The Sprint works on EDIS

Todays job was to get the Sprint working on EDIS,

So I started by making plug leads

and finishing the EDIS loom

I also fitted the wideband sensor Air Fuel Ratio Meter

So Edis loom and plug leads fitted

Next was to mount the trigger wheel and sensor, easier than it sounds as I needed to remove the radiator to get some working room, but all done, and radiator replaced

Disconnect the old coil ignition, power up the EDIS and see what happens, when I turned the key .. it started immediately.

One tiny tiny issue, when checked with the strobe, it was firing at 9 deg BTDC, instead of 10 - not bad though, and Microsquirt has an "ignition offset" setting to correct this, so well pleased.

However I do need to replace the connector on the sensor, its poorly fitting, although it was supplied with the sensor

Next job is the fuel system and relocating the battery to the boot.

Grrr HCR 1 Dolly Sprint 0 and EFI thanks to Nick Jones

I know this has been posted on the CT forum, but thanks to Nick Jones it does go on to other things

 

At least this year we got past the halfway mark.

Nearly in Norfolk after the first 2 Counties of the second half, miss-fire, then no power, then stopped engine.

It had fuel in the carb float chambers, so check the points gap, bumped the car to try and turn the rotor, wouldn't move, assumed it wasn't in gear, tried again, no joy !

I found I could turn the rotor arm by hand.

Telephoned for recovery - we'll be two hours before we can get to you - fair enough at 3am Sunday morning

Pulled the distributor, drive gear and thrust washer left in block - the roll pin  between the drive and the shaft had sheared off.

Bear in mind I have just spent a fair few pounds on getting the distributor reconditioned I was not happy, plus there's now 2 small pieces of roll pin floating around in the sump.

I cut up our clip board clip to fashion a drift, and removed the rest of the roll pin from the shaft - I still had the failed distributor from the RBRR in the boot, so I drifted the roll pin out of this, to find it was also broken, however the broken bits from the two distributors were about the length of a new pin, so I inserted these in the new distributor and drive, (they were a little loose) and secured them with some mig welding wire through the middle.

Put the distributor back, re-timed it and it fired up and ran OK.

About 4am and the recovery truck turned up.

Decided at this point to take the recovery option, as I wasn't sure why the roll pin had failed, and my repair was a bit of a bodge.

Bad pin, poorly fitted ??

I think its getting replaced with a drilled and tapped hole and a high tensile cap bolt secured with lock tight

 

This was my bodge fix on the night showing the welding wire holding the 2 halves of the roll pin in place

 

 

Needless to say I have now fitted a new roll pin (and kept one for spare).

 

Nick said that it was a bizarre fault and I should EFI it to get rid of the distributor - now I have most of the bits to convert the Sprint, but simply hadn't got round to it, so without wasting more time I started getting the parts out of storage, and started seeing what needed to be done.

 

I did a trial fit of the Jenvey bodies on the webber manifold (fuel rail and injectors fitted too)

 

 

This revealed the first issue, the Jenvey bodies only need an O ring to seal against the manifold,

 

and don't need the anti vibration mounts that the manifold came with

 

however without the vibration mounts the studs supplied are too long, so I need some short UNC studs. I also need to get a boss welded onto the thermostat housing on the manifold for the Megasquirt temperature sensor - I have now ordered an ally boss, and the studs have been replaced with UNC bolts for now. Still the throttle bodies do look good !

 

 

Next issue was to find a home for the Microsquirt controller and relays, behind the glove box looked ideal for me, especially as there were 2 holes ready made for mounting, and just the right size for rivnuts

 

 

  And here's the ally plate made up and fitted

 

 

 next job was to mount the various components to the plate

 

 

There's the Microsquirt, a combined relay and fuse box, and the innovate wideband sensor controller

 

and wired up tested and working - I needed to calibrate the sensor, which needs doing in free airspace, not later when mounted in an exhaust

 

 

and now fitted to the car

 

 

The glove box still fits, and I can still get to the fuses, relays and programming port from the parcel shelf.

 

I got this wired up to battery, engine ground and ignition sense, and all worked OK.

 

Next item was the coil pack and edis module which are now mounted

 

 

and wired with the exception of the crank sensor, I am moving that from the position I had originally intended for it, so the timing marks will be more visible - I also must get some loom tape for the wires. Next weekend I hope to get the car running on edis (as by default that will run the engine at 10 deg BTDC - limp mode), need to make up plug leads too.

HCR Preparation

Better late than never !

I have been too busy to work on cars recently, but it was time to attend to a number of jobs on the Sprint so that its fit for the HCR.

First off I replaced all the flexible petrol pipes fitted by the PO, they were not ethanol proof and were all leaking petrol.

Then it was time to attend to the distributor. The previous one had been bodged together from 2 units at the finish of the RBRR, so I could make it home, having limped the car from Didcot to the Plough.

I sent a spare sprint distributor off to H&H ignition solutions in Dudley, and got back a new looking one fitted with electronic ignition, fitted it looked like this

Its certainly sorted out the "points scatter", and the strobe timing light now gives a nice steady flash against the timing marks, without sudden jumps,

Next job was to replace the front tie bars - this is why - look at the wear where they go through the subframe

I got these adjustable replacements from Sprintspeed, this lets you adjust the length, the ST ones were 5mm shorter which is supposed to improve the handling

The final task was to replace the battery, during the RBRR I had intermittent issues with the electronic Davis Craig water pump controller when driving at night, AJP put this down to a faulty battery, and it seems that he was right as the problem has now gone away with this fitted

Finally a parcel of parts arrived this week, its a complete set of NOS gearbox internals for a Sprint gearbox, excepting the input shaft and the two RHP bearings, and the syncro cones - although I have already got 2 new sets of Stanpart ones, and Chris Wittor is supplying the bearings.

I shall be rebuilding my spare gearbox soon,,,,,,,,,,

See you all at the HCR