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February 2005

Jobs done since last update;

This is my shortlist of some of the stuff I've done to help prepare for the SVA test later this month (check below for SVA-day report). Obviously this list relates to my car but it may serve as something to look out for those at the same point of the build.

• Fit wheel centre caps - this is to get the rounded edges, without the caps external right angles are present which could fail protusion test.
• Cap off mirror bolts - these are where the side mirrors are fitted, the internal side of the bolt needs to be covered or rounded off in some way.
• Tape up air filter - this is as an attempt to reduce noise, if you failed the sound test due to 0.5 a dB then this "could" be all you need to do.
• Upgrade digidash - this was under guidance from the BEC group, it was picked up that the dash didn't display the top speed when starting up. You can actually get around with on the digidash with a fax from ETB. As mine was out of date I thought an upgrade wouldn't go amiss...
• Recess bonnet catches - This was to minimise failure due to external protusions
• Round off and fit reflectors - Something that surprised me was that reflectors don't need to be EU marked. If they are EU marked they need to be the correct markings. My indicators are pretty cheapy small things and they had a right angled edge, this has now been rounded off. If it failed because of a right-angled edge on a little plastic reflector being dangerous then it really would be a case for the Jobsworth award.
• Fit centre mirror - although I'm quite happy with just my convex side mirrors the examiner is looking to see certain markings with the car parked at a certain point. I've fitted an MR2 mirror bought off ebay for a couple of quid. I made up a mounting block to raise it up and maximise the view between the two highback seats and rollbar. The block looks horrible but if it does the job then that's all that matters - it could always fall off after the test.
• Align headlamps - bit obvious but something I've still not got round to doing. Didn't see much point prior to getting the bonnet alignment as I wanted it. I may visit an MOT station to get the alignment spot on...
• Align suspension - something else I've not got round to yet, the car drove surprisingly well considering it's all been setup by eye so far. Will try to do this a bit more accurately with my home made camber gauge. Thing to be aware of is the "self-centreing" test on SVA, at a set speed the wheel needs to return to the straight ahead. Something that seems a bit tricky in such a lightweight car.
• Fit carpets over edges - any right angled edges need to be covered. Be as fussy as you can because you're paying the examiner to be Mr. Picky Picky - don't want to give any minor reasons for failure. If it helps presentation then so much the better, although the SVA test isn't supposed to be subjective it's carried out by a human at the end of the day. If you've got a well-presented car you may well be treated leaniently on a borderline problem.
• Rent/fit cat & air - this is the air injection stuff for emissions control. Emissions can be tricky with carbs - this should do the trick.
• Fit wheel locking nut to car - just in case you need to get the wheels off on the day and then remember that the locking nut is sat at home on the shelf (been there - done that)
• Insure car for SVA day - surprisingly easy to forget. The thing is the insurance company will expect to receive your registration details within 30 days usually. So, after the first SVA to pick up the failure list, the second SVA to hopefully get the pass after the fail list has been rectified and then after the registration authorities have sorted their act out - that 30 days is starting to look a bit mean... I've yet to find a friendly understanding insurer, I wouldn't even mind paying a bit extra if they could cover 60 days.
• Fill tank to full - yep, the SVA people said I have to fill up with petrol before arriving. I don't know if this is down to the weight aspect or just because they don't want unfueled cars getting in the way - they won't test without a full tank though...
• Get all paperwork together - I don't know what paperwork I need yet but insurance and something that proves the engine age wouldn't go amiss. I've got a letter from Yamaha confirming the engine but as I'm not claiming it's pre-97 (for emissions purposes) I doubt that I even need this. For the registration I'll need mountains of paperwork - forms, receipts, declaration of newness, etc.
  

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  This is the air-bleed valve kit (circled in red). This, along with the cat-equipped exhaust should allow the car to pass through the stringent emissions tests. The problem with running carbs is that it's tricky to get the levels the tester is after. The kit has four air pipes that run out of two relays - these are paired to cylinder 1 & 3 and 2 & 4. The relays are activated by a control box which has a connection to the lambda sensor in the downpipe. Whenever the emissions go too high the relays kick in and let the air into the cylinders. It's a straightforward install made easier by Fisher's kit being modified with a piggy back spade connector to run off the brake light switch 12V, I had to remake the connection to the lambda (highlighted on lower picture) as it must have been damaged on a previous install. The main problem for me was that the brass pipes supplied with the kit would maybe be a press-fit somewhere on another bike engine but wouldn't fit on mine. On the R1 engine there are bolts on each inlet tract - I don't know what they're for but I do know that Rich Miles used these with a carbtune kit when he setup the same kit on his Striker. As I haven't got a carbtune and didn't particularly want to buy one I made up my own adaptors. All I did was to drill down through 4 cut-down M6 allen bolts, the hole was 3mm internally which corresponded to the size on the original brass tubes. Then I clamped a short length of rubber hose over the outside circular edge of the allen bolts and this then fitted over the brass bits. No doubt the carbtune method is more professional but the end result is the same. When it's active the system was clicking away madly to itself at the recommended 2000 rpm. I leaned off the carbs and then reduced to idle - after much fiddling I had it so that the valves were just clicking in and out every 30 seconds or so which I think is correct. Although I don't know if this is right I now know where to adjust it on the day.
  Although I've got two side mirrors with convex surfaces I've been told that I'd need a rear view mirror for the examiner to see the marking posts. I bought an MR2 mirror off of ebay which has a large surface area - hopefully with this mounted fairly high it'll pass the test. As the obstructions on rear view from that point will be the rollbar and the seat backs I can't do much more to give rearwards vision. As you can see, the mount made up to raise the mirror is fairly hideous - not my finest work. As long as it doesn't get picked up for a failure on exceeding protrusions it should be OK. As it's just for the test I'm not overly fussed what it looks like.
  Look what happens when you try and use cheap tools to tighten track-rod end tension nuts
  MooSpeed's no-expense spared camber gauge - no really, we spared not a single bit of expense...

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  SVA Day est arrivee

  Trust me to pick the day that a severe weather warning is issued. Driving to the centre wasn't too bad, just got cold and wet.

  Driving back was mad - very thick snow so I could only do about 20mph, couldn't see anything apart from the edges of the road and the glowing speed from the digidash. Hands were so frozen where I was continually wiping snow from my visor that I couldn't actually operate the switches properly - luckily being toggle switches it was a case of nudging them with my frozen fingers. When I got back my knuckles were cracked and bleeding where I'd been flexing my hands try and keep the circulation going

  	Told you it was cold...
  This was half an hour after I got back - snow still melting...	This camper van only parked up for 20 minutes !!

  Failed the test, not exactly unexpected but end result not too shabby - passed a whole load of stuff that could've been awkward;

  - Emissions; couldn't acheive 1.0 lambda although HC and CO passed with flying colours. When he said I'd failed emissions I naturally thought too much fuel and fiddled with the carbs to lean them off a bit. He said that it had got worse so I decided to let it fail on that to save me cocking up the engine and the carb setup any more. Turns out that I had managed to make them leaner but that was the problem in the first place. The lambda reading of 1.338 indicated that it was too lean - the higher the figure the leaner it is apparently. The max is 1.003 so it was miles out.

  - Headlamp beam and aim; initial failure was because the snow had fogged up the perspex covers - I removed this and he retested but then there wasn't enough range of adjustment on the headlamp to meet the requirements. I'll have to pack it out with washers and find a friendly MOT place where I can have mess about with it.

  - Mirrors; Not enough surface area - they need to be min 70mm high and mine are 62mm - this is despite these exact mirrors passing SVA on other people's cars...grumble grumble

  - Sound test; 103dB @ 6,500rpm - need 101dB max. It might have got through if the engine hadn't been "popping", I think the popping might be down to either my carb adjustments or air getting in the exhaust where it connects to the manifold.

  - Wiring; there's a single wire going to the temperature sendor on the rad - even though there's nothing it could wear on and it's only a couple of inches long it needs to be covered.

  A comment was also made about the reflectors not being exactly vertical so wouldn't provide much reflection and also that the handbrake could do with moving another "click" more. It holds the car on two clicks but that's the end of it's travel on the tunnel top so I need to open it out a bit more.

  He didn't fail it on these points, I must say that he gave me every opportunity to try and fix things and even made some suggestions. There was one chap there who seemed to be a "jobsworth" but luckily he only popped by every now and then during the test to throw in the occasional negative remark and then went away again.

  

  
  

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