Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 19/04.

[Zelandeth]

18 hours ago, Andyrew said:

Well fudge me! So that's where that bulb is ment to go! It was hanging down when I got the car so I just shoved it in the glove box. I had that heater panel off recently as the cable sleeve holders had broke and the cable for the heater valve was stuck. In a last min fix the cable was left disconnected for heat control and tucked up under the dash. 

That oil pressure fitting didn't leak before scotland I'm sure. Before scotland the car was hardly being topped up. It's a sweet little engine in my mind. 

I still reckon it is indeed a sweet little engine.  I think it was just time for that washer on the pressure fitting to call it quits.  Was a simple fix once I figured out what was going on with it.  Still looks to be dry there now at least.

[Zelandeth]

Well this isn't ideal.

Camera absolutely doesn't handle colour balance well here...offside headlight is a neutral ~4000K white.  Nearside one today has turned distinctly pink/orange tinted.  Whereas the camera has made the nearside one look normal and the offside one looks green...I gave up after fighting with the camera for about five minutes.  You're just going to have to trust me.

Good side.

Not good side.

Guess it was only a matter of time before I had to mess with this nonsense.  Especially given they run whenever the car is running, because Volvo.

Oddly, they're not actually to hard to get to - though the air box/ECU on the nearside is precisely close enough to just make it really ANNOYING.

2006 date codes on these, so they are entirely likely original to the car, in which case they've definitely done their time.

I'd been pondering changing them anyway on ages grounds as the headlights really didn't seem as bright as I'd have expected - I've only driven the car a few times in full darkness, and had expected better so I reckoned the lamps had aged a fair bit.

Pretty sure I didn't cause this damage when removing the lamp, which makes me wonder how long this has been like this.

New pair hopefully here tomorrow - and I'll find out precisely how much MORE in the way the air box is when trying to get the locking collar of the nearside one back into place.  Given the general decline in quality of HID lamps over the last 10-15 years with the march towards everything being LED, I find myself doubtful that the replacements will last anywhere near as well as the originals have.

[Zelandeth]

Replacements arrived today.  Shown here during the standard customs inspection.

Failed inspection on account of being too boring and not edible.  Better put them in the car then if they're not allowed in the house!

Shiny.

The driver's side is really easy.  You can clearly see where the access cover is off below.

Passenger side, not so much.

Of course this is the one which wouldn't just slot straight in as well isn't it.

Eventually I resorted to getting a camera involved.  It turned out that two of the springy "fingers" which connect with the square ignitor housing (I assume for RFI containment) had been bent over.

Given how wicked tight the locking collar was to release on the old lamp and tell tale scratches in that area, I reckon it's been like that since square one.  With them bent down slightly it slotted straight in and the locking collar clicked into place with an entirely reasonable amount of force.

Much better.

Both lights are now the same colour.  Definitely better than they were - definitely had a distinctly greenish tint before.

Be curious to take the car out after dark to see if they're noticeably brighter - kind of hard to tell just sitting in the driveway.  Really do need to get the lenses properly polished up though as they no doubt aren't helping, and do let down the look of the car a bit.  Job done for now though.

Now just to wait a couple of weeks for the skin on my right wrist to grow back!

[SiC]

At least with HIDs you won't be having to do this in a very long time. Perhaps they'll even be able to outlive the car. 

I don't think I've ever had to replace a dead one. Only because I noticed they weren't particularly bright against other cars and had dimmed with age. 

[Zelandeth]

16 hours ago, SiC said:

At least with HIDs you won't be having to do this in a very long time. Perhaps they'll even be able to outlive the car. 

I don't think I've ever had to replace a dead one. Only because I noticed they weren't particularly bright against other cars and had dimmed with age. 

Exactly my thinking.  A hundred quid service item that's only needed every 50-70K miles of work doesn't seem at all excessive to me.  Heck, it's less than a full tank of diesel if I let it get too low.  If you're willing to take a punt on a random name you've never heard of or roll the dice on the counterfeit lottery on eBay/Amazon there are cheaper options as well.  Shouldn't hopefully be something I need to worry about for a long while now though (assuming the self levelling/cornering mechanisms don't loose their marbles anyway).

[beko1987]

The self leveling rods are prone to snapping on the laguna 2, mine had to be cable tied back on to the passenger side for the mot...

The fix was 4mm or so threaded rod, then ball joints on the ends of those, replacing the full factory plastic linkage.

Always looked a neat and tidy job when I saw it done but I can't help but think in a smack it'll probably rip the ends off the headlight/wherever the other end goes and not snap the cheaper* plastic rod...😂

Luckily on my laguna it dipped the passenger headlight down a tad and away from cars so I could still see, no one got blinded and it never got fixed for more than a few days.

[Zelandeth]

Had a brief totally unnecessary panic today when I came back out from a shop to see a giant pool of rusty coolant under the VP.  Which puzzled me as it was neither hot enough to have caused the expulsion of large amounts of coolant, level of said coolant was exactly where it should be - and it was lovely and clean.  Which was the final piece of the puzzle, confirming to me that it must have been left there by the previous car that had just pulled out as I arrived and I just didn't notice it when I parked up because I walked away to the rear of the car.

I think one of the jobs for this weekend really needs to be to give the Rover a good clean.  It's filthy from a combination of just winter grime and from dust kicked up while the landscaping was underway.  I moved it this afternoon when getting some awkward furniture through the gate and could barely see out the damned thing reversing back onto the driveway.  

I have fixed one thing on that car though (or at least I hope I have), which was tightening up the securing screw on the driver's wing mirror - so hopefully it will now stay where it's put rather than ending up pointing at the rear wheel after you hit the first bump.  It's a tiny thing, but was a *really annoying* tiny thing when driving it.  Especially as the driver's window really doesn't like opening or closing.  That's probably going to be near the top of the list to investigate as again - it's really fluffing annoying and the sort of silly thing which leads to me just not wanting to drive the car.  It actually works just fine but is really stiff so hopefully just needs cleaning up and the relevant parts lubricating.

Reckon with that and the front camber sorted properly so it tracks right I might actually be inclined to get some more miles covered and maybe actually start developing a bit of confidence in it.

Oh...and sorting at least the trip/odometer (they packed in last time I had it out) so in the absence of a working fuel gauge that I have *some* way to keep tabs on the fuel situation...That should also be near the top of the list I guess.  Or try to sort the gauge - though that involves draining and pulling the tank, which quite simply put I really don't want to do, so yes I am indeed putting that off!  On the plus side, I am pretty good at removing and installing the instrument cluster by now, so that bit shouldn't take me too long!  I only had it out about 150 miles ago to attempt to sort the ammeter and replace several dead illumination lamps (one of which has already gone out again anyway).

Oh, and the Volvo is demanding more attention again.

Needy bloody moderns!

[PhilA]

Those old bulbs weren't long for the world if they were going green. The next step is when they go a 70% brightness pink- that's your last warning they're about to fail, and normally last about a week at that point. 

Worth doing. By the look of the chambers the salts were about done for.

[Zelandeth]

Not really been much going on.  

I've been very happily bumbling around in the VP.  Couple of hundred miles since I attacked the oil leaks and it was topped up back then...

Level hasn't moved visibly on the stick since then I'm glad to report.  That's actually pretty much on the max mark when you take into account the slope of our driveway.

She definitely is still leaking a bit from the flywheel side of the engine, but it's reduced enough that it's not actually using an appreciable amount, just marking it's territory a bit when you park up.

Actually just ticked over 83K on the odometer today.

I'm having to sit on my hands to not pull the speedometer out to lube up the trip/odometer gear train - that's 90% likely to be responsible for the speedometer essentially showing a +/- 20mph moving average at any moment.  I haven't looked at how much of a pain it would be to get out to work on, as I know if I do that I'll end up doing it.  Then I'll also end up trying to hunt down all the rattles and buzzes behind the dash, and that way lays madness.

Mostly though I've just been enjoying it.

Something I don't think I'd mentioned before as one of my favourite things about the car (aside from the suspension's ability to smooth out the horrendous roads of MK in 2025) is the view out over the wings and bonnet.

That really doesn't get old.

It really is quite a cheerful little car and I definitely could see me with an ADO16 in the future one day.  I really can see why they were so popular cars in their time.  

Volvo is back on duty tomorrow as I need to pick up some Invacar spares that have surfaced and that involves a couple of hours of driving each way - and that's the sort of thing it's best at (and has a whole load of luggage space).

[Andyrew]

Excellent work! 

It's a great little mile muncher I find,  I'll miss having it around but can definitely see me having another Ado16 in the future I think.

[LightBulbFun]

11 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

It really is quite a cheerful little car and I definitely could see me with an ADO16 in the future one day.  I really can see why they were so popular cars in their time.  

3 hours ago, Andyrew said:

Excellent work! 

It's a great little mile muncher I find,  I'll miss having it around but can definitely see me having another Ado16 in the future I think.

please dont tell me its up for sale soon?! I was *mighty* tempted by it last time, everything exempt automatic is perfect for London, although im glad I did not get it, since I could not of given it the TLC it needed, but now, its had its TLC, if I cant get REV sorted for the big trip I have on the 25th of April, I am thinking it might make a good stop-gap! or if nothing else I should tag @wesacosa  

 

[Andyrew]

49 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

please dont tell me its up for sale soon?! I was *mighty* tempted by it last time, everything exempt automatic is perfect for London, although im glad I did not get it, since I could not of given it the TLC it needed, but now, its had its TLC, if I cant get REV sorted for the big trip I have on the 25th of April, I am thinking it might make a good stop-gap! or if nothing else I should tag @wesacosa  

 

Yeah off soonish and Already dibbed by another shiter but I'll put you on the list. 

[plasticvandan]

5 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

please dont tell me its up for sale soon?! I was *mighty* tempted by it last time, everything exempt automatic is perfect for London, although im glad I did not get it, since I could not of given it the TLC it needed, but now, its had its TLC, if I cant get REV sorted for the big trip I have on the 25th of April, I am thinking it might make a good stop-gap! or if nothing else I should tag @wesacosa  

 

You really think it won't need something else in the near future?it's 55 years old.

[Zelandeth]

Today has involved precisely 102 miles too much of the M25, making a dash down to the south coast to grab some Invacar bits.  This was the result of someone who had found my website reaching out to see if I could offer some things a home.  The Steyr-Puch side of things is their thing really, but they had acquired some Invacar bits in among a load of other parts.

Big thanks to them if they're reading this as there's some quite useful stuff in there.  Exhaust has some surface rust from storage but appears absolutely sound.  The guy has said he'll keep an eye out for any more bits that might surface in the future.

The thing I'm most interested in is the carb.  The one I have on TPA currently has quite a lot of wear in the throttle shaft, and even though it generally runs the engine well I know it's a problem waiting to happen at some point.  This one seems to be in far better shape, so hopefully with a good service will be ready to go.

The coil is in far better shape than mine too which honestly looks like it was pulled off the bottom of the ocean.  I'll be grabbing the support rod which sits between the intake manifold and air cleaner as well as I've currently got a home made one there.

[High Jetter]

41 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Today has involved precisely 102 miles too much of the M25, making a dash down to the south coast to grab some Invacar bits.  This was the result of someone who had found my website reaching out to see if I could offer some things a home.  The Steyr-Puch side of things is their thing really, but they had acquired some Invacar bits in among a load of other parts.

Big thanks to them if they're reading this as there's some quite useful stuff in there.  Exhaust has some surface rust from storage but appears absolutely sound.  The guy has said he'll keep an eye out for any more bits that might surface in the future.

The thing I'm most interested in is the carb.  The one I have on TPA currently has quite a lot of wear in the throttle shaft, and even though it generally runs the engine well I know it's a problem waiting to happen at some point.  This one seems to be in far better shape, so hopefully with a good service will be ready to go.

The coil is in far better shape than mine too which honestly looks like it was pulled off the bottom of the ocean.  I'll be grabbing the support rod which sits between the intake manifold and air cleaner as well as I've currently got a home made one there.

Where south? Did you meet anyone?

[Zelandeth]

1 minute ago, High Jetter said:

Where south? Did you meet anyone?

Worthing-ish.  Not anyone on here I'm afraid, just someone who got in touch with me having found my website. 

[High Jetter]

3 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Worthing-ish

*Shudders* Glad you got out alive!🤣

[Zelandeth]

After a couple of weeks away with @Andyrew the Trabant returned home today.  While I have very much enjoyed wafting around in the VP over the last couple of weeks I'm happy to have this buzz box back.

Will definitely miss the VP - though I do need to do a bit of clean up where I first parked it before we'd addressed the oil leak!

 

The time away for the Trabant had been to investigate and deal with this crusty bit of the offside sill just behind the front wheel.

As we all know what you can see is always just the tip of the iceberg, and this turned out to be no different.  A fair chunk of the bottom of that sill turned out to be rotten, and further grot was found in the front crossmember.  Repair work here shown just before it was painted over with underbody sealant, allowing you to both see quite how much metal was replaced - and the quality of the workmanship.

Some lovely fabrication work and welding there.

There are a few other areas which will want further attention in the future, but all well clear of prescribed areas and nothing that I'm imminently concerned about.  However I knew this was seriously important structurally (especially given that basically the whole front of the car hangs off those two big mounting points to the cross member) so needed sorting sooner than later.  Just a shame that nobody aside from me and my usual MOT tester will ever see the work done here!

I also finally got the car transferred over to the historic tax class yesterday and logged as MOT exempt (despite that, it's still going in for a test next week) as I ran into issues last time I attempted to do that.  The MOT exemption I'm not particularly worried about other than it making the logistics of getting it back a bit simpler, but I'll definitely take the £18 or whatever it is a month saving on road tax costs.

Something that did get noticed shortly after I did the engine swap was a crack in the front exhaust pipe just after the heat exchanger/expansion box.

While this has been sleeved to help hold it together structurally in the meantime it needs changing.  It was looked at while the car was on the ramp and deemed to be too far gone to really do anything with - I'd seen how paper thin it is around that joint so that was fully expected.

I did speak to a couple of places locally about having a system made up in stainless but they really weren't interested.  I did consider just buying the middle section that's gone as the rest of the system does still have at least a bit of life left in it yet - but instead just pushed the button on a new 38mm system.  Which should help get the most out of the better carb and overbore on the engine itself.  I also don't like pissing about with exhaust systems so don't want to be replacing one pipe now and having another bit go six months or a year down the line - hopefully this will be something that won't need to be touched for a good few years once it's all on there.  Given we've got a fair few uprated parts on there, it just seems a bit silly not to add the last bit to get the most out of it as well.  38mm doesn't *sound* like a big exhaust bore - but the stock one is 35mm...This is a really small engine!  Should make a noticeable difference at the top end I expect - apparently the baffling arrangement in the heat exhanger/expansion box up front is quite different to the stock one as well so flows considerably better.

I did check the plugs when I got back today - and it looks like I am now running a little too rich I think.  Camera has made this look a little darker than it really is.

Which is good - I was aiming to go a bit too far that way then back off a notch on the slide setting in the carb to find what's probably the safest setting for the engine.  With two strokes being what they are I'd always rather err on the side of rich than lean.  A fouled plug is far easier to deal with than a melted piston.

Really happy to have the car back.  This is always one of those areas where there's going to be a huge amount of placebo effect, but it seems to *feel* more solid and planted on the road.  I guess this could have made a noticeable difference though given that we found that the rot had got into areas next to the subframe mounts off which the whole engine and front suspension setup is hanging - wouldn't take much movement there to be perceptible from the driver's seat.  I'm pretty sure though it's entirely in my head and just knowing that there's not a big hole in structural areas any more is making my brain think the car feels more solid.

Again, a huge thanks to @Andyrew for taking on this work for me, and for doing such an outstanding job of the repairs.

[Sir Snipes]

This cable tie in the volvo engine bay is making my teeth itch.

[Zelandeth]

33 minutes ago, Sir Snipes said:

This cable tie in the volvo engine bay is making my teeth itch.

I keep meaning to deal with that!  However keep getting distracted before I get as far as tidying it up!

It does stick out like a sore thumb as it's so otherwise free of bodges.

[SiC]

I think that cable tie, at least to me, is asking to cut open whatever ligament comes within striking distance. 

[ruffgeezer]

I think it's holding the vacuum solenoid for the engine mountings on iirc.

[Zelandeth]

Had planned to go tweak the carb on the Trabant today (going to knock it back one notch), but as soon as I went to get the tools out the weather laughed at me.

So I changed tack and went looking for a job I could do at least mostly inside.  Ended up going for one which functionally is minor but will be a huge quality of life improvement.

This was my chosen target.

The window seals are utterly knackered.

This resulted in two issues.  One being that the glass could wobble around a bunch and it rattled incessantly.  The second was that because it could wobble around so much that while you could open the window just fine while driving, if you tried to close it in motion the glass would do this and jam.

I actually bought a full set of window seals only a week or so after I got the car (this includes windscreen, rear windscreen and boot lid as well) however I've been largely ignoring them.

I'd been putting this off as every time I've changed window seals before and it's generally been an utter pig of a job.

Let's get into it.

Should have known the Trabant would be different.  Can you see any difference?

Time spent: About 30 minutes.  Tools required: One flat blade screwdriver.

That's basically only needed to dig the old seal out and to help push in the new wipers into the groove they live in.  I've only done the outside wiper so far as I want to attack the top of the inside of the door top with some cutting paste to try to remove some of the black grime from there and I know it will end up all over that, so doing it AFTER that cleaning makes more sense.  The actual window seal just slides into the channel and follows it around.  No need to remove the window glass, pull the door apart of anything.  I didn't even really need to pull the door card off (which also only needs a flat blade screwdriver and five minutes to remove).  I made a point of cleaning and greasing the window mech itself while I was in there though as it was a good opportunity to do it.  Also hoovered all the usual crud that was in the bottom of the door out.

The difference when closing the door is ridiculously obvious, it really shuts with a solid thump now rather than rattling.  It's a minor thing but not having the door continually rattling right in my ear will be a big quality of life improvement.

Also noticed that the passenger side wiper arm was closed to making a bid for freedom - the grub screw was loose, so that's been tightened up.  Will get the passenger door window done tomorrow.

It will be strange driving the car without the doors rattling so much.  The interior itself is actually surprisingly rattle free to be totally honest so it will make a lot of difference.  Replacing the broken clip on the ashtray will get shot of the next most obvious one.

[Zelandeth]

Okay, first up.  Here's where I had the metering needle on the carb set.

Judging from the plugs this was running a bit too rich so I've knocked it back by one notch.

I'll read the plugs again after a few miles.

Definitely a good thing this carb isn't any bigger!

Looks hard to get to but the fastening screw on the fitting boss is actually easily accessible from the right hand side, and the carb sits conveniently on top of the alternator while you remove the lid and mess with the innards.

Passenger door was attacked like the driver's one yesterday.  You can see here how slack the glass was in the old seals.

Everything was pulled apart as yesterday.

New ones fitted.

The wiper seals at the base of the window on this side are in good shape so I left them alone.

I also took the opportunity to hoover all the detritus out of the bottom of the door.

Which somewhat surprisingly included three usable trim clips.

There has been a horrible smear of paint or something on the top of the inside of the driver's door since I got the car.

This has defied all efforts to remove it with normal cleaning products, so today I hit it with some cutting paste to see if that would do anything - it finally did but took a fair bit of scrubbing.

Have also replaced the torn wiper seal on that window now.  This was far more of a fight than the outside one as there was a window in the way which was now fairly firmly held in place because everything else had been replaced.

Minor details seem to be the order of the day this weekend.  Like the holes in the bumpers which originally held additional lights or something like that.

Much tidier.

Same on the front.

Oh, and finally wiped that oily handprint off the front panel and bonnet.

There's a local car meet on tomorrow afternoon here which I'll probably head over to.

Oh - and for everyone whose teeth were itching because of that red cable tie on the Volvo - here you go.

I've been meaning to sort that for the last six months!

[plasticvandan]

Holes may well have been for fog/reverse lamps, yours should have a fog lamp being post 1980?