Tte Replace,ent Bypass Spring Problem

TheDon · September 29, 2004

i have only had my spring on since saturday and it has just caused me a big scare!!!! and its made me re-fit my old spring.

I fitted it as per instructions and all was fine. then today at 10pm i was driving at about 60 on the A20 and went to overtake someone. as i changed gear the valve opened and made and almighty kertoosh and i lost a lot of engine power!!! i crapped myself thinking my charger jsut killed itself!

Managed to get it to a stop asap and looked under the hood, the part of the spring that presses against the alloy machined face had popped off and had left the valve in a fully open state!

Now i checked everything and it was all bolted down fine, nothing had moved.

I replaced the spring back into place and about 6 miles later it happened again. luckily i had my old spring in the car and put that on!!

It seems to me that the straight part of the arm is not long enough sometimes.

Not a good thing to happen me thinks.

aido · September 29, 2004

That's weird mate, you say it popped off?

Was the butterfly clip on top still in place then - did it just physically bend out of the way?

As a matter of interest which point was the spring pressing against on the left hand side - is it in the notches or have you got it sat in the middle?

Norkep and a guy at Japs had a play with my old spring and twisted it so that it sat in the far left hand side of the clip as you look from the front, and it was much taughter, and was fine.

I replaced it with a new spring from TTE which they sent me for some other probs I was having, and fitted that one pressing against the middle of the two notches so it got most resistance. Has been good since :)

Would definitely ask them to send you another spring assembly out though - sounds duff.

You know where you say the spring is touching the alloy on the right, mine is pressing that hard against that it's wearing away since it's so soft - common thing though.

aido · September 29, 2004

BTW, can you take a photo of the assembly so we can see it mate, makes it easier to see what the setup is

aido · September 29, 2004

Oh yeah, just thought as well, have you tried manually checking the assembly for movement when the car is stopped - ie flicking it back and making sure she's springing back properly - that would help to see what could be causing the problem - ideally you could even get someone to rev the car while you're watching it from the engine bay, that is what the guys did with mine when they were trying to troubleshoot it for me.

Gord · September 29, 2004

when you fitted the new spring did you bend the metal tab back up to stop the nut from moving ?

aido · September 29, 2004

What's that about Gord as I didn't do that??

Gord · September 29, 2004

theres a metal tab under the nut on the spring that you have to bend down to take the nut + spring off, it stops the nut from turning, so when you put it back you should bend the metal tab back up to stop the nut from moving.

aido · September 29, 2004

Cheers mate, will have to take a look at that tomorrow!

Gord · September 29, 2004

yours is ok mate ,ive seen it ;)

Rob · September 29, 2004

Aido mate,

have a look HERE this is the locking washer tab that should be bent against the nut.

"the Don" sorry dont know ur name check to make sure u have the spring installed correctly, i know the leg is fairly short but it shouldnt come past the machined section, do as Aido says move the bypass thru its range of travel and see how it looks.

aido · September 29, 2004

Cheers Rob :)

Yeah mine is like that, see what you and Gord mean now!

Gord · September 30, 2004

lets hope THE DON (chris) dose ? aido you keep your eye on my computer , and i will keep my eye on your s/c, ok mate.

aido · September 30, 2004

OK mate

TheDon · September 30, 2004

i installed it the exact same way as gordons as i took a photo of his on the car, that way i knew it would be right.

yes i also bent the tab up and the R clip had not moved at all.

The movement of the valve was fine, but i noticed that towards the end of its travel (i.e fully open) that there was only 2mm of spring left against the metal block.

Now i may have just recieved one with an arm that was too small? will have to email TTE and get them to send me a new one. it could also be that the metal it was made from was a bad batch and was too soft?

who knows? thanks for the help guys.

Also as gordon said, me name is Chris. so feel free to use it

Rob · September 30, 2004

hi chris,

when the bypass is in the fully closed position there is as u say only a bit of the spring arm remaining but think it is more than 2mm - ill have a look on mine when i go to work in a few hours.

TheDon · September 30, 2004

when its fully closed its fine, but when its fully opened its on the verge of pulling off! i think thats what happened, somehow the cable pulleed too much and it pulled the spring past its limit? strange, its probably a crappy spring

Rob · October 1, 2004

when its fully closed its fine, but when its fully opened its on the verge of pulling off!

its the other way around mate, when the cable is pulling, the valve is going to the closed position

i think thats what happened, somehow the cable pulleed too much and it pulled the spring past its limit?

have you got the cable adjusted properly??? look at this PIC

for the correct adjustment.

TheDon · October 1, 2004

looking at that pic that is exactly how my set up is. its just so strange.

will be having a looksy and getting a mate to rev it while i fiddle around. will see if the cable routing has been comprimised

Rob · October 10, 2004

any more news???

i had a look at mine yesterday, when moving the bypass thru the range of movement the lenght of remaining " spring tail" hardly moves ie it stays at about 2.5 or 3 mm. maybe somehow you have not installed the spring correctly or the spring is to short - if it is truly too short try to pull the end a bit to it tightens one of the coils to gain a little bit extra while waiting for another spring.