At Last - Some Proper Engineering

When I bought the Stylus the throttle was VERY sensitive, this made it difficult to drive in the lower gears (it also lacked up & down-stops for the throttle), so I drilled a new hole in the throttle pedal & re-routed the cable to change the ratio of movement between the pedal & the throttle butterflies - I'd done something similar to the Fury, I think it's to do with the throttle bodies being intended for a bike, so operated by a hand throttle - hands are more sensitive that feet, so a higher gearing works.

That's how it's been for the last couple of years, but every time I start driving the car after the winter layup I think I should gear it down more, then I get used to not driving in first gear & forget about it.

But not so this year!

To be honest I've looked at it a couple of times & not seen an easy way to improve it, the throttle pedal bends round the brake bias adjuster limiting the options.

Up-stop cap......

However, yesterday it occurred to me that if I put a "flag" on the pedal higher up, the first part of the movement would be forwards & down as the pedal moved around the pivot point, then increasingly down the further it got pushed, mimicking the "snail cam" on the butterfly shaft. This gives a more precise movement at small throttle openings & more coarse as the pedal is mashed into the bulkhead.

To begin with I tried to make a bolt-on thing from aluminium, but it wasn't going anywhere, so I found a very thick steel square washer left over from the Quantum refurb (NEVER throw anything away!), cleaned off the galvanising & welded it on, then cut lumps off it until it was the right sort of shape. A hole for the cable fork went in & astonishingly when I re-fitted the pedal & adjusted the cable it seemed to work. For a few added improvements I drew up & printed a soft "cap" for the up-stop so the pedal isn't vibrating against it at idle.

.......printed & fitted

I adjusted the the up-stop & found that the down-stop was no longer required, the pedal hit the bulkhead as the butterfly shaft hit it's fully open stop, so the pedal was moving about an inch & a half further for the same butterfly travel - hurrah!

Lower ratio pedal, up-stop & return spring

But of course every silver lining has a cloud & the pedal was now very light indeed. I found a convenient hole next to where the up-stop fits. A brief search recovered a fairly weak tension spring with only one "end" - again, left over from the Quantum. I put a short bolt through the convenient hole & wound the spring onto the flange around the bolt, then hooked the loop on the other end over a new bolt through the original throttle cable hole, so I can adjust the spring by screwing it up & down over the flange but it can't come off or un-adjust itself.

Initially the return spring rubbed against the up-stop bolt cap, but a longer bolt & a couple of control washers sorted that out.

A short test drive confirmed the car is much nicer to drive in the lower gears, not trying to leap away & having to be controlled with the clutch when moving slowly - success!

What's next?

A long soak in a hot bath I think, as spending 1/2 a day with my upper torso buried in a kit car pedal box has taken it's toll. Still, could be worse, at least I have doors I can open to gain access.

Return Of The Stylus

 Yes the Stylus has returned.

After laying out an obscene amount of money for a year's road tax (£345! - which I wouldn't mind if it had a supercharged small block V8 - but it'll happily do 40+mpg at 70 on a motorway AND it's made from re-used parts!) I took it round to my brothers house through the stationary traffic at M25 Jcn10, then the very next day I took it 115 miles to see my lovely girlfriend. But before that, I tested the various systems, knobs & switches & found the rear fog light didn't work. This was disappointing as it's a switch from a Sea Harrier, but I ordered another couple of switches (standard sort of thing for a car this time) & they had arrived by the time I got home, so after a bit of a fiddle, I replaced both switches & the car is ready for the MoT next month - unless something else breaks.

Here they are - all systems go. Fog light on the left, screen heater on the right, swarf from enlarging the holes underneath.

But, there were no problems in 177 miles, so I'm happy with that.

Not Much To Say

 Yes, sorry, I've not had much to say recently, because very little has happened to the Stylus. This is partly to do with it being very reliable, but mostly because it's been so COLD. It has been very VERY COLD for a very long time. We also went to see my son's family in Scotland, planning a couple of things to see on the journey - we were planning on calling in at Scotland's "National Museum of Flight" (sounds very grand doesn't it? Has a very professional looking website too). Turns out it was SHUT - only opens at the weekends in Feb. So we looked for other things to do & it seems that the vast majority of Scotland was SHUT. We did find a small car museum that was open Weds to Sun, but the road to it was SHUT.

However, summer is coming in spite of the outside temperature & I've started tidying up some of the car's minor irritations. The Stylus has been pretty good, so there's no real "work" to do, I've topped up the fluids & changed the oil, but apart from that I've been printing bits for it.

First, the walkie-talkie. I'd tried various ways of mounting the two way radio, most recently with a large P-clip, but there's a few requirements to be met. It needs to be quite high in the car so the signal can get out, it needs to be close enough for me to reach if there's a problem (for normal use there's a remote Press To Transmit button so I don't need to touch it) & the wires don't want to be dangling across the interior.

There's a space on the lower tube of the roll bar which works well, but the P-clip mounting I came up with is "permanent" - I can't just take the radio out if there's a problem with it.

So I drew up a better mounting that holds the radio by the belt clip & is inevitably 3D printed, it clamps round the tube quite nicely & is printed in TPU - which is polyurethane, so it's softish & won't rattle, but because the belt loop on the radio has a double return it won't jump out if I fail to notice a speed hump & take it at 40.

It worked so well, that I started looking at other parts that needed a tidy up & I've now re-drawn a steady for the new GoPro mount - the one that allows the cameras to look over the roll bar, but folds in seconds if I need to put the roof up.

Also on the activity list is a new mounting for the GoPro remote, at the moment it's just held on to the dash with sticky-back velcro, it wobbles & it's started to "migrate" leaving a smear of sticky goo on the dash. So I'm adapting a GoPro mount to hold the remote in place (also with a 3D printed thingy), which will allow a degree of flexibility as well as not being so floppy.

When the weather warms up a bit I'll do some more preparation, but until then, I'm staying indoors.

Retirement!

 I never wanted to retire, I enjoyed my work & saw no real reason to stop, but then designing aeroplanes isn't really a job, it's a hobby people pay you to do.

Then I asked a woman I'd known for ten years or so if she'd like to go out to a few places - car events & aircraft museums - that sort of thing, she liked the idea & the past 18months or so have been wonderful, just really good fun. So in a rare burst of optimism back in January '24 I told the bosses I'd like to retire at the end of the year & so as I write, just after Christmas, this is me joining the ranks of the "economically inactive" (although I still seem to be paying tax & buying stuff, so that phrase seems a little off the mark to me).

Of course when I say retired - I mean from full time working, there's a rather interesting project coming up that I will go back for part time & short term, but basically my time is my own. The big fear was always boredom & loneliness, but as my girlfriend is an accomplished maker of things & something of an IT specialist, while I'm a maker of things with a mechanical bent, we should have no difficulty finding projects & indeed one of her Christmas presents from me is an alloy "Silvertop" Zetec cam cover to replace the plastic "blacktop" one on her kit car, so when she has decided how she would like it to be, there will be some painting & possibly 3D printing & machining to do.

There are of course projects I'd like to do on the Stylus, mostly centred around the interior, when I was refurbishing the car, I had a go at gluing on vinyl & it looked OK & has done a few years without peeling off (too much), but my girlfriend is also very good with fabrics, so with her help I can do better now. There's also some things I need to do around the house, but I shan't bore you with those, unless they involve car or plane parts - which now I come to think of it - they often do.

So yes, a whole new chapter is opening up - wish me luck!

And Now For Something Completely Different

 Ah, showing my age there I know.

It's not completely different - it's still car mods.

Winter gives me a problem at my girlfriends house, The only practical way of us both parking outside is if I reverse my car in, But as her house is at the end of a short private drive past two other houses, there are all sorts of hazards from bushes to cars at odd angles. It's not a problem in the summer when I can see, but when it's dark, it's VERY dark & one of the TinTop's few downsides shows up - the reverse light is rubbish for seeing where you're going & there's no reversing camera.

This isn't the best pic!

So what to do? I considered fitting after market reverse lights, but they are mostly chrome, meant for '50s cars & would look stupid on the Cactus. Then I found an LED bulb that would do the job light wise, but how to mount it? The last post was singing the praises of the 3D printer & this one will too. I drew up a "cannister" & printed it in hard plastic, then in soft rubbery TPU I printed a seal ring & in harder (but still flexible) TPU I printed an end cap with two tiny holes to let the wires through. My first thought was to print a housing which would fit into a hole cut into the rear bumper, but then I saw the 10mm thick plate the bike rack slides onto & a plan hatched.

I drew up a "sleeve" to slide over the plate & hold a pair of the bulb barrels, each pointing down & outward. I ran a wire from the fuse box via a switch on the dash, back to the boot where I fitted a relay triggered by the reversing light, then down to the tow hitch where there's a "SuperSeal" connector.

So - the "light pod" fits over the bike mounting plate & is triggered by the reverse lamps, but I can also switch the whole lot off to avoid dazzling folk in "normal" reversing.

Blanking Plug - in case you were wondering

If the MoT man objects or I want to fit the bike rack, it just comes off & unplugs & I have another SuperSeal plug blanked off with another 3D printed sealing cover to keep the weather out of the socket.

 

Aren't 3D Printers BRILLIANT!?

 It's been a while, but a coming together of several circumstances led to a little garage time this weekend & my attention turned to the Stylus' airbox.

I made it when I put the blacktop in the car as the existing foam filter was tight up against the trumpets & was breathing engine bay air. Some time later, on a road trip I discovered that the flat face opposite the trumpets had broken up - the resonance of the air pulses I expect, so I mended that, this time also on a road trip I found the airbox was loose, I suspected the lower bolts had torn through & took it off to investigate.

If fact the airbox was still intact, but the bolts had fallen out. Easy fix, but there were more repairs to be done.

Repair 1 was to one of the upper mounting holes, that had pulled through, so an aluminium plate was made & bonded in place. A hole was later drilled.

Yes, it's on my kitchen worktop - what of it?

Repair 2 was the intake. This had originally been bonded on with Tigerseal - usually a very reliable means of attaching stuff. but not this time.

I had carried out a (ahem) "temporary" repair some time ago with a yard & a half of duct tape, could I come up with some thing better? You betcha!

I fired up the laptop & the very useful (& free) CAD system "OnShape" & effectively drew up an "N" - an internal groove, joined to an external groove, the first goes round the flange at the end of the intake, the second fits to the edge if the airbox

Having fed this into the 3D printer & given it some nice soft shore A90 TPU filament to chew on - and a couple of hours, I peeled this of the bed & after a little cleaning up - you can see it's a bit hairy still - I fitted the edge of the Air Box into the outward facing groove.

You can't see anything else though, because it's BLACK! (sorry, my girlfriend & I are a little "Fast Show" obsessed at the moment.

The intake slides through the big hole in the middle locking it in place & when slid fully home, the flange on the other end of the intake is trapped in the inward facing groove (after a brief struggle).

So the outside looks all neat & tidy like this ...

... and the inside looks all neat & tidy like this, the airflow is undisturbed & the intake has a little "give", but is VERY tightly held.

On the car it looks like this. Practically invisible - at least compared to a yard & a half of duct tape.

So there you are - 3D printers - not just for miniature figures of Yoda & sex toys, they have real world practical uses.

More Maintenance

 This afternoon I re-packed the exhaust. I bought the wadding almost a year ago but had been putting it off as it was bound to be a pig of a job & I looked deep into the engine bay at the rusty bolt on the clamp with some trepidation. But with my magic ratchet & enough extension bars to reach right out of the car it came undone easily, then the clamp moved off the outer pipe easily.

I undid the nut holding the tailpipe onto it's rubber mount easily, but the exhaust wouldn't move. I applied a little WD40, but it still seemed to be stuck, so I inserted  breaker bar up it's tailpipe & pulled - was that some rotation? Yes it was, with a wiggle it came off the car & I set about opening the can.

This was pretty much the same story, I drilled the rivets, it didn't move, I gave it a squirt & a tap & off it came.

So it was a comparatively simple job to re-fill it with fluff & put it all back together.