The new news 24 thread

[chaseracer]

Tomorrow is the day I attempt to resurrect the 300E.  There will be swearing.

 

Wish me luck.

[ruffgeezer]

Today I went to Bristol and passed the UK headquarters of Proton, I thought a tribute to a classic AS moment was called for

 

 

[Cavcraft]

I had Morettes (and a bonnet bulge!) on my 1.9 n/a diesel BX estate. It looked ace. 

[Inspector Morose]

Tomorrow is the day I attempt to resurrect the 300E.  There will be swearing.

 

Wish me luck.

Wanna hand? (You can talk me out of doing something SWMBO will almost certainly castrate me for)

[Cavcraft]

[philibusmo]

Yesterday Phil_lihp used public transport to come down from North Devon to be the first to make use of the Lancia Y10 amazing loan scheme. I had changed the cam belt the previous day and was popping the cam covers and water pump pulley back on when he arrived. Due to the complete lack of space down the side of the engine, this did take a couple of hours but before long it was all together and ready to go.

 

 

Except it wasn't. Initially we turned it over on the starter with the crank sensor disconnected (so it wouldn't fire) to make sure there were no nasty noises and all was well with the world. However with the sensor connected it would turn over fine and then seemed to try and fire from one of the cylinders when the piston was still heading up, almost stopping the engine. A couple of times it seemed like ti was about to start but would then do the same thing again. It didn't seem to be on every rotation, possibly about every 4th full rotation of the engine but is very odd. Clearly Phil wasn't going to be able to take the Lancia home.

 

First port of call was the Princess as that was running perfectly. Phil took it for a drive while I explained the various peculiarities with the electricity supply around the car and how to find 3rd gear and he had the hang of it in no time. We stopped back at home to grab a cup of tea before he left, fired up the Princess and went to set the alternator to charge the battery when it suddenly died and would not show a sign of life at all. Spiffing.

 

This left the slightly sick Mk1 Fiesta as the one last available mode of transport for him - as he didn't much fancy taking the Mk1 MR2 with bald tires, a cam belt with visible cracks and a clutch with a life span measurable in minutes. This then lead to this sorry scene as I changed the fuel filter on the Fiesta and gave it a very quick check over to make sure it would get him the 40 miles home.

 

 

We pushed the Princess out of the way to get the Fiesta out and it would seem that changing the fuel filter and mucking about with the connections on the coil made a world of difference and it got him home with no further dramas at all.

 

As for the other cars, I have checked over the Princess and it seems to have a blocked fuel line between the pump and the carb. I will get this sorted tomorrow. The Lancia is a little more tricky, I have tried taking spark plugs out to find out which cylinder is getting compression at the wrong time but I can't find a specific effected cylinder or a pattern to it. I have also taken the belt covers off again to make sure its all lined up and the cam and crank are still matching up with the tippex marks I made two days ago. The only possibility I can think of is that the crank sensor is at fault (again) as that was the other part that was removed to change the belt, so I will be changing that for a new one tomorrow. Anyone else have any ideas if that doesn't fix it?

[messerschmitt owner]

Wanna hand? (You can talk me out of doing something SWMBO will almost certainly castrate me for)

M42, M5, M50 then up the hill ....

[Inspector Morose]

STOP IT!

[chaseracer]

Remind me the commission we agreed on, Campbell...

 

[Bren]

According to BBC possible ebola case in Glasgow.

 

I wonder how many people will ring in sick after new year?

[messerschmitt owner]

I was only mentioning how gorgous the Forest is at this time of year ... It's a lovely run out ...

[Luckythirteen]

According to BBC possible ebola case in Glasgow.

 

I wonder how many people will ring in sick after new year?

Jeez...and after last Monday's tragedy (and the Clutha tragedy last year), I'd said that only epidemic and a meteor strike could top that.

Scary and all, yet more people will die of flu than runaway bin trucks and ebola.

[nacho man]

Yesterday my missus was hinting at doing some diy, so today I was out the house early and it the garage to get some bits done on my clio and escape the horrors.

 

I messed about all day, angle grinding the exhaust off after heat,swearing and brute force was no good. Wired in a new temp sensor as the wire had been cut and also most of the shielding and come off so and the wires was all rusty, changed the brake fluid and of course a nipple snapped (I even dosed them in plus gas the last TWO nights before and took it mega easy) luckily had a spare nipple also renault fitted that stupid pin and bar type crap to hold the pads in which in my experience either is easy of takes for ever faffing, obviously it took ages.

 

So a proper whole day and it still looks like it's one snapped bolt away from the scrappers.

 

[wuvvum]

luckily had a spare nipple

You are Krusty the Clown AICMFP.

[Luckythirteen]

Or Scaramanga.

 

Did you see the drill bit trick? The video which was posted here a few weeks ago, which shows how to stick a drill bit in the nipple to stop it snapping?

Apologies if you had, or were doing that. I'll be trying it out myself at some point.

[nacho man]

Or lily Allen

[Skizzer]

 

This left the slightly sick Mk1 Fiesta as the one last available mode of transport for him - as he didn't much fancy taking the Mk1 MR2 with bald tires, a cam belt with visible cracks and a clutch with a life span measurable in minutes. This then lead to this sorry scene as I changed the fuel filter on the Fiesta and gave it a very quick check over to make sure it would get him the 40 miles home.

 

 

 

I would click 'Like', but that somehow doesn't seem appropriate.  Maybe we should have a 'good luck' button.

 

Also, are we too late to have this in the calendar?  Maybe next year.

[Ghosty]

According to BBC possible ebola case in Glasgow.

 

I wonder how many people will ring in sick after new year?

Aid worker that flew in - let's hope the rest of the folk on the plane are okay. 

Being moved to London -why don't the Scots have anywhere suitable for isolation?

[phil_lihp]

I would click 'Like', but that somehow doesn't seem appropriate.  Maybe we should have a 'good luck' button.

 

Also, are we too late to have this in the calendar?  Maybe next year.

 

It was quite a scene.  It rapidly descended from "we'll just finish putting the Lancia back on its wheels and you can head off" to both of us standing among 4 broken cars surveying his driveway of broken dreams trying to work out which one was least likely to die on a 40 mile drive.  

 

When the Princess coughed and died whilst ticking over charging and henceforth refused to so much as hiccup, it did seem like some mystical force was at work to stop me leaving Tiverton.  It had performed faultlessly on the test run and we were highly optimistic of its chances of reaching the coast before it ran out of electricity.

 

The Fiesta is a little gem, it must be said.  It's running pretty well now, it has had a few little misfires but nothing to worry about, it does feel like dirt in the carb.  Oh, and I've fixed the bouncing rev counter too, I just moved the wire away from the other cables and it's been fine since, must have been getting a rogue signal from another wire.

 

Fingers crossed it is the Lancia's crank sensor that's gone bad, weird though it would be, as it'd be a cheap and easy fix.  It hardly seems like it could be anything else!

[mat_the_cat]

Speedlines will fit an estate with mild modification. Where's Mat-the-cat when you need him? Mind you, there are two widths of speedline I think...

 

Have a photo of mine!

 

 

Initially, I just teased out the wing a couple of mm with a claw hammer against the tyre, and a strip of wood to protect the paint. But on changing tyres (still 195 width) I found that different makes were different enough in width to cause fouling again. That time I bent the lip upwards slightly into more of a U section, although have to be careful about trapping dirt now.

 

185 section tyres on the 6J rim may work better, but now I've tweaked the wings there's no need...

[vulgalour]

I'm going to wrap the Xantia in cardboard boxes so I don't feel left out of all this BX love.

[CreepingJesus]

Aid worker that flew in - let's hope the rest of the folk on the plane are okay. 

Being moved to London -why don't the Scots have anywhere suitable for isolation?

We do, but the Royal Free has experience in dealing with Ebola. Better to play it safe...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-30628349

[Inspector Morose]

185s foul as well. As I found out having had the same brainwave and splashing out on a pair in desperation.

[mat_the_cat]

That is strange. I've only fitted them to one car, and the initial set fitted OKish, just buzzed a little on bumps. So I'm certain 185s would have been fine on my car...wonder what the difference is? IME worn rear arm bearings (are they OK?) actually help wheel/outer wing clearance.

[Inspector Morose]

Maybe my arm bearings aren't as bad as I thought! Up front however... Wishbone bushes on the to do list.

[mat_the_cat]

If you need the car on the road in daily use, then it's a much more relaxed job fitting the bushes into a donor wishbone at leisure and then swapping the whole thing. I've got a set you can have; so long as I get yours back at some point?

[Inspector Morose]

You could well be on there. Thank you! It's not too urgent, I've got the steering rack ball joints to do yet. They're clunking like a good 'un. They'd pass a PSV MoT but a car one? Maybe not.

[barrett]

I'm WELL JEL of you lot talking about changing bushes and bearings and the whatnot like you actually know what you're on about. I have to pay men to do that shit, it's a massive pain in the wallet.

No word on mine yet, so I would guess it now won't be ready til early Jan.

Has anyone had experience of painting the plastic bits on a BX? Want to get the bonnet done at some point but wonder if it will need some SPECIAL PREP or owt to stop all the paint falling off? Or if anyone has a silver bonnet going spare, eh?

[chaseracer]

Up front however... Wishbone bushes on the to do list.

 

Offer of Merc help reciprocated.  However, feel free this morning to observe my utter mechanical incompetence before making a decision.

 

I do make a decent mug of builder's, though 

[steve_earwig]

"builder's"? Is that there cockernee rhyming slang? Builder's crack, er, smack?