Tuscan Mk2 S Refurb
Discussion
Further along with this now, felt the end was in sight before I removed the dash to sort some electronic jiggery.
I’ve spent forever and a day whirring away with a wire brush attachment on the drill removing all the old carpet adhesive. I just have the drivers footwell left to do, then I can start fitting the dynamat.
Had a nightmare trying to source the correct air con hose from condenser to drier. The Motaclan part was same dimensions as original but had two 45 degree elbows, the original had a straight and a 90. Tried all sorts of combinations but couldn’t get anything to fit. Eventually ordered a custom hose to match original, very expensive and not very good quality but it has done the job.
The oil cooler was the next battle. With the oil hoses being new they posses enough rigidity to overcome the oil cooler mounting bushes. Forcing the cooler off on an angle and not allowing the new silicone coolant hoses to seat correctly. A bit of brute force has gotten everything located and tightened but it doesn’t look pretty.
Heater and air con boxes on passenger side was an evening well spent painting, ziroctec gold applied and then an hour or so trying to feed the sensor back through. Half a tube of sikaflex and all seems good. I’d still like to cover these with a carbon cover.
Fuel tank was easy enough, had to make some slight adjustments to hose lengths but a couple of hours work to get the tank in, plumbed and the wiring harness routed nicely.
The inner wing workings were a conundrum, I’d removed everything in such a hurry I forgot to take photos. I realised this at the time but thought they can only fit one way, so it would be obvious when I come to refit, it was not, a few nights were spent studying and mocking up the parts and I’d admitted defeat when lying in bed it suddenly dawned on me I’d fitted the carbon canister bracket upside down! Didn’t want to go to work the next day, just wanted to get back on the Tuscan and solve the problem.
A morning was spent fitting the boot lid, main bonnet and service bonnet. Two man job lifting everything in place and fettling to get good shut lines.
I’ve had to revisit the pedal box, need new top hat bushings for the pedal brackets on the smaller shaft. Heated the brackets to remove them and they duly melted. They don’t appear to be stocked by the suppliers so some measuring and experimenting will have to be done once they are back from being plated.
The dashboard always annoyed me. When I bought the car everything worked, but not always at the same time. The polished aluminium trim that curves across the dash had scratches in it that always caught my eye. Once everything was removed I could see that this has been tampered with previously or bodged at some point. I’ve got a bit of soldering and testing of connections but I have a feeling it will be less demanding than it looks. Most things seem in good condition they just weren’t tidy. The polished aluminium is lacquered, so that will need sanding back, the scratches sanding out and then polished and lacquered again.
Still many a cold evening and weekends working ahead of me but feeling confident it will be back together and running sooner rather than later.
I’ve spent forever and a day whirring away with a wire brush attachment on the drill removing all the old carpet adhesive. I just have the drivers footwell left to do, then I can start fitting the dynamat.
Had a nightmare trying to source the correct air con hose from condenser to drier. The Motaclan part was same dimensions as original but had two 45 degree elbows, the original had a straight and a 90. Tried all sorts of combinations but couldn’t get anything to fit. Eventually ordered a custom hose to match original, very expensive and not very good quality but it has done the job.
The oil cooler was the next battle. With the oil hoses being new they posses enough rigidity to overcome the oil cooler mounting bushes. Forcing the cooler off on an angle and not allowing the new silicone coolant hoses to seat correctly. A bit of brute force has gotten everything located and tightened but it doesn’t look pretty.
Heater and air con boxes on passenger side was an evening well spent painting, ziroctec gold applied and then an hour or so trying to feed the sensor back through. Half a tube of sikaflex and all seems good. I’d still like to cover these with a carbon cover.
Fuel tank was easy enough, had to make some slight adjustments to hose lengths but a couple of hours work to get the tank in, plumbed and the wiring harness routed nicely.
The inner wing workings were a conundrum, I’d removed everything in such a hurry I forgot to take photos. I realised this at the time but thought they can only fit one way, so it would be obvious when I come to refit, it was not, a few nights were spent studying and mocking up the parts and I’d admitted defeat when lying in bed it suddenly dawned on me I’d fitted the carbon canister bracket upside down! Didn’t want to go to work the next day, just wanted to get back on the Tuscan and solve the problem.
A morning was spent fitting the boot lid, main bonnet and service bonnet. Two man job lifting everything in place and fettling to get good shut lines.
I’ve had to revisit the pedal box, need new top hat bushings for the pedal brackets on the smaller shaft. Heated the brackets to remove them and they duly melted. They don’t appear to be stocked by the suppliers so some measuring and experimenting will have to be done once they are back from being plated.
The dashboard always annoyed me. When I bought the car everything worked, but not always at the same time. The polished aluminium trim that curves across the dash had scratches in it that always caught my eye. Once everything was removed I could see that this has been tampered with previously or bodged at some point. I’ve got a bit of soldering and testing of connections but I have a feeling it will be less demanding than it looks. Most things seem in good condition they just weren’t tidy. The polished aluminium is lacquered, so that will need sanding back, the scratches sanding out and then polished and lacquered again.
Still many a cold evening and weekends working ahead of me but feeling confident it will be back together and running sooner rather than later.
Fully back together now, going through the set up phase at the moment and solving any niggles.
As part of having the dashboard out I wired up stuff that was left unconnected or without a connector. Success with both tweeter speakers and the key that disables power at the drivers side of the pod. Contrast and Brightness controls do not affect screen despite now being connected. I’ve still got to wire in wiper delay switch, both wiper motor and switch have a connector, wire is about 20mm too short to join them together though.
Had the battery fitted, connected and on charge for two weeks. Applied power and all was good for about 15 mins then immobiliser threw a strop. Sirens blaring and wouldn’t cancel, wouldn’t respond to key or dongle. Dash would illuminate without the car being turned on and have a ‘Fault code 22, Power Supply’. Now here’s a one I’ve never seen before. With the CTEK charger connected to Anderson and switched off at the wall socket, the car would be off. Switch the CTEK on at the wall socket and the car would turn on as if I’d pressed the ‘start’ button. Alarm would sound and ‘Fault code 22 Power Supply’. Switch CTEK off at wall socket, car turns off. That had me stumped.
Next problem, can’t get brake pedal to go hard when pumping. Bought a Sealey one man kit and pressure bled brake and clutch system, cured any visible leaks in the process. Still couldn’t get a firm pedal but brakes would apply. Left system pressurised at 18psi for 20 mins, no leaks. Again tightened all banjos, bleeds and crossover pipes. No leaks, no firm pedal. Trying to explain why I was going mad to my dad who came down to help out, spotted a single drip of fluid from the centre of the nearside front calliper. Presume there is a slight weep of the fluid getting past the piston seal. Will need to remove calliper to investigate further.
Back to focussing on running the engine. Pulled fuel pump relay to let the engine spin on starter motor to get some oil around engine and coolant around the system. Did this three times and watched oil level on dipstick drop and coolant burp. Fuel relay fitted and now for a proper start. Immobiliser disarmed and start button pressed, nothing from fuel pump. Checked the obvious and found no power to the fuel pump. Had me stumped as to why, asked on the Tuscan Facebook group and got a number of ideas and tricks. Tried them all to no effect, then I remembered I had, for some reason, another inertia switch wired in behind the dash above passenger footwell. I couldn’t visibly trace where this was wired too with the dash out, but just thought I’d try it. Reset it and hit the start button, whirr from the fuel pump. Great news, that inertia switch must be wired to immobiliser unit?
Went through the procedure of letting the fuel pump whirr three times and checked for leaks along the lines. A small leak from the filter outlet, tightened and good for a start. Engine started and I then immediately shut off. Checked for leaks and all good. Second go, engine started and run for about twenty seconds, switched off. Fuel gushing from both sides of filter and back of fuel rail. Tightened everything as much as I possibly can and can’t stop the leaks.
Going to remove fuel rail and investigate. Banjos, banjo bolts and copper washers all new and everything is as tight as I can or dare.
It seems like a tainted success, happy that it started and ran but some problems to solve before it’s safe to drive.
As part of having the dashboard out I wired up stuff that was left unconnected or without a connector. Success with both tweeter speakers and the key that disables power at the drivers side of the pod. Contrast and Brightness controls do not affect screen despite now being connected. I’ve still got to wire in wiper delay switch, both wiper motor and switch have a connector, wire is about 20mm too short to join them together though.
Had the battery fitted, connected and on charge for two weeks. Applied power and all was good for about 15 mins then immobiliser threw a strop. Sirens blaring and wouldn’t cancel, wouldn’t respond to key or dongle. Dash would illuminate without the car being turned on and have a ‘Fault code 22, Power Supply’. Now here’s a one I’ve never seen before. With the CTEK charger connected to Anderson and switched off at the wall socket, the car would be off. Switch the CTEK on at the wall socket and the car would turn on as if I’d pressed the ‘start’ button. Alarm would sound and ‘Fault code 22 Power Supply’. Switch CTEK off at wall socket, car turns off. That had me stumped.
Next problem, can’t get brake pedal to go hard when pumping. Bought a Sealey one man kit and pressure bled brake and clutch system, cured any visible leaks in the process. Still couldn’t get a firm pedal but brakes would apply. Left system pressurised at 18psi for 20 mins, no leaks. Again tightened all banjos, bleeds and crossover pipes. No leaks, no firm pedal. Trying to explain why I was going mad to my dad who came down to help out, spotted a single drip of fluid from the centre of the nearside front calliper. Presume there is a slight weep of the fluid getting past the piston seal. Will need to remove calliper to investigate further.
Back to focussing on running the engine. Pulled fuel pump relay to let the engine spin on starter motor to get some oil around engine and coolant around the system. Did this three times and watched oil level on dipstick drop and coolant burp. Fuel relay fitted and now for a proper start. Immobiliser disarmed and start button pressed, nothing from fuel pump. Checked the obvious and found no power to the fuel pump. Had me stumped as to why, asked on the Tuscan Facebook group and got a number of ideas and tricks. Tried them all to no effect, then I remembered I had, for some reason, another inertia switch wired in behind the dash above passenger footwell. I couldn’t visibly trace where this was wired too with the dash out, but just thought I’d try it. Reset it and hit the start button, whirr from the fuel pump. Great news, that inertia switch must be wired to immobiliser unit?
Went through the procedure of letting the fuel pump whirr three times and checked for leaks along the lines. A small leak from the filter outlet, tightened and good for a start. Engine started and I then immediately shut off. Checked for leaks and all good. Second go, engine started and run for about twenty seconds, switched off. Fuel gushing from both sides of filter and back of fuel rail. Tightened everything as much as I possibly can and can’t stop the leaks.
Going to remove fuel rail and investigate. Banjos, banjo bolts and copper washers all new and everything is as tight as I can or dare.
It seems like a tainted success, happy that it started and ran but some problems to solve before it’s safe to drive.
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