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Father Ted

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Encouraged by the slightly cooler weather and a clear driveway thanks to my son using the V70 today instead of cycling to work, I dug my Reliant out of the garage and drove it round the estate three times then did a longer loop to include a nearby hamlet (very small village, not a cigar).  It behaved and was much quieter inside with the engine cowling re-fitted.  The last brief outing was to the FOD on FotU day when I had to leave the cowling off to prevent fuel vapour locking.  That trip roasted me alive whilst being deafened.  

 

Today, ditto, but 10 miles rather than 5, and went on to the A43 dual carriageway for half a mile, reaching about 55mph.  It would have managed 60mph but a slow Corsa was in front and I wanted to turn off anyway.  Some loose bodywork to attend to tomorrow to stop the rattles.

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Despite my annoyance at having to get two new tyres this morning before a drive from Canterbury to Telford, I am really quite impressed by the two Falkens Ecoruns they put on.  They only came to £91 (I think they under-charged us) and after about 70 miles on the motorway, they really settled in nicely.  When the front two need doing, I'll probably just get another pair of Falkens for the front.  I got a full set of Pirelli P1s last October and they've been decent - but quite why the left rear let go, I don't know.  Cost a bit more, too.

 

I'm genuinely impressed by these Falken tyres.  I'm always dubious but it was just a case of needing a pair now and being that end of the month.

 

In other news, driving around Much Wenlock this evening was bloody magnificent fun.

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I've had Falkens in the past and just had a pair fitted to the front of the Hiace, they're pretty good.  I'd guess they're a considerably better bet than the Roadstones I was offered as a cheaper alternative.

 

On the subject of tyres, I don't know whether it's just a local tyre fitter supplying them by the bucket-load but there seems to be a lot of Jinyu tyres about lately (yes, it's sad but I do look when walking past a car sometimes!) - are they still nasty budget crap or half-decent now?

 

Anyway, as I had a day off work today I decided to get a couple of van jobs done.  The snapped drop-link was priority number one, the weather was reasonable and I had the whole day, they were only fitted a year or so ago so should be a nice, easy job, right?  Meh, just for once I'd like that to be true!  The broken one on the passenger side did come out fairly easily, in bits:

 

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The only issue I had here really was the new tyres seem to give the van just a half inch more ground clearance, it was already a struggle for my Halfords jack to reach the chassis rails, even with a big sturdy piece of wood bridging the gap, and I was a few mm shy of the axle stands lifting the wheel completely off the ground so had to resort to putting wood underneath them, not something I particularly wanted to do but it seemed to work and nobody died.

 

I remember when I fitted the old drop links that neither was particularly well made, the one on the passenger side in particular was a complete bastard to get aligned with the anti roll bar, it took ages and a lot of washing up liquid and bad words to force it into place and this probably hasn't helped its demise.  The new one was much better and took very little time to get in place.

 

I thought I'd better do the pair and moved over to the driver's side - it's a good thing I did decide to change both, it was almost on the point of snapping as well and after a few minutes of fighting with the spanners it did break, in exactly the same place.  At that point, it all went downhill as the bolt holding it to the antiroll bar was seized solid and no amount of Plusgas, talking to it or brute force made the slightest bit of difference.

 

In the end, I resorted to spending 40 minutes lying underneath the van at a strange angle with a hacksaw looped around the track rod end and cutting through the bolt.  It put up quite a fight but I wasn't about to be defeated.

 

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Again, the new one went in much more easily.  Success! 

 

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Put the van back down on its wheels, cleared away the tools and went to go for a test drive, then it then did something it's never done before - it didn't want to start.  It turned over fine but didn't even try to fire, until the 5th or so attempt when it suddenly fired and ran as though nothing was amiss - no big smoke cloud either so I wonder if there was a random air bubble in the fuel.  Probably ought to get that fuel filter changed, I've no idea how old it is.

 

A test drive proved that all is now well with no more hideous suspension noises.  Poking around underneath it did show how rusty it is though, there's any number of places that look ready to go through although it's probably worse to look at than it is in reality.  The jacking points are useless, they were 'repaired' at some point in the past and folded up like damp cardboard the first time I tried jacking it up on them.

 

Anyway, it all took so long I didn't have time for much else but finished off by giving it a good cleanup inside and putting some new bedding in the back so it's ready for its next adventure next month.  I've got two weeks to make use of, I'm a bit torn between going over to Europe again or saving the ferry ticket this year and going up to Scotland, which I've been wanting to do for a long time.  I think Scotland might win, I've never been north of Edinburgh.

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Finally found another house to put an offer in on.  Unusually, it was larger in person than it looked in the photographs, it's normally the other way around with estate agents.  Slightly awkward in that it currently only has parking for 2 cars and we have 3 to house, but there's space to extend the drive and build a nice garage and one of the three cars (probably the Princess) can live in a relative's garage until we've done that.  If our offer is accepted, of course.  We've not had a lot of luck finding properties worth going for that stay in budget but a recent slump in London house prices means we might have a bit of a chance with this one as people panic and accept whatever's offered, apparently.  I wouldn't know, I've only ever rented, which seems considerably less painful than attempting to purchase a house.

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I posted up a house in another thread that we went to see today. Ideal BTL. Full of potential for martial disagreements.

Just redoing the bathroom will require decisions. Which cause strife.

We can't agree on what to offer and my wife thinks the rent should be 10% lower than i think it should be. But that 10% is 800 quid a year. Surely you'd advertise at a higher rent and see if you get interest????

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Anyone happen to know someone in Lancashire who will change the electromagnetic bushes on a K11 CVT box? no doubt they've never been fucking done, and the car is a pain to get moving, sometimes it snatches and goes (prob like it should normally ) other times it goes through a fucking checklist.. "am i a cheeseburger... no... a plane? no... Jeremy Clarkson riding a penguin..no... OH FUCK I'm a damn gearbox.."

 

It's annoying. :)

 

 

My mum's been there with CVTs of that age, both with a K11a and a sad face Fiesta: mated to small engines they just don't work. My mum's Fez used to hesitate and stall in D, and when it cut out it wouldn't start again.

Personally I'd just sack it off, even ten years ago a CVT rebuild was £500+. Nobody really likes to touch them.

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Grandfather’s 90th today. I’m driving his old car. Everyone else has a variety of conflicting vehicular priorities, including a retired actuary, a joiner, a vet, a mechanic, three farmers, two retired GPs, a crafter and a former sailor/electrical engineer. Possibility also the retired Major will turn up, the insurance broker and the Classics Teacher. All relatives. Let’s see what they turn up in this time...

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Anyone happen to know someone in Lancashire who will change the electromagnetic bushes on a K11 CVT box?

Ask NJGleeds - he is in fence and has his own garage. Might tell you to bugger off if it is going to give him nightmares!

 

I think he is still in counselling after mx5 diff bushes for me.

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When a house has been on the market for above a year and you've reduced the price by 40k and it's still not sold, perhaps you need to re-evaluate how much you think it's worth rather than saying "We're not being greedy".  Fired up the looking machine again to see if I can sniff out some more back up properties because I have a feeling this house is going to go out of budget because of a delusional seller.

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Gave the little C1 a full service. A mere 3.2L or golden nectar required.

 

The brake discs were pitted or something, most annoying. Got new discs and pads from ECP this morning and swapped over. All good.

 

Total cost for all service materials and brakes, £66. Can't grumble really...

 

The wheel trims were a bit fucked, so jettisoned those. I think the bare steel wheels suit the utilitarian baseness of the car.

 

It's size and modernness make going between this and the 405 quite a good change either way.

 

 

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Today I haz been mostly stripping the paint of a used MK2 Capri wing.

 

Bought this a couple of weeks ago.

Bloody expensive for what it is,but that's Ford tax for you.

Still it's rot free,Just surface spots here and there.

Some filler in there too,as it's been twatted in the past.

Looks like it was a replacement at some point as it appears it was bolted on.

Hopefully it will fit ok.

 

 

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Bonus smoll dog content too.

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