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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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Don't fit triangular trailer reflectors, they are illegal on a motor vehicle (the triangle denotes it is a trailer to following traffic). Of course if you cut a square or oblong (or round) out of the triangle and fit those, that will be fine.

Nah, they would have to be rectangular, triangular ones would look utterly daft anyway so wouldn't have been considered.

 

Still irks me having that fail item recorded in error though. Not that unusual a setup either as far as I know. Xantia has the running lights and rear facing reflectors combined in the same way.

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Took a quick video on the way back from the testing station to demonstrate quite how u unusual this thing now sounds. Video is entirely looking at the ceiling as I had nowhere to secure the camera and we were more after the sound anyway. Hasn't come across massively well but gives an idea. You can't fail to notice it that's for sure. Also tunnels are fun.

 

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Ps. Yes my clutch control was poor at a couple of points. The clutch system has had a heap of air bled out since last time I drove it so the bite point is a good couple of inches higher than I keep expecting it to be.

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Let's see what we can do to take a few chunks out of the MOT remedial work list.

 

First target is going to be the propshaft slip joint boot.  It's been in the garage now for a few months waiting to be fitted...let's get to it.

 

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Initially my plan had been to minimise the degree to which I had to dismantle things - hoping that I could get away with simply dropping the centre prop bearing assembly.  Unfortunately it turns out that this doesn't give enough clearance to separate the splined section on the rear prop from the socket on the front section.  Shame as I'd already removed a couple of bits of the exhaust (which I fitted a couple of days ago!) for access.  So had to put them back together again.  On the plus side, this did give me the ability to check the state of the bearing on the centre prop carrier - it's silky smooth and has no detectable play in it.

 

The reason I had really been hoping to get away with removing things from the front was that I really didn't want to have to try to get the bolts out of this.

 

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There's no leak here - things had been sprayed down with Plusgas shortly before I took the photo.  I was forced to pause at that point as the nuts on the rear flange on the prop were 15mm...a size which I knew for a fact I lacked a spanner in.  No way to get a socket on there because of the proximity of the universal joint...You can *just* get a ring spanner onto the nut on four of them, but a socket was a non starter.  This meant that I had to make yet another trip round to Halfords to pick up a spanner.

 

I wasn't sure whether the entire prop was balanced as an assembly or if the front and rear sections were done separately...so I marked the rear flange to ensure that it was reassembled in the same position as it was removed (I had the handbrake on and the van in gear to ensure that neither end could move).

 

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Once all the bolts were removed the rear of the propshaft was lowered to the ground.  It's heavy and especially in the confined space under the van is a bit cumbersome, but isn't impossible to manage single handedly.  I did want to make sure that I didn't just whack the splined section on the brickwork of the driveway when I withdrew it though so grabbed an old cardboard box for it to drop onto.

 

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It was then withdrawn from the socket in the front section until it dropped onto the box,

 

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While being careful to protect the splined section it was a simple matter to then remove it from under the vehicle.

 

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On the plus side, it's much easier to work on the prop with it actually free from the van.  Especially getting the original metal sprung clip that was holding the remainder of the old boot on off.

 

Not much left of the old one!

 

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The remainder I believe to be finely atomised and spread over a stretch of the A421 just outside Buckingham.

 

I then gave the splined joint a thorough clean to get rid of all traced of the old grease and any contaminants.  Then it was given a liberal coating of CV joint grease (I must have had that pot going on 15 years now) and the new boot slipped into place.

 

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I gave the bolts all a quick scrub with the wire brush to clean the threads up before getting ready to reassemble things.  I'm pretty sure that there was some sort of thread lock used during the original assembly, so got mine out ready to be used during assembly.

 

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It was a pretty simple (if slightly physically awkward) process to slot the propshaft back together and bolt the rear flange back together.  By some complete fluke I actually managed to get it lined up perfectly on the first try!

 

The boot was then fastened in place.  This would have been done using metal clips originally but I don't have the special pliers you need to fasten them so a couple of cable ties will have to do for now.  I will look to get a pair bought in though as I'd obviously like to get the metal clips in there - they were supplied with the boot after all.

 

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That done it was time to tick a few other things off.

 

The "missing rear reflectors" was a bit of a head scratcher as they're integral to the tail lights - though if the lights are on it would be easy to miss.

 

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The reflector is plain to see if the camera flash is used.

 

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I'd rather not argue with the tester though, for dug out a couple of reflectors that I had floating around in the garage and stuck them on the back.

 

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The headlamp aim was unsurprisingly miles off given that I had fitted a brand new headlight to the nearside a few days ago.  Didn't take long to adjust that back to something resembling a normal beam pattern.

 

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One thing I was reminded of standing there with the engine running is that I really need to fix a proper patch onto the air cleaner assembly as there's a hole in it.

 

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This is on the outside of the filter element so isn't important from an air filtration perspective - it does however result in a boomy resonance from the induction side of things which sounds like a blowing exhaust and is quite tiresome.  Might see if I can get that sorted before we leave on Thursday.

 

Final thing I did for the day was stick a little trim on the exhaust.

 

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A joint effort between it being because I thought the finish on the really cheap exhaust wasn't great so I wanted to tidy it up, and also to shift the tailpipe out slightly so it was venting slightly past rather than directly in front of the rear wheel.  Not that the exhaust gas temperatures are particularly high from this engine, but I'd rather not cook the tyre.

 

Tomorrow I'll see if the ball joints want to play nicely...I'm guessing not given how easy everything has been so far...Karma is surely going to come back and bite me at some point soon!

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Not much to report. Was busy this afternoon so only had an hour to devote to car stuff.

 

Decided to see if the track rod ends would play nicely as if so swapping the the rod would be the work of a few minutes.

 

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It was immediately apparent that the split pins weren't interested in moving. Fine, that's a fight the garage can have tomorrow. I'd really rather not immobilise the vehicle fighting with it.

 

I did however spend a bit of time scraping thirty years worth of congealed brake dust impregnated grease off the back of the hubs and axle.

 

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That's just nasty.

 

The work of the garage should be sped along by the fact that they don't need to separate any of the TREs from their respective linkages as there is an entire new drag link and tie rod complete with new TREs ready to go on. Should allow them to copy the alignment settings easily as well which will save a few minutes.

 

All proper genuine parts of course. Nice to see stuff still coming in old school grease paper even today.

 

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Hopefully we'll have a fresh MOT in the next 24 hours.

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You really should get it tracked after changing the steering linkages. Even getting them exactly the same won't guarantee anything, much as you would expect it to.

 

I'd be inclined to give the internal threads a bit of grease too, stop the seizing up again. Keep the area around the lock nut clear though.

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You really should get it tracked after changing the steering linkages. Even getting them exactly the same won't guarantee anything, much as you would expect it to.

 

I'd be inclined to give the internal threads a bit of grease too, stop the seizing up again. Keep the area around the lock nut clear though.

Aye, it will be having the tracking checked anyhow. Just should hopefully be a quicker job when A: it should be pretty close anyway, and B: all the components involved are brand new and not seized beyond all recognition.

 

As of 0815 the van has be dropped at the garage...now I pray that luck is on my side and it doesn't wind up costing me all the money ever to get sorted...

 

Edit: FFS. The rear brakes require a full rebuild. The drums are actually bevelled, I have to assume because someone has mucked up the handbrake adjustment, wheel cylinders are stuffed and obviously the shoes are as stuffed as the drums. I'm not massively surprised as there has always been more travel in the brakes than I would ideally like despite bleeding everything, and there has always been a vibration through the pedal (but not steering) if you braked hard at speed. Annoying it's not just a "clean, adjust and retest" for the brakes though.

 

That's going to be more £££s then.

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Enough meat on the drums to have them skimmed?

Not between now and Thursday morning when I'll be off to a charity event for which I need the van. The time crunch is the whole reason I've chucked the van at a garage to have this lot done.

 

I've asked for all the old parts to be returned (as I always do these days after being screwed over by the Bicester branch certain well known national chain in 2012)

 

Not got it back today and tomorrow is their HGV/PSV MOT day...so will be Wednesday. So I'll have to have a mad scramble between whenever it turns up here on Wednesday and when we leave to get all the detritus from the work in the back cleared out...pipe the water heater and oven back up, figure out where the heck the gas regulator ended up...oh, and see what else I need to do before we leave. Plus I need to figure out where the exhaust has decided to start rattling since yesterday as that will drive me absolutely round the bend on the motorway!

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WTAF is that manager at Mercedes smoking? He wants to turn away easy sales and profit?

Sounds a GR8 way to run a business. He should be the one given the nudge. Even if he's being leant on from up higher, some rules are so daft they're meant to be broken. I mean, why would they stock/have access to commercial parts if they're not allowed to sell them? The mind boggles.

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Here's yesterday's update.

Given I've been scrambling to get the van ready for a trip later this week the Invacar has taken a bit of a back seat.  Hasn't moved since the last trip out when I had issues with the drive system slipping.  The basic issue seemed to boil down to the poor shape the surface of the pulleys were in.  Dealing with this issue was being hampered by the fact that I hadn't been able to get the pulley retaining bolts out.  This was despite having applied enough torque to tip the car onto two wheels.

Today I had a bit of free time, and with the van away at the garage figured I may as well see if after soaking for a week or so, if the secondary pulley bolt was any more interested in moving.

After a brief fight...

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Finally!

Doesn't take a genius to see why the system has been struggling and making a royal mess of the belt.

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I'd seen that the fan on the back of the pulley was pretty well shredded, wasn't really obvious how bad till it was off!

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This may well have something to do with the not insignificant vibration I've been suffering at speed given it will have been making a royal mess of the pulley balance.

It's just a thin bit of pressed steel... corrosion and centrifugal force over the years have done a number on it.  If I find there are issues with pulley temperature I'll have a look at improving that side of things...we can probably do better than a bit of time with modern electric fans I reckon.

For now though I've just pulled the shattered remains of it off, which will *hopefully* significantly reduce the vibration issues I've had.  Time will tell.

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Astonishingly the moving elements aren't seized, despite looking like they've been dredged off the Titanic.

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The one thing I hadn't realised until today through was how mental the preload on that pulley is - I'd originally half planned to take it apart to clean and lubricate the innards - however now I've decided to leave it well alone for now.  I have visions of it taking my head clean off if I were to mess with it.
The primary pulley is aluminium so was in generally better shape.  It was a pretty quick job to clean that up by running the engine in gear and using a sharp chisel as an improvised lathe.

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I had planned to do something similar with the secondary pulley using my workbench and the drill...until I realised that the drill is in the back of the van. In a yard at the far side of town.  D'oh!

So plan B was a bit more of a hack, just attack it with the carbide mop on the grinder.

Couldn't quite get right into the grove but should have got most of the running surface I think.

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Gave the top a bit of a scrub too.

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Just got things back in place (with a new belt - the old one had lost about 1/3" worth of width) before running out of time.

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I'll get it bolted back in, adjust the belt and give it a test run tomorrow... I'm honestly really curious as to whether it will make any difference!

-- -- --

On to today.

Today while I was pacing around waiting for the van to turn up I was able to get the Invacar put back together.

Plus I was then able to get out for a test run to get a couple of errands run.

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The main issues which had been making TP quite unpleasant to drive were threefold:

1. Severe judder when taking up drive.
2. "Slipping" of the drive at speeds over 45mph or so.
3. Low frequency drone and vibration at speed (not unlike a duff wheel bearing but a couple of octaves lower frequency).

[Vide

Given I'd only done a relatively quick clean and thrown on a new old stock belt I wasn't expecting miracles.

Okay...I underestimated things!

The judder when taking up drive is almost gone.  Still there to some extent, especially if you give it beans from a standstill.  Not worrying about that though as it's apparently just something that the drive system does and isn't a fault.  Just a limitation of the design.

Slipping has totally disappeared as far as I can tell.  Have had her up to 60mph twice today and even cruised there for a couple of minutes.  Behaved impeccably.

I can conclusively say that this was the cause of the "rumble" at speed.  It's now gone...even up at the legal limit...whereas she tended to start shaking herself to pieces as soon as you saw the speedo needle move over 40mph or so.

I'm a happy camper.  If this is an indication of what I can expect once everything is sorted, she's definitely going to be getting used a lot more as time goes on.  Aside from just being fun and different, the drive out today was actually *nice* which was a big step forward.

Sad I'm away for the weekend so won't be able to drive her again until Monday now.

-- -- -- --

That's us up to date on the Invacar...onwards to the van.

Well I put the van in to a well reputed garage who mostly do HGV/PCV work in the hope that we would see good professional service.

Despite the folks on the desk being really polite and professional I'm not particularly impressed.

First up was the question mark over the "missing" rear reflectors.  The tester at the time wasn't interested in entering into discussion.  So I stuck a couple of additional ones on at near enough driver eye level.

The tester totally failed to notice these...and went and stuck an additional two on the back of the van down next to the tail lights.  It looks like the thing has been attacked by a 90 year old who's raided the caravan aisle in Halfords.

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Not impressed.  Especially as they're not even fitted straight.

I eventually managed to convince someone to come and look at it...gent I spoke to immediately agreed that the reflectors which both I and their guy had fitted were utterly unnecessary.  Doesn't help the fact that I now have an additional pair of squint reflectors (which further impinge on the already not great side viewing angle of the indicators) which appear to be held on with the adhesive they glue the wings on to modern passenger airliners with.  They ain't moving.

That hacked me off.  Especially as they did it without asking me first.  It looks like the thing has been attacked by a 90 year old who's raided the caravan aisle in Halfords.

Likewise the "work done" lists headlight beam adjustment.  I did that myself the day before it went back in.

When they phoned me to inform me the brakes needed work, they also listed the propshaft CV boot as still needing changed.  Despite me having done that the day before.  Just makes me want me to ask "Can you just confirm for me that you have actually looked at the vehicle?"

There was also no further call once they had tracked down parts to confirm that I was okay with them going ahead and spending nearly £250 on parts before going ahead.  

I only figured that it was ready to collect when the invoice arrived in my inbox.  All £550 of it.

Picking the van up, in addition to the obvious complaint about the hideous reflectors, two wheel trims weren't properly attached and the bodywork has a not insignificant number of greasy hand prints on it.  Not a deal breaker...and I'd not blink at it from a little local garage I'd paid £100 to do a job...but this is a big concern who have just charged £300 odd of labour...sorry but I'd expect them to have spent five minutes wiping things down before calling it done.  

Oh...speaking of details I'd expect them to get right (especially given their PCV/HGV background) would be this.

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This isn't overfilled.  This is overflowing.  I am not impressed.

I had also asked for the old components be returned (not least because I was curious to see if the brake drums were recoverable as they don't grow on trees these days), that never happened.

Not impressed.

Anyhow, we need to now try to get things ready for a weekend away between this evening and tomorrow afternoon.  The bombshell being dropped that we won't have mains power on site arrived at about 1730 today too...yay.  Definitely pushes getting the gas system back together up the list as we'll need the fridge to be running on gas then.

Nothing was in place when we started out this evening aside from the water... getting there now.

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Obviously the pipes need to be clipped in place and such, but we're getting there.  There's a blanking plug on the manifold outlet for the hob as it isn't currently fitted.  Everything has been leak tested and is good so far.  Unfortunately the fridge doesn't seem to want to work on gas (no life from the control unit), so that's something else for the to do list tomorrow.

Also high on the list is smacking the front bracket for the middle exhaust section with a hammer so it stops buzzing... we've got a two hour drive ahead of us...and that buzzing would drive me absolutely mad on a run that long!

I'll be writing a letter to the garage and see what they offer by way of an apology...a shrug, a verbal "I can only apologise" and crediting me for £2 worth of unnecessary reflectors (which I now need to figure out how the heck to remove) against a £550 invoice just isn't going to cut it guys.

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Woo happy to see things are going well with the Invacar and her pulleys :)

I wonder if its worth doing the same treatment to the collection of poorly pulleys DW has collected?

you can really hear the CVTing in action in that video it sounds good :) (thats your first public invacar video in a while iv noticed, the last going back when you still had KPL so some people are going to get a bit of a surprise! :mrgreen: )

 

sorry to hear things aint quite gone as well with the van

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16 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

thats your first public invacar video in a while iv noticed, the last going back when you still had KPL so some people are going to get a bit of a surprise! :mrgreen:

Go me for actually remembering to start/stop the video not in front of my house for a change! I'm looking forward to getting some further tests done next week.  Given the difference it has made I will probably pull the pulleys off again shortly though.

I'm going to mount the drill in a vice, bolt the pulley to the drill and then grind away any remaining surface pitting.  I couldn't get all that deep into the V because of the thickness of the polycarbide mop disc...the drill-lathe hybrid will help deal with that.  The unloaded speed of the drill may well be high enough to get the sheaves to move apart too which will also help.

 

As for the van...total bill for the last 14 days (granted, including the road tax)?

£1232 if my math is right.

Will be having 70 litres of diesel thrown in the tank tomorrow too!  Just praying for a quiet couple of months now.  Suffice to say buying new pulleys for the Invacar has dropped down the priority list a bit!

 

 

 

 

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We had originally planned to be heading out today even though the event doesn't really start off until tomorrow afternoon.  However we did a bit of math and figured that by the time we had done everything we needed to here we would be arriving there after dark.  There's no guarantee of lighting at the camp ground as we're essentially just parked up in a field next door to a camp ground, so we decided to just head out tomorrow early on.  All it means is that the charity have made an extra £20 or something from us so no big issue.  Did leave me time to get a few more things done though.

First issue was the non-functional fridge on gas.  I hadn't ever tested this before (nor connected a gas supply to it to allow me to).  The fridge is an Electrolux RM 212, which means that the gas side of things is the only complex thing about it as it has automatic electronic ignition.  So instead of the normal clicky ignitor button you have a switch.

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In theory, when this is on it will automatically sit there ticking away whenever there is no flame detected (with a little red light in the switch blinking so you can see it's trying).  However mine wasn't doing anything when the switch was turned on.  What is annoying here is that there is no manual ignitor nor any access to the burner which would allow me to light it the old fashioned way.  Equally annoying is that most of the wiring diagrams for this fridge I've found are for the older version which lacks the electronic ignitor...

After a not insignificant amount of swearing and headscratching I worked out that we had a multiple offender on our hands.  The wiring to the ignitor was totally wrong *and* the switch contacts were dirty.  The best decision I made at this point was to just rip all the wiring out and redo it from scratch.  Which took five minutes.  That done we had it cheerfully going "tickticktickticktick..." when turned on.  Adding gas to the equation...

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Much better.  I gave the flame failure detection system a good workout to make sure it behaved and it did.

Knowing the gas system worked I made a point of actually securing the flue and sealing the joint to the body...much aluminium tape was involved to cover the good inch or so gap I made between it and the surrounding woodwork.  The flue doesn't actually get massively hot, but I'd rather keep good distance between plywood and hot stuff.

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Of course with gas onboard a new bit of equipment needed to be installed.

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I like these CO alarms as they give a useful indication of any low background level which wouldn't actually trigger any alarms.

I let the fridge running for a couple of hours while I was doing other work...

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So everything I needed was finally working.  Oh...and I stopped the exhaust rattling by smacking the front most bracket with a hammer.

Just needed to get all the junk out of the van and clean stuff up.

All the non-van related stuff chucked out the luggage locker...

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Empty and prep the toilet for use.  It had been left with a cleaning solution in...seems to have done a good job, no smell whatsoever and looked pretty clean in there.  The treatment agents for these toilets seem a lot better than when I first used one twenty years or so back it has to be said.

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Stick the fridge on mains mode so it can cool down overnight before we load it up for the trip in the morning.

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Gave the cabin and cockpit a clean up - the bit I always enjoy.  

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Cockpit scrubs up well.

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So that's it... tomorrow we will be off as of 11 or so hopefully.

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Hopefully an uneventful trip ahead.  Hopefully!

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We have made it here in one piece.

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Can categorically say having now had 150 miles to test the theory that the new exhaust has vastly improved the ability to make progress on the motorway.  Even if it does leave us with a soundtrack which isn't dissimilar to a WWI era aircraft at times... Mercifully it's actually not that loud once you're up to speed or that could have become wearing rapidly.  At 60 though it's totally drowned out by the rest of the mechanical racket and wind noise.

Given we're at a camping event I'm not hugely surprised that I don't have the oldest vehicle here.  What did surprise me though is that it's not a VW that is (no classic ones here at all actually).

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When did you last see one of those?!?

On the same topic...bonus classic Toyota spotted when we stopped for lunch too.

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To say it will be a quiet weekend will be overstating the fact given we're sharing the camp site with something like 200 huskies...there is much howling going on outside!

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Tesla is now utterly zonked out.

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Here's a snap from earlier...sunset seemed worth snapping.  Looking forward to having the cosmetics sorted at some point.

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I keep forgetting how much people seem to like this van.  There's a fair amount of really expensive modern kit here, and they must see a lot through the gates of the camp ground.  However the folks on reception suggested I should just leave my keys with them as they very much wanted it...my rusty 29 year old Merc T1.  Not the VW thing probably worth twenty times as much behind us.

Makes me feel it wasn't such a mad purchase - even though I knew it was very much a heart over head decision anyway.  I'd never have managed to bag a T1 if I'd not been thrown a massive stroke of good luck and good will from a member on here...and let's face it irrespective of any issues I found, I was going to buy it the second I'd say in the driver's seat. 

Had honestly forgotten how much I've missed spending time behind the wheel until we got back on the open road.  It's astonishing how much the work done has helped too.  The more free flowing exhaust has unlocked enough power (while I'm sure it's actually a tiny %age on paper) that she feels a lot livelier on the motorway.  The suspension work has taken up slop that I'd not even realised was there before, and the brakes are sharper, likewise the propshaft being greased up and everything has got rid of the vibration... it's just sharpened everything up.  Front brakes still squeak like bloody torture though... I'll need to pull the pads and grease the slides etc see if that helps.  Anyway though she's just much nicer to pilot.

Speaking of that...now she's roadworthy again we should be able to get our plans to get you some driver training done, LBF.  Learning the ropes in this lumbering old bus should suit you just fine I reckon...

 

I'm really hoping that I'll be able to get a week or two later this year to go revisit a few of my favourite corners of Scotland and see a few friends I've not seen in forever - will be great to be able to take the van and not have to stress over accommodation etc for most of the trip.   Looking forward to that.

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very cool! I was wondering how the new exhaust affected performance and im glad to hear that its made a positive improvement and the rest of the work has as well despite it being much more expensive than anticipated :)

 

7 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Speaking of that...now she's roadworthy again we should be able to get our plans to get you some driver training done, LBF.  Learning the ropes in this lumbering old bus should suit you just fine I reckon...

 

ohh yes :) (Just need to sort out some income so I can pay for some kind of insurance, unless you have located a nice patch of private land to run around in?)

speaking of I need to call the government and bash some heads together, as its been 6 weeks and a couple days and iv heard zilch from them aside for the initial "we got your fit note" text message 6 weeks and 2 days ago (even though what I sent was a mandatory reconsideration notice! I did however include some old fit notes in the letter as evidence, I would not be surprise if this has confused the system, much like how TPA ended up SORNed after being taxed)

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It's a bit hard to quantify how much the exhaust has affected things as it's entirely possible that it's not actually increased specific output but has altered the power and torque curves so has has changed where in the rev band they are delivered.

Have a snap of two from earlier today when we've had (sporadic) actual sunshine.

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IMG_20190504_134944.thumb.jpg.4226b206230ea085825cce485cd80e8a.jpg

This however is a devious trick...yes it's sunny but that image does nothing to convey the bitterly cold 40mph wind, and it keeps dumping short but heavy rain showers on us.  So a not insignificant amount of hiding inside is going on.

IMG_20190504_145530.thumb.jpg.2b4b9a6e5b52df8b63296f32be04d2f9.jpg

 

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There's a certain appeal to driving an old camper I think, something to do with not really being in a rush I think, unlike the drivers who would have used these vehicles in van form.

I will admit to having spent quite a bit of time, effort and money on making mine quieter in the hope that long distances are less wearing, a recent trip to France has shown favourable results.

Does your camper have power steering, I drove a van version of one of these in the early nineties and it didn't, fully loaded it was almost impossible to manuevre in tight spaces.

It must feel good to finally realise your hard work and get out in it!

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3 hours ago, spartacus said:

Does your camper have power steering, I drove a van version of one of these in the early nineties and it didn't, fully loaded it was almost impossible to manuevre in tight spaces.

No power steering on this one.  If they have the correct tyres on, inflated to the correct pressures (48 front/61 rear from memory), with the tracking correctly set *and* the kingpins greased - this is a maintenance task that was commonly missed - the steering should be fine.

The steering on this is finger-light anywhere above walking pace.  It's reasonably weighty at parking speeds but by no means unmanageable.  It's lighter than the steering in the Lada when parking to be honest!  Not that that's saying much really!

I wouldn't want power steering to be honest with how nicely weighted it is on the move...most commercials from the era I've driven with power steering tend to have steering wheels which don't feel as though they're connected to the front axle.

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3 hours ago, Meter rat said:

Why do I keep thinking of you being towed , in the invacar, behind half a dozen huskies, through the forests around Aviemore. Doing one of those sled dog races, in luxury while all the rest of the competition are in the open? Or am I just weird?

if he had KPL still he could probably could!

but I will direct you to the start of this thread containing husky powered Sinclair C5 :mrgreen:

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We decided to head back home today as the event just wasn't really panning out how we had hoped.  Nothing dire, but they just really hadn't done a good job of making it possible for folks who didn't already know someone there actually get involved.  It wasn't *bad* just could have been better - likewise the general information provision was just lacking.  We only found the skip for general rubbish after twenty minutes of blindly wandering the site and the fresh water tap by asking a fellow camper.  Never did find where to dump the contents of the grey water tank so that was just left in there to be dealt with at home.  Also totally forgot to dump the contents of the fresh water tank purely because I'm stupid, so that was an additional 40kgs of ballast dragged home unnecessarily!

I fuelled up just a couple of miles into the return trip, showing a 26.9mpg figure for the outward leg.  Not bad for a van this size, especially as I've not been actively doing anything to try to improve economy while driving. 

Arrived home 117 miles later with this much left.

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Reckon that's probably sticking around the expected MPG. Will probably fill up tomorrow so I can track performance over the trip. Glad to report that the van has not missed a beat the whole time.

IMG_20190505_164135.thumb.jpg.89b2bf9eb7fd901c7613ba4c58018efe.jpg

Given all of our stuff was still in there and we've been enjoying making use of it we've decided to throw the dog back at the rest of the household, have rearranged cars, levelled the van off so the fridge works, and will complete our weekend's camping - in our own driveway. 

Think we can consider this a successful field test overall.

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