Other Things I'm Playing With This Year.

Although I love my Triumphs, I try to have some other things going on now that I am retired.

A current project is my 2001 Mitsubishi 3.0. I have owned it since 2005. It ran great until about a year ago. Then one day on a trip up to work on our vacation home it went sour. Has not run right since. I have had it in to two professional shops and no one can find it's problem. Will not pass smog. So, I guess it is up to me. Got some new ECM software picked out. Looks like " it is you and me car" ! Keep you all posted here, if anybody is interested. ...J.D.

 

The history is that one day it started running super rich, for no apparent reason. I was some 40 miles up a twisty mountain road, so I had to just limp it home. By the time I got back to the shop, the O2 sensors were shot, as were the plugs. All fuel soaked. I replaced the Mass Airflow, and all 4 O2 Sensors and shipped it off to a shop to replace the plugs. It is a bear of a job (pull the intake manifold to get to the rear plugs) and my back was just not up to doing it myself. After they pharted around with it for several weeks, they could not make it run right, so I took it away from them and brought it home.

PICTURE: The layout is the engine is a transverse V-6. As you can see, everything is as they say "where the sun don't shine". That is the "left bank" O2 sensor showing right under the upper radiator hose, so you can just imagine were the "right bank" O2 sensor is. ...J.D.

 

They use absolute manifold pressure. I changed it out as well as a lot of other new stuff. I am waiting until I get some new software to go further on this. I was using an older laptop and older software from Auto Enginuity. The PC is dying and the software cannot be loaded on my newer laptop. I am ordering Auto Inginuity's newer version that is USB compatible (my old software was so old it was Com port)You can read all your sensor outputs in real time graphics. Should be an interesting puzzle. ...J.D.

 

Well, they try to TELL us they are safe and more environmentally friendly. I don't know how much of that story I am buying in to. It is not easy working on this stuff, but the information is available if you want to put out the effort. I decided to register this car as "non-op" this year until I have time to sort through it..I had already been through much of the emissions equipment last year, but I got sick for a while and did not get it finished. Hoping to do more on it this.coming month. The car is not worth a whole lot, but I find it kind of fun. The drive line is stock so it will meet California emissions but the chassis has had suspension mods,
17"X8 1/2" wheels, etc. Just a cheap toy. ...J.D.

 

Had set the Mitsubishi project aside. I have been working like a mad man trying to get the copper piping finished up at my project house. I guess I'll have to wrap that up until spring now. The wife and I re-did a lot of the copper under the house and got MOST of it insulated, but it is not ready to live in yet. Time to crawl back in my little heated garage for the winter and work on vehicles.The Mitsubishi, my Legend needs a starter motor installed. My Sprint needs a new throttle cable, etc. etc. Here is a picture of my project house. ...J.D.

 

I've had to be kind of tight on the spending this year, what with the cabin renovation, and fees and licenses getting so expensive here. I had to park two of my bikes and not register or insure them. "Lola" has been my exclusive ride.

Nice thing about old bikes is they don't cost you much. I bought her cash back in 2012, so I can spend.a.LITTLE money. She is going in "the barn" as soon as the weather gets cold, but I did do some improvements on her while I was riding her. FIRST: I added some risers to bring her bars up a bit. I am kind of long in the backbone. Keeping the stock bars, I gave myself a little better posture. No more kink in my mid-back when I ride...


Notice I installed the risers reversed. That was so the grips would still be far away enough for.my arm length. The SECOND thing I managed to do to Lola this year was give her better brakes:



This is the PRETECH unit I added. Installation was pretty straight forward. The only issue was my hydraulic line could have been a little longer what with the bar risers in place. But it worked by routing the line very carefully. ...J.D.

 

Finally getting back to the mechanical things this month. My Mitsubishi is still waiting for me to solve it's problems. I.had to fix my old laptop computer before I could get into the emissions.problems.on the Mitsubishi.



I had to add more memory so it could drive the software required to do the job [now 3.4GB]. I also had to replace it's DVD drive so I could reload everything. Now I reloaded the Operating System, and the Auto Enginuity software, I can proceed to diagnose the problem with the Mitsubishi. Not getting much motorcycle time in anyway. It has been wet here in the California "outback" this month. Ongoing projects. One seems to link to another. And so it goes. …J.D.

 

In the process of moving all my computer stuff in to a vacant bedroom I came across someone's software stash. I have owned this old place for better than 41 years. I raised 4 kids here and had extended family living here for a time. I know it is not mine but someone stashed this in a garage cabinet sometime in the past. BOY is this stuff old ! …J.D.

 

If you look a little closer, a bunch of those pre-date 1.44s. They are 5.25" . My brother lived here for a time, and later went on to be an IT tech, along with my 3 sons that were all in to computer stuff. I spent 25+ years as an Operating/Stationary Engineer starting in the days when computers were in thier infancy. ...J.D.

Ya' think it is time to clean out THAT space ? Never knew that stuff was there.

 

I keep mine mostly because it is a convertible. It was my commuter car until I retired. Hope to get it up and running this year. It is a bit of a handful to work on. Kind of like 10 lbs. in a 5 lb. bag …J.D.