The new news 24 thread

[dollywobbler]

Nice one Pete. I think we've all been eagerly awaiting your first drive! Good luck for a pass...

 

Today saw a healthy-sized invoice get paid, so a new front caliper and boot struts have been ordered for the BX. I did try ordering a new ignition barrel for the 2CV but stock seems low at the moment (unless I fancy paying £180!) so that's on hold. Making do with a Dyane barrel resting on the dashboard at the moment. Not ideal, but keeps her usable - which is good as I'm tackling a 180 mile round trip to North Wales tomorrow.

 

Then I'm off to south Wales on Saturday for a slice of Pay and Play fun in the Maverick. I've not got stuck in it yet, but that clean record could be about to come to an end...

[HillmanImp]

Have finally ordered the subframe mounting box so we can crack on with the Lancia. Watch this space........and you will see me throw a hissy fit and then not touch it again for another month.

[Skizzer]

Then I'm off to south Wales on Saturday for a slice of Pay and Play fun in the Maverick. I've not got stuck in it yet, but that clean record could be about to come to an end...

 

Out of curiosity Ian, whereabouts are you Paying and Playing? (I'm not stalking you , just wondering - I failed to find anywhere round here back when I had my Landy, though that's a while ago now.)

[dollywobbler]

No worries. Heading here. Is meant to have some very tricky areas and there's LOTS of space apparently.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Valle ... 2017253566

[Skizzer]

No worries. Heading here. Is meant to have some very tricky areas and there's LOTS of space apparently.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Valle ... 2017253566

 

Looks good! That's an easy run up the road from here as well, so it's a pity the Ninety's chassis dissolved before I discovered it .

 

Have fun, and good luck! Photos eagerly awaited of muddy Maverick at unlikely angles to the horizontal.

[eddyramrod]

Great to hear that Mrs R. is well enough to ride her bike, hows's her balance?

 

Fine, if she can get a bit of speed up. She tried to slip into the gap between the pickup and the house today, at low speed as you do, and collopsed against the side of the truck. It wasn't just random gap-chasing, that was where she planned to dismount. But, er, a bit more elegantly... Riding up and down the drive she seems to be doing ok though. We've just come in from a Quiz Night too, which she enjoyed.

[The Moog]

Got the T25 back from a service and it is like the van transformed! They decided they liked the bus and did loads of jobs for free including sorting out the gear linkage and fitting a Vacuum Advance to the van to improve economy. Drives really well now and the changing from Pez to LPG is definitely dodgy. Will have to fit a new vaporiser next year, think it will be about £90

 

On downside the Volvo is starting to limp along. Front sub frame bush has gone and now squeaks, the VVT pulley is fooked and now pulses at idle and means economy is down(£400 for new pulley), climate control seems to be having spazzy fits and decides on hot or cold a bit randomly and finally the idle is playing silly buggers. Hopefully it will soldier on to July before either baying it or over the bridge.

[ashmicro]

Merc will be gone in the morning. Suspension failure on a 10 month old car is unacceptable. Stealer's were very nice, but pretty useless. They've bought it off me for what I paid as they have a punter waiting for one. Due to the current state of flux in my domestic arrangements I couldn't have kept it anyway. All-British fleet now!

[barefoot]

Filled car with fuel yesterday

I'm going to try playing the hyper-miling game, see if it will last until the strike is over!

[ashmicro]

@Moog

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-VVT-Pul ... 2c559f2121

 

 

I'm told that those cars can suffer from some resonation at idle due to poor routing of power steering pipes. (Some early Rover 75s do this - the pipe vibrates off the inner wing).

 

Maybe worth a look.

[cort16]

I went down to my lockup last night to get some tools for DIY duties and the garage next door I rent my lockup off had pressed the wheel bearing onto the half shaft and didn't charge me for it.

I did the pads the other night so I just have to re-fit the half shaft, the rear brakes and weld up the exhaust and it I'll be smelling the sweet smell of MOT certificate.

[RobT]

BX passed the MoT, that's a relief. Got an advisory on slightly corroded front brake pipes. Once I've changed the front brake pads this weekend either Dad can have it or I'll sell it on, albeit reluctantly, as it's now surplus to requirements. I'm impressed how well it served me over the winter months, maybe I got a good 'un but I was expecting it to be trouble!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Took all the locks off the Herald and rebuilt them to work with one key. That's bonnet lock, door, ignition, petrol cap and boot all sharing a key instead of having one each. Also means I can carry one keyring instead of having separate ones for car and house. Wish I'd done it ages ago now.

[M'coli]

New oil and filter on the Cavalier today, and a new gasket between the exhaust manifold and the downpipe - but can I find the new conical washer for the downpipe-to-centre section? Can I heck! I love how an oil change can make an engine sound quieter, though.

[Cavcraft]

Merc went straight through the MOT today! One tyre getting close and they advised on front wheel bearings but admitted it might just be the 'normal' amount of play in them.

As if to celebrate the fact, I came home arsed about with the car and one of the front fog light bulbs blew!

 

Just went to view another potential CavCraft fodder-mobile, now having a think about the price as it needs to be a little bit cheaper.

[ProgRocker]

My Nissan Almera has been booked in for a service in preparation of using it to get to and from my new place of work. Have owned the car for 18 months now, travelled just 4,700 miles in it but never had it serviced during my ownership. The new commute will likely be 100 miles a week so it needs to be ship shape. With the service they should tighten the slack handbrake that I was warned of in the last MOT.

 

Also just reinsured it for another year. Last year it was £450. But this year it is £286. Less than 80p a day. Ironic that I will be travelling a lot further in it from next month than at any time last year . I hope that changing my occupation isn't going to bump up the premium: Civil Servant is a fairly safe occupation one would hope (not MI5! ).

[dollywobbler]

New struts fitted to the BX's tailgate. Nice. However, the caliper change is going badly as my 14mm spanner decided to explode into bits rather than undo the brake pipe connection. Bloody cheap Halfords shite. However, I am quite pleased that the broken bit hurled into the wheelarch at speed rather than my face. I wasn't putting that much pressure on it anyway as it looked quite rusted up. I was just getting a feel for how stiff it was. Very it seems. S'pose I've always got the fall-back of hoping the other end of the hose will undo and fitting a fresh one. Also, some of my axle stands are missing, which annoys me. The BX is rather wonky as I'm using a tyre and planks of wood to support one side of it. QUALITY! (however, that is the side that has wheels fitted).

[Skizzer]

some of my axle stands are missing, which annoys me

 

I have an old but very sturdy one which is surplus to requirements - you're more than welcome to have it if you're passing by Swansea at any point. Might even be two of them - I'll have to have a dig around in the back of the garage.

[Shep Shepherd]

For the first time since early December, The Volvo's transmission has functioning overdrive, thanks to the expedient of replacing the transmission-mounted overdrive solenoid. I had been putting off the job for literally months, due to the weather and my fear that the bolts holding the old solenoid on the transmission casing would be seized and would therefore shear off when I tried to remove them, rendering the car more or less scrap, as removing the transmission to drill out the remains of one or both of the bolts would be a bridge too far, even for me.

 

Happily, both bolts yielded to a normal 12mm ring spanner, but removing them fully was a total nightmare and took me an hour, due to there being hardly any space to get a spanner into position and one bolt only being able to be undone 1/4 of a turn at once, due to the transmission tunnel being in the way - I was shouting, swearing and crying in frustration so loudly that my neighbour came out to see if I was all right (bless her). Thankfully, fitting the new solenoid and replacing the bolts was a far easier task!

 

With everything back together, I turned the car's ignition on and pressed the overdrive disengage switch on the side of the shifter knob several times, which elicited some lovely, loud, healthy clicks from the new solenoid, indicating that the old solenoid was the cause of the car's problems. A road test proved that it was indeed totally foxed. This is how it came out of the car:

 

 

Gee, I wonder what the problem was?

 

As you might expect, I am a very happy Shepherd at the moment, as I can now use the car again on fast roads and motorways, something which it excels at. This means that I'll be able to use it drive it to Yorkshire in late April and possibly go further afield with it in the summer. Watch this space

 

It could do with a good valet though, which I plan to do next weekend, provided that the weather is good enough:

 

 

Looks okay in the photo, but the paint is beginning to go Pogweasel Pink again. Just as well I still have some Meguiar's three-stage stuff left from last year, then

[Cavcraft]

Ditto-ing what Skizzer said I'm bound to have spare spanner in that flavour, Ian. If you need it drop me a pm and I'll post it out to you foc.

[dollywobbler]

Thanks chaps, very kind of you. I know the stands are here somewhere, but when we cleared everything during the house floor replacement project, everything got jumbled up. See? Tidying up is always a bad idea.

[Skizzer]

No worries Ian.

 

Tidying up is always a bad idea.

 

+1. If I'd tidied up properly, I probably wouldn't have a spare axle stand. (Mind you, if I hadn't tidied up just a little bit I wouldn't knowI had a spare axle stand. If you follow.)

[Shep Shepherd]

I couldn't find my axle stands today, either. I had to use my scary drive-on ramps instead. Surprisingly, they didn't slide all over the place when I drove onto them for once.

[Cavcraft]

New shite acquired. Natch it's got a Griffin badge and has been partly Barried, though plans ahoy to change this asap. Surprising how one extra cyclinder can make a car sound quite a bit less lawnmower-ish.

[Shep Shepherd]

Four-cylinder Corsa?

[Cavcraft]

Surprising how one extra cyclinder can make a car sound quite a bit less lawnmower-ish.

 

 

V9 Monaro?

28 valve Vectrignia?

5-pot Ashtray?

 

Pictures are required.

 

Are you absolutely sure you want pictures? I mean, 100% beyond all reasonable doubt? If so I'll get some tomorrow or weekend if it's not sold by then.

[Skizzer]

Surprising how one extra cyclinder can make a car sound quite a bit less lawnmower-ish.

 

 

V9 Monaro?

28 valve Vectrignia?

5-pot Ashtray?

 

 

Louise's Astra with a new ignition barrel?

 

Stop talking about it Billy and get them pictures up.

[eddyramrod]

I couldn't find my axle stands today, either. I had to use my scary drive-on ramps instead. Surprisingly, they didn't slide all over the place when I drove onto them for once.

 

My friend came up to our previous house here, up in the hills, to put his car on my ramps. He didn't have any himself and he wanted to check something out on the transmission. The car is a Porsche 944 automatic. He had to reverse up the ramps. The 944 has quite a bit of rear overhang, and tyres wider than the M62. All of a sudden one tyre grips the ramp and flings it forward. I shouted at him to stop and when he did, one ramp was firmly wedged under the sill, making a neat dent. The car is otherwise pristine...

 

"With jacks and timbers they started back down" as the song says, and we got the car back on its wheels; John did get the body damage fixed too. Could have been much worse I suppose...

[Shep Shepherd]

^

My fear of doing something like that is why I find using traditional metal car ramps to be a fraught experience. I really should get a set of the modern hard plastic ones at some point.

[Negative Creep]

Spotted some rather spiffing wheels on RR. However since they're from a rear wheel drive car I'm not sure if the offset will be correct. Therefore I could take a chance, but won't know if they'll work until they're on the car