[Luxobarge]

OK, update: The boost gauge kit arrived today, so had a go at fitting it. Took me most of the day! I got it from PFV, and also got the mounting binnacle that goes on the driver's side A pillar. This needed a LOT of fettling with a dremel to get it to fit decently, it's basically made to a generic shape and I think you're expected to cut/shape it to fit the profile of whatever A pillar you have. Got there in the end though, looks OK.

To get the vacuum hose into the engine bay I found a short crinkly tube about 15mm diameter going through the firewall right next to the throttle cable, with a rubber cover over both ends. It was empty, so I fed the tube through there and re-used the rubber end covers to keep water out - it's in just the right place, and could have been put there specifically for this purpose - result!

The vac hose they supply isn't long enough to get to the vacuum tree, so I used a length of thin cunifer brake pipe to extend it, the hard pipe runs under the aluminium cover for the fuel injectors, quite neat and solved the length problem.

One problem with the gauge is that the glass comes in a trendy "smoked" finish, which means that without any back-lighting it's virtually impossible to read, even in daylight - duh! So instead of wiring the instrument back-light to the lighting circuit I wired it to an ignition switched live, so the back-light is on all the time that the ignition is on. It's nice and easy to read like that.

So does it work? Yes it does, and I think that it does indeed tell me I've got a problem. The gauge markings are in bar, and I believe I'm right in saying that I should get around 0.65 bar (9.5psi) under acceleration and 0.75 bar (11psi) under maximum acceleration for a maximum of 30 seconds. I only did a fairly short test trip but the most I could get was 0.5 bar, which equates to about 7.2 psi, which I think is well short of what I should be getting. This tallies with my perception that the car does get a move on when you hoof it, but not as lively and startling as it should be.

So, it's boosting but not as much as it should. Where do I go from here? Any ideas? I still have a couple of vacuum hoses to renew, but although the old ones are a bit crusty I very much doubt that this is the cause of the problem. Should I just shorten the actuator a bit, or is this silly? Remember it has a brand new Pierburg TCV, so you guys with experience do let me have your ideas as to what to do next. Thanks!