RogueRunners 2026 Preparation

 It's getting close.

RR26 officially starts on the 15th of May, of course there are a couple of people who for good & proper reasons will join us after a day or two, or leave before the end, but this always happens & it's not a bad thing really, it makes the hotel booking complex, but the "dynamic" of the group changes as people arrive & leave. So as it's about to do some proper mileage I've been looking round the car & doing some preparation.

Sitting in traffic waiting to get into wheels day on a none too warm morning the engine temperature rose to 100deg & stopped, but it didn't come down & the fan kept running, so I've done two things, I replaced the engine thermo switch with one that operated at a slightly lower temperature & I replaced the radiator fan with a slightly larger one, fitted to the front of the rad instead of the back.

I know arguments rage about whether a forward or rear fan is better, but to my mind if either was significantly worse, there wouldn't be any arguments, we'd all just know.

Anyway, it's better now, the temperature stops climbing at about 95deg & falls slowly until the fan stops.

This is "a good thing".

Another thing that's been improved is the battery. One of the things I liked about the car when I bought it was the Odyssey PC680 battery. I had one in the Fury & it always started the engine perfectly OK for something the size of a car stereo. I don't know how old the Stylus' one is, but it was in the car looking pretty "used" in 2021, so when it showed signs of falling off it's perch I wasn't surprised & then at my girlfriend's last time, it just wasn't going to try. "Clunk" went the starter solenoid, "Clunk".

So I connected the jump pack & it was just fine.

A little research suggested that the quality of Odyssey batteries has declined in recent years - we shall see, there are certainly alternatives now, but I wasn't ready to try one just yet.

AND another thing! In the hope of preserving the battery I made up & fitted a "side-light screamer". it's nothing more than a two way switch-over relay & a buzzer, which all fitted just in front / inside the steering column shroud.

Lousy picture of poor wiring - but it works!

The relay is energised by the ignition circuit, the switched side of the relay has an input from the sidelights & an output to the buzzer. So - ignition on, relay contacts held open, ignition off, contacts close making a circuit. If the lights are off there no power to the buzzer, but if I've left the lights on, the buzzer screams at me. I have a buzzer in the indicator circuit, but I put a switch in it's earth so if I ever need to sit by the kerb with the hazards on I can turn the buzzer off. I may run the earth from this buzzer up to the same switch for similar reasons. But the best thing about it was - it's all made from bits I already had in the garage.