I'm an AX wielding maniac - I see you baby, shaking that ass

[ruffgeezer]

I once had a motorbike that I never even sat on, does that count?

[Craig the Princess]

That definitely counts.

 

AX bits? Apart from the cv joints and drivers seat, Ariel, drivers sunvisor and the Central bit the sunvisor clips into, grey glove box lid, screws that hold the little shelfs under the dash and something else I've forgotten. Possibly a drivers door if it is a 3 door.

[ruffgeezer]

Sunvisor & clip yes, glove box only the GT grey

[Craig the Princess]

Sounds good thank you, the other things were boot mat and bonnet stay and clip.

[Craig the Princess]

Managed to wash my Coupe and Mrs the Princess's brown Metro earlier, pressure wash for the worst of the Norfolk mud

 

 

While doing this I looked in on the 100 club princess which I hope to have a play at in the next couple of days to attach the exhaust, next to it beige1100's Morris 1800, now level after a displacer replacement.

 

 

Had to push beige 1100's Metro out first, now undergoing tinkering to get back towards the road

 

Followed Mrs the Princess home

 

Came home and washed both with the 2 bucket method, sadly the amount of salt still remaining it will need doing again tomorrow. Did manage to get the Metro clean enough to polish the roof and bonnet.

 

Also wanted to look at the Rover 414 with a view to geting it back on the road later in the new year to give the coupe a rest.

 

Undressed

 

And this was as far as I got as the bonnet cable has either detatched itself or streched so pulling the cable doesn't release the catch, rocking the bonnet didn't help either. Any ideas on gaining access?

 

The white 414 was taken off the road in 2007 with a running problem which way put down to the ECU but the plan is to get it running (it was in 2013) and whack it in for an MoT. After 80,000 miles in 8 years I'm getting a bit bored of the Coupe but as it is worth half of fuck all and would be scrap fodder if sold, and as it still drives relly well it will probably be parked up somewhere awaiting work. It seems to be eating distributor caps currently and the lacquer has gone from the boonet and is peeling on pretty much every other panel.

[Craig the Princess]

Overdue thread update

 

White Rover 414, exhaust centre section and replacment bonnet cable have arrived. Once the bonnet cable and release catch are fitted I'll take it to the garage for the exhaust and MoT.

 

Oporto Read Metro, Failed MoT on several minor things but also needs a lot of welding to the rear subframe (or more easily a new subframe) so the hunt is on.

 

Clove Brown Metro, MoT due within 4 weeks so will take it in soon. Plan was to take it off the road for the red one but that won't happen now.

 

Rover 200 Coupe, still has it's cold starting problem. After reading Vulgalor's thread I need to look to see if it has an idle control valve as the symptons seem similar to the problem on his red 414.

 

MGF, Fresh in from Wuvvum and very good for £375. Drives really well and hasn't blown its headgasket in its first 100 miles so all good. It has a few issues that I was going to look at today but I have a cold and it is windy.

Need to look for a passenger side door mirror is it has started drooping, looks like the top bolt isn't attached, replacments seem to be £15-20 on ebay. Bootlid (or bonnet? the one and the back) has been badly rattle canned, replacement on ebay around £40 but need to wait for the correct colour.

First thing to do is to check the power steering fluid level tomorrow as it feels funny at low speed and sometimes pull a little more lock on that intended.

Still a total bargain and causes smiles when driving.

[Barry Cade]

Let us know when you find the PAS reservoir

[purplebargeken]

I had to throw away a mint TF bootlid that no-one wanted. Sadly the wrong colour though. Seriously though, check out all of the local breakers 'cos these things get scrapped for the stupidest of reasons.

[HMC]

Great lineup! I remember hearing somewhere that metro subframes and some associated bits and bobs were the basis for the front and rear ones on the MGF, I've always wondered how much of this was pub lore, but it sounds believable knowing the resourcefulness brought on by tight budgets at Rover Group.

[Craig the Princess]

Thanks Ken, will need to try the local one.

Italianjob I've been told the k-series Metro subframe is the same as the MGF rear, but that could be bollocks.

 

Mrs the Princess hates the blue led interior lights so I guess they will have to go.

[Craig the Princess]

Due to a new arrival due in August we will be wanting to use a 4/5 door car. To drive little Austin/Allegra back from the hospital we decided to get Mrs the Princess's family hand down Rover 414 MoTed. This is booked for Friday.

 

Bought new by her Grandparents and passed to her Dad, used to take her to our wedding, then on to us in 2006.

Last on the road in 2009, two years ago it was started up to move it from our old house to the new one. The oil filler had somehow rusted away and the oil leaked out. So it had new oil and filter then. Battery charged up and somehow it holds charge.

 

 

Gave it a wash today so it looks slightly respectable, it needs an exhaust mid section that the garage.

 

It may need some sparkle stick magic on the rear wheelarch.

 

Apart from that it a) sounds a bit tappetty, hopefully that will improve by giving it a run and letting the oil get round it and came of the road due to a weird starting/idle issue that may be ecu related. It had started everytime currently so wait and see on that.

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img922/1166/JoXCBU.jpg

 

 

Might be just in time as the blue 220 coupé is having issues. It had been struggling to cold start, especially in the wet but now also if you stop then quickly reverse it throws the oil light on (oil on max on the dipstick) then sounds shit for 5 seconds then stalls. Hopefully it can make it to the end of the month...

[Noel Tidybeard]

i'm sorry but a true shitter would bring austin/allegra home in a maestro van!

[Craig the Princess]

Not sure Mrs the Princess would be at all happy at sitting in the load area on the way back.

 

The Maestro van belongs to a friend of ours, quite a useful tool, 2.0 n/a diesel.

 

Of course being summer should mean the Applejack Allegro should be on the road for Morris/Marina's first car journey.

 

[Craig the Princess]

Got back from work yesterday to find the drivers side front tyre really low. No pump in the car so tried to fit the spare, after getting everything out the boot and the spare wheel I remembered I bent the wheelbrace beyond use last time so was stuck. Had to drive back slowly on about 10 psi :-S

[Craig the Princess]

The local garage have welded the rear wheelarch, sadly while doing it the ace welder there injured his back so had been off work for three weeks. They also fitted the rear trailing arm bush which was buggered.

We replaced the front suspension arms as the balljoint dust covers had gone and there was some play.

 

 

 

I also got round to fixing the front midflap which had popped over two of its three screws. Behind it I managed to remove about half a ton of dirt so that is quite a bad trap for it.

 

With the 414 MoTed the blue Rover coupé will come off the road at the end of the month. It has started to put its ABS light on when selecting reverse but that is one for it coming back on the road.

 

 

Mrs the Princess' Metro solders on, it has a bit of a weep from a rear displacer, fortunately our neighbour farmer allowed us to take one from his diesel Metro which has been parked up since 2003. Only problem was I opened the boot and the bootlid left the catch behind as the rust snapped.

 

The ex-Wuvvum MGF has an MoT booked for Wednesday, needs a battery charge and if the MoT isn't a disaster it will be taxed from 1st May.

 

Off on leave next week, and we are taking down the rotten old bits and pieces garage. We moved the clove brown Ambassador into the same garage as the red one

 

 

 

It's a bit of a tight fit.

 

This is the old garage, pretty much all wood is rotten and the whole thing is very damp. Plans are for a concrete base with a wooden building to follow later.

 

 

 

 

[JohnDeere]

Hi Craig, which garage did you use for the welding? The Prelude is going to need sorting this summer. (And who are you using for MoTs?)

[Craig the Princess]

The Crown Lodge Service station in Outwell for both. £30 MoTs available, the welding by Stewart is very high standard but the AX wasn't done by him and was quite a bit more agricultural.

[JohnDeere]

Thanks - I've used them recently for a couple of jobs and found them great. And also incredibly honest: when the modern Fiesta needed oil pump/gasket they said they hadn't done it before, gave a good guess at price, and pretty much suggested I'd be better off at the main dealer.

 

Until recently I'd been getting MoTs done at another place not a million miles from you, but let's just say he spent about 10 mins looking at the car, then just waited till enough time had elapsed to log off the test.

 

Will take the Prelude in for Stewart to have a look at... 

[Craig the Princess]

They have always been very straight with us, 100% recommend.

 

Stewart should hopefully be back next week after Rover related injury.

[Craig the Princess]

Charged the MGFs battery up with the free battery charger that was left with the house. Woolworth brand, before they became Woolworths in the mid 80s.

 

 

After checking oil and water it fired up straight away. As it is sunny I thought sod it I'll tax it from today.

 

Gave it a quick look over, need to get a sidelight bulb for the near side and a battery clamp as there isn't one (around £10 on eBay) it looks ready to go.

 

[Craig the Princess]

MGF MoT result was a not too awful fail. Battery insecure wasn't fixed with the £8 eBay clamp as I didn't realise there were two holes for the clamp to allow for two types of battery. However when put in the right hole the bolt snapped well before the clamp went tight.

 

We bodged a new larger clamp from the further away home by drilling a hole in a piece of welding practice that Mrs the Princess did several years ago that were lurking at the back of the workshop.

 

That just leaves the offside balljoint, after jacking the car up and having a look the front subframe needs to be dropped to remove the suspension arm to drill out the rivets (what were they thinking?) to change the balljoint. The garage can have that dubious pleasure.

 

The brown Metro rides really well again after the new scrap-car displacer has been fitted.

 

Insurance swapped from blue Rover to white Rover from first of May. £25 admin fee plus an extra £18 for the rest of the year changing from a 2 litre coupé to a 1.4 four door saloon

[Craig the Princess]

Went to London earlier to help my brother/dad with a Rover 200 R3 with immobiliser problems. Only made it the 15 miles to Ely before an FTP in the 220 coupé.

 

Stopped at a roundabout and there was lots of steam under the bonnet. Pulled over and the hose from the expansion tank had popped off and dumped a load of coolent. Managed to buy some anti-freeze and left the cap off to bleed the airlock. That didn't work as approaching the Dartford bridge the temp gauge shot up. Managed to let the air bubble out on the hard shoulder of the M25. Halfords provided the jubilee clips to reattach.

 

The bubble 214 was my dad's car and was passed to my brother. The fob was repaired earlier in the year but the solder had broken so the fob did nothing. My brother had the EKA code but someone had tried to break in and the key didn't fit the lock.

 

Inspired by Vulgaour's posts I was going to try pulling the rod to enter the code but taking the lock off freed the broken strip that keeps reason out and fixed the lock.

Success, so it now works again.

 

Either it or more likely the ex-eddyramrod Vectra will be for sale soon as my dad was making noises about it being too big.

[Craig the Princess]

Mrs the Princess has been filling and spraying the repaired wheelarch on the 414 (six months pregnant doesn't stop her!) before a really through Vulgalouring of the interior.

The front seats will need a vax session however.

 

MGF went back into the garage for suspension arm replacement and MoT retest. Battery was too flat to start it but had enough juice you reset the alarm/immobiliser.

 

Now for the last two years at least the jump leads have been in the boot of the coupé for use in these starting situations. The leads are still in the boot but the car is stored two miles away at Beige1100's house until the garage rebuild so it was musical batteries with the Applejack Allegro. The Allegro battery had the terminals the wrong way round but the connections just had enough length to allow it to be started before swapping the flat MGF one back on.

 

 

I've heard this is a bad thing to do since, is that the case? I've done it a few times without bad things happening.

[forddeliveryboy]

Electrical spikes can fry electronic components - the battery acts as a massive capacitor to absorb these. Glad you got away with it - the Allegro would be more likely to survive without damage.

[Craig the Princess]

Thanks FDB, that makes sense. An extra set of jump leads is a good idea then.

 

Currently the Allegro is a paragon of reliability after 10 1/2 years in the fleet, 2 dead engines and various issues.

[Craig the Princess]

So the Rover 414 was pushed into service yesterday and was faultless in its two 20 mile journeys.

 

This morning we went to Wisbech and after about 5 miles it started hiccupping. On the way home it was barely drivable, accelerating in 500rpm steps then a big pause then 500 more rpm. Managed to nurse it home, checked spark plugs which looked ok.

 

Will need to change them, leads and cap to see it that helps. One of the plugs has a helicoil fitted which started on the plug so that will also need to be sorted.

 

Lucky that it is a day off tomorrow and the MGF will be ready tomorrow with a fresh MOT. Sodding car.

[Craig the Princess]

Changed the HT leads and three of the spark plugs in the 414. The other plug brought it's helicoil out with it again, does anyone know if can these inserts be bought separately or is this a garage job?

 

Distributor cap, rotor arm and air filter ordered for Monday. Went out of a run, the first couple of miles were fine then the weird misfire came on again. Grrrr

[stripped fred]

Sounds like an interesting assortment of cars you have there. I don't think i've seen an allegro in the wild for a long time. Love the colour. Sorry I can't help with your question but enjoying your updates.

[Craig the Princess]

Cheers Fred. Applejack is a great colour, one day I'll get the Marina working and picture the two together.

 

Rover had its distributor cap and rotor arm changed, the old arm was loose so perhaps that was the route of the issue.

 

A 20 mile test drive didn't show any problems, will try and get the last spark plug sorted and hopefully build up some reliable miles.

[Craig the Princess]

Now up to 50 miles without issue, nervously starting to hope it is cured. Also put the new (old Unipart stock) air filter in.

 

Fitted the seat covers to allow the dog to travel, managed to get the HBoL's advise on how to remove (bolted in rear seats?) and put them on for that 80s mini cab look.

 

 

Luxury* velour in the front

 

 

Wet dog proof plastic in the back.