Austria Route Planning

Route pretty much settled now, Eurotunnel to/from France then Franco/Belgium border to Germany. Eurotunnel booked, hotels booked.

The aim is to arrive in Vienna to attend a conference with work - the secondary aim is to find some interesting roads and visit a few key locations from childhood memories and favourite movies.

Out

• Lichtenstein Castle - I used to have a model of it on the model railway Dad made when I was a kid.
• Neuschwanstein Castle.
• Grossglockner Pass - Added to my bucket list after seeing on the Hairy bikers!
• Hohenwerfen Castle - Where Eagles Dare exteriors location (say no more!)
• Vienna.

Return

• Stelvio Pass.
• Gotard Pass - Part of a route Dad took in the 60s in a MkIII Zodiac.
• Furka Pass - Goldfinger location where Bond meets Tilly Masterson (Soames).

Route

The map is roughly right, although depending on mood/weather/conditions generally the plans may change. Google also likes to draw straight lines and find fast roads - whereas I plan to do the opposite - if a road presents itself that looks interesting then ad-hoc diversions are the order of the day.

Especially weather - I'm right at the end of the season - if the weather turns, then mountain passes will turn into tunnel runs and me holed up somewhere warm with a beer and some good food instead!

Longest days are ~300 miles, shortest ~200 but on slower roads so driving hours around 5-6 per day.

Interactive Google Map

Plans are only ever a starting point...

When

Zero hour is tail end of September.

Daily updates

I plan to post entries after the event on the blog in the Vienna category, 

I also usually post once a day on my Facebook page - usually at least end of day 'I've stopped'  so those at home know I'm ok, potentially more depending on opportunity.

Flick wipe steering wheel switch

Moving the flick wipe switch from its initial position on the aux panel up to the steering wheel. The original position needs me to take my hands from the wheel and the button wasn't the best for finding with gloves on.

The new button - stainless and weatherproof. I made a small bracket from an aluminium offcut.

One 3.2mm hole into the side of the hub - after much discussion on whether that was a good idea - de-burred and sealed with glue to prevent any possibility of chafing. The bracket attaches on the back of an existing steering wheel bolt - so shouldn't affect safety in terms of wheel attachment.

My column is earthed - I found if I actively earth the mounting bracket, blue wire and eyelet, it also earths the top of the column and hub. There must be a conductive bushing inside the top column casting.

An earthed steering hub means the 2x contacts on the slip ring can be used for separate circuits. Horn takes one, my new flick wipe button the other. Both are intermittent and low current, activating relay coils.

That is much better - just where I can find it with my left thumb and without getting in the way of normal driving. Wiper stalk up one click - then each push on the button gives exactly one windscreen wiper cycle.

Update -

Found a friendly shower to test the flick wipe today - much better location - I can keep my hands on the wheel which is especially important in wet conditions as demonstrated in this short clip:

Wiring connector reference

Reference information only - no changes.

I was searching for this and hadn't documented it on the blog. Meant the usual simple search for info turned into some hunting through papers, documents and a little wire tracing.

Most connectors are standard GBS Plug and play loom.

Here pictured are the non-standard/modified connectors to the Aux Panel,

DRLs & Heater fan,

Powered aerial in the boot space.

Colour indicates cable colours.

Steering wheel bolt change

Can't really call this maintenance, there was nothing wrong with the old steering wheel bolts other than looking shabby.

Replaced them with some new M5 button head stainless ones.

Great improvement over before - the original black bolts had gathered a tinge of orange rust from being in the elements.

IACV Filter renewal

The IACV went in with a pristine grille and foam filter, today it looks rather the worse for wear!

First time I've really looked at it after fitting - and first time I noticed air was also being sucked through the gasket paper at the bottom.

Mixed blessing - i.e. not quite working as originally designed but on the plus side a little more intake volume will reduce the restriction caused by the plate. The IACV inlets are 16mm diameter =201mm², the space on the adaptor plate 16mmx10mm =160mm².

Gasket paper adjusted to permit max inbound air flow.

Back in place, now with some genuine air filter foam which is a little jury rigged. Ticking the box on the KISS front, but its not really that neat - one to think on before finalising.

Engine test - idle not affected rock steady at 1000 revs. If the change has affected the mixture slightly the ECU/Lambda setup can automatically adjust the fuelling for any slight increase in air flow. At some point I'll check the lambda adjustment is still actively fuelling and not hitting its preset stops.

Rear view mirror

The original rear view mirror, mounted on the scuttle, was useless - got me through IVA, but just gave me a view of the spare wheel.

Trying something different - £2 gets me 2x glass blind spot mirrors shipped from China. High quality glass sitting on a plastic swivel mount. Small and slightly asymetric shape - yes - but in a test run provides a perfect view through the roll bar behind the car without taking up windscreen real estate.

The only adjustment needed an extra layer of mounting foam to give me the right viewing angle and the back of the mirror sprayed black to look discrete from the front of the car.

Only point of care - is everything looks further away than it really is due to the fisheye/wide angle nature of the glass.

Update - small adjustment required on the sun visors so they miss the mirror when folded down. Flipped them so the hinges are now on the bottom which gives just enough clearance.

Vienna

...and so it begins!

September - work conference and an excuse/reason to drive across Europe - this time past/through some impressive mountain ranges.

Early days, but some time to plan. Plenty of potential waypoints to take in there and back.

At the moment I'm thinking a basic run there skirting around the Black forest then on to Lichtenstein Castle, Grossglockner high alpine road and Hohenwerfen Castle before Vienna itself.

The way back - more options, perhaps further west for some more mountains before hitting France.

I need a few long runs in the UK to make sure the clutch cable changes are bedded in too.

Clutch cable clamp

After a fatigue failure on the clutch cable pedal box end I adjusted its mounitng and replaced it. The cable pushed the end stop towards the pedal box and then continued to push the bowden cable outer through the crimped flange part.

My thought was reenforcement - rather than the bowden inner trying to push the end off the flange, instead take some of the load through the grove in the end part, ahead of the cable end, and transfer it behind the flange.

Mk1 simplest option I could come up with are plates to engage in the end groove and behind the flange connected with bolts.

U shaped plates doubled up since I cannot access the clutch end of the cable to slip a plate over - it has captive nuts. A narrower U plate on the pedal box end which matches the grove exactly.

Help from the Facebook GBS Zero page, Henry Simpkin helped convert my Sketchup mockup into DXF files using DraftSight which a friend of his then laser cut in 2mm & 3mm stainless at a very reasonable price (which I assume was at or near cost).

The parts only needed minor cleaning up to ream the holes a little, and some M4 bolts cut down to an appropriate length.

Installed with M4 bolts and nylocs.

If the bowden cable tries to push its way through the flange towards the pedal box some of that force is transferred through the bolts to behind the flange.

Thank you to both Henry & Martin who helped on the project along with David who also offered help in manufacturing.


Potential Development

• This could also be solved with an alternate chassis mount, I wanted a remedial fix which did not require changes to the car.

• The 2mm thick plates were fine in terms of strength.

• I installed a mixture of 2mm and 3mm parts since for some reason I ended up with too many narrow U plates - not sure if I ordered the wrong thing.

• May be possible to use a circlip instead if the narrow U plate that engaged with the groove.

• I was conservative with a 35mm clearance between the bolts and chassis bracket - that could be tuned and reduced in size.