brumster

Assuming you mean the outer ones (where the ARB fits, originally) then if you can still get them, P100 bushes from Ford are a higher grade (ie. bit of an upgrade) without going all-out on solid poly bushes. More cost-effective upgrade, we did this on our old Exmo.

Is it for motorsport use?

If not, you don't ultimately *have* to put it anywhere, but obviously stuck in the engine bay makes it difficult to get to if you need to isolate the electrics because of, say, a fire or electrical short...

If you just want it to save the battery over periods of inactivity then not so much of an issue.... (although I'd argue the issue lies somewhere else really if that's the case!)

Have always used Facet low pressure pumps since the 90's, never had one fail on me yet. No-name high pressures ones, that's a different story, but LP stuff... have always used Facet and have had no issues. Mind you none of the cars were particularly high-mileage (all kits/competition cars) !!

Yeah I hate those too. Personally I would just put the copper core in there and nip it up, then stress relief the rest of the wire by somehow attaching it nearby, so that there's no flex on the piece going into the connector. This could be heat-shrinking it onto the switch in question (so some heat shrink that envelopes a good length of the insulated part of the wire, but also goes over the switch, therefore 'holding' it in place) or otherwise just clamping/cable tie/hot glue the cable onto some surface nearby.

I would just worry about constant flexing of the cable where it enters into the screw terminal fatiguing it, so if you prevent that, you should be all good.

Don't be tempted to solder

I would only use those eazibleeds to get the initial fluid into the lines, I'd then move to the more "manual" approach. I don't know the reason why this happens, but I'd guess it's because of air pockets maybe in the moving parts of the system (pistons) that you're not moving when you use an eazibleed? Sometimes it's a bit trial and error but I find pumping the pedal (on closed bleed nipples) sometimes consolidates air in the system, and likewise the old bleed pipe into a partially-filled recepticle really helps you visualise how much air is still in there. Surely you can find someone to sit and press the pedal for half an hour ? As said above, start with the longest run of brake pipe (normally nearside rear?) and work your way down to the shortest (normally offside front?)...

I think Nelmo's advice is very sensible.

Given the price Zero's have been going for recently (as evidenced on this forum), I'm not sure I'd personally pay £5k for any Robin Hood, but that's a general statement. Problem is you can get well built examples, and complete snotters, in *any* brand, so I'd focus on a quality build for your first kit car. My first kit back in the 90's was a GTM Rossa built by an engineer much respected by his peers, and I *still* ended up rebuilding it and still saw some 'surprising' quality of work on it so as with purchasing any car, buyer beware.

You could put a Zero on the road for £15k, no problem at all. Obviously it massively depends on how much you're willing to concede with 2nd hand/recon, if you want everything brand new then it will be more of a squeeze, but it massively depends on spec of components and so forth.

I could spout numbers from my Zero build from 2 years ago but it's of dubious value, since I'm so far off what is considered 'standard'. Rover K-Series, lots of tuning, non-standard suspension/gauges/wiring/seats, caterham gearbox, etc. it wouldn't really help you

On the old Exmo, I managed to get a length of transparent, flexible tubing (breather hose that came with a catch tank) in from the engine bay and down into the gearbox, I then hung it from the garage ceiling with a funnel pushed into it, and filled it (very slowly!) that way. Just if you don't want to do the hole-in-tunnel approach, that's all. Fast it 'aint but it works.

Once you've exhausted the above investigations - I've got no idea if this is doable on a pinto, but on another brand engine (Peugeot) there are a variety of starter motor ratings well over 1kW, the most powerful being a diesel 1.7kW. All direct bolt-in replacements. Dunno if the same applies for Ford? I'm not talking aftermarket "hi-torque" (expensive) starters, just an OEM one from a possibly different model car fitted with the same engine, or something with the same starter pattern.

Just putting that out there; I'll go lurk in the dark corner again now

lol yeah, remember with Emerald, nothing you change (except on the live adjustments page) keeps after you turn it off unless you push it back up. Download, Save to Disk, Change, Upload, Change, Upload, Change, Upload... etc

edit: on live adjustments, only when you press Enter to store it

Quote

I disconnected the cable at the pedal end (just easier to get to) and used the throttle body. I've also effectively removed the fuel filter (took the plastic bit out the middle) and car will idle, just.

Not sure I'd remove the fuel filter. You said you cleaned out the fuel filter, what did you do? Was this after the problem - ie. did the problem start purely on the basis of disconnecting the throttle body/cable, so the fuel filter is a red herring, or did the problem start after you cleaned the fuel filter? When did you remove it entirely? Are any of those things relevant, is what I'm getting at... did messing with the fuel filter (cleaning it and/or remove it) make things change in any way, either for the better or worse?

Sounds like a fuelling issue to me, but if the problem is entirely present only after fiddling with the throttle cable connection, then it makes no sense whatsoever.

If however it came about as a result of fiddling with the fuel filter, then it could be a wealth of things - crap in the injectors/rail/pressure regulator maybe? Poor fuel pressure, knackered fuel pump (get a fuel pressure guage)?

Nah, don't think so. Matt's suggestion was the most obvious/likely one, that you'd effectively opened up the throttle at the default position and affected the idle, plus put the TPS out of kilter, but you say you've done that... so... the only thing that could have changed from what you describe is the throttle position. All I can suggest is reverse what you did in terms of the throttle cable, or disconnect the throttle cable temporarily and just play with the throttle body directly - maybe some tension in the cable (either now, or before) that has changed, has altered the position of the throttle at idle... opened it up sligthly I am guessing.

Just in case - when you connect the laptop to the ECU, you don't get it downloaded automatically from the ECU straight away... you have to "pull" it from the ECU in the first instance, before you'll see it in the software. You then make your changes and push it back up. You'll see live adjustments without pulling, that's fine, but values in tables you won't see until you do a pull.

From what you say, sounds like it might just be a worn aspect of the selector mechanism, a lot of which is accessibly pretty easily through the top 'hatch' and is pretty easy to replace if need be as it's one of the first things you disassemble out of the gearbox if rebuilding it.

I don't believe so, but if present it must conform to the diagrams of the various indicator lights in the IVA guide

Looks like I'm all good to go schwing!

Tell you what, carry on with your plan for tomorrow and I'll see what arrangements I can make... I might be able to jiggle things around. Don't change just for me

edit: Oh wait, s**t, I can't do tomorrow, I'm on towing duty for some bloody horse!! Anyone fancy a different night?! :-S sorry!

Sounds good to me. Rich - convoy ?

14 hours ago, m1tch said:

...where I could easily buy a cheap car to get me through this financial shortfall. Decisions decisions .....

Exactly. This is where I'd personally go. Even driving round in a (warm, dry) *bleep*box for the winter, at least you're not putting mileage and associated wear and tear onto your kit, you're arriving in a hopefully less stressed frame of mind, dry, comfortable, etc.

So i did the Wales trip a few years back and the weather was pretty testing :). Given I've had kit cars with various levels of weather protection since the early 90's, I'm not against being a bit hardy with the elements and I'm more accepting of a wet knee than most... I just say this to put my answer into context...

So the Zero has a home made surrey-style top that really was a last-minute thing put together a few days before the Wales trip. I was surprised how well it worked over the weekend and it certainly kept the worst off us and made the car useable in horrendous rain, in the dark, and so forth. I have a proper heater blower on the windscreen (*properly* extracting air from the exterior of the car) and that kept the car useable along with decent wipers. Side doors obviously.

As David says above, the main area of challenge for me is the door fronts, this is where the rain gets in and it's hard to fully seal it.

I think to do this as a weekly commuter, some distance, over the winter - you've got to be very committed . Don't think I'd fancy it myself...

Yeah, it should only briefly short to ground to fire the injector. If the ignition is on but the engine isn't running, then (bar the initial prime function that the Emerald does before start-up) the injectors shouldn't be open...

I believe you'll have 12v at one pin on the injector and, as you say, the other would go to the driver in the ECU which would short it to ground via a transistor driver. So you shouldn't see path to ground via those...

As the revs drop (as it starts to presumably cut out, although in this instance he saved it/it picked up again) the MAP reading is going down on the graph but in reality it's a negative reading (negative pressure) so it starts off at -0.67 bar (rpm @ 1400) and goes up to -0.24 bar (rpm @ 500) as it starts to stall. Assuming it's all calibrated of course, I would take the actual pressure readings with a pinch of salt but that's what the values on the graph show as.

Looking at your logs, you're getting 11.8v at the start but I assumed that's during cranking? Which is not bad - once she's fired up you've got just over 13v, although it does fluctuate with engine revs, anything from 12.3 to 13.3v. If your battery is flat then it may well be the alternator responsible, because in none of those logs are you getting anywhere near 14v to charge a flat battery - but if the battery was in tip-top condition then you wouldn't expect it to be. But if you've been doing lots of starting of the engine for short period, trying to diagnose this, without good long runs to charge it back up - then it may just be what it is; the battery has drained from all the repeated starting.

That might be an unrelated issue - I can't see any suggestion that the voltage drop is causing the stall, more the other way, but remember that's only what the ECU is seeing, it's not necessarily what the coil, injectors, etc. are (although it's normally a fair indication, if not, I would say it's a wiring issue). Either way, I don't think it's the cause of your main problem with the engine just cutting out.