I reckon the aluminium dash is almost done, it’s not perfect, but who cares. Not me. I’ve installed two USB power ports, they’ll put out up to 10 amps from the PSU, so that’s future proofed for a few years yet. Still need to install a few more switches to do other stuff and make the bit for the right of the dash similar to the bit on the left of the dash. Next is to fit better LED illumination for the dash. Shouldn’t be too hard.
We went to the Isle of Wight last weekend. Went up in my uncles micro light for a very short trip, some minor engine trouble brought us back more rapidly than we had planned. I’m looking forward to going up again. We had stunning weather considering the forecast, it was a lovely trip.
I blew a fuse in the Land Rover, entirely my fault. A terminal broke off the back of the voltage regulator, so I replaced the feed to the instrument cluster by running a cable from my 12V stabilised power supply to the instruments instead. Unfortunately, this was all I did. I lift the existing supply cable behind the dash, still with broken terminal protruding from the insulated crimp. I imagine that this had touched something that was grounded/earthed and shorted out, blowing the fuse. At least I hope this is why the fuse blew. Interesting how the wire has melted back where I guess it arced across the gap as the gap formed. Also interesting how it burned a line into the paper.
I purchased some drill bits from Ebay, very cheap ones, but it said that they were cobalt so I thought I’d give them a try for 2 and a bit quid. In fairness the drills did have HSS stamped on them, but I suspect that stands for “Highly Soft Steel” in this instance, they’re almost certainly made from Chinesium. In future I’ll pay reasonable money to a reputable shop for decent drill bits. Lesson learned.
I have designed and a friend is printing for me some components for the air duct work that supplies hot air to the windscreen and cabin of the Land Rover. And then inside will split up the air flow unevenly so that the driver side has far more air flow than the passenger side.
Went for a trip around the Devils Punch Bowl area last weekend. We went across Frensham Common and then through a load of other lanes around the punch bowl and lastly up Wagoners Well.
We had snow from Thursday to Saturday, it was great fun and caused no end of chaos on the roads.
Powerspark received and tested my broken electronic ignition module, they suggested that it might have suffered from premature failure. They’ve put a new one in the post to me at no cost. Wonderful, they’ve been brilliant really. I would been a little miffed if they’d made me buy a new part given that it failed at less than a year old, but then again they can’t be 100% that it’s not something to do with my non standard setup. Who knows. Time will likely tell and I shall carry a spare set of points and condenser just in case! I have started the move of the Arduino to behind the dash. I ripped everything out of the old mounting box that I had it in and have mounted it onto an aluminium panel that fits around the steering column and will carry the new dash surround. I have yet to […]
I emailed Powerspark about their component that failed, I was mildly upset, as I had deliberably fitted this part to avoid this very issue. The owner of the business replied on New Years eve! I was impressed by that, they’ve since helped me do a little failt finding and asked me to return the part for testing.
I went to the TV4x4 event at Broxhead on Sunday 30th. It wa a great trip down open top in the cold. The event was very well attended with about 50, plus or munis 25 cars driving around. I was able to resuce one fella who got grounded out, great fun until my truck packed up. Some nice gent in a disco gave me a hand and helped diagnose the issue, no spark.. Some other nice fella in a fake Camel Trophy disco towed me to the start where Rob and I had another look and concluded that the AA were the best bet. The AA man conculuded that there was no switching happening and since it’s an electronic gizmo, nothing he could do to get me running, so they sent for a falt bed to take me home in the warm and confort of a heated cab!
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