I would like to say we have good news…………….
 

…………………………… concerning The Flying Banana, but not today.

It started off with the o/s/f spotlight falling inwards taking the small grill with it. I never realised they were connected. So I was off up to Matt Darke’s today anyway to try and get to the bottom of the electrical issue. The car is still cutting out with no warning. Matt said that we could fix the spotlight whilst I was there.

So I left home at 09.30 and got to Matt’s within the hour, 43 miles. Banana behaved herself all the way, even had her up to three figures aka Warp Factor Three.
Matt’s son was there to lend a hand, which we needed. So off come the bumper to re fix the spotlight/grill. Now glued back as all the tabs had broken. I believe that fault was caused by THAT spray shop. (There have been other faults but that’s another story for another day)

Bumper back on and for whatever reason I shut the bonnet. And then the bonnet cable went slack. Inspection panel off under the arch and Matt’s son put his had up and after much loose words he managed to get the cable pulled and the bonnet was opened. It gets worse. Matt reconnected the cables and the catches re-greased. The lever was pulled back and the catches worked. So we shut the bonnet.

Lever pulled, and the bonnet stayed shut. Under the arch again, cables located and pulled. Bonnet opened. This time the left hand catch wouldn’t work. So the scrap ZT gave up it’s catches. And we took the bumper off so we could fit the new catches. Bonnet shut whilst the bumper was off. Everything worked ok. Bumper back on and the bonnet opened okay. Tried it about 6 times. All okay.

Next job was for Matt to plug the T4 in to see what fault codes were thrown up. I had spoken to Dave Lincs yesterday and he said I was to phone him when the T4 was plugged in. This is the technical bit that I don’t really understand. But Dave talked Matt through step by step regarding Banana’s tick-over issue. The steps should be reading 23, mine was reading 79. So with Matt adjusting the screw and me watching the screen.

Dave gave me the instructions on when Matt should stop adjusting. It worked ok. Finally managed to get the steps down to 18-23. It was fluctuating between the numbers. I took photos of the details on the screen and sent them to Dave. The reply was that it would keep fluctuating until we got the outside temperature sensor fixed. So another job still outstanding.

Dave rang off and we set about looking for any broken wires or any damage to any of the vacuum pipes. The theory being that the wires to the crankshaft sensor might be the issue with the engine cutting out. (See my Ad in the wanted section).
Then two things happened, it started raining and Shirley said dinner was ready. So with Banana locked up and tools away we went in for dinner.

After dinner we decided not to continue looking for the fault but to wait till we could get another crankshaft plug and cable before starting to pull things apart. I helped to clear up the tools and got Banana out into the street so that Matt could get the scrap car back in. He has understanding neighbours.
And with that all done I left.

Banana drove home without any issues, pulled like the proverbial train. No problems, but then I got home and the problem reared it’s ugly head.
The perishing INERTIA SWITCH shut the engine down and put the hazards on.
Currently Banana is outside home but I’m unable to park her up properly because of the perishing switch. I have had problems before with this switch going back 3 years.

Phoned Matt, then Dave. Dave reckons it is the live feed between the switch, ignition and fuse box. So Dave is investigating the wiring diagram and will phone me tomorrow with his answer.

Sorry to hear about this, you don't deserve this bad luck Bob. Unfortunately, I don't suppose you can prove the paint job broke the fog light fittings.

Hope you get it sorted soon Bob.

Steve.

Correct, but after the other issues I have had concerning this garage I would not be surprised at all.

You are not alone!
Just this morning I went to look at a non-running MGF here in deepest Canada.
It had been cutting out while driving and finally shut down and refused to start. The owner was driving himself batty trying every electrical fix known. He even took the ECU out and had it gone over. Apparently there were no faults.
I hooked it up to my Blackbox computer and a crank sensor fault came up.
A new sensor is on order and my fingers are crossed that nothing else was messed up when he was trying to find the fault.

Sorry to hear of the continuing woes Bob, our cars are not getting any younger and any disturbance of the wiring can create unseen problems, only found by patience and cooperation of the search team. Good luck.
Fred

Thanks for a most interesting post especially the bit about adjusting the tick-over and adjusting screw, and steps(?). Must admit I’ve not seen an adjusting screw so guessing this is a 1.8T thing?
Perhaps Dave could post more detail of how this is done?

I’ve a T4 (now mobile) but don’t really know my way around it and I’ve never heard of an instruction manual so a guide to setting the tick-over would be most beneficial.

Keep well

Stepper motor, adjusts the idle depending on the engine load, lights, aircon etc, needs a T4 to set it to a baseline. When I got my 1.8T years ago I had a badly wandering idle and took it to Brian. He discovered the stepper motor had never been adjusted, he'd never seen one so far out of adjustment.

Hi It is just as well you have people around you who can sort things out for you,
Good luck with Banana, it will sort it self out,

Rev.

Sorry to hear this Bob, hope you guys can get it sorted. Well done to those involved, it's great knowing you have friends that can help. :}