How much shite is too much shite? Or How Many Miles is Too Many Miles?

[Saabnut]

Ooooh, excited! Always good to get a new toy. I owned one similar to this many years ago and liked it, but as usual got offered a profit so it went (in my defence it was in my dealer days) and always fancied another. Very strange doing a collect 500 miles from home and yet starting off 45 minutes away, although I need more diesel!

 

[hairnet]

Did ya bring squair with ya or did ya suffer English breakfast

[big_al_granvia]

34 minutes ago, hairnet said:

Did ya bring squair with ya or did ya suffer English breakfast

black puddin anaw

[big_al_granvia]

right i'm having a guess, triumph tr7 with a rover v8 engine in it

[big_al_granvia]

howay @Saabnut the suspense is killing us

[Saabnut]

Sorry for the lack of updates! Left the hotel at 8am, filled up at Asda Patchway - yes, further from home - and arrived at the chod supplier by the back of 9! We then spent far too long talking shite but eventually got around to loading

Yep, that one  

I eventually left at 11:30 and my satnav told me I had 502 miles to go! Stopped at Carlisle Tesco again to refuel and arrived home at 8:30pm. Averaged 27mpg but the check engine light came up on restart at Carlisle, but apart from making the dash look prettier there was no other effect. The Hyundai tows better than I ever imagined it would.

Now safely back home, but not yet unloaded as I am knackered!

[big_al_granvia]

Nice moggie, looks nae bad. 

[SiC]

It probably had a bit of a fright when it left the Avon area in the first time in decades!

Great meeting you @Saabnut and I'm glad you had a safe journey.

Sorry for the verbal diarrhoea. 🤣

[High Jetter]

Minor problem, looks quite genuine?

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, Saabnut said:

Sorry for the lack of updates! Left the hotel at 8am, filled up at Asda Patchway - yes, further from home - and arrived at the chod supplier by the back of 9! We then spent far too long talking shite but eventually got around to loading

Yep, that one  

I eventually left at 11:30 and my satnav told me I had 502 miles to go! Stopped at Carlisle Tesco again to refuel and arrived home at 8:30pm. Averaged 27mpg but the check engine light came up on restart at Carlisle, but apart from making the dash look prettier there was no other effect. The Hyundai tows better than I ever imagined it would.

Now safely back home, but not yet unloaded as I am knackered!

Ooh Awesome! really pleased to see this one is staying in the fold  very much looking forward to seeing more on it! I do like me a Moggie

I was all too worried it would just be snapped up for its mark and then punted on into the unknown

soo, we will be seeing you driving down in it to FoD Next month yah?  (certainly would be more fuel economical then the Cobra!)

 

 

[Saabnut]

The plan was to put a few* miles on it over the next few weeks then take it to Lemans for the Classic  Unfortunately I will be away working so will miss both LM24 and the Classic but might make it back for Shitefest so we will see.

[Back_For_More]

Excellent work on this - worth the haul I'd say. I'm back in UK as of next week and this did appeal - but I need a 'modern reliable-ish' runaround sorted as a base first before I go for another rolling project..... I'll shout dibs for if you ever decide to move it on! (fat chance I know)

[Saabnut]

Went out in it today for the first run to get petrol. Drives lovely. Think the bottom end of the engine will need an overhaul sometime soonish so that can be a winter project. Just went out to it again and the starter switch is not doing anything, think my track has shook a wire off the solenoid but it is hissing down here so it can wait until it is dry. Despite the minor - see what I did there - foibles I am very happy with it. Tomorrow is a shed day as I have to sort out the Sonett spares as it is off to a new owner soon.

 

[Saabnut]

Rain stopped and a quick investigation shows the starter pull switch has failed. A screwdriver across the terminals starts it, and lifting and pushing the contact from under the bonnet also works. A quick ebay has a new one on the way for less than twenty quid! There are advantages to owning a common classic!

[SiC]

Typical! Bloody thing worked everytime with me.

Surprised you didn't get the crank handle out of the boot and did it the old fashioned way!

[SiC]

Check the exhaust isn't banging against the bottom of the body. It's pretty close. Might save you a tear down of the engine!

[SiC]

Actually while I think of it, there is a coupler behind the pull switch. Probably worth double checking that it hasn't slipped. I had my hands in that area recently when fixing the washer jets. So I may have knocked it if it was loose. 

Don't forget about tweaking the wipers sweep. While they work, you'll get a limited area if you get caught out in a rain storm!

 

 

[Saabnut]

19 minutes ago, SiC said:

Check the exhaust isn't banging against the bottom of the body. It's pretty close. Might save you a tear down of the engine!

Funny you should say that, I came to the conclusion the exhaust is rattling underneath and it may not be the engine when I was out there. Talking to my friend and serial Moggy owner, he reckons the right hand engine mount collapses on these and that results in a knocking exhaust! Will investigate along with the coupler.

On my fuel run, it rained, and at speed the wipers actually hit the rubber and need resetting down at the centre a bit! Probably a bit of play in the linkage so on the "to do but not urgent" list. 

It drives really well....

[SiC]

Is it another one of those cars that I probably should have driven more before I sold it? 🙈🙉

[bezzabsa]

I have just read this from start to finish.....and even found some of my posts in it, which I have zero recollection of adding!!!

Re disco auto... they allegedly made 15-20hp more than manual disco's due to that pump...I have owned 5 discos 1 of which was a V8 G reg, and must admit the 200Tdi always seemed more spritely than the 300...

Would love another but with tax and fuel at the stupid prices now it wouldn't be a viable option...owned nothing but 4x4 for close to 10 years, L/R stuff Pajero's and 2 Lada Niva

[Saabnut]

Time for an update, first the Moggy. A check under the bonnet revealed the engine mounts have indeed collapsed causing the exhaust rattle. New set of engine and gearbox mounts ordered.  A look under the dash at the coupler referred to revealed it had indeed slipped, so a quick adjustment and starting has returned! I will keep the new switch when it arrives, that way I will never need it. My usual tyre wholesaler in the Sheffield area has no 13 inch tyres in either 175 or 185, nor any good 235 70 16s so looks like that is another thing in short supply. Good job I am not in a rush for them.

Moggy did another 30 miles this evening, a run to the petrol station for 20 litres of diesel for the Kubota lawn mower and 10 litres in cans of petrol as insurance for tomorrow. I am also on the trail of a Riley 1.5 rear axle which will make long distances more relaxed.

The next job today was to replace the ballast resistor on the Cobra as the new one had arrived. Easy and quick job and the Cobra is back running. Once I had the old resistor off, a look at the back of it which sits against the bulkhead revealed the problem.

Finally, I had to check the Rover P5b ready to drive it to near Sheffield tomorrow. Oil and water needed less than 1/4 litre each, tightened the fan belt as it had started squeaking and checked the tyre pressures. Ready to go! I am slightly nervous as apart from the 120 mile run last weekend, it has not been out of the shed for nearly 8 years, but WCPGW? Will update this thread when I can, and a collection is being made Saturday morning, a car I have not even seen and was written off by an insurance company a couple of months ago and has not been repaired! Could be fun  

[Saabnut]

Ooops

Tyre blown waiting on AA

[SiC]

It's going to be quite a tyre buying month for you!

[Saabnut]

Oh yes! AA arrived within the hour well actually a contractor and took me to Blythe services. About 20 minutes later an AA patrol arrived who got the spare out of the carrier where it had lived for the last 11 years blew it up and I got the final 14 miles of my 372 mile trip under my own steam 

My friend had already collected 4 new tyres and one was fitted before calling it a day and  beer 🍺 was consumed 

[Saabnut]

Apart from the tyre the journey went well. The other rear tyre was also far from round when removed! This is the one that blew, worth noting it blew at about 30mph and I literally pulled on the hard shoulder and stopped, so it was not driven flat. The damage to it was from when it went.

Spoke to my friend last night and all tyres replaced and good for the road again. He is going to use it for a few shows this year and then it will probably go on the market.

[Saabnut]

Saturday morning my brother arrived with the write off. Fergie spares were loaded into the boot and the first run in it was as a passenger as we headed to Birmingham to drop off my brother after dropping in on my nephew in Nottingham. All seemed good so at the lunch stop the compulsory picture was taken

Yes, it is a Vauxhall but not totally shite. A hire company bought it new for accident claim hires but it was never used and sold at a year old with 23 miles on the clock. One lady owner since.

A 450 miles trip home shows it drives perfectly. The fuel computer has not been reset from new, sure I got more empeegees than that on the run home, it has done mostly short runs around Gatwick with the occasional run to the Midlands

It is a 1.6 SXI so reasonably posh (for a Disastra)

And it is clean and tidy

So why is it a write off? It was in queuing traffic when a lady in a Range Rover failed to see it and tried to occupy the same space

That is it! Will do for a run around for a while although it will need an MOT next month.

[AnnoyingPentium]

6 minutes ago, Saabnut said:

Saturday morning my brother arrived with the write off. Fergie spares were loaded into the boot and the first run in it was as a passenger as we headed to Birmingham to drop off my brother after dropping in on my nephew in Nottingham. All seemed good so at the lunch stop the compulsory picture was taken

Yes, it is a Vauxhall but not totally shite. A hire company bought it new for accident claim hires but it was never used and sold at a year old with 23 miles on the clock. One lady owner since.

A 450 miles trip home shows it drives perfectly. The fuel computer has not been reset from new, sure I got more empeegees than that on the run home, it has done mostly short runs around Gatwick with the occasional run to the Midlands

It is a 1.6 SXI so reasonably posh (for a Disastra)

And it is clean and tidy

So why is it a write off? It was in queuing traffic when a lady in a Range Rover failed to see it and tried to occupy the same space

That is it! Will do for a run around for a while although it will need an MOT next month.

Please do tell me what you think of this. Been looking at a pez one of these for the "fleet".

[Saabnut]

After a week away with work, this morning started sunny and warm and most unusually for up here, stayed that way. Early start as I am still on Norwegian time  and first job was to move the Hyundai from shed blocking duties. My digger was returned whilst I was away so next was to put that away which meant moving the Moggie. With that done, I fired up the Fergie, replaced all the hoses and filled it with antifreeze. Warmed it up and took it up the track to collect some parcels. Carb needs setting up but both the oil and temperature gauges work.

Once back,  decided that the Cobra had to come out so I could get the Discovery of Doom out of the naughty corner where it has had the last 2.5 years to think about what it has done. With it out and the sun shining, I took it for a run to the village. 50 odd miles later I was back with a huge grin and about 30 litres of fuel lighter!

After that break, the Disco was towed out of the naughty corner with the Kubota which then used its bucket on to the Disco tow bar to push it in on to the ramp.

Initial prodding has shown that the chassis whilst basically OK, does need a few patches putting on with the sparkly stick. Will probably continue with it tomorrow, but if the weather remains as good, I might take the morning off and take the Cobra to the breakfast meet in Inverurie.

[big_al_granvia]

tough call mate, welding a disco or hooning the cobra

[Saabnut]

The weather turned out nice but decided to put it to use* and get on with the Disco. A thorough inspection showed a total of 5 patches required, 4 on the chassis nearside rear and one on the sill closing panel in the same area, but nothing major. Sitting for the last two and a half years also meant there was a lot of flaking surface rust. Out with the grinder with a knot wire wheel and the rear section soon looked better which was more than could be said of me or the shed floor

I treated the brushed steel with Jenolite and went for a brew while it did it stuff. These are the areas of added lightness

I fabricated the first patch and had literally just got the first couple of tacks on when my friend arrived to fit the new starter motor and ignition switch. The reason it was laid up, apart from it had been driving me mad with unreliability, was the starter had remained engaged with the engine running which had fried the starter. My thinking was it was likely to be the starter failing in the engaged mode or the ignition switch failing, so to make sure I bought a new starter and a replacement switch.

I am not sure what sort of sadistic engineer designed a starter with 3 securing bolts, 2 of which are visable and reasonably accessible when on a ramp and both of which are the same size. The third is hidden, needs multiple extensions and swivels and of course is a different size. It took well over an hour for two of us to get the old one off, then half an hour to get the new one on. If I did not have the ramp, I am sure we would still be under it!

With the starter done, the dash was dismantled and the new ignition switch fitted. The moment of truth. Turned the key, the engine turned over twice and started and ran fine, but the starter once again remained engaged. Promptly turned it off before damaging the new starter. Much investigative work followed before I remembered the previous owner had had mouse trouble   Whilst it would be easy to wire in a separate starter switch (as there must be a short in the loom causing the fault) I have decided I have had enough of this POS. I have spent well over 2k on this and done less than 1000 miles, and almost as many on the back of recovery trucks. I am going to waste no more time nor money on this (the £120 on starter and switch this week is the last) so it is going up for sale. I will connect up a wire to the starter tomorrow so it can be driven on to a trailer, then when it is outside I will take some photos and advertise it for a grand ono which I think is fair in the current environment. It is a fairly simple recommision (and after all that has been done it should be reliable one day) or a good source of spares.