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

[Six-cylinder]

17 hours ago, Christine said:

China can make good tyres now ..

I hope so I have just ordered 4 Landsails for the AX. B rated in wet.

[Zelandeth]

5 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Is a T rated tyre not 118 mph max speed?

Yep.  It should be wearing V or W rated tyres really - need to double check which between those it is.  Not that she will ever be travelling that fast...while I haven't checked with my current one, my previous insurer insisted on the tyres being speed rated as per when it left the factory.  This was really annoying as it basically doubled the price of the tyres I bought for my first Xantia.

Landsails aren't anything special but what I've heard they seem to be a perfectly acceptable "normal" tyre really.  Nothing special but they're not going to kill you the first time you encounter a corner.

[Zelandeth]

6 hours ago, PhilA said:

You need to replace the trip computer with something a little more appropriate. Like this. See, same buttons.

 

Phil

I want to play with that...What is it?  Echoes of a huge DMX processor I got to play with once...

[SiC]

That looks like some sort of ISDN type or digital over POTS, etc like tester. 

[PhilA]

It's a TBerd 225 T1/E1 digital loop tester.

https://www.atecorp.com/atecorp/media/pdfs/data-sheets/ttc-224_brochure.pdf

Phil

[Broadsword]

On the tyres front it is an interesting one. That particular size is something you would find on a van these days. Plenty of options there, but the moment you specify the correct load and speed ratings, suddenly there are very few options. I was going to recommend Nankangs as a sort of good compromise. My XJR6 is happy on them.

[Zelandeth]

Going to see what Formula 1 can offer.  Nankangs are on my possibility list definitely if they're available in the right size, a few folks have name dropped them so definitely will be considered.

If I do go down the specialist route, I've now added an additional possibility to the list as Vintage Tyres have Avon TurboSteels at the same sort of price as those mentioned yesterday...and those are kinda the go to choice for the likes of Rollers...and they'd definitely look the part.

https://www.vintagetyres.com/shop/tyres/avon-turbosteel-cr28-205-70r15-95v

Plus I've used them before and was really impressed with the service.

Will see what F1 come back with and go from there.

[Zelandeth]

As mentioned previously elsewhere there was definite evidence of uneven tyre wear on the Jag.

Offside front:

Nearside front:

Not as dramatic, but it's still definitely worn on the inner edge.  Also evidence of chunking in a few spots...these tyres need to be binned now.

Rears have plenty of tread left at least and there's no signs of any damage to the tread surface or perishing.

Offside:

Nearside:

They still are only marginally more grippy in the wet than aerospace grade teflon however so aren't long for this world.

The steering wheel being off straight (which made indicating right a perpetual fight with the auto cancelling mechanism) and the fact that the car tramlines horribly on uneven surfaces (especially under braking) further suggested to me that the wheel alignment needed help.

Being a regular in the garage they were perfectly happy for me to have a wander around while they sorted the tracking.  This was useful as it allowed me to confirm where the exhaust is touching the body.

That silencer is the guilty party.  It's about 1/8" away from the heat shield above it and any movement in the system makes it make contact.  As the tailpipe on that side sits a good 1" higher than the other side I reckon the rear hanger needs a tweak to just drop that whole lot a little.

I was also able to see that the rear gearbox mount looks almost brand new, so with a bit of luck I can not worry about changing that for a while.

The end result:

Front toe adjustment is all we're interested here (everything else involves swapping shims I believe anyway).  Annoyingly I forgot to get a snap of the readings before we started.

Straight ahead is now indeed straight ahead.

The disconcerting fidgety sensation has now left us which is nice. It was particularly bad before when you went over the white line while changing lanes on the dual carriageway for example.  Plus she now brakes in a straight line which is nice.  That required nearly Lada levels of correction when braking from speed before.  Hard to tell if it's just in my head, but it feels like it's now rolling more freely too...wonder if that will translate to any additional MPG...probably not!

A small adjustment which took maybe 20 minutes, but it's made the car a lot more pleasant to drive.

[Broadsword]

It’s going to be mega with real tyres on it! Also it’s unbelievably clean underneath.

[richardmorris]

10 minutes ago, Broadsword said:

It’s going to be mega with real tyres on it! Also it’s unbelievably clean underneath.

Better than my Mercedes underneath certainly.

[Noel Tidybeard]

nankangs? no, no, no, no, no, no!

[Zelandeth]

23 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

nankangs? no, no, no, no, no, no!

To be honest I'm tending towards the Pirellis at this point.  They're the correct original fitment for the car after all.

[Saabnut]

Not sure if they make the size you want, but my Astro van and my X308 Jag are both on Goodrides. I find them pretty horrible on small light cars but very good on heavy cars, to the extent I look for hem when buying for a heavy car. Cheap too.

[Daviemck2006]

I see Vredestien classic on camskill Zel, which is a nice looking tyre for the age of the jag. I remember having them on a sd1 rover I once owned and was impressed with them. £186 each though!

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

[Zelandeth]

There is something very satisfying about sitting in the warm, cozy back of a camper while the weather goes absolutely mental outside to the extent that the rain is running *up* the outside of the rear window rather than down.

Only popped out to make sure it was staying dry inside and to tidy up a bit of stuff from the worktop that I'd been using as a workbench earlier in the week.

Of course I then lay down on the sofa to watch the weather for five minutes and woke up an hour and a half later...oops.

[Andyrew]

Blimey

 Hard to believe they are the same size tyres as my other halfs Jimny. They look so much smaller on the jag. 

With that in mind. . .

 

 You said you wanted more grip. 

[Zelandeth]

More tread does not necessarily equal more grip on tarmac!  Rather suspect that might struggle with the speed rating too...should last well while doing donuts though with all that tread to burn through...

[LightBulbFun]

amusingly a couple weeks ago I was talking to the owner of MPH759P and he jokingly mentioned how he was thinking of fitting a set of such off road style tyres to his Model 70! (obviously much smaller in size!)

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

amusingly a couple weeks ago I was talking to the owner of MPH759P and he jokingly mentioned how he was thinking of fitting a set of such off road style tyres to his Model 70! (obviously much smaller in size!)

Hope they don't ever want to go over 30mph...chunky tyres like that have a lot heavier rolling resistance than the normal ones, with so limited power that will be really noticeable!

[LightBulbFun]

7 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Hope they don't ever want to go over 30mph...chunky tyres like that have a lot heavier rolling resistance than the normal ones, with so limited power that will be really noticeable!

yeah! I just recommended he go with Camac BN313s! and to keep things stock

(especially as at first I thought he was planning on changing his wheels, so I told him at least keep the front wheel stock, as if you put a different wheel on the front and get the offset wrong, well your front wheel aint going to be on the center line anymore and gawd knows what that would do to the handling LOL)

as for speed he has had 65 (on stock tyres obviously) out of his, not bad going  (although I don't know the circumstances ie if that was all his Model 70 had to give, or all his nerves had to give!) he says it drives really well and he and his is girl friend go out in on the weekends, at least during summer when the lack of a functioning heater is not an issue, so much for "passenger carrying is forbidden"! (he does at least have a bench seat fitted LOL)

[Zelandeth]

Today when I got into the Jag and went to leave the drive it decanted a not insignificant amount of extremely cold water all over my feet.

I do believe I can see where it's coming in (or at least some of it).

I suspect that there's probably some gunk in the scuttle drains too, so will look to get that checked out too.

[Zelandeth]

Now things have dried up there's a clear mark where water has run down over the windscreen seal.

This tends to make me think that the water has found its way in between the glass and the seal rather than the seal and the windscreen surround at least.  It's only a theory at this stage though.

Some of this stuff was deployed to hopefully find and seal the leak.

It's been years since I last used this stuff but I'm sure it's become more unruly... really struggled to get a small enough amount out of the bottle.  Maybe I've just become more clumsy, or the smaller bottles are just easier to manage.

While I had it out I also gave the windscreen seal on the Invacar a going over with it.  That's been about 90% watertight since I did some work on the seals but still leaked a little so hopefully this will help.

Next on my agenda was to see if there was anything I could do to silence the nearside exhaust.  My first port of call was to loosen the joins on either side of the rear silencer and rotate it a bit to try to get a little more clearance.  The hanger is attached to the outlet on the silencer body so this gives effectively about 3/4" movement either way.  While this has helped, it's not totally resolved it.  So I'll need to pull the silencer off and see if I can "convince" the hanger to give me a bit of extra reach.

While I was down by that corner though I did spot something else needing attention.

I have a sneaking suspicion that if I start poking here I'll end up with a not insignificant hole.  To be fair it shouldn't be the end of the world to sort and it was inevitable I'd find a hole somewhere in a 35 year old Jag so I'm not hugely surprised.

Not faffing around with metalwork at this time of the year but I'll look to drown the area in Vactan etc in the near future to try to halt any further degradation in the near future.

Will I be able to resist the temptation of seeing what she sounds like without the rear silencers given I need to remove the one to mess with the hanger?  Not a chance!

[Zelandeth]

Nope...not sorted.  The windscreen is still leaking.

[LightBulbFun]

saw your most recent post on microcar world @Zelandeth and it got me wondering

AFAIK the Hub on a Model 70 is a normal Fiat 500 (126?) hub just drilled for 4x4 inch PCD, and I was wondering, could you just get a normal Fiat hub then and send that off for machining?, which means you don't have to remove the existing hub, keeping TPA mobile

I would imagine Fiat 500 bits would be relatively plentiful? 

(nice to see TPA again btw ) 

[Zelandeth]

Believe it's actually a 126 hub, and I did look briefly back in September but was struggling to find one at a sane price. Especially not being 100% sure it was the right part, and that I need to factor in the cost of getting it machined.

Might be worth my having another dig around now I guess.

[LightBulbFun]

40 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Believe it's actually a 126 hub, and I did look briefly back in September but was struggling to find one at a sane price. Especially not being 100% sure it was the right part, and that I need to factor in the cost of getting it machined.

Might be worth my having another dig around now I guess.

would of thought it would have been cheap enough to get a hub from poland or something such where they are still plentiful thats a shame

 

thats interesting that its a Fiat 126 part, its like the story of the Rear lights all over again!, since the Model 70 started production in June 1971 or so but from what I can tell production of the Fiat 126 only started in 1972 some time I think?

are fiat 500/126 hubs interchangeable? Perhaps the earliest Model 70's used Fiat 500 hubs, but the parts list does not mention anything, however if the newer parts where compatible with the old then it would have no need to mention anything

however the Hubs are listed as having technical service drawing (TSD) numbers 2014 and 2015 which would date them to 1970 sometime I think, so go figure!

 

 

but on the note on of the hub, since the stud has already snapped off in there etc, have you thought about seeing if you can carefully drill out the remains of the stud at home?, given you dont really have anything to lose so to speak? 

[Zelandeth]

3 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

would of thought it would have been cheap enough to get a hub from poland or something such where they are still plentiful thats a shame

 

but on the note on of the hub, since the stud has already snapped off in there etc, have you thought about seeing if you can carefully drill out the remains of the stud at home?, given you dont really have anything to lose so to speak? 

The issue with shipping in from abroad is that while it's not a huge assembly it's not light either.  So shipping usually wound up costing a fair chunk of the item cost again.  Again, it's been a while since I looked.  Things may have changed in the interrim as things do seem to go in cycles with regards to spares availability.

The existing stud has been removed, though sadly not without damage to the surrounding threads (it's a job which really needed to be done with the hub on the workbench to do it right (ideally with a pillar drill), not standing on my head in the garage).  So basically that hole needs to be welded up or sleeved and re-drilled.  I did try really hard to keep everything lined up while the work was done apparently without success.

[Zelandeth]

Nothing car related to report today.  Not least because I spent my entire afternoon pretty much fixing damage from the last couple of storms.  I'd decided not to bother until they had both passed through as buying two rounds of panels would be annoying...plus I had visions of me disappearing towards Norway if trying to fit them while it was still windy.

Only one of these actually blew down, but the adjacent two were utterly rotten around the base so I just took the opportunity to replace them.

Really really wish the previous owner had not painted everything black.

The furthest panel annoyingly isn't a standard size and is in fact 5' 3 1/4" wide.  So I had to do a bit of chopping and rebuilding to make that fit.

Just got one smaller panel to do in the other garden tomorrow.

Then paint everything to match once it's dry enough.

Edit: final panel is now also in place.

Those trees (which belong to the Council) have been trimmed back now so they don't batter the new fence to splinters the first time it's windy again.

Yes...the previous owner here even painted the brick wall black.  She was "special."

[Zelandeth]

Hopefully I might actually be able to look at the cars next week now I've got the immediate house stuff out the way.  Today was ticking off a few things relating to the rainwater drain from the conservatory roof.

The roof drains into a central channel which then decants into a hidden drain above the front door.  This regularly collects all manner of organic matter and needs clearing out at least three or four times a year.  It was last done just before Halloween and we had plants about a foot tall growing out of it again.

Plus the storms last week had managed to get under the flashing and pull it away.

The previous owners never having cleaned it out I suspect has contributed to us now needing to also get the last foot or so of the beams there replaced.  Thankfully that section isn't holding the weight of the roof, that's done several feet behind the wall.  We're hoping to get that sorted this spring/summer along with some other work on the roof, having finally got a response from a scaffolding provider.

Before:

I've heard of green roofs, but this is ridiculous.

Those flashes of orange by the way, that's the original colour of the framework...oh how I wish the previous owner hadn't painted it black...the vivid orange would look so much better!  The panels above the roof are teak under that black stain as well.

After:

Just a little plant matter removed.

Most of the greenery has actually landed in the planter to the right of the door so there's actually a bit more there than it looks like.

Hopefully this will make it easier to get in and out of the house without getting drenched this week with the rain that's forecast.

Just had our annual mortgage statement through too...depressing seeing it's still going to be 17 years before we own the place outright.  Though I can see us moving again before then to be honest... we're struggling for space here a bit to be honest.  For all this house had quite a decent amount of floor space  in terms of total square footage it lacks decent storage options and that number is inflated a bit by the conservatory which is really only useful in spring and autumn.  Plus the layout means quite a bit of space downstairs isn't actually useful.  For instance the staircase manages to essentially render a 12' triangle of space wasted because you need space to walk around it.  If they'd positioned it close to the wall on either side rather than smack in the middle it would have made way more sense.  It *looks* cool making a feature out of it (I guess this makes sense given this house was intended as a show piece somewhat), but doesn't make much sense practically speaking.  The gardens to be honest are a liability as well given that nobody in our family has even a passing interest in gardening... I'm happy to mow grass and trim hedges etc...but beyond that I have little patience.

Plus we'd all like to be an order of magnitude further away from the school than we are as living virtually next door to it is an utter nuisance.

 

[Zelandeth]

Not much but I did get a bit of tinkering time today.

One thing I'd been wanting to do was to make a list of which coolant hoses I need to order in for the Jag.  Looks like most are just fine, though the lower radiator hose, cross pipe bleed line and left top hose want changing as the braiding has obviously failed or stretched.

Access to get to the lower one looks lovely...can barely even see it much less touch it!

New air filter went in.  Old ones clearly haven't done many miles though based on the only fingerprints on them have been in and out a fair few times.

I've tweaked the tailpipe trims a bit.  Turns out that when they had the stainless system fitted that the then owner retained the standard chromed swan neck tailpipes.  These don't properly line up with the rear silencers, so are pointing skyward.

This is suboptimal as it means the silencer fills up with water whenever it rains and then barfs it all over the place when the engine is next started - not helped by me usually parking facing downhill. 

There's no position possible where they're pointing nice and straight out the back of the car, so I've opted for a downward tilt for now...at least it should help keep rain out of the system.

I'll come up with a better long term solution in due course but this should keep the rain out for now at least.

Finally made a start on sorting out the trim on the doors.  This requires the door card to be removed to access the mounting screws.  Technically you could probably do it without totally removing the door card, but as I needed to change the speaker and reinstate the missing weather sheet it just made sense to pull it.

Like so.

It should be noted that if you're doing this that it's essential to reinstate the striker plate for the interior light switch or to pull the respective fuse - or the interior lights will stay on and flatten your battery.

The degree to which the damp has got to the back of the card is quite visible.

Changing the speaker took all of about five minutes...and really isn't exciting so I haven't snapped many photos of that.  About the only point of note was that I had to add a little bracing on account of the door card having the structural integrity of a soggy teabag in a couple of places.

Pretty it isn't, but it works and will be hidden behind the door card once it's refitted to the car.  The label on the speaker is upside-down by the way, the text visible from the other side is the correct way up.  Looks better than the eye searing bright red things that were in here (and were both knackered due to water ingress).

With the speaker done I could turn my attention to the trim.

Really not a pretty sight.

The lacquer on here which wasn't just flaking off turned out to be a lot more firmly attached than it had been to the dash trims so it took a good hour or so of picking and scraping to get it all off.

Then after a quick run down with some fine sandpaper to get rid of the last few tiny bits I'd inevitably have missed...

First coat is now on and dry, will see how many I can fit in tomorrow.

Given you could barely even see the inlay before this looks masses better already I think.