Lankytim

Finally got home. Apologies to everyone on the motorway network and a big FU to all the middle lane dawdlers, especially the ones who after I overtook discovered their cars can go over 60mph. The boost pipe was well and truly knackered but a dig around the garage provided some ally tubing and aftermarket silicone boost pipe taken from a V70 I scrapped years ago. These boost pipes are like many automotive pipes in that they’re carefully shaped to fit around everything. After a lot of trial and error I managed to knock up something to fit and boost is now restored. I might need to finesse the fitting as there’s a couple of places where the pipes are rubbing against something but overall i’m pretty pleased with it. I’m even more impressed that I finally found a use for something I’ve kept in the garage for years, “just in case”!

Those early nose 340s were believed to be extinct in the U.K. at one time (or so I was told) what a nice find! In other news, returning from that London to Stoke on Trent. Heard a bang from under the Laguna on the M40 just as we crossed the M25. Sudden loss of power but the Laguna still ran and drove so I pressed on- I didn’t want to stop on the HS and didn’t want to turn the engine off in case it didn’t start again. Clouds of clag on uphill sections and overtaking had to be planned in advance, all compounded by middle lane hogging morons- don’t they know I’m nursing my shite home?? Luckily I could give them the “red arrows” treatment when I finally got round them. We’ve stopped in Warwick services and as suspected, it’s a burst boost pipe, the top one too which should make repair easy. I’ve got some pipes at home which may fit but for now, the users of the M40/M5/M6 might have to use their headlights.

I’ll get googling and see if there’s anybody local! I’ll also have a close look at these lower arms.

Here’s a couple of pics of the wear, it’s right on the shoulder. I moved the tyre to the back as it looks like it’ll be down to the plies within weeks if I leave it on the front.

I’ve just thought of another symptom to consider, it doesn’t pull under braking, only acceleration. Surely a worn bush would have to do both?

Popped out today and collected the Volvos pez tank. It’s been properly repaired this time with the pick up pipe at the bottom of the rank so after a lick of paint will be good to fit. It looks like a pretty nice job too. I’ve also had at the P4s master cylinder apart and apart from some rust on the outside it seems in good shape with no leaks (the “leak” in the photo is some WD40!) The piston and bore are nice and shiny and the seal looks to be a recent replacement. Everything was cleaned up and reassembled. I gave it a lick of Hammerite but could only find some dark green paint! I’ve got a new tin of black but typically I can’t find it.

Cleaned and reassembled the NSR brakes and adjusted the handbrake so I’ve at least got some braking effort via the parking brake and can move this old Rover around under its own steam to work on. The wheel cylinder was gunned up with crystallised brake fluid but cleaned up ok. The rubber dust covers have perished into liquorice. I also removed the master cylinder for inspection, although it looks like it could be OK. I haven’t had chance to pull it apart and clean it. I’m actually enjoying working on this old tub.

Yes, horizontal bushes. The wishbones look quite new but might not be top quality.

In his defence the tyre guy was referring to the pulling under acceleration rather than the wear on the inside edge of a tyre, presumably that’s a totally different issue. I’ve driven it a bit since and after swapping the worn NSF tyre with the NSR it does feel quite a bit better. The strut was replaced on the OSF just to add confusion to the matter, surely any camber issues would show themselves on that side? In other news, Yesterday I took the 145 fuel tank into the local old skool radiator repairers to see if he could solder a new pick-up pipe after I snapped the old one off. Collected it today and it turns out he’s literally soldered a pipe to the side of the tank so it can’t draw fuel up from the bottom. I’m sure he’ll put it right but I explained to the guy about a million times when I dropped it off so it’s still pretty annoying.

I don’t think they checked camber, as for the other stuff I’ve no idea. The guy did say it could be an issue with the gearbox/diff putting too much torque to one wheel. There’s vibration at idle from what I think could be a dodgy engine mount so maybe the engine is moving to one side under acceleration. It’s been remapped up to 200bhp (apparently) so it might be just good old fashioned torque steer.

I was listening to a R4 program about that Horizon scandal in the PO that resulted in a load of innocent post masters getting jailed, apparently it was hushed up for so long because big ticket contracts like the DVLA would be spooked if they found out the software used was unfit for purpose/shit.

The Laguna is wearing out the inside edge of one of the front tyres and pulls under acceleration so I’ve taken it to be tracked up. After 5 minutes the thing that every shiter dreads happened… the guy came walking back in to the waiting room with a serious look on his face and told me the tracking was pretty much spot on…. Dammit! It’s had a replacement used strut on one side and there’s a possibility it’s the wrong type. To cancel out the disappointment I papped a couple of lovely old motors parked outside. They’re both fabulous!

Westminster- scrap/ Does not compute! Is there nobody local that could lend a hand?

Soooo, it turns out I’m now a Rover P4 owner, well more accurately a Rover 60 owner. A deal was struck last week with @Minimad5 and on Friday I popped round with my dolly to haul the Rover back home. All went to plan and the black and white wonder was soon sat on my driveway. The engine runs really well but the clutch was slipping too much to get it out of the dolly, this turned out to be fixable with some adjustment on the clutch linkage. The brakes are completely absent, in fact the brake and clutch pedals were seized together on the shaft they share inside the chassis. After a bit of lubrication they’ve started to unseize but will need more work. The OSF brake was binding badly which after I removed the drum (the largest drum I’ve seen on a car!) turned out to be delaminated brake shoes, I’ve also reassembled one of the rear brakes so I’ve at least now got the parking brake working on that wheel. Im not sure what I’ve got planned for this old tub. The bodywork does need a bit of welding but it’s not as bad as I was expecting, the brakes need total renewal and the electrics are well past their prime (by about 40 years) but it’s an endearing old thing that seems to be responding well to some fettling. I deffo can’t have 3x old cars that don’t work though so something will have to go.

A couple of charity shop finds. I got these because they look in good condition. No doubt they’ll hang around for a while in the living room before disappearing into the loft and living with the other million Haynes manuals I own. The Saab manual had this deposit book inside, last used in 1985!

Popped the fuel tank out of the Volvo 145 to inspect it and clean it out. It looks in good shape but has lots of rust flakes inside. The fuel sender was seized but should be useable. The fuel line into the tank is metal due to the proximity of the exhaust back box and I managed to snap the 90 degree elbow on the side of the tank. Doh! I then made things a whole lot worse by failing to extract the broken piece of thread, resorting to drilling it out and trying to tap it and then hearing the fuel pick-up pipe falling off inside the tank. I’m not totally sure what do to now but I could perhaps fashion a length of pipe to act as the pick up and solder/glue it into the existing hole in the tank.

Crikey, I bet that was stressful, especially as there was a third party transporter involved!

UPS only delivered the gearbox! A couple of hours later I got this message though…. Feck. Have I been scammed? EBay chat was helpful but I’m half expecting the buyer to try a chargeback through their bank in the coming days… The buyer was a new ebayer with 0 feedback.

Sold a gearbox on eBay (the same one I couldn’t send before, if anyone remembers) UPS came to collect it and gave me approx 30 seconds to get out of bed and get to the door, by which time he was in his van with his indicator on trying to pull away. “Not this time, you khaki shorted bastard!” The wife and children were in the garden so didn’t hear the light tap he did on the front door, despite there being a ring doorbell right next to him which would’ve alerted the whole household. I had to sprint to the van in my keks and bang on the bonnet to get him to stop. He took the gearbox but neglected to scan it so it’s still showing as “label created”. Hope it gets there. Oh, and despite gearboxes being on the list that UPS are fine to accept and having sent many in the past via UPS I listed it as an AC MOTOR as last time I tried to drop it at the depot the boss had a hissy fit about a drained, cleaned, plugged and thoroughly shrink wrapped gearbag being sent.

Thanks for all the very interesting replies, there’s lot to think about! I did daily a 16 year old Citroen XM a few years ago and after a while it became a chore, I worked out that every 4-5 hours of driving would equate to 1 hours worth of spannering on the drive, often it was against the clock to make the car usable for work in the morning. Sometimes fun but not fun all the time.

Eldest daughter complained of a sloshing noise emanating from the OSR door of the Laguna. The rubber bung on the bottom was removed and approx 10 litres of water poured out onto the road. The NSR door did the same a few months ago! It was quite amusing to watch.

The 145 has been missing it’s battery tray ever since I got it. I was hoping to obtain one but they’re pretty hard to come by so battery has been sitting precariously on the inner wing for the last few years. Today I tried to knock something up to fix the situation. The in-laws dropped off a scrap garden burner thing for me to get shot of, the type you get from B&M and only seem to last 6 months before they rust away. This provided some bits on angle iron which were chopped up and crudely bolted to the battery tray mounts and a Mk1 Corsa battery tray I had kicking about. The end result doesn’t look too bad and does a good job of keeping the battery secure! I might replace it all with the correct battery tray should I happen to spot one for sale, then again I might just leave it. The battery covers everything up anyway.

Sure, if he’s ok with it.

That’s basically a modern thought isn’t it?

Interesting answers, just to add being a married father of two I’d also need to use it for the ferrying around of kids etc so any breakdowns would be under the scrutiny of an unconvinced wife, although as mentioned we’d have the Jazz to do most of that. I think running an old car would be slightly less stressful if I were single because it would only be at the side of the road should the thing FTP. The 145 pictured is currently in my garage slowly getting returned to the road, although things are going much more slowly than I hoped. The body will need some TLC underneath and I fear won’t stand up to much in the way of road salt before needing major surgery, I’m not sure it would be suitable as a daily when it finally hits the road. On the other hand Rover P6s seem to be pretty plentiful, are easy to get spares for and an up and running example that’s previously been regularly used and doesn’t require too much work can be acquired for not too much ££.