Talk about frustrating.

Thought I'd sort out the headlight bulbs now the nights are drawing in.
N/S headlight was brighter than the O/S.
O/S full beam wasn't working.
Wanted to fir my LED side light bulbs.

Changed the O/S bulbs with no problem.
Couldn't find my spare LED 501's so the sidelight didn't get changed.

Started on the N/S full beam, couldn't get the clip to go back until eventually it fell out, no problem, my long reach magnet on a stick got it out of the bowl but there's not enough room to get it back in without taking the battery out.

So I thought I'd leave that and just do the headlight, darn clip falls out!

OK then, as the battery has to come out I may as well finish moving it to the boot, turns out that due to the rear end repairs I can't get the tray as far back as I did in GV51 so the box I had built does not fit over the battery!

Apart from that, it all went smoothly!!!!

Is a pain when it all goes tits up, but nowadays I start on a job expecting it to all go wrong.

End up, doing it up and taking it to my friendly garage.

:rambo::rambo::rambo:

Very tidy, i like :thumbsup:

Looking good.

How are you finding the difference in the two with the manifolds on the MK2? You just need some nice lightweight wheels now, perhaps in grey :carrrot:? And more pics of the car required, two mentions of washing her with no picture of the result - tut.

I don't think the mk2 has manifolds, the mk1 doesn't.

Not changing the exterior of the car, I've got the Maestro for that, this is meant to be an enhanced version of the standard car and it is my daily driver after all.

The quality of the fittings on the mk1 are defiantly better than the mk2, well they were until I swapped them, I still need to add the second horn, I still hesitate to use it for fear of ridicule.

I have washed it again, did the ZS, ZR and F, washed and dried in under an hour but no photos as it was dark.

More importantly - I now have power in the shed - :mbounce:

Just reading back - I didn't update after earlier posts.

I managed to get all the bulbs in after much fiddling, only to find that the full beams were pointing to the trees, nobody had told me that the bulbs are the other way up to the dipped beams.

With that sorted and blue tungsten side light bulbs I am now happy, the colour of the Philips Blue Lighters is much better than O/E bulbs and the extra wattage makes a lot of difference.

I've not got the battery in the boot to work properly yet, I suspect the battery I've fitted isn't quite up to the job and due to the Clifford I daren't take the front one out until the back one is working properly.

I haven't devoted much time to the car as TBH I'm not in a car frame of mind at the moment - I need to be, MOT is due in a month, there is a knocking on part load at part power from the front, the disks are shot, I've only just started wiring up the heated screen, she hit 90k yesterday so the belts are on borrowed distance as well as borrowed time now........................

What are the issues with the battery to boot James ?, when I did mine I eventually ended up with a diesel battery and higher output alternator.

When I did GV51 I stuck a brand new battery in the boot, disconnected the old one and she was fine until the battery was about 4 years old and stopped holding charge overnight.

With FE54 I followed the same fitting pattern except I made my one power cable rather than one out of a M3 that needed extending. I then took the 6 month old battery (the replacement for the first battery) out of GV51 and stuck it in the boot of FE54 and connected it. I then disconnected the front battery.

There wasn't enough power from the rear battery to start her so I temporally connected the front one to start her. Then disconnected it so the rear one would charge. I tried this several times and then got bored.

I should really bring the rear battery in and do a recondition charge - Mrs TC will be pleased as I can now do this in my workshop.

sounds a good hide away.

Hope its all sorted for next month.

:wizard::wizard::wizard:

Tried getting a bit done yesterday afternoon after getting back from Sainsburys but with an hours light left I wasn't that hopeful.

Started by dealing with the wires that I had already soldered to the tails for the heated front screen. I am using some cable left over from laying a heated floor in the conservatory, as I had one length each of blue and brown I soldered each end to the tails from the window. Today the first thing I did today was snip the cables, big mistake as I then loosened the cover over the wiper chamber and discovered the grommet for the wiper electrics is at the drivers side and the near side cables only just reach.

Simples me thinks, shorten the driver side cable and lengthen the passenger side by soldering more wire on - easy 'cept me gas powered soldering iron decided to lose power and now hardly melts butter, let alone solder.

CBA to get out an extension lead and most are on xmas lights anyway. This will just have to wait.

So I go to put it all back together and decide to sort the drivers wiper at the same time as the fitting keeps sliding along the arm and I'm worried that the blade will fall off leading to some metal arm on glass action - it would appear that at some point someone has closed up the loop on the arm so that the fitting slides over it, another simples - open up the loop - just made it worse - now I have a passenger wiper on the drivers side and a trip to the scrappy booked............

Not much help now.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...psbb4dfce8.jpg

Didn't you make a new hole at the passenger end for yours?

Yes, just behind the engine bay fuse box.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...ps6340d216.jpg

The trip to the scrappy on the 24th was a fail - direct road closed due to fallen trees, picked up a chip on the windscreen, road to scrappy flooded so had to go a different way, scrappy closed, direct road appeared to be now open so went back that way only to end up helping the chainsaw gangs by removing branches from the road in 3 locations.


However the trip on the 28th went better. Sadly Welshones ZS had gone so no wiper arms from that, a R45 donated instead (£2) along with the seat airbag plugs so I can adapt the ones in GV51 to work with mk2 airbags. I also found a mk2 R25 with chrome vent rings and a TM clock.

Then on new years eve £8.44 for a pair of aero blades from ECP and I now have wipers again.

I wasn't convinced by the chrome rings but Mrs TC liked them so I fitted them yesterday, I even managed to reconnect all the veins, well on three, the forth (well first one I tried) has died a horrible death so tomorrow will see another trip to the scrappy.

Rather than replacing the whole vent I have found a way to remove the rotating part by levering between the open and closed marks.

Finally I think I got to the bottom of the battery to boot problem - the battery was knackered even though it is less than a year old. Last night I charged it for a couple of hours at 2 amps and it went from 8 volts to 14.4 volts in a couple of hours, should take about 8 hours. Also the reading on the charger was changing by about half a volt when it should be steady. A couple of hours after coming off charge it was down to 12.54v and this morning it was at 11.74. By the time I got it to Halfords at 3pm it was down to 8 "amps".

It sounds like the battery has expired early.

I like the chrome vents they make the oe Silver ones look cheap and nasty.

Leaving it in GV51 for several months unused for several months didn't help.

Since day one I've planned to spray the O/E rings to match the door inserts, I still may.

I got a vent but not the one I went for, the car that gave up the rings had gone, strange thing was that it was in the middle of a row which was untouched sincce last visit except a few that had gone from the middle ncluding the ZR.

No, I was walking around aimlessly when I noticed two of them sitting under the wheel arch of a Jag, strange.

£2 lighter and I was on the way home.

Nice lucky find then, I prefer the 45 vent rings too, they feel better to operate too IMO.

I'd agree about the operation, defiantly turn more smoothly. However I always leave them closed so it makes little odds.

P.S. You win the prize for reply 100.

I'm the opposite, mine are near always open lol.

I shall wait patiently for my telegram from the auld yin now :D

Just tried the new soldering iron on the heated screen tails - not heating enough to melt the solder, thinking this can't be right I tried it on some other cable and boom, soldered in 10 seconds, I guess the heated floor cable must be treated to dissipate heat quickly - ebay here I come for some more suitable cable.

So I bought some 40amp cable - just tried soldering it but it's still not taking it, possibly because the wind is a tad strong! Gonna shot to the local factors and buy some crimp terminals!

On the plus side, I've eventually wired up the MGF mirror.

Crimp terminals should give you a good sound connection.

but I`m after an electrical connection.......

I wanted soldered connections as they are less prone to damp problems.

-------------------------------
posted from my TV

I see what you did there.

Well, that went well, not!

Got the cable for the heated screen all in place - both sets of tails crimped and run through the grommet for the wiper wiring, through the bulk head to the inner fusebox, then under the dash and out of the other bulkhead grommet to the engine bay fuse box along with a trigger wire for the relays. I then connected the relays next to the inner fusebox and the cables to the engine bay fuse box as per Petes "how to".

Everything was done and the tools away by 5pm. The relays were clicking on and off when I operated the HRW switch and the front screen heated.

At 10.30pm we went out to collect my daughter and friends from the airport, dropped the other two home and got back here for about midnight - the screen worked well.

Then at 6am I got in the car for work - the battery was completely flat, not even enough charge for the clock! Jumped it and drove to work where I disconnected the main power lead and the relay & fuse for the HRW. At 4.30 when I finished the battery was just as dead.

Jumped her again and drove home - disconnected the switching lead to the relays and now have no more battery drain!

So I guess I'll be looking at relays on Saturday.

On the plus side - I emptied the boot for the girls luggage - I'm sure the car is quicker.

Have your relays failed ?

A misplaced constant live perhaps or a dodgy relay

Not sure but I've done something wrong wiring the relays.

Did you splice into the hrw feed to operate the relays ?.

Yeah, the blue/yellow in the white plug under the external fusebox.

Strange if you've you've got a drain to earth from there, are your relays still operating for the front screen.

The Blue and Yellow is ignition controlled, so it shouldn't be live with the ignition off, and the front screen is on a timed cycle like the hrw.

Just a random thought, you're not using latching relays ?.

http://www.extremeautoaccessories.co...1304710880.jpg

That's not latching is it.

It doesn't look like it, to be sure it would need 12v and an earth applied to terminal 85 & 86, if it clicks when you apply power, and then clicks again when you remove power it's a normal relay, if it doesn't click when you remove power then it's a latching relay.

The coil symbol between 85 & 86 is for a normal relay, so non latching.

85 - connected to blue/yellow - 12v when engine running and HRW is on, 0v at other times.
86 - connected to earth - 12v when engine running and HRW is on, 0v at other times.
87 - connected to constant live - 12v at all times.
30 - connected to front screen - 12v when relay on, 0v when relay off.

That all makes sense - what doesn't is no resistance between the switched live 85 and earth regardless of it being connected to the relay or not.

How can it cause battery drain when plugged to the relay?

That's very odd, the readings for the relays are fine, I can't really see how it can be draining the battery.

I would have said that the heated screen draining the battery was a Red Herring, but for the fact that it doesn't do it when the feed for the relays are disconnected.

Where have you taken the 12v feed for terminal 87 from.

The same terminal in the engine bay fusebox as you did.