19 February 2000 After a great deal of messing about, head scratching and much cursing and bitching, the problems with the engine management chip have finally (hopefully) been cured. When all was said and done we had ditched just about everything except the black box that the chip came in. The original Gems unit was, to put it politely, a piece of shit, and the after sales support was worse than useless. Once Gems were finally convinced to take a look at their black box and see if there was anything wrong with it, it came back with a wire soldered directly onto the chip and the chip held onto the circuit board with a plastic cable tie! They refused to say what was actually wrong and then had the cheek to charge us for return postage!
So, we've had the whole unit refurbished by Lumenition, the makers of electronic ignition systems for all sorts of vehicles, including Minors.
It now has the latest version of the chip installed and has been on the rolling road for tuning. Shortly into testing, with only 66bhp registering at the wheels, the 'reconditioned' Ford Escort diff self-destructed! Bloody typical huh? We're going to have to claim a refund now - no point chancing another one. We've bitten the bullet and gone for a super-strong limited slip diff from Quaife Engineering. Quaife confidently state that you cannot break one of their diffs. They laugh in the face of tuned K-Series engines! That'll do us then!
So, the guy doing the engine/air-con/wiring raced off to get one and took it straight down to the rolling road to fit it. Back on track and into the testing and the engine is running well for several hours at a stretch. Lumention appear to have done a great job so far and have really put in some effort getting it up and running. Now that the tuners have done their bit we can confidently state that Moose has a healthy 160bhp in road tune! In race tune they reckon we should get about 175bhp. YAHOO!
We dropped in to see Moose unexpectedly the other day to see how they were getting on with the rest of it. The new Quaife limited slip diff was being refitted after a small gasket leak had developed - not surprising since it had been fitted in a hurry at the rolling road.
The car is looking good - it's fully painted and all the wood is on. Jonathon Heap from JLH Minor Restorations has fitted reversing lights in place of the old round reflectors - it looks like a standard fitting! We'll have to find somewhere else for reflectors but I think built-in reversing lights are worth it. The car's gonna look stunning out in the sunshine.
The Trav is on its way back to JLH on Monday 20th February for final fitment of the front end panels, some of the interior and fitment of the new front suspension setup. Jonathon has designed a replacement for the two-piece lower suspension arm and tie-rod. It comes as a one-piece A-frame which attaches to two points on the chassis rail. It provides camber and castor adjustment and can also be adjusted to compensate for slight misalignments in the chassis due to accident damage. It also provides a strong support for the new coil-over shock absorber.
All of this has to be done before Friday 25th February, because on Saturday morning it has to be at the Darley Moor race circuit for a special Modified Minor day organised and paid for by Top Gear magazine! Yes, TG want to do a feature on Minors, and when they saw our Trav they even delayed the original filming date by a month so that our car could be running. So, you can imagine our frustration with all the delays that things like the ECU and the diff have caused! Oh, please, please, please let the Trav get to Darley Moor!!
