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January 2004

Well, the start of a new year - will this be the year that MooSpeed IV finally hits the road ? Well, I'm not making any guarantees.

Last year I made the prediction that it'd be on the road and I really believed it. I figured it would be towards the end of summer as I was busy with getting married and taking loads of holidays so it just didn't get finished. This year we're having a new baby on the scene so I definitely won't be making any guarantees. Time was short enough before, I've been told that afterwards it becomes non-existent... ulp !!

The advantage now is that at least the engine has ran, this is a major milestone so progress has been made.

What's that - the engine has ran ??

Yep - that's right. I was determined to get the engine running before Christmas 2003 and I just about achieved it. It was only for about 10 minutes or so before a problem arose but it did indeed run. Sounds fan-bloomin-tastic, unsurprisingly just like a straight four superbike - you know, that menacing sewing machine sound...

Now, the problem. Well, the fuel pump issues had been sorted in the last installment and I'd hoped that'd be the end of it. However, my car obviously likes the smell of fuel because about 3 minutes after pressuring the fuel line petrol started spraying out the front of the engine. Bit mystified as I couldn't see initially how it was getting there. Turns out it was coming from the top of the float chambers on either carbs no. 1 or no.2. For some reason the exit pipe dumps straight onto the clutch cover - how odd ?!?

After stripping the carbs and finding nothing wrong I figured that it can only be what Yamaha call the needle valve set. I called the local Yamaha dealer and he told me he had a set. It's a tiny brass valve with a rubber cone that gets pressed into place by the float in the float chamber. Mr. Yamaha quoted about £25ish - fine, no problem. Went down to pick them up and the £25 was for one - what a rip-off !!! I had intended to replace them all but £100 to do this was crazy when a complete set of 2nd hand carbs are going for £40 on ebay.

I decided to buy one and hope for the best. No.1 was the dodgiest looking one, although as I said I couldn't see anything wrong with either of them and pressing on the valve whilst blowing through reassured me that both were working. Having replaced the valve in no.1 carb and sticking it all back together I pumped fuel through and... no different, still peeing petrol everywhere.

Thinking I'd be a bit scientific I measured the amount drained from all the carbs thinking that whatever one had the most in had to be the one that had the dodgy valve. This proved nothing as all drained exactly the same amount (within 5-10ml)

Carbs off AGAIN - swopped the new valve over to no. 2 and the original back into no. 1. Back on the engine, switch on the fuel pump and clonk.clonk.clonk.clonk..clonk..clonk....clonk....clonk....clonk........clonk.......clonk.... *silence*
Lovely - no leaks !! I suppose that logically speaking the no.2 would be the most pressurised as that's where the fuel line comes into the fuel rail for all the carbs.

Unfortunately as this was midnight a couple of days before Christmas it was time to pack up and do the family thing until after Christmas.

Back in the garage a week later, rolled the car outside after double and treble checking all the cables for short-circuits. Had to be careful as I've made my own wiring loom so I could mount the ECU behind the dashboard. Fired it up and wahay - luvvly jubbly.

Wasn't able to rev it up much because whenever the throttle was pressed more than a tiny amount it just cut out. It was happier after warming up for 10 minutes. Had to rush around tightening up the radiator hoses that I'd forgotten to tighten and discovered a major oil leak from the speedo sensor. This wasn't that surprising as I've made my own blanking plate to cover the speedo sensor hole - I wanted to get a sensor to block the hole but they're rarer than hen's teeth.

Here's the float chamber valves as mentioned above - the new one in the background. Both look identical apart from slight tarnishing on the old one. Blowing through them both seems to provide the same blocking action but one works and the other doesn't - go figure.
Managed to get my carb mouths cut off and turned down after searching high and low for someone who could do it. Eventually found that Paul Rogers off the Yahoo! BEC list could get it done - and for a really good price as well. Many thanks to Paul for coming up with the goods.
I've been attacking my carbon fibre sheets as well. The in-laws bought me a B&Q dremel-type tool with loads of bits for Christmas so had to give it a go. I've made up a baseplate for the Pipercross filter element. I could've bought an aluminium one but I would still have needed to cut the carb-holes, it would've been more expensive and this one weighs about the same as a packet of crisps (without the contents). I'm pretty happy with the way it's turned out and I needed to know how carbon-fibre would cut/sand/shape before cutting starting on the dashboard so - a result all round.

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