Skoda Rally Blog

The plan this weekend was to get the car running on the new setup, and run the engine in a bit with some gentle driving. To that end I had a few things to do which would probably take a fair while, but would mean that everything was done to a “final” standard rather than chucked together and then needing doing again. First up were wiring modifications – moving the inlet air temperature sensor (to somewhere useful rather than just hanging about the engine bay) meant the original cable was too short. What I didn’t want to do was butcher the original loom and end up with a mess (although I could do it to a high standard). Instead I preferred plug-in extensions, but getting hold of a ‘plug’ wasn’t immediate – they’re not an off-the shelf item, and wiring looms don’t have them hanging about. So I cut the plug off of a spare injector and soldered the extension to that, but that (despite being very strong) wouldn’t be too reliable, so I strengthened it with araldite, making for a strong and corrosion-proof job. Once taped up it looked good.

Next was all the little things I had to finish off – exhaust clips, gearbox oil, linkage back on, etc.

The other issue I’d had since putting the new management on the car was probably one that many may see as minor, but it was annoying – the temperature gauge didn’t work. That might sound a bit petty, but it’s the only bit of instrumentation that’s given for the engine in the Felicia, and an important one. The reason was that there is a dual-purpose sender in the engine on a standard Felicia – one sensor for the engine, one for the temperature gauge. This is for two reasons – firstly they need a different resistance and secondly it makes good sense to separate the two signals. This had been replaced with a single one for the DTA setup, and meant no gauge. However, I connected everything up, and then connected the laptop and saw… that the current temperature sender was COMPLETELY wrong – it was saying 2 degrees, a full 15 too low. I’d measured the resistance of it before (comparing it to the Felicia sender) and thought the Felicia one was wrong. Turns out the DTA one was the issue, which meant… with some re-cabling I could use the original sensor AND get the temperature gauge back. A similar job was done to the other extension, but in this case there were more cables (four in total), and it meant adding an earth connector as well as a link to the original loom connector. An hour in total to do it all, but it was all done really neatly, and meant that the whole loom was totally done, and to a final standard. But by this time it was mid afternoon.

Got the LM-1 connected, and made up a ‘starter’ switch – the DTA doesn’t like being turned off (you can mess the memory up), so a remote starter removes the need for this – and fired it up. Once it had warmed up a bit, the controls worked OK, and finally I think it can be tuned. However it’s SO far out it’ll need some on-road work just to get it driveable, and to that end I fixed everything in place ready to drive it (cable-tying everything in place so none of the extra cables would be an issue, and then did the final checks to everything, and put the wheels on.

Started it up, and pushed the clutch down….

BANG.

A stream of expletives left my mouth, and the clutch pedal didn’t leave the floor.

Dammit, the clutch!

So, back on the stands, and an hour later I was looking at a scene of confusion – the release bearing had gone INSIDE the clutch. And over the next hour a horrible story of error evolved. The flywheel I’d put on was what I thought was an MPi flywheel. But it turns out it wasn’t. It had been machined especially for a racing clutch, but I’d mistaken this as I’d put (without knowing) a fabia pressure plate on (which fitted just fine as it wasn’t as deep), and this hadn’t been something I’d noticed until it was too late. Way too late.

So, replace the flywheel, then. They’re all balanced off the engine, so there shouldn’t be a problem. BUT I’d had the crank dowelled, and that WAS a problem – a new flywheel would need the exact same size hole in the same place. But with some clever work (and a pillar drill that I’d never assembled!), I managed it – well enough for it to fit on nice and tight as it should do. And that was the end of play on Saturday.

Sunday – chucking it down is the only way to describe it. I’m working outside, so there was no chance of anything getting done on the car itself, but I did spend the afternoon sorting out other things – the intercoms needed fixing, and in addition I’ve NEVER liked the way the OMP ones connect – they use a DIN plug which needs to be rotated to the right orientation before it’ll plug in. So I’ve rewired the whole headset and replaced the DIN plug with a jack socket… which I’ve fixed to the side of the helmet (with the already-provided threaded hole, so no safety issues).

Another area which is annoying is camera control – having to get out of the car to turn the camera on and off is a pain (and often not possible if we’re tight on time), so I bought a LANC controller for this, but it doesn’t work when recording from the external camera. The camera’s original remote DOES do this, but gives no visual feedback of it playing or not. Thankfully the two together do, so a remote extender has been bought to allow this to happen properly.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be OK, so I should get it all back in one piece. Here’s hoping…