yaleman.org

Ok, so I did a bunch of work on the gem today – wired up a couple of the sensors, worked out what I needed to do to with respect to the others. I ran the preliminary line for the rear fuel pump, and seem to have worked out what I need to do to mount it and so forth. Some of the interior’s back together, making it look a little more respectable.

The main things to do are:

1. Get the surge tank made and fit it
2. Install the high pressure fuel system (waiting on surge tank)
3. Install the low pressure fuel system (waiting on low pressure pump)
4. Have someone weld the O2 sensor bung to my extractors
5. Work out the intake piping (probably going to use a small box from another car sourced from a wrecker)
6. Finish mounting the exhaust (isn’t hooked up at the back)
7. Bolt the driveshaft in
8. Get the studs to mount the intake manifold and mount it
9. Final check on electronics and mechanicals.
10. Hit the go button!

And then there will be much partying. (if it all works)

An overview shot of the car, and my new work gloves.
My new funky fuse and little bits box:
On the left is where I’m going to mount the rear (low-pressure) fuel pump.
	Driver’s side headlight – behind here will probably be the surge tank and the front (high pressure) fuel pump
The relay/breakout box is where all the ECU-related wires in the bay meet – sensors, outputs, power that the ECU controls.
	A view of the intake ports on the current engine – the head seems to have been half way through a port job – the right port has marker on it, and is slightly smaller.
Interior shots
And the injection manifold, now with injectors!

And there’s more photos here.

Reading a post on a friend’s LJ about a weird request she got (guess what they asked for?) made this poem pop into my head. Stop it brain! Be normal!

Roses are red,
They are for thee!
Open your mouth,
I’m needing to pee!

Ok, I’ve mentioned it before – I’m a member on pureprofile.com – a market research site where you go and answer questionnaires every so often and they’ll credit your account, or do stuff for you. I’ve been a member for quite a while, and have built up a not-too-bad balance which I might draw out sometime soon.

Recently I was offered to receive “a new product from a soft drink company” and of course, free stuff, why not? So I filled in my details, telling them where to send it, not expecting for it to happen. But it did! Today I received a big black package in the mail, and opening it I found a carton of a new product by Coca-Cola Amatil, “Coke Zero.” Twenty-four 390ml bottles, just for me. Ooh, and I got one of those weird rubber wristband things that says “the zero movement”. Here’s some photos (and one of the PimpMobile post-doofage).

Here’s the photos that Mitchell took on the weekend we went to Positronic 2005. I love the action shot when he took a photo past me in the drivers seat and somehow got a passing car

Well, that was an annoyingly medium-sized crisis tonight. Drove out of the carpark, got nearly all the way to Lauren’s house, and realised that my headlights weren’t working. The dash lights worked fine, the parkers worked fine (’cept for the one with the busted bulb) but no headlights. Odd!

So, as I was leaving Lauren’s I decided that I would like to keep my license, and that having no headlights probably wouldn’t help that cause. So it was out with the multimeter, checked the fuses, checked the wiring, all the usual gubbins. One of the fuses had blown, but replacing that didn’t resolve the issue. I checked that the lights were still fine, no blown globes – something that would suck royally, since they are sealed beams and sort of expensive. Basically, no voltage was getting to the lights themselves. Poo!

So, it was out with the bottom half of the dash, and more playing. I pulled the connector off the switch that turns the lights on, and played a bit – blew a fuse because I shorted something I probably shouldn’t have, then played around a bit more. I could get the parkers to turn on, but not the headlights – so it wasn’t the switch that was busted. Looking around a bit more, I realised that when I was mucking around with the indicator stalk today (since I’d snapped it, and the araldite didn’t hold, I had to ghetto it up… stupid plastic crap!) I’d unplugged its connector, and not plugged it in right, so it’d fallen out again.

Since that connector also has the feed for the high-beams, it seems that disconnecting it had actually stopped any power from getting to the headlights. Plugging it made everything work. Hooray! Medium-sized crisis over, legal driving ability returns!

So the moral of the story is: Remember to check EVERYTHING works after you do work on a car, especially under the dashboard.