Tuesday saw me finally heading to Manchester to collect my latest E-Bay buy, a partially completed electric FIAT Cinquecento. As i struggle to say that dumb Italian word convincingly I will refer to it as the 500, or as Project Mint (Minty) as he has now been christened.
My top bid was £250, but I actually bought at £215, less I suppose the 6 pence I found in the car when I cleared the junk out of it. So £214.94 is my outlay so far. £50 for trailer hire plus my petrol costs saw "Minty" heading Hull wards.
The car has been partially converted to electricity, and is (was?) driving, but needs many problems resolving beofre it is roadworthy. A brief list of the obvious faults is as follows;
Ply showing through on one tyre, puncture probably fatal in another - four new tyres seem likely.
The horn doesn't work.
Neither do the headlights. Probably because the bulbs are missing.
Or the front indicators - well they do work after a fashion - they flash the sidelights - an earthing problem and no big deal, easily fettled..
The windscreen washers don't wash - although I found the pipe todat which has a joint whcih has broken, so a simple connector will fix that for pennies.
The drivers seat has a big split in it, so will need a new seat or a set of cheapy covers. I rather fancy a bucket racing seat.
That's the basics for the car as such - now to the electrical system,
The batteries are fitted under the rear seat, in a cradle, accesibkle by a hole cut in the floor - and that''s it. The rear seat passengers are liable to get wet and cold when water starts coming in. I plan to fabricate some sort of box to cradle the batteries and keep them spill proof and secure.There is room for four more batteries in the boot, a rude framework has been constructed but it empty at present. There is one battery under the bonnet, so it's running on 60 volts at presnt, but was intended for 72 on the controller, there is room for another 2 batteries under the bonnet (three more actually after a little tidying) and possibly four more behind the bumper. Possibly 16 in total which would give 192 Volts of power! A seperate 12 volt battery maintains the original 12 volts system for lights radio etc, and this battery is tiny compared with the 72 a/h batteries used for the motor. I have two options - Replace it with a larger capacity battery for more longevity (the car has electric windows and will need some sort of 12 volt heater arrangement, plus a stero - I can't live without one, plus it has to take care of heated rear window, lights and wipers) The second option is to put a further traction battery in it's place taking it to up to 204 volts, and then using a converter to supply down to 12 volts for the standard systems - thsi is not my favourite route as converting voltage means loses in efficiency.
Next the car need some sort of charging system rigging up. I intend to have an on board charger of some sort, so that it is simply a case of plugging in to a three pin socket. The car has come with a rather Heath Robinson 240v to 110 v site supply with a variable resistor attached in the supply line so that you can reduce from 110 volt down to whatever you need, measured with a handheld ameter or voltmeter. This will probably be replaced with a bespoke charger once the final voltage is decided on. I think 72 volts shoudl be enough on such a small car, and any extra batteries can be mounted in paralell as a backup reserve supply, rather than serial to increas the voltage. That would give extended range.
After the charging is sorted I need some sort of heater - possible 3 x ceramic heaters, rigged up into the existign heater set up so that the air vents and demister astill work effectively.
Also on the list of to does is a brake vacuum pump system. A bespoke electric vacuum to replace the engine vacuum normally provided by the petrol engine is available at around £250 from Taiwan. However a scrapyard may yet provide an alternative option as I am advised that the Mazda MX5 used an electric vacuum pump for that very purpose. The brakes do work, as I backed th ecar off the trailer under power and foud they eeded a good hard shove but did stop the car. The vacuum servo would make it a whole lot easier.
Anyhow today saw project Mint start with a bang (well a spark anyway). I have ripped out a load of gubbings not needed, like the air filter bracket and support whcih were part of the gearbox mount - a very heavy over engineered bracket for what it did. Angle grinder came in very useful thanks. Various other brackets and useless bits came off giving a net weight saving of 6kg once I'd weighed it up.
I also started tidying up the poor wiring of the car but I must have got something wrong.... the battery pack was almost flat last night, but still gave off one hell of a spark when I attahced it - there's a short there somewhere, not anything I've done toady sop far as I can tell, but big enough to melt the battery terminal when I connected. It'll have to wait until Saturday at soonest until I can trace things and see what has gone wrong.
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Project Mint
Okay a few of you may remember that in my youth I drove a 5.2 litre Chrysler Le Baron. This was before Global Warming was invented (I still don't beleive it myself) and was before I was married with a mortgage and kids. At the time I didn;t worry about only doing 15 miles per gallon because petrol was only about £2 a Gallon, not £2 a litre which is what we are heading for now.
As time moves on I have gone downsize in cars and have tried various alternative options to save money and as an unintended sid effect, maybe just saving the planaet too. First I drove a diesel for a while, which was a revelation in terms of economy and torque, but that old Escort ran out of puff just when you needed it, so that on a spirited drive cross country you almost felt like you were rowing it, you changed gear so often. Next, influenced by the fleet at work i had an LPG converted Volvo followed by a Jeep also running on ther cheap gassy stuff. Okay, cheap but both were not without their problems - The Volvo once exploded under my boses window (the car park was on the first floor of the building and his office was right overhead on the stilted part of the building. This very nearly caused a terrorism alert. The Jeep decided it like LPG so much that it refused to run on petrol - a problem on holiday as we were in Keilder Forest a long way from an LPG station.
So from there I went to a microcar running a diesel engine which to me even meaner and greener I converted to run on Vegetable Oil, which I then secured a free supply of from a local Cafe. When Kermit croaked he was replaced by a Citroen AX, and more lately by Mervin, the Fiesta Courier Van whose bargain basement adventures you may read of below. Mervin loves Veg Oil, and returns the equivalent of 80 mpg in cost comparison terms using new Veg oil instead of Diesel (my free source at the cafe dried up when it closed)
However, in seeking newer even greener alternatives to save money, the planet and to provide further entertainment I am please to annouince the arrival, all the way from Ebayland, project Mint - my first all electric vehicle! read more above.
As time moves on I have gone downsize in cars and have tried various alternative options to save money and as an unintended sid effect, maybe just saving the planaet too. First I drove a diesel for a while, which was a revelation in terms of economy and torque, but that old Escort ran out of puff just when you needed it, so that on a spirited drive cross country you almost felt like you were rowing it, you changed gear so often. Next, influenced by the fleet at work i had an LPG converted Volvo followed by a Jeep also running on ther cheap gassy stuff. Okay, cheap but both were not without their problems - The Volvo once exploded under my boses window (the car park was on the first floor of the building and his office was right overhead on the stilted part of the building. This very nearly caused a terrorism alert. The Jeep decided it like LPG so much that it refused to run on petrol - a problem on holiday as we were in Keilder Forest a long way from an LPG station.
So from there I went to a microcar running a diesel engine which to me even meaner and greener I converted to run on Vegetable Oil, which I then secured a free supply of from a local Cafe. When Kermit croaked he was replaced by a Citroen AX, and more lately by Mervin, the Fiesta Courier Van whose bargain basement adventures you may read of below. Mervin loves Veg Oil, and returns the equivalent of 80 mpg in cost comparison terms using new Veg oil instead of Diesel (my free source at the cafe dried up when it closed)
However, in seeking newer even greener alternatives to save money, the planet and to provide further entertainment I am please to annouince the arrival, all the way from Ebayland, project Mint - my first all electric vehicle! read more above.
Monday, 19 October 2009
Mervin Motors on (continued)
For a long while, since last May in fact, Mervin has had a fault with his starter motor. On rare occasions, usually at the most inconvenient times he woud fail to start. More accurately he would fail to try to start. The starter just wouldn't engage and turn at all. At first I suspected an immobilser fault. Mervin was ex-British Airways and had two different alarm systems and a tracker installed, so his wiring is somewhat haywire, and I suspected the fault lay there.
Strangley the problem would manifest itself initially only at B & Q, which was wierd, as we have two branches locally and it happened consistently at both. You could start from cold, drive to B & Q and on attemptign to drive away with a warm engine the starter would fail to engage. He would start no problem with a push start. After suspecting a faulty battery, then the immobiliser triggered by some wierd radio mast interference (Both B & Q's have phone masts nearby) I eventually began to experience the problem elsewhere and diagnosed the starter solenoid as the source of the problem. The age old cure was applied (hitting it wiv a big 'ammer) and this worked for a while. I got used to parking front end out in case I had to push start, and facing the car downhill.
The problem occurred maybe every 6 or 7 days, and only ever when the car was warm, so it didn't let me down that often and always started easily with a push, which didn't bother me unduly, Mervins a lighweight and easily push started single handedly. It does however cause the nine year old daughter embarrasment at dance class apparently.
A new starter motor was going to be a major investment given Mervins street value of about £200 (including road tax and a full tank of fuel) so I held out until the day he let me down four times running as did local errands. I got him home and on examing the situation, sure enough the solenoid had jammed completely.
Thursday saw me stripping the starter motor off the van, not an easy feat in itself, involving as it did the removal of half the engine mount, but it came off eventually. I spent a morning cleaning the solenoid assembly and honing the bore, which was glazed and dirty looking. A spray of Asda brand WD40 and reassembly saw the car starting perfectly for oh, all of three times before the main starter motor failed to turn. The solenoid worked beautifully, if i may say so, clicking away nicely. The problem I later learned was that when the wiring is disturbed, the internal connections in the starter motor are disturbed too, and are often so oxidised and corroded that the delicate contact fractures. Now whilst I know enough about 'lectrickery to clean and rebuild the solenoid the main motor was beyond my ken.
Fortunatley we have a garage. Sisons, nearby in Hull who are motor rewind specialists. Could they rebuild my starter - yes they could, and at a reasonable price too. Better still, for the smae money £65, they could sell me a ready recondtioned one off the shelf on an exchange basis. Deal done.
New starter fitted and Mervin now starts like an eager thing that wants to start and get on with the day. In the recent past I have had to start him almsot immediatley I stuck the key in, otherwise the solenoid jammed as it warmed up. But that made starting difficult becasue the veg oil heater didn;t have time to reach temperature. Now it does, meaning cleaner easier and considerably quicker starts. Half a turn of the engine has got to be better at 6 a.m. than a diesel churning over for 30 or 40 seconds at a time 7 or 8 times, spluttering and coughing. Hopefully my neighbours are grateful.
Whilst in the fettling mood I also discovered that half of the oil heater wasn;t working due to a blown fuse - probably also a result of all the cold cranking. That was promptly changed.
And another irritating fault was fixed. Mervin has a bulkhead with a slot for the rear view and "emergency access" about twice the size of the average letter box. This allows a restricted but useful view with the interior mirror. Or at least ot would do if the rear view mirror didn't bounce aorund hanging off the sticky pad which fixes it to the windscreen. Well, with a further investment of a pound for a new sticky pad and a few minutes to clean the old one off and fix the new I now have a rock steady view to the rear. Which is nice. If I had been able to see behind me, and into the back of the van I wouldn't have brought home 6 parking cones and a bag of road grit which a colleague kindly loaded into the back as a joke!
With Mervin runing fine I now have to find another project to spend time on and I think Ebay might just have provided me with the very thing. Watch this space.
Strangley the problem would manifest itself initially only at B & Q, which was wierd, as we have two branches locally and it happened consistently at both. You could start from cold, drive to B & Q and on attemptign to drive away with a warm engine the starter would fail to engage. He would start no problem with a push start. After suspecting a faulty battery, then the immobiliser triggered by some wierd radio mast interference (Both B & Q's have phone masts nearby) I eventually began to experience the problem elsewhere and diagnosed the starter solenoid as the source of the problem. The age old cure was applied (hitting it wiv a big 'ammer) and this worked for a while. I got used to parking front end out in case I had to push start, and facing the car downhill.
The problem occurred maybe every 6 or 7 days, and only ever when the car was warm, so it didn't let me down that often and always started easily with a push, which didn't bother me unduly, Mervins a lighweight and easily push started single handedly. It does however cause the nine year old daughter embarrasment at dance class apparently.
A new starter motor was going to be a major investment given Mervins street value of about £200 (including road tax and a full tank of fuel) so I held out until the day he let me down four times running as did local errands. I got him home and on examing the situation, sure enough the solenoid had jammed completely.
Thursday saw me stripping the starter motor off the van, not an easy feat in itself, involving as it did the removal of half the engine mount, but it came off eventually. I spent a morning cleaning the solenoid assembly and honing the bore, which was glazed and dirty looking. A spray of Asda brand WD40 and reassembly saw the car starting perfectly for oh, all of three times before the main starter motor failed to turn. The solenoid worked beautifully, if i may say so, clicking away nicely. The problem I later learned was that when the wiring is disturbed, the internal connections in the starter motor are disturbed too, and are often so oxidised and corroded that the delicate contact fractures. Now whilst I know enough about 'lectrickery to clean and rebuild the solenoid the main motor was beyond my ken.
Fortunatley we have a garage. Sisons, nearby in Hull who are motor rewind specialists. Could they rebuild my starter - yes they could, and at a reasonable price too. Better still, for the smae money £65, they could sell me a ready recondtioned one off the shelf on an exchange basis. Deal done.
New starter fitted and Mervin now starts like an eager thing that wants to start and get on with the day. In the recent past I have had to start him almsot immediatley I stuck the key in, otherwise the solenoid jammed as it warmed up. But that made starting difficult becasue the veg oil heater didn;t have time to reach temperature. Now it does, meaning cleaner easier and considerably quicker starts. Half a turn of the engine has got to be better at 6 a.m. than a diesel churning over for 30 or 40 seconds at a time 7 or 8 times, spluttering and coughing. Hopefully my neighbours are grateful.
Whilst in the fettling mood I also discovered that half of the oil heater wasn;t working due to a blown fuse - probably also a result of all the cold cranking. That was promptly changed.
And another irritating fault was fixed. Mervin has a bulkhead with a slot for the rear view and "emergency access" about twice the size of the average letter box. This allows a restricted but useful view with the interior mirror. Or at least ot would do if the rear view mirror didn't bounce aorund hanging off the sticky pad which fixes it to the windscreen. Well, with a further investment of a pound for a new sticky pad and a few minutes to clean the old one off and fix the new I now have a rock steady view to the rear. Which is nice. If I had been able to see behind me, and into the back of the van I wouldn't have brought home 6 parking cones and a bag of road grit which a colleague kindly loaded into the back as a joke!
With Mervin runing fine I now have to find another project to spend time on and I think Ebay might just have provided me with the very thing. Watch this space.
Mervin motors on.
For those following the trials of Mervin, my bargain basement van, here are more tales of his adventures.
Mervin threwa wobbler week before last when he was asked to do a cross town journey at rush hour. Normally he performs perfectly, although he doesn't like early morning starts - rather like me in that respect. And we both hate rush hour. This particular rush hour was a doozer though. A fire at a waste recycling centre had caused half the roads in the city to be closed off due to the nasty smoke and fumes, with the result that all the traffic has seemingly been pushed onto the one cross town road remaining. What should have been a 40 minute jouney on a normal day had stretched to a good hour and a half of sitting motionless and carwling an inch or so at a time, with about 4 miles still to go to reach an important conference venue when Mervin threw what is best described as a hissy fit. He got all hot and bothered and leaked his coolant all over the tarmac. With the temperature gauge needle trying to bend around the red stop I limped him into a filling station and raised the bonnet. Examination showed no coolant left at all and a tell tale brown stain on the header tank return hose. Closer examination showed that this had been rubbing against the metal clip of the air filter box for 15 years, with the end result of the sidewall of the hose weakening and eventually splitting under the excess heat and pressure of the rush hour crawl.
Now I may have touched before on the topic of modern filling stations and this one was no different. It stocked something like 42 different flavours of crisps, overpriced curled up sandwiches and lukewarm fizzy drinks, but nothing remotely useful to the stranded motorist. However a short walk away was a bicycle shop. Now there is an industry that looks after it's customers. They sell bikes AND the bits to repair them. Sadly they did not have the header tank hose for a 1994 Ford Courier diesel van, although they did, for some strange reason have a Jaguar cycle on display. Ford owned Jaguar for a while, but none of the parts on the bike looked compatable with Mervins chassis. I was however able to purchase a puncture repair outfit and role of elecrtrical insulation tape with a get you home bodge in mind.
Heath Robinson inspired repair then took place. After allowing a suitable cooling period lashings of glue and a puncture repair patch were applied to the split hose and a makeshift bandage crafted from tape. Attached to the useless filling station was one of those Hand Wash car wash places, absent of any of the usual Migrant staff (well is was only 9.45 by now) and as they generally sit around drinking between scrathing your paintwork with a moist rag I managed to find a couple of useful empty bottles with whcih to fill up the radiator system using the leaky tap conveniently attached to the nearby wall of what was once the mechanised car wash, before Polish migrants were invented to do it by hand (oh err!)
This bodge worked so well that I haven't bothered to replace the hose. Total repair cost £2.
Mervin was so over joyed with this mechanical attention that he promptly failed to proceed again with another problem more about which follows.
Mervin threwa wobbler week before last when he was asked to do a cross town journey at rush hour. Normally he performs perfectly, although he doesn't like early morning starts - rather like me in that respect. And we both hate rush hour. This particular rush hour was a doozer though. A fire at a waste recycling centre had caused half the roads in the city to be closed off due to the nasty smoke and fumes, with the result that all the traffic has seemingly been pushed onto the one cross town road remaining. What should have been a 40 minute jouney on a normal day had stretched to a good hour and a half of sitting motionless and carwling an inch or so at a time, with about 4 miles still to go to reach an important conference venue when Mervin threw what is best described as a hissy fit. He got all hot and bothered and leaked his coolant all over the tarmac. With the temperature gauge needle trying to bend around the red stop I limped him into a filling station and raised the bonnet. Examination showed no coolant left at all and a tell tale brown stain on the header tank return hose. Closer examination showed that this had been rubbing against the metal clip of the air filter box for 15 years, with the end result of the sidewall of the hose weakening and eventually splitting under the excess heat and pressure of the rush hour crawl.
Now I may have touched before on the topic of modern filling stations and this one was no different. It stocked something like 42 different flavours of crisps, overpriced curled up sandwiches and lukewarm fizzy drinks, but nothing remotely useful to the stranded motorist. However a short walk away was a bicycle shop. Now there is an industry that looks after it's customers. They sell bikes AND the bits to repair them. Sadly they did not have the header tank hose for a 1994 Ford Courier diesel van, although they did, for some strange reason have a Jaguar cycle on display. Ford owned Jaguar for a while, but none of the parts on the bike looked compatable with Mervins chassis. I was however able to purchase a puncture repair outfit and role of elecrtrical insulation tape with a get you home bodge in mind.
Heath Robinson inspired repair then took place. After allowing a suitable cooling period lashings of glue and a puncture repair patch were applied to the split hose and a makeshift bandage crafted from tape. Attached to the useless filling station was one of those Hand Wash car wash places, absent of any of the usual Migrant staff (well is was only 9.45 by now) and as they generally sit around drinking between scrathing your paintwork with a moist rag I managed to find a couple of useful empty bottles with whcih to fill up the radiator system using the leaky tap conveniently attached to the nearby wall of what was once the mechanised car wash, before Polish migrants were invented to do it by hand (oh err!)
This bodge worked so well that I haven't bothered to replace the hose. Total repair cost £2.
Mervin was so over joyed with this mechanical attention that he promptly failed to proceed again with another problem more about which follows.
And again....
Further to my last post, add electrocuted (again) October 2009. Of course, I'm getting used to it by now. This time it was whilst decorating the Hall. It seems my outdoor doorside lamp is wired throguh two different trip fuses on two circuits. Note to self - turn BOTH off in future.
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