What have you tinkered with today?

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by Adam Ef

Feels like there's a vibration like it's stopping and starting a few times a second. It cuts out when coming to a stop and idling once warmed up too.

start it at night (ie: dark) to see if there's any tracking along HT lead or around the coil if the bike's been wet. Is the plug new?

A blocked pilot jet wouldn't allow any idling.

[DJ123]

Originally Posted by DJ123

Currently painting my Motorbike trailer. Laying down a Hammerite base on the runway and will be going over it with some Anti-Slip paint to make it easier/safer to load the bike in damp conditions. Then checking the bearings over and seeing if they need replacing, or are good to go for another year.

Last coat of anti slip went on today. Once that's dried i'll be tackling the mudguards next. And it'll be looking better for it once all done.
Getting it already for the bike trip this year, hopefully . . . . .

[Adam Ef]

Originally Posted by Seeker

...Is the plug new?

Yes it is. Good point. I'll put the old one back in to narrow it down. I got the right plug and had to remove the small screw cap off the top to make it look like the one that came out and fit ok. I remember thinking at the time it was odd and wasn't 100% on how secure it felt.

[DJ123]

Fitted a new coil spring to my Mum's Audi A1. Not too bad to do, but a bit fiddly.

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by DJ123

Fitted a new coil spring to my Mum's Audi A1. Not too bad to do, but a bit fiddly.

Goood job.Fronts are a bit of a PIA (unless they've changed the design?)... or likely, you're much brighter than me
I found the fixings could only be tightened under load and there was no mention of it in any of the instructions I could find, which prompted a 'take it all off again' and see what I've done wrong before reassembling and knocking it off the stands to try and see if that did the trick - I was pretty relieved when it did

[DJ123]

They are a PIA as you have to compress the springs so much to get the strut in/out as the wishbone doesn't move that far.
I did see that under load you should be able to undo/tighten them - which is fine for the inner nut which is easy to access. But the main nut holding on to the car was impossible, unless you had a torx on the inner and a ratchet or deep ring spinner on the outer nut. I found the best way was to wrap the damper strut in a microfibre cloth and clamp it (lightly) with mole grips. Then i could hold the inner, whilst tightening the nut with a ratchet on top - was a lot quicker & easier. I wish i did this on removal as it would have been a lot quicker and easier!
Only took a couple of hours overall which i was happy with.

My own car had the Summer wheels/tyres put back on today seeing as this cold spell seems to be over for a while - cue snow showers at easter.

[Adam Ef]

Got the carb off the DRZ again, just to see if I got anything wrong last time I stripped and rebuilt it. Adjusted the float very slightly and gave everything a good spray in case any grit had got in there to cause the juddery ride problem. Soaked the jets and even though they looked clean I was suprised by the amount of dirt in the cleaning fluid after they'd sat in it for half an hour.


I wanted to check if I'd messed up the air / fuel mix when I put it back together last time. I definitely hadn't even touched it as the screw was totally seized in place. Ended up drilling a pilot hole in it and luckily getting a torx bit to hammer in securely and then screw out. Sourced an extended screw this afternoon and need to get it all back together tomorrow afternoon. I've got a two and a half hour speed awareness course to do online first though in the morning. Grrrr.

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by DJ123

They are a PIA as you have to compress the springs so much to get the strut in/out as the wishbone doesn't move that far.
I did see that under load you should be able to undo/tighten them - which is fine for the inner nut which is easy to access. But the main nut holding on to the car was impossible, unless you had a torx on the inner and a ratchet or deep ring spinner on the outer nut. I found the best way was to wrap the damper strut in a microfibre cloth and clamp it (lightly) with mole grips. Then i could hold the inner, whilst tightening the nut with a ratchet on top - was a lot quicker & easier. I wish i did this on removal as it would have been a lot quicker and easier!
Only took a couple of hours overall which i was happy with.

My own car had the Summer wheels/tyres put back on today seeing as this cold spell seems to be over for a while - cue snow showers at easter.

That's good going I did both and it took me a full day...although blowtorch was required on pretty much every bolt!

[DJ123]

Ouch. To be fair my Mum's car is only 7 years old and done 40k miles, so the bolts were probably in a better condition. I also had the luxury of being able to soak everything in penetration fluid for a few days beforehand.

[Adam Ef]

Test rode the DRZ. All good and great fun for half an hour then it got increasingly lumpy and erratic. Very off and on around corners and unless revved it wanted to stall. Didn't like constant throttle. I made a short video of what starts to happen once it's warmed up. 15 minutes more riding and it cut out totally and wouldn't start until it cooled for another 15 minutes. Then still wasn't happy on the ride home unless revs were kept high and varied throttle inputs. Only just made it home. I'm thinking igniton coil? Possibly fuel getting into the oil though apparently. I can't see why that would happen though?