Project Cobbler's's Talbot Express - Time to move it on?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Can any oldish radio be modified to have an aux in connection? If so I would get that mod done on every old clunker I have

[cobblers]

Yeah its pretty straightforward TBH. I bought this one already done cos it was for sale like that.

 

If you're happy to forgo the original functions it's just 3 wires soldered onto the volume knob essentially (L, R, GND) then cut the traces that feed the signal in and the stereo now just runs on AUX all the time.

If you want to keep the radio and tape working, you need to use a switch or a relay - This one has been done with a relay so it bypasses the original audio automatically when you plug the aux jack in, the rest of the time it works as normal.

I added a USB socket on the back to power the bluetooth dongler.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

That sounds SWEET. I need to get the 623's radio done like that (option .

[cobblers]

Tell you what bollox fetch us a few stereos and a curry from the gurkha place in Clay Cross on your way past and I'll do em all for you

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Hey that sounds alright, let me round up some radios from my shite fleet, I'll be in touch

[cobblers]

Hey so I was just digging round in the glovebox of the van and found this had been left there by a previous owner:

 

 

A can of paint mixed and sold at the motor factors about 1/4 of a mile from my house.

Seeing as all the history and stuff for the van is from way down south, it's a pretty strange coincidence. We may have crossed paths at some point previously - the reg number always did look slightly familiar.

 

The new engine seems to be running lovely, I've nipped the sump plug up this morning and it seems to have stopped the couple of drips of oil I was getting from it, and I've been using the van as my daily. I'm enjoying it to the extent that I reckon I'm going to try and get rid of my Abarth 595 fairly soon and perhaps pick up something really shitty as a backup runabout like a Smart or a bloody G WIZZ

[dollywobbler]

Station is trying to flog the Autoshite-bike very-early Smart at the moment. Just sayin...

[cobblers]

Yeah, that's what got me onto the idea, but there's no room at the inn at the moment - I've still got two T25s!

[mat_the_cat]

Hey so I was just digging round in the glovebox of the van and found this had been left there by a previous owner:

 

2017-05-15 17.11.28.jpg

 

A can of paint mixed and sold at the motor factors about 1/4 of a mile from my house.

Seeing as all the history and stuff for the van is from way down south, it's a pretty strange coincidence. We may have crossed paths at some point previously

Or at some point to come you develop a time machine and accidentally bring back some paint from the future?

[beko1987]

Or at some point to come you develop a time machine and accidentally bring back some paint from the future?

Is there a bit of snapped off walking stick rolling around in the footwell? Never been that interested in vans, but this is fantastic to read!

[Felly Magic]

Someone around here keeps trying to flog a D reg hi top camper dizzle that has very fresh paint for just £1295, I wonder what is wrong with it for that price?

[Lacquer Peel]

Because 54bhp probably.

[Felly Magic]

And half a ton of Isopon under that fresh paint probably

[cobblers]

Yeah, even tho the diesels are dangerously slow they still sell, plus you can easily put a mk3 golf tdi or gti engine in and make a good van. If it's that cheap it's probably mostly plod, t25s can go rusty in really awkward places (sliding door runner etc) 

[Felly Magic]

If I see it about on the verge again I will snap it, has what looks like a home made back bumper and a tow bar on it, I suspect it is as water tight as a seive as well

[cobblers]

even if its a total pup, if it's got a decent gearbox in then it's worth a grand in bits easy enough.

[sporty-shite]

Yeah, reading all this, I'm Really* glad* I sold mine for not much more than a grand. Although that was about seven years ago. 

 

Mine was a 1.7 diesel, and was painfully slow, but I could get 40mpg out of it on a run.

[cobblers]

Been noticing that this sucker has been marking it's spot a little bit, sadly the head gasket that had "fixed itself" seems to have unfixed itself:

 

 

However, upon having a shufty about I noticed that the coolant link pipe that goes from the waterpump to the head offside seemed damp, so I very gently scraped it with a screwdriver and a massive hole erupted in the side of the fucker, it'd obviously rotted out from the inside.

 

So that's the van out of action for a bit, Oh well.

I'm gonna fix that pipe first (I should have checked it better when I had the engine out) as I have another at my mums, on the off chance that the drips of coolant coming from that seam have actually dribbled down and round from the leaky pipe.

Obviously I'm kidding myself, the HG has definitely gone, It's a 2.1 waterboxer FFS so I'll order a full engine gasket set and set about it - I need to fix that pipe to drive the van over to my mums though anyway.

 

I'll have the heads off the old engine first of all, so that I can get a bit of a feel for the job and also because I'm probably going to use those heads anyway as they look (externally) much better and hopefully the exhaust ports will seal better.

 

Now comes the dilemma - I'll probably do the head that isn't leaking (yet) first of all, because if I do it the other way round then I reckon I'll be sick of the job by the time I've done one side and just pack my tools up and fuck off, and I'll always have that niggle in the back of my mind as to when it's gonna let go.

 

 

[Mally]

I'd just do what I had to. The studs can break.

[Asimo]

A contractor colleague told me he gave up on his water-boxer (owned from new) because the head studs had rusted, weakened and stretched causing head gasket failiure.

 

Apparently the studs just sit in the coolant f.f.s!

 

Almost as if the air-cool engineers at VW had determined to make it crap when they were ordered to make a water cooled engine.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

 if you keep the antifreeze at the right strength, thats no more of a problem than all the other metal bits that contact the cooling circuit is it not?

[Asimo]

True, but coolant changes don't always happen and corrosion doesn't usually get a chance to weaken such a major component as a head stud.

[Mally]

We had a head stud rusted through. Obviously nut fell off and water ran out.

Squeezed some steel seal in the hole and it ran for quite a while.

Yes lack of, or wrong antifreeze causes it, but how many owners have they had? Not many with full service history.

The studs are so long they twist anyway, its not always easy to get them out.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Hmm. If the gasket leak isn't the bit that actually seals the head to the bore, I'd K Seal the fucker (or Steel seal) and just keep going. Adding coolant every now and again is easier than swearing and a snapped head stud that then requires a major engine out fuckfest .

 

The Wasserboxer really was garbage. WWTT??

[cobblers]

Thing is you'd need about a gallon of K seal, these things take flippin bucketfuls of coolant!

[twosmoke300]

That's the way ! Put k seal in a vehicle that has a marginal cooling system to start with .

I'm sure that won't clog everything up at all .

 

Oh and it's a twat to clear out when you do the job properly .

 

Oh and it doesn't work anyway

[cobblers]

Well yeah the seal on these is rubber anyway so K seal would probably fret its way out, it can work but not on "soft" seals.

Anyway I've ordered a full engine gasket kit so I've got enough to do both sides, I'll have a go at it this weekend if I can talk our lass out of making plans for us.

[cobblers]

The blue T25 is on the back burner for now - and if a house comes up for sale soon then I'll have to flog it. I really would rather not do that because it's an absolute cracker - I replaced the mega leaky pipe and since then there's genuinely not been any drips on the HG seal, so perhaps I did get lucky for once! That's tucked in my mums garage for the moment, til I get rid of the Abarth then it'll be back into daily duty for a bit.

 

New to the fleet, I have this, what I bought off sparticus on here last weekend:

 

 

It's flipping amazing - It's got a shitter, a shower, HOT AND COLD RUNNING WATER FFS, central heating and all kinds of cupboards and nice little things that idiots like me in my old brown T25 couldn't even dream of. There's even a wine rack for crying out loud.

Inside it's wearing the age pretty well, outside less good - it's been patched on the sills and arches etc, but it's far from the worst I've seen and once we move house, I'll probably put on a pair of sills and redo the arches. But for now, it runs, it has MOT and I really don't care if it's a bit scruffy.

 

We're going away this weekend in it, so I went round it this evening checking what I could. I fitted a USB charger in the back for our phones, and the thing has a voltmeter on it too, which is handy - The zig unit just has a "low" led which comes on about 3 volts after the battery has been damaged, so at least with this I can keep an eye on things.

 

Once this was fitted, I realised the leisure battery wasn't charging with the engine running, so I went in search of the split charge relay and found the problem fairly quickly.

 

These blade fuses are shite for split chargers - They're marginal at best over 20 amps, but once they get damp at all (orsomeone is using spade connectors instead of a proper fuse holder) they will just melt away.

 

The relay itself looked a bit pants too:

 

So I rummaged round my stock and put a better relay and a maxi blade fuse holder on:

 

This will do the trick for now, but the wiring to the leisure battery, and the battery itself look fairly shite, so next week I'll rewire it with some 8AWG and a dual sensing relay, and replace this:

 

with a couple of these:

Maybe I'll just spend £70 for a proper normal battery for it rather than fannying about welding up a frame to mount those suckers on, I'm unsure.

[cort16]

Jean Claude VanCobblers.

 They're a good size those campers. No much bigger than a car for parking but decent enough sized inside.

[spartacus]

Cobblers, maybe give everything a quick check over, that fuse never went in all the time I had it.

Pleased to see your giving it some love!