BB October 2

After a couple of busy weekends (decorating) and a week working abroad inbetween, this evening was my first
chance to get out into the garage again. First job was to tackle those pesky headlights. The problem with the
offside light wasn't an earth fault so in the end I extended the wiring from the nearside multi-plug. The wiring
back into the loom is substantial and will take the current from both headlamps.

Whilst re-securing the loom, I decided to move the fuel filter out of the way and re-do the way the wiring ran to
make it neater. Fitting the rear lights was easy enough and testing the wiring showed that all is well. What wasn't
so good is that the stainless conduit I ordered from Europa was 8mm internal diameter, whereas the end fittings
were 6mm. This brought me to a shuddering halt as I needed this to wire up the rear clusters and front indicators -
the conduit is for running the cables from the body to the cycle wings. Hmmmmm.

So I started other tidying up jobs, like attaching the centre caps to the wheels, which are held inn place with a
silicon adhesive and starting to polish the body. It was then that I noticed that one of the rear wings was covered
in fine dots - it turns out the firegum spat when it cured, and it will be a real pig to get off.

Has another look at the Europa catalogue, and I have the right fittings for the
conduit, so I reamed them out with a 9mm drill which worked well. This meant that
I could finish fiting the front and rear indicators and the rear lights. It all just
takes time as I have to remake all of the wire ends with decent connectors, and
remove the wheels to wire up the front indicators - at least I could attach the
centre caps whilst they were off.

All the lights are fitted and work correctly now except for the side repeaters and
the fog light, which I ordered today. The side repeaters are awkward, I wanted to
fit them to the rear of the front mudguard, but the mudguard is too curved, so I
shall have to put them onto the side bodywork, avoiding the exhaust pipes and
bonnet straps.

After that the list looks like:

- Fit mirrors

- Change brake warning lamp and add charge lamp to dashboard

- Fit rubber floor matting

- Adjust rear brakes to try and stop "pumping" effect

- Fit bonnet straps

- SVA fittings

- MOT

I seem to have come a long way looking back at last December's pictures.......

First job was to fit the side repeaters. Deciding where to fit them which allowed a reasonable wire run back
to the loom was harder. In the end I put them at the bottom of the scuttle. Tested all the light functions and
everything worked out OK.

I decided that the next job was to finish off the dashboard bits. I have been concerned that the battery isn't
getting charged and sure enough the charge warning light stayed on with the engine running. The BMW isn't as
simple as a car, where the alternator and electronics are all in one sealed package, the BMW has the alternator
(made up of seperate stator and rotor), a diode board for converting AC to DC and a voltage regulator.

First thing to check was the continuity of the wiring I had extended, which was OK. Next job was to measure
12-14V between the brushes on the stator and the diode board, and there was nothing there, not a peep.
Stripping the stator, it became clear that the brushes are worn. They drop through in a housing onto the slip
rings and are held in place by springs which push them onto the slip rings. They were so short the springs were
resting on the top edge of the housing, and the wires going to the brushes were taught.

I retired to lick my wounds, but in the light of day I'm not sure I got the tests right. I'll get the brushes today
if I can and then we'll have to test things out further. I'll have a look on the Motobins Forum as well - there is
loads of useful information there.

On Friday I rang Balderstons BMW who had some alternator brushes, so I picked those up on Saturday
morning. First job was to fit them, which involved removing the old ones and soldering the new ones in. I took
some photos but they didn't come out very well.

I rang out the stator and rotor which had the correct continuity, rebuilt it all but there still wasn't a charge
current. Next thing was to check the diode board, but these all checked out OK. The only thing I could think
of was that the voltage regulator wasn't detecting teh battery voltage and so wasn't supplying the rotor.
Getting to the voltage regulator involves removing the engine top cover, which in turn means removing the
exhaust. So having done that I removed the top cover and unplugged the multi-block connector to check
continuity of the wiring going to it and then re-connected it - and the charge light went out! All that for a a
bad connection!!! As with all of the other bits, I cleaned up the connections and then put it back together
again.

In the meantime my fog light had arrived along with the SVA compliant brake warning lamp. The warning lamp
was easy, but could I get the fog light to work? It took ages and in the end I had to re-wire behind the dash.
The problem was that the warning lamp was wired in series, which seemingly drew enough current to stop the
fog lamp working. Making a separate warning lamp circuit solved that. I've mounted the fog lamp below the
spare wheel, where it is unobtrusive and (just) within SVA regs (250mm from ground and vertical).

That left only the main beam warning lamp (which extinguishes when main beam in on !!??!). After the fog lamp
scenario I cut my losses early amd just wired in a new circuit from the switch. And at last the wiring is
complete and all of the lights work. Hurrah!

So I was able to DRIVE it out of the garage (no more pushing for me!) and take some photos. It was great
until I spotted fuel leaking from below the car. I suspect it is where I have moved the fuel filter, I'll have a
look next time.

I decided to try and sort ot the brakes. The front discs have no adjustment, but the rear drums are fun
(not). They have no form of automatic adjustment, just an eccentric nut retaining the bottom of each shoe,
and a "snail" adjuster half way up each shoe. what you have to do is work out the diameter of the drum and
set the shoes up so they form a perfect "circle" at the same diameter less half a millimetre or so. The
technical term for this process is "a pain in the a**e". What you have to do is use an old drum retaining nut
and attach a rod which protrudes to exactly the radius required, and then rotate the nut on the threads and
adjust the shoes (eccentrics and snails) accordingly. This takes patience.

Once I'd done that I re-bled the brake circuit with the eezi-bleed, but still the pedal neeed a pump. I guess
the next stop is the master cylinder as I can't see what else it can be. Not looking forward to this.

Next job was to fit the bonnet straps. These came as a kit, the straps and buckles were attached, but the
end fittings were loose. It was just a case of measuring carefully and then attaching them so that they were
taught when the buckle met one of the holes. Fiddly but easy.

Lastly, I'm having trouble with the exhaust. It is very hard to seal the joints as a) the metal is quite thick
and doesn't deform much with the clamp on and b) there is water in the pipes - this is condensation and is
normal, but it stops the firegum setting. I've had another go - lets see how we get on.

Finally, the fuel leak was my fault - I knocked the float chamber of the carb when I trial fitted the air
filters, and it broke the cork seal. Easily fixed.

On Friday I dropped a line to ECAS in desperation about the brakes.
They responded asking when I'd bought the wheel cylinders as they had
recently mofified them to stop the pumping effect. I'm waiting, with
much hope, to hear of a miracle cure!

But first job this weekend was to ret and reduce the engine rattle - my
wife had made some negative comments about the sound. With the boxer
twin it is easy to work out where the sound is coming from. In this case
it was the rockers which has too much gap between the face and the
valve stem. Set them up carefully on both sides (I had done this when I
rebuilt the engine, so was concerned that I had got both sides wrong)
and it sounded a whole lot better. There was also a lot of oil in the
rocker cover which was also good news. There is still too much smoke
coming from the exhausts, but until I can get to an analyser, I'll leave it.

I also made up some SVA bars. It is possible for the 100mm sphere to
get into the side of the carburettors and cause a fail. The bars were
bent metal which stop this access. they attach to the engine mount bolts
on either side, the run acrsoss the top of the carbs and then down the
side - the photo shows it best.

Today I decided was polishing day, as it needed some attention,
especially where the firegum has spat. the polishing took ages, but it
looks so much better for it. Clearing the firegum marks was a sod, with
progressively finer wet and dry, then this fine emery cloth used for
polishing perpsex, and then polish.

Lastly, I had a look at fitting the mirrors. The scuttle has a "crease" at
the top which made fitting the driving mirror difficult, so I made up a
plinth out of U channel ali. Number one son then acted as the poles used
in the SVA test. The problem was my shoulders. When I am sat in the
car, all I can see in the offside mirror is my shoulder, so I need to look
at a longer stem mirror for SVA on the drivers side.

before I finished, I cut some pipe lagging to shape as the knee roll at
the bottom of the dashboard. I'll cover this with the same material as
the seats tonight.

I also took a video of me driving the car today. It is a 3.5Mb AVI file,
and will take ages to download if you are on a modem link - you have
been warned. If you really want to see it, click here

Work and family intervened last week so I didn't get to much done. I looked at the mirrors again, and in the
end decided I needed a longer arm to get the necessary visibility. I've ordered a cheap item as the mirror I
have a the moment is perfectly OK, it just won't satisfy the outer limits of the SVA test.

The other main task is to resolve the brake problems. You will recall that I dropped a line to ECAS, they
responded and asked me to measure the distance between the face of the rear cylinder piston and the ned
of the shoe (against which the piston acts) when the brake pedal hadn't been depressed for some time. I
did this and found a gap of 2mm each side. This explains the pumping effect as the first depression has no
effect on the shoe, it merely takes up the missing 2mm.

Calling ECAS back with the results, they explained why there is a problem. There is a seal around the piston
between it and the cylinder wall. The original seals are made of a material that had a high co-efficient of
friction, even when covered in LHM. This material isn't available any more and the modern seals have almost
no friction. There are also rubber dust seals between the end of the piston and the cylinder body. These
are quite heavy rubber, and because there is now no friction in the seals, these tend to push the piston back
into the cylinder. The solution is to either cut the dust cover around the piston or to remove it altogether
and replace with a smear of grease. Removing them is OK apparently as their primary purpose is to stop
water ingress, but LHM isn't hydroscopic. I haven't been able to try this yet, but I'll have a go at some
point this week and report back.

I also made up a knee roll for under the dash to satisfy the 19mm diameter rule.

Oh, and finally, I got a build declaration from VOSA which I completed and returned. This just states that
I built the car myself, rather than had it done by specialists.