Sunday 3-5-2015. Iron Man Motorkhana. DEBUT OF CAR. Drove it for about 1 metre, and clutch felt funny, so depressed it only to have it stick.
Tuesday 5-5-2015. Fitted return spring and stop on clutch pedal. Ran wire from oil level switch through terminal 33.
Monday 18-5-2015. Charged battery and started engine in gear. Drives wheels. Started motor in neutral and ran it for 30 seconds. Tested kill switch and it cuts the motor.
rear foot brakes.
Sunday 7-6-2015. Bled rear brakes by pressure.
Monday 8-6-2015. Dropped car onto wheels, and measured ground clearance front and rear. Both are now 60 mm. Checked camber on all wheels. Left front 1 degree negative, right front 4 degrees negative (reset it to 1.5 degrees negative), left rear vertical, right rear vertical.
Tuesday 23-6-2015. Tack welded right angle drive gearbox to its mounting plate. Refitted fuel pump, tank and lines. Re-wired fuel pump. Made bracket for throttle cable at pedal, and riveted it to pedal. Drilled and tapped alloy bar and connected it to bracket. Fitted cable connector to throttle pedal. Refitted pedal into car.
Tuesday 30-6-2015. Charged battery and started motor. It still does not rev over 3000 rpm approx., and cuts out completely. Found exhaust gas sensor was not screwed in, so did so and tried again. No difference.
Thursday 2-7-2015. Took car to Yamaha at Alderley, and the new service manager did not know what to do. He recommended that I take it back to Marty who is now at Moorooka Yamaha.
Tuesday 7-7-2015. Took car to Team Moto Yamaha Moorooka and left it on trailer there for Marty to fix.
Monday 13-7-2015. Throttle position sensor fitted, and high idle was caused by air screws set at 4 turns out instead of ¼ turn out, problems fixed at Team Moto Yamaha Moorooka. Oil leak from Left Side stator cover, exhaust leaks around headers and mufflers. Coolant leaking. Sensor $300. Total $610.01 OUCH !!!!
Friday 24-7-2015. Drained oil. Took left side stator cover off. Difficult. Sprocket and shaft came out with it. Tuesday 28-7-2015. Degreased stator cover around damaged area, and dried it off. Squeezed clear silicon into split from both sides. Let it set overnight.
Wednesday 29-7-2015. Trialled fit stator cover, then put blue gasket goo on seam. Installed cover, and tightened it up. Topped up oil to top of glass gauge, and started motor. No oil leaks. Topped up oil again to top of gauge. Started it again – no oil leaks.
Tuesday 18-8-2015. Car onto wheels, Charge battery. Test drove it under house, and clutch not working correctly. Reverse not being selected by gearlever, even though blue light says so.
Monday 31-8-2015. Took Lean Angle Sensor off, and took it apart. Drilled hole in bottom intending to screw the counterweight so that it would not turn, but bottom of weight is magnetic. Decided instead to simply masking tape the counterweight so that it cannot rotate. Re-installed in car. Charged battery. Tested voltages again.
At rest 12.0V. Master switch on 12.0V. Ignition on 12.0V. Starter engaged 9.0 V.
Sunday 13-9-2015. Tested voltage between Lean angle sensor and earth and it is 1 volt – what it is supposed to be.
Thursday 7-1-2016. Connected lost wire from O2 Sensor to wire from ECU. Tried to start – would not fire. Tested power to F.I. Relay – OK. Tested power from F.I. Relay – OK. There is power at terminal 29.
Friday 8-1-2016. There is constant power at terminal ECU 7.
Sunday 17-1-2016. Fitted replacement ECU and tried to start it. Then used “Start Ya Bastard” and it fired only one cylinder once. Charged battery.
Wednesday 9-3-2016. Took car on trailer to Team Moto, Alderley.
Friday 18-3-2016. Got car back from Team Moto. One of the wires to the injectors did not connect properly. Reverted back to original ECU, because replacement is said to be faulty. $605.00 cost.
I topped up the radiator, and it took only 2 cups to fill.
Sunday 20-3-2016. DROVE IT FOR FIRST TIME. Clutch is extremely touchy. Fully engaged in 2 mm of pedal travel. Drove it for about 200 metres, turning left and right. Accelerated and backed off, when a different gear noise occurred. Checked, and the outside bearing on the input shaft of the right angle drive gearbox had worked out of the housing, and the gears were badly misaligned. Put it back on the trailer, and brought it home. Took right angle drive gearbox off, and took apart the input shaft. Cut a piece of 21 ID tube to same length as the shaft collar. Reassembled box, and installed it in car. Worked it by hand, then started car in gear and ran the gearbox. All seemed to be OK
Wednesday 23-3-2016. Designed larger right angle drive gearbox using larger gears and 125 SHS.
Sunday 3-4-2016. Fiat Nationals. Tested car – broke weld on driveshaft flange. Re-welded it at home.
Sunday 24-4-2016. QMC3 at Willowbank. Could not fit ATS front wheels on car, so had to run rain tyres. It would not go back into neutral after selecting first gear. Clutch is still savage. . When trying to run Test 2 the weld in the driveshaft snapped. Brought it home, and prepared shafts for welding.
Monday 25-4-2016. To French Car Care to get Noel to weld up the prepared driveshaft and re-weld the flange. Straightened it in press. Home, and fitted it into the car with the mounting plate re-welded back onto gearbox.
Wednesday 4-5-2016. Made gaskets from an old mouse mat, and installed them. Started it, and sound was less harsh. Made triangular door for RH side, painted it and fitted it. Made number panels and “G” lettering from “Contact”, and fitted them to both doors.
Sunday 22-5-2016. HSCCQ Khanacross. Fine, warm. Had to put 3.2 mm spacers on rear wheels to get them to clear the brake callipers. Ran the first test at cautious speed, and noticed that after strong acceleration the car would dart about when the throttle was closed, and slow down quite rapidly from compression braking. It sounded slightly flat still, and ran fairly well through the rev range. When I stopped in the finish garage the left front brake was very hot, and smoking. The rear ride height had dropped significantly, and was only 10 mm from the surface. The clutch was still dragging, but I managed to get it into neutral to re-start it in the finish garage.
On the second run, it seemed to be able to go through the chicane very quickly, so on the return through it, I went quicker. It felt slightly loose on the turn in to the first chicane, and at the central chicane suddenly turned left into the concrete barrier and hit it nose first at around 70 kph, then spun anti clockwise to a halt with the rear of the car close to the barrier. It took quite a while to get out of the car because my shins were very sore, and my Bakers Cyst was very painful, and then when I tried to walk I nearly collapsed because my left leg would not support any weight. I was helped to a waiting car and driven to the timing tent where it was noticed that there was a lot of blood soaking into my left trouser leg. It was revealed that I had a deep horizontal gash in the front of my shin right into the bone, and a 45 mm long gash above it. These wounds were cleaned and two bandages put on them. Meanwhile I had given my car keys to someone to go and get my car / trailer to pick up the damaged vehicle, but before that could be organised, Noel used the icecream van and his big trailer to go and with help get the damaged car onto the trailer. I was then driven back to my car, and the big trailer driven up beside it. The damaged car was taken off the big trailer, the broken right front top ball joint replaced, and manhandled onto my trailer. I then changed wheels over, and fastened it down to the trailer. The damage seemed to be the broken rose joint in the upper right front suspension, the left upright broken where the steering arm connects, the bottom right front chassis tube pushed back about 75 mm, and bend downwards, and the left rear lower suspension anchorage broken at the weld. I surmised that this breakage was what caused the crash. The “lexan” nosecone was smashed up, and some other broken pieces picked up from the track where it happened. The car had been enveloped in a cloud of smoke when it stopped, but there was no oil spilled. I believe this might have been tyre smoke because of how quickly the car stopped. The left rear wheel brake was leaking at the connection to the calliper, and this was probably caused by the wheel moving further that the hose would accommodate.
The only photo that I have of the car in competition is this one – ironically only 0.25 seconds before the impact.
