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

[Zelandeth]

Not this one...the push fit lamp holders have gone rusty. As such they've swollen by about 2mm in diameter. The only way they're coming out of the lights is if you literally rip the thing to bits. Which would mean I'd need a new lamp housing...which would have a not weathered lens and solve the problem anyway...

 

Currently waiting for a new one for the ignition light after it fell victim to me trying to get it apart.

 

To be honest for the very occasional night driving this will see I'm sure it's more than bright enough. The colour of a blue LED would be so alien in this cabin it would drive me mad.

 

Given the plethora of cars that use these panel indicators I'm sure it's nothing a classic friendly MOT station hasn't seen a thousand times before.

[PhilA]

Tbh I had missed where you said that.

 

Shame, are the bodies of the lamps plastic or metal? The sixties ones my old man fitted are plastic and the lamp holder goes in maybe a half inch or so and could probably be liberated with a junior hacksaw.

 

If metal then well yeah. If it works it works. I believe the testing manual doesn't say anything about how bright it is, just that it works...

 

Warm white LED would work, but in my experience those blue lamps don't light up blue when you put a bright light behind them, they just turn a sickly pale washed out kinda grey.

 

Mind you, they seemed to have done a couple different types of lens. The Sprite has red, green, yellow and blue. (Bonnet up, rear fog, front fog, rear window heater) and the red, green and yellow have crystal clear type with the blue looking like an opaque chunk of blue plastic (but like an old plastic Tupperware cup), but I see that at least the green lens looks cloudy. Maybe the plastic has degenerated?

 

(Edit: I see they've been remanufactured, this time round with "clear" blue:

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lucas-WARNING-LAMP-restoration-pack-Blue-Red-Amber-Green-bulbs-TRIUMPH-MINI-/322639363823?_mwBanner=1 )

 

Phil

[dollywobbler]

Check the earths for the rear lights. Mine were doing all sorts of odd things, including brake lights acting as indicators before I sorted them all out. Those connectors are shite.

[Zelandeth]

Green one is actually okay, think the camera over-exposes it and makes it look cloudier than it really is. Plastic has gone a bit hazy but not too bad.

 

Have already got my eye on that set of remanufactured warning lights in case I have further trouble.

 

Regarding the tail lights, yes earth's are high on the suspicion list - though okay in the case of this cluster (which wasn't attached to the loom at all when I got the car. The whole thing is upside down though (5/21W twin filament bulb is at the top). Would have swapped it around yesterday evening but it meant faffing with the wiring and I was already running late!

 

Hoping to have a full compliment of working tail lights today...

[Zelandeth]

Well that was painless!

Couple of hours spent sitting out in the lovely sunshine this afternoon tidying up some of the engine bay wiring and reconnecting the tail lights properly. One thing I did change was to do the earthing locally. Originally they were grounded through a wire in the loom which went all the way back to the front bulkhead ground point. I decided that was daft, so grounded both ends of that wire, and stuck a ground connection to each cluster to a bolt under the ignition coil bracket on the near side, and the voltage regulator bracket on the offside.

Sure enough, look at that...we have fully functioning tail lights.

 

 

(Note that there's no hazard flasher functionality - I may well add that via a "bolt on" unit as it seems a useful feature to have).

I was expecting a bit of a battle to get all three bits working at once, but nope...Brake, tail and indicators all operate correctly without having any effect on each other.

 

 

They are currently missing their gaskets, so I'll need to come back to that at some point in the future, but it'll do for now.

Glad to report that the dashboard indicator is also behaving itself. You've no excuse for forgetting to turn the indicators off in this thing as it's by far the brightest light on the dash - I had to use the flash to get this photo without it totally washing out. Amber is the one for the indicators, again like quite a few other cars from this era (and still quite common on motorcycles I believe).

 

 

Sadly the fuel gauge is totally open circuit, so will need to pick up a new one to replace that at some point.

 

Yesterday evening I also got the speedometer out of the dash and took it to bits.  The main reason for this was that it was full of cobwebs and one very dead spider.

 

Cleaned up not bad I reckon...Just the right level of patina left I think, but tidy enough for its age.

 

 

Was interested to discover that it's actually lit externally...the lamp is just clipped to its bracket and lights the face through a cutout (and blue filter) in the side of the bezel.

[PhilA]

Looks like a motorbike speedometer.

 

Fun to see though, the red lens has gone slightly brownish on the outside and where it's been knocked- mine has done the same. Still lights up a beautiful red though.

[Zelandeth]

Looks like a motorbike speedometer.

Fun to see though, the red lens has gone slightly brownish on the outside and where it's been knocked- mine has done the same. Still lights up a beautiful red though.

Yep, the speedo is more commonly seen on bikes. There were larger ones used on some of the later cars (less desirable both because they look out of proportion with the dash and because they like snapping cables for a pass time). It suits the dash well though. I suspect the illumination will be less than useless though!

 

Sadly the red warning light will be getting changed as the lampholder is stuffed and won't come out of the body. I *will* see if I can come up with something though to use it at a later date as the new one will stick out like a sore thumb compared to the patina on the rest of the dash.

 

Hoping the new indicator stalk will arrive tomorrow so I can get that properly attached to the handlebars and stop worrying about it shorting out on the floor.

 

Next tasks for this week will probably be to get the doors rebuilt and get hold of some fittings to finish off rebuilding the brake lines.

 

Need to start making enquiries regarding bodywork...need to figure out what the odds of getting hold of front and/or rear mouldings are as that may well have an impact on precisely how I go about the repairs to the chassis and floor. As I've said before...I don't need and of the associated fixtures and fittings, and even really rough panels are likely to be easier to sort out to a reasonable level than what I've got.

 

The rear needs a lot more work than is immediately visible too. The wheel tubs and arches being missing has taken all the rigidity out of it (the whole thing wobbles around ridiculously at idle) for one thing. The other issue is that the actual moulding around the rear pillar of the offside door aperture is paper thin to the extent you can poke your fingernail through it. I'd want to get in to the back of that area and get it reinforced quite a bit really if I do keep the moulding in service.

 

So... here's stuff I'm looking for if anyone has spares...

 

[] Front and or rear body moulding as discussed above.

[] Front service cover.

[] Fuel tank.

[] Fuel gauge sender.

[] Fuel gauge (not urgent as I can get that new, used would look better though).  No longer needed as it's come back to life.

[] Door seals.

[] Engine cover lock, as mine is beyond redemption I fear.

[] Heater ducting

[] Heater diverter box.

[] Battery tray.

 

That's actually it for the wish list just now, believe it or not!

[dollywobbler]

Well, I've still got my spare body. Front service cover is cracked, but sort-of functional (it's the one off TWC). Have a spare fuel tank, but I think someone has already nabbed the sender. Fuel gauge still present. Mark (st185cs) has no shortage of door seals. Locks are very standard items. May have a spare diverter box, but I'm short of decent heater ducting myself.

[Zelandeth]

Not worried about cracks, especially on a small item like the service cover - should be pretty easy to repair so long as most of it is there.

 

Heater ducting is probably the least important bit of the system as something serviceable should be easy enough to source online - though obviously probably won't look like the original stuff. Heater box is the more vehicle specific bit.

 

Think I need to drop both you and st185cs a PM to have a chat about possibilities in more detail...

[dollywobbler]

No worries. You've got my email (which is easier for me than PMs on here).

[Zelandeth]

New indicator stalk arrived today.

 

 

Only difference (aside from the connector - which may well have been on the original one when it left the factory for all I know) was that his one has a purple wire that doesn't exist on the Invacar.  I've just terminated it and left it alone for now - guessing it might be a feed for a dim/dip device or something like that as it looks like it leads into the contacts that handle the headlight switching.

 

Pretty quick and painless job to get it wired in.

 

 

...Though we did initially have a bit of a head scratcher, in that turning the indicators on resulted in all four flashing (and the flasher unit sounding distinctly unhappy about this).  Took a bit of head scratching, but it turned out to be that the screws I'd used to fasten it to the column were too long and were bridging the contacts for the left/right selection.  Switching them out for some that were slightly shorter resolved that issue and got things working as they should.

 

The offside ones still flash slightly faster than the nearside ones for some reason, will sort that out later.  My money's on dodgy tail light earths until proven otherwise.

 

Funny how adding something like this does so much to make the dash look more complete.

 

 

I've not wrapped the wiring for this again yet, as I think I want to make it a bit longer as it currently pulls more on the loom at full right hand lock than I'd like.  That's a job for another day when it's warmer though and I've more time.

 

In other news, the fuel gauge has revived itself!  Noticed today that it was "twitching" when I turned the ignition off - and sure enough, it now responds as it should do to varying the impedance between the connections for it.  Guess I'll pull it out of the dash for a clean then if it's going to work.

[Zelandeth]

Very briefly ventured into the garage today...before beating a hasty retreat back inside because it was freezing out there!

 

While digging around in one of the boxes however I did come across the rear view mirror, so reattached that.

 

 

It'll obviously need to come back out when I sort the covering on that trim panel, but I reckon it's safer there for now than it would be at the bottom of a box.

[dollywobbler]

Ah yes. My trim panel has mostly fallen apart as well.

 

Can't get over your shiny dashboard! Practically concours!

[Zelandeth]

I get the impression that those trim panels are similar to Skoda Estelle seat cloth in that they disintegrate over time with exposure to UV, pretty irrespective of what sort of storage conditions the car has seen.

 

The dash didn't clean up bad to be honest, especially for all I've done to it is blast it with the pressure washer to remove the moss then give it a quick wipe down with some interior trim cleaner.

 

I did spend quite a good portion of the first day of having it around here cleaning it generally though, simply to make it far less unpleasant to work on.  Have to admit to being surprised how oil-tight it is, only leak I had initially was from the PCV hose that goes down by the offside cylinder.  Other than that the engine has stayed astonishingly clean after I blasted the crud off it.

 

Pretty much the first thing I tend to do with any car I get really.  Have to admit where car interiors are concerned I tend to be somewhat obsessive about keeping things clean and tidy.

[dollywobbler]

Mine is oil-tight now I've replaced the rocker cover gaskets...

[Zelandeth]

Had one of those days today where I seem to have spent the entire day firefighting small jobs all of which took 20 times longer than they should have done, do didn't have much time to dedicate to interesting things.

I did however get a photo worth sharing. Our dog, Tesla was at one point sitting outside in the snow, successfully looking quite regal as he surveyed his snowy kingdom.

However, when I went to get the photo, what I got instead was this.

 

 

Not what I was aiming for - but far more amusing.

While watching everyone around me working themselves into a complete and utter panic because we'd had 1/32" of snow here, I decided that the cool weather was an ideal opportunity to take the dog out for a decent run. It's been a while since he was out (because it took me several weeks to actually get around to sorting the puncture in the C5's offside rear tyre), and he seemed to enjoy it.

 

 

Was out for a good hour and a half, and I think I maybe saw two people the entire time.  You'd seriously think it was some sort of nuclear winter with lethal fallout...not just a bit of snow.

I did get a couple of things done on the AC - I've extended the loom from the indicator/headlight stalk so it's not stressed by the movement of the handlebars - I've routed the wiring in such a way that it shouldn't wind up rubbing against anything over time too hopefully.

No photo of that because A: It's not really that interesting, and B: Because I'd left my phone in the house so I don't have one!

 

Main tasks for tomorrow are to find a proper live feed for the main beam flash function, enlarge the cutout in the stalk base cover to allow that to work without fouling on the cover, and finally to hopefully figure out why the nearside indicators flash at twice the rate of the nearside ones.  My money's on comedy earthing issues with the tail light clusters as the lampholders are quite tarnished.

[dollywobbler]

As I said before, my rear light issues were almost completely down to those cruddy connectors. Replaced the lot. It was a bit distressing when even my brand new lamps didn't work properly!

[Zelandeth]

I don't actually have any of the original connectors between the vehicle loom and the tail lights due to them having been cut off. So new crimped connections are doing that. Reckon my issues are down to the actual lamp holders.

 

Will give everything a darn good clean up then see where we are.

 

Thankfully electronic and electrical engineering is my thing so this particular part of the saga isn't worrying me too much, for all I suspect it has the potential to be maddening!

 

In fairness to the car - the only cleaning of the tail light lamp holders so far has been with a screwdriver... hopefully the carbide abrasive tape will prove more effective. New set of not rusty lamps probably wouldn't go amiss either.

 

Will see whether I actually get anything done tomorrow or if we're buried under six feet of snow. I doubt it...

[Zelandeth]

Had another run out today with the dog and the C5.  Wouldn't have expected these tyres to be good in the snow, but it really surprised me.

 

 

 

Only point I was aware of any sliding around was going round the first roundabout (usually on two wheels because the dog's in the initial stage of "OMGMUSTRUNFULLPELT!") which was sheet ice.  I'm sure the sight of a C5 coming around with about 2/3rds opposite lock on must have been hilarious for any onlookers.

 

Thankfully I only have to mix with actual traffic (not that I've seen a car all day!) for about 300 yards, then I'm on off-street cycle/footpaths anyhow.  Wouldn't have even considered taking this thing out on a day like this if I had to share the road with cars!

 

 

Thankfully our post did arrive as normal, which brought with it the new ignition light for the AC.

 

Annoyingly, the bezel on the new unit was slightly different to the originals.  The new one is to the left in the photos below, the one on the right is what's left of the oil light from my spare dash.

 

 

 

Luckily however, I was able to salvage enough of the original ignition light housing after I used excessive amounts of brute force to remove the rusted in lamp holder that the new one would sit snugly in place.

 

 

Result!

 

Also means that I don't have one that's obviously less faded than the other three, which would also have annoyed me.

 

Edit:  It's really, really astonishing how much air the cooling fan on these pulls through.  It's very well visualised when there's light powdery snow blowing around as there is just now - looked like the thing was trying to single handedly suck the entire weather system out of existence at fast idle...

[Zelandeth]

Annoyingly close to having a fully functional braking system now.

 

I need to get me the fittings and equipment to make me two more of these, then that should be it.

 

 

Assuming none of the flexis (all NOS replacements as the ferrules on the originals were well rusty) don't go "pop" anyway...and that the remaining two wheel cylinders actually work...In the grand scheme of things though, they're easily replaced.

 

I did have my "there's always bloody one..." moment today though.

 

Realised that I could get at the rear brake central union a lot easier from above than underneath, which would significantly reduce the mount of crud getting in my eyes and be far easier - especially working inside because the weather's horrible, so there's little room at the sides of the car.

 

This however removed removing the transmission access cover...which came right off...except for the one screw.

 

 

Go figure.  Bit wary of getting the drill or grinder in at that given the potential to murder the panel around it...The head is sufficiently round that I can't get a pair of pliers or vice-grips onto it...so don't know what other options I've got.  Annoying.  I'll have another bash at that sometime soon.  I need to check the tension on the drive belt at some point anyway, so the cover needs to come off one way or another.

[Zelandeth]

Very quick update as we're just wrapping up for the night here.

 

Having located my brake pipe flaring tool a couple of days ago, and picked up a new pipe cutter today I finally got around to making up the couple of rigid lines I needed.

 

Given In last used the thing about ten years ago I was pleased to discover that I did in fact remember how the heck to use it.

 

Having connected everything up and bled it, I can confirm that my Invacar now has brakes!

 

Not sure how many brakes yet, and I reckon there is still some air trapped in the master cylinder so I've left it with the handlebar yoke bungee corded to the floor.

 

Have also gained access to the drivetrain, so can adjust the massively loose belt.

 

Tomorrow I might actually be able to drive it around the driveway a bit!

[Zelandeth]

Right, so when we left things yesterday (and I was getting scolded for being out in the garage too late) we had achieved the following:

 

[] FINALLY managed to get the sodding access cover off so I could get into the drive system properly.  No more trying to reach through the wheel arch.

 

 

Sadly the cover surrounding the one screw did get slightly mangled, but it should be easy enough to sort - especially as it will be hidden behind the driver's seat when in use.  I wound up having to actually hacksaw through the clip the screw was held into - the two had just utterly fused together.

 

[] Front brake pipes all swapped out.  Flexi is a NOS item as the original had collapsed internally apparently as I couldn't get any fluid through it.

 

 

[] Nearside rear centre to axle rigid line replaced.

 

 

[] Likewise the offside...

 

 

I was originally of two minds about whether to change the rear flexis now or come back to that later.  I've got two NOS ones to hand.  The ones on there seem absolutely fine (no perishing, the rubber is still nicely flexible), but the ferrules are quite rusty.  I've told myself to stop procrastinating and just get it done - so they'll be swapped today.  While I'm at it, I may as well just change the last bit of metal line that goes to the wheel cylinders.  It's totally covered in grease so has been well protected from the elements I reckon, but is hard to see to inspect in normal use, so I reckon I'll just get it done.  Peace of mind and all that.  Not as though making a couple of 4" long bits of pipe takes long.

 

[] Got a proper look at the drive belt (looks fine), and ascertained that it definitely needs adjusting.  The bolts in question weren't too impressed with the idea of moving, so everything's been left soaking in Plusgas overnight.

 

 

So...This afternoon I shall attempt the following:

 

[] Replace both rear brake flexi hoses and the flexi to wheel cylinder rigid lines.  Bleed brakes again (given the crud that was originally in there, I was planning to do this several times anyway).  At this point *every* brake pipe will be either brand new or new old stock.

 

[] Adjust drive belt tension.

 

[] Try actually driving the thing around the driveway a bit!

 

[] Check if any wheel cylinders are either not working, leaking or sticking.  If so, order replacements.

 

[] If time permits, get the pressure washer and degreaser out again to clean up the transmission now that I can get at it.

 

Oh...and buy some more petrol as she's pretty much used the entirety of the original gallon I got now.

 

I'll let you know this evening how I got on.  If I can figure out somewhere to stick the camera (I don't have a cameraman today) I may record some video of it moving around slightly less tentatively than last time.

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

Glad you're in - as the actress said to the bishop...... Can't believe how (apparently) easy it's coming together so far. Both you and DW are doing fantastically well with these.

On a side note - you do have me hankering after another C5! darn it........

[Zelandeth]

Glad you're in - as the actress said to the bishop...... Can't believe how (apparently) easy it's coming together so far. Both you and DW are doing fantastically well with these.

On a side note - you do have me hankering after another C5! darn it........

 

Funny you should mention that...I've still got my second one here.  It's missing a few bits, but has a pretty decent body.  My intention was always to make one tidy one out of the two - but given the amount of abuse the one I use takes on an average day and the fact that it's been almost unerringly dependable makes me somewhat less enthusiastic about that idea these days.  If you might be interested, I could have a closer look at it and see what it actually needs.

 

Really do need to get a disc brake mod done to mine though, the stock brakes aspire towards adequate at the best of times, but when attached to a crazy husky, they're seriously lacking.  Especially if you're going downhill and he's decided that he's definitely going to go say hello to that dog at the bottom of the hill.

 

 

Back to the Invacar.

 

You know that you sometimes have days where things go surprisingly well and you get a heap of stuff done?  Well today was the other sort of day.

 

 

First up I went to change the rear brake flexis.  Got the first one off no bother (access is just awkward enough to be "annoying" however not quite enough to be actually problematic).  However sticking the new one in place immediately revealed a problem.

 

 

So apparently that pair of NOS hoses is for another invalid carriage...Most likely an Invacar Mk 12.  Annoying.  I'll need to source another pair of flexis from somewhere then.

 

Figured as I'd already got the nearside half apart that I may as well change the line to the wheel cylinder - to find that someone has been in there before me, and has rounded off that fitting.  Great!  I've got a few spares, so once I have the right flexi hoses I'll cut the pipe off and just batter a slightly smaller socket on there to get it off.  Given that I'm going to have to take it to bits again later anyway, I decided not to bother with it today though.  Have drowned it in Plusgas as well.

 

I then thought I'd have a look at adjusting the drive belt tension - have come to the conclusion that I'll try that again after I've attacked the front of the gearbox/chaincase with the pressure washer - it's just so coated in gunk at present that I can't even *see* the three mounting bolts I need to loosen first.  I'd like to be able to see what I'm doing so I don't go and wind up loosening the wrong thing and dumping half the gearbox oil all over the drive as that would be highly annoying.

 

Annoyed at coming up against an issue there as well (albeit one that just needs me to dig the pressure washer out), I decided to do something that I knew would be easier - and stuck some quick release terminals on the battery.

 

 

Given that this battery is actually shared currently with the C5, it's useful to be able to get it in and out quickly.  It will return to the correct location in due course as well.

 

Once it is back in the proper place a battery isolator switch will be installed as well - as I trust the electrics in this thing about as far as I can throw it and I'd rather not burn the house down.

 

 

Despite all of the grumbling though, I'm glad to report that I do now have brakes.  Not faultless, but I do have brakes.  I'm not sure whether there's actually an issue with the brake master cylinder I've got, or whether it's still just got a bit of air in.  I seem to have an issue whereby if I depress the handlebar yoke very slowly, there's essentially no resistance and no braking effort.  Doing it a little more quickly seems to bring a decent amount of braking effort, though the "dead zone" at the top of the travel does seem to vary a lot.  Granted, I've not adjusted any of the drums yet either.

 

It means I have brakes though.  I did lean on the handlebars with basically all my body weight and nothing went "pop" either, which is good to see.  Having left the pedal under pressure overnight too, we've got nothing weeping from any wheel.  I'll pull the jack out tomorrow and see if all three are actually providing braking effort.  Offside rear definitely is (to the extent it has locked up when testing), and I seem to recall the nearside was before I had the first pipe blow out when I first changed the master cylinder.

 

 

This meant I could do a bit more testing to see what using more than 0.00001% of the available power would do though.

 

 

Apologies for the dodgy camera angle, I just had to wedge the phone on the windowsill.  If I'd been smart I'd probably have stuck it on the rear wiper of the Lada or something like that.  I might shuffle the Lada over to the other side of the drive to give me a bit more room to play with tomorrow.  Plus apply bungee cords to the battery and fuel can!

 

It goes...It really goes!  Stops pretty smartly too...I can't honestly see that there's far wrong with the brakes actually at the wheels there.  Just have my slight suspicions about the master cylinder.  For all it's unused, it has spent a lot of years sitting in a box of bits.

 

Definitely need to adjust the drive belt though, it's quite possible to get it to slip if provoked.  The brakes can provide more grip than it can power at the moment when stationary too.

 

Notable that having got some good heat into the engine that it has almost completely stopped "sneezing" now - especially if I leave the choke on just ever so slightly - so I reckon it is just running ever so slightly lean.

 

...Again, I've not touched the carb aside from un-jamming the choke, which is rather astonishing!

[dollywobbler]

Excellent! Looks a fair travel on those brakes though? Those handlebars will be getting stopped by your legs when the seat is in. Are they adjusted up?

[Zelandeth]

Excellent! Looks a fair travel on those brakes though? Those handlebars will be getting stopped by your legs when the seat is in. Are they adjusted up?

I reckon there's still some air in the system. The free play seems highly variable. Haven't got as far as poking the adjusters on the drums yet either other than Plusgas treating them. To be honest I'm surprised that all three wheel cylinders aren't totally stuffed!

 

It's also possible that there's something amiss with the master cylinder itself - it's an unproven old stock item after all - might not be in the best shape after sitting in a box for a few decades.

 

Actually starting to almost feel like this thing might one day see the road again.

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

Mightily impressed...... although as DW says - that seems a bloody long way to go to have it stop with the bar lever. I'd leave the interior as is in that case, as you're obviously praying you don't go straight through the garage wall

 

I'd certainly be interested in the C5 - if you PM me any details of what it needs etc.... and a price in mind. I'm not back to UK very often, so no time constraints.

 

Sounds like it's running great though - proper result that

[Zelandeth]

Yep, there's definitely way too much travel - that's currently item number 1 on the to be investigated list.  Try to figure out whether the issue is with the rest of the system of the master cylinder.  Reckon it has to be the master cylinder though - as excess free play in the shoes anywhere would result in excess travel - but it should be consistent excess travel I'd think.  Not varying every other time you apply the brakes.  Question for me really is whether it's behaving odd because there's air in the cylinder, or because it's stuffed.

 

Really need it outside to get the drums adjusted properly as it's maddeningly cramped trying to do stuff like that inside - it's currently tipping it down here however, so that'll need to wait till later.

 

There was actually a reasonable run-off space there in case of emergencies in the form of the full length of the garage itself - though I've already managed to knock a whole heap of stuff over in there with it by not being able to stop once.

 

It is actually running a whole heap better now - and I reckon it will do so even better once I've had the chance to actually get the engine under load for a period of time and hopefully blow some of the cobwebs and soot out of it.

 

I have achieved something this morning however in that I appear to have finally managed to properly secure the indicator/headlight stalk to the handlebar yoke.  I had a right struggle finding screws that were the exact right size to properly hold it in place.  They need to be just big enough to grip in the holes (bakelite), but not too big that they'll split it (as had happened with the old one).  Length is also important as if they're more than a couple of mm too long the tip of the screw then winds up shorting out the indicator contacts as they're perfectly in line with the mounting holes.  That also precludes the use of nuts/bolts rather than a self-tapping screw.  Cheers Lucas.

 

Not doing any further work on the interior at present, as the body will be coming off in the not too distant future.  So no point in doing work that I'll then have to undo later!

 

Mightily impressed...... although as DW says - that seems a bloody long way to go to have it stop with the bar lever. I'd leave the interior as is in that case, as you're obviously praying you don't go straight through the garage wall

 

I'd certainly be interested in the C5 - if you PM me any details of what it needs etc.... and a price in mind. I'm not back to UK very often, so no time constraints.

 

Sounds like it's running great though - proper result that

 

I'll dig it out next time I have a chance.  From memory it's missing the front wheel (well, it came with one, but it's stuffed), the brake drum/wheel bearing assembly and I've robbed the motor relay out of the control box (just a standard 12V/70A relay).  Other than that I don't think the electrics have been hacked about or anything.  Pretty sure I checked that the motor would actually run and the gearbox didn't make any horrible noises.  The boot isn't attached to it, but that I'm pretty sure is at the back of the shed full of other C5 bits at the moment.  Will drop you a PM once I've had a chance to look into that.

[Zelandeth]

Today hasn't been hugely productive as I had quite a few things I needed to get done around the house instead. I did however decide I'd had enough of messing about with the tail lights deciding that they'd work every third time they were tried. I knew this was just down to tarnished contacts in the lampholders rather than anything more sinister. The tail light clusters are pretty cheap and nasty to start with and have been missing their gaskets for goodness knows how long.  DW can attest to how downright shoddy these things are.  At least as I've basically rebuilt this bit of the loom, I don't have any of the bullet connectors left to muck me around, so I knew the issues were contained within the clusters themselves.

 

Now I could faff around with sand paper, emery cloth etc for goodness knows how long...however instead I busted out what is by far my weapon of choice for a myriad of tasks where abrasives are concerned - these clean up strips, available from Toolstation.

 

I first came across these in the US, where they're a standard item (albeit often on a reel rather than pre-cut strips)...however it's only recently I've discovered that Toolstation stock them. Suffice to say this made me happy, as they're extremely handy for cleaning up things like anitifreeze residue from coolant pipe stubs, getting stubborn oxide coatings off electrical contacts etc. Ten minutes each side and I've got things working a lot better I think. Long term I should probably think about replacing the clusters if they cause further issues as the terminals have definitely seen better days.

 

One thing I have discovered is that courtesy of having a thermal interruptor type flasher unit is that if you want both left and right indicator circuits to flash at anything vaguely like the same rate, you need to have carefully matched lamps in both sides. Currently the left is waaaay faster than the right, and it follows one perfectly normal seeming P21W bulb, which I have to assume has a slightly lower hot impedance than the others. They're all pretty crusty as well though, so a full new set will be going in shortly. While I was in there I gave the little metal discs which serve as reflectors a good polish up as well.

 

The lenses have just come out from a run through the *ahem* parts washer, and I'm glad to report have come out looking like new. I lost patience trying to get the grime out of the tiny grooves in the sides, it was taking forever!

 

 

The one is slightly faded around the edges of the indicator section, so I'm probably going to stuff an amber bulb in there just to remove any doubt of it causing issues at MOT time.

[Zelandeth]

No car update today as I spent almost the entire day trying to route cabling from the satellite dish on the side of the house to the master bedroom on the opposite side of the house.  Unsuccessfully.  It's a royal pain trying to get stuff routed through this place.  Mostly done now, just need to drill one more hole and then get things terminated.

 

Car-wise things will take a bit of a diversion now from the Invacar.

 

Main mission for the coming week will be to get the Lada back on the road for the summer.  Missions for this week include:

 

[] Fit new fuel tank & fuel pump.

[] Fit factory fuel lines*  (*Need to make up the long rigid section, but that should be pretty easy as I've got the appropriate ends).

[] Try to stop the exhaust blowing again.

[] Tidy up some of the mess I left after the injection conversion.

[] Properly sort the throttle linkage - preferably in a way that doesn't involve cable-ties.

[] Find a new damn windscreen...As apparently the repairer my insurer use can't get one.  Great!  Really makes me wonder why I spend thousands of pounds every year on insurance...

[] Fix the check engine light...

 

...The last one isn't going to be controlled by the ECU.  It'll emulate the functionality of the orginal - i.e. lighting if any one of a handful of variables go out of range.  These in this case will be lambda out of range (if the system is running in closed loop mode), or vehicle electrical system voltage too low.  The other couple of fault modes related to the fuel flow modulation solenoids being either open or short circuit, which no longer exist.  Shouldn't be too hard to put together something on a breadboard to do that.

 

I'd like to actually get the output from the ECU working again as that gives me the ability to read fault codes and such...and it's annoying having the inbuilt diagnostic system but not be able to use it.  Sadly that means finding another ECU, and that's proven more awkward than I'd hoped.

 

It's wanted for a wedding next weekend...so I'm REALLY hoping that this doesn't prove to be a major headache.

 

Invacar stuff will be pausing for a bit anyway.  I'm not saying too much right now, but let's just say that things have moved forwards with regards to the body situation - and it doesn't make sense for me to do too much more until that set of steps is complete.  There will be a flurry of activity in the near future though, don't fear.  This week though, things will be more focussed around the Russian fleet member.