Slowsilver

Another unexpected visitor to Chez Silver last weekend. A near neighbour just round the corner, an American guy now living over here, who had not previously owned a classic car, bought this 1981 Mini Clubman estate about 6 weeks ago. It appears to have been restored fairly well, though certainly not perfect, and has a 1275 Metro engine in it. He wanted to have a good look at the condition of the underside and also see if he could find some mounting points for rear seat belts as he has a son who travels in the back, so I offered him the use of my drive and ramps. The electrics are a bit suspect so I also helped him fix the hazard flashers and the interior light. It is perfectly useable but he is slowly tinkering with it to fix some of the minor niggles.

Thanks for the tip @egg. Unfortunately I didn't see your post until this morning and they are now out of stock. Supposedly 66 sold. Fortunately my existing weather strips are not too bad. I did remove them all, scrape off all the moss, clean them up and reshape them as best as I could and they look reasonable now.

Two wooden slatted single beds. 2 metres x 1 metre. Both take a 6'6" x 3' mattress. Reasonable condition. All fixings included. Dismantled for transport. Headboard in first picture looks manky but is actually covered in stickers which should be easy to remove. Free for collection from Buckingham MK18.

AS-worthy bodge applied and we can now select reverse again. Removed the roll pin and slid the collar off then cut the top of it straight and drilled a suitably-sized hole in the thickest part of the bulge above the finger groove. Pressed the roll pin through this hole and into the cable ferrule. This means that the collar now sits higher up on the lever so I had to ditch the (broken) plastic bit that fits inside the knob to allow the collar to move up inside it. It also means that I now have to put my fingers underneath the collar to lift it, rather than in the finger groove. But it works. I don't know how long it will last as the 30-year-old plastic has gone horribly brittle but I deliberately drilled the hole at the thickest point for (hopefully) maximum strength. I forgot to take a picture before I bashed the knob back on but it now looks like this: Not a brilliant job but doesn't look too bad and will hopefully last a while until the remaining plastic disintegrates. In the meantime if anyone finds a replacement collar, knob with collar, or complete lever in their spares stash or sees one for sale please let me know. Also, does anyone know if the later gear lever is the same at the bottom end and would fit into the early linkage?

I attempted to reverse the Mondeo off the drive today and when I lifted the collar on the gear lever to allow me to select reverse it disintegrated so I was unable to engage reverse gear. The workshop manual gives details of how to remove the entire linkage but nothing about removing just the lever. Lifting the gaiter and the rubber boot underneath it revealed a circlip which I eventually managed to remove and the gear lever pulled out. I was then able to bash the knob off with a rubber hammer to reveal the broken piece. The sleeve with the finger groove and the insert which fits inside the gear knob should be one piece of plastic, held onto the metal gear lever by the roll pin visible in the picture which also goes through a ferrule on the end of a cable. Lifting the whole thing pulls up the cable, lifting a bush on the bottom of the lever and allowing reverse to be engaged. It may be repairable but it certainly won't be easy, so I wondered if any Mondeo lickers on here have either the plastic insert or even an entire gear lever with the knob still on it in their parts stash. I have looked on line and there are gear knobs, but without the insert and gear levers, but without the knob. If what I have read on line is correct this arrangement with a pressed-on knob was only used on very early Mondeos and later mark ones had a screw-on knob with a different arrangement. Any help or advice would be gratefully received.

You are correct. The whole driver's side brake was seized solid and I had to split the calliper to free it off. I threw it back together with the pads in to make sure that the pistons didn't get ejected but no shims, which should still have been in the boot. The pad retaining pins were pretty mangled and one of the bolts holding the calliper halves together didn't go back in fully. It will certainly need some serious overhauling, if it is indeed salvageable. Good luck sorting it.

I replaced the leaking fuel pipe but it still didn't want to start. Then I found a wire with a connector on it which wasn't plugged in to anything. Consulting with@Andyrew, our resident Vauxhall guru, who fortunately was at the FoD and actually used to own this beast, produced the matching loom and connector, which apparently goes to the crankshaft sensor. This was plugged in and after a fair bit of cranking it fired up. The clutch was a bit sticky but eventually it was mobile. The initial blue smoke turned more to grey as it warmed up. It was a bit tricky to drive as it refused to idle and kept stalling. We did discover that number 3 plug was actually loose, but tightening it up did not seem to improve matters much. The oil in it looked very clean, but also very thin. Maybe a change to some thicker stuff will reduce the smoke output. More investigation required I think.

FTFY

It might be a good idea to check the length of the new retaining pins before buying the kit. I bought a new spring set supposedly suitable for our Maxi and the pins were about 5mm too short. The rest of the kit was OK but I had to reuse the old pins, which fortunately were in reasonable condition.

Can't believe that I haven't posted anything on this thread since August but the car has just been being exactly that, "an car". Have done a few minor jobs on it but has been 100% reliable. Amazed to discover that it has been on the road for nearly a year and was due for its next MoT at the beginning of August. Put in for test today and it passed with just a couple of advisories, one of which was for the rear brake hoses. These were mentioned last year and I bought new ones then, thinking I had plenty of time to get around to fitting them but, guess what, they are still on the shelf in the garage. Must replace them this year. We have covered about 900 miles in it in the last year, which is more than either of the other cars, and @quicksilver loves to drive it. He says it is the first car he has driven with a decent amount of power. I was intending to get an MoT on it then put it up for sale but it is comfortable, quiet and quick and we both like it a lot so have decided to tax and insure it for another year and keep it for a bit longer. Fingers crossed for continued trouble-free fun with it.

Free to good home. Old pair of roof bars for cars with roof gutters. Found by my neighbour in his garage while having a clear out. Any interest before they go to the tip? Collect from Buckingham MK18, FoD this weekend or Shitely.

Can anyone help with a problem with my 1999 Vauxhall Zafira A 1.6 16v petrol. I had driven about 20 miles with no problems and it was running perfectly when it suddenly lost power, as if I had taken my foot off the accelerator and the EML came on. It gradually slowed to about 10 mph then suddenly, as if I had thrown a switch, it returned to normal. It repeated this four times at about one mile intervals, then I was able to drive it the three miles or so home with no more problems. I connected my OP-COM OBD2 code reader to it and it showed a not now present fault code of P0170 - Lean exhaust. The car did not cough and splutter at all so I think the fuelling is OK, and looking online this seems to indicate a MAF or O2 sensor fault. I am assuming that since the fault is no longer present if I take it to a garage they will say that they cannot diagnose the fault any further and just replace the likely culprits at great expense with no guarantee that it is fixed. Does anyone have any advice to offer on this. TIA.

I am busy this coming weekend but free any other day this week. The weather looks OK for the next three days but a bit chillier on Friday. If you think it is a job that you and I can do with no additional manpower I could come over one afternoon and at least we could make a start.

Because it's further away?

I took a very close up picture of the number plate as well but didn't bother to upload it before as it is very fuzzy. But here it is: Not particularly clear but after a closer look it could indeed be FNO 180H. Originally posted picture cropped to just show number plate: Not much clearer. But from your in-depth knowledge of all things Invacar, especially the registration blocks, I am sure you must be correct.

I was watching an episode of a series called "The Protectors" on our PVR last night and spotted this: Potatocam photo of paused TV so not great but you can see that it is an Invacar Mk12, registration FNO 100H. From the copyright info this episode, entitled "Think Back", was first shown in 1971 and was broadcast again on Talking Pictures TV (Freeview channel 81) at 06:00 on 15/09/2021. @LightBulbFun don't know if this is one known to you but thought it might be of interest.

No idea. It wasn't mine and I didn't power it up, I was just asked to remove the hard drive and dispose of it. Can't see the processor because of the fan and heatsink. It has two RAM modules plugged in to the motherboard but I don't know what size they are. Don't see any reason why it wouldn't run Ubuntu or Linux as they seem to be far less fussy than Windows stuff. You pays your money (or not in this case) and takes your chances.

HP Pavilion P6 desktop computer. Base unit only, no keyboard, mouse or monitor. Don't know how old but has W7 license key. VGA and DVI outputs, no HDMI. SD Card reader. Was working when decommissioned. Hard drive removed for security. Otherwise complete. Any interest before it goes to the tip? Free for collection from Buckingham MK18.

Congratulations Des! Hope REV is ready for you to drive soon. The original suggestion for cuddly mini-REV came from @Mrs6C so I passed it on to Mrs Silver, who is a dab hand at creative sewing and likes a challenge. @quicksilverand I acted as technical consultants when it came to the detailing. I then hassled her to get it finished for last weekend, hoping you would be at the FoD so we could present it to you, but I quite understand you wanting to rest up for your test, which obviously did the trick. Ian being at the field was an unexpected bonus though and he was actually the first person outside the Silver family to see it which, as a fellow Invacar owner, seems appropriate. Hopefully we can get it to you in person shortly and it looks as good in the flesh fabric as it does in the photos.

Vauxhall Viva HA. The first incarnation of the Viva from around 1963 to 1966 in think. Pretty rare these days as, like most things from those days, they rusted for fun.

On further investigation it was decided that it wasn't actually neat petrol but mostly water with an infusion of petrol or, more likely, oil. It definitely felt greasy. No idea where the water came from as it is air-cooled. Best guess is the cover over the cylinder head had filled up with rainwater which washed off the oily deposits inside it then got ejected under pressure when the engine started. Quite a large quantity was expelled but eventually it stopped and once the engine was warmed up we had no more trouble with it.

Indeed it is. The Zafira model was launched in the UK in, I think, March of 1999 and this one was registered in June 1999. It could even be the oldest example left on the road now.

Oddly enough, unlike the infamous bright red which ages to pogweasel pink, the Satin Red does not seem to suffer at all from fading with age. The Zafira paintwork is the 22 year old original and, although recently expertly refreshed by @Andyrew, I believe that most of the paint on the Carlton is also from the factory.

Scoop! Satin Red Vauxhall comes to the rescue of Satin Red Vauxhall. Not all Vauxhalls are sh*te, just 50% of them!

I wish you hadn't mentioned the Maxi. I got it out of the garage yesterday and it has been crying brake fluid all over the floor behind the nearside rear wheel. Looks like new rear brake cylinders are required. Hopefully the brake linings will be salvageable as they are fairly new.