Jenson Velcro

Looking forward to progress on this. Definitely in for the ride.

Fair enough. I know what you mean about waiting it’s turn though. First the welding on the Land Rover and MOT work, the Bini head gasket, then the old mopeds, whilst keeping the dailies going and chores around the house. Never dull though, just frustrating that there aren’t enough hours in the day.

I haven’t read all the way back through your thread so may be repeating someone else’s comments, but have you check the pads on the end of the rocker arms for wear? Where they press down on the end of the valve stem they will wear a groove over time, and when you check the gaps with a feeler gauge, it spans the groove and gives a false reading with too big a gap. Although the end of the rocker is hardened, you can gently dress them with a wet stone or flap disc to level them off. I enjoyed those series of The Bridge and really liked the simplicity of Saga’s 911, with no big arches,

That’s good, hopefully will sort the problem

Was there any obvious sign of leakage around the thermostat housing?

Exactly this. Just done the same job on my r50 last week. The only slight problem was the fixing bolts in the bottom of the battery tray had rusted solid into the inserts in the plastic carrier below and ended up pulling out. Some rivnuts sorted that out. unfortunately the thirst for coolant remains......

Someone who hates cleaning brake dust off wheels? although those wheels are at least a simple design so reasonably easy to clean. Whoever designs some of the alloys on more modern cars with loads of nooks and crannies should be made to clean them for a month solid.

Thanks for the detailed write up of the cam belt change. I’m currently away on holiday and vicariously enjoying the work without having to lie on a hard concrete floor, getting dirt in my eye or rapage of my wallet. Good job.

Not sure if I’ve missed it elsewhere on your thread, but I’m just wondering when Pontiac we’re selling these new what type of person was the main target? i.e. was it seen as a young cool trendy thing, a sales reps tool, an old giffers runabout etc?

I remember when carbs and distributors started being replaced by fuel injection and basic ecus. Lots of people were saying that it would be the end of diy car repairs and only main dealers would be able to tend the cars. I believe you work in IT, but even so nowadays here you are plugging a laptop into your car and carrying out what appears to be some pretty high level repairs/adjustments. Very impressive stuff.

Thanks for the explanation Si. Most of my car fettling has been on older vehicles with clockwork control systems so I’m just interested to see what is behind more modern cars, even if I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about. I’ve used code readers and replaced odd sensors and components etc. as identified but the rest is a big black hole. Plenty of mechanical and bodywork though. I’ve recently acquired a r50 Bini, cheap because of issues*. It won’t be a daily driver, so if any of them are control system related I will be learning as I go along. From reading other threads, I guess I would

Sorry, but an electro-numpty here. There seems to be a lot of electrickery in that box. What functions does it control? I presume the engine is controlled by a separate Ecu?

Wow that’s one hell of a first car at age 17. Makes a change from a Fiesta, Corsa etc. What’s it’s condition now?

Great to see progress on this again, I thought you’d gone a bit quiet. I hope it provides a welcome distraction and events work out soon for you.

Good job he’s wearing shorts and not a kilt