Felly Fav and Trum. *Wanna see a fupped engine?**

[Yoss]

49 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

Starter motor season? 

 

so, preemptively, how does one change the starter motor on a Routemaster?  

I never did the starter motor on one but I did have to change the alternator on RM 2213. It is just like a car but bigger, obviously. You do it from underneath but you don't need to jack it up, just take the grille off and lie underneath.

Interesting* fun fact: the interior illuminated advert panel at the front downstairs runs directly off the alternator. If that stops working it's a sure sign the alternator is bolloxed. Most vehicles just have a small ignition light on the dashboard. Routemasters have a big fluorescent advert panel.

[LightBulbFun]

15 minutes ago, Yoss said:

I never did the starter motor on one but I did have to change the alternator on RM 2213. It is just like a car but bigger, obviously. You do it from underneath but you don't need to jack it up, just take the grille off and lie underneath.

Interesting* fun fact: the interior illuminated advert panel at the front downstairs runs directly off the alternator. If that stops working it's a sure sign the alternator is bolloxed. Most vehicles just have a small ignition light on the dashboard. Routemasters have a big fluorescent advert panel.

hah very cool I wonder how that works exactly, is it part of the exciter circuit like how charging light dash bulb is in a normal car? does that mean if the tube fails or fails to strike for whatever reason, you dont get any charging? (or is a Routemaster alternator able to self excite?)

or is it some other setup?

[Yoss]

That I can't tell you. I know what happens but I don't know how or why. 

[Yoss]

So Mrs Yoss got in green Favorit one day last week and noticed a note tucked under the windscreen wiper. When she got back out to retrieve it she also noticed a piece of plastic. It was part of the door handle. Somehow she had managed to get in without noticing it was missing.

The note was very apologetic and well written explaining that this womans granddaughter had run ahead and somehow broken it off. I don't know why her granddaughter was going round trying door handles but as I say it was a very nicely written note and she seemed genuinely sorry and left her phone number offering to pay for a new handle. I thought this seemed decent of her so I texted to say not to worry, these things happen with children and I have some spare handles in the garage.

And in the meantime it was still perfectly usable, like I say Mrs Yoss got in without even noticing. So off I go to dig out a spare handle and all I can find are mk1s. I know I have a mk2 one because I found some cheap on eBay a couple of years back and when they turned up one of them was a mk2 despite the picture being a MK1. I emailed the seller and he apologised, gave me a refund and told me to keep it. It's a fair mistake, most people don't even know there are mk1 and mk2 Favorits let alone what the differences actually are. 

But I'll be buggered if I can find it now. So I've bunged a mk1 on for now, they are interchangeable, it's just the outer cover that is different. You can't really see it from this far back anyway.

But you can closer up.

The early ones are actually the same as an Estelle, at least on the outside, and look and feel much nicer. They are just more tactile with the ribbed section. The mk2 are completely smooth and just look cheaper. Now I want to change the other three rather than find another MK2 for the drivers door.

You can see here where the clips have broken and where they slot in over the metal bit.

It might be possible to glue it back on with the right glue, it's not like they ever have to be removed anyway so I shall still keep it.

And just for the hell of it, the two together.

It's not often they get to park side by side. They have to park line astern in the drive but occasionally I have to swap them round and drive them up to top of our Close to do so. Then the sun came out while I was doing it so I couldn't resist a picture.

[Yoss]

I have put the original springs back on blue Favorit. Not quite sure how noticeable it is in pictures as they naturally have a large gap between the wheel and front wheel arch anyway.

Lowered.

Standard.

It was okay lowered but it was too stiff. When I did it our other car was a standard Felicia so we had one car that you could drive over speed bumps and potholes without worry. But now I have green Favorit that's even stiffer and that's the one with all the other mods too so I thought I'd put the blue one back to standard. Even the Triumph is a bit boy racered but it has been like it for over 25 years so it's staying like it.

I assumed it was going to be quite a simple job. I'd run it through in my head and decided I could probably do it in one afternoon but of course it took a lot longer. 

On the front I had enough bits to make up a whole strut beforehand so I just had to swap the struts, so two nuts at the top and one nut and bolt at the bottom but I managed to strip the thread on one of the lower bolts and had to go out and buy more.

I'm a bit confused by this.

The red spring is the lowered one and the black the standard. And yet with everything bolted up the red spring is longer, plus it is stiffer so you would think it would compress less with the weight of the car on it but it is definitely lower and stiffer once in place. I'm sure there is some law of physics to explain this but it beats me.

At the back I had the problem of the top mounting nut.

As you can see it's in a deep dished washer. No spanner would go in there and even a socket wouldn't seat properly so I ended up having to 'sharpen' a deep socket with an angle grinder.

I can't remember what I did last time when I put the lowered springs on in the first place but it wasn't this. That was seven years ago and I've completely forgotten.

On the plus side, the thread on the top of the rear shocks is so long that you don't need spring compressors.

By the time you've wound the nut to the end the spring has reached the end of its travel and putting it back together you can just lean on the spring a bit to get the nut on and then just wind it up with the spanner to compress it. Any job that doesn't need spring compressors is a bonus.

The springs make more sense at the back with the black one being longer than the red one.

 

Also the job was made more tricky by doing it in the garage but if I did it outside I'd have to put it at the front of the drive where it is wider but we have residents permit parking and this is the only car with a permit so the other two can't be left out.

It's not a bad sized garage for a single but it still means having to move the car over to do each side and you have to be careful when jacking up that you're not catching the mirrors on anything. 

Also not helped by the fact I've added shelves to every possible surface to try and help store all my spares. I really would like a bigger garage but it's not going to happen so you just have to make do with what you have.

 

But I took it out for a tour of the local speed bumps this morning and it is nice and comfy again. Obviously it rolls on the bends when you push it but not in alarming way.

I do have a rear anti roll bar off a Felicia which I could fit at a later date if I feel like it.

I only have the rear one though, where the Felicia had them at both ends where fitted (all 1.6 and diesels and late 1.3s too). I don't know how much difference the rear one will make on its own but I'm curious to find out. But not yet, I'm just enjoying the floaty ride at the moment.

[Zelandeth]

Those rear springs look suspiciously similar to the ones from an Estelle too...which I remember thinking looked absolutely absurdly long the first time I crawled under the back of one.

[Yoss]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Those rear springs look suspiciously similar to the ones from an Estelle too...which I remember thinking looked absolutely absurdly long the first time I crawled under the back of one.

Unlikely to be exactly the same seeing as one has an engine in the boot and one doesn't but apart from that they may well be similar.

[Yoss]

I really don't add to this thread very often because essentially the cars just keep working and nothing breaks but I've had a couple of jobs recently. 

On blue Favorit Mrs Yoss was complaining that the door wouldn't stay open and kept shutting on her when she was trying to get out. Sounded like the check strap and indeed it was. 

New one on the left, old one on the right. You can see the spring had bent and one of the little rollers had disappeared.

Which unsurprisingly was found in the bottom of the door, I mean where else could it go. 

I don't know why it bent but it looks like it could be bent back, though probably not easily. But one day these things things may become unobtainable so I'll keep it just in case. Mrs Yoss thinks I'm a hoarder but if I think something might be repairable it seems a shame to throw it away. She may be right. 

Annoyingly the new one was in door closed position and as it is designed to act on the weight of the door it is impossible to open by hand. 

Door shut position. 

Sticking it in the vice and tapping the end with a hammer moved it to intermediate position. 

But no amount of hitting would get it in to the fully open position so I had to refit like this which made getting the pin in very fiddly. So I dropped this screwdriver in the hole. 

And used the weight of the door to get it in to the open position whereby I could drop this little pin in. 

 

 

I had a far more important job to do on green Favorit. Blue Favorit is almost entirely standard whilst green Favorit is very much not so I thought I'd put a set of modern badges on the back. 

 

I thought about making up the Favorit name from the letters of other models but I was going to have to buy three badges to get all the letters. Fabia and Octavia would do most of it but I was going to have get a Roomster or Superb just to get the R and the badges are at least a tenner each which seems a little extravagant for a tight wad like me so I settled on this. 

I have 125bhp in this which is five short of the original Fabia VRS but it is lighter so I reckon the performance must be similar. I've justified it to myself anyway! 

The round badge is designed to fit on a curved surface so I had to file the top and bottom off a bit to flatten it out. I actually went a bit too far at the top but it looks okay from a couple of feet away. 

 

Sorted. 

[Yoss]

Wheel swap on green Favorit. The Ronals are nice and shiny but have 195/50s on which makes them very slightly too wide. The Team Dynamics, which is what the car came with are on 185/55s.

It's only 10 different but they do look noticeably wider. 

Both wheels are 7J so I suspect putting the narrower tyres on the Ronals would solve the problem which is what I shall do next time they need replacing. 

It's fine most of the time until we take the dog on holiday. The back seat is given over entirely to the dog (he's a big lad) and it's fine if we take him out normally but when we then load the boot with all the holiday stuff the tyres rub very slightly on the arch. It wouldn't be enough to do any real damage, it has just taken some of the writing off the sidewalls but it makes an annoying noise inside the car. 

We are off to Norfolk next weekend so it's back to the Team Dynamics. I like these too, the black matches the mass of black plastic all over the car but the Ronals do always look better when I put them back on. 

I've even invested in two new tyres. 

 

This was probably the first time we found out the Ronals rubbed a couple of years ago in westest Wales. You can see Chieveley peering at me through the rear quarter light. We had unloaded everything at the Airbnb at this point but it still looks a bit low at the back. 

[Yoss]

Green fav is not the quietest thing anyway but Mrs Yoss came back home the other day sounding like an American muscle car. 

Ah, that'll be why then. 

 

Obviously this being somewhat messed with the exhaust is non standard so a little bodgery was called for. But even that didn't go to plan so even the bodgery had to be bodged. No inbetween photos because Gungum was involved but we ended up with this. 

Not pretty and the tail pipe isn't in quite the same position but I don't think it's going to fall off for a little while. 

Ever since I bought the car the exhaust has annoyed me anyway because it came out just to the right of where it should and an extra hole had been cut out of the bumper. It also sticks out more than I think it should. It should come out of the rectangular slot alongside (is it rectangular, I'm not sure as it only has three sides?). It is that shape to match the cut out for the towing eye on the other side. 

So this has rather forced my hand now hasn't it. I should have done it sooner really. I've already done the front pipe and cat which goes just past the gear lever so there's only half of it to do. There is a company in Salisbury that made a whole bespoke system for my Triumph including the manifold. That was over ten years ago and it's still perfect so I think I shall be giving them a call. 

I have a brand new bumper in the loft (who hasn't?) which I shall put on blue Favorit as that's the sort of show car, its all original anyway, and then I'll put the bumper off of that on the green car so I can finally get rid of that annoying cut out. At some point anyway. 

[High Jetter]

51 minutes ago, Yoss said:

 

That's what I call a top-quality repair! Top shiting.

[Yoss]

Yes I started with the wide repair bandage but I couldn't get the jubilee clip thing to join up so I cut a piece of it out and wrapped the smaller bandage around it to hold it in place, with half a tub of gun gum underneath first. Followed by the two exhaust clamps to actually hold the two halves together and copious amounts of aluminium tape at the rear end as the pipe was just going in to the back box and had some uneven welding around it. 

Belt and braces, and another belt and some more braces as the saying goes. 

[Yoss]

I really need to do more updates. I mentioned in the grumpy thread that I did a stupid thing to blue Favorit which has required a major engine strip down. At first I really didn't want to write about it. Now I just want to make a bit more progress before I start telling the story. The main sticking point (literally) is one of the liners won't budge. Number one came out really easily. So easily that as I was lying underneath tapping the con rod upwards to get the piston out the liner came with it. Numbers two and three came out with a bit of persuasion with a bit of wood and a hammer but number four just won't budge. 

The one on the left is number one and that's a new liner. I just wanted to see how easily they go in. Number four is on the right. Two and three are missing in this photo. 

 

But I'm going to ignore all this because I've got more fun stuff to talk about. We bought a new car. We've been dragged kicking and screaming in to the 21st century. 

Mrs Yoss has like these for ages but they have to be in this colour, Mayan Blue. Every time we see one she'd say there's my car. I've always said if we're going to have one it has to be a five door because on the three door the doors, are too long meaning you can't open them as far in car parks. I also said it has to be a High Up! as they have the alloys and front fogs so just look better. Anyway I thought that should buy me some time! 

So a couple of weeks ago my friend sent Mrs Yoss, (and not me!) a link for this one, a Mayan Blue, five door High Up! and it was only 28 miles away.

But what really sold it to me was the blue dashboard. A bit shallow of me I know but it looks fantastic. It was a very rare option. I've watched these semi regularly as I knew eventually we'd be getting one and I'd never seen another with this option. 

 

So I figured if we waited for another it would very likely have the normal black dash and I'd forever regret it. 

So here we are. It arrived last Thursday then I went on holiday on Sunday for four days and today is the first time I've had a proper look round. 

It has a split level boot floor. 

But even better than that, under the second boot floor was this. 

I was assuming, especially being a Bluemotion, that I'd only have a can of gunk. Talking to a friend whose had loads of these the spare was an optional extra. That way they could scrape in under the 99gm emissions gubbins and qualify for free road tax. If the wheel was standard it would push them over the 100gm. But you can still order the wheel but because it's an option you keep your free tax. I'm not complaining but what a load of arse. 

It's on a space saver wheel but it's still quite a decent size tyre. 165/70 14. That's the standard size for a Favorit/Felicia anyway and I suspect a base Up!. 

It was a bit grubby under the spare wheel. 

So soon cleaned that up. 

 

Also found this label with a nice lengthy list of options. There must be a list somewhere of what all these codes mean. 

 

Under the bonnet. Not a lot I can do there but it all looks nice and clean. It has only done 33k. But I reckon if you remove the air cleaner box there will be some access to the very small engine. Maybe just to replace the odd sensor. I don't think I'd be doing much more anyway. 

 

And the back of the lights look quite accessible. Hopefully no bumper removal needed here. 

 

And talking of lights. It has DRLs. But they're not stupid shaped LEDs. It's a normal halogen bulb which is the same one as used for the sidelights. 

This is in sidelight mode so I was able to capture it with a potatocam. It just gets brighter for DRLs. That's a bonus too isn't it? No ridiculously over complicated bank of LEDs that cost £££s to replace. 

So far I'm very happy with it. It's probably about as simple as a ten year old car can be. 

 

 

[Barry Cade]

40 minutes ago, Yoss said:

I really need to do more updates. I mentioned in the grumpy thread that I did a stupid thing to blue Favorit which has required a major engine strip down. At first I really didn't want to write about it. Now I just want to make a bit more progress before I start telling the story. The main sticking point (literally) is one of the liners won't budge. Number one came out really easily. So easily that as I was lying underneath tapping the con rod upwards to get the piston out the liner came with it. Numbers two and three came out with a bit of persuasion with a bit of wood and a hammer but number four just won't budge. 

The one on the left is number one and that's a new liner. I just wanted to see how easily they go in. Number four is on the right. Two and three are missing in this photo. 

 

But I'm going to ignore all this because I've got more fun stuff to talk about. We bought a new car. We've been dragged kicking and screaming in to the 21st century. 

Mrs Yoss has like these for ages but they have to be in this colour, Mayan Blue. Every time we see one she'd say there's my car. I've always said if we're going to have one it has to be a five door because on the three door the doors, are too long meaning you can't open them as far in car parks. I also said it has to be a High Up! as they have the alloys and front fogs so just look better. Anyway I thought that should buy me some time! 

So a couple of weeks ago my friend sent Mrs Yoss, (and not me!) a link for this one, a Mayan Blue, five door High Up! and it was only 28 miles away.

But what really sold it to me was the blue dashboard. A bit shallow of me I know but it looks fantastic. It was a very rare option. I've watched these semi regularly as I knew eventually we'd be getting one and I'd never seen another with this option. 

 

So I figured if we waited for another it would very likely have the normal black dash and I'd forever regret it. 

So here we are. It arrived last Thursday then I went on holiday on Sunday for four days and today is the first time I've had a proper look round. 

It has a split level boot floor. 

But even better than that, under the second boot floor was this. 

I was assuming, especially being a Bluemotion, that I'd only have a can of gunk. Talking to a friend whose had loads of these the spare was an optional extra. That way they could scrape in under the 99gm emissions gubbins and qualify for free road tax. If the wheel was standard it would push them over the 100gm. But you can still order the wheel but because it's an option you keep your free tax. I'm not complaining but what a load of arse. 

It's on a space saver wheel but it's still quite a decent size tyre. 165/70 14. That's the standard size for a Favorit/Felicia anyway and I suspect a base Up!. 

It was a bit grubby under the spare wheel. 

So soon cleaned that up. 

 

Also found this label with a nice lengthy list of options. There must be a list somewhere of what all these codes mean. 

 

Under the bonnet. Not a lot I can do there but it all looks nice and clean. It has only done 33k. But I reckon if you remove the air cleaner box there will be some access to the very small engine. Maybe just to replace the odd sensor. I don't think I'd be doing much more anyway. 

 

And the back of the lights look quite accessible. Hopefully no bumper removal needed here. 

 

And talking of lights. It has DRLs. But they're not stupid shaped LEDs. It's a normal halogen bulb which is the same one as used for the sidelights. 

This is in sidelight mode so I was able to capture it with a potatocam. It just gets brighter for DRLs. That's a bonus too isn't it? No ridiculously over complicated bank of LEDs that cost £££s to replace. 

So far I'm very happy with it. It's probably about as simple as a ten year old car can be. 

 

 

Very nice-  we've had our Seat Mii for 2 years now and it's been brilliant. Keep fighting rust around the petrol cap, but your High Up! might have plastic inner arches, these seem to make a big difference. I've done brakes all round, 2 bottom arms and a couple of services. Parts are cheap and everything is straightforward.  I'd love a GTi!

P.s you can update the Garmin to 2020, but no support after that. The Bluetooth and trip computer run through it so I've updated and kept it. Lots of people seem to take them out and change the stereo for a carplay one. If your radio reception is crap, it's the ariel- common fault. I changed ours and it's great now.

Option code  decoder.

https://igorweb.org/equidec.aspx

[Yoss]

My friend warned me about the filler neck rust. It's quite an early one so still no arch liners. They only came in with the face-lift (2016?). But I looked up there and it's perfect at the moment. 

It has DAB which only became standard a year after ours so it'll be another expensive option, so that's set to 6 Music and will mostly stay there. I have no interest in changing the stereo and I don't even know what apple car play is. And I don't want to know before anybody chips in! 

My friend has a GTI (like I say he's been through a fair few, all on three year leases but usually managed to chop them in early). Off the top of my head he's had a base Citigo, a Citigo Monte Carlo and a further Citigo in that luminous green, one Mii in black and currently two Up!s, a his and hers, his being the GTI. Now they've stopped making them I think he intends to keep these two a bit longer 

They all hold their value well but I think the GTI could be quite a good investment. 

Oh, and thanks for the option code thingy, I'll have look later. 

[Barry Cade]

52 minutes ago, Yoss said:

My friend warned me about the filler neck rust. It's quite an early one so still no arch liners. They only came in with the face-lift (2016?). But I looked up there and it's perfect at the moment. 

It has DAB which only became standard a year after ours so it'll be another expensive option, so that's set to 6 Music and will mostly stay there. I have no interest in changing the stereo and I don't even know what apple car play is. And I don't want to know before anybody chips in! 

My friend has a GTI (like I say he's been through a fair few, all on three year leases but usually managed to chop them in early). Off the top of my head he's had a base Citigo, a Citigo Monte Carlo and a further Citigo in that luminous green, one Mii in black and currently two Up!s, a his and hers, his being the GTI. Now they've stopped making them I think he intends to keep these two a bit longer 

They all hold their value well but I think the GTI could be quite a good investment. 

Oh, and thanks for the option code thingy, I'll have look later. 

The rust round the filler neck starts between the 2 skins. I stick the hose ip there and give it a good rinse out every wash, its a real mud trap. If it's showing no signs of corrosion,  I'd fit liners if you're keeping it long term. Genuine VW are expensive, but copies are less than 30 quid. Make the car quieter too. Too late for mine sadly.

[Matty]

6 minutes ago, Barry Cade said:

The rust round the filler neck starts between the 2 skins. I stick the hose ip there and give it a good rinse out every wash, its a real mud trap. If it's showing no signs of corrosion,  I'd fit liners if you're keeping it long term. Genuine VW are expensive, but copies are less than 30 quid. Make the car quieter too. Too late for mine sadly.

Obvs too late for yours, but if a hose can be angled in the void then it's probs worth @Yoss giving it a good clean out then emptying a tin of cavity wax in there. The ones with the long hose and the 360 nozzle would give everything a good coat.

Lovely little car. Says everything about where modern cars are going that the only things that interest me these days are the littluns.

[Yoss]

1 minute ago, Matty said:

Obvs too late for yours, but if a hose can be angled in the void then it's probs worth @Yoss giving it a good clean out then emptying a tin of cavity wax in there. The ones with the long hose and the 360 nozzle would give everything a good coat.

That's definitely a good plan. I have some Dinitrol in the garage. 

[Barry Cade]

6 minutes ago, Yoss said:

That's definitely a good plan. I have some Dinitrol in the garage. 

Mine looks perfect from behind. Good thick vw sealant and undercoat. The rust comes through from between the skins.  Its been pai ted 3 times but keeps coming back. I will bite the bullet one day and weld in a repair panel..Anything will help I suppose- keep a close eye on this area. It really lets these brilliant little cars down.  Gearbox chatter is normal, as is a crack from the clutch pedal.  Water leaks into the boot too. 

[Erebus]

I've got a Citigo I bought off here.  I got some genuine arch liners secondhand off eBay from a breakers for sensible money.  They're expensive new and the aftermarket ones don't look great quality

[Zelandeth]

I'm not usually one for cosmetic modifications, but I reckon that would look absolutely great with the wheels white against that blue.

The coloured dash really does lift the inferior so much from being the grey on grey on grey boxes that VAG stuff usually seems to be.  Looks to be really clean that one, hope it serves you well.

[Yoss]

This might become a problem. I have a habit, if I see a car similar to mine I'll try and park next to it. Because my cars are so rare this rarely happens. 

But now. 

Although the white one is also a GN reg like mine which isn't local. Mine was registered in Canterbury. So this is almost noteworthy. Isn't it? *clutching at straws *

 

I've found something where I would have expected better. The electric windows. 

Firstly the drivers door only has the drivers window switch on it. 

I know it's a small car so you can reach across but I would still have expected two switches on the drivers side. If you have to reach across they may as well be wind up windows. So if you're only going to have one switch each,  at least put them in the middle where you can reach both. 

Also there's no one touch up or down you have to keep your finger on the button, so again no benefit over manual windows. Then when you switch off and go to get out and realise you've left the window open there is no time delay. You have to put the key back in to raise the window. So this is actually less convenient than wind up windows. 

And lastly they don't even light up at night. I'm sure after a while their position will become second nature but at the moment I'm scrabbling around in the dark. Even in my Felicia the switches lit up. And they were down between the handbrake and gearstick so easy to operate both sides.

This seems a backwards step but it is a minor thing overall. 

[Yoss]

Okay, so let's talk about the blue Favorit. I keep putting it off until I'd made some progress but then progress never happened. 

I have done one of the stupidest things I've ever done. It started with a blowing manifold gasket. Such a simple job, shouldn't take much more than an hour. So I set about doing it on the drive but two of the manifold studs snapped when I was trying to remove the nuts. So I put it back together as it was and swapped places with the Triumph in the garage. 

So as I had to order some new studs I thought I may as well replace them all as some of the remaining ones looked a bit bent too. And if I'm getting new studs I may as well get new nuts to put on them too. That makes sense doesn't it? Except that turned out to be the big mistake. Because as I had new nuts I didn't notice one of the old ones was missing. I noticed as soon as I started it up though, having put it all back together. It sounded a death rattle. Unnoticed by me one of the old nuts had fallen in to one of the inlet ports and when I started it up it got sucked in to the combustion chamber. Had I been reusing the original nuts I would have noticed one missing and would probably have found it before it all went wrong. I also couldn't help thinking this would never happen on the Triumph as its engine is upright so the nut would have just fallen straight past but because the Škoda engine is on a slant it was enough to catch the nut on the way down. 

Nice new studs, before it all went wrong. 

 

So, I take It all off again and whip the head off. Not hard to see where it went. 

 

And closer up. 

 

And the corresponding port on the head. 

First thoughts were can I salvage this. Can I remove the debris, smooth things off a bit and carry on. After all, it's not exactly a high performance car, if I lost a couple of horses would I notice?

So I set about cleaning it up which is when I found this. Well that's fucking fucked then. 

At this point I shut the garage doors and came indoors to contemplate my actions. 

 

[Yoss]

So over a coffee I went straight on to the Škoda Díly website, a parts specialist in Plzeň and was amazed to find they had piston and liner sets. Not only that they were only £87. Even better they have brand new heads complete with valves, springs and seals for just under £200. Okay so they are made in China, but what choice do I have? The fact that engine parts are being remanufactured at all is encouraging isn't it? Even the Felicia has been out of production for 24 years and the Favorit for 30. This is like somebody over here making parts for Rover K series. Maybe somebody does, I don't actually know, but I was impressed. 

They turned up Christmas eve which was nice. 

As I say, made in China but branded Viká who are a well known Škoda parts manufacturer so I'm hoping for the best. 

The sump came off quite easily though somebody has been in here before me as the there was no gasket and lots of silicon between the sump and block. I naturally ordered a couple of sump gaskets with my engine parts. From here I was able to get to the big ends quite easily. There is an oil pump pick up pipe in the way a bit but I didn't need to remove it, just move the crank round a bit for each cylinder. 

Turns out number 1 piston was totally fucked too. I did a proper job there. 

Now according to the Haynes BOL if you are going to turn the crank with the head off you must clamp the liners in place to stop them moving. Well that didn't matter because I wanted them out anyway. I was removing the pistons by lying underneath and tapping the con rods up with a bit of wood until the piston popped out the top. And indeed number 1 liner came loose with the piston. This'll be a doddle I thought. 

Well obviously not. The other three hadn't budged in the slightest. The liners stick out about 5mm from the alloy casting underneath so I had a piece of wood and was hammering it upwards against the bottom of the liners and numbers 2 and 3 eventually popped. And even though it was only 5mm it was enough. From back on top I could clamp mole grips on and wiggle them and they'd come loose and pull out. 

 

But number 4 was a whole different kettle of fish. I hit it and hit it with both wood and metal (after I'd broken all the wood). I jacked it up so the whole weight of the front of the car was resting on this 5mm rim and beat it with a hammer from above (there was plenty of room with the other three liners out). I left the weight of the car resting on it overnight. Nothing. 

I the end I decided to walk away and leave it alone for about a week. 

This is a new liner in number one to see how easily it went in, and the old liner in number four refusing to budge. 

 

Then I had one those eureka moments whilst lying bed. I have a home made slide hammer for getting the input shafts out of Triumph 1300 gearboxes. What if I put it through the liner with a plate on the end and hammer the shit out of it? 

Slide hammer. 

 

Put through liner. This is one of the other liners for illustrative purposes. 

Nothing. I beat shit out of it for ages and it didn't move even a fraction of a mm. 

So then I gave up for a bit longer and went on holiday and just ignored it even when I wasn't on holiday. Eventually I went round to a friend taking some of the other liners with me. This is the same friend who made the Triumphs slide hammer many years ago. An engineer by trade (a proper engineer I mean not somebody who plugs a laptop in to a car) he always has lots of bits of metal lying around 'that might come in useful one day'. 

So he cobbled together a makeshift puller. Initially like this. 

The round bit at the bottom was almost exactly the same size as the liner. The triangular bit would sit on top. The three metal plates sit under each corner leaving a gap to pull the liner up. 

Except the bottom plate wouldn't fit. There are parts of the ally block casting in the way. I know, I thought, I'll use the flat bar I made for the slide hammer. We'll it did move it that first 5mm but then it snapped. What's more despite it moving 5mm it absolutely would not budge like the others did at this stage. 

Right, ignore it again for a few days. 

Next step. Make up a plate the exact shape of the cylinder with bits removed to avoid the casting underneath. There was lots of back and forth, starting with a piece too large and slowly grinding it down until it fitted. The trouble is the liner wall is very thin at the bottom so if was just a bit too small it would just pull up through the liner. 

This is a practise fit in one of the empty cylinders. 

And wedged in place under the immovable liner. There's a bit of wood holding it there from underneath. 

Metal plates for clearance. 

And here it comes! Except I could only pull it up as far as the underside of the triangular plate and it still wouldn't budge. 

So I had to keep adding thicker and thicker pieces. 

 

 

Until finally.... 

Gotcha, you fucking little shit. Nothing has ever fought me like this  bastard. I feel like having it mounted on a plinth and displayed on the dining room table. Exactly like this, not cleaned up at all. 

The only thing that I can see is all this scog around the base. There was more of this inside the block but only at number four end. 

But the actual interference fit at the bottom is just as clean as the others. But whatever, it's out now. I've cleaned all the scog out so cooling at that end should be better now. 

Now we can start putting it back together again. 

 

[Asimo]

"Scog"

New word, to me. I am sure that I will use it for real soon!

[Yoss]

9 minutes ago, Asimo said:

"Scog"

New word, to me. I am sure that I will use it for real soon!

Scog. 

General unidentified grime or gunk. Picked that up on the railways in the 80s. Not working on them, just hanging around when it was a great place to be. There was a whole language used amongst the cranks.

It just seemed the perfect word for that stuff in my engine. 

[Yoss]

So as Haynes love to say, refitting is the reverse of removal. I started with number four liner. As it was such hassle to get out i thought I'd put this one in first so there was a bit of room around it if I needed to get creative.

But it went in fine. A bit tight but nothing a bit of wood across the top and a big hammer couldn't handle. 

 

And soon we had four liners. 

 

And the first piston. 

Up. 

And down 

 

And three more. 

 

So far so good. Until this point. I'd put the bearing caps on loosely and tried turning it over with a socket on the crankshaft pulley. It seemed stiffer than I was expecting. Maybe the new piston rings need a bit of time to bed in? But once I did the bearing caps up properly the thing wouldn't budge even with a breaker bar on the crank pulley. 

So with a bit  of trial and error I pinned it down to number three. With this disconnected everything felt normal. 

So whilst dismantling I thought I had kept everything the right way round but as I was removing the bearing caps lying on my back under the car, then crawling out and removing the conrod/piston from above I obviously turned some bits round by accident. 

The bearing cap and con rod should have these little stamped numbers next to each other. 

But when I removed it it looked like this. The 3 on the con rod is on the other side. 

But I'm almost certain I put the bearing cap on the same way round as all the others (I say almost as I'm never completely certain of anything any more). Which means it is the con rod itself that is the wrong way round. 

That was as far as I got before it started getting dark and wet. I know it's in a garage but it's right at the front for maximum daylight so crawling underneath still involves sticking my legs outside. So first job tomorrow is pop off a couple of the other bearing caps and check which way round the con rods are. 

Hopefully that will solve everything. All I can say is, it's a good job I don't do this for a living. If I break my own car it's my problem and I can just stop and come indoors and mull things over. 

[Matty]

59 minutes ago, Yoss said:

All I can say is, it's a good job I don't do this for a living. If I break my own car it's my problem and I can just stop and come indoors and mull things over. 

You say that Yoss but accidents happen. To everyone. To look at it another way it's a car you don't plan on parting with that's ending up with a rebuilt engine. So a happy accident in a way.

[Yoss]

9 minutes ago, Matty said:

You say that Yoss but accidents happen. To everyone. To look at it another way it's a car you don't plan on parting with that's ending up with a rebuilt engine. So a happy accident in a way.

Oh I know, I'm not too worried, I'll figure it all out eventually. Whilst I obviously regret dropping the nut in to the engine in the first place once it's done, it's done and you just have to get on with it. 

Luckily for me it's basically the same technology as the Triumph. The only difference being the liners. 

And of course now we have the Up! there's no hurry to get it finished so I can take my time. 

[LightBulbFun]

dare I suggest the title can now be changed from "wanna see a fupped gearbox?" to "wanna see a fupped engine?"?

 

thats pretty Awesome how you can get whole big parts like new and complete heads for the engine still, I wonder how many of those they sell in a year! and of course Awesome work on getting it rebuilt, its always very interesting to see the insides of engines like this and see how everyone did things in their own way etc