Low Horatio gearbox

And job done. Wiring or more soldering is my least favorite, though I do appear to be improving i think I'll make up/redo the wiring as it's not as tidy as I'd like and I can do better to clean up the routing and have it look neater. The fragile looking drivers footwell kick panel was nowhere near as crispy and fragile as I thought I just need to strengthen and repair cracks around one of the screw mounts holes where it's been over tightened. I need to investigate a glue as it's that slippery waxy feeling plastic that no glue seems to want to grip/adhere too. I found the live for the cigarette lighter/12 v - powering the shonky non working stereo so returned it to the lighter but the ground needs redoing -i presumed it was groundd on the metal dash I have a video of the indicators working but I'm having a senior moment and can't figure out how to upload it 🤷‍♂️

Rubber gaskets are on my list. TL /DR: the Rover was supposed to have a lot of love and overhaul at the end of September/start of October alas life and finances said no. And so it reliably continued to carry on and on and.. Albeit I had the XJ back so it was used more sparingly, the only issue I had was it blowing the radiator cap - however I put this down to me checking and replacing the antifreeze at the start of December and not putting the cap on correctly/tightly. Tho as ever did this as conveniently as possible as I pulled up to the house and tbh it's been a so-so for for all of my ownership so I can suffer the cost of a new one. I say used sparingly but given the modern..ish volvo XC90 suffered a total immobilize failure the day before Christmas eve the all the old unreliable shite cars have been covering for it since.

Needless to say. The lights are appreciably brighter and more even in appearance despite 57 year old lenses

Today's faffage, Rear lights😩 The LED kit is semi drop in -you dont have to modify the housing or body, just faff with the wiring. In a fit of parenting /cheap I enlisted mine and the Gfs offspring to help* with some if it. The bezels are held in with 4 screws and hold the lens on and then you push the bulb holder out of the back of the lamp housing using hammer and block of wood . Easy bit over it's to the fun of wiring and soldering , tho to be fair the kit came with connectors with long wires and wired buttons (to switch indicator mode) for each side and all I had to do was push the connectors in and connect 1 ground wire per side and feed the pig tails thro the now vacant bulb holder, er... hole. That done the and its wiring time , the lights need 2 more wires running in to give the correct signal/voltage for each function as it's going from 2 wires and ground per lamp to 4 wires and a ground - the original set up used the same wire for brake and indicator and just one red lense (much cheapness obvs) to get all 3 functions. First up was a ground connector on either side - start off with the easy stuff before progression to fire/crying in the corner of the garage. And slowly pairing up each of the running, brake and indicator signal wires. Partially made easier as the original wiring had been cut and reconnected about 4-5" from the lamp connector and had crimp fittings - bizarre as the connectors comes off the back of the lamp units easy and there is no need to remove them 🤷‍♂️ while not super tidy I took my time and managed to sort the boot wiring out without burning myself or the car. This just leaves running the 2 new wires forward out of the boot over the wheel tub and to the front. Usual faff and having to remove the rear drivers side trim panel and have the new wires follow the original loom route. I ran out of time today so tommorow morning its run the wires from the base of the B pillar to the dash, 1 to replace the brake wire and a 12v power, that shouldn't take more than 2 hours or so, tho I'm not looking forward to removing the drivers footwell kick panels as it has a few crack and looks nicely fragile. Oh and get something to make up for the job existant real lense seals/gaskets. I did a quick check and the rear lights are working as they should be so, sucess*🤷‍♂️

1Partially yes! Life, decorating a d the GFs uni placement meant my dicking around improving* this and the others has been limited till err 2 weeks from now. Tho I've run it out to make sure everything is circulating once or twice a week - I'm not a believer in tucking them up for 6 months of a year and then being surprised it won't start/stop/move. The heater is -for a car of its age -pretty decent and I thought the dash lights were totally kaput but pulling and twisting the switch a bit and it came back to life and can sort of be dimmed'ish as well. The lack of interior light is a pain though when your trying to shove and belt 2 kids and shopping in/out in the twilight/winter evenings. I fiddle with the carb slightly on the weekend and it starts a bit easier - new carb and inlet manifold in the next 8 weeks allegedly 😒 Other stuff : the carpet in the front footwells has started to disintegrate unsurprisingly given it's near total crispness. I plan to replace it when the new carb is on as the seats need to come out and the footwell kick panels ar a bit fragile - that will have to wait as my daily modernish xc90 threw a hissy fit immobiliser wise the day before Christmas eve.

It's been a busy... err 10 days of which I have been decorating, laying laminate and all that glorious shizz. All the while car stuff backed up further. I finally relented and got the Volvos fucked locking wheel nuts off, I tried but they were killed and only 2 came off so i made it somone else problem and paid some professionals. Today tho I pulled the XJs master cylinder and after some faff... it now has effective brakes again. The seals were shot and had gone soft and the main seal had a good tear. It was pretty grim inside but it is 50 years old in 2 months and doesnt appear to have ever been touched.

Did the passenger rear wheelbearing in the Volvo today. An it was a fun one. 3 of the 4 bearing carrier bolts came out but one just wouldn't yield. Not because it was particularly stuck, merely shit access without taking the entire hub assembly off. I tried swearing then crying and then drilling -the wheell bolt holes lined up so I could drill it from the threaded end and after a while and many drill bits it popped out. Naturally the bearing took a good hour of swearing and cursing before hammering freed it. The result... silence thank fuck, mind the bearing was totally indexed . A double bonus was I had to take the handbrake mechanism off, to get the bearing out (or acces to welly onit with the hammer) and it seems it had had new pads but the mechanism hadn't een connected to the cable itself so the handbrake works fully now instead of so-so before.

Finally got around to the noisy wheelbearing on the XC90. TL/DR : how to turn a 2 hour job into a 4 hour job rear left still to do. A faff but not horrendous. The steering ball joint was the most faff to undo and do back up due to a burr on the nut threads, just the usual half hours fun slowly trying to get what grip with an 8 mm wrench on the tip and a quarter turn the nut with an 18 mm spanner . Everything else came apart with no real issue and re assembly is the reverse of dissasemly with the added bonus of fighting the now fully extended suspension. It was just enough time for me to forget to clean up the tie rod nut and get it on 2 turns before it all merrily locked up and spun round and round. The next 45 minutes was spent cursing while trying various mole grips, channel locks and small spanners to hold the stub and Jack the underside of the ball joint. Motivated by the thought of street parking the Mustang till I could unfuck the Volvo as it was now stuck onthe garage I zipped across the top of the stub and used a long flat blade screwdriver jammed into the slot to hold it enough to get the nut off. I cleaned the nut up and it went back on fine. Just the rear left now tho that's a fair bit easier just caliper/ disc and one bolt out of a control arm not almost total front dissasemly. Its quieter now but the rear one is still left to do.

XJ6 back after too long. On the upside it's as smooth as silk engine wise and the electrics and stereo all work so it's an functional car now.

A part for a 56 year old car never sold in this country in my hands in less than 24 hours.

Car continues to car. Though in the last 2 weeks it has felt somewhat hesitant at times slightly rough running but only momentarily. The usual visual inspection of opening the bonnet and sucking teeth while vaguely poking like I knew what I was doing yielded little obvious culprits. Till yesterday when I opened the bonnet to show a friend and petrol was liberally dripping out of the carb from the accelerator diaphragm. Opening it up and the rubber had given up where it meets the metal disc. 9 quid and one was on it's way and arrived today. Not quite the right fit - my screw holes are slightly closer, but making it fit was about 5 minutes work with a punch and the leak is gone, performance restored and improved and no puddles of petrol.

Did the morning school run in the Mustang. The sun came out in the way home and I turned the soundtrack up to 15 mpg

A shame -the plastic sill covers hide the rot. Good save with the Eclass tho.

The modern Volvo has an rumbly wheel bearing and the stereo will no longer go loud enough to drown it out. I've not actually been able to have a close inspection as the locking wheel nuts have all been gunned up good-n-proper and the locking wheel chuck/socket no longer fits.....