Took the Honda-Swift to Summit Point this past
weekend for its first track outing. Son Sean, Mark Walthew and I would be
doing the test day to shake down the car. If the car ran well, Sean would
run the MARRS races. After his major
motorcycle accident last August and LONG recovery, he was anxious to see if he
was race ready.
At the mini-test at the local Langley Speedway last
month, the brakes did not work properly.
So, I set aside the rebuilt brake calipers and installed new ones. I was anxious to see if the brake problems
had been resolved. After the Langley
test, I had also relocated the rather large Honda ECU so Sean could get into the
car without removing his race booties.
We also adjusted the shift linkage to suit Sean’s limited arm motion
particularly shifting into 4th gear.
First session, car almost immediately began to run
poorly and sounded even worse. Sean was driving and stayed out for 13
minutes or so making sure the brakes, clutch and handling were in tolerate
ranges. They were, and Sean reported that the handling showed no “evil”
tendencies.
We checked the plugs, and #4 indicated that it was not firing. We
changed the spark plug, but there was still no fire. The plug was “wet”
so we reasoned that it was getting fuel.
We tugged around on the wiring harness some, looking for a short.
Switched #3 and #4 coil packs. Ah, #3 not firing now, SO coil pack
BAD. Not having a spare, we phoned ALL the local/semi-local
Honda car dealers, none in stock. Called Quicksilver RacEngines
(about 60 miles away). The Oseth conversion car was in their shop, having
just missed being ready for the June Sprints. They would lend me a coil
pack. Sean and Mark took the road trip while I fiddled with the AIM data
system.
After the parts run and a new coil pack, the car ran fine in the paddock.
Sean suited up and went out. By lap two, the engine was again running on
3 cylinders. He came in. We tried switching around
everything. No solution. We even at one point got #3 to stop firing
for a while. We checked all the connectors/plugs on the Honda
harness several times. A guy, whose name I don't recall who said he was
the head technician at a Honda dealer, stopped by and did "hands on"
for a while. He finally concluded "Wiring."
Checking the continuity of the connector to the coil packs, #4 showed an open
circuit. At this point, we are thinking that the Honda supplied harness
had a defect, so we packed up and headed home. (Long day, leave for
Summit at 0400, 200 miles one way, arrive home 2200) Mark and I will have to wait for another test day before we get
some seat time. Boo Hissss.
Saturday (back home): Put the car up on the dolly and took off the body pieces
to be able to inspect the entire harness. There is a relatively big
pulley/flywheel thing on the water pump, located engine left and bottom just
below the alternator. The harness was in the vicinity and could contact
(especially in left hand turns) the rotating water pump pulley. (I
have to get over my aversion to large amounts of cable ties!!!) The outer
jacket to the harness was cut and five wires (of the closely packed and
wrapped group of maybe 40 wires) had their insulation cut away and where
showing copper. Three of the wires were severed but in close enough
proximity to still be working some of the time. (At least until the exposed
copper shorted out to the pulley at times)
I disconnected enough of the connectors to pull the harness partially out for
repairs. Knowing that a replacement harness from Honda had a price of
$890, I was very careful and deliberate.
I cut and peeled back about 8 inches on the outer covering to get good
access. Two of the wires were 22 gage
(quite small and delicate) and I had to crimp on a small addition to their
length. After reassembling all the
wiring/connectors, the moment of truth presented itself. The engine fired and ran well!
Ah, for the want of a cable tie, the war was lost. At least for this
weekend.