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Zel's Motoring Adventures...Peugeot, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - 25/03 - Trabant back in action...


Zelandeth

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Your office chair looks cool - is it a Jaguar seat?

Correct!

 

From an N plate XJ6 which was being broken by a friend. It's quite scruffy and has a fair few splits, but is comfy. Was going to replace it with the one from my old Xantia in the interests of being less scruffy - but the Invacar has laid claim to that seat so I'll need to find another one now.

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Right, after a certain degree of head scratching and chasing my own tail, I eventually managed to kick the Mac Pro actually boot from an installation medium.

 

Despite having tried a few things which should work, I couldn't convince it to boot from a USB device.  Playing around with the partition scheme appears to have bricked one of the thumb drives too...will faff around with that later...at least it's only a 4gb freebie - if it was one of the 32gb ones I would have been more irked.

 

One idea which as far as I am aware *should* have worked was to load up an a suitable third party boot program which you can point to external devices.  I have one of these by the name of Plop Boot Manager, I find it quite handy as a couple of PCs here can be really picky about booting from USB devices.

 

This almost worked.  It booted from the CD just fine into the boot manager.  However as soon as I hit enter to tell it to boot from the USB device it got precisely this far then totally hung up.

 

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Annoying.

 

I spent longer arguing with that than I probably should have.  Still don't know why it wouldn't work.  By all rights it should have.

 

Knowing that the thing would boot from the optical drive though, I figured I could just throw the Mint installer on a DVD.  Only reason I didn't do that initially was that I didn't want to spend half an hour trying to work out where the blank DVDs were.

 

However this didn't work.  It threw up a somewhat cryptic menu asking me to "select the boot CD type" - but apparently giving me no way to select anything.

 

A bit of research revealed what was going on.  The issue is that due to the age of the machine, the implementation of the EFI boot system is a very basic 32-bit implementation.  As such it doesn't quite know what to do with the DVD I am trying to boot from, and throws that menu up.  ...However (you'll like this) that menu pops up BEFORE the keyboard has been enabled, so I wouldn't be able to select an option even if I knew what I was doing.  

 

So what you need to do is modify the bootloader on the DVD (well, modify it in the ISO before burning it to disk).  That's the sort of thing I used to do back in my days of faffing around with the Amiga - but is a bit beyond my pay grade these days!

 

However I was very happy to find that someone has already done the hard work for me, and a whole load of ISO images worth the necessary boot loader modifications done - they're over here.  Worth bookmarking for those of you who enjoy messing around with computers in ways other than how the designers may have planned.

 

Writing the modified Mint 19 installer to DVD immediately resulted in the installer starting up as I hoped.  Only took me half the afternoon to get there.

 

Glad to report that once we got there the install proceeded by the book and we were up and running in about twenty minutes.

 

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I've decided to manually copy stuff over from the backup as I'm treating this as a good opportunity to clean up my Home directory, there must be configuration files in there from three or four OS generations ago.

 

Got most stuff set up now and it's copying a couple of terabytes of videos, music and photos back over from the backup drive.  Figured it can be left to do that overnight.  

 

I did spend a bit of time on car stuff too this afternoon.  Main plan was to pull the CVT pulleys off the Invacar.  Yeah...turns out the bolts are highly disinterested in moving (yes I have flattened out the lock washers), and I decided to stop before I wound up breaking something.

 

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I have left the bolts soaking in Plusgas overnight, will have another shot tomorrow.  This is definitely one of the times I wish I had an impact driver as I'm sure that would shock them free in no time.  

 

...May be an excuse to visit Toolstation tomorrow. 

 

The CVT setup definitely hasn't been happy, the fact that the entire area around it  is covered in finely atomised black rubber powder from the belt, which I would not expect after only fifty miles.

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yeah to be pedantic, its technically an issue with the machines BIOS emulation rather then with the EFI itself  :mrgreen:

 

but its why when I was running linux on it, I went through the trouble of setting up a native EFI install

 

(that and it booted up much quicker because I didn't have to wait for the BIOS emulation to load)

 

the same issue exists when booting windows 7+ 64bit as well just FYI

 

I see you have 3 screens hooked up, did you replace the 7300 GT with the GeForce GT 710 or have you added that in addition to the 7300 GT? :)

 

(had any chance to try out the machines performance? :) )

 

 

 

while your rummaging around with the pulleys will you be having a look at the gearbox?

 

seeing as how when you got it, it was covered in oil and crap, i wonder if its worth taking the cover off and making sure there is some oil inside it still!

 

(plus it lets us see inside :) )

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To be honest I'm happy to have it running properly now, a slightly extended boot time is something I can live with. While I'm aware that the current arrangement is a bit of a cludge, it does work. Trying to get things to natively start via EFI is a challenge for another day, ideally with someone who has a better understanding of everything involved in the room to keep me right when I inevitably mess something up.

 

Have just stuck the 710 in there for now, I know the correct driver's for that can be installed automatically so went with what I know would work with the minimum of hassle. Especially given how much of the afternoon I had already thrown at the task which I be foolishly guessed would be an hour or so of work.

 

The gearbox oil level was checked quite a while ago and was topped up as necessary. The oil leak appears to have been mainly due to the bolts holding the top cover plate on being loose. Since they were tightened up there has been no obvious leakage. I'll need to give it a scrub down before a longer run to double check that's the case, but it's definitely not leaking badly now.

 

The Lada will probably appear a bit more as we get into the show season and I ramp up efforts to sell it again now it's out of winter hibernation. Sadly a raffle would be a non starter I think as to even come close to covering the most basic costs it owes me would result in tickets being prohibitively expensive. It's a nice idea, but just never going to happen. Nobody's going to enter at £40+ a shot.

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Today's achievement: Figuring out that I really need an impact driver to get the pulley bolts out. Applying any additional static force is just going to seriously risk shearing the head off the bolt, and that's a world of pain I would rather avoid.

 

I decided to call it quits when I was applying enough torque to lift the car onto two wheels with the breaker bar...

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I decided to call it quits when I was applying enough torque to lift the car onto two wheels with the breaker bar...

Sounds like you need an Impact Wrench, not an Impact Driver. A driver won't give you any where near enough force to shift it if you can't shift it with a breaker bar.

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My bad on the exact terminology - You're absolutely correct.  Urgh...Fixing that does make the search results rather more expensive though...I could really do with not spending another £150 on tools...it's been an expensive month already...and I've not bought the exhaust for the van yet, that's going to be another £150 odd...

 

I really miss having access to the one at the garage.  It never ceased to astonish me what it could shift with what actually felt like a relatively modest amount of torque - the shock aspect really does make a massive difference. 

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 when I was applying enough torque to lift the car onto two wheels with the breaker bar...

 

please tell me someone grabbed a photo of that at least?  :mrgreen:

 

(look on the bright side, at least you have not put the car into an underivable state, and you can still tootle around while you wait for new tools to arrive :) )

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please tell me someone grabbed a photo of that at least?  :mrgreen:

 

(look on the bright side, at least you have not put the car into an underivable state, and you can still tootle around while you wait for new tools to arrive :) )

 

Sadly I was on my own and given I was virtually hovering in the air on the end of a six foot breaker bar at the time there was no way I was able to snap anything.  Definitely a hazard unique to working on such lightweight vehicles!

 

I can't say I'm hugely surprised at this being difficult though.  One of the downsides of the state that KP's body was in was that due to the rear wheel tubs being completely absent, it meant that the CVT assembly has spent the last couple of decades essentially open to the elements - which is also probably whey the secondary pulley is in such a horrible state.

 

I don't think I'll be driving her until I've got the pulleys off.  It's quite clear that the rough surface on the secondary pulley is doing horrible things to the belt.  For all it *looks* fine - the thick coating of everything in the vicinity in fine powdered rubber tells me that it's being shredded.

 

Being totally fair this is one of those situations where I'm bound to wind up buying the tool in question at some point anyway (the wheel nuts on the van are apparently tightened up to about a million lb/ft too based on my previous attempt to get either of the front wheels off)...the timing is just annoying.  Seems that this is just determined to be an expensive month.  Tax is up on the Activa too...so that's another £200 odd! 

 

I seriously need to get myself at least *one* cheap hobby...

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With the drive pulley secured, I'd try a large 17mm spanner and a hammer for a bit of manual impact wrench effect. Seemed to work on both the pulleys on TWC, and on the spare transmission from TPA (that had been partially open to the elements at times). Should shock any rust free. Driven pulley is trickier, just because it tends to move more. I've not found a way to entirely hold that one.

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With the drive pulley secured, I'd try a large 17mm spanner and a hammer for a bit of manual impact wrench effect. Seemed to work on both the pulleys on TWC, and on the spare transmission from TPA (that had been partially open to the elements at times). Should shock any rust free. Driven pulley is trickier, just because it tends to move more. I've not found a way to entirely hold that one.

Yep, that's pretty much what I tried before getting out the progressively larger breaker bars!

 

I'm reluctant to get heat involved given there are rubber components in the pulley governor assembly - and that it's an a disconcertingly enclosed space to be using fire... especially in a car which is by all accounts rather flammable.

 

It's one of those jobs that I'm sure would be a lot easier with the drive assembly out of the car...but I'm not going down that road unless it's a last resort!

 

...Though I do regret not sorting the belt cage fasteners while the gearbox was out of the car as not being able to get that off is quite significantly annoying just now.

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I decided to call it quits when I was applying enough torque to lift the car onto two wheels with the breaker bar...

 

I remember a few years back trying to undo the hub nut (ha!) on the Focus I had at the time. Breaker bar and scaffold pole, no joy. Breaker bar rested on the ground and car driven forwards - car just lifted the wheel as the bar dug in. I then remembered I had a 4:1 torque multiplier, so rested one end of that on the ground, and applied effort to the input lever. Nope, just raised the car up again.

 

Off to the friendly garage, who brought out their 3/4" drive air impact gun "If this doesn't shift it, nothing will!" Nope. By this point I was getting rather concerned, but they brought out a 1" drive bar, and a scaffold pole the length of the car. Two of us bouncing on that had it loosen with an almighty crack!

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I've been there with a Saab 900 hub nut. Wound up removing the entire sodding lower wishbone and hub.

 

All I wanted to do was change a sodding wheel bearing.

 

Having a look at Amazon there seem to be a decent number or cheaper (£50 ish) mains powered impact wrenches... everything on Toolstation/Screwfix websites seems to be cordless and >£100... I've zero requirement for cordless operation, so is one of these a viable option? Or is it likely to be made of cheese and fall to bits the moment I attempt to use it?

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Far too much fear over using heat on a grp car,a normal butane blowtorch,concentrated on the bolt you want to undo,will work wonders.ive used said torch on countless Reliants with no problems,even my mates calor bottle flame thrower on the cylinder head was fine.grp will burn but won't ignite.just use your noggin. There should be no reason why with some heat and some plus gas that bolt won't come undone with normal tools.

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I've not tried it yet but there seem to be multiple reports of acetone and ATF being excellent at penetrating stubborn parts, cheap enough to have a try at as nail varnish remover is cheap and readily available.

 

I'd definitely go for a mains impact wrench too, one of the 50 quid ones should be man enough on any bolt on an Invacar surely?

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Nothing to report today as I've been slightly sidetracked dealing with a somewhat poorly pet rat.

 

If you ever wondered what a slightly stoned one-eyed rat looks like, here you go.

 

post-21985-0-42760900-1555528032_thumb.jpg

 

He's just sleeping off the tail end of anaesthetic having had his teeth trimmed. There are some deeper issues there, but his teeth not wearing normally was the thing needing the most urgent attention.

 

While I was out at the vet this arrived back at home.

 

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It is reassuringly heavy, and with a rated torque figure of 350NM it should hopefully be sufficient to get the pulley bolts out of the Invacar.  I think if that doesn't do the job, next step will be to pull the engine and gearbox then just take the gearbox to my usual garage to be sorted.

 

As it was a nice day it seemed a good opportunity to get the Lada out for a decent run.

 

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Would have been rude not to get it out for a good run really.

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The headlights always look odd because the earlier cars didn't have the trim piece around them and it's ridiculously flimsy so never sits right. The for on the wing tops thankfully hasn't got into the inner wings or the headlight brackets etc. I did have it all out when I did the injection work and that does look a bit odd...so I'll double check it's not falling out! The panel fit on these cars was on par with that on an Invacar from new too...so being a bit off square doesn't always mean anything...

 

I have seen quite a few cars with the larger rear plates on, seemed to be a fifty/fifty random chance as to whether the dealership it was sold at had that type. These are the original dealer plates (rear one is anyway, not sure about the front from memory) though, so it was originally sold that way.

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Aww that rattus is cute. My sister has had a succession of rats. Problem is that they just live a short life. :(

 

Are those sockets supplied made from Chromium Vanadium? A proper impact wrench will smash them in no time.

Can't remember exactly what it said on the box, but it wasn't just chrome vanadium... I'll be using the proper impact sockets anyway, didn't know those were coming in the box anyway until they dropped out of the box.

 

The brevity of their existence is definitely the biggest downside to rat ownership. I really never believed that they could have such distinct personalities until I moved into the house with them. Think these will probably be our last for a while - for exactly the reason that the fact that it feels like you're barely used to them and they're gone.

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Balls.

One thing I didn't spot initially was that due to the location of the pulleys that I can't get at them with the impact wrench. They're too low.

Current plan? Jack under the gearbox, undo the rear engine mounts and see if lifting it a couple of inches will grant me enough access. I doubt the extension bar and universal joint I have for the sockets would take kindly to being used with tools like this.

The sockets which came with this are hardened steel apparently according to the text on the outer box.

 

Oh, and the eBay seller I've been waiting for feedback from for over a week has just confirmed to me that they in fact do not have an exhaust for the van in stock.  That's three now.

 

I really don't want to know how much one will cost from Merc directly...If paying that sort of money I'd rather just get one in stainless...but the reason I was getting a stock one was in the interests of doing things quickly...Yeah, that's not quite working out that way.  Think I'll be having a chat with our Mercedes dealer on Tuesday.  Of course this has come up right before a four day weekend hasn't it.  Grrr...

 

Getting a stainless system made up is slightly complicated as well by the van being...well...a van.  The first two places I spoke to locally couldn't offer me a system for it as it was too big or too heavy for their lifts. 

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Sorry. If I'd engaged my brain, I would have been able to tell you that an impact driver won't fit. Not sure the driveshafts will allow a huge amount of lift, but I'm just wondering if the gearbox can be removed without the engine. With no input spline, it is at least easy to separate engine and transmission, and get them back together again.

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Sorry. If I'd engaged my brain, I would have been able to tell you that an impact driver won't fit. Not sure the driveshafts will allow a huge amount of lift, but I'm just wondering if the gearbox can be removed without the engine. With no input spline, it is at least easy to separate engine and transmission, and get them back together again.

To be honest if I'd given it five seconds thought I would have figured it out.

 

Disconnecting the driveshafts isn't a major problem really if needed.

 

Getting the gearbox out on its own sounds like a truly massive faff given how unwieldy it is, though I would really need to take a proper look to confirm that. I'd need to properly support the front of the engine too as the front engine mounts are actually on the gearbox...which means I would be having to work around a jack or axle stand to just make things even more awkward.

 

Probably not going to be much progress on this for the next few weeks as it's full on panic stations trying to get the van MOT worthy in time for our first trip of the year.

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Okay...on the third attempt, apparently I have had a new exhaust for the van actually dispatched. It's the single box system rather than the one with the separate expansion box.

 

Will be slightly more fiddly to fit because of the routing, but was what's actually available, should be lighter, and will shift the tailpipe further away from the vent in the rear of the body, so hopefully will reduce the issue of fumes getting into the cabin.

 

Tasks for tomorrow:

 

[] Swap nearside headlight. Two minute job.

 

[] Remove remains of the old exhaust. The downpipe and tailpipe are different to those on the new system so annoyingly they all need to come off now.

 

[] While I'm crawling around under there I may as well fix the fuel leak. It's already dropped diesel in my mouth once.

 

[] Change brake pads.

 

Doubt I'll get all that done tomorrow, but if I'm lucky enough to, next up will be seeing if I can revive the cab marker lights.

 

If not, am I right in thinking I could remove them for the MOT? They're not obligatory lights as far as I know, but like front fogs come under the heading of "if it's fitted it must work" I think.

 

The tail lights will be next... having reinstated the high level ones of course means I need to wire the damned things up now.

 

Will be getting it booked in for an MOT ASAP (even if the exhaust hasn't turned up yet) so if anything needs sorting I haven't yet found I can hopefully wave pound notes under their nose to sort it before our trip away. No use getting the test done at the last second as I'd be stuffed if anything needed done then.

 

Welding will probably be game over for my schedule as it is.

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So the task for this weekend is as far as possible to bash our way through the list of stuff the van needs for an MOT.

 

Let's start out with some low hanging fruit.  The nearside headlight reflector is sufficiently tarnished to result in there being zip by way of a beam image.  Usefully a brand new headlight was found in a box in the van, so I fitted that.

 

Nice five minute job.

 

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The old one doesn't actually look too bad surprisingly, but it was utterly failing to do anything by way of actually directing light in a useful direction.

 

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Beam height will need adjusting obviously but that can wait until it's pointing the other direction so I can use the garage door, which I think still has marks on from when I adjusted the headlights on the Saab about four years ago.

 

The next thing on the MOT list was to eliminate a minor fuel leak.  There was a very slow drip from the return line to the tank with the engine running, emanating from somewhere up between the fuel tank and vacuum reservoir.  This was quickly traced to this pipe joiner.

 

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It was utterly disinterested in gripping the fuel pipe firmly no matter what I did.  So it was removed, binned and a short length of 5/16" fuel hose was slipped over the join between the two pipes instead.  While I did get diesel in my hair this was another quick job, fuel tight and tested after less than ten minutes.

 

There is a new exhaust on the way.  Unfortunately this is a slightly different type to the one the van was previously fitted with (I was struggling to find anyone who actually had that in stock), so the downpipe and tailpipe of the old system would need to come off.  My original plan had been to retain those until I got around to having a bespoke stainless system made for it.

 

Thanks to decent quality fasteners it only took fifteen minutes to get the tailpipe off.  It's seeing stuff like this which really highlights how much longer the van is than most cars.

 

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This whole stretch will be removed once the bespoke system is made - given the weight of this that can only be a good thing.  I'm not removing the downpipe and expansion box (which is only loosely bolted on just now) until the new system arrives as that will essentially immobilise the van.  I have doused the manifold to downpipe bolts in Plusgas though.

 

There were a number of things in the van which didn't work when I got it.  Among those were the marker lights above the cab.  I want to resolve that.  This is where I went off on a merry old dance.

 

After approximately an hour the cab had ended up looking like this.

 

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This was all going on because I was peering into the bowels of the wiring loom trying to figure out where on earth the feed to those lights was meant to come from.

 

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I had found two fuses in the fuse box which were labelled as marker light (well, they were actually labelled in German but not hard to translate).  However tracing the conductors from there proved exceedingly difficult, and I couldn't figure out how they got into the space above the cab.

 

After wasting not an insignificant amount of time dismantling the cab, I eventually tracked down a total of five wires heading up into the windscreen pillars.  All of these were accounted for as part of the interior light circuit.  Cue much more head scratching.

 

Eventually after several times longer than it should have, the penny dropped.  It was highly unlikely that AutoTrail were going to have messed with the cab wiring...they stuck some carpet and fancy velour in there, but they didn't faff with the wiring.

 

The only area where the standard lighting had been messed with was at the back, where the tail lights were moved from the cross member where they would have been when it was just a bare chassis with a cab to the rear bumper...oh, and the upper level tail lights.  Wait a minute... didn't I find a couple of wires I couldn't account for ages ago, but just stuffed away because they appeared inert.  Yeah... here's two of them...

 

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Surely these couldn't be anything to do with the marker lights way up front... surely?  Well let's find out.  One was a solid ground connection...the other wasn't...so let's stick 12V down it and see what happens.

 

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Seriously?!?  Awards for the most ridiculously unnecessarily circuitous route for wiring to feed a couple of lights?

 

Annoyingly the feed which I suspect to be for the nearside one is now safely terminated and buried behind the bathroom wall...the wall I just finished building and finished tidily.  Argh!  I am not pulling that all apart again if I can avoid it - especially on the clock like this.  Currently thinking the best plan of action is to cut a couple of holes in the trim in the locker over the cab and just stick the lights in parallel... they're only 10W so should be just fine that way.

 

That's as far as we got today.  Hopefully will get those back in a working state tomorrow and then move on to the next things on the list.  Getting the new brake pads in is probably looking like a favourite for the next job.

 

Will definitely need to get the rust in the bulkhead seen to sooner than later won't I.

 

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Hopefully this won't be an issue at the MOT as it should be well clear of any prescribed areas.  For now Kurust and Dinitrol will be the order of the day to keep the weather out.

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So if I remember rightly we had just figured out where the wiring for the offside front marker light emerged into somewhere vaguely accessible. This had pretty much confirmed to me that the mystery wire that I'd stuffed into a corner above the bathroom ceiling was actually for a light at the opposite end of the van...

This left me with a bit of a quandary. Namely that getting access to that wire - which I couldn't even remember if I had trimmed back as far as I could - meant having to tear apart at least a fair chunk of the upper rear wall in the bathroom, the wall I had just spent a not inconsiderable amount of time building.

I did pull apart a tiny bit in one corner to see if I could find the wire by stuffing my hand into the void and grasping blindly. Not a chance. I decided quite quickly to abandon that idea as there was a far easier solution to my mind. Having the lights individually fed from each tail light was a little unnecessary to my mind. Just sticking them in parallel on a single feed seems fine to me. We're walking a pair of 10W festoon lamps (which I will probably replace long term with LEDs - warm white ones before you all jump down my throat) rather than any high power stuff.

This still left me with some work to do, as being a coach built van, all of the wiring and such was routed long before the interior plywood lining was put in place. Initially I wondered if it might be possible to get the upper front trim panel in the over cab locker off. After spending half an hour in there (and nearly dying of heat exhaustion) I ascertained that AutoTrail weren't messing around. The panels are both stapled to the frame *and* glued in place. It ain't going anywhere.

I then decided to take a somewhat more direct (if barbaric) approach as I was done with standing on my head in the locker.

I went round outside, pulled the cover off the lights, found where the cable fed into the van, stuck the screwdriver into that hole then gave it a smack with the palm of my hand, more than enough to punch a hole in the plywood trim inside the van which I could then use as a marker for where I needed to dig out a bit of a hole to gain access.
 

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Likewise on the offside - the mess in the corner there is from my earlier attempts to see if I could get the panel off in its entirety.
 

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It was a quick matter then to disconnect the original live feed to the nearside light and terminate it, and to wire a link between the two to feed them both from the original offside light. I'll obviously make a couple of little covers to go over the holes and will clip the wire in place.
 

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I had taken the lenses off both of them last night to give them a good clean as they were full of pond scum. The seals having disintegrated years ago.
 

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There is quite a bit of crazing on them, but they've cleaned up pretty well.
 

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That was only half the challenge...I now had the lights ready to accept power and a wire dangling out of the rear kitchen cupboard...however there was a kitchen and a floor between it and the relevant bit of the vehicle loom for me to tie it in to.

I decided in the end not to go pulling the walls apart again. I drilled a small hole in the base of the cupboard (it has a lip along the front so it's not visible) having pulled the window blind runner and window trim off, tucked the wire into the void under the trim, drilled another small hole in the worktop (again hidden by the window trim), and routed the wire down to the space below down the cabinets. Then I had it follow the sink waste pipe through the floor.
 

post-21985-0-65091100-1555932397_thumb.jpg

No it ain't pretty. This is a job I can definitely see me coming back to at some point in the future (I'll need to open the walls up really when I reinstate the high level tail lights) but it will at least get the lights working for now.

Once I got it that far I just pulled the offside tail light cluster out and put a piggy back spade terminal on this side and hooked it up to the tail light lamp holder. Glad to see they seem to be fully weatherproof as there was zero signs of water ingress inside the cluster.

The moment of truth of course was to see what would happen when I turned on the headlights.

 

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Hard to see in such bright sunlight, so here's one from a few hours later.

 

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Much better! Seeing that pleases me far more than it probably should do.

On the subject of lighting (as it seemed as good a time to do a full check on it with the MOT coming up and all that) I found that the nearside front indicator was out. New lamp time. This should be a ten second job, if it wasn't for the stupid poorly fitted alarm wiring getting in the way yet again. This thing had been annoying me for months. The entire installation was a mess. This nonsense floating around in the fusebox for a start.
 

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The only fusing to the whole thing being in the *ground* connection about six inches from the end of the cable didn't exactly instill confidence.
 

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Twenty minutes later the engine bay looked a good deal less cluttered.
 

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This is the pile of rubbish that was removed.
 

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The interior could then be put back together. Having tidied up the wiring behind the fuse box meant it was far easier to get it back in place this time. Also hopefully has put an end to getting wiring stuck in the seal when putting the engine cover back in.
 

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Before I buttoned that up I drowned the whole rusty area under the heater intake with Kurust.
 

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Also put some tape on this area on the engine side to keep any further water out until I have the opportunity to get a new panel welded in.

Annoyingly removal of the ultrasonic transducer assembly from the top of the dashboard left three holes.
 

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...So I just stuck that back in place. Not that I think a circa 1990 car alarm is likely to be much of a deterrent to would be thieves, it can't hurt. Plus it's a useful thing to attach cameras etc to. It can stay there until I either find something else to take its place or find a dash moulding free of screw holes.
 

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The LED in the dash is staying put for now similarly to avoid leaving a hole. I will be putting an indicator in there to give me a visual indication in the cab of if the power has been left on in the back of the van so I can't forget to switch stuff off before leaving the van or driving off.

The nearside indicator repeater lens is in dire need of a good clean as like the lenses of the marker lights it's been full of pond scum and rust.
 

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Brake pads next. First challenge there will be seeing if I can get the wheel trims off in one piece - if not it will be all the more excuse to bin the horrible things!

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