1978 Fisher Fury - whoosh!

[mylittletony]

Dec 4, 2023 16:17:32 GMT Darkspeed said:

It also looks like the MX5 motor is a few inches further forward than where many would be. I wonder if that was chosen for gear lever positioning.

...

As long as you can keep the total expenditure below the market value - all good.

I see what you mean, looks like it could go back a bit.



That photo doesn't actually show it very well, but there's a fair bit of room around the bell housing with the possible exception of the clutch slave.

It could be down to gear stick position, it does fall naturally in it's current position.

It all points to remounting the engine. Luckily it feels like tweaking the existing rather than a fresh install, so I'm not too daunted by it, BUT I'm not doing it this winter.
I still very much want to enjoy it next summer and I have no intention of scuppering that by taking it apart now!

I don't thing it will cost a huge amount either, if I shop carefully.

[mylittletony]

I have been doing some bits, honest!!

I fitted my new plates, I know people have varying opinions on black and white plates on cars of this age, but I think it helps backdate it visually.





Also weight saving!!

My new steering wheel arrived, so here's a before pic



I realised the holes are offset, the new wheel has them at 12, 2, 4 and 6 o'clock. So I removed the boss to clock it round, realised it would mess up the cancelling indicators and then noticed 2 bolt patterns on the boss. D'oh

THEN I realised I needed countersunk screws and I've not been into the garage since they arrived...

I also thought, in my infinite wisdom, to remove the dash to see how the clocks were wired.

Oh



There's another task to relocate the boost gauge, from completely invisible under the dash by the door, to slightly more visible, on the tunnel as a temp solution.

The car appears to have 2 looms, the escort one for lights and the mx5 one for the engine. Hurrah! That's a 2024/5 job if ever I found one...

Oh yeah, some bonnet straps have arrived too and been added to the pile of parts.

I'm really enjoying the tinkering though

[mylittletony]

Also also, in consultation with darkspeed I'm going to try some not-EBC-green-stuff front pads to improve brake feel, not that I've tried it since moving the seat forward

[mylittletony]

This update covers a few weeks...

Firstly I fitted my 'new' steering wheel


The old one had been properly forced on somehow

Then yesterday had a really good session with Colonelk who came over and helped me wire in my AFR gauge

After some deliberation we decided to put the gauge in the dash, right in front of me and put the boost gauge there too.

This is a temporary installation until I fit some proper gauges at which point the dash will get completely refitted and rebuilt. It's a bit of a horror show, various layers of material, filled in holes etc.







Then we fired it up, gauge is reading ok but seems lean. There's a couple of exhaust leaks upstream, so I need to sort them too!

Decided to try and take a log with tunerstudio just to see how it's done.



We also discussed the fuel gauge. I'm pretty sure I have a midget fuel tank, and presumably sender. However it appears to have been extended downwards, so the sender won't read properly.
It also doesn't communicate properly with the mx5 cluster.
Conclusion is to use a piece of wood!

So the short term to do list is:

Connect afr to the ECU
Plug exhaust leaks
Sort out slow leak on one wheel
Drill dash top for some tonneau fasteners
Re-install dash
Take some cold start logs
Take some driving logs
Fit new rear lights

Longer term list (growing!):

Remount engine higher
Redo turbo piping and intake
(Probably need to clearance bonnet in some way)
Redo downpipe/exhaust
Roof
Side windows
Rewire
New instruments

In other news, I've sold some of the clutter from the garage so will have both more space and replenished funds

[Darkspeed]

New wheel looks good - a bit more retro than the old one.

The short term list jobs look a nice balance of interesting technical and simple mechanical tasks. They also appear to have a nice minimal cost requirement.

Note to self - must not keep looking at Fisher Fury's

[a30racer]

Looks like a very nice car and you are doing some interesting work to it. From the experience with our Caterham, I would suggest that the Yoko 539s are not a great tyre for a car that light (compound is just too hard for any decent grip). We have found the Toyo 888r to be a much better and safer tyre. Good luck anyway!

[mylittletony]

Thanks a30racer, I wanted something fairly road focused to start with but will see how I get on. It's fairly well mannered in the short distance I've done...

I've found out where the ECU is earthed, apparently the wideband should be earthed at the same location to prevent any issues. I've also not yet connected the signal wire, but know where it comes out in the engine bay.

The tonneau came with a few fasteners, 4 of which are tenax pull button type things, so I got some studs and have put them in the dash today (dreadful pic and I've trimmed the masking tape... D'oh)



Now they're in and I've sussed the wiring I can put it back together.

I also split the exhaust to solve the upstream leaks





Which thankfully came apart pretty easily.

I gummed the joints and put it back together with less awful clamps



So I can strike off 2 from my short term list, with 2 more to follow shortly

[mylittletony]

No actual progress progress to report, but some things happening.

Some time before Christmas I bought a roof for the car. It was cheap enough to take a punt, but it was in Manchester!
Just so happened that kevfromwales was passing that way and had trip south planned a fortnight later.
So it got picked up and taken to Rhyl.
Then the trip south got cancelled...

Last weekend I got a surprise message from Colonelk saying 'I've got your roof'!
This was great news as we live near each other, but a very long way from Rhyl.
However, before I could pick it up from him in Worthing, it made another little detour to Nottingham and back!
Honourable mention to Rich too for his part in the travels - cheers dude!

Anyway, I picked it up today and it fitted in the back of an Audi A2 to give you an idea.

The factory hardtop for these is proper, shockingly fugly. Really bad.
I had formed a rough plan to make my own following tips from a kiwi guy on YouTube with a fastback mx5, and was looking forward to having a play making something.
The bit I was struggling with was how to do the screen top interface.

Buying a cheap donor will give me that, the door surrounds and the rear deck interface. So the plan now is to keep those bits and redo the bits in the middle.

Here's some bad pics taken in my garage in the dark









I think the bad looks are partly down to using a mini rear screen, which is just too tall, and partly due to the height and upwards slope of the roof.
I think I can reduce the height and make a different solution for the rear window and attempt to solve the fugliness.

To assess this quickly, I sat in it with a helmet on and rudimentary measurements are a full hand width of clearance to the roof, roughly in line with the top of the 'B' pillar.



If the roof were to peak there and slope downwards towards the back, I think it would help enormously.

I know this won't be to everyone's taste, but I'm going to have a play with it - like I said it was cheap! It will also be a bit of slow burner job, much further down the priority list.

On that note, to keep the other bits moving along, I've got a few ring terminals to finish the ECU wiring.

[HARDCORE]

I didn't think that roof looked too bad, but now seeing it on the car.. oh dear

[sebastiaan]

How's this? Pretty sure someone (anyone!) else could do a better job at the picture editing, but simply removing that handwidth's of height you have may save the day.

Good luck getting into / out of the car though with a low roof.

[mylittletony]

Jan 15, 2024 14:02:06 GMT HARDCORE said:

I didn't think that roof looked too bad, but now seeing it on the car.. oh dear

Ha! Yeah, they're bad - I refer you to my previous statement

Jan 14, 2024 22:28:47 GMT mylittletony said:

The factory hardtop for these is proper, shockingly fugly. Really bad.

Also:






The weird portholes don't do it any favours either - this one is 'better'




I'm very tempted to pop out the rear screen and do a quick and dirty roof chop to see if I'm on the right lines

[mylittletony]

Jan 15, 2024 14:20:57 GMT sebastiaan said:

Good luck getting into / out of the car though with a low roof.

Thanks - that does help quite a bit! I'm definitely going to have to keep the targa panels, although I might redo them into a less weird shape too.

It's going to be a learning curve whatever I do

[zeberdee]

I think the roof being Black would help ‘disguise’ the strange lines of it a little , if the last pic is anything to go by .

But also think pretty much anything you do will improve it .

👍

[EmDee]

Crikey, that's... erm... striking?

Honestly, I have faith. Some sort of shooting brake slash fastback solution with minimal headroom should fit the bill. Like Zeb says, anythings an improvement!

*Grabs popcorn*

[Darkspeed]

I did see that on FBM as it was "quite" local - figured it was far too well, quirky is about as kind as it gets but its on par with what many manufacturers come up with regarding hardtops - not sure that would have been a JP design, although having written that he did have a number of times when he was unlucky in his thinking.

You have to wonder though, with all the decent and half looking hardtops from 60's British sportscars to draw inspiration from, someone comes up with that to destroy the looks and lines of the Fury.


Maybe with the big rear screen they were looking at the G4 hardtop which can look comically oversize from some angles





Westfield bid not do a great job either

[mylittletony]

I can only assume the ungainly height comes from a need to clear crash helmets on tall people.

I'm just under 6ft and sit quite low in this, but I do have a huge head so helmets make me look like something out of Spaceballs. I reckon I could cut 2" out of the height at the B-pillar and still have clearance, plus more out of the back by going for a different rear window.

As EmDee mentions, a shooting brake/breadvan-ish style has been in my head for a while, but I think I need to wheel it outside for some better photos and start cutting it about and mocking up with cardboard

[mylittletony]

Photo-less update, but I grabbed a few mins during my lunch break to connect the wideband to the loom in the engine bay and also earth it to the same point the ECU is grounded.

The dash is largely back in, minus a few bolts, I've got the skinned knuckles to show for it.

I also removed the offending mini screen, which a) weighed a LOT and b) was so cold it took my fingers about 20 mins to thaw out after handling it

[mylittletony]

I had got to the point where I was ready to try and plot the cold start, and being as it is exactly that - cold, yesterday late in the eve was the perfect opportunity.

I connected the laptop, got the software up and running, started a log and fired it up.
The instructions were to let the coolant temp rise by 10deg then turn it off and repeat that process until up to temp.

Once up to temp, I patted myself on the back, stopped the logging and opened the log only to find out it had stopped after 20sec
Turns out the free software does this - fair enough I guess.

Luckily I had taken photos along the way!
Here's the screen at the start



And corresponding AFR reading



I won't bore you with the intermediate ones, so here's the same 2 when up to temp





The exhaust is no longer leaking, so the gauge is reading more accurately (it's reading richer than before, which confirms non leakiness) and the warm AFR is about right.

The symptoms are unchanged; you can't touch the throttle until it's half warm and even then it half dies.

After consulting with the engine wizard, the AFR shows as being quite lean when cold, so the plan is to fatten the warm up enrichment curve and see if it makes it better.

I decided to achieve something, so bolted the dash in a bit more and reattached the steering cowling.

[mylittletony]

Dec 30, 2023 10:33:18 GMT mylittletony said:

So the short term to do list is:

Connect afr to the ECU
Plug exhaust leaks
Sort out slow leak on one wheel
Drill dash top for some tonneau fasteners
Re-install dash
Take some cold start logs (sort of)
Take some driving logs
Fit new rear lights

Feeling pretty good about that for mid-Jan, might have celebrated by buying more wheels

[Darkspeed]

15 - no wonder you cant touch the throttle - and it then gets richer as it warms up !

I would be stuffing a load more fuel in under cold start enrichment