Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 29/01

[LightBulbFun]

On 09/12/2020 at 17:15, Zelandeth said:

The run out yesterday went largely to plan but was marred slightly by the indicator stalk making a bid for freedom shortly before I got home.  The stock mounting arrangement for this is at best "flimsy" thanks to it relying on two self tapping screws fastened into the plastic of the stalk assembly (bakelite?).

Using a nut and bolt isn't really an option due to the proximity of the terminals for the indicator switched circuits to the hole in the body where the fastener lives.

If you find a bolt with a really shallow head you might just about be able to get away with it, just.  Nothing I have in stock is small enough though.

I've a couple of ideas in mind, but the first one I wanted to try was tried today...Drill the holes out, tap them properly and stick a bolt of a carefully measured length in.

Step one...drill out and tap the holes.

Result was a nice clean thread.

I went with a standard M6 thread as I had fasteners that size in stock, and it seemed a decent step up but without risking taking too much meat out of the assembly I was trying to secure.  Also was the biggest I could get away without having to also drill out the holes in the metal back plate.

A healthy dose of thread lock was added before bolting things together.

I took the opportunity to tap out the holes in the backing plate that the plastic cover attaches too so I could get that securely fixed and get rid of two rusty fasteners.

Much better.

Washers were fitted there to both keep the end of the bolt where I wanted it (precisely level with the end of the threaded hole) and to allow me to actually tighten things up without the bolts disappearing into the recessed hole in the backplate.

Really need to get some paint and touch in the space where this switch used to live.

Likewise I need to get a bit more loom tape in and extend the covering on the loom to the stalk the last few inches to the back of the switch.

Nice to be rid of a couple more of the list of rusty fasteners in the cabin too.

Historically the baseplate always wobbled around a bit when the switch was used.  Reckon this is why it was able to work loose over time.  It now seems to be rather more solid from the looks of things.

Hopefully this will stay put this time.  If not I've got a few more ideas up my sleeve...but they're rather more of a bodge. whereas I feel that this is more just an improvement on the original setup.  I need to pick up more dog food tomorrow so will probably take her out to carry out that trip unless the weather is horrible so we can see if it works then.

 

just curious how well has this fix held up for you? and do you recall what length of M6 bolt you used?  as I think ill be looking to replicate this, as REV's indicator stalk has similarly gone a bit floppy, despite my best efforts to try and fix it otherwise!

looking at how it looks and feels I think its its pretty clear that the threads have just stripped out on my indicator stalk (which itself is a modern replacement, some probably has plastic made from the finest cheese)

[Zelandeth]

49 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

just curious how well has this fix held up for you? and do you recall what length of M6 bolt you used?  as I think ill be looking to replicate this, as REV's indicator stalk has similarly gone a bit floppy, despite my best efforts to try and fix it otherwise!

looking at how it looks and feels I think its its pretty clear that the threads have just stripped out on my indicator stalk (which itself is a modern replacement, some probably has plastic made from the finest cheese)

Afraid if I did take note of the length of the bolts I used I've long lost that information.

I do remember having to shim it out slightly with a washer on at least one of them as when I first tried things one was too long and touching one of the contacts, leading to the indicators on one side being stuck on.  The bolts most likely were just plucked from the drawer of random fasteners in the garage though rather than something I picked up for the job.

The stalk design itself just isn't great - those screws were always going to be a big weak point.  The hope is that using an M6 thread gave a lot more threads than the self tapper so will be stronger.  So far it's still holding up.

[Zelandeth]

Been very little going on lately.  Though I need to do a bit of inspection on the Volvo as I noticed this when playing automotive Tetris this afternoon.

That oily spot appears to have come from the offside of the Volvo engine bay.  Ignore the general staining etc, that dates back to the XJ-S which had more oil leaks than I could count.

Helpfully all of the under trays are still present, so between that and not much ground clearance don't imagine I'll see much from underneath.  Will pull the top cover off first as that's easiest to get to.  Hopefully just a cam cover gasket or something relatively simple like that.

Given it was a dry day I made an excuse to get TPA out for a run.

Who knew Hyundai i10s were so big...

In other news I put together a little enclosure for some of the (utterly pointless) meters that were going to live above my workstation a week or two back.  This was done not least as part of a tidying exercise that got both the random project box and two of the three meters out of the way.

Rough and ready, and only fit two meters.  Fast forward to yesterday when I found an ideal candidate for something which would fit all three.  Random old bulkhead light fitting with a cracked diffuser.

End result?

I'll take that.  There's definitely enjoyment to be had in making something new out of something old, broken and otherwise destined for the recycling bin.

Current meter barely moves to be honest, even with both desktop PCs running, the scanner, the various attached lights etc it barely touches 1.5A, only time it really jumps up is when the printer actually runs the fuser while printing when that pulls around 6A.  I'd probably been better using a 5A meter and just keeping the printer separate if I wanted to actually see the needle moving.

It's all *utterly* pointless though, and only exists because I want it to and because I had a voucher for RS that was going to expire and randomly made the discovery that these panel meters were nowhere near as expensive as I'd expected.  Who knows, if I run the house off a generator at some point I might actually see the frequency meter move a bit.

[Zelandeth]

Holy carp I actually did something car related today.  Was even successful at 50% of the items attempted.

Was intended to be oil, oil filter, fuel filter and air filter changes on the Volvo.  

First up, new vacuum oil drainer.

First impressions, far prefer it to the Pela it's replaced.  Being tall but narrow.it actually takes up less room in the garage in terms of footprint, and having the pump integrated means you can operate it easily one handed - that would just result in the pump pulling off the top of the Pela.  Also seems to be *way* faster - though admittedly 0W30 oil isn't exactly the thickest.  Far easier to judge how much came out as well which takes some of the guesswork out of refilling.  My Pela has always had issues with air leaks as well which meant you had to pump it a LOT when draining anything with a larger sump than the Invacar.  I know it doesn't really mean anything, but this *feels* less flimsy too.

Have to confess this is the first time I've actually pulled the cover off the engine in here.

Still makes my brain do a slight double take seeing odd numbers of things like injectors on an engine in a passenger car.  It alarms me quite how many things I'm looking at in here and realising that I have absolutely no idea of the purpose of.  A hell of a lot going on, but even under the cover it's a pretty tidy setup by modern standards at least compared to those I've seen.

Speaking of the cover, there have clearly been mice in here at some point.

This appears to be significantly historic though as none of the bits of shredded acoustic foam are present around the engine bay, and I can't see anything else that's been nibbled thankfully.

My progress however was halted by this bastard thing.

This is the cap concealing the replaceable element oil filter.  Which is absolutely biblically tight.  This is the third car I've had to deal with one of these on, and it's the third one I've had this fight with.  On the Caddy I ended up having to get a breaker bar on it, the one on the Partner did eventually let go when I had all my weight hanging off it (which resulted in me just about knocking myself out on the battery when it let go and cutting my hand to ribbons on the radiator).  This one I'm seriously worried that I'm going to shatter the thing - I can both feel and see the whole thing flexing.  Will need to see if I can get a strap wrench around it *and* the socket on the top to try to turn the whole thing at once.  I may see if I can get a spare cap from Volvo first just as insurance in case it does disintegrate.

I am seriously developing a real hatred for this style of oil filter.

So yeah, much as it pained me it got refilled with fresh oil with the old filter still in, and I'll come back to this next week - due to work going on at the moment I don't have a space on the drive to work in till Monday so it won't be until then at the earliest.  Suffice to say I was out of time and energy by the time I waved the white flag on that so the rest of the filters will also need to wait.

Do seem to have found the source of my small oil leak.

Coming out from under the rocker cover in the vicinity of that actuator (no idea what for!).  Which given that the rocker cover also seems to BE the intake manifold, looks like it will be all manner of fun to rectify.  Aren't modern cars fun?  Realistically that's just being filed under "monitor" for now.  I will most likely chuck that at a garage to sort if it becomes an issue as this is just too modern for me to really be comfortable beyond basic servicing, especially anything that involves dismantling bits of common rail injection systems.  Nope, that sounds like a job for someone else.

Hopefully I can at least change the sodding oil filter without needing to call in reinforcements though...that would be nice in the whole "not feeling completely useless" department.

[Zelandeth]

As it was nice and dry today I took the opportunity to get the Rover out for a bit of a run.  Nothing spectacular, just bumbling around doing the days errands.

Of course because this car apparently hates me of course something had to decide to play up.

Both the odometer and trip meter have stopped working.  Which given the fuel gauge doesn't work is more than a bit annoying.  Guess I get to pull the panel to investigate that soon.  On the plus side I'm quite quick at it now!

In other news, after a several month wait due to Barclays being unnecessarily awkward seemingly just because they can a little chunk of money from my Nan's inheritance arrived at the start of this week.  A fair chunk of that is being stashed away sensibly in an ISA, but I had set aside a bit of it as my "fix the Trabant" fund.  So this evening I placed what was without any doubt the most expensive parts order to date for any car I've owned.

Realistically the car is probably worth £1500-2000 on a good day if it wasn't broken.  However I really like the little buzz box and I really don't care whether it makes sense.  Even if I went out and bought a lovely, pristine example there's no guarantee it wouldn't go pop 500 miles down the road anyway.  This car has already had a fair bit of work done in terms of nice upgrades in the disc brakes and rear camber correction kit.  So once I've got the engine issues and a couple of bits of rust squared away it should be a pretty well sorted car.

Cosmetically she's always going to be a bit scruffy.  I'd like to get the correct bumpers refitted and I'll be getting some paint done to prevent rust creeping in in a couple of places, but this isn't ever going to be a restoration.  Slightly scruffy I think kinda suits a Trabant anyway.

That order of parts consists of a 700cc uprated engine core, a Mikuni TMX27 carb, the altered exhaust manifold to retain the pre-heater for the cabin heater (the normal shroud on the manifold gets in the way of a taller carb), a new clutch and full set of engine/gearbox mount bushes - would be silly not to change those while I was in there.

I hovered for quite a while both over whether I went for the 26 or 30hp engine, likewise over whether to get the Mikuni carb.  Though eventually came to the conclusion that when we're looking at a bill like this a few hundred quid really isn't going to make the world of difference.  So I figured I'd just do what I could to make the car as good as possible at the end of this.

Hopefully we'll be seeing actual progress on the Trabant soon as a result of this.  She's been sitting slowly turning green now for far too long.  Just need to do a bit of research to ascertain what the most sensible way to go about getting the engine out and back in is.  I *think* it's probably going to be dropping it out the bottom and jacking the body up from the looks of it.  Which would be more of a pain if it wasn't such a light car with decent ground clearance to start with.  I'm sure I read somewhere that there's not enough width available to pull it out from above as one unit.

It will be really interesting to hear the new engine run and realise quite how many noises the old one *shouldn't* have been making the whole time I was driving it!

Guess this is a pretty firm confirmation that the Trabant has cemented its place as a long term fleet member.

[LightBulbFun]

Awesome to see the Trabant about to get some love! I am very much looking forward to both seeing the posts on it, but also I am quite curious to hear how the performance is, both with the 700cc engine and the different carburettor, both in terms of total performance, but also I am curious if it will change the dynamics at all? of for example will low down up or up high performance change etc, how far away are you from @richykitchy and his Dyno?  conveniently here is one he has done earlier for comparison purposes  

also I do still very much want to see a Model 70 on a Dyno, Wink Wink Nudge Nudge

 

 

 

[Zelandeth]

How about combine two stroke *and* a CVT to utterly confuse the Dyno even further?

 

 

[TrabbieRonnie]

I can't remember the engine taking very much effort to remove Zel... I definitely just reached in and lifted it out, with the Trabi still on its wheels.

Maybe easier with a friend to help, but honestly very easy compared to a normal car!

Great to see so much commitment to the car, mine has been the one I've had longest, and definitely closest to my heart.  Much more than the sum of their parts (although prices are definitely more than they were).

Well done, will watch with interest!

[LightBulbFun]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

How about combine two stroke *and* a CVT to utterly confuse the Dyno even further?

so we just need to find a Harpermatic then?  (with the added bonus that it might well be 1 wheel drive for extra dyno-confusion)

that snowmobile powered RX7 is very curious tho! I have often wondered what sort of 2 stroke car we could produce with todays technology etc, I always thought it was a shame the 2 stroke Fiesta never went anywhere for example, I would love to see that RX7 refined some more, or alternatively, imagine that engine setup in something like @gm's Exocet or Lotus 7 alike, basically a massive go-cart 2 stoke n all  

 

BTW out of curiosity whats the reasoning for going with the TMX27 Carb rather then the bigger TMX30 carb that is also mentioned on their website? is it a case of going for a slightly smaller carb to improve low down tractability or some other reason? I am genuinely curious, I know little about these sorts of things so I am eager to learn   

[plasticvandan]

Pretty sure it's just a case of unbolting,moving the grill out the way and lifting it out the front by hand,great video on YouTube of Robbie Coltrane taking one out in the planes trains and automobiles series. No jacking required.(Phil Collins lesser known album)

https://youtu.be/mLmHapv4ODg?si=c5SuyJOdKmMb_g7b

[Fabergé Greggs]

10 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

As it was nice and dry today I took the opportunity to get the Rover out for a bit of a run.  Nothing spectacular, just bumbling around doing the days errands.

Of course because this car apparently hates me of course something had to decide to play up.

Both the odometer and trip meter have stopped working.  Which given the fuel gauge doesn't work is more than a bit annoying.  Guess I get to pull the panel to investigate that soon.  On the plus side I'm quite quick at it now!

In other news, after a several month wait due to Barclays being unnecessarily awkward seemingly just because they can a little chunk of money from my Nan's inheritance arrived at the start of this week.  A fair chunk of that is being stashed away sensibly in an ISA, but I had set aside a bit of it as my "fix the Trabant" fund.  So this evening I placed what was without any doubt the most expensive parts order to date for any car I've owned.

Realistically the car is probably worth £1500-2000 on a good day if it wasn't broken.  However I really like the little buzz box and I really don't care whether it makes sense.  Even if I went out and bought a lovely, pristine example there's no guarantee it wouldn't go pop 500 miles down the road anyway.  This car has already had a fair bit of work done in terms of nice upgrades in the disc brakes and rear camber correction kit.  So once I've got the engine issues and a couple of bits of rust squared away it should be a pretty well sorted car.

Cosmetically she's always going to be a bit scruffy.  I'd like to get the correct bumpers refitted and I'll be getting some paint done to prevent rust creeping in in a couple of places, but this isn't ever going to be a restoration.  Slightly scruffy I think kinda suits a Trabant anyway.

That order of parts consists of a 700cc uprated engine core, a Mikuni TMX27 carb, the altered exhaust manifold to retain the pre-heater for the cabin heater (the normal shroud on the manifold gets in the way of a taller carb), a new clutch and full set of engine/gearbox mount bushes - would be silly not to change those while I was in there.

I hovered for quite a while both over whether I went for the 26 or 30hp engine, likewise over whether to get the Mikuni carb.  Though eventually came to the conclusion that when we're looking at a bill like this a few hundred quid really isn't going to make the world of difference.  So I figured I'd just do what I could to make the car as good as possible at the end of this.

Hopefully we'll be seeing actual progress on the Trabant soon as a result of this.  She's been sitting slowly turning green now for far too long.  Just need to do a bit of research to ascertain what the most sensible way to go about getting the engine out and back in is.  I *think* it's probably going to be dropping it out the bottom and jacking the body up from the looks of it.  Which would be more of a pain if it wasn't such a light car with decent ground clearance to start with.  I'm sure I read somewhere that there's not enough width available to pull it out from above as one unit.

It will be really interesting to hear the new engine run and realise quite how many noises the old one *shouldn't* have been making the whole time I was driving it!

Guess this is a pretty firm confirmation that the Trabant has cemented its place as a long term fleet member.

It might be a lot of money but it’s also the cheapest uprated off-the-shelf motor I’ve ever seen.

Brilliant stuff, really looking forward to seeing this progress! 

[Zelandeth]

6 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

so we just need to find a Harpermatic then?  (with the added bonus that it might well be 1 wheel drive for extra dyno-confusion)

that snowmobile powered RX7 is very curious tho! I have often wondered what sort of 2 stroke car we could produce with todays technology etc, I always thought it was a shame the 2 stroke Fiesta never went anywhere for example, I would love to see that RX7 refined some more, or alternatively, imagine that engine setup in something like @gm's Exocet or Lotus 7 alike, basically a massive go-cart 2 stoke n all  

 

BTW out of curiosity whats the reasoning for going with the TMX27 Carb rather then the bigger TMX30 carb that is also mentioned on their website? is it a case of going for a slightly smaller carb to improve low down tractability or some other reason? I am genuinely curious, I know little about these sorts of things so I am eager to learn   

I didn't know there had been a CVT version of the Harper.  That must have been pretty advanced stuff for its day.  I do wonder what the performance would have been like though given how lossy these systems generally are and how limited engine power was on those machines to start with.

Carb wise it's always a balancing act.  There are two (main) considerations that need to be kept in mind - one is the overall diameter of the carb which sets how much air can pass through it at any given time.  This in conjunction with the jetting is what essentially determines how far you can push things within the limits of what the engine is capable of in terms of the top end power.  Note this is a gross over-simplification, but you get the idea.  However the other thing you need to keep in mind is air velocity.  If this is too low, it won't be able to pull enough fuel through the venturi(s), and you'll actually end up lean - which might seem counter intuitive when you've just installed a bigger carb. 

That's why they recommend the 28mm carb for the engine in this spec.  The 30mm one is intended for the next step up where you're looking at a 35bhp power figure.  However I get the impression that this is a situation where you're probably looking at a low more top end power at the expense of low and mid range.

This trade off between low and high end performance is why you see things like vacuum actuated secondary throttles on multi-barrel carbs - and of course constant velocity carbs like the SU are another solution to the problem. 

Carb choice and configuration is especially important on a two stroke both because of how dangerous a lean condition can be to the engine and because the manifold vacuum is so much lower than on a four stroke engine which makes it even MORE of a careful balancing act between outright top end power, usable bottom end so that trying to pull away from a standing start isn't an absolute pain, and ensuring that the engine doesn't just lunch itself and melt holes in the pistons the first time it's put under load.

I would have loved to see what Ford could have done with that little two stroke triple they had developed for the Ka (were there plans to put it in the Fiesta too?).  Especially as they had it so close to being production ready before bailing on account of admittedly not unfounded concerns over emissions. 

Now that you've made me think about it I'm wondering if anyone ever did make a more Detroit-esque petrol two stroke - so valve controlled exhaust, blower to allow the engine to breathe and a closed circuit lubrication system to do away with the usual smoke.  I certainly can't think of one off the top of my head.  Guessing that the additional weight, complexity and therefore cost meant that it just never made sense for a light road application.  That said, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if there had been experiments along those lines in the earlier days of motoring.

1 hour ago, Fabergé Greggs said:

It might be a lot of money but it’s also the cheapest uprated off-the-shelf motor I’ve ever seen.

Brilliant stuff, really looking forward to seeing this progress! 

That's kind of my thinking.  The €500 or so worth of upgrades I've chucked in there aside, IF I could find someone to do the machining work I could *probably* have rebuilt the existing unit for somewhere around 2/3rds of the cost depending on what the machining would have cost.  The fact that Trabantwelt and LDM Tuning between them offer such a complete catalogue of parts for these cars is something I think absolutely should be encouraged and given it's there is a resource that I'd be daft not to take advantage of.  I think it was about another €600 or so you could also buy an engine that is *fully* assembled, bench tested and ready to bolt in and go.  Given that all of the stuff that bolts onto the engine in my case is fine that seemed to be unnecessary spending which is why I went for just the core unit.  No it's not *cheap* but equally for what I'm buying and the specialist knowledge that goes behind its supply I don't feel it's at all unreasonable.  Heck, you can easily run well into four figures rebuilding a BMC A or B series on your own bench if you start getting tempted by shiny upgrade bits.

4 hours ago, plasticvandan said:

Pretty sure it's just a case of unbolting,moving the grill out the way and lifting it out the front by hand,great video on YouTube of Robbie Coltrane taking one out in the planes trains and automobiles series. No jacking required.(Phil Collins lesser known album)

https://youtu.be/mLmHapv4ODg?si=c5SuyJOdKmMb_g7b

 

9 hours ago, TrabbieRonnie said:

I can't remember the engine taking very much effort to remove Zel... I definitely just reached in and lifted it out, with the Trabi still on its wheels.

Maybe easier with a friend to help, but honestly very easy compared to a normal car!

Great to see so much commitment to the car, mine has been the one I've had longest, and definitely closest to my heart.  Much more than the sum of their parts (although prices are definitely more than they were).

Well done, will watch with interest!

Thanks for that.  I figured that was probably the case, but good to know.  I figure that it's probably under the heading of "annoyingly heavy and awkward" rather than "immovable lump."  Imagine it's probably a similar weight to the Invacar engine, and I ended up putting that in by hand after fighting with an engine crane for about an hour before coming to the conclusion that it was just getting in the way and actually making life more difficult rather than less.

[SiC]

How much does a Trabbie engine weight out of interest? They look a fair chunk of pig iron but then they don't have all the valves/camshaft/etc gear to add extra weight. 

A Trabbie has long been on my hit list. There used to be an Eastern European guy in Slough importing them regularly pre-COVID. Often for like £1500 or thereabouts. Unfortunately I haven't seen any freshly west bound Trabbies for a while. 

[Zelandeth]

2 minutes ago, SiC said:

How much does a Trabbie engine weight out of interest? They look a fair chunk of pig iron but then they don't have all the valves/camshaft/etc gear to add extra weight. 

A Trabbie has long been on my hit list. There used to be an Eastern European guy in Slough importing them regularly pre-COVID. Often for like £1500 or thereabouts. Unfortunately I haven't seen any freshly west bound Trabbies for a while. 

The parcel on the way to me is apparently 61kg, so probably ~50kg I'd say.

[SiC]

Not a lot at all really then. Basically like two push lawnmowers. 

Just watch your back as it's still a decent amount to lift from an awkward slightly fat forward position! 

[Zelandeth]

19 minutes ago, SiC said:

Not a lot at all really then. Basically like two push lawnmowers. 

Just watch your back as it's still a decent amount to lift from an awkward slightly fat forward position! 

Will probably be a bit more than that I'm lifting out too as the gearbox is still attached.  Pistons and jugs aren't, but they don't really weigh much.

Don't worry, my back hates me enough already, I won't be looking for excuses to make it any more angry!