Cynic-al

I had to do this on mine, I installed the trigger wheel 5 teeth off TDC spot on by eye whilst laid on my back under the car with water from the rad hose dripping in my face but when it was checked timing light vs tuner studio dashboard the timing light said 8 degrees when tuner studio 15 degrees. You can correct it on one of the spark setting pages but i'm not on my laptop to see which one. If your really stuck 3 of us got a bloke who does a lot of megasquirt tuning to meet us at KORC last weekend to tune all 3 cars, he was really knowledgeable and didn't charge a lot and works all over. I can get his number and PM it to you if you like.

I have a similar 24litre JCB compressor at home, I think i paid £70 for it with a nail gun from Argos , couldn't go any bigger really as I need to be able to lift it in and out of the car and carry it around and I didn't want to kill myself. It does everything I want. It runs the plasma cutter ok, i think because it only needs 4 bar its able to keep up, but it never stops pumping whilst i'm using it so I don't know how long it would live if I did a lot of work. The thing it really struggles with is the impact gun, you only get full pressure for the first few seconds, if you haven't shifted the nut by then then you have to wait for it to charge again as the torque gets less and less with every knock. To be fair to it though I have an old 200 litre 3 phase stuck down in the back shed at work which I sometimes use and the impact gun makes that work. It would also be useless for shot blasting, I did some down at a friends who has a clarke 200 litre with 2 single phase pumps on and they never stop whilst your blasting. I would recommend getting a water trap at the compressor outlet and one of the small inline lubricators that fit on the back of your tool, that way it keeps your lines oil free for if your ever spraying

Yeah bending the sensor wasn't nice but i didn't fancy trying to desolder Plugged it in this morning and teh engine started at ran so at the moment i'm happy, lets hope it stays that way I was going to leave the wires as they are, it'll keep me entertained in a years time

Partial victory. I checked over the car wiring, all seemed fine. Car started ... but ran rough. Got the laptop out and MAP is sat at 100. I've put a bit of pipe on and sucked and blowed with no change to the reading. Back to the man shed! A bit of tracing the wiring diagrams and I found the pins on the sensor weren't conducting properly. A run of solder along each leg seems to have fixed it. I must have caused damage when I bent the sensor out of the way to repair one of the broken cables. Back to the car! Fingers crossed

Very useful thankyou, I want to learn TIG but haven't come across anywhere around here that teaches it so am half tempted to buy a machine and give it a go, your description will help no end!

If you did want to access the rear door you could make a fold out one like the spare wheel carriers. You would need more steel but it would be easy to do. A catch at the other side would take the strain whilst you were moving. Looks like an equipe one, I have the same on my rangie. Got mine from LRS Offroad. Fixes to the tow bar mounts in the rear cross member and the ARB mounts on the chassis (which mine didn't have so I had to make some and weld them on).

Probably a good idea

learn something every day

Well i think i've fixed it. D10 & D12 replaced and 2 tracks cut out and replaced with cable. It's now talking to the pc and priming the fuel pump when i power it on. It also seems to still have all the settings which is a good sign too. Not tried it on the car yet but fingers crossed it's fixed and has a few more years service in it. Cheers all.

Tinning the wires sometimes helps and sometimes just means you can't get them in the bucket. Try clamping the wire wire and connector with something solid. I have one of those helpers with two croc clips and a magnifying glass and I use a box to rest my hands on. They look really naff but they sometimes help.

if its stiff the solder is probably flowing up the cable. try concentrating your heat more on the bucket. you might find a smaller solder tip and solder helps. are you tinning the wires first or assembling then filling. you could try clipping a crocodile clip to the cable or pins to try draw the heat If your getting a good joint without shorting the other pins your doing well

Just looked up the solidworks student, around £100 but the license only lasts a year if you have a .ac.uk account you used to be able to get office ultimate for £40 And it doesn't watermark your documents like autocad student used to. I like being a mature student... apart from the work. Oh wait, that makes me the same as young students

It never gets the stretch and deformation right on our tube benders though :/ Keep meaning to ask if theres a cleaver way to get it to predict it but never got around to it. Just over 3mm a side, thats close enough for me

you have to buy through an approved partner. I use NTCADCAM, Solid Solutions are another big one. You can't just buy it from PC world sadly. I have one seat of premium (can be installed on 2 pcs), a floating seat of PDM and a fixed seat of PDM which back in 2006 cost something like £6,500, the support & renewals are around £1500pa. Ontop of that I got enough training to get advanced certified in the main areas + pdm + simulation + analysis etc They used to do an education version and a free cut down version to get people into using their software but i'm not sure if they still do it, I'm sure many people get it in various naughty ways

D10 and D12 are certainly broken as i've pulled them and tested them, they both conduct both ways at 9v. Thats also how i'm sure the tracks mentioned above are broken, no conductivity where the components used to be. I'll just link it with a bit of wire when i replace the damaged components. I suspect C16 is the right way round as its an old board and has been in use a long time by various people. I will see if I can get C16 to take charge off the multimeter to prove there is some life in it, however that is the reason for looking to upgrade the multimeter. What does S12 and S12C Jmp refer to? Cheers for the feedback

Well i'm pretty sure the faults are D10, D12, the link between D10 and D12 is broken as is the link between D12 and C16. I've ordered the components so will replace / repair and see how we go from there. I'm thinking of upgrading my multimeter to one that also does capacitance, seem to be a good selection in the £15 - £50 range, any recommendations?

If the low compression was not due to the head gasket then surely it must be either the rings or the valves? If the sump gasket has blown through maybe its the rings? Did you ever run it with the oil filler off and notice a lot of air coming out the filler, this can be a sign? Or the vent is blocked? Doesn't explain the overheating but would be worth checking the above.

Well d10 replaced, the broken track cut out and replaced with a piece of wire and it's killed d10 straight away again. The search will have to continue again tomorrow...

Ok so using the diagra below i've traced the fault as far as D10. Side 'A' has 12v, side 'C' has the floating 3-5v. This is also one of the components bridging the damaged track. With the power off the diode has flow in both directions. I'm going to pull it out and see if it still has flow in both directions. If it does I guess its faulty, otherwise I guess its something thats shorting this component like the damaged track. Either way taking the component out should help me see the fault... fingers crossed

I haven't been able to find a diagram either which is somewhat annoying. I did the tests upto the point where you needed communication and the voltage issue was the only thing that stood out. I will repair the tracks and take it from there, thanks all. Better buy a magnifying glass

So found damage to the cable as suggested, there was a grey dust around the imprint so i'm guessing its been shorting. Also found another damaged track on the board under some diodes. I'm thinking it must have been a short now as the battery was flat when I came to start the car which although unusual at the time I put down to the length of time it had been stood. The voltage at the regulator is now around 3.6 and I don't know whats pulling the voltage down. Not sure now if I should just write off the board? Looking at the wiring diagram what draws live off the board so I can check for faults on the car? +5v for the TPS +12v ish for the coolant temp sensor +12v ish for the air temp sensor

The damaged track runs from the 12v live in pin on the db37 to a selection of components. I will try follow where it goes more closely and inspect the black (earth) cable. Thanks for the ideas

Starting to think its a power supply issue, I have 4.4v between the middle pin and left pin and 4.4v between the middle pin and right pin and its jumping down as low as 4.0v sometimes. One side of that should be 12v right? Maybe a broken track or short somewhere or a failed component?

Is there a tolerance on the 5v regulator? I'm getting about 4.4v with a 12.0v supply? So far i've followed the build instructions on mega manual and passed; -Power tests (apart from voltage quiery above) -Communication tests (in terms of getting an echo by looping pins 12 & 13 of the 40 pin socket -There seems to be an exposed track on the board (see photo below) but there is 12v both sides. It won't talk to the PC, it won't flash the firmware regardless of the boot jumper position and options selected. It's powered from a mains 12v adaptor and plugged into the desktop without a usb adaptor and the above tests with hyperterminal show the signal is getting as far as the 40-pin socket. The tests later in the manual seem to require a connection to the PC. Ideas?

Get a couple of casters with brakes on if your attaching them to the trailer or if your doing a trolly to tip it onto you could have a lifting mechanism like they have on those warehouse mobile step platforms where the wheels tuck under and it kneels down onto some feet for loading then lifts up with a foot pedal or handle back onto the wheels for moving.