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

[TrabbieRonnie]

One wee thing to check @Zelandeth, as you're doing your rounds...

The rear suspension arms can be rusty where they hold the bushes that mount them to the underside, especially the forward mount (on the right below)...

I think they call them the 'spoons', you can buy just the ends, and it was a quick job to cut them off and weld on new ones.  

Worth a look, mine were crusty.  Trabant Welt sells everything, just the import duties etc. spoiling the fun these days!

[bobdisk]

Like the reg  number!    

Deutsche Demokratische Republik

       What is the insurance like?

[wesacosa]

I love a Trabbie. Driven them a couple of times around Berlin.  Great fun. well bought 

[Noel Tidybeard]

maybe it needs to go on Kitchy's lolling road and on the wall of shame?

[barefoot]

3 hours ago, TrabbieRonnie said:

The rear suspension arms can be rusty where they hold the bushes that mount them to the underside, especially the forward mount (on the right below)...

I think they call them the 'spoons', you can buy just the ends, and it was a quick job to cut them off and weld on new ones.  

Worth a look, mine were crusty.  Trabant Welt sells everything, just the import duties etc. spoiling the fun these days!

And when they snap. It makes for entertaining handling until you turn sharply and things come completely apart pulling the handbrake on so tightly that there's no way to move it out of the middle of a junction. 

[TrabbieRonnie]

1 hour ago, barefoot said:

And when they snap. It makes for entertaining handling until you turn sharply and things come completely apart pulling the handbrake on so tightly that there's no way to move it out of the middle of a junction. 

Sounds like you're speaking from experience!

[barefoot]

Oh yes, my tame mechanic arrived. Bound it together with rope and mole grips and I followed him back to the garage.

[Zelandeth]

9 hours ago, TrabbieRonnie said:

One wee thing to check @Zelandeth, as you're doing your rounds...

The rear suspension arms can be rusty where they hold the bushes that mount them to the underside, especially the forward mount (on the right below)...

I think they call them the 'spoons', you can buy just the ends, and it was a quick job to cut them off and weld on new ones.  

Worth a look, mine were crusty.  Trabant Welt sells everything, just the import duties etc. spoiling the fun these days!

Well worth checking.  The rear end has all been apart to be re-bushed and has had the de-cambering kit fitted so hopefully anything needing attention would have been done then, but you never know!

Progress report.

The issue with the headlights/indicators has self-healed.

No amount of pushing, pulling or wiggling any wires in this vicinity could cause the issue to reappear...so I'll just need to keep an eye out for it I guess.  I will be tidying a couple of wire joins in that corner that are currently taped up with proper adhesive lined heat shrink to save future hassle.

The wonky windscreen wipers were actually really simple.

The arms are held onto the spindles with grub screws.

Said grub screw on the driver's side was barely finger tight.  There is a fair amount of play in the spindle itself, but there's now about an inch of rotational play in the system rather than being able to move the wiper a good 1/2 the way up/down the screen freely.

This definitely won't be doing the weather proofing any favours.

Not sure if there should have been an infill in there originally or if the seal has just shrunk.  Either way I'll be plugging that hole soon.

You can see daylight through the gap in the seal on the rear screen too, albeit a far smaller gap.

It doesn't look like there's any provision for the gutters to drain at the front of the car unless I'm missing something and there's a plugged hole in there.

This will have been encouraging water to run down into the door aperture.  I'll park the car facing uphill from now on to prevent that happening.

I did attack the carpets with the wet vac today to try to pull at least some of the moisture out as there's a lot of water in the car.  Unfortunately removing the swimming pool in the rear foot well was hampered by it getting down to -5C here last night so the water in the carpets there was basically a block of ice.

I'll need to revisit that obviously.  Likewise the passenger door pocket which has about 1" of solid ice at the bottom of it.

I did get a load out of the rest of the carpets though.

Doesn't look much different, but there was a good 3" or so of water in here.

Shame my dessicant dehumidifier died, as that was perfect for jobs like this as depending on the setting it also worked as a 600/900W fan heater.  Was absolutely magic for drying out damp cars.  If they weren't so bloody expensive I'd definitely pick another one up.

While I was vacuuming I discovered this under the driver's seat.

Hmm...I see absolutely no evidence at all that this car has ever had a history of electrical gremlins...there are plenty of dead ones rolling around the car as well.

A definite issue while driving was that the gear shift was really stiff in the horizontal plane, making shifting between 2-3 really awkward and reverse a right struggle to get into.

A thorough greasing session around all of the bushes (I think it was the one immediately behind the dash plastic that was the main issue) has sorted this.  The gearshift is now nice and light and really precise actually.  I've really not driven many manual cars with a column shift but this is definitely one of the better examples that I can recall.  

High on the "Okay now I've found that I need to fix it..." List is having discovered that the front bumper is currently affixed using nothing but a couple of zip ties.  The mounting points for the older style bumpers that have been fitted at the front apparently don't line up quite with those for the square style ones.  Nothing I can't remedy with a metal plate with a couple of holes drilled in it.  That will be one of tomorrow's jobs.  Likewise is adjusting the fan belt which I think is a touch loose.

Something I'll be changing soon as well are the crusty Chinese death rings.

Two of the tyres are really quite old and have perished badly (the inside sidewall of this one is way worse than this side), and are random budget brands.  Two are Toyos I think but are also pretty old (I can't remember the date code now, but they were definitely not made yesterday).   I'm just throwing a set of decent rubber on so they all match and I know it's been done.  A tyre was supplied with the car destined for the spare (which looks to be the original, and is in about the condition you'd expect), though it's a different size to what is actually on the wheels.  I think it's close enough for the spare though, and would be absolutely fine to get me home in an emergency.

The tyres would probably be fine for ages yet, but having had a blow out at speed in the past it's just something I'm paranoid about.  Plus having seen how awful the budgets on the Partner are in the cold wet weather compared to what I've come to consider normal has just reinforced my belief that cheap tyres are a false economy.  They're a massively safety critical part, and I treat them as such.  

On the subject of tyres, a question to those of you who know these cars, what pressure do you usually run the tyres at?  I'm guessing given how light the car is, probably around 25psi?

A replacement panel I could really do with is a bonnet as this one has a crack in and a little chunk out of the leading edge.

I imagine whatever impact caused the crack was also responsible for detaching the latch (held on by the bolt) and having the badge exit into the scenery.  Unless that is somewhere in the giant box of bits that I've yet to have a rummage through.

At least there's a better looking washer bottle in there.

Had the car out again today to run a variety of errands and yep, it still has me grinning like an idiot.

Had several people looking very confused when I opened the bonnet to put fuel in though.  Speaking of which I didn't spot yesterday that the fuel gauge is actually present and correct.

It is actually graduated in 2 litre increments to show how much fuel is in there.  Something you'd need to know when adding if out of a can or something as you need to know what's gone in to add the appropriate amount of two stroke oil.  Not so much of a problem from a fuel pump obviously as that clearly shows you what's gone in with far more precision.

Looks like my visual guess at usage yesterday was a bit off as I got a figure of 38.9mpg, but that's probably a worst case for this car given it was all motorway work - plus there may have been a bit of give/take in whether I stopped with the fuel in the tank at exactly the same level, we'll see what it averages out at.  I don't honestly care what the number is, I'm just honestly curious.

Do I regret making the swap I did?  Nope.  They're very different cars which each have their pros and cons.  I think for chucking around MK roundabouts this is probably the more fun of the two though.  

[Weird Car]

Just don’t forget to turn off the fuel tap, I made that mistake a few times with my old one, came out in the morning to no fuel and a big puddle under the car 

[TrabbieRonnie]

Great stuff. 

I have exactly the same windscreen rubber gap, siliconed every now and again, but it still drips onto my knee with the wipers on and at speed.

I think my tyres are at 26 psi, not an issue with the newish Vredestein's, but the old Pneumant's got very slidy at anything more.

I'm hoping at some point you'll have a front wheel off and let's us see the sexy* mysterious disc brake conversion...!

Very much enjoying your posts, good work fella 👍

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Not sure if there should have been an infill in there originally or if the seal has just shrunk.  Either way I'll be plugging that hole soon.

I think it's temp cycle shrunk, have seen it before an not always on cars.

[SiC]

You probably know this already but iirc there is a freewheel on the upper gears that you're supposed to use on occasion when doing high speed running to stop seizing the engine from lack of oil. 

[TrabbieRonnie]

32 minutes ago, SiC said:

You probably know this already but iirc there is a freewheel on the upper gears that you're supposed to use on occasion when doing high speed running to stop seizing the engine from lack of oil. 

Aye, just on fourth (top), saves engine wear while coasting (engine drops to idle without touching the clutch, and the freewheel takes up the drive again when the accelerator is pressed).

[bobdisk]

23 hours ago, wesacosa said:

I love a Trabbie. Driven them a couple of times around Berlin.  Great fun. well bought 

Was that the Trabi Safari ?  I did that, Fantastic, and a good introduction to the Trabi, and Berlin !!

http://www.trabi-safari.de/index.php?language=en

[wesacosa]

35 minutes ago, bobdisk said:

Was that the Trabi Safari ?  I did that, Fantastic, and a good introduction to the Trabi, and Berlin !!

http://www.trabi-safari.de/index.php?language=en

we did the Safari which was great and quite reasonably priced

we also hired one from a different place where we were free to take it wherever, although that was a few years ago now

 

[Zelandeth]

Well I may have been slightly optimistic in declaring the wipers "fixed."

That is however vastly better than what I had on the way home where the nearside wiper was barely making it past the rear view mirror most of the time.  There's still a very distinct "ca-chunk, ca-chunk" from the linkage so I reckon that a full re-bushing session may be needed to properly get this sorted.  Unless of course the linkage is also tied to the other side of the spindles with grubscrews which are as loose as the ones on the wipers were...Investigation of that will have to wait until a day when it's not absolutely tipping it down all day.  Which is why this car didn't move today.  I was sensible and took the Partner out instead...Despite really wanting to take this instead!

Given how much it's been raining overnight and all day today, parking facing up hill definitely seems to have helped with the water ingress.  How much it's helped will remain to be seen, but I was kind of expecting a puddle well above carpet level to have built up overnight in the back, but there doesn't seem to be any real additional damp in there compared to yesterday.

Really this is a car which would benefit from being in a garage or at least under a carport, but sadly that's not going to happen here.

[Zelandeth]

Had a rummage through the box of bits this evening.

First find was this in a ziplock bag.

Those to me look like bits of wiper mechanism (and some random nails).  The spindles look less worn than those on the car.

This (and a couple of other bits) are clearly for an older model.

Next find was an older style fuel cap, which is totally going on the car if it's the right size.

Has a little cup on the underside I assume intended for measuring oil into the tank.

Couple of other bits of electrical miscellanea, few headlights, couple of door handles, an ignition lock and some bits of wiring, but this is the most interesting of it.  

The wiper linkage bits are potentially actually immediately useful though.

[kevins]

With the amount of water getting in there is there a bung or 2 somewhere in the floor you can pull out?

[Sigmund Fraud]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Next find was an older style fuel cap, which is totally going on the car if it's the right size.

Has a little cup on the underside I assume intended for measuring oil into the tank.

I think this fuel cap is actually for an MZ motorbike (another IFA product !).

[Zelandeth]

4 minutes ago, Sigmund Fraud said:

I think this fuel cap is actually for an MZ motorbike (another IFA product !).

Intriguing.  Wouldn't surprise me I guess.  Wouldn't surprise me if they were the same size either!

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

This (and a couple of other bits) are clearly for an older model.

Next find was an older style fuel cap, which is totally going on the car if it's the right size.

Cool switches tho!

[barefoot]

There should be a couple of clips to secure the dipstick. Either in front of, or behind the tank, I honestly can't remember, but then I lost mine when I dropped it into the fuel tank. 

[Zelandeth]

Can you tell which side I've gone after with the vacuum cleaner yet?

Looking at this witness mark, I'm suspecting that the right hand side of the windscreen may be responsible for a lot of our water ingress.

I'm also somewhat suspicious of the passenger door seal, though hard to say if the water sitting in the bottom of the channel was just condensation as there's condensation all over everything at the moment.

A "small" amount of additional water was removed.

For now the car has been left to hopefully continue to dry out a bit.

Really the seats and carpets all want to come out, but I don't have time for that right now - so dehumidifier while it's warm enough is the best we can do after removing the excess.

[LightBulbFun]

while looking at this picture, I notice the tow bar/ball is missing, IIRC all Trabants came equipped with a tow ball, marketed for use with a caravan that went with them, but also I have heard incase the DDR army needed to requeasiton you trabant, dont know if thats just a urban myth or not however

but I do wonder, what is the towing capacity of a Trabant, can you tow TPA with it?  

 

I sadly dont know what the towing capacity of a Model 70 is, so I cant ask if you can tow the Trabant with TPA!

 

well I know that one Model 70 can recover another Model 70 from the Centre of York at least!

[Weird Car]

13 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

IIRC all Trabants came equipped with a tow ball

I believe this was just one of those old wives tales as I’ve owed a few and none had a tow bar, from what I understand it was an option on S and S Deluxe models 

I also saw one on a hycomat once which was just a 601 so maybe it was an option on those too? 

[Zelandeth]

15 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

while looking at this picture, I notice the tow bar/ball is missing, IIRC all Trabants came equipped with a tow ball, marketed for use with a caravan that went with them, but also I have heard incase the DDR army needed to requeasiton you trabant, dont know if thats just a urban myth or not however

but I do wonder, what is the towing capacity of a Trabant, can you tow TPA with it?  

 

I sadly dont know what the towing capacity of a Model 70 is, so I cant ask if you can tow the Trabant with TPA!

 

well I know that one Model 70 can recover another Model 70 from the Centre of York at least!

One of those situations where "can" and "should" likely are different things!  I wouldn't fancy towing 400kg with it given the car itself only weighs 600.

I know the bumper has been changed, no idea if the tow bar has been removed around then. I'll have a peek at some point see if there's evidence of one having been fitted.

[Weird Car]

I should also mention that I have a friend who tows a skif pop up caravan with his without any trouble and I always fancied a getting a sprite 400 to go behind mine as they can apparently tow those without much drama 

[Zelandeth]

I really appreciate cars where you can remove the carpeting without needing any tools.

As predicted, the felt underlay was absolutely sodden.  It is currently hung over the back fence with water literally running out of it.

The carpets have been stuffed in our spare room to dry out.  This doesn't feel like a material which will really hold on to moisture.

When the weather is warmer I'll probably attack them with some detergent and the pressure washer.  

Again in sharp contrast to Lada where the carpets are the cheapest of the cheap and will disintegrate if you look at them wrong, these are really sturdy.  If they were a bit smaller I'd honestly have no reservations about sticking them in the washing machine.  I don't have any doubt they would emerge completely unscathed.

Definitely was a good call.  No real damage done save for a bunch of surface rust as far as I can see, but it feels like the clock was *definitely* ticking.

Whatever is under the top coat is black so it looks worse than it is.  No holes I can see other than those which are meant to be there and even the worst looking bits shrugged off the screwdriver test.

I'll give this a scrub down with the wire brush a good dousing with Vactan then some protection once the car has dried out.  Still need to get the mat out of the boot but ran out of daylight today.

Don't think there's much mileage in drilling holes or anything as the carpet underlay is going to act as a giant sponge once refitted anyway - tracing and sorting the leaks I think needs to be the main mission.

Also, that's better than a giant hole in the dash.

[TrabbieRonnie]

Here's Rosie hitched up to the Qek Junior (specifically designed DDR caravan mentioned).  It's about 350/400kg and I can confirm that the weight is no bother...  the aerodynamic drag is an issue above 45mph though!

 

[grizz]

13 hours ago, TrabbieRonnie said:

Here's Rosie hitched up to the Qek Junior (specifically designed DDR caravan mentioned).  It's about 350/400kg and I can confirm that the weight is no bother...  the aerodynamic drag is an issue above 45mph though!

 

I saw this. 
 

Big grin here.