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

[Zelandeth]

Have been putting it off for long enough...time to get the brake pads changed.  

 

Have to admit to being hugely impressed by this tiny little jack.

 

 

Two aspects.  Firstly is that it lifted something the size and weight of this van effortlessly.  Secondly in that it's cleverly designed so it slots securely around the suspension leaf (or axle tube at the rear).  This also makes the jacking process far less unnerving as you don't need to lift the thing feet into the air - literally about an inch has the tyre clear of the ground.

 

Very glad that I bought the rattle gun...very much doubt I'd have got these wheel nuts out without it...to say they were tight would be a massive understatement.

 

It's pleasing how substantial everything on this is when you're used to working on cars.  Nice to see the discs are obviously pretty decent, no lip at all.

 

 

Let's have a look then and see how the calipers come apart to get the pads out...wait a second...

 

 

...I thought we were dealing with a worn out set of pads.  Not a set that's barely used.

 

Oh well, got a good opportunity to check things over while the wheel is off.  Grease gun was brought in and the kingpin given a good shot of grease (yes I did wipe the excess off before I put the wheel back on).

 

 

Annoyingly I almost immediately spotted more MOT work though.  The track rod end ball joint dust cover is knackered.

 

 

That's one substantial drop link!

 

 

Everything else over this side looks okay to me.  Bit of rust on the brake hose ferrules, but they've got another year or two in them I reckon.  Hoses themselves seem nice and supple still with no perishing.  Can't see anything awry with the wiring to the pad wear sensors in that the wheel arch.

 

Have the hub a good brush down and painted the wheel surface with copper grease as per my usual practice and put things back together.  Then on to the offside wheel.

 

I was slightly worried given the new pads in the nearside but the perpetually flickering brake light on the dash that I would find that someone had only changed the pads on one wheel (wouldn't be the first time I have found that!).

 

 

Thank goodness for that!

 

Gave the kingpin on this side a good dose of grease while I was there too.  This is something which is often neglected on these old Mercs.  The steering should be lovely and light once you're on the move (especially if it's got the correct tyres on) though it's inevitably fairly weighty when parking!  Annoying to hear of people having to do major work due to wear in there for the sake of a 30 second bit of service work!

 

Hey look...another stuffed track rod end.

 

 

Not too bothered about those as track rod ends are hardly going to break the bank.  The other split dust cover however is on the steering linkage from the steering box (I believe drag link is the correct term?) which is rather more annoying as I expect this is rather more expensive.

 

 

This one I actually knew about beforehand so not a huge surprise.  There's a little bit of play in one of the joints as you can hear something very faintly going "dunk dunk dunk..." when you rock the steering.  Can't see where it's coming from but given where that is it's a prime candidate.  Don't *think* it's one of the track rod ends as I can't feel anything in the way of movement at the wheels.

 

Looks like my local Mercedes dealer will be making some money out of me tomorrow then.  Yes I could probably find stuff a bit cheaper on eBay (etc) but the parts desk at our dealer has been really helpful so far.  Plus Mercedes seem to have really good heritage support and I'm more than willing to pay a few quid extra to show that is owners appreciate that.

 

Depending on how time goes I might fit those things myself...though I'd rather get the garage to.  I generally avoid steering and suspension work if I have any choice these days.  I've played the "the ball joint appears to have been welded in place and I've immobilised the car trying to get it out" game enough times to learn that throwing it at someone with a four post lift, serious ball joint splitters and oxy-acytaline on hand is far less stress.  Not too worried about that.

 

This however requires more thought and some time spent with my nose buried in a wiring diagram.

 

 

The pad wear sensors appear fine and the pads have a good 1/3" of friction material on them.  No the fluid isn't low either and the float is floating.  Hmm...time to have a think.

 

Some folks have given me a couple of garages who should be able to do a test on the van so will give them a shout tomorrow.

 

Still finding this quite nice to work on though.  The fasteners are all good quality and most things are nice and chunky, *usually* easy enough to get at too.  There are exceptions of course too...see offside front indicator swap which requires you to remove the headlight - which requires you to remove the radiator grill.

[Redfred]

I really enjoy reading your write ups, particularly these ones on your van. I have a bit of a soft spot for this vintage merc van and it’s great to see the amount of detail you’re willing to go to.

[Daviemck2006]

Could it be that the brake pad warning light is also used for the handbrake on light? If so could it be the switch for it that is goosed giving you the light flickering?

 

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

[Zelandeth]

Could it be that the brake pad warning light is also used for the handbrake on light? If so could it be the switch for it that is goosed giving you the light flickering?

 

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

 

Good call but no.  The light on a Merc T1 is tied into the fluid level sensor and pad wear sensors only.  There is no parking brake light on these vans.  The only other thing which lights it is the self test when the ignition is turned on.

 

I had a sneaking feeling that the issue was going to turn out to be something at the wheels rather than a wiring issue.  The reason for this being that the light could be affected by rocking the steering and would always light when the brakes were applied.

 

The pad wear "sensors* are actually just a bit of wire stuffed into a hole drilled in the pad friction material.  You can see the hole for it in the pad below.

 

 

The way they work is that the light on the dash is always powered, and when the pads wear down far enough the wire touches the disc during braking, completing the circuit to ground so the light comes on.

 

Unusually (at least to me) these sensors are not supplied ready fitted to the pads.  You have to buy those separately and fit them yourself.

 

The hole for the sensor on the OE pads like these is blind, however I have seen "off brand" pads where the hole goes all the way through.  This means that it is possible to push the sensor too far into the pad, to the point that it then sticks out the far side and touches the hub of the disc.  Given the behaviour I was seeing I had a sneaking feeling that something like this was the issue for me based on the behaviour I was seeing.  Quick and easy enough to test though, just unplug each of the sensors in turn.

 

To make sure the light would stay lit until I found the offending sensor I used the old "wedge a bit of wood between the steering wheel and brake pedal" trick.  Also gave me a good opportunity to check the actual brake lights.

 

 

When withdrawing my hand from situating the wood on the pedal I couldn't help but notice that the back of my hand was cold and wet.

 

 

Hmm...blue tinted water.  That's got to be coolant hasn't it... especially given that the prime suspect for an interior coolant leak is in the neighborhood.

 

 

The carpet is bone dry and it hasn't used a drop of coolant since I bought the van...so I'll keep an eye on it.  Naturally I discovered this apparently weeping heater control valve about an hour after I got back from putting an order in for parts with Mercedes.  

 

Speaking of parts...That was an expensive trip.

 

 

All three of the ball joints with split covers needed changing.  Two had some play in and one was really notchy (that will be the occasional cream from the steering then).  

 

The track rod ends would be £48 each, but the entire steering tie rod (which comes with two track rod ends as an assembly) is £132.  Given how disinterested I am expecting the track rod ends to be after 29 years, saving me from having to mess with that nonsense is worth a few quid.

 

Likewise the whole steering drag link was £102 which was pocket change more than the two ball joint sections.

 

The other plus of this is it will mean I can get the old ones (hopefully!) off the van without messing up the steering geometry so I can measure up the new ones to identical settings before fitting - again, should save me a bit of time.

 

 

The one concerning thing today at Mercedes though was that their parts desk has been told that strictly speaking they really shouldn't be selling parts to me because it's a van.  I should instead be directed to a commercial vehicle specialist down the road. 

I've tried to buy parts from them before, however they made it quite clear that because it was registered as a motor caravan rather than a goods vehicle their system couldn't look up parts for it.  Oh, and they didn't want my business anyway as private individuals are "too much trouble" which really gave a good impression.  Nor did their comment about how daft I was to be expecting a commercial vehicle specialist to have parts for an ancient camper.

 

One of the big perks of having this van so far has been the incredible parts support from Mercedes...will be really disappointing if that ceases to be possible down to some manager meddling with things... Especially as the staff actually on the parts desk really do want to help and seem to know their stuff.

[Zelandeth]

Assuming that Parcel Force don't foul up this delivery (they have managed to mess up all three this month so far so I'm not holding my breath), my new exhaust for the van should be here tomorrow.

 

Got slightly sidetracked today by another project while it was raining. Another one of those things spotted at the side of the road which I had decided required investigation before it was either rescued or getting put in the electrical equipment bin at the recycling centre (rather than dumped at the side of the road).

 

It had actually been forgotten about in the boot of the Activa for a couple of weeks. I had clocked that it was A: an audio amplifier of some sort and B: that it weighed a tonne. That was as far as my observations at the time had gone when I tossed it (with difficulty) into the boot.

 

First look today revealed is to be a rather more businesslike amp than anything else I've had. It's a Spectra 90/D power amplifier...400W stereo or 800W bridged...

 

Let's have a look shall we. I'd already got the (seriously scruffy) cover off by this point while I was checking for any signs of damage or distress.

 

 

No obvious signs of the magic smoke having escaped, though I wasn't really expecting much to be honest. Most amplifiers like these usually have a plethora of protection circuits that usually prevent major meltdowns unless it's something blindingly obvious like the mains transformer having overheated. Usually if something has gone awry you'll just find that one channel is shut down or the whole thing will refuse to power up. This can actually make fault finding an absolute nightmare sometimes as they will often trip out before you can get any useful readings.

 

Couldn't see anything amiss. It was quite dusty in the case (as is pretty inevitable it seems for any electronic equipment with a fan in) but not too badly really. No signs of any overheating anywhere, no signs of water ingress (despite the case being quite rusty on the surface) or anything like that.

 

The only signs of trouble I could see were that the volume control pot for channel 1 had become detached from the front panel (sorted by doing the nut on the spindle back up) and that the nut holding the wire on to one of the speaker output posts had come off. This was found rattling around in the case and was reattached.

 

Was a dead channel due to that nut having come off the reason it had been binned? Well only one way to find out. Plug it in and see what happens!

 

Okay, not quite. A couple of sanity checks were done - checked the earth bonding was good and checked there was no leakage to earth with the Megger. All seemed good.

 

Turning it on resulted in an almighty "thud" from the huge toroidal mains transformer (I don't want to know what the inrush current is - the 40,000uF of smoothing caps probably have something to do with it), the fans starting up nicely and after a second or so a couple of relays clicking purposefully.

 

 

While I had it powered up this gave me an opportunity to check that there was no DC present across the speaker terminals (that's a quick way to kill speakers). Absolutely nothing according to either analogue or digital meters...this is good.

 

Couple of lights to tell me it's alive but that's about it. I took that opportunity to take it outside to blast as much of the dust out as I could. It's a substantial bit of kit...

 

 

I needed an audio source and some speakers. Specifically I needed some speakers I didn't care about in case there was a fault present that resulted in them being blown into the next county.

 

Conveniently I remembered having bought a set of speakers something like ten years ago for a project I had never got around to doing...not exactly hifi but they'll prove if it works or not.

 

 

The input is via either 1/4" jack's or XLR plugs. I'll just go grab some connectors from Mapl...oh. No I won't because they don't exist any more. Great! Amazon it will be then. In the meantime I came up with a truly diabolically dodgy aux cable adaptor to plug an iPod in.

 

 

 

Horrible hack. This is all signal level stuff though so there aren't any safety issues at least.

 

Let's stuff some audio in and see what happens.

 

 

It appears to work absolutely perfectly. Obviously it's barely ticking over here driving a pair of speakers rated to 70W RMS/120W peak at volumes limited so my ears don't bleed, but it played happily for a couple of hours.

 

The case however was a mess.

 

 

I didn't bother doing anything about this earlier as it seemed daft to spend time on it in case it turned out to be a very heavy door stop.

 

Now it's proven to be working it seemed worth tidying it up a bit.

 

Hit it with the carbide mop...

 

 

Nice fresh coat of hammered black paint.

 

 

All back together, looks rather nicer I think.

 

 

Never ceases to amaze me what people throw out! This took all of two minutes to fix, and half of that was opening the case.

 

Now I need to find some speakers to go with it, then we can really rattle some windows...

[Redfred]

That’s a beastie!

[PhilA]

Yup. The rather nice McIntosh I have in the living room appears to have been thrown because the bridging pins for the preamp to power amp were missing, resulting in zero sound...

 

Same fate, upside down on a pile of junk at the side of the street.

 

Phil

[Zelandeth]

I'm shocked...Parcel Force actually managed to deliver a parcel!

 

 

Now to find out if it fits.  Any bets?

 

Feels pretty cheap...but it was pretty cheap so I'm hardly surprised.  It doesn't need to last forever at least.  So long as it gets me through the MOT and a few months of use I will be happy.

[bezzabsa]

I keep looking at the AC and all I can see is a 1960/70's Moggie minor panda car in blue & white....need some POLICE signs for the door and a blue light for the roof..

[Zelandeth]

Having a closer look before I venture outside to fit this.

 

 

The downpipe is definitely different to the one currently on the van.  This is annoying as I was kind of hoping to avoid having to convince that to part company with the manifold.

 

The slip joints are also really quite tight, so will need to spread those a bit so they aren't an utter pain to assemble when crawling around under the van.

 

This is why it pays to check stuff like that.  It's far easier to discover that now and prep the parts than find they do not fit together cleanly when trying to assemble them.

[LightBulbFun]

I keep looking at the AC and all I can see is a 1960/70's Moggie minor panda car in blue & white....need some POLICE signs for the door and a blue light for the roof..

 

your not the first person to point that with TPA

 

 

I imagine especially with a 650cc engine, a Model 70 prolly would not make for a bad first responder type vehicle 

[Zelandeth]

This morning (astonishingly, exactly when it was meant to) a very large, heavy cardboard box arrived.

 

 

Now I've been here before, so made a point of assembling everything on the floor before going anywhere near the vehicle.  Especially on bargain basement eBay specials like this.

 

 

This showed a few things.  Firstly that the downpipe is indeed different to the one on the van.  A little annoying as I was kind of hoping to avoid touching that based on the pain and suffering I've been through trying to get downpipes separated from manifolds in the past.  Secondly was that the slip joints were really tight so would definitely need spreading out a bit before putting them together.  That's definitely something I was glad to discover inside rather than while trying to slot things together on the van.

 

Well let's make a start then.  First contact with the enemy...

 

 

Astonishingly, five minutes later this was in front of me.

 

 

The bolts just...unbolted.  No heat, no power tools, no fuss.  I'm slightly baffled by the concept of a downpipe to manifold joint coming apart without hassle!  Not going to complain though.

 

A large amount of faffing around then ensued while I figured out which hangers went where (as this system is a significantly different layout to the one which came off), figured out exactly what order I needed to put things together in, and battered things with a 4lb lump hammer to correct a couple of bend angles.  

 

Pretty much what I expected from a cheap exhaust to be honest...three hours of *making* it fit followed by twenty minutes actually putting it together.

 

Eventually we got there.

 

 

Had to alter the tailpipe to sit a little lower on account of the grey water tank.  Just need to get a bracket put together for the last hanger there...had hoped I could do without it (the system is plenty well supported) but the tailpipe vibrates and buzzes like mad at idle, so it's needed to help damp that vibration.

 

Starting it up astonishingly revealed it to both be gas tight and to not be touching and buzzing against anything.  Was rather surprised though when I touched the throttle and was presented with a very throaty exhaust note.  I have a sneaking suspicion that this bargain basement silencer doesn't actually contain any baffles.

 

This is the kind of observation which is worthless without evidence isn't it...

 

[Youtube]

 

Not that I'm complaining...that's a nice noise I think...one straight out of a few decades ago.

 

Yes she's a bit smokey, hasn't left the driveway since October so she needs a good run.  Usually runs clean as a whistle.

 

Thankfully it's not boomy as that would get annoying in a real hurry I reckon on a long trip.  I'll be curious to see how it actually sounds on the move though.  Obviously that will have to wait until the trip to the MOT station as it's currently out of test so I can't exactly go out for a quick test run.

 

Wasn't actually that hard to fit really.  Bit annoying that the fit needed a little "gentle persuasion" but not really surprising at this price point, and I don't think I've ever fitted an exhaust that was anything less than maddeningly awkward.  Well...save for the one on my lawn mower maybe.

 

Feel confident enough to get it in for a test now, was a bit worried that the remains of the exhaust would wind up going through somebody's windscreen before.  Plus a shiny new exhaust should hopefully show the tester I'm actually willing to put some work in to looking after the van...the invoice for £300 worth of genuine parts for the known fail items should give a decent impression too I'd hope.

[LightBulbFun]

Cool stuff

 

it will be interesting to see if the van performs any better with the new exhaust seeing as you suspected the old one had collapsed internally somewhat, and the fact the new one is missing baffles which probably helps with flow

 

 

"I don't think I've ever fitted an exhaust that was anything less than maddeningly awkward."

 

what about the exhaust on the invacar? that looks pretty damn simple   (to fit and remove anyway, actual construction inside is another matter!)

[PhilA]

Sounds like a Bosal.

 

I bought an exhaust for my Bluebird from them. It was cheap, it fitted and sounded pretty much like that. For a diesel, that's an impressive exhaust note. I'll wager you'll feel an improvement in torque, it resonates nicely up in the middle of the range there.

 

Looks to have been worth the investment and hassle.

 

Phil

[Zelandeth]

Cool stuff

 

it will be interesting to see if the van performs any better with the new exhaust seeing as you suspected the old one had collapsed internally somewhat, and the fact the new one is missing baffles which probably helps with flow

 

 

"I don't think I've ever fitted an exhaust that was anything less than maddeningly awkward."

 

what about the exhaust on the invacar? that looks pretty damn simple (to fit and remove anyway, actual construction inside is another matter!)

The Invacar one isn't too bad - though initially getting it off was a slight challenge as the bolts were tighter than you would think humanly possible.

 

Performance wise there's definitely an improvement - just blipping the throttle like that there's a huge difference in how it picks up compared to how things were with the old exhaust on there. How big a difference that will actually translate into on the road will remain to be seen.

 

Sounds like a Bosal.

 

I bought an exhaust for my Bluebird from them. It was cheap, it fitted and sounded pretty much like that. For a diesel, that's an impressive exhaust note. I'll wager you'll feel an improvement in torque, it resonates nicely up in the middle of the range there.

 

Looks to have been worth the investment and hassle.

 

Phil

I was quite surprised at the result...that much of a throaty rasp doesn't really match the visual image presented by the van does it. The sort of noise which will tend to make people who like cars perk their ears up and look for the source of that's for sure...

[PhilA]

Does mean it has a moderately aggressive cam*, which is really surprising.

 

Phil

 

 

 

 

*For a diesel

[Zelandeth]

Does mean it has a moderately aggressive cam*, which is really surprising.

 

Phil

*For a diesel

 

Have to admit I don't really know one camshaft from another...but this is what the one in here looks like.

 

 

Snapped back when I was replacing the cam cover seal.

[captain_70s]

New exhaust sounds alarmingly similar to a Dolomite 1300 running just a downpipe...

 

[mk2_craig]

I must say this thread has made great reading lately. Particularly liked the amplifier being resurrected story.

[Zelandeth]

Just had a call from Mercedes saying my parts have arrived. MOT is booked for this afternoon at 1500 so hopefully I'll have a definitive to do list today.

[dozeydustman]

Good luck with the MoT

[bangernomics]

Good luck

[captain_70s]

Fingers crossed, chap!

[Zelandeth]

Now at the testing station.

 

It's one that does mostly commercial stuff so a far cry from my usual independent little garage where I'm involved in half the test...just sitting in a corner and waiting feels extremely odd.

 

Know it will fail on the ball joints (new ones are sitting in the luggage compartment) but just praying that nothing else serious turns up.

[LightBulbFun]

Dont worry you can get pay back by taking the invacar for an MOT

 

 

shames it not a Mk12 in this case, id love to see the MOT man figure out how to control/drive one of those 

[Sir Snipes]

It'll probably quieten down over time.

[Noel Tidybeard]

the zorst will prolly alter in tone after a good coating of soot

[Zelandeth]

That could have been a lot worse.

Failed on 2x TREs and drag link ball joint obviously. Also the prop shaft CV boot which was known but forgotten about going into the test, rear brake imbalance, high nearside headlamp aim and missing rear reflectors.

The missing reflectors is an odd one as they're integral to the tail light lenses...don't want to be seen as arguing with the tester...but sorry mate you're wrong there. The tail lights are configured right now exactly as they left the Mercedes factory.

 

Propshaft CV boot is a simple fix, tester confirmed that quickest way is to just unbolt the centre bearing carrier and lower the propshaft until the slip joint separates.

Rear brake imbalance...blarg. The garage can have that one to sort. I'm not faffing with brakes against the clock. Especially as I seem to remember the self adjuster on these being fiendishly complicated.

Headlight aim, fair enough. I fitted a new light a couple of days back and hadn't even looked at the aim so far (it's on the to do list for the weekend).

I'll do the propshaft CV boot, headlight aim, probably stick on a couple of trailer reflectors as it's easier than arguing with the tester, and will give the ball joints the opportunity to come apart. If they do I'll swap them, if they put up any fight though the garage can do it on Monday.

Looks like we've got a reasonable chance of being ready for Thursday.

The exhaust is frankly hilarious. It's a real proper old school "BraaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAmmmm..." Through each gear just now...

 

[Saabnut]

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.

[SiC]

Break the triangle in half then stick it on with 3M Command adhesive strip. When you come to pull it off after the MOT is complete, it shouldn't leave a mark.