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Father Ted

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17 minutes ago, Saabnut said:

I try very hard not to comment on these things, but just occasionally it is even harder not to. I have my own forum so see things from both sides. There are always people who are not happy with the mods. There are always questionable decisions when viewed from one side, but only the mods know what is going on in the background. One major car forum no longer exists because a post was not moderated, the site had to close, either that or the mods faced court.

There was a worry during Modgate Episode 1 that the same might happen here when ole Breadbin started throwing around threats of legal action.  Whether or not that's had an influence on the subsequent moderating style I can't say - I tried not to get involved and therefore probably missed a lot of the background - but I doubt it will have helped.

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1 hour ago, Yoss said:

I looked at new electronic ignition at the time, including the 123 which looks lovely if nothing else, but there are so many different types now I got flummoxed and forgot all about it. In my day Lumenition was all there was so the choice wasn't hard. Just wondered if you'd had any experience of it? Is it worth the extra over some of the cheap ones?

Essentially most of them are the same thing. They have a magnet that goes on the rotor arm and a hall effect sensor in a pickup. When the magnet passes the sensor, it senses this and causes a transistor to switch. As there is no moving parts and fully solid state, in theory there should not be any contacts to wear out. 

The better ones also measure the current from the coil. This ensures to fully charge the coil without overheating from saturation. Effectively an auto adaptive dwell. Quite easy thing to do in solid state electronics with a microcontroller.

The issue is that some of these, like everything nowadays, are built to a price. Lumenition is one of the few that is built well. Unfortunately they are way over priced even for that. I have one in the Dolomite as the distributor in that is bespoke to the Sprint only and came with the car. I've not actually driven the car to know, but I hear it makes a big difference.

With the 123, it's different proposition to the others. Like the above it has a magnetic pickup. But the key thing is that it's a brand new, machined distributor designed from the ground up for electronic use. So the timing is fully controlled electronically and there is a air pressure sensor to provide vacuum advanced. They also use Bosch/Beru distributor caps that are still of high quality and readily available.

The issue with many distributors out there is that they are knackered. So putting something like a Powerspark or Lumenition in won't resolve the fact the weights are slopping all over the place and the rotor is wobbling around, giving inaccurate timing. You can get a distributor rebuilt - I enquired at the Distributor Doctor (deemed to be one of the best in the UK). It was coming in at £300 iirc. I was tempted but for that money I could get a brand new 123 ignition with its superior rotor+cap and the fact it won't wear anywhere near as quickly as a rebuilt traditional. As it's fully solid state, a 123 has the additional advantage of being tunable and having the advance curves altered easily without having to strip the dizzy. As the rotor is directly connected to the engine shaft, there isn't much load on it, thus reducing the potential for wear and loosing accuracy.

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Weren't those threats at the end of a long argument and made in exasperation at ridiculousness / pettiness by some iirc. If only a glitch hadn't removed it.

Shame it came to that. Should have had a light touch well before it. Forum lost a decent car type and a little bit of its gentleness.  I has the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times, like most here I suspect, there is more in common with others than not.  Might even be cars. 

I apologise if I seem to be 'stirring' as mentioned earlier, not sure if it's a veiled dig or not, nor do I really care (about the dig).  It's not. I am bothered by it all, the hypocrisy, favouritism, downright lies and individual hidden agendas. 

 

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1 hour ago, MarvinsMom said:

i have wondered about going pointless on both the metro and the mini 1000,

BUT as you say, there are that many ones out there and i dunno which are any good, and which are crap.

and as both are happy enough ,so far (touch wood) on points i have left them well enough alone.

as a cautionary tail, we did once change the points in the Metro not long after i bought it.

i got a new set from Unipart in York, we put them in the car, gaped them and and that, only for the shiney new points to weld themselves shut after only using the car a coupleof times.

so i got kerry  to put the original set back in, and well i don't think we have  had any problems with the car since.

well i say  that, remembering that the metro has not been touched in nearly 18 months since the bat flu started!

The biggest problem with aftermarket points is the really crap condensers. Only new ones I've found decent are the HQ ones from Moss. I believe they are the Distributor Doctor ones. The points themselves are actually pretty decent quality, but it's the condenser that stops condensing which causes the points to burn out.

Having stripped down a Powerspark distributor pickup, Sparkrite points assisted unit, CSI-ignition replacement distributor and the 123 ignition replacement distributor. The only one that I would trust is the 123. It's head and shoulders the best mechanical and electrical design out of all of them. 

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12 minutes ago, SiC said:

Essentially most of them are the same thing. They have a magnet that goes on the rotor arm and a hall effect sensor in a pickup. When the magnet passes the sensor, it senses this and causes a transistor to switch. As there is no moving parts and fully solid state, in theory there should not be any contacts to wear out. 

The better ones also measure the current from the coil. This ensures to fully charge the coil without overheating from saturation. Effectively an auto adaptive dwell. Quite easy thing to do in solid state electronics with a microcontroller.

The issue is that some of these, like everything nowadays, are built to a price. Lumenition is one of the few that is built well. Unfortunately they are way over priced even for that. I have one in the Dolomite as the distributor in that is bespoke to the Sprint only and came with the car. I've not actually driven the car to know, but I hear it makes a big difference.

With the 123, it's different proposition to the others. Like the above it has a magnetic pickup. But the key thing is that it's a brand new, machined distributor designed from the ground up for electronic use. So the timing is fully controlled electronically and there is a air pressure sensor to provide vacuum advanced. They also use Bosch/Beru distributor caps that are still of high quality and readily available.

The issue with many distributors out there is that they are knackered. So putting something like a Powerspark or Lumenition in won't resolve the fact the weights are slopping all over the place and the rotor is wobbling around, giving inaccurate timing. You can get a distributor rebuilt - I enquired at the Distributor Doctor (deemed to be one of the best in the UK). It was coming in at £300 iirc. I was tempted but for that money I could get a brand new 123 ignition with its superior rotor+cap and the fact it won't wear anywhere near as quickly as a rebuilt traditional. As it's fully solid state, a 123 has the additional advantage of being tunable and having the advance curves altered easily without having to strip the dizzy. As the rotor is directly connected to the engine shaft, there isn't much load on it, thus reducing the potential for wear and loosing accuracy.

I've had a 123 on the Dyane since the engine rebuild in 2003.  Works well.

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6 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Grille looks Mk1, but on a F plate? Indicators/sidelamps Mk2? Going from (distant) memory here.

1967/F was the change from major to minor to the mk2, so there may have been a few mk1s that stuck around past the short E-plate (1 Jan-31 Jul  67), strange though that is given the rate the ADO16 was selling.

Maybe somebody didn't care about the facelift and got a bargain.

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14 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Oof! What blue is that? Grille looks very early, and vinyl roof? Engine bay looks very smart.

Originally the car was Green but was repainted when the second owner restored it. First owner, in Scotland, had it from 1968 to 2012 and then wrote it off (as a Cat C). Given they weren't worth a lot in 2012 it likely was a minor giffer dent. There is a slight crease in one of the door panels and a receipt for a dent puller, so probably was that. 

Second owner then welded the sills and a few other bits. In the process he repainted it from Connaught Green to the current Blue. What blue is it? I really don't know and want to know! My suspicion is that it's tractor enamel paint - maybe Ford blue? There is his emails address in the paperwork and I keep thinking I should email him to find out. A few bits need touching up and it would be useful to know what it is. 

The vinyl roof I don't think is original. As it's a 1968 plate and a MK1, it must have been a very late registered one of the last. Or it had been sitting around for a while. The original BMC Passport to Service book ties up with the age.

I know the colour isn't to everyone's taste, nor is it original but I really like it. It's a bright and vivid colour when polished up and gets parsersby attention. A impulse lockdown project purchase last year that is a very jolly little car. 

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More about it on my thread!

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My grandad was a serial ADO16 perv in the 60s/70s - always Austins, the high points being a couple of 1300GTs - trading them every two years until he tried a (single) VP1500 in 1975.  He was so impressed with that, he swapped it for a Simca 1100!  This was so utterly dire, it was chopped in after barely a year for the first of two Honda Accords.

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1/3/68 the date of sale on the car according to the Passport to Service. Sold to a Mr McArthur in Crossgate, Fife by William Robb of The Kirkcaldy Garage in Kirkcaldy. Pre delivery stamp is 28/2/68 with a mileage of 47. So does seem like it was new at the time. Must have been one of the very very last MK1.

Actually has more history than any other of my classics. Wish I had more on the MGBGT as I've got nothing pre the last seller and it's a low owner car too. Unfortunately the second owner threw out/lost that history. 

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41 minutes ago, SiC said:

1/3/68 the date of sale on the car according to the Passport to Service. Sold to a Mr McArthur in Crossgate, Fife by William Robb of The Kirkcaldy Garage in Kirkcaldy. Pre delivery stamp is 28/2/68 with a mileage of 47. So does seem like it was new at the time. Must have been one of the very very last MK1.

Actually has more history than any other of my classics. Wish I had more on the MGBGT as I've got nothing pre the last seller and it's a low owner car too. Unfortunately the second owner threw out/lost that history. 

That sounded like the start of one of those long winded Ebay adverts! 🤣

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I have to put this:

20210215_101457.thumb.jpg.4779a0dd9cb8d2e31371e78511fd9984.jpg

Onto this:

20210215_101501.thumb.jpg.96c044156209e3c7abc75f972dd0b838.jpg

The problem is that because I'm an idiot I ordered the wrong tow bar, I got the estate tow bar rather than the hatchback one. Which means it's not going to fit, so I have a drill and an angle grinder at the ready.

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46 minutes ago, Tim_E said:

I have to put this:

20210215_101457.thumb.jpg.4779a0dd9cb8d2e31371e78511fd9984.jpg

Onto this:

20210215_101501.thumb.jpg.96c044156209e3c7abc75f972dd0b838.jpg

The problem is that because I'm an idiot I ordered the wrong tow bar, I got the estate tow bar rather than the hatchback one. Which means it's not going to fit, so I have a drill and an angle grinder at the ready.

Ok I'm going to try and sell this one and get the correct tow bar...

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Finally managed to go to where my Rover is stored yesterday, passing by while doing another (essential) errand. Haven't been to it in 4 weeks due to lockdown and all that. 

Battery? Flat as a witch's tit. No problem, connect jumper pack... 

Cue 5 minutes of the alarm/immobiliser going mental, and not responding to the fob. A frantic Google on the phone revealed the procedure to cure this, involving locking/unlocking the door using the key, pressing the fob buttons a specific number of times, and sacrificing a live chicken to the gods of Lucas electronics.

With the crisis averted, managed to run it for 30 minutes or so to get a bit of juice into it, and I've added a solar trickle charger to help it retain charge. It'll still need a mains charge at some point though. 

 

20210214_130931.jpg

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Got the dating certificate back today for the little Gilera. It's come back as March 2001 because Gilera don't hold records for bikes over ten years old and after the people who issued the certificate used their extensive database. Do any vehicles that can't be dated default to March 2001 as that's when the new system of numbers started at DVLA?

 

It's a 1973 bike,  so although it'd be nice to see it registered here in the UK, I'm guessing it'll not get 'historic' status so no free MOT or tax? Not that the latter will matter too much, it's only a 49cc

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9 minutes ago, Cavcraft said:

Got the dating certificate back today for the little Gilera. It's come back as March 2001 because Gilera don't hold records for bikes over ten years old and after the people who issued the certificate used their extensive database. Do any vehicles that can't be dated default to March 2001 as that's when the new system of numbers started at DVLA?

 

It's a 1973 bike,  so although it'd be nice to see it registered here in the UK, I'm guessing it'll not get 'historic' status so no free MOT or tax? Not that the latter will matter too much, it's only a 49cc

Any photos?

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1 hour ago, Cavcraft said:

Got the dating certificate back today for the little Gilera. It's come back as March 2001 because Gilera don't hold records for bikes over ten years old and after the people who issued the certificate used their extensive database. Do any vehicles that can't be dated default to March 2001 as that's when the new system of numbers started at DVLA?

 

It's a 1973 bike,  so although it'd be nice to see it registered here in the UK, I'm guessing it'll not get 'historic' status so no free MOT or tax? Not that the latter will matter too much, it's only a 49cc

what do you mean by came back as March 2001?

as in you have this 1973 bike you sent a dating letter off for and they dated it to March 2001?

if thats the case then yeah if you send that off with your V55 etc then the DVLA will register it as a 2001 bike and you wont have any historic status entitlments

 

if it really is a 1973 bike then you need to find someone (that the DVLA will recognise, see V765/1) that will be able to date it so to 1973, to be able to register it as a 1973 bike

 

vehicles that cant be dated get a Q plate and have no Date of manufacture recorded with the DVLA (well technically they do but its just the year of when said vehicle registered but thats just to keep the computer systems happy) 

1995003027_Screenshot2021-02-15at13_31_18.thumb.png.ca69e2c6cc88137536f8f52746b21030.png

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Kinda neglected the galaxy due to  work , lockdown,  weather, and knew had slow puncture on nsr, and it gone down but osr had deflated too and look like crap parked up, so missus gone to the optician's with kid's,  so thought I'd go be a goodboy/neighbour and pump up the tyres and turn it around so looks like its moved... oh and damp catchers seem to be doing summit..

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re: dampcatchers.

I have a very paffy dog who takes it upon himself to steam up the interior of the Scirocco every time we go out in it. I've tried all manner of things and it's been a total losing battle thing until I used a chamois leather. Bizarre I know, but the traditional chamois appears not only to have created streak free, dry windows, the damp doesn't seem to come back - half as quickly.

Perhaps there's some science, perhaps the car's stopped misting up due to something else, but it's transformed my motoring life & moreover...

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