Well its been 6 months, little update and photo dump I guess.
Firstly, cause Blu, stickers... lol. Slow Poke on the front
and we had little accident with a kerb so
Following this lots of nothing, drive clean drive again, repeat.
Start of school summer hols it took the family camping in Yorkshire, ofc when over 200 miles is when it decided to break the first time - thankfully nothing bad, just a top mount. Quick call to the cube man and there was top mounts and spring bearings ready when we got home and sorted and not even off the road 24 hours.. It was hot af that day though and I really wanted to get done so theres no pics of the fancy ohlins (they aren't that fancy really bar the logo if I'm honest).
Whilst doing the suspension though it was decided the drive belt could do with replacing, not worst I've seen but its one belt on this, for the water pump, alternator, AC and the supercharger so it works hard. Well I spent quite a long time trying to find out what belt it need; the cube man didn't know, everyone I can find with one doesnt work on it themselves. But eventually managed to get hold of some photographs of the supercharger kit install manual (in Japanese ofc) which I managed to pull a belt answer off, this also lead down a little rabbit hole that manual did but I'll come back to that after belt.
So drive belt.. Easy yeah? I did it on the not supercharged cube, was well easy, Nissan even leave holes so you can access bolts etc, its like the total opposite of working on a fiat haha.
Well first thing is slacken adjuster, on normal one just lean in top and slacken off a nut that tightens tensioner in place, then you turn another bolt to move the tensioner (through the bumper, through a hole). Couldn't get first nut cause theres a supercharger pulley up there now. So we are to go in wheel arch, no biggy but we weren't even jacking it up before, now we're driving onto wood blocks so can get jack under and all the faff, axle stands etc etc, wheel off and the arch liner, but the undertray has to come off before the arch line can.
OK OK, I'm aware, its not that bad, I'm moaning. Undo the lock nut, we are back on track, or are we?
No, can't get the belt out... of course I could cut it but how would i get the new one in? And I'm not currently 100% I have the correct belt. I need this piece to come out first.
So 3 more bolts to get that off, 2 come out but then the 3rd.... Take off front grill and try get in that way, nope. Acceptance is coming to us now, we need more stuff off.....
Right so just have to take the headlight off entirely to get that bracket undone and out. And to get the headlight out have to drop the bumper off. And finally the belts off and we can see it properly - and check the new one is right size!!
I couldn't find any info on the idler for the supercharger but thankfully its perfectly fine still, pictures taken for future reference so I can buy one.
Now this is the point that it decided to rain lol. So put it all back together, easy and simple now taken it apart once but absolutely soaked to my core.
Right with that job done lets go back to that supercharger install manual and have a look at the 'precautions' (google translated)
Now when I got the cube I was told and quite a few owners have also told me they drive around without the charger on and we have done mostly without but thinking on it makes sense. I cannot see how it would have done any damage to the supercharger or anything but the fuelling and timing is not gonna be correct, it doesnt have a stock ecu. So fair enough, leave it on, but clearly I went through this thing start to finish and then went to the car and went over everything.
And my discovery was that when you switch the charger on the supercharger clutch engages and just stays on all the time, which i think on balance had I have had this on the entire time would have done damage.
The clutch is controlled by a pressure switch, this thing
That is how it looked, the adjustment scale on the left looked suspect - the manual says (simplified) move this downward if the clutch doesnt disengage when you let off throttle, one on right is factory set to 0.02 and should be very close. So my head is saying someone, wound the adjuster right down cause the clutch was on all the time. Time to take a look inside.
So it appeared I was correct and the screw was completely off the adjuster, so put that back on - had a play with it with the engine running and no matter where I put either adjuster could not make the clutch disengage. But I can see the mechanism itself is fine - I can manually click it off but as soon as i let go it clicks back on. This isnt affected by anything else, power from blue wire from the dash switch, which is fused back to battery. Out of switch on black to the clutch and out of clutch straight to ground. Its a mechanical switch that confirmed works by manually moving it. The pressure side of it is totally mechanical and it can't not work if its not seized or broken (bar an air leak obviously, or the actuator itself is seized). But it just felt like it needed far too much pressure to move. So I took it completely off for a closer look and found what I assume is a factory calibration screw, that moves the mechanism nearer or further from the electrical switch it pushes on. So I moved that closer a smidge and all of a sudden the switch clicked closed really easy by hand and moving the adjusters I could physically feel them changing required effort to click open/closed. Then set the adjuster to what the terrible pic in the manual showed.
Low and behold now idling the car disengaged the clutch. But took some fine adjustment to get it so it clicked on and off with the throttle nicely. Sorting this pressure switch actually took me an entire day to get right but my god the car drives so amazing now!
And next on my list was change the oil in the supercharger, no idea how old it is. And look, it has a cute little dipstick! lol
Anyhow, it could have been worse but it did not look nice what came out. Here is old vs new.
and if your remotely interested it took 57ml to fill it back it up its level, so i should have enough oil for 2 more changes if I dont spill any at all lol.
Side note: Who knew superchargers used Irn-Bru as lubricant?!!? The more you know!
Right I think that brings us totally upto date on the cube. All being well next thing will just be fluids and filter change. So all thats left is photo dump of random pics of it since last post.
I still hate the black wheels but i think on balance its the black. Thinking maybe just change colour when it next need tyres. Thoughts? Opinions on colour?
