13 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

Panda! Want PANDA!!!!

I'm fat and cuddly with black and white hair!

4 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

I'm fat and cuddly with black and white hair!

 

 

Can I ask how many extra horsepowers you are worth please  

Well that weekend did not go entirely according to plan...

My daughter and I added the Gumboot Rally stickers

And on Friday morning we were off.
Got as far as Kapiti but with weight in the back, fuel in the tank and a passenger, the rear wheels were hitting the arches on every bump. This is my fault, the tyres are a size too big on the 18s and diameter is bigger than stock.
So we went to Cooper Tyres, who were not afraid to attack my car with a die grinder and hammer!

Much improved, but still rubbing on the big bumps.

Eventually made it to Taihape after putting $80 of 95 RON in in Levin and needing a push start from the petrol station.

At this point it was refusing to rev over 3000rpm when under load, though it revved fine when out of gear. I assumed this was the 95RON fuel and topped up with 98.
It then refused to start. I pulled half the dash out, fiddled with some wires, tried it again and it started fine.

So on to Taupo and it was driving okay but not great. Then as we got nearer things got gradually worse. The issue felt like a boost pipe had come off, as soon as it hit boost, the engine was pulling back and juddering. We limped up that massive hill and into town, leaving the car at the motel to cool down while we went and had a beer and a steak.

So up at 6am the next day and I jacked up the car and checked all of the boost pipes. All solid and well attached.

Then I noticed a small amount of coolant had made its way out of the side of the head gasket.

At this point we decided to call it on the Gumboot, and set off walking to the start line 1km away.
I did get to apply my new stickers though.

I had texted Wilco, who I bought Rusty from, and he was on his way down to check out the car. When he heard the news, he very kindly offered to loan us his car for the Gumboot. Suffice to say we gratefully accepted, so after a quick trip to drop him home, we were off on the rally.
The next day, the Gumboot brought us back to pass through Taupo around 2pm, so we decided to abandon the rally, get Wilco's car back to him and head off. So we washed and filled his car, got that sorted and test started Rusty, which fired up and drove fine.

We went into Taupo, stopped for a change of clothes. Rusty started fine. Then we headed to Repco to see if they had an ignition coil, as Wilco suggested this is a common failure point.
From this point on, Rusty has not started. Sigh.

We called the AA to talk about getting a tow home with AA Plus.
They agreed to cover a $1500 tow, blowing out my membership for the year, but still getting us home
In the waiting time we walked over to the Gumboot prize giving, and picked up our "Epic Fail Award"

Then it was onto the truck, and home!

Home by 1:30am.
Not quite the Gumboot Rally we planned. but certainly an adventure!

Still broken but looking awesome.

Got as far as testing the ignition switch to the jumper on the relay panel where some cars have a relay. It gets power that far.
Ran out of light and time. Tiny steps.

My #Gumbootrally "Epic Fail" trophy and prize 

I sorted the start issue! There were two main problems. When I replaced some of the wires to the starter I bought some connectors to join the wires, which turned out to be somewhat inadequate, as the live one had melted and the earth wasn't connecting properly either.
I'm not convinced that the wire back to the joint in the relay box is okay, so I will replace the whole run with new wire from the starter switch.
The other issue once it was turning over is I have a dodgy connection to the fuel pump. WIll replace that wiring also.
There's so much sorting out of wiring to do, some of which is my own mess where I've made connections to get things working and not gone back to do it properly. Will spend some time fixing this and trying to get that spaghetti looking less scary. 

jeez - that looks an absolute nightmare to sort!

Oh Rob thats so sad :(:(:(:( 

 

But at least the car looked AWESOME!!! 

It did, even on the back of a truck

In other news I think I cracked a rib! When I was laying across the driver's seat fiddling with ignition wiring last weekend, something gave,. I felt like the metal bar in the seat side support went between two ribs. It winded me for a second and hurt for a bit then has been fairly okay for a week. But now I can hardly move, can't lift stuff and it hurts to breathe. Bugger.

Might slow me down a bit on the wiring but gives me time to collect parts.

Crikey. you sure your car isn't called Christine? 

1 hour ago, RobClubley said:

In other news I think I cracked a rib! When I was laying across the driver's seat fiddling with ignition wiring last weekend, something gave,. I felt like the metal bar in the seat side support went between two ribs. It winded me for a second and hurt for a bit then has been fairly okay for a week. But now I can hardly move, can't lift stuff and it hurts to breathe. Bugger.

I can relate to that, did the same last year on my daughter's boyfriend's Renault van. I can't believe how long it took to stop aching. You have to watch yourself Rob, it will stop hurting fairly quickly, but it will get you when your attention is elsewhere if you do something your ribs won't like.

 

Looks like you're getting there on the wiring front, have you considered pulling the cabin loom and relooming the cables or is it your daily now?.

 

Have a rest Rob and good luck.

4 minutes ago, kentphil1 said:

I can relate to that, did the same last year on my daughter's boyfriend's Renault van. I can't believe how long it took to stop aching. You have to watch yourself Rob, it will stop hurting fairly quickly, but it will get you when your attention is elsewhere if you do something your ribs won't like.

 

Looks like you're getting there on the wiring front, have you considered pulling the cabin loom and relooming the cables or is it your daily now?.

 

Have a rest Rob and good luck.

 

Thanks, will be taking it easy. Walking my two 30kg dogs is fun at the moment. They walk well on the lead but are reactive to cats, other dogs and diesel trucks. Still working on that behaviour.

 

Rusty isn't my daily and I'm planning to do some re-wiring but not the whole loom - not yet at least.

 

There's a few things that I wired up poorly which I need to re-do. I have a fused distribution board on the way to make the switched lives better. I also plan to re-run the ignition to starter wiring with no joins, and a shorter run.

 

Onto another issue, which I've caused

My back wheels rub on the arches over big bumps with weight in the back. Some work at Cooper Tyres with a hammer and grinder has helped, but not fixed the issue.

I have changed the standard 15" x 8" wheels for my lovely Azev A 18" x 8.5" - which some people love and some hate

The standard tyre size is 215/50R15, which has a diameter of 597mm
I thought I had the right size when I bought 215/40R18, but obviously miscalculated because they are 630mm diameter

215/35R18 would be closer at 607mm diameter but would the ride be really horrible?

Another option is to refurb the original 15s and fit 225/50R15s, which would also give a 607mm diameter, but add an extra thousand dollars of refurb cost. It'd please the purists though.

There's also the option of raising the rear slightly as I'm running H&R springs. I do think the back looks to sit a little low, so 10mm or so of extra height wouldn't hurt, but I have no idea how to do this without changing springs again. 

205/50 gives a wall height of 102mm.

215/40 gives a wall height of 86mm.

215/35 gives a wall height of 75mm.

 

That's going to be a much stiffer sidewall.

Yeah I'm starting to think about sorting out the original wheels and getting some of the new Vredestein classic tyres which come out this month - in the correct size.
Then maybe save the white wheels for for showing off or whatever

http://www.classicandperformancecar.com/audi/quattro/5936/vredestein-launches-modern-classic-tyre-for-audi-quattro

I love your wheels  noooooooooooooo 

12 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

I love your wheels  noooooooooooooo 

 

I love them too, but if they don't fit properly and it's a possible safety issue I need to do something.

yes drive only on really smooth roads 

And never actually put 90l of fuel in the tank as it's over the rear axle.

It's a bit like wearing high heels. Comfy loafers would make more sense and yet.......

Nothing new here, but you might like the pictures of the white wheels

 

 

Quatrrrrrrooooooooooo

Mmm, white stock wheels
Would love to look at the 5 spoke Azevs in 17"x8" but I suspect that would be expensive.

Just keep thinking of high heels. You will learn to love your wheels and drive incredibly slowly..... ah, hang on a moment... 

Didn't have much time over the weekend and don't want to make my cracked rib worse, but I did fit a shiny new ignition coil.

I love a car parts delivery. Three deliveries is even better.
Head gasket set from MAR Motorsports, timing belt set and various bits from FCP Euro (stocking up on oil filters at 1/3 of NZ price) plus some bits from Jaycar.

Today I replaced The wiring from the ignition switch to the starter, and added a relay so there's a much shorter run of wire from the power to the starter solenoid. No start issues so far. if this doesn't fix it, there's nothing else to replace so  I'll just be push starting it all the time.