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9 hours ago, shedenvy said:

I've accumulated a small stock of parts to sort out the Multipla's knocking suspension and also do the timing belt and water pump. Unfortunately with three kids I rarely get the time to stop everything and fit them. I'm too tight to pay anyone else so what I needed was a practical, reliable temporary car to fill the gap while I took my time over the Multi. Of course said replacement should require minimum fettling and also be quick to sell on when I'm finished.

 

Hmmm.....

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To be continued....

Is that the 150bhp version?  They shift pretty well.  Easily remappable to 190 or so, although they do then develop something of a gearbox habit.

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46 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Is that the 150bhp version?  They shift pretty well.  Easily remappable to 190 or so, although they do then develop something of a gearbox habit.

I have no idea. How can I find out. Is it on the first page of the handbook?

Basically I won it at 10am, picked it up at 1.30pm and drove 2.5miles home. I then spent the rest of Sunday pretending to the missus that I didn't want to go outside and play cars.

It went ok but the clutch is very high, the seller said it was slipping when fully laden in top gear - I can't confirm this yet. The main problem is that the gear linkage centering spring has gone which made the notchy 6 speed slightly more difficult to engage the correct gear.

Otherwise the guy selling it was a bit of an Alfa enthusiast. He had two gtvs. One was supposed to be a low mileage, barn find with a rebuilt engine. It then had some issue with the balancer shaft which he suspected put the timing out. Anyway the point is that he had been burnt on ebay from sellers giving vague descriptions or just plain lies so wanted to advertise this with no guarantees. I went to see it before hand to try to gauge how much it would be to get through the MOT. He said the tyres were probably due on 2 wheels for instance - what it actually has is 4 pirelli Pzeros with 5-6mm of tread. 

The body work needs a clay bar, cut, polish, wax but even then there's a couple of dents and scratches. It's had welding to the rear of the sills already (shock!) But the guy suspected they were due to poor quarter repairs blocking up the drain holes. They've been patched but by a reputable garage who incidently are currently restoring a lancia beta.  I'll grab a pic sometime.

It's done 164k but sounds good. The seller said it had oil changes religiously every 10k. I've no reason to doubt. 

Will try to MOT this week.

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19 minutes ago, MondeoBlues said:

Looks like it might be that new Dallara Stradale. I'm not much into moderns though, so I could be wrong.

It is indeed - I wasn't paying attention to top gear last night, but apparently one has just gone round the track in the second fastest ever time. Not bad for a ford focus engine!

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3 hours ago, shedenvy said:

I have no idea. How can I find out. Is it on the first page of the handbook?

Totalcarcheck says it's 140.  Which is still plenty in a car that size.

Gear lever spring seems to be a common thing - my 156 wagon had the same problem.  You get used to it eventually.

I've found with pogweaseled red Alfas that they don't always respond very well to polishing.  It seems the paint fades under the lacquer, which makes it rather awkard to get back to full redness again.

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Had limited success fettling this week, which was annoying as it was such a nice weekend I was hoping to get loads done.

The CX now has a large cable tie holding its CV boot on.  It's not as tight as I'd like but it's better than not being held on at all, which was the previous situation, and it should help to keep the grease in.  I still can't get the offside rear foglight to work though - there's power at the multiplug, the bulb is brand new and I've cleaned the contacts, so I think the issue is probably with the PCB, which is annoying.  I think I'm going to end up fitting an aftermarket foglight under the bumper as an easy option.

I treated the Y10 to a new distributor cap and rotor arm in an attempt to get it running somewhere near normally.  It's made bugger all difference.  It starts up OK but as soon as you put any load on it it pops and farts and doesn't want to know.  Sitting in neutral with my foot flat to the floor it would do just under 3,000rpm.  I've checked the plugs (they're new anyway) and they're all a nice healthy pale beige colour, so no issues there.  I'm going to treat it to a new set of leads.  Then if that doesn't fix it, a new fuel filter (if I can find one).  Then if that doesn't fix it, a match in the tank.

Had another go at getting the Raleigh Runabout to run, having treated it to a new correct-spec spark plug (the one in there was slightly on the cold side).  It got closer to starting than last time - it managed to tick over for a few seconds at one stage - but it's still not running.  Still a nice fat spark, still plenty of compression, and I've cleaned the carb out so many times you could probably perform surgery on it, so I have no idea what it's doing.

On a more positive note, I have been doing all my running about this weekend in the MX5 with the top down.  And loving every minute of it.  It is far more fun than a £300 car has any right to be.

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5 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Totalcarcheck says it's 140.  Which is still plenty in a car that size.

Gear lever spring seems to be a common thing - my 156 wagon had the same problem.  You get used to it eventually.

I've found with pogweaseled red Alfas that they don't always respond very well to polishing.  It seems the paint fades under the lacquer, which makes it rather awkard to get back to full redness again.

Great info thanks!

With the gear lever spring, is this usually a problem at the stick end or the gearbox end?  I think with my Multipla (cables) the stick is all waggly without the cables attached to the selector and it's the selector itself that has the centering spring.  I believe you have to withdraw the selector from the gearbox which Is as daunting as it sounds.  If I end up having to do the clutch - i'll investigate further.

i'll try and give the paint a little test tonight and see how it responds.

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I might* have accidentally* put a deposit down on a car this afternoon, collect tomorrow.

I have at least seen it in the metal so to speak, but it's a train ride or two away from Nottingham and whilst I flirted with the idea of leaving the 620 in the relevant station car park, the fact the car I just got myself engaged to was boxed in by a broken something or other, I left empty-handed. I was at least able to roll it forward and back a few centimetres, so that'll do as a road test ;)

Had to grab it as I'll never see one this cheap again in my lifetime, I reckon.

Lunar mileage, wafty, rare,  late 90s, some ticket till early next year, part service history, 40 quid knocked off the already low price because the bonnet doesn't shut properly (only on the first catch) - should be fun tomorrow. Where's me bungees....

 

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4 hours ago, anonymous user said:

It might be nice, but not 10 million nice. I always think stuff like that is just nature's way of saying that someone has far too much money. Not envious at all*

 

 

Of course it’s stupid. But think of it as a work of art, because I am sure no one actually drives them regularly. They’re really a timeless design, far better looking than modern Mclarens.

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On 6/29/2019 at 8:45 PM, Lord Sterling said:

Vectra now has working air-con. Cool. Cost me £10 instead of £50 as there is a leak so it may not last very long. As long as it keeps me cool during this heat, I'm happy.

Well. That didn't last long. Used it today and the 'cold' air was about as useful as a fart in a gale. So looks like all the gas has gone. Great. :|

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2 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Of course it’s stupid. But think of it as a work of art, because I am sure no one actually drives them regularly. They’re really a timeless design, far better looking than modern Mclarens.

I have a picture painted by daughter in 2002, which means more to me than if I could afford a Lowry or a Hirst

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This 21st Century 'man with red flag' $hite...... Electric cars must go 'Vroom, Vroom...'!

Have the car companies been installing Noise Boxes for a while? Is it likely a 'dealer activate' upgrade??

I really only hear TNT lorries reversing, with the FFshhtt.. FFshhtt.. FFshhtt.. coming out the back ?

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Not really news as such, but I've finally taken it upon myself to sort out the shed in my back garden.

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No doors, leaky roof, the window has been half-heartedly blocked up with random bits of stone and brick balanced in place and worst of all it's absolutely rammed full of damp cardboard!

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It's actually bigger inside than I thought, plenty of space for a workbench or whatever plus a decent amount of storage for stuff I probably shouldn't keep in the house.

First order of business is clear it out completely, then see what I can do to make it at least somewhat weatherproof for as close to £free as possible since I'm not spending what little hard earned I have on improving someone else's property!

I pay through the nose to live out here, I might as well make use of what makes it worth it!

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