Digidash Pt 2

Another busy day - all sensors wired up and no problem routing it all through the tunnel.

Ran the engine to get it up to temperature and test the new oil temperature sensor.

From this




to this

4,600 rpm and the first level of the change lights

High Beam, handbrake WLs

Indicator WL

After dropping off Allanah back to university Tricia and I had a quick half hour boat.

Carbon Fibre Dash Boards and ETB DigiDash 2

Santa gave me a Aerodynamix carbon fibre dash blank for Christmas and I've been holding off installing it because I could decide whether to stick with the old analogue gauges and switches or go modern.

After a lot of deliberation I decided to stick with the rocker switches but replace the gauges with an ETB DigiDash 2.  I selected the DD2 because it had the functionality I wanted and comes with all the sensors so is a bout half the price of the Race Technology Dash 2.  ETB also offered me a discount because I didn't need all the sensors.  Mark Walker emailed me a .pdf copy of the CAD drawing that Westfield use on the factory car that are fitted with the Race Technology Dash 2 and I copied the rocker, indicator, full beam, hazards and horn switch positions from it.  I changed the horn and heated windscreen switches for an orange version of the heated windscreen switch and also changed the toggle switches although I might go back to the originals as the new ones are a little clunky. 

 

Cutting the blank took far longer than I'd planned, I spent most of an afternoon/evening getting the shape right as with Aerodynamix no longer taking orders I didn't want to mess it up.  The actual cut outs were remarkably quick, I masked and marked the dash and the drilled the corners and Dremelled followed with hand filing to finished everything off.  The hardest thing by far was to mark out and drill the mounting holes as I had to work out a way to transfer the scuttle rivnut positions to the dash.  In the end I found that 3mm rivets with the centre cut down fitted the rivnuts and would mark masking tape.

 

For the wiring I didn't want to cut the chassis loom so I made up adapters to connect the two DD2 cables to it.  I just need to sort out how to protect the unused connectors.  The final decision is how to route the new and additional sensor cables, I'd like to put them in conduit and route them through the tunnel but access might be a problem so I might route them through the pedal box cover as an interim until I next have the engine and gearbox out, but that's tomorrow's job.

 

After reconnecting everything I powered up the dash and connected a laptop to go through the setup routine; so far everything that's connected is working!

 

Connector 1 - Red	Wire Colour		Chassis Loom
Speedo Sensor	Grey Cable	New Sensor		New loom from engine bay
Lap Trigger	Grey Cable	New Sensor	Not Used	tied back
Tacho	Yellow		WB106
Switched 12V	Red		Green
Earth	Black		Black
PC Connector	Multi	New		Stored under scuttle
Neutral	Light Brown	New	Not Used
Connector 2 - Yellow
Coolant Temp	Black		GU104	New loom from engine bay
Oil Temp	Blue	New Sensor
Oil Pressure	Orange		WN103
Low Oil Pressure	White	New Sensor		New loom from engine bay
Fuel Level	Pink		GB119
Main Beam Warning Light	Grey		UW73
Rear Fog Warning Light	Purple			Used for heated screen indicator
Indicator Light	White		GR85
	Red		GW79
Brake Fail/Hand	Dark Brown		BW111
Ignition Warning Light			NY105	not used - DD2 measures battery voltage so need to set warning below the alternator charge voltage

 

2015 Service and Blat

Looks like I booked the right week off over Easter, it's been dry for the whole week and the last couple of days have been sunny. Tricia was off work today so we went out for a blat, only about an hour but very enjoyable and a lot warmer than earlier in the week.

When we got back I serviced and cleaned the car.  The service was fairly straight forward, oil and filter change, air filter cleaned and oiled, brakes cleaned and checked, checked out all the suspension, steering etc and greased the prop shaft.

I could smell petrol and at first thought that it might be just that I'd filled the tank at the end of the blat.  When I had the NSR wheel off I noticed some residue on the side of the tank and found that the vent hose had perished and split. I replaced it, not the easiest of places to get into with my fat fingers.  Will also look at the fuel lines when I'm doing the rear wishbone refurbishment.






Mechanically everything was fine but all the wishbones have bad surface corrosion at the outboard ends as are the cycle wing mounts.






I don't want to disturb the geo-alignment so I did a trial refurbishment in place, first used a rotary wire brush to remove the worst then a flexi sanding block to feather out the edge of the powder coating.  Although it was very clean I treated the area with derust gel and then hand painted with two coats of hammerite smooth black.  I only did the front top wishbones to see how well it would work and I was reasonable happy with the results, so will repeat with the rest as time allows.  I'll eventually remove the wishbones an get them blasted and repainted with POR15.

 

Fitted the carbon fibre mirror covers from Julian at Aerodynamix, very straight forward, cleaned and keyed the mirrors, trial fit to choose the best way around and then glued them in place with quick set epoxy.







When cleaning the car I noticed that the sides were scratched from where the sidescreens have been rubbing against them so I ordered some 3M clear paint protection film and will polish out the scratches and fit it to see if it will help.