1987 Renault GTA :: Gone to a new home

[PhilA]

I was going to try that but I couldn't find anything to wedge it with because it had chucked it down worth rain and everything suitable (lengths of wood etc) were all soaked.

 

I'll see if I can go put something tonight and leave it the weekend to fester away.

 

-Phil

[PhilA]

 

Same old same old. Bloody hot out, too, 35C.

 

Still don't work. It's currently on my desk, in pieces.

 

Quite upset at it

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

Finally got my act together and ordered some bits I needed.

 

 

Little pack of optoisolators. I can rebuild the breadboard now and try again from scratch.

 

 

Stuck one in place. The weather's been too hot recently to even contemplate going work on the car. as soon as it's cool enough to work on the car in the evening, the mosquitoes are out, and there's been a high occurrence of West Nile virus in this area lately, so I'm not going to risk hospitalisation for fuel injection.

 

Hopefully can put a bit of time in at the weekend.

 

--Phil

[Ian Nexus]

now you got me worrying about west nile

[PhilA]

now you got me worrying about west nile

 

 

Stock up with bug repellant- something with DEET in and you'll be ok. you're also a bit further North from here.

[PhilA]

Didn't have a great deal of time to do anything today, but did manage to grab the ECU out of the car when we had to drop the mother-in-law home.

Brought it back up to the house:

 

Started to strip it down:

 

Looking at it for burned up bits, also trying to figure what piece connects it to the outside world:

Doesn't look bad, no visible signs of trauma. This is well specced for its age (1985)

Twin 6800-series CPU's, 16Kb of RAM... slightly better than a Sinclair Spectrum

 

After digging around with schematics and junk, it transpires this little blob connects me to the fuel ECU:

 

Which is a miniature version of this:

 

Which connects like this:

 

 

It all tests good, so I'm hoping the problem's in the bits I can replace.

 

--Phil

[Ian Nexus]

The last guy looks like one of my work colleges when I worked for AMGas, he drove a Vauxhall Zafira that he used to transport his telescopes...

[PhilA]

The last guy looks like one of my work colleges when I worked for AMGas, he drove a Vauxhall Zafira that he used to transport his telescopes...

 

Can't have been. That chap drives a DeLorean.

[Ian Nexus]

He said he was a personal friend of Brian May, there may have been some space travel available...

[PhilA]

With the availability of the new bits and a few new bits of wire, I rebuilt the breadboard up with the test circuit.

Went hooked the ECU up, back inside its' tin.

 

Connected the car up, gave the key a twist... and the little yellow LED on the board began to blink. This was a good omen. turned the computer on, got it hooked up and started the terminal session.

 

 

Yup, it works.

 

Got some really nice numbers off it, all working just the way it should. Nuts.

 

Forgot to bring the board that doesn't work right. Shall do that next time I'm going down there.

 

Back on the right track though. Too hot today to do anything with the brakes, and I didn't have a pedal-pumpin' assistant either.

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

Have done SFA with the car lately. Between rain, flies, work and the heat, I've had a massive case of CBA.

 

I did however stop to take a look at the bloody wiring thingy I've been building.

 

 

In true British engineering design, the one that works has a piece fitted backwards from the design, shouldn't work at all but does because that's the way you deal with French technology.

 

I hammered a bigger transistor over it. Going to test it tomorrow.

[PhilA]

Aha. Turns out that hammering a bigger transistor over it doesn't work.

 

Instead, I shall design the circuit properly. How about that. Maybe the mk3 will be the best version.

 

(This sometimes seems to be the case with shite. Third time lucky.)

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

Rebuilt it.

 

It tells me FEFEFE0000000000C0C0C0 which sounds like it's trying to sing some sort of Hawaiian ditty.

 

Currently, calm before the storm; hurricane is due to throw its outer fringes at us soon. For now the hot air is still here, but it's a little less humid.

 

Can't figure what the hell I'm doing wrong with it.

 

Going to try focus on the mechanical aspects again once it cools off.

 

Bleh. Mojo low.

[KruJoe]

Hey Phil, keep your chin up lad. It's amazing what you're doing; I just wish we could offer more advice on your EFI project, but I speak for us all when I say we don't have the foggiest idea what's going on. We wish you the best with it though!

[CreepingJesus]

Go on, you know you can do it!

Also, Motorola 68's still make me grin somehow.

[Ian Nexus]

Thank you for mentioning the Hurricane, did you see the most likely direction it will travel - making me wonder if I made the right choice settling here!

[PhilA]

Yep. It'll have lost most of its punch by the time it gets there though.

 

Go look up 70373 in google maps. I'm practically on the coast.. Shouldn't be too bad, it's looking to pass to the east of here so less storm surge, which is nice.

[PhilA]

Go on, you know you can do it!

Also, Motorola 68's still make me grin somehow.

 

It's double the fun, as it has 2!

 

One to calculate the ignition, one to calculate the fuel. Dual core computin', 1980's stylee.

[CreepingJesus]

They were our weapon of choice, back in the late 90's, on a college mechatronics project. There were a few different 68 series chips in there, linking a Hitchi PLC to a PC among other things. By far the most reliable part of the setup.

[PhilA]

They were our weapon of choice, back in the late 90's, on a college mechatronics project. There were a few different 68 series chips in there, linking a Hitchi PLC to a PC among other things. By far the most reliable part of the setup.

 

These seem to be geared up for reliability, the board being quite underclocked at 500kHz.

 

I suspect they will continue to work for a long while yet. Admittedly, back in the day my weapon of choice was the Zilog Z80, but then, I'm biased.

[PhilA]

In light of the impending bad weather we're going to have (if the storm hits here, we will be looking at 70+mph constant winds with 100+ gusts), the car has been checked, the large debris type stuff has either been moved or thrown away. Hopefully it'll ride this one out.

 

Project mostly on hold until after the weather passes.

 

--Phil

[KruJoe]

Fingers crossed for you Phil.

'Stay safe, y'all.'

[PhilA]

Well, the storm is gone from here, leaving downed trees, power lines etc. We are without power since Tuesday. Car's still ok thankfully. Tornado passed within 15 feet of it.

 

All my cans of paint and other assorted tat blew away.

 

Gonna try tidy up after work tomorrow. Haven't stopped working all week; was here trying to sleep through the eye of the storm.

 

"Here I am.. Rock you like a hurricane" etc.

 

-Phil

 

Ps hopefully the electrics will be back on by the weekend. Am fed up sleeping at work.

[Ian Nexus]

Just got loads of rain and high winds up this end, we got Thursday off as work had no power in Byram, thankfully the newly acquired Beetle doesn't leak water.

[PhilA]

Just got loads of rain and high winds up this end, we got Thursday off as work had no power in Byram, thankfully the newly acquired Beetle doesn't leak water.

 

 

Looks like we may get power up here tomorrow or Sunday.

 

The engineers broke the mechanical arm off their hole boring auger machine they were planting new power poles with. Snap, right off at the shoulder.

 

What was Isaac by the time it got there? Tropical Storm?

[Albert Ross]

And we complain about rain.... mind, where I live did get a little wet 5 years ago.

This lasted for weeks, as nobody was sure how to fix it...................

[PhilA]

And we complain about rain.... mind, where I live did get a little wet 5 years ago.

This lasted for weeks, as nobody was sure how to fix it...................

 

 

[PhilA]

Car's sat up with very little done to it lately.

 

Went down and started it last weekend, and in a shock-horror moment the electrics actually did what they were supposed to and the low fuel warning light came on.

 

I was quite impressed.

 

Went to order a driveshaft today and locked my bank card out because of some SecureCode junk, and I forgot my PIN. Stuck it in wrong 3 times and had to call the 1-800 number. the operator wasn't very helpful. Need to go visit the bank. Trouble is, they are only open when I'm at work. I hate bankers hours.

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

Stop press! I did something on the car that was productive!

 

You may or may not recall that I had stopped work on a few tasks that I just really didn't want to do because it was hot and there were spiders.

One involved this device:

 

Which is the "R" clip that goes through the gearbox mount, through the gearbox casing and locks the speedo cable in place.

 

It's buried about twelve feet down under all this somewheres

 

I had this mental image of two French guys at Renault, designing this.

 

Gaston: Mais, Francois. I need ze bezt place to putt zees awkward little pin, non?

Francois: *Stops eating his brie, garlic and frog leg sandwich, wipes his hands thoughtfully on a tattered rag* You can't 'av ze most awkwart place, non. We alreadty uzed zat, for zee 'eater.. buuuut, I zink mebbe I can diszign zomezink for you zat will foil ze mechanics, oui.

Gaston: Terrible! Where do you zink you can design zis marvelous zing?

Francois: I 'ave bin readin' ze Citroen DS diszign booklit. It 'as given me ideas. I zink I weel put it all ze way down ze back of ze engin' and ZEN put ze engin' mount in ze way and mek it zo zere iz only a teeeeny-tiiiny leetle 'ole to poke ze zing thru'.

Gaston: Meh, too eazy. Zey will just reach down zere and PLIP poot ze zing in ze 'ole.

Francois: You forget, mon ami, ze EXHAUST PIPE, she iz in ze way of all but ze tiniest leeeetle 'ands.

Both: Huzzah, Piece de resistance, Vive la France etc.

 

%%% FIN %%%

 

*Fade to black*

 

Alas, their efforts were in vain.

 

For I have MIRROR ON A STICK!

 

Poked the mirror about, determined the angle the holes were at, groped about a bit whilst supporting myself on the wing by my manhood (don't try this at home, kids) and managed, first time to get the thing in the right hole, simply by feel alone.

 

Have the bit of it that I could at least photograph- the other side is inaccessible by camera.

 

Decided then to put the pipe clips for the heater hose on.

This one was so buried the camera couldn't even focus on it

 

This one I managed to get just about in shot by hanging the camera down and hoping for a picture of it

 

Ran the engine a bit, checked for leaks, was satisfied with my efforts for a Thursday after work, packed up and went home.

 

Tasks left?

 

New CV boot

Adjust rear brake shoes

Bleed brakes

Fix driver's side window

 

...possibly also get to the steering track rods.

 

Then it's good to go. Suspense builds...

 

--Phil

[Ian Nexus]

Just had to replace the alternator brushes on my daughters diesel Beetle, its nice to see that Bosch now prevent you from just replacing the brushes by making it sealed with the voltage regulator! $62!. On the 1.9 TDI removing the alternator is a major operation, so elected to simply remove the alternator cover and remove/replace the regulator - if there was enought space it would be a breeze! - 2 hours later sore hands and its done