I'll get round to it at some point - XM M(isery)OT

[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.