lansalot

Afternoon all Disco 4 towing a Buccanneer caravan, and the kids are now of an age where they're wanting to take their bikes when we go away (as are we). Their will fit in the boot, but ours... not so much. Not really wanting to go down the caravan-rear route, obviously the towbar is out, so was thinking perhaps either caravan A-frame or roof? The disco has the factory roof rails, but no cross bars. The LR website is of course next to useless, and all the usual suspects not really giving me much confidence in which kit might be suitable. Who's done this before, any pictures, did you find the A-frame option limited your turning radius at all, or was it a big struggle getting a mountain bike on the roof? I'm 6 ft and I've an aluminium platform that adds around 50cm so I think lifting it on top won't be too risky to paintwork, but really looking for some suggestions here. Thanks !

Evening all In what's looking like the slowest megasquirt install ever, I finally took a kick up the arse and in an evening swapped over all the manifolds from carbs, and actually made some progress (current status, petrol tank removed (don't ask) and loom looking kinda-right). Donor engine is a 3.9 hotwire from a 91 Range Rover. However, I'm positive I kept all the bolts and stuff when stripping the engine, but I'm damned if I can find the 4 that holds the fuel rail on. Was told they were 1/4 UNF x 1/2 inch, so got some of them but no joy. Looking at the stickies here, I was led to http://www.landroverworkshop.com/diagrams/engine/v8-petrol-efi/injectors-pipes_53401 which says part number 2 is an M6 nut flange. I don't remember them being flanges tho... Can anyone please advise what these should be? M6 bolts do the job? Am trying to remember what it looked like when I took it apart, but it was quite a while ago. My own fault.... :/ (edit: yeah, these look like bolts.. before I buy another set of the wrong thing tho, are they M6? http://www.britishv8.org/articles/Images-V15-1/Towery-EFI-3.jpg) Cheers! A

If you're unsure exactly of the bend, they also do a flexible part...

I just used u-bolts there, but when it comes off for the lambda sensor and megasquirt, I'm marking it and welding it to put it back on. Well, in theory anyway Turbo??? V8!

Sorry for delay Mickey. Stainless bits I ordered. Although I notice I have a few spare bits in the garage! I think it's a spare 90 degree bend and a spare 500mm section that looks like it's had a bit nibbled off.. 2 x Aluminised Universal hanging bracket that will support 45-65mm pipe diameters. (U724565) 2 x 90 degree bend with swaged 2.5 inch end. Centre Radius = 130mm. (U026390R) 2 x 500mm pipe with swaged 2.5 inch end (U016350R) 4 x Double end sleeve L=150mm (U066300R) 1 x Stepped sleeve 50.8-57-63.5mm (U076300R) 1 x SUPER Silencer box - Oval H=115mm / W=185mm / L=315mm (U316300R) SUBTOTAL £ 152.31 POSTAGE £ 6.00 VAT £ 27.70 TOTAL £ 186.01

It's not actually as bad as you might imagine - wheels well chocked (and then chocked some more), props off, tunnel out, undo linkages/handbrake etc, undo the bolts holding TB to gearbox and slide it off. However, a big tip is to get some long rods and weld some bolt-ends onto it, same thread as the bolts you're removing. Take one bolt out and screw the rod in. Work your way round, and that way when finished, you can slide the TB along the rods in a straight line, kinda. When you're done, slide the new box back in along the rods and you'll save screwing the new oil seal up on the way in. You'll need a pal to help with lowering/raising it, it's not so much that it's heavy but it's very lopsided.. Kinda like this...

I used RRC pipes, and custom parts bought from http://www.jetex.co.uk/website/jetexcustomexhaustparts.php. Worked fine. (That's twice I've posted them tonight on different threads.. I'm not affiliated, I swear.. nor on commission! )

I made my own by buying custom bits and sections from http://www.jetex.co.uk/website/jetexcustomexhaustparts.php. Took a bit of a punt, tape measure out, stuck thumb in air and ordered a few bits and a silencer. Exhaust now exits through body behind passenger door. Sounds excellent.

Until I had this rock-solid tight (had to drill out and enlarge the hole a little), my defender was lethal. That sorted it tho. A

It will indeed be hotwire and EDIS, but I'm too scared to take anything off Will be picking at things with my continuity tester tonight in the hope I can find out where the short is - but in all honesty, I'm likely going to have to get someone smarter than me involved. Time to dust off the wallet I reckon, but let's see what Phil @ ExtraEFI says first...

Spot on guys - I was in Maplins getting new fuses for the transformer and they are "time delay", which means the fuse on the device pops first, then the one on the transformer. Of course, no fuse on the MS so the transformer had actually gone pop, quite possibly months and years back - when I was trying it out with my MS1. The mists of time, eh... So, bought some new fuses, and also an inline fuse holder for the MS. In the future, I won't be trusting it to "ah, I'm not wired up to anything incorrectly, it can't be that bad". Will check out the metal screws around TIP125 later and see if that's what's causing it. I'd be right in that the other side of that power rail shouldn't be going direct to ground, yeah? As above, pins 1-2 and 7-19 on the DB37 all hit ground...

Hey, no mushroom-cloud, no foul - yeah ? https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/114679015633297527545/albums/5857782389054670465 Tears dried, pics ahoy !

Will do that tonight - having mopped the tears off it first

Ah thanks guys, I've emailed Phil at ExtraEFI so I'll see what he says and take it from there. Much obliged! (Typical... just as I was actually fired-up enough to start doing things with it... enthusiasm, waned! Still, the thought of tablet/bluetooth fun on the move should keep the inspiration up).

Yeah - it was pointless really; just me blowing down the MAP hose and the dial twitching to prove connectivity. But hey, was still able to connect even with a fried MS1 - so something good came out of a depressing evening ;-)

Bought from ExtraEFI.co.uk. when I first got it, I had it powered up for testing and it seemed fine then. Its sat about a bit as I never got round to fitting it (always indoors, never been near the vehicle or any chances for mis-wiring). Only time I've taken it apart was to look for this boot block jumper. I'm kinda stumped as to how its happened, theory was perhaps some award off the case - but not seeing anything amiss. With my multimeter, I see the power comes in on pin 28 it would seem, then the rail breaks.. on the divorced side of that broken power rail, pins 1-2 and 7-19 are all grounded. So, that 12V coming in was going straight to ground in the board. Nothing looks untoward here to me, not seeing anything other than that broken rail, not keen on all the 12V going straight to ground of course, for the little I know about electronics I'm pretty sure that's not good!

Actually, something is pretty amiss.. Checked underside, and... http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/badbit.jpg/'> Zero volts to the boot jumper, should be 2 volts. Should be 12 volts apparently to the resistors, they're dead too. The bit that powers it up, and what I've been reading, are two different things by the look of it. Box never been opened until this error tho..

Nothing looks untoward on the board. It wasn't doing that earlier, sadly now it is. And nothing's changed physically with it. Had the whole MS1 apart and it looked OK. Never seen this boot menu before...

Well, despite my strange errors about voltages and flashing, I still managed to get my MS1 working with msDroid on a Google Nexus 7 tablet. Perhaps a few people might fancy trying this, but it's the usual tale of compatibility and such, what do I buy, how do I configure it. So here's how I did it, if it helps. I looked around for a guide, couldn't find one. Ingredients: MS1, still sitting in spare room. So no revvy v8-engine noises in this thread. Make your own, or pop a video on in the background if it helps Spectacularly cheap bluetooth adapter from ebay. Google Nexus 7 tablet (but any android phone or tablet should do) msDroid puTTY - for those of you that don't have hyperterminal. And for those of you that do. HT is rubbish, ditch it. OK, first, make sure your MS1 is up and running properly. Then, check your BT adapter and make sure the DCE(F)/DTE switch is set in the DCE(F) position. This is so you can config it. Plug the BT adapter into your PC for USB power, and cable it over RS232. Fire up puTTY, and configure it for the defaults for the BT device (my defaults were on the instructions enclosed with it, yours may differ. So check). Remember,you're changing this config to match what you want to connect to your MS at - so you'll be setting it to 9600-N-8-1 for MS1 and 115200-N-8-1 for MS2. (puTTY screenshots below) So, once you've connected via puTTY, and all things being equal, let's see what you've got your adapter settings set to, so type "STATUS=?" (without the quotation marks) and you should see something like this. NOTE: If you're back in this screen and it's filling up with things like CONNECT: and DISCONNECT and you can't get anything done, it's because you've already paired your device over BT previously and it's trying to reconnect. Turn off bluetooth on your tablet/phone for a minute, until this is complete. STATUS=? Celsius : 33 VERSION : VER : 4.6.1 ADDRESS : 0018 DB 00F43B ROLE : SLAVE MODE FLOW : ENABLE ECHO : DISABLE PROMPT : ENABLE DISCOVER : ENABLE RECONNECT : DISABLE AUTO : DISABLE DIP : DISABLE <<< : DISABLE >>> : DISABLE DETECT : DISABLE SERIAL_PROTOCOL : 192000,N,1 NAME : Serial Adapter PIN : 1234 DEVICE : 0000 00 000000 CONNECT : 0000 00 000000 OK In my case, I need to be 9600-N-8-1 for MS1. So let's set the baud rate first. Type "BAUD=9600" (again, ignore the quotation marks throughout) Garbage on screen, great, you've lost connection - no surprise, you've just changed the baud rate. Restart puTTY and reconnect at 9600. Then, do "FLOW=disable". And reconnect if you lose connection again. IMPORTANT: Echo must be off for msDroid to work. so "ECHO=N" If you want to change the name to something more funky than "Serial adapter", then "NAME=BTMEGASQUIRT". Likewise if you want to change the PIN so not just anyone wandering past can pair your device up and start tuning your engine. "PIN=98765". Check the status again, and you should see something like this: STATUS=? Celsius : 33 VERSION : VER : 4.6.1 ADDRESS : 0018 DB 00F43B ROLE : SLAVE MODE FLOW : DISABLE ECHO : DISABLE PROMPT : ENABLE DISCOVER : ENABLE RECONNECT : DISABLE AUTO : DISABLE DIP : DISABLE <<< : DISABLE >>> : DISABLE DETECT : DISABLE SERIAL_PROTOCOL : 9600,N,1 NAME : BTMEGASQUIRT PIN : 98765 DEVICE : 0000 00 000000 CONNECT : 0000 00 000000 OK Unplug the BT adapter and remove the power. Flip the switch to the DTE position. Power it back up and plug it into your megasquirt. Fire up your phone/tablet and pair to the new device. Start msDroid, do Settings, Connect To ECU - and all things being well you'll have it connected. Start your engine, blip throttle. Marvel at modern technology. And if all that has gone well, you'll end up with a decidedly more exciting video than this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azbEdYGvOK0

Thanks. It didn't used to be this way when I had it going before.. does this voltage-drop thing sound likely? I can't flash the MSQ in Megatune because of that dodgy warning coming up... oh, and just got it working over bluetooth to my Nexus 7. Gonna post a wee guide, once I've checked to see if anyone else has already done it..

OK, despite the download-firmware.bat not working, I decided to try it at the command-line running the download executable directly . C:\PROGRA~1\MEGASQ~1\029y4>src\download.exe -c1 msns-extra.s19 MS Download 1.10 Boot>w Complete Boot>u - waiting ... Sending file 1 of 1 - msns-extra.s19 File sent, 1762 lines, 27832 bytes. Complete Boot> Boot>©MS1/Ex Signature: tra format 029y3 ********* Controller battery voltage: 0.00 It appears that you still have the bootload jumper installed. If this is not the case, and you have removed the jumper, then something is wrong and your download probably failed. If MS doesn't reboot, type "download -help" and check out the -v switch. Odd that it mentions that boot jumper, but regardless I fired up putty again and gave it an S and then a T. MS1/Extra format 029y3 *********MS1/Extra rev 029y4 ************ And I'm back where I started - but not quite. Megatune, went to reflash my MSQ and it says "Controller voltage too low for reliable FLASH burning". The battery is showing 13.21 volts on my multimeter.. What went wrong - and how come the two versions are different? And what's with the voltage error, given my multimeter's reading? The battery won't start the motorbike, but it should be fine for this and it was charged up nicely too. Cheers edit: and after a power-cycle, it's back to the "Boot>" menu. Argh!!

OK, so having that firework lit under my arse, I decided to power-up the MS1 today to see if I could get it to chat to PC again (had laptop upgrade some time back, never got the USB/232 dongle to work, threw it all in cupboard etc). This time, it's a PC with proper RS232. Once I'd established that my transformer was screwed, I dragged in an old motorbike battery and hooked MS1 to that. RS232 to the server, PuTTY to COM1 and it was sitting there at a "Boot>" prompt. Did an X and it appeared to carry on booting. Then did an "S" and "T" command was showing full connection with 029y3 for S and 029y4 for T. Bid odd, but result ? Started megatune, connection succeeded. Blew down the MAP hose - dial fluctuated on screen. Result ! Configured my wee bluetooth RS232 adapter and connected it to server, set 9600-N-8-1 and paired it with my Nexus 7. Seems OK. Plugged the bluetooth adapter into the MS1 and asked MSDroid to read it - said it had paired with BT but was having problems querying the MS1. OK, back onto full RS232 on the server. MS1 sitting at "Boot>" again. Did an X, and got Boot>? (P)rogram (W)ipe (U)pgrade e(X)it Boot>X - Reset Vector Invalid Boot> Uh oh.... powered the MS1 off and back on. Same thing. Whipped the lid off, to check for Boot jumper - none in place. Thought "maybe firmware got corrupted somehow? Will reprogram it" so ran the download-firmware.bat file. COM1, picked "not original megasquirt" as it's MSnS extra (from Phil at extraefi), and got this.. . src\download.exe -c1 msns-extra.s19 MS Download 1.10 ! - whaDownload failed: Expected response "Boot>", but received this " ! - wh". Press any key to continue . . . C:\PROGRA~1\MEGASQ~1\029y4> Any clues as to what's gone wrong here? It was all fine a minute ago, and now it's not going past the boot prompt... Been googling like mad, to no avail. Anyone? Thanks A

This thread has inspired me to drag my 90 out and megasquirt it. Well, the kit has only been lying there for about 3-4 years.. I'd say it's probably about time. ;-)

Thanks guys - the reason I had thought of the swirl-pot route wasn't so much to prevent fuel starvation, but because I plan on getting a custom tank made to take up the space between the roll cage bars in the back, that will also go down the sloped area of the rear of the cab - and that will mean that I'll be unlikely to be able to find a standard in-tank pump to fit it. I'm hoping that I can get my 10 gallons taking up as little room in that truck bed as possible. So it's not really that I'm concerned about starvation, more that I'd like to move the high-pressure pumping engine-side and use a simple external low-pressure getting it to the pot. Was aware that starvation in the tank is also a factor, but with a decent size pot I'd like to think I'll be the right way up again before the supply runs dry ;-) Think I'll speak to the fabricator tomorrow, see if he has any suggestions. He's pretty experienced and might have a good idea I hadn't thought of when he sees it... Thanks for all the advice so far folks - I'll probably be back ;-)

Can anyone recommend a nice simple external fuel pump suitable for a megasquirted 3.9 efi ? I'm going the swirl-pot in the engine-bay route because the fuel tank is going to be custom and it'll be easier to sort out with an external pump for that to feed the pot, and then on to the swirl pot for a good pressurising and burning (I reckons). Plus, lean-angles might mean less chance of starvation in the swirl and it'll save me having to ask the fabricator to baffle the tank etc. Trying to keep it simple. Oh, and the guy will probably know.. but any recommendations for hose-connector diameters so I don't restrict "things" ? I guess I'll go by the fuel-pump requirements.. when I get one. Anyone?