Zel's Motoring Adventures...Peugeot, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - 16/04 - Routine Consumables...

[Zelandeth]

Those half moon cutouts could be a big problem remember...I need to have room in the hub flange to drill four new holes for studs/bolts in the correct stud pattern, rotated slightly from the original ones...so I really need the version with the full flange I think...

I think the darker stepped section on the one you've linked to is the main difference...and I'm not sure what function that really serves given it will be sitting within the wheel bearing I think...Hmmm...

[LightBulbFun]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Those half moon cutouts could be a big problem remember...I need to have room in the hub flange to drill four new holes for studs/bolts in the correct stud pattern, rotated slightly from the original ones...so I really need the version with the full flange I think...

I think the darker stepped section on the one you've linked to is the main difference...and I'm not sure what function that really serves given it will be sitting within the wheel bearing I think...Hmmm...

hmm yeah I was thinking that I wonder what those cut outs are there for

its interesting to note it also has the 2 mystery holes that the Model 70 hubs have

main thing im not sure about is if the number of splines are the same between the fiat 500 one and the fiat 500 Giardiniera one I linked

 

but while writing this I just did a bit of googling this looks to be the best bet? ie looks the most like whats on the Model 70 now!  although it does not have the same quite the same dark coloured bit, but its listed as compatible with the 500 Giardiniera like the one above is

https://www.fdricambi.com/en/fiat-500/undercarriage/rear-suspension/aa1051-hub-shaft-fiat-600-500-giardiniera

 

im guessing this went nowhere then sadly?

On 3/2/2019 at 5:27 PM, MOD500 said:

For free if you pay the postage:

Invacar hub shaft.

 

I bought a suspension arm for my fiat 500 years ago. The hub shaft was attached and the seller explained it had come from an invacar. It has the standard fiat 126 holes (4 × 98) plus 4 x studs for mini wheels.

 

I don't need any money for it and I'd rather not chuck something if it's useful to anyone.

gives us some good pictures of what to look for tho  

[Mr Pastry]

 

25 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

hmm yeah I was thinking that I wonder what those cut outs are there for

its interesting to note it also has the 2 mystery holes that the Model 70 hubs have

The mystery holes are for the Fiat brake drum retaining screws.  The cutaways are to improve access to the brake shoes.  The stepped section on the shaft does indeed fit between the two bearings and is for ease/speed of assembly, as it saves pressing the outer bearing all the way on.?

[MorrisItalSLX]

10 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

The mains socket I removed is this Clipsal unit.

Made in Australia if I’m not mistaken, the design is the same as the local market sockets produced by them at the time. Odd colour though.

[Zelandeth]

5 hours ago, Mr Pastry said:

The mystery holes are for the Fiat brake drum retaining screws.  The cutaways are to improve access to the brake shoes.  The stepped section on the shaft does indeed fit between the two bearings and is for ease/speed of assembly, as it saves pressing the outer bearing all the way on.?

Every day's a school day, thanks for the clarification!

 

5 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

...but while writing this I just did a bit of googling this looks to be the best bet? ie looks the most like whats on the Model 70 now!  although it does not have the same quite the same dark coloured bit, but its listed as compatible with the 500 Giardiniera like the one above is

https://www.fdricambi.com/en/fiat-500/undercarriage/rear-suspension/aa1051-hub-shaft-fiat-600-500-giardiniera

 

...im guessing this went nowhere then sadly?

gives us some good pictures of what to look for tho  

The one referred to by MOD500 had sadly already been disposed of it turned out so that was a dead end.

The cutouts in addition to making access to the brake shoes easier (see comments from both me and DW about getting the fscking shoe return springs on being an utter swine) save on material and weight I imagine.

That one you've linked to definitely looks right, should be able to confirm the spline count easy enough once it's off.

Edit: Probably as no surprise whatsoever to those who know me, having the inverter now fitted but non functional is bugging me...looks like it will be getting wired up today then!  Only thing I know of that I want but don't have is the socket faceplate I want to use, but can reuse the Clipsal one for now as it's two minutes of work to replace once the new one arrives.

[LightBulbFun]

6 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

The one referred to by MOD500 had sadly already been disposed of it turned out so that was a dead end.

ah thats a shame

the extra frustrating thing about this whole situation, is you just know theres probably a whole box of hubs sitting on some Ex AR's shelf somewhere and I bet you they will show up about 5 seconds after you go through the trouble of sourcing a new hub and modifying it to spec!

1 hour ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

Made in Australia if I’m not mistaken, the design is the same as the local market sockets produced by them at the time. Odd colour though.

I thought I recognised the name/style interesting they made UK sockets  

[Zelandeth]

You remember me saying I wasn't planning to really do anything else with the van this week?  Yeah...about that.

Noticed something odd this afternoon.

One of those horrible moments of "Wait...Where's that water coming from?"

Time to stand on my head.

Balls.  The answer appears to be "somewhere under the shower tray."  Which is essentially inaccessible as it's thoroughly siliconed in place.

A bit of thinking however suggested that something was odd about this.  There were only two pipes in this area, the suction line from the fresh water tank running to the pump (which lives pretty much directly above the wheel arch) and the pressure feed back to the kitchen (the bathroom one just goes straight through the wall from the service locker).  I hadn't done any drilling or screwing of things anywhere vaguely near to this in the best part of a year and there are no connections there - it's all one continuous hose.  I had a nose around in the base of the service locker under the wardrobe where the water pump lives, bone dry.

The only other thing in this neighbourhood is the toilet.  It's not been used in months, but worth investigating.  Cue much surprise when I pulled the cassette out I found the whole area beneath it swimming and mouldy.  It was bone dry and spotlessly clean a couple of months ago when I last cleaned the cassette tank out.  A few moments later I spotted a drip.

I was really hoping that the hose connection you can see would be responsible...however it's not.  The water is dripping down out of the moulding up at the top.  There's only two possible sources for a leak up there occurring when the unit hasn't been used...Either the hose connection onto the solenoid valve for the flush button or the solenoid valve itself.  These both however are buried deep within the moulding so can't be checked in situ.  I'll need to remove this from the van to investigate.  This is...Sub optimal as it will require me to remove a metric ton of silicone, about three million screws and a bunch of tiling.  I guess that's the chance you take when you reuse 30 year old equipment though.  That's a job for another day.  In the meantime I will cap this line off to stop the leak so I can still use the sink, which given I regularly use the van to take the dogs out it really useful so I can wash my hands before driving home.

When I was looking for the source of this it did give me a good chance to look better at the drain line routing.  I don't reckon it will be too difficult at all to get rigid lines run back all the way to the tank.  There are a few awkward things I'll need to work around obviously and I'll probably take a different route to the original flexible lines, but I may well do this sooner than later as it would be nice to just have it ticked off.  The original convolute still leaks in several places too despite me having patched a bunch of it up.

While finding the drainage upgrade will be pretty easy, while I was crawling around under the back of the van I found something which really hacked me off.

You may recall that when I put it into Egerton's Fleet Services last year for the MOT they found all manner of issues with the rear brakes and wound up me with a bill of close to £600 most of which related to the brakes.  They failed the MOT initially for things so trivial as missing rear reflectors (which weren't missing...the tester was just blind - including missing the additional ones I fitted to satisfy them and sticking MORE on which wound up pulling the paint off when I removed them), and pulled up advisories for a very slightly frayed seatbelt and a tarnished headlight which I've since had apart and have been able to find absolutely nothing wrong with.

The issues with the rear brakes apparently included ovalised drums on both sides, leaking wheel cylinders on both sides, poor handbrake performance and I seem to recall reports of a separated brake shoe lining.  This came as something of a surprise as I'd noticed no issues with brake judder, the handbrake could stop the rotation of the planet, and it had never used a drop of brake fluid.  I requested that all the old parts be provided...but they never materialised.  Which did leave me wondering if they had indeed actually done all the work....they had definitely done something as the brake fluid was overfilled to the point of pissing all over the bulkhead and the brakes have never felt anywhere near as good as they did before they were worked on.

Given how picky they were being you might have expected them to have at least *mentioned* the state of these brake hose ferrules wouldn't you?

The top one there in particular really is quite crusty (there's no way my MOT tester back up north would have passed it)...I'm not thrilled by the state of the rigid line on it either in a couple of spots.  The hoses are quite perished too.  Suffice to say a set have been ordered.

I've crawled over the front of the van quite a few times (especially investigating an erroneous brake pad wear warning indicator) and things are fine up there...I'd never really looked in that much detail at the rear end though beyond changing the oil in the diff...which was done on a day when it was pouring with rain so I was rather mission focused at the time. 

Absolutely a demonstration that an MOT should never be taken as a clear bill of health...you should always give your car a thorough check over yourself. 

While I was out there I realised that I still had to finish up sealing up the top of the gas locker, so that's now been done.  It's not pretty, but it will do the job.  I'll be installing some rubber floor matting and a proper gas bottle clamp in due course.  I just want to leave the floor and the bottom of the rear wall open for the time being until I'm certain I've got to the bottom of a water ingress issue in that corner.  For the time being I'm leaving it open so that any water that gets in can get back out again.  I need to find a slightly smaller bracket for the waste pipe there too or pack it out a bit.

There was a small gap at the top (because I can't measure for toffee), so this was sealed up and then taped for good measure.

This foil tape sticks ridiculously well (it will remove your fingerprints if you're not careful) as it's basically intended for sealing joints on HVAC ductwork.  It doesn't have much strength in terms of things poking through it, but it stick really well even to surfaces that aren't spotlessly clean - and can lay a really good foundation if you then layer something else over the top of it.  I'll probably go over this lot with some good quality cloth tape just for belt and braces before throwing a bit of paint around in here.  It's a bit "how ya doin" but it will do the job.  It's a cupboard at the end of the day.

You can also spy one other thing I did today.  I had been struggling to get the hose running between the draining board and the sink drain itself to seal properly. 

No matter what I did I kept having issues with it weeping very slightly from the attachment stub at the sink end.

I lost patience with this today, and remembered that I had a bit of 19mm heater hose floating around in a box somewhere which according to my version 1.0 eyeball looked a close fit...turned out it was indeed a pretty much perfect snug fit.

Job done!  It should actually be better anyway as the smooth hose shouldn't be prone to trapping water the same way the convolute was.  I'm actually tempted to do the same in our kitchen as we have a really long overflow line due to the way the waste disposal unit is attached and it's always been prone to getting smelly, and having to take the whole lot to bits every quarter to clean it is really annoying.  I might swap it for a smooth hose like this and see if that helps now I've realised it's the same size.

What I actually had hoped to get done today was to get the inverter wired up.  The more I thought about it the more it seemed daft to me to have gone to the lengths of fitting it and not wiring it up. 

As I am never planning the inverter to be used regularly I want it to be tucked away and not look like it's part of the main power system.  As such it will have its own little control panel and I'll probably use a red socket faceplate.  I had planned to get that done today, but with the above nonsense going on I never got any further than cobbling together the switch faceplate I'll use, tracking down a relay I'll use to switch the supply and find some wiring.

I'll just use the original socket for now.  The switch panel has two indicators on it.  The green one is a standard 12V automotive one which will show when the DC supply to the inverter is on, and the red one is a mains voltage neon to give visual confirmation that it's actually running.  Figured this was a good idea as it can be a bit touchy about starting if there's no load (which is why I'm going to use an unswitched socket and have the procedure be to "insert plug, turn power on" to hopefully prevent that being a problem.  The frequency meter...well...it's been rattling around for several years and I want to actually use it for something!  The mains cable to run to the socket is just a random skinny one from a random bag of cables.  It will be absolutely fine for this job bearing in mind that this inverter is only rated to 150W max.

Hopefully time will allow me to actually screw this lot together tomorrow...Then we can report back once the new brake hose set arrives.  I've ordered a full set for both front and rear axles as they're inexpensive and while they're not so visibly degraded as the rear ones the front ones are obviously still quite old and given she's not exactly a light vehicle it just makes sense to me to the the lot.  Yes, I have made sure that I have rigid brake pipe in stock and will make double sure that I know where the flaring kit is before I start!  I also hate doing brake work...so tend to work on the basis of "I hate it, so let's get as much as possible done in one shot" when I do need to tackle it.  Will be a good opportunity to either fix or disable the brake pad wear warning light too as that playing up is really annoying.

An appointment with the most aggressive nozzle of my pressure washer, a few gallons of Vactan and the nation's entire stock of Dinitrol are also in the underbody's near future - though the underbody sealant isn't happening until AFTER I'm done crawling around under there sorting the brakes and routing plumbing lines.  I did drown the underneath of the cab last year though as that was obviously in the most imminent danger of dissolving but the weather turned before I got to the rest of the chassis.

[LightBulbFun]

jeez given the fuckery you have gotten with the Xantia and the Van

im half expecting if you took TPA there she would get failed on "brake imbalance across front axle" LOL

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

jeez given the fuckery you have gotten with the Xantia and the Van

im half expecting if you took TPA there she would get failed on "brake imbalance across front axle" LOL

Xantia would never have been taken there (the issues there I had were with a supposed Citroen specialist) however given the size and weight of the van I don't have a huge amount of choice on where I can take it for MOT testing.

My usual garage don't do class 3 MOTs either unfortunately, though I have no doubt they would happily give TPA a safety and sanity check, even if I'd not be able to get an MOT logged out of it.

What's not worrying is that the garage I had all this messing around from, and drove away with overfilled brake fluid, a broken bonnet pull (which admittedly was slightly dodgy before it went in so I can't entirely blame them for that...aside from not telling me), and loose flipping wheel bolts...is where most of the HGV, PCV and ambulances around here seem to go...Which is one of the main reasons I picked the place.  I kind of expected that sort of clientele to bring with it some degree of attention to detail.

I guess next time we will in fact just use the Bletchley Kwik-Fit and see what happens!  ...Though if they tell me I need work done on the rear brakes I may explode.

[Zelandeth]

Nothing to report from today really aside from a light test after dark in the van.

I've never actually seen phosphor yellow/amber LEDs until these in person so I found it quite an interesting experiment in itself.  The light is actually quite pleasant for a background/movie viewing/nightlight sort of application.

The colour definitely brings to mind old school low pressure sodium (SOX) lamps, albeit with surprisingly good colour rendering for an amber light.

I do have a 25 odd minute video of me just aimlessly driving around in the Jag though...I was just trying to capture a contrast between the whole "giving it the full beans treatment" and "gently wafting" but realised that the result is actually quite boring most likely...including me getting slightly lost in a housing estate.  Also tried to highlight how different the sound is with the windows open vs closed (you hear the ringing from the stainless exhaust way more with the windows open).  If anyone wants I can throw it at YouTube...but it's not exciting really!

[Zelandeth]

Do you think it's obvious where the Jag is parked these days?  Definitely is when it's raining...

A (not entirely unexpected given their reputation) issue was spotted yesterday following some really heavy rain.

We'll be getting some Cpt. Tolley's on there soon - I'll also get the rear seat out again to make sure we don't have water pooling under there again.  I did that earlier in the year given they have a reputation for leaks here rotting complicated box sections out from the inside where the water collects above the rear suspension mounts.  It was bone dry back in January...Not so sure that will now be the case!

I did have a fault randomly decide to fix itself today though.

The bulb check warning light decided to quit working a couple of weeks ago, but it sprang back to life this afternoon.  Further confirming my suspicion that we've got a dodgy contact at the lamp holder.  That'll be a rainy day project.  There are a few traces on the back of the instrument cluster that I want to repair to prevent future issues - and to investigate to see if I can figure out why the oil pressure gauge is still playing up (it does register pressure changes, just has a huge positive offset on).

I also need to reattach this bit of trim above the driver's door.

I keep wedging it back in under the pad, but it keeps working loose again.  I need to get some contact adhesive in there to properly sort it.

The van has now had non slip matting added to most of the shelves and lockers.  Ran out before I got them quite all done though, this should hopefully cut down on the rattles and clonks a bit.

So nothing really to report from today!  Oh...and the random drive about video from yesterday.  This is literally just 20 minutes of me wandering around (and briefly getting lost in a housing estate).  Don't expect anything exciting!

 

Hopefully it does a good job of demonstrating the difference in the exhaust sound though between "gentle wafting" and "full beans" modes, and with windows open/closed.  It's astonishing how much of a low rpm lazy torque monster this engine is when just bumbling around town.

Footage and audio are just straight off my phone attached to the windscreen just by the rear view mirror.

The downright horrible brake judder (and resulting exhaust knock) at about 9:40 happens about 1 trip out in 10 when the flat spot on both discs just happen to line up perfectly with each other, it's generally way less pronounced, I'm hoping it will be a thing of the past once the discs are changed!  The exhaust on the nearside still needs the main silencer dropping by about an inch though as it's way too close to the floor and is basically touching the heat shield - hence the knocking.

[Zelandeth]

New exhaust for the Xantia has arrived.  Yay!

Now I need to fit an exhaust to the Xantia. Boo!

Faffing with exhausts is one of my least favourite jobs - especially ones from random Eastern European makers like this which never fit properly.

Judging from the stamps this was made by the same company as the one on the van. Wonder if this has any more baffles than that one...

[Zelandeth]

Inverter switch/indicator panel and socket are now fitted.  Just need to route the main DC supply lines via an appropriate fuse then can call that done.  Oh, and make up a couple of labels.

Irked I managed to end up with the socket slightly too high.

Not massively obvious unless you look for it though as it's buried down behind the driver's seat.

Used a red unswitched socket to help highlight that it's not part of the main vehicle mains circuit.

Have three spares now as the only place I could find an unswitched single in red (they're usually used in medical/industrial applications for equipment which must never be unplugged) was on eBay where I wound up with a pack of four.

Anyone need one?

[LightBulbFun]

perfect excuse to break out the Dymo labeller and label the socket and switch "INVERTER 150W MAX" or something such for good measure  

[Zelandeth]

It's one of those times I wish I still had access to some of the kit in an old mate's workshop.  Some little engraved plastic tags would look a lot more stock than some random Dyno tape...though it is very period correct at least - not that the switch or socket is!

The green DC on indicator is making my teeth itch as it looks massively out of place and like something someone cobbled together in their garage... I'm pretty sure I've got another (green conveniently) actual MK Gridmax mains indicator floating around somewhere...if I can find it I'll probably strip it down, replace the neon* with an LED and suitable resistor, then the whole lot can look tidier.  If I can find it.

*Yes I'm well aware that the lamp in the green ones is actually mainly argon and mercury vapour...but most people aren't going to know the technical differences between an NE-2 and NE-2G lamp are they...

[LightBulbFun]

33 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

*Yes I'm well aware that the lamp in the green ones is actually mainly argon and mercury vapour...but most people aren't going to know the technical differences between an NE-2 and NE-2G lamp are they...

not all of these green ones are argon actually  I think some are Xenon or Neon-Krypton based, because as you know Argon based negative glow lamps sputter quite quickly! and the main aim of the game here is just generate some UV light to stimulate the phosphors and provide as long a life as possible it does not have to be maximally efficient for a simple indicator lamp

interesting you mention mercury tho, I dont think I have seen an NE2 lamp with mercury in it, would be interesting to see one of those in clear  

[Zelandeth]

The green indicator lamp turned up after a not insignificant search of my room.  Who would have thought to look in the drawer in the component shelves marked "panel indicators?"

These MK ones come apart really easily... surprising how many bits are in them though.

I had a play around with a few LED options but couldn't get anything that looked right so we went with a small low wattage incandescent.

Back together...

Cover back on and tested.

That will look far tidier. 

Speaking of tidy, it was brought to my attention that the green light being next to the red socket looked wrong...I couldn't argue with that logic so when the new indicator light was fitted I swapped them around.

Better.

Time to start hooking things up.  DC input control supply connected (via a 2.5A fuse - smallest I had on hand)...this gave us a happily clicking away and the "DC on" light working.

Then added the main high power supply line.  This was meant to be via a 20A fuse but I couldn't find another inline fuse holder to save my life, so I disconnected it again after testing everything worked, until I pick one up.

Yep...it still hums impressively.

Borrowed a desk lamp to test it would deliver power under a load.

Used a 1993 Philips SL*13 Comfort purely because I knew it would please Lightbulbfun.  Was also a good test to see how it would react to an inductive load.   The lamp buzzed quite loudly but it otherwise seemed to behave.  The more modern LED one also behaved itself.  I've got another one of those little panel mount voltmeters which can go next to the socket too.

You're not seeing the wiring as I've also run out of cable ties so it's a right mess.  You can see it once I've restocked and tidied things up.

[LightBulbFun]

nice  assuming you dont have a use/need for it, can I call dibs on the green NE2? I dont actually have one in green in the collection sadly, so it would be fun to have/play with  

 

29 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Used a 1993 Philips SL*13 Comfort purely because I knew it would please Lightbulbfun.  Was also a good test to see how it would react to an inductive load.   The lamp buzzed quite loudly but it otherwise seemed to behave.  The more modern LED one also behaved itself.  I've got another one of those little panel mount voltmeters which can go next to the socket too.

that brings back some memories, one of those, exact same everything (Im guessing you probably got it from the same place I got mine) was my first SL lamp  I got it when I was about 9 or 10? from Amazon IIRC for really cheap like £3 or such

I remember it well, mum brung it with her when picking me up from school, and I ran around excitedly/proudly showing it to all the teachers LOL,

sadly one of the retaining pins in the base got torn out when it got jammed in  one of those stupid modern "safety" type bayonet cap lamp holders that retract the contact pins when the lamp is removed, not sure if I still have the lamp or if I ended up stripping it for spares...

I really must see if I can find one for sale somewhere and get another for the collection

 

but yeah I was wondering how it might react to an inductive load and how an inductive load might react to it! 

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

nice  assuming you dont have a use/need for it, can I call dibs on the green NE2? I dont actually have one in green in the collection sadly, so it would be fun to have/play with  

 

 

It's yours.

[LightBulbFun]

6 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

It's yours.

yay thanks 

will be interesting to see if I can figure out what gas fill it uses  

[Zelandeth]

Okay... it's been the best part of two years I've been trying to ignore this mess.

I had already pruned quite a bit out of here by the time I took this photo.  In the end this lot was removed.

After a couple of hours.

Still a mess...but at least everything in here is actually doing something now and I now know what each of the wires do.  It's a lot better than it was.  Oh, and they're all fused sensibly now.

Having done a bit of investigation I found a line which could be traced through to the vehicle battery on the other side.

I found the fuse in the white holder was blown.  Not quite sure how given it only goes to the coil on one side of that dual relay...though given the meddling we've seen going on it's entirely possible that it's been connected up wrong at some point.  Replacing this produced a major step forward.  Engine is running in this photo.

Yep...the split charging system is now working again. 

I need to route this lot under the floor to the battery box at some point or enclose it in a little duct to tidy things up.  Once everything was back together and we'd gone over everything with the vacuum cleaner looked a bit tidier.

While I had the vacuum out I gave the cab a going over as everything was covered in a fine layer of sawdust from the kitchen work.

Only other thing of note from this afternoon was finally getting this bit of trim stuck back in place in the Jag. 

Hopefully it will actually stay fixed now!  Time will tell I guess.

[Zelandeth]

Spend two and a half hours messing with the A/C on the Jag today in unreasonable temperatures - hence having shoved it way up the priority list.

 

Nobody this side of the Atlantic seems to have the compressor to condenser hose actually in stock, despite a number of places listing it.  My local hydraulic guy I'd usually use for this sort of things is only doing trade work at the moment. Fair enough.

So I snugged up the hose clips a bit to see if it would do anything...leak immediately stopped as far as I can see.  Did get a good couple of extra turns on it.  We'll see if the pressure has dropped in the morning.

Next challenge.  Excuse the rubbish photo, this was the only way I could see what I was up against because there's a bonnet in the way - whoever thought that front hinged bonnets were a good idea?!?

Getting the 14mm nut off the compressor pulley involved downright alarming levels of force but did eventually crack off. 

Unfortunately that is as far as I got as apparently I finally need to actually buy a puller.  The clutch assembly is well and truly stuck on the compressor shaft.  Old school levering and swearing isn't going to cut it this time.

On the plus side the brake fluid leak does indeed appear to have been sorted by fitting the new hoses from the reservoir.  Still bone dry now.

At least that's one thing I can tick off it looks like!

Will get a puller ordered and then resume battle with the air con.  The bit I'm really not looking forward to is that I need to remove all the other belts again to put the air con one back on...that was so much fun last time.

[Broadsword]

The bonnet is easy to remove and replace on these. Simply remove the front grille and you can unbolt it with the bonnet down. That should give you enough room to work on the AC system easier*. If you are between fettling, then it should be possible to rest the bonnet back on the car and pull the latch closed without bolting anything back on if it decides to rain mid-job.

[Zelandeth]

4 minutes ago, Broadsword said:

The bonnet is easy to remove and replace on these. Simply remove the front grille and you can unbolt it with the bonnet down. That should give you enough room to work on the AC system easier*. If you are between fettling, then it should be possible to rest the bonnet back on the car and pull the latch closed without bolting anything back on if it decides to rain mid-job.

Why the fluff didn't I think of that?!?

That's a really good idea.  Definitely will keep that in mind for the future.  Actually removing it is a two man job really but propping it up like that is definitely doable.

[Zelandeth]

Couple of things done today.

First was a general fluid etc check.  I didn't expect anything to have moved on anything aside from the Jag, but everything on that is treated with complete suspicion at all times.  Especially given how much oil it appears to leak.

Nothing had moved...to be honest, as usual.  Had been meaning to properly check the gearbox oil for a while though beyond "there's some in there."

Can't complain there.  Slightly high reading is expected due to the slope of our driveway.

Had a look at the A/C, I left it with about 35psi in it after nipping up the leaking hose clamp a couple of days ago.

That's an improvement...it was down to about 5psi after this time last time.  I really need to find my proper gauge set.  It's in the garage somewhere.  Will check it again in a week and see if the gas has continued to stay put.

While I was out there I did a bit more investigation of the ticking noise I've noticed over the last couple of weeks.  Sounds very much like an exhaust manifold leak...and has now been traced to the furthest back cylinder on the offside (6A?).  As disconnecting that injector makes the noise stop.

Hmm.  There was a brief period where I thought it might just be a noisy injector, but that hope vanished when I discovered that unplugging the spark plug lead had the same effect.  Oh.

So... Exhaust manifold gasket, cracked exhaust manifold, cracked spark plug...or something more sinister like head/head gasket issues?  Place your bets...

I'll get plugs ordered in (was sure I'd included them in the last parts order but apparently not), then whip that plug out.  At least it's probably the easiest one to get to!  At least it looks that way...I may well come to eat those words when I come to actually pull the plug out!  If nothing else it will give me a chance to do a compression test on that cylinder, to *hopefully* rule out head troubles.

If the exhaust manifold needs work, a garage is getting that job.  I'm not playing that game.

Speaking of exhausts though, the misaligned tailpipe tips were driving me mad.  I needed to do something about them...however discovered that they had now welded themselves into the tailpipes and stubbornly refused to shift.  I figured it would be easier to separate them from the silencer off the car.  Thanks to being stainless it came apart easily enough and indeed being able to get at it with a hammer meant separating the tailpipe tips took five minutes.

It would have been rude not to test out how things sounded without two huge mufflers on the back... especially as this system is quieter than the factory one, and I'd like to hear the exhaust at least a bit..albeit nothing over the top.  An experiment needed to be conducted though.

Yes...I think I will be speaking to someone about making up some slightly less silenced tailpipes for the Black Cat.

Things have been reassembled for now.

The only other thing of note today was spotting the heating controller in the van flashing at me that there was a firmware upgrade available - and being web connected meant that with a couple of button clicks we had the upgrade on the way.

...And done. 3.2.1 is the current version.

If only all modern technology behaved this well!

[Zelandeth]

Things I learned today: You need a special tool to wind off/on the clutch pulley on GM/Sanden A6 air conditioning compressors.

If I'd used half a brain cell and read up on the job before starting I would have known that and made sure I had said tool in stock.  It is now on the way, but if I'd used me head it could have arrived with the new clutch.

...I probably could have also just replaced the clutch itself rather than the whole lot, however as I have now utterly wrecked the friction surface the whole lot *definitely* needs changing.

Ah well, live and learn!

[LightBulbFun]

had to post this here from the ebay tat thread @Zelandeth its an electric CF! surprisingly sophisticated electronics, I expected something resembling a milk float! 

42 minutes ago, BeEP said:

This is a box and very eco!  You can fight @eddyramrodfor it.....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1984-bedford-cf-electric-van/383610950990

 

[Broadsword]

Interesting work there. You sparked a thought with your aircon investigations. How did you conclude the compressor clutch needs doing out of interest? On my XJR recently the air con had a moment and there was smoke from the compressor clutch area. The rubber on the clutch melted and obviously no cold air since then. I immediately though air con compressor seized, but it didn't pop the fuse. How does A/C clutch failure manifest?

On the engine tick front. What oil do you have in there, when was it last serviced? Sounds like a valve clearance thing, but a damn good service might get you out of it.

[Zelandeth]

57 minutes ago, Broadsword said:

Interesting work there. You sparked a thought with your aircon investigations. How did you conclude the compressor clutch needs doing out of interest? On my XJR recently the air con had a moment and there was smoke from the compressor clutch area. The rubber on the clutch melted and obviously no cold air since then. I immediately though air con compressor seized, but it didn't pop the fuse. How does A/C clutch failure manifest?

On the engine tick front. What oil do you have in there, when was it last serviced? Sounds like a valve clearance thing, but a damn good service might get you out of it.

Report from the previous, previous owner to the previous owner, and visible disintegration (not melting) of the rubber part of the assembly.  When the compressor was replaced a few years back they re-used the original pulley and clutch assembly - which promptly disintegrated less than 6 months later.  As the car was pretty much just used a couple of times a year for shows, they never bothered sorting it after that.

I'm assuming that the rubber part in there is a shock absorber primarily to protect the belt.

She's running 20W50 (can't remember which brand off the top of my head) as per the data in the handbook, oil and filter changed at the start of February.  I did wonder about a sticky tappet or something like that when I first noticed it from in the cabin, but surely that would be constant, irrespective of whether the cylinder is firing or not.  This very clearly stops when either the injector or spark plug for cylinder 6A is disconnected.

I know the car had done a lot of sitting around over the last couple of decades so it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to drop it again sooner than later.

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

had to post this here from the ebay tat thread @Zelandeth its an electric CF! surprisingly sophisticated electronics, I expected something resembling a milk float! 

 

They were really quite sophisticated for their time.  From what I've gathered battery maintenance is the biggest headache with them generally.  Given that one's been sitting so long the batteries will inevitably be deader than a dodo and unless my memory was completely failing me, were based on a pretty unique chemistry (not a dissimilar situation to the Pug 106/Berlingo etc electric) which wasn't widely used, so replacing them isn't likely to be viable unless you wanted to go down the road of converting it to something more modern and obviously then having to also upgrade the charger, probably the motor controller and maybe even motor unless you matched the voltage and current requirements...and even then you're left with a rusty Bedford CF which still needs complete recommissioning, and even once up and running will struggle to top 50mph.

Don't get me wrong...If I had somewhere to put it and the time and money to restore it I'd absolutely love to take it on...but I haven't.

There was a metallic green one in what appeared to be some form of "day van" configuration parked outside our house back in 1981...Interesting to see that the grill on that very prominently had "Lucas Electric" shown on it in addition to the usual Bedford name, that must have been dropped in later years.  Quite surprised they were still making them four years later to be honest.

I fear that one is almost definitely destined to be broken up as a parts donor given the *relatively* solid appearance of it, and the fact that all the trim and such appears to be present and in pretty good shape.

I'm assuming that the blue thing sitting in the back of it is the charger...That's quite interesting in itself as I've never seen one before.  Likewise seeing the dash, again I wasn't aware that they were kitted out to use regenerative braking - that's definitely ahead of its time for an electric road vehicle.