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Got a bit more done this weekend thanks to the far more clement weather - yesterday was a touch windy but today could quite easily have been April.

The Trafic van now has a functioning driver's door lock.  It also briefly had a functioning lock on the back door, but unfortunately the little arm on that lock is made from far more brittle plastic than the one on the front, and it didn't take kindly to being installed on a new barrel and has fallen off into the bottom of the door.  That was an annoyance, but the van can still be secured as the back door can be locked from the inside - it just means I have to climb between the seats to get to the back to unlock it again. 

It also now has a full set of working indicators.  I reversed it up onto the ramps to have a look at the wiring at the back, and I quickly gave up trying to understand WTF was going on - at some stage someone has spliced in a load of extra sections of wire, but they've done it all in one colour, and the joins are hidden in an absolute mountain of electrical tape.  I did notice one wire (which turned out to be copper single core ffs) heading all the way down one of the chassis rails, across a crossmember and into the engine bay - intrigued, I popped the bonnet to see where it came out, and it turns out it's taking a feed from the back of the nearside front indicator.  So that made life easier - I disconnected it from the rat's nest of turquoise wiring, and connected up a fresh wire which I ran across to the nearside rear light cluster.  I then snipped the feed wire for the indicator a few inches below the cluster and joined that to my new wire as well.  It's bodgy as feck but it works, and there was no way I was going to start trying to figure out the existing wiring.  I have no idea who's responsible - whether it was the company who originally converted it to a camper or a subsequent bodge artist - but I wasn't impressed.

I jump started the Renault 6 and drove that down to the house so I could plug in a fan heater to dry it out again - Storm Whateverthefuckitwascalled ripped the cover off the car before depositing several inches of snow onto it, so it'd got wet inside again.  It's all dry again now and the cover is back on - this time held on with ratchet straps rather than bungee cords.  I think I'm going to have to treat the old girl to some tyres this year as the ones on there are getting rather cracked.  There's someone on eBay at the moment selling NOS 135R13s for 35 quid a pair - decent makes too, although apparently the date codes are old - got to be better than the tyres currently on the car mind.

I dug out the 12v jet wash and had a go at blasting the Iveco roof to see if I could clean any of the green off it.  It didn't really do a lot of good, but then I wasn't hugely surprised - even scrubbing away at the roof with a scouring pad I was struggling to shift it.  I really need to get a ladder and get up there properly so I can actually see what I'm doing, but that's not an urgent job.  While the jet wash was out I gave the 75 a good blast underneath to hopefully get rid of most of the salt and crap that it's picked up over winter.  It's started locking itself again, which is annoying as I was hoping it'd cured itself of that - I've taken the fuse out for now but that's not a long term solution as with the fuse out the tailgate won't open.  I might have to bite the bullet and get a replacement BCM, and then find someone who can code it in.

Then I decided I'd had enough of chod fettling for one weekend, and I dug the road bike out for the first time since October and went for a ride up to the coast, which was lovely, if a little* busier than during the last lockdown.  Spring is definitely in the process of springing.

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Re: XJ40, when you changed the fuel pump, was it a new one (cheaper to buy another XJ40!) or was it a recon/used part? People with more knowledge than me say these pumps have 100k miles in them at best and so it came as no surprise to my knowledgeable friends that a used one transplanted into mine lasted a few hundred miles before conking out. How ironic that the FTP that finally caused the owner to call the scrap man was not the sensor, not the leads, not the dizzy cap, not the throttle body, but the fuel pump that requires a team of contortionists to get the tank out. Car scrapped, I come along and buy the bloody fuel pump...

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Our one little permitted pleasure of lockdown has been to visit a local cafe and get takeaway cake on a weekend.

For the first time in a while I decided to take the 2CV... there was something very nice and normal about piling the family into the 2CV and going for a Sunday drive... 6A9607E0-2909-47E9-8189-AF42B4B9C915.jpeg

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11 hours ago, ChinaTom said:

Re: XJ40, when you changed the fuel pump, was it a new one (cheaper to buy another XJ40!) or was it a recon/used part? People with more knowledge than me say these pumps have 100k miles in them at best and so it came as no surprise to my knowledgeable friends that a used one transplanted into mine lasted a few hundred miles before conking out. How ironic that the FTP that finally caused the owner to call the scrap man was not the sensor, not the leads, not the dizzy cap, not the throttle body, but the fuel pump that requires a team of contortionists to get the tank out. Car scrapped, I come along and buy the bloody fuel pump...

It was a brand new unit-I wasn't taking my chances with a used one with the work involved in changing it! also new lines, filter and the tank cleaned out

I went back last night and the XJ40 started fine from cold and drove perfectly on the mile drive home.

Symptoms when it started to die were that applying more throttle would cause the rev counter to fluctuate and the car to misfire. Last time a new crank sensor cured it and I did 300 miles with no troubles. 

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15 hours ago, ChinaTom said:

Re: XJ40, when you changed the fuel pump, was it a new one (cheaper to buy another XJ40!) or was it a recon/used part? People with more knowledge than me say these pumps have 100k miles in them at best and so it came as no surprise to my knowledgeable friends that a used one transplanted into mine lasted a few hundred miles before conking out. How ironic that the FTP that finally caused the owner to call the scrap man was not the sensor, not the leads, not the dizzy cap, not the throttle body, but the fuel pump that requires a team of contortionists to get the tank out. Car scrapped, I come along and buy the bloody fuel pump...

We had an iron that worked fine except for a mains lead - frayed to fook. Mentioned this to my dad who told me had kept the lead from an old iron and I should swap it.

I fitted new lead and fuse promply blew. My dad had chucked out a perfectly good iron - and kept the part of it that was fucked.

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Given these are worth a reasonable amount now, the closer to stock it is, the wider the potential market there is for it. Thus more potential for higher value and thus profit. 
I'm not sure there would be any profit in it, it's £2k and needs a shit load of work to return to standard.
I've had a long hard think about it over the weekend and decided not to go through with buying it which means I'll probably lose the £200 deposit on it but probably better than losing £2k on a car I may never get roadworthy.
Instead I've been looking at a roadworthy 505 gtd auto at £2500 which is roadworthy, I think in the long run I'd be happier cruising around in that than rattling around in the other one with its incredibly stiff suspension trying to avoid being beached on speedbumps.

Sent from my moto g(8) power using Tapatalk

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Automotively speaking, this weekend hasn't gone well. 

It began with the Astra having a FTP - alternator borked. 

Late last night I had to check over the wife's Focus after she reported a 'rattling' sound on the way home - turns out it needs 3 tyres and suspension bits for MoT next month, wiping out the budget for replacing the Astravan.

Fuck sakes.

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My 205 was getting difficult to start from cold,so I decided to fit the new glow plugs that I had lurking in a drawer.

3 came out fine,one decided to do this...

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Marvellous!!

Tried to weld a nut onto the broken stub,and the initial signs were good,but every time it went more that a few degrees the nut would shear off.

So,another method was needed.

You can buy a kit to remove them, but that's money I didn't want to spend.

So,it was carefully drilled out and I luckily had a the correct M12x1.25 tap to clean up the threads.

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The remains of the plug,the rest was turned into swarf

I used plenty of grease on the tap to catch the metal chips as it cleared up the thread.

4x new Bosch glow plugs later and we're back in action. 

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Finally the new one screwed home.

It did start on 3,but the new Monark brand plugs I had fitted didn't like the extra voltage and burned out after about 4 starts.

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You can see the tip is swollen (ooh-er missus)

Hopefully the 4 Bosch ones will be fine.

What a ballache for what should a simple straightforward job.

🙄

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Hopefully today will be my last day of non-couriering as the Combo visits the local indie for a new coil spring first thing tomorrow. No doubt it'll take all day, but not necessarily a bad thing as I have a few incomplete jobs I'd like to kill off.

Streetwise alternator - well, it's nearly out, finally got the lower mounting bolt loose by creating some room (hitting the outgoing alternator with a hammer to knock it forward, enabling me to get a much bigger ratchet in to attack the bolt. Yielded with an almighty crack and the bolt was out. The alternator is still stuck in there rigidly, so will need  a pry bar to lever it out. However, that's only half the battle - I still need to get the alternator out of the engine bay. Ideally, it's a case of removing the top alternator mounting bracket, leaving plenty of room. Naturally, another bolt, this time a wee 10mm beastie is locked solid and is now rounder than the Magic Roundabout. Buggerbollox. It was getting dark so downed tools for now to allow for WD40 penetration and to locate my mole grips.

Front garden hedge long overdue trim:

before (yes that is a nest - long abandoned : woodpigeon believe it or not !)

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after

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Very satisfying three hours work, very therapeutic.

Only trouble is, that's only a third of the hedge, still the other side of the path to do, which bends round to the side of the house. 

My arms look like I'm self harming as the hedge, which I planted myself many years ago, has hawthorn in it. Ouch.

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finally got the Rover home after having the alternator, belts and thermostat replaced.

it had been at George's in town for the last fortnight getting that done. it would have been sooner, had York Road Motorfactors sent the right alternator belt first time, and not sent the wrong one twice before managing to send the right part. 

all those jobs are a proper pain on a diesel 75, requiring both o/s engine mounts to be removed and the engine manipulated one way to get to the alternator, and then back to get at the thermostat, and back again to get at the belt tensioners.

luckily only one of the 4 bolts holding the stat on broke, George did get the remains of it drilled and tapped, before getting it all  back together.

the car runs mint, and the flickering on the lights, something the car has done for all  of the 5 and a half years that i have owned it, is no more! though seeing the temperature gauge sit at the 9 o'clock position is alarming, i dunno when it last did that, no seriously i don't remember when it last did that. it must have been sometime ago.

obviously this isn't cheap, with the bill been more than frankly the cart is worth, what is a 20 year old Rover 75 worth, with 205,000 miles on the clock? bugger all realistically, though as George said, its in pretty good nick,  all told

And, its a good old bus, its never let us down, and even when its broke, it hasn't left me or Kerry stranded, its not too bad on the derv, its a nice place to sit and i like it both to drive and look at, it is the perfect work horse.

plus i feel i got off lightly, in the yard next to it was a 16 plate Renault Scenic, the owners of which will be left with a £3-4k bill! that has suffered some sort of electrical melt down, they have apparently been driving it for sometime with a bust ignition switch, so busted that when George took the cowl  off it all fell to bits (£500-odd to buy, exchange, except this one won't be,cos its in bits) and a new steering rack (Renault don't stock them, its getting a 2nd hand one) which is out of a scrapped 17plate one with a borked engine. you gotta love the DCi engine,  still shit after all these years..... well this had been in the breakers for a couple of days, and the carcass was already well  picked over!!

next over Georges pit is another 75, this one too wanting a new thermostat. Wilco-Motorsave in town had tried to change it, they have snapped 3 of the bolts, and mutilated the 4th one before declaring to the owner that the car is now scrap, no wonder then that both Kerry and myself are both very particular about who looks at our cars!!

 

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More stuff on the rover -

 

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Cleaned inside the rocker covers - some shite in there but not a lot - i've seen much worse.

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Likewise the rocker gear - sometimes they get so bad you cannot see the headbolts for sludge. When they get to that state they need rebuilding.

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Some paint on the covers.

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.... and on the trumpet base.

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I dropped the Volvo off with tame mechanic yesterday to have new rear ABS sensors fitted, a wise choice as apparently the fuel tank needed dropping to run the wiring for them, this has cleared the ABS fault so this afternoon I took it along to the MOT garage for them to test at their leisure. I will now spend my time plugging the reg into the MOT checker until it's done. With any luck it should be done tomorrow. Then comes the fun of getting it home given MrsREB can't/won't drive here so the Fiesta is going to end up stuck in town unless I walk (which will take at least an hour) or get a taxi (where's the fun in that?). If the fiesta had more test left I'd just abandon it in the long stay car park until it sold, but laziness in getting the Volvo fixed has ruined that slightly.

Very much looking forward to being back in the Volvo, even just driving it to the garage yesterday was a joy. Once it's back I'll have a day of cleaning the interior as it's ended up somewhat grim from sitting and I got a load of detailing products for my birthday. It'll be the closest I've got to working on a car in over a year, so I'm quite excited about that! Before and afters will be provided of course!

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20 hours ago, SiC said:

Theres been lambs here for a good few weeks now, even with the sub zero temperatures. These guys were at the end of the garden until last week. I suspect they might have gone off to be served next to mint sauce.

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No, they are down the casino, gambolling 

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All this talk of mint sauce is making me hungry...

Bluebird window regulator ordered up. In the meantime, with the window dismantled, it's parked inside at the local friendly garage. I took the steering wheel surround apart this afternoon, the rear washer hasn't worked since I got it - apparently the front washer switch failed some years ago and the previous keeper swapped it over for the rear washer one. My plan is (having seen the prices of second hand stalk units) to wire to an extra switch for the rear wash.

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5 minutes ago, SRi05 said:

A message to strike fear into even the most battle hardened of shiters 

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Sooo.... 

After seeing the Mrs typing for an eternity making me increasingly anxious, she sent this. Hmm, could have been worse. The bing bing noise is actually the ping pong noise for the Saab enthusiasts among you. 

I'm guessing there's a duff sensor since opening and shutting the door a few times hasn't done anything.  Told her to manually lock the doors and not to use the fob which should stop the alarm going off its tits.  Off tomorrow so at least have some time to investigate. 

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3 minutes ago, SRi05 said:

Sooo.... 

After seeing the Mrs typing for an eternity making me increasingly anxious, she sent this. Hmm, could have been worse. The bing bing noise is actually the ping pong noise for the Saab enthusiasts among you. 

I'm guessing there's a duff sensor since opening and shutting the door a few times hasn't done anything.  Told her to manually lock the doors and not to use the fob which should stop the alarm going off its tits.  Off tomorrow so at least have some time to investigate. 

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The aeroplane noise.

I used to fear it on my 9-3. It did the noise and then a slight delay before it told you the problem. 

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Combo returned in under 2 and a half hours, £108 all in - most chuffed with that. Gave the van a celebratory wash, and then a company who use me regularly offered me a run into South Wales tomorrow which I readily accepted - back in da game.

Decided to skive off the rest of the day. Streetwise alternator hasn't moved, but the mounting bracket bolt is rounder. Arse.

In hedge news, two thirds now done and I have made a decision to leave the remaining third uncut as it provides a natural windbreak to the house. And because it will hopefully annoy those of an OCD persuasion.
 

 

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