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

[Zelandeth]

Not actually much else Merc specific on the shopping list just now.  Knob for the driver's seat adjuster, but other than that it's mostly body panels on the long term list...Stuff the dealer can help with tends to be the random stuff I need unexpectedly...which I can get from eBay etc, just not so quickly...and then there's the fact that 50% of the stuff on eBay seems to be improperly labelled cheese from China these days.  At least getting stuff from Merc directly means it's 90% likely to be correct (they did give me the wrong fan belt so they're not infallible) and of decent quality.

Plus there was just the service.  When I was after a replacement for the cracked lens for the warning light on the dash for the indicators they were massively apologetic that they'd have to order it in from Germany and it would be a day or two.  Aside from the last trip when we had the issues they've always been unbelievably helpful and polite.  Even then to be honest I couldn't fault the guy I was speaking to, he was just doing what his bosses had ordered him to.

Probably not going to buy new parts here just yet thinking about it - there's going to be a big bill coming in for the Xantia shortly (wouldn't surprise me if we're hovering around the one grand mark once all is said and done) and there's going to be a cost involved when the wheel studs for the Invacar are made.  No idea how much at this stage, but I'm budgeting around £150-200 in my head. 

The passenger window on the van isn't really a priority in relative terms now it's not rattling and is firmly closed.  It can wait until the spring if need be, when yes I'll definitely want it opening of course.

[Zelandeth]

Nothing really car related in this post I'm afraid.  Nothing much been going on with them since the last update.

So this afternoon I was cut off in mid sentence by our beloved RCD tripping out yet again.  This has become an almost daily occurrence over the last couple of weeks, so figuring out what the heck was taking it out was high on my to do list.  It was nothing obvious from a quick run round the house...so it was a matter of unplugging EVERYTHING and testing everything individually with the Megger and pray that eventually I find a suspect.

Well, I wouldn't have called this one...

Yeah...Roughly 0.75 Meg leakage from live to ground would do it.  Bit of math suggests that would equate to 33mA of leakage.  The rated trip current for the RCD is 35mA.

I expected a little bit of leakage to be apparent on these surge protected strips...but not that much!  At least it's something cheaply replaceable.

Annoyingly, this strip while being a cheap thing to replace, was buried deep down the back of the bank of machines hosting my server and little distributed computing cluster...and getting to it meant hauling the whole lot out.  Of course this then meant it would have been daft not to tidy things up while I was at it, given that several machines have been switched and swapped since I last had the corner in bits.

So I took the whole lot apart and rebuilt things.

The monitor is mainly there for the benefit of the tower down on the floor as it is frequently cranky about booting and requires me to poke it to get it to start (and is to be honest probably one failure away from the scrap pile).  The rest are pretty much exclusively managed over the network.  The electric heater is pretty much just something to keep the laptops off the floor too...no heating is really needed in there these days - the computers do a pretty good job of that.

Just after I was finishing that up the postie arrived with a package for me.

What on Earth?  An eBay seller actually packaging things properly...I might die of shock.

This should be a nice little addition to the garage workbench.

Only a relatively little three litre one - but an order of magnitude better than the 0.6l one I already had.  Should be big enough to clean most stuff that's sensitive enough to need it, just might need to do it in a few steps.  I might look to upgrade to a 15 litre one at some point a few years down the line once everything is properly set up if I find myself tinkering more with old engines, but this will be really useful in the meantime.

Have only given it a really quick test in the kitchen to prove that it actually works.  It does, and is plainly massively more powerful than the old one (which in fairness is really intended for jewellery etc rather than use in the garage).  Look forward to giving it a proper test run in due course.

[Zelandeth]

So the Lada was dragged out from under the tree yesterday.  Figure if I'm trying to sell the thing, looking like this isn't really helpful...

I'd abandoned it over there and basically forgotten about it for a couple of months after I had a member of the public who knocked on the door having seen the for sale sign turned ridiculously aggressive when I wouldn't accept his offer of £250 with the new wings fitted and painted. 

It obviously isn't going to just miraculously sell itself...so time to tidy it up.  It's due an MOT anyhow, so I want it to be tidy when it turns up at the garage.

After a couple of hours it had been thoroughly de-treed.

Now clean, but the paint is as dull as a documentary about the history of the colour grey.

Yuck.

Had to give the engine bay a going over too as the scuttle drains were unsurprisingly full of tree.

The interior at least isn't bad...just wants a few bits of rubbish removed, a vacuum and the plastics given a wipe down.

This afternoon I decided to continue with the tidying and attacked it with the machine polisher.

I knew from prior experience that the paint on these cars despite being cheap, actually comes up pretty well. 

Yep...takes a nice shine.

Still needs the fiddly bits I can't get into with the power polisher around the mirrors etc doing by hand and then to be drowned in as much wax as I can make stick to it.  That might be tomorrow's task if time and the weather co-operate.

Last task for the evening was a bit of IT wrangling.  Our household makes quite a bit of use of a digital "vault" on which pretty much every movie, piece of music etc has been backed up on.  This then can be accessed over our local network by anything anywhere in the house.  However the drive involved has been getting close to full lately...and there was no easy way to add another one as the drive was simply hooked up to the USB port on our wireless access point.  This also make file management rather clunky. 

Recently two old HP servers were added to my network, and it made sense to me to utilise one of these, as they're up and running 24/7 anyhow running distributed computing research clients. 

These are really tidy little machines...hard to believe these are from 2007.  Especially being so clean.

The lower hard drive is the one I've just added which has our media archive on...need to track down a right angled SATA cable (I've got one somewhere) as aside from being miles too long it means I can't refit the side panel at the moment.

Glad to report that despite all my previous attempts ending in abject failure, setting up the DLNA server this time worked first try.

Edited October 21, 2019 by Zelandeth
Correcting autocorrect

[Zelandeth]

Well that's a pickle.

The fabricator has been back in touch, having examined the Invacar wheel stud I had sent over.  They reckon that the treads have been roll formed for strength, a process they don't have the tools for.  Not do they know of anyone who produces custom studs of that type.

So next steps?  Find some 3/8" UNF bolts in high tensile (8.8 being appropriate if I remember right) steel, using the original nuts essentially as conical washers to seat the wheel right?

Unless anyone has any other brainwaves I reckon that or drilling and tapping the existing holes out to M12x1.25 to accept metric bolts are the only really practical choices.

Thoughts people?

[LightBulbFun]

40 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Well that's a pickle.

The fabricator has been back in touch, having examined the Invacar wheel stud I had sent over.  They reckon that the treads have been roll formed for strength, a process they don't have the tools for.  Not do they know of anyone who produces custom studs of that type.

So next steps?  Find some 3/8" UNF bolts in high tensile (8.8 being appropriate if I remember right) steel, using the original nuts essentially as conical washers to seat the wheel right?

Unless anyone has any other brainwaves I reckon that or drilling and tapping the existing holes out to M12x1.25 to accept metric bolts are the only really practical choices.

Thoughts people?

who knew something so simple like a wheel stud would be such a PITA!

as PMed, I believe @st185cs might have some used ones he could take off a hub for you if thats any good?

you could also see if this chap still has the hub you can salvage for the studs https://autoshite.com/topic/33844-autoshites-official-for-salewanted-thread/page/86/?tab=comments#comment-1760174

(otherwise if you come across another spares stash look for STY476 thats the DHSS store No for the wheel studs alone)

[Zelandeth]

Problem with using old ones is that they were tacked in with a blob of weld on the back to stop them unscrewing with the wheel nuts, so getting them out without overstressing them is a challenge...or we'll just wind up back where we started.

It's always the silly little things which are a pain!

[Jikovron]

3/8 Bolts of 3 line rating (8.8 etc doesn't apply to imperial except as a rough equivalent standard) with cones and some concentric rings to center the wheel properly on the fiat centre spigot, or possibly fiat 500 wheels bolted to the hub (with the drum redrilled for the fiat bolt clearance holes) 

The existing 3/8 thread might want careful looking over if the studs dragged a weld blob through on removal maybe a 

I've looked for studs previously for other purposes and the majority seem to be die cut mild steel rod.

[Zelandeth]

Problem with going down the Fiat wheel route is they're not 10" - and I'm not aware of any 4x100 pcd wheel that are... they're all 12".  Which I'd really rather avoid as it would mean buying both new wheels and three new tyres.  Think it would be Fiat 126 wheels I'd need...the 500 uses a larger pcd (4x190 it looks like).

The threads seem fine thankfully (though of course there's still the broken one waiting to be drilled out yet).

Unfortunately I think I'm just going to have to pull the hub apart.  That opens up the option of tracking down a secondhand one with good studs on, or getting this one machined to accept Mini style push through studs.  Long term that is probably the sensible way to go as it makes future replacement far easier if I break another one at any point.

 

[Zelandeth]

Have sent a message to the gent who had the hub, will see if I'm that lucky.

Looks like the hub needs to come off one way or another...so that will probably be the task for tomorrow.

At least once it's off that opens up options for getting it machined...May well see if I can just get them to sort out the snapped stud as well...it's a couple of minutes work in a proper workshop with the proper tools.  If I break a drill bit in there or wreck the threads it'll make things far worse.

Let's just hope I don't wreck the wheel bearings putting things back together!

[Zelandeth]

Today's task involved a lot of work and discomfort for what looks like little progress.

Spot the difference?

The thing you're looking for is the lack of daylight now visible above the fridge.  The area behind it has now been fully boxed in, so the weather can stay outside the cabin.  While that being a work in progress wasn't a huge issue when we went away in mid summer, the howling gale which came in through there was an issue when we went out earlier on this year when it was cold and windy...and I very quickly got busy with the duct tape sealing it up!  At that point in time the fridge working as a space heater was a bonus...not a long term solution though.  So today I boxed that lot all in.  Was a right faff working in such a small area, but it's done now.  Fridge can breathe but is isolated from the cabin.  It's ugly as sin under the worktop there, but it does the job.

It appears I've still got a bit of water getting in to the nearside rear corner annoyingly.  Only one thing left for that...strip all the weatherstripping off and resealing it.  It's a faff I'd been hoping to avoid for a bit, but the leak needs dealt with, as any owner of a coachbuilt van knows damp is your absolutely worst enemy.  Been a while since I've seen any evidence in this corner so I thought I'd sorted it...nope, it's going to be a wholesale messy, fiddly awkward case of dig it all out and start over.

The only other area I'm aware of water getting in is a very occasional drip from the front roof light, though it is only the odd few drops in very heavy rain.  The interior frame of that is quite badly cracked, so it wants wholesale replacement really... anyone breaking a caravan and got a 400mm roof light available?

I'd love one in that orange colour you used to see on the roof lights in coaches in the 70s, sadly nobody seems to make them currently in 400mm form.  Looks like boring grey or white are my only choices really.  Not cheap new are they...looks like £60-70 is the going rate for a new one from a decent make.

Also have a couple of gratuitous water beading photos...

 

[Zelandeth]

Interestingly the Xantia which is currently pulling to the right under acceleration, stops doing that when accelerating at full throttle...issues with play in suspension bushes are weird sometimes...

Had cause to use full beans today for the first time in a while which was when I discovered this.  Had honestly forgotten how bloody rapidly that thing can get off the mark...that really must have been properly rapid in the mid 90s.  Definitely feels quicker than the Saab 900 T16S a friend used to have...even if the Saab won out in the audio stakes with that lovel idle burble.

 

In other news, the van has battle scars I need to sort now.  Mercifully minor.

While stationary at a set of traffic lights an idiot in an Audi Q3 drove straight into the back of me...then immediately fled the scene via hopping over the central reservation, which leads me to believe that they either didn't have insurance, a licence, were pissed or stoned...or all of the above.  On the plus side, they ripped their rear bumper off doing that so...karma I guess.  Got air too, so their wheel alignment is stuffed.  I did report it to the police, but as the car isn't reported as stolen and I don't have video they're not interested. 

Thankfully, when the previous owner rebuilt the area under the bumper, they built it mostly out of chequer plate and a frame made from the hardest, densest wood known to man...so it can withstand nuclear attack.  As such aside from an additional scuff on the bumper that already needs painting the only casualty was one of my number plate lights.

I think this may well have had a crack in it beforehand to be honest.  New one is only £12 so no massive loss.

Though that's actually £24 as if I only change the one it will stick out like a sore thumb that they don't match...so I'll be grabbing a second one from Motorserv once it's back in stock (they only had the one on the shelf).

Will get that fitted shortly.

In other news on the van I think I've tracked down where some of the water is getting in to the gas locker, and it's not all from the one seam.  Some is getting into the wall somewhere in the vicinity of the kitchen window...so step one will be to remove and renew the sealant around that.  Quick and easy job to do anyhow so worth doing to tick it off the list anyhow...and I'll probably work on the assumption that if one's leaking they probably all are.  I've several tubes of Sikaflex in stock so may as well get them all resealed.

Next step after that is the main weatherstrip that covers the join between the side/rear of the van as that's where most is getting in I think.  Nothing seems to be getting in anywhere else that I've been able to detect though, it's a lot more weatherproof than I'd expect a 30 year old van that's not been fully stripped down and restored to be.

[Zelandeth]

Just a little house stuff today. 

Finally lost patience with the stupid electronic touch dimmers in our dining room & lounge which simply do not play nicely with anything other than incandescent lamps.

So they got pulled out today and replaced with conventional switches.

The thermostat for the heat pump fans was also hanging off the wall, so I took the opportunity to properly secure it.

One round the corner needs further attention...for one the back box isn't fitted properly so the whole mess sits squint...also the three gang switch which handles the lights around the stairwell being of a different style is bugging my OCD, so have ordered a replacement in the same style.

Five minute job took five times longer on account of two things...Firstly isolating the supply took fifteen minutes of randomly flicking unlabelled breakers (we eventually discovered that the lights in the kitchen are on the ring main...yay...)...and secondly that whoever fitted the previous switches left about 3/4" of cable in the back box and have plastered the rest into the damn wall.

Should have expected as much given I know they were fitted under the orders of the interior designer who had the place before us.  She has a long history of having very shiny ideas executed by the lowest bidder.

We've been in this house since 2014 and I'm still fixing things messed up while they were here...still finding them too for that matter.

In terms of car things, I've got the carb from @Mrs6C's Invacar in my care at present.  It will be subject to a more or less complete teardown and thorough clean tomorrow, this should hopefully put an end to the problems she's had with the car refusing to idle.

Know quite a few folks seem to be unnerved by the idea of stripping a carb for cleaning, so I'll do my best to document things step by step here to show that it's nowhere near as scary as it might seem.

Have also picked up a second new number plate light so I've got a matched pair to go on the van rather than just one new one, as it will otherwise stick out like a sore thumb.

[LightBulbFun]

12 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

In terms of car things, I've got the carb from @Mrs6C's Invacar in my care at present.  It will be subject to a more or less complete teardown and thorough clean tomorrow, this should hopefully put an end to the problems she's had with the car refusing to idle.

Know quite a few folks seem to be unnerved by the idea of stripping a carb for cleaning, so I'll do my best to document things step by step here to show that it's nowhere near as scary as it might seem.

Ohh I look forward to that   and as you say hopefully it should get @Mrs6C Model 70 running properly!

(stripping a carb down cleaning it and putting it back together is actually one of those things I look forward to doing with someone for the experience of it etc  rather then something im scared of per se)

one thing that surprised me when quickly handling Dolly's carb was just how heavy it is, hefty old lump but it doesn't look that heavy!

[Zelandeth]

11 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

one thing that surprised me when quickly handling Dolly's carb was just how heavy it is, hefty old lump but it doesn't look that heavy!

Hah...wait till the first time you get handed a cast iron cylinder head...

How heavy can something 6" by 18" by 2" be?

*Thud*

Oh...about that heavy apparently...

[LightBulbFun]

9 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Hah...wait till the first time you get handed a cast iron cylinder head...

How heavy can something 6" by 18" by 2" be?

*Thud*

Oh...about that heavy apparently...

been bed bound for 6 months before would not like to return there thank you! LOL

beside that's what I have this for  

 

(I actually have 2, I was a bit nervous when pushing them together on the floor to wire them up in parallel to light up my 2000W metal halide lamp that they might fall through the floor LOL, rather unsurprisingly they permanently live on the floor, I dare not risk try putting them on my desk for fear of my back and my desk collapsing LOL)
 

[Mrs6C]

Back in the day, @Six-cylinder could pick up a Herald engine off the floor and lift it onto the workbench, all by himself!

He was a weightlifter in his youth, though.

[JimH]

On 10/21/2019 at 12:07 PM, Zelandeth said:

Well that's a pickle.

The fabricator has been back in touch, having examined the Invacar wheel stud I had sent over.  They reckon that the treads have been roll formed for strength, a process they don't have the tools for.  Not do they know of anyone who produces custom studs of that type.

So next steps?  Find some 3/8" UNF bolts in high tensile (8.8 being appropriate if I remember right) steel, using the original nuts essentially as conical washers to seat the wheel right?

Unless anyone has any other brainwaves I reckon that or drilling and tapping the existing holes out to M12x1.25 to accept metric bolts are the only really practical choices.

How are the existing studs held into the hub? If you can get a tapping drill for an M12 bolt  in then surely the best option would be just to find a suitable wheel stud (Mini ones don't look that far out) and press them in.

As for wheel studs needing to have rolled threads, no. Yes, a rolled thread is stronger than a cut thread (all other things being equal) but we are talking about a wheel stud for a very light and low powered car here. We are nowhere near the giddy limit of anything.

[Zelandeth]

I suspect their insistence on replicating the original rolled threads involves a not insignificant amount of ass covering in this age of litigation.

The original studs are screwed into the hub, looks to be 3/8" UNF thread on both ends of the stud.

Current plan: Get some high tensile 3/8" bolts and just bolt the damned wheel on.  The original wheel nuts can go on the bolt first to ensure they have the correct conical profile to seat the wheel correctly.  The only tricky bit there will be replicating the 1/2" shoulder on the original stud as that prevents the brake drum from being able to rotate at all once the wheel is in place... imagine a washer of an appropriate size could serve the same purpose.  I can't really see things moving once everything is tightened up anyway.  See earlier comment about the weight and power involved...

So...get high tensile bolts...get the remains of the one remaining stud drilled out...bolt everything up...take the car for a damned good thrash round the block, then check if everything has stayed properly bolted up. 

My bet is everything will be absolutely fine.

If a good used hub or proper new set of studs turn up, excellent...but this will get the car mobile again... especially as it looks like I'll *need* to be able to back it out of the garage to shift some stuff at the back next week if the new toy for the garage works out...that does involve me not getting sniped on an eBay auction so we'll have to wait and see.

 

Today a small upgrade for the van arrived.

The visibility of the rear indicators on this thing isn't great off to the side as the tail lights are recessed into the bumper as can be seen here.

The high level lights help, but I don't think people actually see them because they're more than a foot off the ground.  These little repeaters will take the place of the reflectors on the bumper and will be wired into the indicators.  Figure on something this size having a repeater towards the rear of the vehicle isn't a bad idea anyway.  I'll relocate the reflector to somewhere else in due course.  Had hoped to fit these this afternoon as it would be a nice fifteen minute task...then the heavens opened.

Tomorrow afternoon my main plan is to get the carb from Mrs6C's Invacar stripped down and cleaned... it's been patiently waiting all week.  Shouldn't be long a job hopefully.

[Zelandeth]

I've had a rather sick carburettor from Mrs6C's Invacar waiting patiently for surgery all week, finally managed to actually get the thing on the table.

The description was that the car was more or less running but wouldn't idle for love nor money.  Most likely a blocked idle jet, especially given I knew from having had my own carb apart that the idle jet in particular has a miniscule orifice.

Here's the patient.

A rather grubby Webber 32 ICS 10.  Quite a simple little carb and I wasn't expecting it to really cause me any problems.

It was maaaaaaaanky though.

The tarnishing on the choke butterfly and amount of soot in the throat suggests to me that it's been on fire at some point...which given the fondness of these engines for backfiring when there's anything resembling a fuelling issue doesn't really surprise me.

Okay...let's start the teardown.

First up let's take a look at the fuel inlet strainer.

Mmm...Crunchy...

Given the amount of scale in there I was expecting the fuel inlet itself to be impressively manky.  I wasn't disappointed.

 

The float bowl tells the story really doesn't it...

To be fair, I've seen worse...but it definitely needed some love.

That little nick in the gasket (the witness marks tell me it's been like that a while) won't have been helping anything either as I'm pretty sure that will have resulted in little or no fuel being supplied to one of the fuel circuits...without digging out a diagram I believe this also part of the idle circuit so yet more reasons she won't idle.

Shame as the gasket is otherwise in decent shape.

Here's what fell out of the float bowl.

So let's get on with it...

"Normalising" jet I believe it's described in the manual...

It's not too bad...but it's also pretty huge so no surprise there.

Main jet.

Aside from being covered in scale, this was internally roughly 85% clogged.

Idle jet - this one was the main suspect for the trouble reported.

This was completely blocked.  Spoiler alert: Even after half an hour in the ultrasonic cleaner, unloading half a can of aerosol carb cleaner into it, blasting it with 140psi compressed air, I still had to resort to attacking it (carefully) with a few strands of electrical flex to get it clear.  So no...not a chance she was going to idle.  Nor was a bit of RedEx in the tank going to make any difference.

Next up, the idle control needle valve (I think).

Pretty manky.  Made horrible screechy noises when it was unscrewed too.

Accelerator jet itself...

This was probably 50% full of gunk...Though this is the orifice it's fed from...

...Which was actually totally encrusted and you couldn't even see the hole.  Some of it chipped off when I was unscrewing it.

Now I'm not a complete idiot...I kept a note of what came out from where.  Mostly by shape as most of the jets were sufficiently encrusted that there was no chance of reading numbers off the...though to be fair this is a carb where I don't think much will actually physically fit in the wrong places.  The diagram also gives me somewhere to note down where the adjustments were set.

 

Oh, and there was a not inconsiderable amount of scale stuck to the floats too.

There was only one thing left to do at this point...dump it in the ultrasonic cleaner.

...And send the dogs skittering madly across the house the moment I turned it on.  This sucker is waaaaaaay louder than the little one I used to use.

Oh...just went with 35C and 15 minutes.

Plan was to rotate the carb in there after the fifteen minutes as the cleaners about 2% too shallow to get it all under the cleaner.

Definitely doing something...after about sixty seconds the cleaner had already started to go cloudy.

While everything was submerged I gave the accelerator pump a good workout to help get as much gunk out of it as possible.

30 minutes later...

Eww.

 

The next step doesn't have photos because I needed both hands.  This was to fish everything out of the cleaner, take it to the garage and dry everything off with the compressed air gun.  This gave me the opportunity to blast through all the jets as well - which is where I discovered the idle jet was still clogged.  Cue a good twenty minutes faffing about to get that cleared.  Definitely worth doing that step as I'd easily have missed that without the air line as the jet is so tiny you can't see through it.  This also helps make sure that all the channels in the carb body are clear (make sure not to point it at yourself...carb cleaner stings when you get it in your eyes).

Gave the casing and choke butterfly a decent scrub as well as there were some heavier deposits there which didn't come off in the cleaning bath.  The choke plate still looks manky...but it shouldn't actually affect operation. 

So here we go...one clean(er) carb jigsaw puzzle.

I would have liked to remove the float so I could get the needle and seat out... however the retaining pin was utterly disinterested in moving without resorting to unreasonable amounts of violence...so I decided to leave it well alone as the valve seemed to be seating properly and free moving.  Likewise the accelerator pump cover, the screws were mega tight, so I left it well alone.

 

There's quite a bit of staining and pitting in the float chamber, but it's a lot better even if it doesn't look pretty.

Looking down inside the various drillings (you can see down into the one for the accelerator pump in the upper left of the float chamber in the above image) shows things to be nice and clean rather than full of "sand" as they were before.

The fuel inlet stub was probably the worst before...still not pretty again, but way better.

Reassembly as they say is the reverse of dismantling...albeit with an additional step...which wound up taking half an hour to do.  Remember that dodgy gasket?  Yep, that had to be replaced.  Sadly I didn't have a new one on hand, so had to make one.  Fiddly is the word.

"Ugly as sin" is the result...but it should work.

This was before I went over to tidy up some of the burrs and such, but you get the idea.

All back together!

Quick test was done then to make sure that you could blow through the fuel feed with the carb upright, but not with it flipped upside down, telling us the float valve was free to move and was seating properly.

Then it was packed back up, ready for return to its owner.

Now I've rebuilt probably a dozen carbs for myself, never had an issue...however this is the first one I've ever done for someone else...so yes I'm very much crossing my fingers and toes that it will behave!

I reckon that the engine should at least have half a chance of running properly once this is refitted though... I hope!

No...carbs are not made of witchcraft and terror.  They're quite therapeutic to overhaul I think...even if the whole house does now stink of carb cleaner.  Hopefully this little montage has helped show how not terrifying a strip down and clean can be.

I'll put an update on here obviously once I find out if it's helped with the running issues.

Quite enjoyed this afternoon's work.  Though I've probably put you all to sleep now...sorry.

Edited November 4, 2019 by Zelandeth
correcting autocorrect (again)

[LightBulbFun]

ohh yay I have been looking forward to this write up  

very interesting and informative  

im curious what does the normalizing jet do?

i know what the rest do, their names are fairly self explanatory etc, but im not sure on the normalizing jet?

 

and ya she backfired quite spectacularly a few times while we tinkered with her, it was a bit eerie seeing smoke float down from the carb like from the barrel of a gun that's just been fired

[Jikovron]

The normalizing jet is the air corrector which is used to counteract the tendency for the mixture to run away rich at the top of the rev range at wide open throttle,the size of it determines how much total air correction it allows , then the emulsion tube underneath modifies the correction curve as the depth of air admission into the fuel well via holes along the length of the emulsion  tube is determined by the amount of depression that the auxiliary venturi channels to the fuel well , more or larger holes high up will lean the mixture earlier v lower down the tube , everything has a knock on effect with something else , venturi size, idle air bleed jet, main jets,emulsion tubes,correctors all crossover each other to some extent.

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, Jikovron said:

The normalizing jet is the air corrector which is used to counteract the tendency for the mixture to run away rich at the top of the rev range at wide open throttle,the size of it determines how much total air correction it allows , then the emulsion tube underneath modifies the correction curve as the depth of air admission into the fuel well via holes along the length of the emulsion  tube is determined by the amount of depression that the auxiliary venturi channels to the fuel well , more or larger holes high up will lean the mixture earlier v lower down the tube , everything has a knock on effect with something else , venturi size, idle air bleed jet, main jets,emulsion tubes,correctors all crossover each other to some extent.

 

interesting thanks for the explanation  

 

im guessing things richen at the top of the rev range as only so much air can flow into the carb, compared how much fuel can potentially be delivered? (given fuel has a much higher density than air/oxygen!)

or does it richen for some other reason?

(granted given how many Model 70s where just grocery getters back in the day, I can't imagine many had a chance to use the normalizing jet, given the Top of the rev range in a Model 70 happens from 45Mph onwards, where the CVT goes into fixed ratio mode, and the engine revs climb from the 3500RPM fixed point from before the CVT went into fixed ratio mode)

[Jikovron]

My understanding is that as the engine generated depression beyond the venturi climbs with revs the airflow starts to bottle neck as the carb is of a fixed size (unlike a CV style one)however the fuel delivery would be otherwise unaffected as it doesn't see the same restriction to flow so will over fuel without depression driven air correction to dilute the fuel being admitted.

So in effect yes your correct as far as I can tell.

Normally regarding cvt etc the engine is jetted to make max power as best it can right to the redline and subsequent restriction of revs is purely down to load placed on it.

 

[LightBulbFun]

22 minutes ago, Jikovron said:

My understanding is that as the engine generated depression beyond the venturi climbs with revs the airflow starts to bottle neck as the carb is of a fixed size (unlike a CV style one)however the fuel delivery would be otherwise unaffected as it doesn't see the same restriction to flow so will over fuel without depression driven air correction to dilute the fuel being admitted.

So in effect yes your correct as far as I can tell.

Normally regarding cvt etc the engine is jetted to make max power as best it can right to the redline and subsequent restriction of revs is purely down to load placed on it.

 

interesting  

from reading the workshop manual for the Model 70 and a bit of maths, I know that the CVT setup holds the engine at 3500RPM which is is peak torque for the engine, all the way up until about 45Mph where the Pulleys run out of ratio and as such go into fixed ratio mode where the engine speed starts to climb with road speed, with Peak Power being produced at 5000RPM which is about 66.6Mph! "Velocity of the beast!" I dont actually know what the red line of the Steyr puch 500 engine is!

tho as mentioned in Mrs6c's thread the workshop manual talks about the Weber 32ICS3 carburetor, however every Model 70 I have seen has had a Webber 32ICS10, sadly I don't know what the difference is between the 2 or how it might affect engine performance

18 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

its interesting and worth noting that the Model 70 workshop manual, talks about the Weber 32ICS3 carb, where as Dolly's and every other Model 70 I have seen has a webber 32ICS10

(I dont think I have seen a Model 70 with a Solex carb, and its interesting to note that the DHSS spare parts book only has the weber listed)

this is the only bit of info I can find on what the ICS10 variant is about exactly https://puch500.eokc.at/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1151

I am in contact with a guy who knows all things Steyr puch, but the language barrier makes things hard sadly

perhaps the guys are haflinger technik knows something?

 

 

just worth keeping in mind if something does not quite match up between the workshop manual and the IRL carb

it would be really interesting to stick a Model 70 onto a rolling road and see what figures it produces!

maths on the whole pulley/engine rpm/road speed thing can be found here   and if you want to have a browse of the workshop manual yourself it can be found here  DHSS Workshop Manual For The Model 70 Three Wheeler(OCR).pdf

On 9/26/2019 at 10:12 PM, LightBulbFun said:

(on the note of overall ratio I have been able to figure out roughly the overall ratio of the Model 70 drive line if that makes sense, and I calculated that the engine makes peak power in a Model 70  at 66Mph  (since the workshop manual says at 60Mph the engine is doing 4500RPM (with the CVT system going into fixed ratio mode above 45Mph) and steyr puch says the engine makes peak horsepower at 5000RPM, so I can divide 4500 by 60 and get the magic number of 75 then divide 5000 by 75 to get 66.6Mph  keeping in mind the CVT setup goes into fixed ratio mode above 45Mph)

[egg]

I've got an even smaller one you could do ;-). Still haven't even got the lid off it :-(. Thanks for the interesting write up.

[Zelandeth]

Slide based carbs as commonly seen on two strokes are quite a different bit of kit...but it could probably be cleaned up and brought back to life so long as nothing is irreparably seized.

Probably will want a set of seals too - though given how many Villiers engines are out there I doubt those will be hard to source.

[egg]

Yes, I really need to get it off by hook or by crook, as an ideal winter job really.

And yes, gaskets/seals are easily available and cheap

https://villiersservices.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8_85&products_id=327

[Zelandeth]

Well I now have a box of heater for the van.

Also have this.

Honestly not sure what to do with it...though if I can get it to wake up enough to display the time... epic geeky clock for my workstation.

Not certain whether I'll be able to get that far without the driver "card" as it's ages since I last touched one of these machines.  Also lack the base plate, so will need to figure out how to get power to it via the DB-25 connector on the back...

Will have a dig through the box of heater stuff tomorrow...looks to be all there and decent enough though.

[somewhatfoolish]

One and two half returns please.

[Daviemck2006]

That wayfarer brings back memories of my time with stagecoach Zel.

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