I'll get round to it at some point - Is a Mitsubishi that came out of a hedge, worse than an XM? Let’s find out

[grogee]

14 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

 

Whilst I had the XM’s engine largely stripped down I took the opportunity to go a step further, and removed the glow plugs and tested them. They’re marked as AC Delco and weren’t the cheapest, but I suspect they were knock offs now as they are shite, 10 seconds of 12v and they’re barely red. Either that, or the bad pump timing killed them.

I had another cheapo unbranded set in the garage - not ideal, but would do in a pinch. I tested them, and they all glowed cherry red at the tip after about 5 seconds. I chucked them in, with some ceramic grease in case the next owner needs to pull them back out.

Over the course of the evening I threw the car back together enough that I could start it. I’m so used to stripping this down and putting it back together now 🤣

This seems to have improved things a lot, but I’m unsure now if it would be safer to go a step further and set it to the leanest position possible.

I could be wrong (and I often am) but 'lean' in diesel context simply means less fuel but 'all' the air. 

In other words, the air intake is not throttled, and it's the amount of fuel (duration of squirt?) that decides how powerful the 'bang' is. 

So if you went to 'max lean' you wouldn't cause any issues but it might limit power. 

Note: I'm not sure if this adjustment only affects idle - you know more than me! 

[Bear]

This is amazing work, I can't believe you're still going on it. Careful washing the reflectors - the plastic chrome coating is super-thin - I would just use some distilled water and a lens cloth.

Those shitty little beam inserts were done away with for S2 LHD but RHD ended up keeping them, I don't know why but it might be related to how much a BX's simple setup could 'flicker and dazzle' (laughs in LED) due to body movements.

[Rust Collector]

Today was an office day, and then I had to look after the kids up until their bed time. I wanted to get something done though, so I had a pop at the fog lights.

A bit of prodding and poking revealed that the switch worked, the tell tale on the dash and switch were on, the fuse was good, but both fog lamps were not illuminated.

We can of course discount blown bulbs, as it wouldn’t be that simple and they’re never used anyway so the chance of them both burning out is slim. A poke with the multimeter confirmed that we did not have 12v at the bulb holders.

Must be a problem in the loom then.

The go-to would be either the flexible section near the boot hinge, of the tow bar wiring. I remembered that the tow bar wiring was spectacularly shit, and I had ripped a lot of it out.

So I went to where the tow bar jumper was still plugged in.

That doesn’t look good, does it. Using the multimeter I was able to determine that the broken blue wire is the fog lamp feed, and it should go back on itself through the grey cable.

I pulled the jumper loom out and plugged the original plugs back together.

Thats more like it.

Job done:

I’m waiting on the discs now, and I also need to finish the headlights and tweaking the fuel pump, then we should be ready for a retest.

@wesacosa, I did end up speaking to dieselman. He reckons his 2.1td’s go through the test with a 0.5 reading! So it can be done, whether or not this one can get there is another question 🤣 he did suggest rotating the LDA pin to have the absolute minimum fuelling off boost, so I will probably have a bash at it set like that and hope for the best.

[Rust Collector]

A bit more tinkering has been achieved this evening.

I backed the anti stall screw right off, removed the throttle cable and wound the idle screws out. Then I wound the ‘max fuel’ screw out until the engine was struggling. It’s not exact but it gave me something to work with as a first go.

I then set up the cold and warm idle screws to get to roughly where the service manual says it should be - warm idle pictured, cold idle is roughly 1,000rpm

Setting the anti stall screw requires a bit of fucking about with a feeler gauge.

Apparently a 1mm shim between the anti stall screw and the throttle lever should give a 20-50rpm increase.

Looks ok to me. The puff of smoke on startup is gone, and the engine sounds a bit smoother. I can’t make any noticeable smoke by blipping the throttle. The throttle response feels glacial compared to how it was setup before though.

I’ve put the engine bay back together, but I can’t give it a proper test until the brake discs turn up and I put those on. I’m hoping they rock up tomorrow.

All that should be left to do then is the headlamps. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my work cleaning and polishing the lenses will improve the beam pattern.

I have Thursday and Friday off, but my partner is doing some handover days at her new job so the kids may prevent me getting much done - will have to see how I go.

[High Jetter]

We might need a Hero reaction.

[Rust Collector]

The brake discs have landed. Fingers crossed that I got the right size this time.

I’ve not seen them supplied in a plastic tub before!

[Rust Collector]

The deliveries just keep coming!

[Rust Collector]

I’m pleased to announce that we are safe!

For now at least… There’s always plenty of opportunities to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

[loserone]

You're doing a marvelous job

[High Jetter]

I'll buy him an AS pint, when he's free.

[Sigmund Fraud]

10 hours ago, High Jetter said:

I'll buy him an AS pint, when he's free.

[Rust Collector]

I finished the brake work off yesterday - no pictures I’m afraid as I was just in a ‘get it done’ mindset. I also adjusted the parking brake cables whilst I was there, and the parking brake seems a lot better. I won’t mention it to the tester though, as fuck giving the car another opportunity for re-test disaster. Here she is back on her wheels for the first time in a while:

She’s atrociously gutless with the pump set up how it is. I will be tweaking it again after the MOT as I’m sure it’s too far backed off now.

You’ll notice it has no headlights still, this is the last piece of the puzzle. The one which I didn’t manage to break the beam pattern lens has gone back together, and is on the car. Beam pattern* is as thus:

It has the kick up, but it’s still properly wank - I hope it’s good enough. I may try new bulbs, just in case the old filaments have sagged or shifted perhaps. I know XM’s do have a rep for absolutely shit headlights though so I don’t know if I’m just pissing into the wind.

Moving on the lens I broke then.

Can you see what I’m thinking?

Ive carefully put some araldite into the hole and joint. The purpose of the wire was twofold: registration and strength*.

I decided to fit the lens whilst the araldite was curing, and I’m glad I did as it revealed the need to adjust the spacing of the tab a bit so it holds firmly to the lamp unit. I’ve left the wire in whilst it cures, hopefully that will allow it to set in the correct position.

The downside is now I have to wait for the bastard stuff to set before I can put the car back together.

I am still quite apprehensive about the retest…

[Rust Collector]

It’s back together.

Beam pattern* on the side I repaired.

Again, no idea if it’s good enough. Fingers crossed.

I’ve spent some more time working on the fuelling, as the car would barely accelerate with the screw backed off as far as it was. I think I’ve found an unhappy medium, in that it’s now drivable and it only smokes a touch on boost. I bumped into my mrs whilst test driving it, and I got her to follow me and look for smoke - she tells me she couldn’t see any smoke but it smelt of diesel soot, which probably means she didn’t notice the smoke. I had my mirror dipped and couldn’t see anything, another quarter turn on and the car perks up and the black smoke returns.  I’ve no real way of testing it other than this, so it’ll have to do. It’s still slow as fuck though set up like this, I don’t think it’s possible to get these pumps set up well without some way of flow testing it.

 

[Rust Collector]

It’s MOTmas eve here at chateau rust, and the last job on the XM list is to check the headlight aim.

Luckily I have high tech alignment equipment at my disposal.

It’s lucky (I’m unsure if that’s the right word anymore) that I did this, as it revealed that the passenger side had a lazy eye due to the adjuster popping off.

That meant taking the front end off for the millionth time, taking the headlight apart for the second time, and putting it all back together.

I then did my measurements PROPERLY, like I should have done the first time around, and noticed that the two sides of the car aren’t level. I’ve allowed for this, and now after much drawing with my children’s chalk we are set to somewhere that is possibly correct... ish.

I mean it looks like there’s a pattern, so I’m fucked if I know what can be done with those it fails on the lights again.

[High Jetter]

Worst case is it will fail on fewer things than last time week. Best case is pass with advisories and roffletastic. Congratulatory/commissionery pint available.

[Rust Collector]

It’s getting to the point where I’m considering buying a secondhand beam tester and gas analyser 🤣 

[wesacosa]

good luck, mate 

[mercedade]

Good feckin luck

[Rust Collector]

The man from the ministry says…

[Stinkwheel]

Jeeez mate, its like youve been resigned to some sort of purgatory. I really hope that it bucks its ideas up and you can pass it onto another lucky* soul. You need the rest.

[Rust Collector]

3 minutes ago, Stinkwheel said:

Jeeez mate, its like youve been resigned to some sort of purgatory. I really hope that it bucks its ideas up and you can pass it onto another lucky* soul. You need the rest.

Read it again, it’s a pass which came with an activities list for the new owner! 😅

[wesacosa]

bloody hell, well done mate. Now get that roffle money in asap and the draw done and dont even think about so much as starting the engine in the mean time!

[Rust Collector]

18 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

bloody hell, well done mate. Now get that roffle money in asap and the draw done and dont even think about so much as starting the engine in the mean time!

The first thing my mrs said after I got home and told it passed, was ‘don’t even go near it now’ 🤣

It needs the tiniest tweak to the fuel screw, just to make it drivable off boost again, but other than that it is time to pass it on to the next person.

[wesacosa]

3 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

The first thing my mrs said after I got home and told it passed, was ‘don’t even go near it now’ 🤣

It needs the tiniest tweak to the fuel screw, just to make it drivable off boost again, but other than that it is time to pass it on to the next person.

I'd let the winner bring his screwdriver and do that, mate

seriously, just leave well alone until the roffles is drawn!

[Split_Pin]

'Activities list' description had me in LOLs but well done on the pass man 😊

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

It needs the tiniest tweak to the fuel screw

[Datsuncog]

In all seriousness though, mega congrats on the MOT pass! I tell you, this thread is an absolute rollercoaster...

[Rust Collector]

Well, with all the excitement of the XM over, and the reality of the fact that it has now gone to reside with/terrorise @rob88h, it was time to do something about the fact that all we have left to drive is the 3 door Clio.

The Clio can fit all 4 of us, a pram and the two dogs if you get creative and put the park in the front and my mrs in between the kids:

But for anything more than a short drive, that’s not ideal.

Also looming is the migration of my projects from the farm to the yard I’ve agreed to rent.

So, what I really need is something that has room for a family, dogs, and luggage, but can also tow a car trailer…

If I turn and look over my shoulder and out the window, we see this:

However, to get an MOT the Disco needs a new handbrake module at the bare minimum.

So I’ve done the sensible* thing, and insured this instead:

I’m still not 100% sure why I did that, so stick around and watch me regret my decision as I go ahead and pull this out of the hedge at the weekend. I mean it worked when I left it there, and it’s a much simpler vehicle than the LR, but it’s also definitely a shit tonne rougher than the LR… maybe I should’ve just taken a brave pill and yoinked out that handbrake!

[loserone]

It's not so much that it's come from a hedge, more why did you put it there?

[High Jetter]

1 minute ago, loserone said:

It's not so much that it's come from a hedge, more why did you put it there?

It was 2' from the hedge when parked up! 🤣