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

[Zelandeth]

8 hours ago, adw1977 said:

Wow, almost everything on the XJS looks frighteningly complicated and really hard to get at.  But it is a lovely looking car once it's all assembled!

You've basically just summed the car up in two sentences!

Speaking of complicated, have we ever mentioned the rear suspension?

Nothing on this car is simple. 

Bearing in mind that it was raining this morning, walking up to the car and finding only this by way of signs of condensation definitely seems a positive indication compared to yesterday...

Footwells are bone dry save for a bit of residual damp from the annoyingly glued in place carpet I can't remove.

I'd really like to get my dehumidifier set up in the car and leave it running for a few days to get the carpets I can't remove etc properly dried out, sadly the fan on it has seized so I need to pull it to bits to revive it at some point.

I only had half an hour today before the daylight failed, so was mainly checking for signs of further water ingress...however while I was there I snapped a few photos mostly for my own benefit, but also to help demonstrate how much stuff is crammed in behind the trim panels in this contraption for those who haven't worked on one.

The black rectangle attached to the blower body is one of about half a dozen fuse boxes scattered seemingly at random around the car.

Pulled the instrument panel yesterday to see if that would give me better access to get that annoying plenum back in place...the answer being "no" unless I want to remove the brace holding the steering column to the bulkhead. The blue thing several layers back is the offending item I'm trying to get back into where it lives. Even with that bracket out the way I don't think it would help me much as that wiring loom behind it is as solid as a rock.

At least getting the instrument panel out is pretty easy courtesy of it being a fully electronic panel so there's no speedometer cable to worry about and the reach adjustment on the steering wheel means getting it out of the gap is easy enough.

The moment you look down however you get to see the haphazard mess of relays in the general vicinity of the fuse box. Not sure if these were originally clipped in place some how...

Despite the penny pinching, nice to see they didn't skimp on RF suppression on the brake light switch!

Though I get the impression that switch probably contains 50% more moving parts than is really necessary.

In the passenger's footwell there's a second fuse box, another blower assembly and more relays. Some nice and neatly clipped in by the fusebox...others just...well stuffed behind the trim seemingly at random.

The whole push/pull arrangment for the bonnet release/lock means even the handle for that is overcomplicated.

Had wondered how far up the HVAC assembly I could see from down there...answer being "Not very" I think, so I'll probably need to pull the glove box out if I need to get to anywhere up there.

Just noticed looking at the photo, I do indeed spy an old Econocruise control box...there's a blast from the past.

It seems to be the same story basically behind any bit of trim you remove in this car...there's just "stuff" behind everything, including in the boot (which is where the injection ECU lives).

I think the HVAC control system probably gets the award for most overcomplicated design though. I mean you couldn't just have stepper motors, tiny servos or vacuum control...you had to have ALL of the above in one unit...I'm sure it made sense to somebody!

EDIT: Tyres have been ordered.  Hopefully a fitting slot will be available sooner than later.

[MorrisItalSLX]

All of these early-mid 80s Jaguar under dash shots are given me cold sweats.

Have you found any hidden in-line fuses yet? They’re my favourite. Especially the ones not on the wiring schematic.

[Zelandeth]

3 hours ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

All of these early-mid 80s Jaguar under dash shots are given me cold sweats.

Have you found any hidden in-line fuses yet? They’re my favourite. Especially the ones not on the wiring schematic.

Oh yeah, they're all over the car.  There are at least three visible in the photos above. 

The wiring diagrams I've found so far are about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike as they changed bits of the loom about every two weeks.

Think I may have found a smoking gun with regards to the slight but annoying damp that seems to be getting into the Xantia (just enough to make the windows instantly steam up whenever it rains).

Will pull and re-seal that tail light and see if that cures it.  All of the water off the rear of the roof and tailgate runs over here and there's a seam between two panels under the seal so it's a prime candidate for water ingress.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

4 hours ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

All of these early-mid 80s Jaguar under dash shots are given me cold sweats....

I mean, where do you even begin with that type of thing? The Minotaur's Labyrinth was nothing compared to Jaguar wiring!

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

I mean, where do you even begin with that type of thing? The Minotaur's Labyrinth was nothing compared to Jaguar wiring!

Just for fun it uses the old school glass fuses just to ensure you've got the maximum possible possible points for contact issues!

The thought does occur I should probably have checked which ones are relevant to the HVAC system and given them a wiggle before I started looking for other issues.

[MorrisItalSLX]

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Just for fun it uses the old school glass fuses just to ensure you've got the maximum possible possible points for contact issues!

Let’s not forget about the Lucas bullet connectors, which provide an electrical connection on par with a scotch-lock or a bulldog clip.

It’s a miracle anything works on these cars anymore.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 minute ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

Let’s not forget about the Lucas bullet connectors, which provide an electrical connection on par with a scotch-lock or a bulldog clip.

It’s a miracle anything works on these cars anymore.

It looks like a feckin' nightmare, and that's coming from someone who entrusts his weekend driving to the quality* of Citroën wiring. 

[Zelandeth]

Today we started out with this.

I put enough of the interior back together to make a trip out not downright uncomfortable.  After a brief stop for fuel (having ascertained thanks to SiC that Esso Supreme+ is indeed ethanol free) we made our way over to the garage to which my tyres have been  delivered.  They couldn't fit me in today...great.  Why did you let me book the appointment then?  Fine...grabbed the tyres from them and made my way over to Formula 1 in Newport Pagnell, who are who I'd normally have used in the first place. 

They didn't flinch at being asked to fit tyres that were sitting on my passenger seat, and didn't even need to be prompted to jack the car up under the front subframe rather than the sills and spent a good 15 minutes looking up the torque spec for the wheel nuts as I forgot to note them down beforehand...that's why I like them.

Yep...I was indeed correct that I had scrubbed a huge flat spot in them when someone basically launched themselves at me when I was in the outside lane of a dual carriageway.  That's the last time the car moved (aside from a 0.5 mile 20mph trundle to Sainsbury's) until today.  I'd really rather have had the tyres delivered and fitted at home but I just couldn't find anyone with availability and the tyres I wanted.  I really didn't want to drive across town like this.

Even prior to this event they were worn on the shoulders, courtesy of having something like 10 degrees of toe out for goodness only knows how long.  In addition to that they're unevenly worn and hugely out of round.

While the wheels were off I was able to take a look at the brakes.

Pads don't have much meat left on them but they're about to be changed along with the (warped) discs so I'm not worried about that.  Pipes all look nice though and the hoses are obviously pretty new.  Ferrules are spotless and they're nice and supple.

Few minutes later the wheels were back on.  Oh doesn't this look better?

Now as I had only put half the interior back together I discovered a slight flaw in my plan when it got dark, the offside kick panel isn't back in...that panel contains the dash lighting rheostat.  So I had no dash illumination.  As such I just made the trip directly home from the garage.  This isn't a good car to be lacking a speedometer in...

Initial impressions: I hate to sound overly dramatic but to say the car feels utterly transformed is accurate.   I had always had suspicions that the whole front end alignment might be out given that the car had always pulled quite strongly to the left...but equally knowing the tyres were so utterly knackered that I knew it wasn't really possible to make a proper judgement.  I'm glad to report that she now tracks almost perfectly straight.  There's still a *very* slight pull to the right under braking, but it's slight enough I'd not be worrying about it, and as I've got work to do on the brakes anyway I'll see how things are then.

The horrible vibration above 50mph is completely gone.  There's still a tiny bit of vibration through the car (not the steering wheel) at exactly an indicated 70mph, but I reckon that's a rear wheel balance issue as there's evidence of one having thrown a weight at some point.  To be honest it's slight enough it could be almost anything in the drivetrain in a car of this age.  Not going to worry about it.

Seems quieter too, but a bit hard to say as I had to keep the windows open as half the heater is in bits...and the exhaust isn't exactly quiet!

Seems way happier though.  I need to get a couple of things picked up tomorrow so if it's dry I'll try to get her out for a proper test drive.

Can get her booked in for an MOT now too...no way I was taking a car into an MOT at my usual garage with those tyres on, I'd never have been able to show my face there again!

[Zelandeth]

Between picking up meds, pet supplies and some service parts for the Xantia I wound up covering about 70 miles in the Jag.  Few points.

[] Your feet get BLOODY COLD when the blower isn't attached to the heater on that side, even when the blowers are off.  I blanked off the ports on the heater box to stop the air from the other side blowing straight out, but couldn't get at the blower outlet itself to do anything like that.  We'll see if I have enough patience available tomorrow to actually pull the sodding blower out to reassemble things.

[] I had forgotten how bloody lovely to drive this car is.  I had been idly pondering whether I might think about selling it on when (if) the classic car season gets underway next year.  The amount of swearing going on over the last week while attempting what should be simple repairs may have influenced that somewhat.  That all went out the window as soon as I got onto an open road today and got back into full waft mode...

[] While it's fun...the exhaust is probably a *bit* on the loud side.  Realistically what this system wants is the rear deresonators to be refitted and the front mufflers to be replaced with either freer flowing ones or them to be deleted.  That way you'd get more of the V12 wail at the top end and less resonance.  It's absolutely fine on the open road, but you are *quite* aware of how loud it is around town.  Especially as one of the loudest resonance points is about 1800rpm.  You pass through that area a lot when travelling at 30/40.  You also get some wicked standing wave effects about 10 feet away from the car when she's on the fast idle for the first few minutes - to the extent that it's almost uncomfortable to stand there.  Move a foot towards or away from the car it's way better...Welcome to real world wave physics demonstrations kids!

I reckon this system as it stands would suit a V8 just fine, but it's not so well suited to a V12.  Long term that's going to require some thought...and probably an annoyingly large amount of money spending, unless I'm lucky enough to find someone who wants to buy the existing system (including the rear silencers I've still got in the garage)...which ain't likely given it doesn't fit particularly well at the rear end.

[] MPG readout was steadily ticking up the whole time we were out.  The average has been running for about the last 1200 miles, and was showing 11.8MPG when we set out today, it was up to 12.4 when I got home.  That seems to tie in with what I've been feeling since the new tyres were fitted.  The car *feels* quicker and definitely seems to roll more freely...stands to reason that would be reflected in the fuel economy.  We'll see after a couple of fuel ups.  I know the trip computer tends to very slightly under-estimate MPG because of the tyre size mismatch (we're running 205/70 15s rather than 215/70 15s).  My average over the same distance had been sitting at just under 13MPG as I recall. 

Yes, small gains...but with this car you take what you can get!  I knew full well what I was getting into though and couldn't honestly care less about the economy.  If you can't afford the ticket, don't climb on board.  I'm not going to complain if it improves a bit though.

[] Brake imbalance.  Now the tyres have had a little more air put in (we're at 32psi at the moment) she is actually pulling up perfectly straight...so I'm not going to worry about that unless I find anything obviously amiss when I go in to change the discs/pads.

[] Vibration at speed.  We do definitely still have a bit of a vibration at speed...doesn't always seem to be there though.  I'll drop back by Formula 1 and get the rear wheels balanced first and go from there I think.  It's a cheap thing to get done and will give me an opportunity while the wheels are on the balancer to make sure they're not out of round (wheels or tyres!) or anything daft like that.

The car in general feels a whole lot happier now.  The ride is massively better (and has made me realise how bad the Xantia has got in the last few weeks) and it actually feels like the steering wheel is attached to the front wheels now.  Admittedly very, very distantly but that's what you expect on a car like this.  There is actually grip available now, while she's never going to corner like an Aerial Atom it's possible to hussle through the twisties far better than you'd expect for a 1700kg barge (with going on 500kg of power unit up front!) from this era to be able to.  I think the exact blend of handling versus comfort that Jag chose for this car is one of the reasons I like it so much.  They've definitely leant towards the long-distance touring comfort side of things, but haven't gone the full Rolls-Royce and removed all ability to attack a windy road with gusto when the circumstances are right.

[Isaac Hunt]

I see you've gone for a pair of Wankangs.  Let us know how  you get on in the wet.  I've got a car that got a set of four Falkens on it last time, but they seem to have elevated their brand to the more familiar 'names' category. And a really now priced accordingly.

  So, this time round, the car is going to get someone from the ditchfinder category.  

Mind you, compared with the covers that you have replaced, the Wankangs are going to feel like a pair of Meeshalins 

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, Isaac Hunt said:

I see you've gone for a pair of Wankangs.  Let us know how  you get on in the wet.  I've got a car that got a set of four Falkens on it last time, but they seem to have elevated their brand to the more familiar 'names' category. And a really now priced accordingly.

  So, this time round, the car is going to get someone from the ditchfinder category.  

Mind you, compared with the covers that you have replaced, the Wankangs are going to feel like a pair of Meeshalins 

To be fair the only reasons there were chosen were the price being right and that they were one of a very small selection I could find in this size that weren't specifically designed for SUVs or vans.  They seem reasonably well reviewed too...not special but perfectly decent which is fine by me.

As it is they'll probably only be on there six months or so as I really want to get the correct tyres fitted, given they're bleeping expensive though I'd rather have the uncertainty of my first MOT of a 35 year old Jag behind me first!

I've never been that impressed with Falken tyres the couple of times I've used them.  Poor ride and rapid wear being the universal characteristics I recall.  Normally I use Uniroyal RainExpert tyres exclusively...but they're not available in the size I need for the Jag (except in an XL rated SUV version), hence my current choice.

Have to admit that price isn't something I usually look at too much when buying tyres.  They're such a safety critical item that I'd always rather stick with a line which has earned my trust (eg the RainExpert range which I've used since 2003) or at least a brand with a reasonable reputation and seeing some decent reviews if I need to use one I don't know.

Given the current complete lack of a functioning windscreen demister she's not going anywhere in the wet...and being honest I try to avoid taking the car out in the wet anyway.  Initial impressions in the dry and slightly damp are decent enough though.  There is half a tonne of engine sitting on top of them though so I can't comment on how they might behave on a lighter car...

[Christine]

Do the tyres need to be VR speed rating for an mot ?

[Daviemck2006]

The falkens you fitted onto thaxantia td that eventually ended up with me weren't the best Zel. Very slidey in the wet. The car was improved massively with the different wheels with vredestien front and rain expert rear. Rain expert are the tyres of my choice just now.

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, Christine said:

Do the tyres need to be VR speed rating for an mot ?

I don't think they go further than making sure they're matched sizes on an axle as far as the tyre type goes, probably also ensuring they're not wildly inappropriate for the wheels.  It's had H rated tyres on since 2003 at the most recently anyway...

In the real world what's on there now will be absolutely fine and the vast majority of people wouldn't even notice they weren't standard.  It just bugs my OCD more than anything.  Plus I know the tyres I'm wanting to fit are specifically designed to behave like they used to with regards to having nice compliant sidewalls...not great for Nurburgring lap times, great for comfort.  Guess which I'm most interested in...

[Zelandeth]

57 minutes ago, Daviemck2006 said:

The falkens you fitted onto thaxantia td that eventually ended up with me weren't the best Zel. Very slidey in the wet. The car was improved massively with the different wheels with vredestien front and rain expert rear. Rain expert are the tyres of my choice just now.

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk
 

Yep, that echoes my experience.  They weren't bad in the dry, but never had great wet grip.  I only fitted those because we had a voucher for that garage offering 50% off, but as they're a Falken centre that was what I had to chose from.

[Zelandeth]

Well this is today's mystery!

This just dropped through the letter box.

Looking up the part number, that shows to be one of the coolant lines that attach to the (pressurised) expansion tank on the Jag.

The interesting thing is that I haven't ordered anything from British Parts in several months, and I'm pretty sure that this was indeed part of the full replacement hose set that I bought when I got the car and has already been replaced.  So why they've sent me another one I've no idea.  If there's an issue with the originals or something like that you'd have hoped that they might have included a note in the package to tell you...however what you see is the entire content of the package...The pipe and the flier it's sitting on.  Might need to send them an email!

[Zelandeth]

Yesterday I had actually planned to get a couple of things done.  However circumstances conspired otherwise when first thing in the morning I got a report that water was dripping into one of the upstairs bedrooms around the window frame.  This wasn't a massive surprise as I knew we had very occasional issues with water getting into that wall cavity when there was really heavy rain and a strong southerly wind - however it turning up upstairs was a new development.  Previously I'd had no luck actually tracking down evidence of the source, and had always chalked it up to issues with the flashing on the conservatory.  I had to admit I was never fully happy with that diagnosis though as given how things were fitted together I'd have expected the water to appear in a slightly different location if that were the case.  The conservatory *does* leak like a sieve in a few locations, and getting that sorted has been an absolute pain.  Nearly got it done last year before the scaffolding contractor we were speaking to dropped off the grid right as we tried to get things ordered.  However it's an unusual structure so getting anyone to work on it is hard.

Last time I was looking for possible sources of the leak I'd removed a bit of the insulation in a few areas to help potential future detective work.

Worth noting that what looks like clear sky in the photos below isn't...the camera makes it look far brighter than it is, it's looking into the void behind the roof soffit.

This is looking directly up at the edge of the roof more or less directly below where I'd been told water was coming in.

Nothing forming as much of a smoking gun as a soaking wet area would have been...but something did catch my eye.  At this point I can honestly do a proper CSI style "zoom and enhance" moment...I used to think having optical zoom on a phone camera as a useless gimmick.

Oh hello there.

Now I know under normal circumstances there shouldn't really be water on the back of that felt as it's pretty much a last line of defence...however my theory is as follows.

I'm assuming that between the raised soffit (which is formed of blocks of some sort screwed to the roof edge (the retaining screws are what you can see in the above photo) made of either concrete or asbestos I'm guessing) and the roof that there will be flashing of some description.  Sadly I have no way of actually seeing this join as due to the layout of the house and surrounding area there is nowhere that I can get line-of-sight of the back of the front roof edge.  If that flashing were compromised, it would let water get in through the edge there, possibly getting in between the tiles and the felt.  Could be made worse if there was any compromise of the mortar between the blocks that form the facade there...Wait, like this?

The screw you can just about make out to the right of the visible hole there is the one you can see in the interior photo above.

On the plus side, these are all things which we'll hopefully be able to get a normal roofing specialist in to look at and deal with as it's less specialised than the big double-height conservatory.

In addition to the above visible things I noticed that where the weatherproofing felt on the outer side of the wall panel should wrap up around the top to provide a barrier against any moisture which might through the action of wind etc find its way into this area was quite degraded right above where we'd had the ingress issues.  Just too many coincidences for my mind.

So...this week I'll be adding "try to get hold of a roofing specialist" to me to do list. 

In the meantime I wanted to patch up what I could actually get to and basically see if it changes anything next time we have biblical rain like we did on Saturday night.  Will be making a point of getting up here next time that happens rather than complaining that it's 5AM, sticking some towels down where the drip was appearing and burrowing back into bed, so as to hopefully get some visual confirmation.

Step 1, patch the hole in the felt.  Longer term it will need to be replaced - but that's not a job I can do.  I can however blob a bunch of Sikaflex onto a bit of plastic sheet and stick it in place.

Then scavenged what I could find laying around in the loft to wedge it in place while that cures.

Last thing I did was to patch up the cracks in the edge of the weatherproofing sheet that I could see/feel along that edge.  Access is poor as this is helpfully right behind the heating expansion tank of course.

We'll see if anything has changed next time it rains heavily.  Makes no difference to the fact that we'll be getting a specialist in as soon as possible to look at it, but hopefully might have helped something in the interim.  Time will tell.  Just hoping that whole soffit attachment board doesn't need replacement.  I did give it a good old bash with a screwdriver and it felt just as hard as the wood around it so hopefully it's not rotten...watch this space I guess.

There are times when home ownership really does have its downsides.

This afternoon I'll hopefully get the interior in the Jag more or less back together.

[Zelandeth]

Back to battling with the world's most overcomplicated HVAC system in the world's most overcrowded cabin.

While I know the system has some issues, I'm reluctant to go doing stuff like pulling blowers and the whole system to bits until I've seen how it behaves with air actually going through the heater box rather than just all bleeding out behind the driver's side trim panels.  However before I could really test anything I need to get That Bloody Plenum back on.  This thing.

Which after four separate attempts probably amounting to four or five hours, I'd basically decided was impossible to get into place as it stands without removing the offside blower motor and attaching it to that first, then wrestling the whole lot into place as one.

However because Jaguar are Jaguar they've bolted a shedload of stuff onto the blower motor because it was a convenient flat surface. 

Exhibit A: The offside blower motor and (nearly) everything attached to it.

Which wouldn't be so bad if they had actually used bolts rather than machine screws...to which there's no way I can see if getting a screwdriver to without dismantling far more of the dash.

Just to add to the fun they seem to have used thread lock on them.  Sod taking that out if I can avoid it.

At this point I had a critical patience failure and decided to mutilate the plenum.  A slit in the one end allowed me to get my hand inside it.

This improved my available dexterity by about 300% and more importantly allowed me to be able to feel when each corner was actually positioned properly.  Sadly this still wasn't successful as it's such a tight fit on the blower.  I kept getting three corners on, but the opposite one would always pop off every time I tried to get the last edge on.  So I hacked the thing actually in two and made up a sleeve to rejoin them together.

It still took half an hour of swearing to get in because it's a *really* snug fit on the blower assembly...but eventually it was attached to the blower again.  I then patched things up with ally foil tape, which I'll cover with duct tape tomorrow for mechanical support.  Given how tight it was to get the hose onto the blower there's no way I'd have got it together without doing this or taking the blower out.

Less said about that the better, but it's sealed and buried behind a trim panel...so I'm not caring it's messy.  Access is just so poor that making it pretty just isn't happening.

With this back together and it set to demist, suddenly we had toasty warm air to the windscreen and plenty of it.  Previously we'd had lukewarm and poor flow.  We actually seem to have controllable temperature too which is progress.

Next port of call will be the blower speed control relay as I still only seem to have a blower on full speed - though on auto I did get a medium-ish speed once (there are four speeds)...so the speed control relay is due a contact cleaning session I reckon.

However now the windscreen wipers have stopped working...ah, Jag life.  Given I've been working in the vicinity of it hopefully it's just a dodgy fuse contact.  Given the heavens opened half way through fitting the plenum, that's a job for tomorrow.  I want to go through the fuse boxes anyway as it appears that there have just been replaced completely at random.  This one should have been a 3A one...

So I want to make sure they're all replaced with the right values. 

This dropped out of the passenger side fuse box when I took the lid off too...this sort of thing instills confidence doesn't it!

Hoping that was a "get me home, my headlights have failed" type fix.  It wasn't fitted, just rattling around behind the lid (no doubt just waiting to short things out)...I do note there's one dodgy contact in that fuse box too, so may look into replacing it.  At least it's a small fuse box.

Note another incorrect fuse there...another 17A where it should be 10A.

Oh the joys of automotive electrical gremlins...

[SiC]

Saw this and chuckled...

 

[mat_the_cat]

On 11/16/2020 at 6:45 PM, Zelandeth said:

This dropped out of the passenger side fuse box when I took the lid off too...this sort of thing instills confidence doesn't it!

This made me chuckle!

[Zelandeth]

Having had the joyous experience of dropping a spanner and have it land squarely across the terminals of the battery on a bus, I dispute the slow blow claim!

[Zelandeth]

Decided it had been far too long since TPA had been out.  Had intended to get her out last week but torrential rain ended up putting paid to that plan, mainly on account of the windscreen demister being pretty much useless.  Issue is basically that because the duct is so long and narrow there just isn't enough airflow.  The heater really needs a decent blower which can both shift a decent volume of air and also produce decent static pressure so it doesn't just get choked by the ductwork. That was the issue I had with the axial blower I tried originally...it shifted masses of air in the open but couldn't handle the back pressure from the heat exchanger and all the ducting.

It was obvious on startup that she wasn't happy.  Just wouldn't idle properly, no matter what I did.  Felt more like an ignition than fuelling issue to me so decided to go over the basics.

Gave the distributor cap a wipe down and the contacts a scrub up. 

Wasn't terrible but equally could be better.  Given this is the cap which came with KPL and spent goodness knows how long open to the weather I really should just change it...

The rotor arm looked fine so just gave it a very gentle clean.  That's not a dark spot by the way, there's just a polished spot where the centre contact sits and it's reflecting shadows.

Pretty sure dirty points were to blame as there was a bit of oxidisation present.  Gap was fine though once the contact surfaces had been given some attention with some fine Emery cloth.

While I was in the area I changed the somewhat ropey crimp terminal on the switched line from the coil.

I'd noted that I could stall the engine by wiggling that wire before so had been meaning to change it for a while.

I did note when testing that there's a bit more of an arc at the points as they open than I'd like.  So I reckon the condenser is on the way out.  May well be behind the original issues today.

Given how terrible the quality of most automotive replacements these days I'm not even going to bother with them.  These condensers almost always seem to be in the 0.1-0.3uF range that I've seen values stamped on, so as I've got good quality polyester film caps in stock in 0.22uF/1kV I'll just be fitting one of these.

I'll probably gut the can of the original and stick it in there so it'll be a nearly invisible upgrade.  This cap should essentially be a fit and forget solution as these caps don't tend to degrade appreciably and damp doesn't affect them as they're properly hermetically sealed.

I still keep expecting this engine to use oil for no really valid reason and it keeps surprising me when the oil level never moves.

With the ignition system back together she started up first touch and idled properly again.

Reckon the points might have wanted a clean for a while as I'd swear it feels like we've got more low end torque now.

So off we went to pick up dog food...

Then off to pick up a few other essentials in a few different locations. 

Most of the travel between these locations wound up being straight up and down the A5 as town seemed to be really snarled up most of today for some reason.  Sure I remember there being a time when "big" roads like that were something I generally tried to avoid wherever possible in this car...whereas now we're quite happy to use them and buzz along quite happily at a shade over 60.  About 63 seems to be where she gets into a groove on roads like that for want of a better term.

Still find it somewhat amusing that the speed she hates doing the most is 30.  To look at it you'd expect this to be most happily bumbling along at that sort of speed, not blasting along the open road at 60 plus change.  The dissonance between the appearance and actually capabilities still makes my head spin a little and never ceases to amuse.

Glad to report that the adjustment of the nearside door front striker has both reduced the door rattle noticeably and has vastly reduced the draught which used to come in around the leading edge.

[LightBulbFun]

Yay happy to see TPA is out and about once more im not sure if you do it intentionally or not but I find it amusing how you always seem to photograph her with other blue cars in the shot  

I look forward to seeing how the modern capacitor replacement goes in place of the condenser, its something I have on my to do list for REV once she is on the road and at home (she runs fine as it is so I dont have to worry about replacing it right away, but id like to change it so im not left stranded in the middle of oxford street or something because the 45 year old original  failed!)

I still wonder why people still fit cheap and nasty automotive condensers when today you can get good high quality high voltage capacitors to do the job just as well and be much more reliable 

to me its like someone fitting wax paper caps back into a vintage radio thats being restored LOL

 

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

Yay happy to see TPA is out and about once more im not sure if you do it intentionally or not but I find it amusing how you always seem to photograph her with other blue cars in the shot  

I look forward to seeing how the modern capacitor replacement goes in place of the condenser, its something I have on my to do list for REV once she is on the road and at home (she runs fine as it is so I dont have to worry about replacing it right away, but id like to change it so im not left stranded in the middle of oxford street or something because the 45 year old original  failed!)

I still wonder why people still fit cheap and nasty automotive condenser  when today you can get good high quality high voltage capacitors to do the job just as well and be much more reliable 

to me its like someone fitting wax paper caps back into a vintage radio thats being restored LOL

 

To be fair, when I was dailying the Skodas I just used to always carry two spares in the car.  The Rapid in particular used to like eating capacitors for a pastime.  Funnily enough I never had one fail in either of the Metros.

When they were something you could pick up for £1 at any car parts store it really wasn't too much of an issue as you just made sure that you had spares on hand.  Nowadays you basically have to order them in, so it's far more of a pain.  I think up until the early 00s you could generally rely on a new one fitted lasting you at least a year or two...Nowadays you never know whether they'll even work when they come out the box.

It's also far less of a pain to pull over in the middle of nowhere in Aberdeenshire to spend five minutes swapping out a condenser than it is if something starts playing up halfway down H5 in the middle of Milton Keynes!

Funny you should mention vintage radios...that's what I have these caps in stock for!

[dollywobbler]

Interesting. TWC feels very happy at 30 - part throttle, like she's barely trying.

[Zelandeth]

5 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

Interesting. TWC feels very happy at 30 - part throttle, like she's barely trying.

TPA will do it...just requires an eagle eye to keep her there as if you take your eye off her for a millisecond you're going to be doing north of 40 again. 

[Zelandeth]

This afternoon I decided to tackle a nice quick job as a follow on from yesterday.

Checking it on the meter the original condenser was doing a passable impression of a 600K ohm resistor with no reading given on the capacitance range on my meter.  Yep, that'll be dead then.

The polypropylene film cap sitting next to it should be a "fit and forget" replacement as they're far more long lived.

The innards were gouged out from the open end of the can and a hole was drilled for one lead of the new capacitor to poke through.

This was then soldered to the case (note that these capacitors are non polarised so it doesn't matter which side is ground).

Not the tidiest job but I was running out of gas in the soldering iron so was trying to be quick.  It's solid and has good continuity to the can.  Those are the important points.

The new cap is a little longer so unfortunately will unavoidably poke out the bottom a little.

Shouldn't be visible in situ though unless you're peering at it.

Getting the wire (which is integrated into the insulating block which passes through the distributor wall at the other end) soldered to the cap lead was a major pain.  Had to use quite a bit of heat and wound up shrinking the heat shrink I'd hoped to slide over this lead.

I'll come back to that another day.  It'll be fine for now with a bit if tape.  Not as though the wire is long enough to go anywhere.

Especially as the void in the can has now been filled with hot glue to provide mechanical support to the cap.

If I have problems with it going gooey due to heat I'll revisit things and use epoxy.  I just don't have any in stock right now.  Reckon it'll be fine though.

Back in place you wouldn't notice something was amiss unless you were specifically looking for it would you?

Bit of tape has since been added to the coil connection wire to the cap just to ensure it can't short on the case.  Glad to report that this was the result when I turned the key (note she's stone cold here).

Which is always reassuring given at least twice in the past I've resolved minor ignition issues on cars and then lost all spark until I spent an hour faffing around and swearing at them.

Not really expecting to notice any difference on the road but we'll see when I next have her out and about.

[dollywobbler]

10 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

TPA will do it...just requires an eagle eye to keep her there as if you take your eye off her for a millisecond you're going to be doing north of 40 again. 

Ah yes! That can be an issue. 20mph is also quite tricky to stick to I find.

[Zelandeth]

12 minutes ago, dollywobbler said:

Ah yes! That can be an issue. 20mph is also quite tricky to stick to I find.

The curse of the CVT and a relatively torquey engine I guess!

20 has been less of an issue for me as any of the roads around here that are 20s also have speed bumps or cushions every three and a half feet.

[PhilA]

That capacitor is way and above better than the chewing gum wrapper and stolen electrolyte recipe that's in modern ones.

Looks like the dwell on the cam is fairly long too, that generally helps to extend the life of the things as the charge-discharge period is lengthened.

Exterior ones are so much easier to deal with too. They also tend to run cooler than being cramped up in the dizzy.

 

Phil