Lude Generation

Some of you may recognise this as Sailor's old black 5g lude, which is now going to (hopefully) become my daily driver for a little while

the wife kindly cleaned it, outside & inside as i think she's more excited to drive it than me...




she even got her hands dirty flushing out the old coolant...


whilst i tidied up the engine bay a little, and fixed the drivers door catch as it wasn't opening from the inside or even closing properly

ended up being the plastic catch behind the inner door handle had snapped & come loose plus the door catch where the pull bar attaches was solid, so after undo-ing a lot of door card and other shizz managed to get wd-40 in the right place and loosened it up and all good now

next job was trying to start her, but before i even attempted that i wanted to remove this lot

the old alarm in which the wiring went everywhere so thats gone now and the wiring a tonne lighter.

next step, get it started. first few attempts she tries to turn over but doesn't quite fire up. it has fuel and you can hear the fuel pump prime and ive already fixed several badly degraded earths in the engine bay, cleaned up the rotor arm and spark points in the dizzy cap. next step is check the plugs, check the valve clearances and double check the ignition wiring is all in place. open to other suggestions thought, so watch this space....

Good to see your both getting stuck in!

If its been sitting a while - I would check that you actually have pressure at the rail. Even if the pump itself actuates, there is no guarantee the strainer or pipe work isn't blocked (You should notice a tell tale sound of the pump building pressure, starts fast, then the speed/tone drops as the pressure builds). The easiest way to do that is to undo the pipe on the end of the fuel pressure regulator on the fuel rail that sends low pressure back into hard line back to the tank. Ensure there are no sources of ignition, you should get a little fuel shoot out when the pump primes. Fresh fuel will help of course. I use this pipe because I seem to recall is easy to physically access, its low pressure side, and has no fastening other than a spring clip (rather than fuel filter unions which are always a mofo to undo or other pipes less accessible etc).

Its unlikely that valve clearances would alter over time, or plugs fail to the extent of not starting - as long as you have a spark it should be good.

I would also check that nothing was disturbed when the alarm was removed - that looks like a fair amount of wiring compared to the simpler ones, and is likely to contain a couple of inline circuit breaks. If you were able to trace all of the wiring back and confirm that most of them were Tee's, then you should only have had a couple of 'inline' circuits (Where the original loom was cut, and the alarm is now 'inline' with existing circuit). You probably got it all out properly though if its cranking and priming and firing.

Let us know how you get on.

Scott560 wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 06, 2021 12:06 pm

Its unlikely that valve clearances would alter over time

ive had this happen on a previous 4g lude, so i know it can be that - worth checking anyway as it improves performance too.

ill double check the fuel in the rail as it's easy to get at but pretty certain it's there. A wiring issue is still likely though as i could have easily missed something - luckily none of the original wiring was cut, the alarm wires were simply blended in quite neatly tbf.

I have a load of 5gen bits in my shed if you need anything matey to save a few quid

Andyjess666 wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 06, 2021 3:31 pm

I have a load of 5gen bits in my shed if you need anything matey to save a few quid

wonderful cheers andy!

No worries Dan even have the workshop manuals if you get stuck mate

Wow. Drax finally owns a real Prelude.

Ho hum!

Can you let your missus know that I'd marry her when she is no longer satisfied by you?

You've got my number so be a dear and pass it on to her!

Looks good so far matey, you'll have to take me out in it when we go hunt that train!

4thgenphil wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 07, 2021 10:50 pm

Can you let your missus know that I'd marry her when she is no longer satisfied by you?

You've got my number so be a dear and pass it on to her!

Looks good so far matey, you'll have to take me out in it when we go hunt that train!

she said she's added you to the reserve list and if she becomes "Single & ready to mingle" she'll give you a holla ...