.

Fitting a New Ignition Coil

Fitting a New Ignition Coil
16th June 2014

My buggy had been running very well since I fitted the new starter to it . Starting the buggy had become a wonderful thing that you could rely on once more.  I had driven the buggy about a lot more since this had been fitted. . On a return back on a 30 degree day I left my buggy outside running to do some other things in my garage. Shortly afterwards the buggy stalled and would not restart. I changed my spark leads, Condenser and points but no voltage was at at the points. Figuring the ballast coil had gone down I borrowed a replacement coil from a friend . This was a straight forward swap. The buggy fired up no problem. I bought a new coil and fitted it today . The Blue coil was different than the one i borrowed so took my friends coil off to fit this new one. The buggy is again back up and running. Phew this is good news as MOT time looms

Fitting a New Starter

23rd May 2014

My Buggy had been not getting a lot of use recently as I was plagued by starting issues. This resulted in using a screwdriver to start the vehicle. I had previously changed the starter switch and new that this had been ruled out.  I had tried to make a new starter from two old ones swapping the coil. This was not working.  The buggy would randomly start and not start and I could not figure what was happening.

I met some one with an RTS starter who recommended this to me as the cost of this starter was only £50.00 as opposed to £80.00

Eurocarparts have an eBay store were they sell these units for £47.99. I bought and fitted the RTS starter the bush size was the same as my existing starter.

I am very pleased with this RTS unit this is the first time my car has really wanted to start properly. I would recommend them to everyone as they seem to be ball raced and will start on a much lower battery level.

Battery/Starting Issues

14th June 2013
Since changing my battery position I had been plagued with starting issues . Which resulted buying multiple batteries in an attempt to fix the issue. When fitting the battery compartment I had been forced to move the connections to the battery earth from the inside of the car to under the car on the reverse of the fitting.

The fault It seemed to have a good earth. when I tried to start the car with a fresh battery and started the car well. This changed after the car was moved location and the voltage at the battery connections would drop below 10v . Most experts including myself thought this was the battery failing. The problems continued with a different battery . I decided this had to be electrical and looked at what I had changed recently .

The most obvious thing was that I had move the battery compartment. I decided to move the negative line from the battery to the same position as the gearbox earth strap. luckily I had enough length of cable to allow this and it was just a case of unbolting the strap and securing the battery wire on to the same position. The picture above shows the new position to the right the old position no longer used.

Out for a short run in the Sun

16th May 2013

The sun was out today and this month my buggy needs an MOT in the UK this is one of the yearly checked that we have to check that the vehicle is road worthy on the day it is tested.

The run out was good fun and gave the usual adrenalin rush whilst driving. The run also gave the opportunity for the battery to charge up fully .

Since upgrading the rockers the engine seemed a little more responsive and was picking up well and not holding back.  I was quite amazed to see how many roadworks there was not repairing roads but putting new ones in place.

Refitting ScatHigh Lift Rockers

19th April 2013
My beach buggy had been in storage most of the winter due to the rubbish weather and constant rain that we were having in England This had put even Mother nature back 21 days. My first outings in the buggy in the new sunshine where short and under powered. I wondered if this was my caliper sticking issue returning  or if the valve clearances just needed re-setting. I decided that as I had to re set the valve clearances it would be a good idea to put my High lift Rockers as these gave the car a much more interesting sound when it was ticking over. I located the Valves in my storage unit and checked them over they seemed to be in good condition . I noticed that 1 of the .60mm shims was missing. I spent a lot of time looking for the spare shim only to find later that it was stuck to one of the others.

Setting up the rockers has already been covered in a previous section on this blog . I will not cover this again and assume you have read this. My Rocker covers where the bolt on type and were held on with two 13mm bolts. Once thse was removed the 1.2 rockers where visable and could easily be unbolted. Whilst I had the rocker covers of I decided that they was in desperate need of a clean up.

I knew the high lift rockers would need shimming as the previous installation used two roker shims  After starting with .60mm which  presumed  would be a good starting point to work from. This meant placing two new rubber seals on the rocker shafts and then placing on one greased shim on each shaft. The rocker was then placed onto the shafts , whilst aligning the push rods into the rockers cups. This can be a little tricky but can be achieved by holding the rocker in place and gently moving the rods into their respective cups. The rockers where then bolted to the  head using a torque gauge set to 18 lbs/ft or 2.5 KG/m. Once these was firmly bolted the car was left a couple of hours to let the temperature of the parts become the same. I took my covers away at this point and started to clean them up. When I looked further this was just not rust just a coating that was on the .Once I had  assembled the rockers I  adjusted the tappets and took the buggy out for a run.