Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 13/11.

[LightBulbFun]

Yep as I expected for something from oddingley  it looks like its been buried for 20 years and then dug up again, probably because it more than likely has been! (the Invacar Mk12's literally did have to be unearthed!) 

but im pleased to see TPA finally has a complete air cleaner assembly once more and It will be interesting to see how things perform compared to the stubby one  

[PhilA]

Looks like the original one was cut down at the first bead roll- maybe it rotted out beyond basic repair?  Something to fit a replacement filter? Hodgepodge from another application?

A larger resonant cavity makes sense- particularly for a buzzy twin, that would be to shut up the intake noise more than anything. It'll flow adequately, regardless. The outer portion is the silencer, in the same vein as the one on my Chieftain. 

I wouldn't expect to see any change in performance or economy. It might feel a little more refined though.

 

Phil

[Zelandeth]

This afternoon the Caddy was dropped off at a local garage to have the aux belt tensioner and idler replaced.  This required a bit of head scratching to work out the logistics of as my intended lift back from the garage wasn't available.

Helpfully it turned out there was a car ready to be collected there which we could swap around and figure out the automotive Tetris to get it back to its owner later.  Obviously this was done with the permission of the owner.  Some of you may recognise the car.

Have I mentioned before that despite how rough this one is in some places, that I flipping love this car?  It's just that perfect blend between squidgy and comfy and yet just seeming to tighten up and grip like hell when you present it with a corner.  Goes bloody well too, this engine has a good old chunk of mid range torque.

Last time this car was on my driveway I was hunting a running issue...and spent a good chunk of a weekend pulling the carb off (twice I think), and generally scratching my head.  I managed to improve it, but she still wasn't happy.  It later transpired that I was a blithering bloody idiot, and it was an ignition issue!  For reasons unknown my brain just latched onto the fact that work had been done on the car, therefore the ignition system must have been gone through already...idiot.  Cannot believe I was that daft.

Anyhow, fast forward to today.  She was running way, way better than last time I drove the car.  Still a little stuttery on light throttle, but lightyears ahead of my last trip out.

This all went fine for the trip back and running a couple of local errands.  Right up to about 100 feet from my driveway. 

At this point things went all Lancia.

She cut out.  No stuttering, just as though I'd turned the key off.  Thankfully I was able to just roll the last few tens of feet down the hill and park up.

A quick check revealed that my guess was correct, we'd lost spark.  Question of course was *why* we had lost spark.

I confirmed that we had power to the coil...however at that point several expletives were uttered as the temperature of the coil just about removed my finger prints.  Never a good sign.

Another sign that something was amiss was that with 12V to the coil, there was no spark from the output terminal when the ground was disconnected.  Let's get the meter out...

The primary side of an ignition coil should be pretty low resistance.  It varies from coil to coil, whether there's meant to be a ballast resistor, etc...but it's always going to be in the region of 0.5 to a couple of ohms.

Not 95K ohms.  Yep...that would explain why we had no spark.

Now I had a vague memory of having a spare coil floating around in the back of the garage from when I did the injection conversion on the Lada (doesn't everyone?).  That was several years ago now though...odds on it still being where I thought it was?

Hey, look what I found!

No idea how it would compare to the original spec wise, but they used a similar transistorised it ignition setup so should absolutely be good enough for testing purposes.

I confirmed that this absolutely does have output when tested off the car.  It completely ignored my intended ground point and gave me an almighty belt instead.

Cue finding a convenient bolt hole to temporarily attach it to.

This is important as the coil secondary winding grounds through the case.

This has restored spark.  It however isn't the best spark, it was a step in the right direction.

The engine now starts again...and is playing up *exactly* like it was when here last time.  So whatever was playing up before seems to be doing so again.

Hooking a spark tester on to the king lead shows that the spark is indeed intermittent.

I did find a couple of possible issues on initial inspection.

Firstly this is the connection between the pickup in the distributor and the ignition amplifier.  One of the spring contacts has clearly been damaged.

The connector also doesn't clip together in anything like a secure manner.  If I can find a weatherproof two pin connector this will get replaced as it's exactly the sort of thing that's liable to cause random issues down the road.

Another spot was that the distributor cap and the leads don't seem to match...the cap has pin type contacts in rather than the circular slot in type the leads are designed for...

So there's about a 1/16" gap between the contact and HT lead on the king terminal at least...that won't be helping anything.  I didn't get as far as checking the other terminals, as I have seen some caps where the centre post is different.

The old HT leads (they were replaced in an effort to resolve the running issues back in November when it was refusing to start) were helpfully in the boot, so I made up an "adapted" king lead by squishing the contact in one of the old ones.

No change.

I ran out of time here, so will get back to it tomorrow.

Next things to check:

[] Sort that dodgy connector.

[] See if I can fathom out a way to test the output from the pickup in the distributor...I think I do have a little single board scope somewhere...

[] If it's not an issue with the pickup or wiring, this basically brings us to pointing a finger at the ignition amplifier.  Which would suck as I don't have a spare one of those rattling around in the garage.

Watch this space.  

Quite pleased that my "I think I just lost spark..." Thought as I rolled down the hill into the driveway was proven to be an accurate diagnosis within about a minute.

What this thing really needs this year is to get some regular use and to cover some proper miles.  Though for that to happen it needs to be reliable...and it'll only be reliable once it's had some regular use...you can see the chicken and egg problem there!

[Zelandeth]

Okay, little bit more tinkering.

First thing's first...thou shall not overlook the obvious.

We had a more-or-less mostly present albeit nowhere near as strong as I'd like spark at the coil, but very intermittent at the plugs.  Let's check the cap.

Uuuuh...

Well that's not going to have been helping anything.

Comparing the old distributor cap (it was in the boot) to the one on the car shows the new one to be a good bit shorter.

Obviously the internal height isn't necessarily exactly relative to the outer moulding as I don't know how thick it is...but I'd not expect to see this big a difference.  

The old one also has the correct socket type for the HT leads on the car.

The old rotor arm was also shorter than the one on the car.  So I swapped both of these out for the original parts.

Result being the car running a lot better than it was.  It's still not right though as the spark isn't great and is intermittent especially at lower engine speeds.  I think it's running better than it was when I last worked on it, but it still isn't right.

Wiggling that suspect looking connector doesn't seem to have any effect on anything so it's likely innocent, though I'd still rather see it changed for long term reliability.

Suspicion at this point lays evenly between the ignition amplifier module and the pickup in the distributor...not sure really where to go from here.  I seem to get a fairly steady spark at cranking speeds and just don't have the equipment to test to see if there's a clean pulse being delivered from the pickup with the engine running.

Have to admit I'm more at home with points and condenser setups where ignition systems are concerned!  I've never really had to do much with the likes of this system.

Thoughts?  Ideas?

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Suspicion at this point lays evenly between the ignition amplifier module and the pickup in the distributor...not sure really where to go from here.  I seem to get a fairly steady spark at cranking speeds and just don't have the equipment to test to see if there's a clean pulse being delivered from the pickup with the engine running.

Have to admit I'm more at home with points and condenser setups where ignition systems are concerned!  I've never really had to do much with the likes of this system.

Thoughts?  Ideas?

what sort of test gear would you need to check that, my obvious thought is the awesome Sun Microcomputer II Motortester 

but I dont know if that has what you need here,

 

if its a portable scope you need then I have one that @catsinthewelder kindly gave me

it seems that the probe that came with it is bad, as I was never able to get a trace on it, I always thought it was a Layer 8 issue, so I put it aside, however borrowing one of the probes from my Rigol scope which I upgraded to recently,  has it displaying a trace without issue

so your more than welcome to have it  if its what you need in this case? (or if you want in general!), its a Velleman HPS10, and I have its manual, and somewhere its PSU (although it runs off and  includes 5 AA's)

EDIT: heres a photo of it showing the voltage waveform of an F14T12 (through a High voltage diff probe hence why the voltage measurement is off)

[Fumbler]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Okay, little bit more tinkering.

First thing's first...thou shall not overlook the obvious.

We had a more-or-less mostly present albeit nowhere near as strong as I'd like spark at the coil, but very intermittent at the plugs.  Let's check the cap.

Uuuuh...

Well that's not going to have been helping anything.

Comparing the old distributor cap (it was in the boot) to the one on the car shows the new one to be a good bit shorter.

Obviously the internal height isn't necessarily exactly relative to the outer moulding as I don't know how thick it is...but I'd not expect to see this big a difference.  

The old one also has the correct socket type for the HT leads on the car.

The old rotor arm was also shorter than the one on the car.  So I swapped both of these out for the original parts.

Result being the car running a lot better than it was.  It's still not right though as the spark isn't great and is intermittent especially at lower engine speeds.  I think it's running better than it was when I last worked on it, but it still isn't right.

Wiggling that suspect looking connector doesn't seem to have any effect on anything so it's likely innocent, though I'd still rather see it changed for long term reliability.

Suspicion at this point lays evenly between the ignition amplifier module and the pickup in the distributor...not sure really where to go from here.  I seem to get a fairly steady spark at cranking speeds and just don't have the equipment to test to see if there's a clean pulse being delivered from the pickup with the engine running.

Have to admit I'm more at home with points and condenser setups where ignition systems are concerned!  I've never really had to do much with the likes of this system.

Thoughts?  Ideas?

Has the ignition amp been replaced at all? Also check the HT lead boots and insulation just to be on the safe side. Considering the issue I'd also be looking at the ignition amp wiring and the king lead. It sounds to me like either the sensor in the dizzy or the amplifier is cooked, or there's deteriorated wiring.

[Zelandeth]

Leads are all pretty new and in fine shape.  The wiring between the distributor and ignition amp is only accessible at the ends as it's routed in along with the rest of the engine bay loom, though aside from the one connector mentioned above *looks* to be in fine shape.

No signs of the ignition amp having been changed, sadly one of very few spares that aren't in the boot.  I do have a couple floating around from the Saab and Lada days, but they're totally different types so no use in this case.  

Assuming one can be found at least it's a simple enough thing to change.  I'd definitely be trying that first I think as the distributor is an absolute pig to get to.

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

what sort of test gear would you need to check that, my obvious thought is the awesome Sun Microcomputer II Motortester 

but I dont know if that has what you need here,

 

if its a portable scope you need then I have one that @catsinthewelder kindly gave me

it seems that the probe that came with it is bad, as I was never able to get a trace on it, I always thought it was a Layer 8 issue, so I put it aside, however borrowing one of the probes from my Rigol scope which I upgraded to recently,  has it displaying a trace without issue

so your more than welcome to have it  if its what you need in this case? (or if you want in general!), its a Velleman HPS10, and I have its manual, and somewhere its PSU (although it runs off and  includes 5 AA's)

EDIT: heres a photo of it showing the voltage waveform of an F14T12 (through a High voltage diff probe hence why the voltage measurement is off)

That would be a useful thing to have for jobs like this.  I've got a bench scope (albeit in the loft at present as I've not been doing much electronic work lately) but nothing portable.  You'd not be wanting to use anything like that for precision measurements, but for things like this where you're just looking to see what sort of waveform you've got and a ballpark idea of amplitude it should be fine.

The Sun 1215 could definitely have been used here - though it's still in the conservatory...and it's a two man (minimum!) job to move!

[LightBulbFun]

7 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

That would be a useful thing to have for jobs like this.  I've got a bench scope (albeit in the loft at present as I've not been doing much electronic work lately) but nothing portable.  You'd not be wanting to use anything like that for precision measurements, but for things like this where you're just looking to see what sort of waveform you've got and a ballpark idea of amplitude it should be fine.

Yeah as mentioned your more than welcome to it as its surplus to requirements here, just need to figure out if I can get it to you before the Trevi needs to go back!

as im not sure when anyone here is going past the post office! (the only thing I dont have for it is a probe, Ill include the one it came with, but im not sure how well it works!)

 

[Zelandeth]

Wouldn't worry about it too much for this instance.  It's probably going to be a matter of testing the ignition amplifier by substitution and seeing where that gets us.

If that doesn't sort it then the distributor will need to be looked at.

Which will be horrible as access is horrendous.

I guess if you pull that brace that runs between the front panel and the strut top plus the alternator top bracket off it wouldn't be too bad...

It doesn't look too bad there, but actually getting a hand in to it is bloody awkward.  Especially when the engine is hot!

[Zelandeth]

Have had it out for a brief test drive and can confirm that with the replacement coil and original rotor arm/distributor cap it's definitely running better than any other combination so far, however it's still not right.

I think we're going to try to track down a replacement ignition module and give that a try.  Not a bad thing to have a spare of on hand anyway even if it doesn't turn out to be the specific issue here.

Looks to be a Bosch 0 227 100 014 if I'm reading it right from the photo.  Will have a look in better light tomorrow.

Really curious to see how this car runs when we've got to the bottom of this!

 

In other news the Caddy has been picked up and now has a shiny new aux belt tensioner, idler pulley and belt.

Totally forgot to pick up the box with the originals in to see how knackered they were or weren't.  It's definitely a lot quieter now than it was so something was definitely unhappy.  Will retrieve that from behind the passenger seat tomorrow for a closer look.

 

While I've not really got many events in the calendar this year yet (really should sit down and pencil a few local car shows at least in), I'm looking to attend a couple of days of a convention at the end of May.  One of the sub-events there is a car show, which it's my intention to take TPA along to.  Haven't decided how much of the whole event I'll be staying for, but the car show is on the afternoon the Saturday and to be honest that's probably the bit I'm most interested in specifically.

Only 50 miles plus change each way, but feels like quite a big step forward as it's going into a neighbouring busy city area (Birmingham), rather than just buzzing around locally - even though I can and have done more than 100 miles in an afternoon without thinking about it before...so the distance really isn't a big factor.  Pales into utter insignificance when you look at TWC's cross country capers too!

Vast majority of the run will be on high speed roads though, so it's a good incentive to give the car a decent once over.  Probably get the second actual proper wash in my ownership too!  Seriously that needs to happen... doesn't show in photos but that poor car is bloody filthy.

Making sure nothing else follows the example set by the air cleaner vibrating itself apart though is definitely a priority!

Edit: Corrected part no for ignition module now I've cleaned it up so I can read it!

[Daviemck2006]

You need to take it for a real run Zel, and take it up for a photo shoot at your favourite place!

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

[Zelandeth]

24 minutes ago, Daviemck2006 said:

You need to take it for a real run Zel, and take it up for a photo shoot at your favourite place!

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk
 

Being honest if we got to the bottom of the ignition issue and got a water tight radiator in it I'd love to.  It's a lovely comfy thing to waft around in.  Oh, and replace (or bodge) the seal on the driver's window (there's a bit at the top corner missing) as the wind noise would probably drive me mental after a couple of hours...not my car though so. I'm not about to go running off to the far end of the country with it!

-- -- --

Nothing car related done today as I've been otherwise engaged, though a couple of things for the Caddy did arrive.

Replacement for the tatty gear lever gaiter.  I have significant doubts about whether this will fit...but for the price it was worth a punt.

If not I'll just make one.  I'm sure we've got enough scraps of suitable material floating around somewhere.

Other thing to turn up was a set of proper floor mats.  The ones currently in there insist on fucking up behind the accelerator pedal.  Which is irritating the first couple of times - after the three hundred and seventy-fifth time it's downright maddening.  Hopefully these will fit better and put a stop to that.

Went for grey trim as it seemed that understated would look the least out of place in the cabin.

[Zelandeth]

Another busy day so nothing much done on the cars aside from a couple of real quickies.

New floor mats went into the Caddy.

Before:

After:

Much better.

Really good service from www.simplycarmats.co.uk - they went out of their way to make sure I had exactly the right parts, down to the type of fixings (apparently it's quite unusual for a Caddy not to have mat retainers on the floor).

Also before:

After:

Much better, though it's only *just* big enough.  So I suspect it will wind up pulling itself off again...it was £5 though so was worth a punt.

While I had the gaiter off it made sense to grease up the test selector linkage as it was a bit stiff.  While doing that I did spot where the play in the linkage is...

I kind of think there shouldn't be about 1/4" of empty space between the gear lever and the selector rod...methinks there should be a bush in there.  That will be next on the "parts to order" list then as sorting that will probably have a disproportionately positive impact on the driving experience.

Having greased the bushing where the selector rod goes through the bulkhead alone has made a massive difference to the gearchange, it's way, way lighter and smoother now.  Doesn't creak going into reverse now either!

[Zelandeth]

I appear to have fallen through a time hole and landed somewhere in the late 80s to early 90s...

Had a slight issue today in that we have reached this stage in the Caddy.

Which wouldn't be an issue aside from the fact that nowhere near to us currently has any diesel.  Petrol isn't too much of an issue so long as you don't mind waiting in a queue for a few minutes, but diesel is a different story.  I must have checked eight filling stations today and none had any.

Thankfully the van apparently was filled up sometime in the last month.

No memory of doing that, but I'm not going to complain.  At least it made running the errands today a bit easier.

Need to give the brakes a thorough workout again as she does seem to be pulling to the right a bit again.  Really ought just to clean up and lube the calipers given balance was an issue at the last MOT and that's due at the start of next month.  They aren't a problem at all if it's in regular use, the nearside one just gets a bit lazy if left unused for a while.

Definitely will be heading over to Birmingham at the end of May with TPA.  Looks like a pretty simple run looking at it.  A5, A45 then a couple of miles on the M42 basically gets me to the door, so not too complicated.  Probably a bit more direct than the M1/M6 if I'm right.

[Zelandeth]

Ah, it's going to be one of *those* days then...

Figured I'd take TPA out today as the weather is nice.

Moved the van, someone had taken the parking space I'd intended to slot into by the time I got there so had to drive around in circles for five minutes to find someone I'd not be in the way or where trees got in my way.

Then the Trevi decided to be an absolute pig to get started but eventually relented and I got that out of the way.

Rolled TPA out, and found the choke was stuck.  Not entirely sure why as after a bit of poking around it just sorted itself.  Went to actually start the engine and I get nothing but a clonk.  The battery showing 8.7V may have something to do with that.  It was only charged a few weeks ago so that's died then.  Hardly the end of the world, just annoying.

[mat_the_cat]

The connector you need should be one of these: 

https://www.vehiclewiringproducts.co.uk/c-50-connectors/c-114-junior-timer-and-power-timer-connectors

[Zelandeth]

8 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

The connector you need should be one of these: 

https://www.vehiclewiringproducts.co.uk/c-50-connectors/c-114-junior-timer-and-power-timer-connectors

Useful to know.  Thanks for that.

The replacement ignition module has arrived at Six-Cylinder's place now, so we'll get that on the car tomorrow and *hopefully* we'll have the Trevi running far better.  If not there will be a large amount of expletives from both me *and* Six-Cylinder!

New battery has been picked up for TPA.  I could have ordered one for delivery, but the difference by the time it was on the doorstep was less than a tenner so I just went and physically picked one up for the sake of just getting it done.

Hopefully can get her out for a run tomorrow after today's failure on that count.

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 12/04/2022 at 01:18, Zelandeth said:

I appear to have fallen through a time hole and landed somewhere in the late 80s to early 90s...

Had a slight issue today in that we have reached this stage in the Caddy.

Which wouldn't be an issue aside from the fact that nowhere near to us currently has any diesel.  Petrol isn't too much of an issue so long as you don't mind waiting in a queue for a few minutes, but diesel is a different story.  I must have checked eight filling stations today and none had any.

Thankfully the van apparently was filled up sometime in the last month.

Definitely will be heading over to Birmingham at the end of May with TPA.  Looks like a pretty simple run looking at it.  A5, A45 then a couple of miles on the M42 basically gets me to the door, so not too complicated.  Probably a bit more direct than the M1/M6 if I'm right.

might not need the M42 bit tbh- can offer alternatives if you want them

[Zelandeth]

On 4/15/2022 at 6:08 PM, Noel Tidybeard said:

might not need the M42 bit tbh- can offer alternatives if you want them

Thanks for the offer.  I'll look into the exact route nearer the time though as I'll only forget whatever I look up now before the day.  Not too worried about it to be honest (unless it's windy!).  The actual venue is the Hilton attached to the NEC, though I'm staying at the Moxy just round the corner as the main hotel has been full for months.  I've traversed the roads in that general area a few times so it's not totally new ground at least.

-- -- --

Had the opportunity to get a few things ticked off on the Cavalier today to bring it into a more user friendly state for transportation.

[] Replace the very flat nearside front wheel with the spare.

Old one off...

Good spare on.  Job done.

Not including the walking the whole way back to the far end of the field and back because I forgot to pick the key up before walking up to the car, just over six minutes work.

The spare has highlighted that I appear to be missing chrome wheel rings from three other wheels.  Sure they grow on trees these days...

[] Replace dissolved fuel line tail between the tank and the main nylon line to the front of the car.  No photos of this as it was an awkward and messy job.  Especially at the point where I made the discovery that a lot less of the fuel had leaked out of the tank since I left it a few weeks ago than I'd expected.  Of course I found this out with my face as I pulled the line off under the car as I ended up wearing a significant amount of the contents of the tank.  Again.

Congratulations to Vauxhall for having positioned that connection precisely so that the rear axle and exhaust are *precisely* in the way.  Nevertheless, it only took a few minutes to do.  Hardest part was getting the old hose tail off the tank as it had welded itself to the stub, though it did eventually release.

I thought I had a photo of the new line in place but my phone claims otherwise.

[] Non Running State.  Last time I was at the car it seemed to be running quite well, right up to when I blipped the throttle at one point when it died.  A quick bit of diagnosis revealed that we had no spark, and that the points were staying resolutely open circuit.  However we were short on time and didn't have the screwdriver needed to get the distributor cap off, so just left it be.

I was initially quite worried as the screws on the distributor cap appeared to have been tightened up by the Incredible Hulk and one was threatening to round out on me.  After no small amount of very careful perseverance I did get the cap off.  Bit of a scrub of the points with some Emery cloth seemed to sort things out.  Flicking the points to see if we got any sparkage proved two things.  One, we did have spark.  Two, that screwdriver was far less well insulated than I thought it was.  That's the third time I've been belted by a HT system in the last 48 hours.  The Trevi has got me twice so far!

That sorted she started first touch.  Meant I was finally able to move the car (albeit very carefully as the only brakes I have are provided by a very poor handbrake on one wheel it seems).  This has also highlighted that the clutch release bearing sounds distinctly unhappy.  Guess I'll be doing or getting a clutch done in the not too distant future then.

This is assuming it's a sealed bearing and doesn't need to be periodically lubricated as per the old Skoda ones.  Can't really see how you would access it for that though.

First time I've had a look at it not tucked into a corner.

That's very much the good side.

Standing back from the car it's more obvious that the damage to the doors is from the fork lift/loader that was used to move the car around when the previous storage location was being cleared.  A shame as it is damage that could easily have been avoided, but on the flip side it's nothing too hard to fix.  I'm just grateful it wasn't plucked out by a strap under the roof.

I also seem to be missing the "Vauxhall" text which should be between the tail lights.  Hopefully that won't be too hard to track down.  I imagine it should be easier than the more model-specific bits at least.

I let her run for a while to get up to temperature...top radiator hose started to get warm after a while...

Ah...no temperature gauge.  Now there are plenty of things I will happily do without in a car, but a working temperature gauge is not one of them.  Thankfully 90 seconds of detective work under the bonnet found a stray wire and a post for it to attach to on the thermostat housing.  Result?

Much better!

I still love that dash design.  I'm a sucker for anything which doesn't just have boring rectangular or square lights on the dash.

Very much looking forward to getting this home and starting to get properly stuck into recommissioning it.

Such a rarity these days despite being such a common sight in its day.

So stuff I'm missing, seems worth mentioning as I know these cars do have their fans and they're the sort of things someone might have floating around in a box in a shed in some cases.

[] Rear silencer.

[] NSR door rubbing strip.

[] 3 X Chrome wheel rings.

[] 4 X Wheel centre caps.

[] Vauxhall badging from rear panel.

Of course if I have the car in working order and the bugs shaken out by then the big question would be whether I took this or TPA to the FotU?  

Probably still TPA really, as there's inevitably going to be at least a couple of other early Cavaliers there.  Granted though there might be another couple of Invacars too given how they seem to have come out of the woodwork over the last couple of years!

[Noel Tidybeard]

just looked at googly maps- stay on A45 and come of at the NEC junction above M42 J6

[Daviemck2006]

I love that cavalier Zel. It's my perfect mk1. Best colour, best trim and good engine. Once you have it sorted I would be very interested in it if you decide to sell.

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

[ProgRocker]

I also love the Cavalier. The RoStyles really suit it. 

[Zelandeth]

I just hope I don't end up having to graft large percentages of the bodywork back together!  I am slightly nervous of what those shiny chrome will covers may be hiding!

I really did try not to buy this car...I specifically avoided even going near it the first time I was at the FoD after it arrived there.  I knew I'd wind up asking "how much?" If I did look at it.

Then five minutes later it was put up for sale...and I went and looked at it.  Yep, the result was inevitable really!  

Seems like it should be a good usable classic once sorted out.

[Andyrew]

There should be more info on this car to be found on old forums.  Previous owners etc etc. 

All i recall was it was going for scrap when ian saved it. Due to an annoying misfire i believe. 

@ianbmw may know more. 

[Zelandeth]

28 minutes ago, Andyrew said:

There should be more info on this car to be found on old forums.  Previous owners etc etc. 

All i recall was it was going for scrap when ian saved it. Due to an annoying misfire i believe. 

@ianbmw may know more. 

I do need to do some digging there.  Especially if I'm going to be doing a clutch on it - as I'll need to figure out exactly what's in there.  I know the gearbox is from a Manta, but that's pretty much the extent of my knowledge.  Exactly which year and variant I've not a clue.

 

[dave j]

Looks like a great project. I really like the shape of the mk1 Cavalier.

I think I have a Vauxhall script in the garage, I was tidying up the other day so I know where it is! Will go and check

Edit: yes I have! I think it was off a Chevette about 25 years ago! Let me know if you want it bud 

 

[Zelandeth]

3 hours ago, dave j said:

Looks like a great project. I really like the shape of the mk1 Cavalier.

I think I have a Vauxhall script in the garage, I was tidying up the other day so I know where it is! Will go and check

Edit: yes I have! I think it was off a Chevette about 25 years ago! Let me know if you want it bud 

 

That would be most appreciated!  Imagine that's the sort of thing that getting reinstated will immediately make the car look like far less of a "project" and far more like a complete car.

[RichardK]

Trevi - my Panda had absolutely infuriating running issues.

Turned out to be the wiring on the dizzy body for the hall sensor being eroded and slightly shorting.

Not that it was obvious, and I only found it after grabbing the dizzy cap after fording a stream, while the engine was running...

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, RichardK said:

Trevi - my Panda had absolutely infuriating running issues.

Turned out to be the wiring on the dizzy body for the hall sensor being eroded and slightly shorting.

Not that it was obvious, and I only found it after grabbing the dizzy cap after fording a stream, while the engine was running...

Wouldn't necessarily surprise me if it were something like that.  Really hoping not as getting the distributor out of this thing will be an utter pain.  

Fitting the new ignition module has definitely helped, though it's still not quite right.  Having said that the distributor cap is incredibly badly worn (the contact area on the posts have literally worn out to be C shaped rather than flat) so it's never going to run right with that.  A new cap and rotor arm are on the way...so we'll see what the state of play is then.  At that point the distributor itself is basically the only thing left in the equation, so it would have to come out for inspection.

[4wheeledstool]

I have a decent selection of rubbing strips for Manta + mk1 cavalier. I'll have a look at the weekend for you. I have a couple of sets of VAUXHALL lettering for the rear panel. I don't know if the chevette used the same ones, if the ones offered above don't fit, the ones I have are from early and late Cavalier mk1. (slightly bigger font on late ones)