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theshadow

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  1. Like
    theshadow reacted to sutty2006 in 1986 Vauxhall Carlton CDi, Daily use of a 37yr old car. Now haz tunes!   
    MOT time. Wish me luck 👍

  2. Like
    theshadow reacted to sutty2006 in 1986 Vauxhall Carlton CDi, Daily use of a 37yr old car. Now haz tunes!   
    MOT booked in on Monday. 2nd test since it was recommissioned. 
     
    sill check - they’re still there. They’ve not disintegrated over winter!
     
    Couple of things to note. The gearbox has bled on my nice clean garage floor. Great.
     

    Looks like it’s coming from the selector shaft, that’s a new one. I think pretty much every orifice on this box has leaked. 

     
    oil pooled up in that gap behind the nut. Not entirely sure what the next move is… 
    time for a service. The 20l of 20/50 heavy duty diesel oil came in useful again. Probably got enough for 3/4 more after this one.

     
    now this should be interesting. We all know the fuel tank was crusty inside… 

    looks a bit brown
     
    oh that’s very brown 

     
    Well that’s 12 months and about 2500 miles worth of fuel. I think this year I’ll be tanking the tank off for a refurb. 
     
  3. Like
    theshadow reacted to sutty2006 in 1986 Vauxhall Carlton CDi, Daily use of a 37yr old car. Now haz tunes!   
    First FTP today. 
     
    pulled into to Tesco for some go go juice. Put 25 quid in, then the fucker wouldn’t start. Popped the bonnet and checked my 1p hadn’t dislodged. Nope. Tried to start again nope. Got out again and checked the digital clicky clacky connections, all ok, then it fired on one cylinder. Restarted on 2, then 3 then 4. Think it flooded itself. No idea why. Let’s see if it gets me to work in the morning. My Landrover is too broken to use. 
  4. Like
    theshadow reacted to rob88h in Harrison's Garage - Mini City, back on the road!   
    I did book an MOT yet I didn’t get it ready! So that plan didn’t really work. Last night was pretty fraught as a result. Things that needed doing included: reinstalling the battery, de-bioharzarding the interior, reinstalling the carpets,  preflight checks and delivering to the MOT garage. Changing the alternator can wait, we’re down to essentials, and yes, the interior clean is essential  

    Home Bargains mould spray and Detol (because panic) were liberally applied to the interior surfaces with reams of kitchen roll. Now the interior smells of bleach and not that kind of textured furry smell that makes you want to cough. 
    The battery plopped in nicely and I could only hope that it’ll hold charge overnight after completely draining it over the last few months. The carpets went in (they pretty much only go in once a year for the MOT these days). I checked all the simple bits like lights, horn, screen wash, “stuff”, ran a sponge over it and declared it suitable to take to the Tester. 
    It started up easily enough but I couldn’t select gear again like a few posts ago. Bugger. So, I started it again in gear, hopping on the starter and it gave-in just before I crashed into the side of the BX it was facing on the drive. This is not going well.

    It did make it to the MOT garage whereby I left it with one of its children for company (in this weird Blair Witch esque photo thanks to life in head torches)
    Well, next day, imagine my surprise to find out that this little Mini Schitty passed its MOT with no advisories! Again! A very pleasing turn of events given my ill preparedness and general neglect over another winter out in the open for the poor thing. In theory this was the last MOT this wee beasty needs as well, but I’d still like to get it annual checks. 

    Here we are back at home, again at night in Blair Witch mode. 
    I feel like I owe this car some love, or at the very least more maintenance in thanks for putting in a good performance. Roll on daylight. + free time. + no rain. 
  5. Like
    theshadow reacted to rob88h in Harrison's Garage - Mini City, back on the road!   
    The cycle of neglect continues, …but jumpstarting off a spare battery in gear has freed the stuck clutch. Win. I should just book an MOT to make me have to get it ready.

  6. Like
    theshadow reacted to rob88h in Harrison's Garage - Mini City, back on the road!   
    The Focus gained another year’s MOT earlier in January. Days before the test it gained an exhaust knock. 🙄
    Central Front Exhaust mounting defective (6.1.2 (a))
    Annoyingly this is on the expensive bit of the exhaust, with all the catalysts, so it was going to cost over £700 to replace. I then didn’t get around to taking it for a welding quote and thankfully Wesacosa showed me an AutoShite approved repair approach.

    Mint.
    It has also developed a bit of a wobble after a walloping with a pothole.
    Nearside Front Road wheel slightly distorted (5.2.2 (c) (i)) Nearside Rear Road wheel slightly distorted (5.2.2 (c) (i))
    These are steel wheels too! No worries though, Facebook MarketPlace to the rescue. 

    The new tyres are old, so I’ll get the garage to put my tyres on. 
     
    So it’s 190k not out, as Bornite would say. There are some Eyersey mileage moments coming up to keep me interested in the Focus. 192k=doubled the mileage since purchase, 196k=100k with us and finally the big 200k. 

  7. Haha
    theshadow reacted to rob88h in Harrison's Garage - Mini City, back on the road!   
    The Volvo was being a right ungrateful bastard after lavishing out on the bodywork - and was not running very well at all. 
    Diagnosis (murder)
    Always misfiring when hot
    Misfire is on cylinder 4 (when pulling HT leads)
    Misfire stays with cylinder 4 when swapping leads over
    Identified oily around the base distributor cap (cylinder 4 at the bottom)
    The cap is full of crap
    Dammit!


    To be honest, I’m not even annoyed it was breaking down now, not even the memory of it - I’m just amazed it ran as well as it did, let alone at all. The state of that oil. Oh dear.
    Anyway, this is AutoShite, so you’ll be pleased to know I scooped out the crud, washed it in WD40 and didn’t address why it got like this. It’s running bob-on now though. 
    I think it’s probably some sort of failed oil seal from the camshaft to rotor arm spindle. 

  8. Like
    theshadow reacted to rob88h in Harrison's Garage - Mini City, back on the road!   
    In 2023 the 440 wasn't having a good time. It snapped it's cambelt (oops, my bad) and was breaking out in rust, with a hole in the sill and the bottom of the drivers door and wing disintegrating fast (also probably my bad). Basically sustained neglect.
    Well 2023 was also a busy* year for it and now It's back! I've just recently picked it up from the body shop.
    Nothing lasts forever - but I'd thrown financial caution to the wind to give the Volvo some more years! I found it a decent second hand door, albeit the wrong trim and colour, a NOS Volvo front wing and supplied it and them to a local bodyshop. They did the rest.., crafting sill repairs and other behind the scene repairs where necessary. It's a really nice job, I can't find the paint blend at all, even when it's dry. Both sides of the door and shuts are the right colour and the trims are all swapped over. Essentially you wouldn't know it's repaired. Well, I wouldn't. 


    Don't get me wrong the car is not mint, but what was the worst bit is now not the worst bit 🙂. It's MOT'd until 2025 too. Hopefully it'll do more than 2000 miles this year.

  9. Like
    theshadow reacted to rob88h in Harrison's Garage - Mini City, back on the road!   
    It’s time I got some MOT’s, the “on the road count” is 2 out of 6! The target is 4 out of 6. The furthest away of the closest to test ready is the Mini, so that’s some great middle of the road procrastination to start with.
    One task is to make the screen wash more reliably. For the last 5 or so years I have only one jet or mostly none at all. Every year I have to revive the screen wash jets with pins, needles and compressed air for the MOT, and every year it never seems to last more than a few weeks. Time for a complete refresh!
    Here’s what lives (accurate description) in the screen wash bottle:

    I tried soaking the hoses in all kinds of cleaners, but for the price of it I just decided to replace all the hoses and the spray nipple things.

    The bottle got scrubbed and disinfected to within an inch of its life:

    All reassembled and ready for the MOT man. This should last more than a week.

    Next it needs a new alternator. Not for the MOT specifically, the old one is charging but the bearing is toast and that’s why I stopped driving it and let the MOT lapse in the first place. New one incoming, although I probably can recondition the old one and keep it as a spare. After that, I think just a bit of presentability work and a driveway pre-test (bulbs and bits) and I’ll stick it in for a test and see.

  10. Like
    theshadow reacted to rob88h in Harrison's Garage - Mini City, back on the road!   
    Meanwhile it went for MOT.

    Ironically, it was a huge NOPE on emissions. I watched the guy run it through several times including something with a mug of water for one of the probes on the test equipment. I’d given it an Italian tune up on the way in and everything. The worst of it was the rot though.
    Once home I took the dreaded sill covers off and wheel arch liners out and after a good fingering… Hmmm. No.




     
    TFL got back to me merely 2 hours after the Focus had been dragged away for scrap, accepting the Certificate of Conformity but asking for all four pages of the V5C. Not sure why they need page three and the completely blank page four, but that went with the car, so unsatisfyingly the story ends here. At the very least it was scrapped on its own merit in the end!

  11. Like
    theshadow got a reaction from egg in new fusion just bought,   
    bank holiday bargain,another £75 ,drives great for a ford,needs good wash,went to morrisions for the jet wash,went to euro for new airfilter,cheap £1.17 wipers,i already had a pollen filter in,sparkplugs,have got a indonasia oil filter,will get newer photos soon,


  12. Like
    theshadow reacted to RobT in Morris 1300   
    Thread resurrection time.
    After 12 months in slumber on my parents' drive, this old heap will be my winter/ULEZ beater for local trips.

    I collected it yesterday and fortunately the showers had stopped for the 20 minute drive home.  Good job as the wipers were inop.  But this morning they fixed themselves so that's a job off the list already.
    Plans are to do some mild tinkering, like replacing the knackered door seals and do a proper radiator flush. A big job I undertook in early 2022 was a head rebuild.  Big to me anyway as I'd never removed a head before.  New stem seals were the initial reason for doing it as the smoke on start up was an embarrassment frankly.  That turned into a hardened valve seat conversion (with new valves obviously) and loads of other ancillary shit I've forgotten.  The upshot was it drove much better and hopefully it'll continue to do so.  Now I'll just crack on and use it as often as possible.
     
  13. Like
    theshadow reacted to RoverFolkUs in Anyone want to Rescue an old Fabia for ÂŁ100 in Solihull?   
    Etc etc 😂

  14. Like
    theshadow reacted to HMC in HMC- AUTOSHITE 2.0   
  15. Like
    theshadow reacted to HMC in HMC- AUTOSHITE 2.0   
    No badging on the rear, apart from a “D” on the bumper….

  16. Like
    theshadow reacted to HMC in HMC- AUTOSHITE 2.0   
    Out for dinner….

    A reminder of past glories, and faded engineering prowess with moss growing on it.
    And a railway viaduct.
  17. Like
    theshadow reacted to HMC in HMC- AUTOSHITE 2.0   
    With the daimler i remembered id sold the p6 to @NorthernMonkey   a short while ago  and the policy was still active (footman james) so changed the cover to the daimler-  £25 admin fee. 

     

  18. Like
    theshadow reacted to HMC in HMC- AUTOSHITE 2.0   
    Been getting to know this elderly daimler a bit more. I tweaked the ignition timing to get rid of a little spitting back, which has cured this, and the brakes and running of the car in general has improved just carefully pottering around the local streets, and mastering the preselector gearbox. 
    The tyres care elderly camacs that are well past it, so im looking around for a new set at them mo, and ill have to try and find my long lost grease gun!
     

  19. Like
    theshadow reacted to St.Jude in 2006 Toyota Land Cruiser - Still Here, Somehow.   
    The sister-in-law goes to Leeds Uni, so I could make the trip to collect. But she’s not got back to me about when she’s meant to be coming back so thanks but I’ll let you both know.
    As it is to be expected now, I went out to it this morning to drive it - fucker won’t start. Batteries are flat. So I need to wait for the wife to get back in order to go to Halfrauds to buy another battery, as while I know one battery is good and holds a charge, I think the other one is too far gone.
    C’est La vie and all that shit.
  20. Like
    theshadow reacted to NorthernMonkey in 2006 Toyota Land Cruiser - Still Here, Somehow.   
    Stuff that…get them blocked off. If your passengers want air con, they can always get an Uber black.
  21. Like
    theshadow reacted to DirtyDaily in I hated BMW's, now I F***ING hate BMW's.   
    Now for assembly and see if it was actually the sensor or not
  22. Haha
    theshadow reacted to DirtyDaily in I hated BMW's, now I F***ING hate BMW's.   
    I always had an unwarranted dislike of BMW's and as part of self advancement and life enrichment I have made a conscious choice to challenge these potentially incorrect prejudgements. I decided recently that a good place to start was by buying a universally well liked BMW in the form of a 2003 Z4 with the 2.5 engine which was on only 73k miles. What an absolutely ungrateful little bastard it is.
    I bought it "cheap" and "by accident" because it had a snapped front spring and a sticking caliper. LIGHT work I thought. I started by dissembling the nearside front corner to remove the offending spring which had gouged in to the tyre and as I went to loosen the pinch bolt on the stub axle it snapped rather unexpectedly as it was actually spinning for a few turns. Great. I spent a day trying to drill out and get an extraction tool on the bolt but after the extraction tool snapped I decided another stub axle would have to do. I therefore bought a good used axle from a breaker and went about cutting off the bolt to remove the strut and remove the control arms. As I took off the bolt on the lower control arm and track rod end both of the threads stripped. New track rod and control arm ordered and a lot of heat and smashing to get off all back together with a new shock as the old one was shagged, new stub axle, new shock, new spring, new top mount, new control arm, new track rod end, two new tyres and it's time for reassembly. However due to the very short nature of the springs you have to very precariously position the compressors on the top hat in order to get it back together. Never the less I didn't die by spring and now the car is back together and driving. I take it out for a drive and there is a horrible scraping noise. Back to be parked up and after a while of investigating found that the brake disc shield was slightly bent and fouling on the tip of the wheel nuts. Hours of my life I will never get back and it's now properly drivable! I got the MOT booked and thought I'll put some new discs on it as the fronts were a little worn and put new wipers and a new bulb in so it was MOT ready. Took it for a drive this evening and after 1 mile the ABS light came on... F***... Get my code reader and read the code. It's the front right speed sensor that is unhappy. As I bought a new stub axle I had another one spare thankfully so at 9pm tonight I have been out to replace as the MOT is 8am Wednesday and I am obviously running out of time. Get out to the car, jack it up, go to remove the bolt that secures the sensor in and it rounds off...
    What a dreadful, ungrateful, pitiful, horrible, useless, poorly designed, sack of shite.
    Is there a point to this thread? No.
    TL;DR?
    BMW's are shit.
    If anyone has some petrol and matches going spare please may I have?


  23. Like
    theshadow reacted to Tommyboy12 in Tommy's A-series Misery - Collection caper!   
    I also did some more work on the MGF this week. Three projects seems a good idea...
    I fitted the alternator belt and the correct oil filter.

    I started fitting a new exhaust

    And I swept up the bits that had fallen off...

    I also fixed the wiper motor! The list grows shorter for the MOT. Handy when I need to fix other cars...
  24. Haha
    theshadow reacted to Tommyboy12 in Tommy's A-series Misery - Collection caper!   
    What's the only logical thing to do when you buy an unknown project that's been parked under a tree? Well if you're me it's to buy an unknown project that's been parked in an industrial estate...



    It's a genuine 49k mileage 1979 Mini auto. With an engine that is definitely never going to run again. It needs welding but really not that much. A few weekends worth of welding in each corner. Everything above the sills is remarkably good considering it's age. However, it's 3579 shades of russet brown (the best BL colour ever!). It also comes with brown seats. Brown door cards. And I've sourced a brown carpet.
    Did I mention brown?
  25. Like
    theshadow reacted to Tommyboy12 in Tommy's A-series Misery - Collection caper!   
    Bye Bye Cavalier

     
    Hello next project 😅



     
     
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