The new news 24 thread

[Cavcraft]

Indeed. I'd swep up the remains and hug them back into life!

[Pete-M]

[ashmicro]

Some of you may remember that it was with regret that I had to say goodbye to my Suzuki GSX-R 750, given to me by my lovely girlfriend Kate for my birthday. I had one when I was 19, and Kate, unknown to me, went to great trouble to find one EXACTLY the same, and sent me out to the garage under false pretences on the morning of my birthday in order that I would find it. Sadly, I am now 19x2, and had difficulty in piloting said machine for a distance of much more than about 15 miles without being in agony, so he had to go.

 

Billy, myself and others crayoned all over the thread with pics of 250s and 350s, KR1S and X7, belts drives and PowerValves. So. it was set for me to get a new bike, nice and light for size, with a smaller engine than that monster 750.

 

The deal has been done:

 

New bike: Check!

Light for size: Check!

Smaller engine: Ah!

 

I have just bought a 2006 Suzuki GSX 1400 EFi, a bit like this

 

 

In fact, it's just like that. MOT til December, 3k miles, and comes with a full service kit, new disks and pads (I still feel weird about that for a bike) and 2 new tyres. I get it next weekend (10 December)

 

It's much more upright than the GSX-R, and 20 years and fuel injection has made the power delivery much more manageable. More super-tourer than supersports, an old man bike if you will. 105BHP in a bike is plenty, and torque as smooth as silk. Pics to follow.

[Albert Ross]

105 brake for a bike???!!! I get 62 to play with in my 2 ton 4x4......

[ashmicro]

Albert that's lazy for a modern bike. My mate's Ducati is closing on 180. Modern bikes are getting well silly, pullling 160 and more as a Norm.

 

 

 

Am I allowed to say Norm?

[maxpower]

They don't have a fanbelt, they have an fan driven by an electric motor like 99% of cars made in the last 20 years.

 

Jeez. You really are a barrel of laughs aren't you? I bet at school you were the one saying "actually, a chicken isn't very likely to cross a road at all, certainly not in a urban environment."

 

[andrew e]

Ordered some books off the nice James Ruppert Sunday, they turned up yesterday!

 

14/10 for customer service

[dieselnutjob]

I'll take the switch out and have a butcher's. Rear fogs work fine...I am rather annoyed that you can fail due to the absence of an internal light that tells you it's on.

 

I'm quite pleased to see that that is a fail point given the number of people that drive around with rear fogs on when it's not foggy. Without that warning light it would be much worse I should think.

 

Got a quote for a pair of custom rear springs for £130 for the 604. I'm a bit tempted. I don't know where you get MAD springs from or if they do them for 1970s pugs.

[sporty-shite]

Spent the afternoon washing and photographing two of the Alfas, because I really now need to get off my arse and sell something to raise some cash to reduce my overdraft.

 

Also washed the cav and was amazed how well it came up. Banger racers my arse!

 

Pics of pasta-shite to follow.

[Vin]

This is late news really as it happened the weekend before last, but I managed to get the 126 moved over to Hull and into it's winter quarters.

 

Reason it's late is I only took the photos of my transport combo off the camera last night

 

 

I put the scabby steels back on and put the minilites in the garage loft.

 

It cost £5.40 each way to get this combo over the Humber Bridge...

[Cheggers]

Set off for the office in the Triumph this morning, thinking that the alternator's starting to get a bit grumbly. It seized solid right in the middle of Slough...bumhats.

 

Fortunately I get free breakdown cover from my insurer, so at least I get to replace it at home rather than by the roadside.

[cms206]

Proton is finally away to get the timing belt done; when it comes back I'm going to have to effect temporary grot stoppage as one of the arches is starting get lunched upon.

[garycox]

That little 126 looks great! I think the white steels look miles better than the Minilites too.

[andrew e]

SAAB GB call in the administrators....

 

http://www.saab.co.uk/gb/en/start#/worl ... ousel:all/

[Shep Shepherd]

Managed to get to Melbourne from Boston in under four minutes this afternoon:

 

Boston:

 

Melbourne:

 

Much more like it. In perfect working order, too

[trigger]

My nextdoor neighbour has a tidy X reg Vectra 1.8 Auto Artic Estate with something like 80k on the clock, last week he got towed home by the AA, i asked what was wrong and he said that it cut out and the AA man told him that the cambelt had snapped.

 

I was just talking to his son who i also work with who's just said he's got to run it down the scrappy on Saturday, they can't be bother to get it fixed, they haven't even bother to look to see what's broke on it, what a waste, I'm half tempted to offer them £150 for it myself!

 

Well it looks like i can't save it, My neighbour wants £200 for it which is nothing for a tidy estate with 10 months mot but after a chat with my mechanic he said the ecotec engines tend to smash themselves to bits when the belt snaps, you'd be looking at £500 to fix it if it all goes to plan, I guess the cars worth £850-900 tops fully working so it's not really worth the effort.

 

Shame.

[Cavcraft]

Second hand engine £150 at most.

[loserone]

Almera sold, pending collection. Will be quite nice to be able to park on the drive again. A shame I didn't get enough for it to cover the insurance on it's replacement, but I didn't get less for it than I paid for the 323

 

RE: Vectra - does anyone on here like them? I must admit I hated my brother's company '96 1.7td nearly as much as he did, but there's surely someone that likes everything on here, even if the Cavalier was a better car. Right?

 

/\ That's the reasoning I applied to salvaging the grey Mazda. It's still sitting on its bum waiting for some wheels...

I realise I'm quite far away, but I got some spare steels with brand new* tyres for £60 last week. I suppose it doesn't rain enough for MX5s to rot away to nothing and get stripped for spares over there...

 

On that subject, perhaps I should get some locking wheel nuts.

 

*date code 366

[trigger]

Second hand engine £150 at most.

 

I had a look on ebay, it was about £200 for a new lump but then you have to add the labour costs in for the fitting off it, (I couldn't do it) and it soon mounts up again, my neighbour had a quote from a local garage of £1000 to fix it!

[Cavcraft]

Screw that then, sounds like far too much mither for no real gain.

 

*Unless you buy Sporty-Shite's Cavalier and do an 8V conversion on the Vectra?

[wuvvum]

I put the Skoda up for sale on RR earlier this evening. First two messages were from a chap in Blackpool who wouldn't be able to collect it for a while, and a certain leather-seat-averse vegan gentleman from the North East. Part of me wants to sell it to him just because I'm curious to meet him...

[Felly Magic]

Second hand engine £150 at most.

 

I had a look on ebay, it was about £200 for a new lump but then you have to add the labour costs in for the fitting off it, (I couldn't do it) and it soon mounts up again, my neighbour had a quote from a local garage of £1000 to fix it!

 

Plus to be on the safe side there is a cambelt change needed on any replacement engine, just to be on the safe side! Ecotecs are well known for this kind of damage when the belt snaps. Odds on all 16 valves said hello to the pistons

[R9UKE]

Ecotecs are well known for this kind of damage when the belt snaps. Odds on all 16 valves said hello to the pistons

 

Does the 3.2 V6 Ecotec have a belt or chain? Closer than ever to taking the plunge for a Signum and it would be good to know...

[andrew e]

You just want a travel assistant, not a signum!

[Cavcraft]

Ecotecs are well known for this kind of damage when the belt snaps. Odds on all 16 valves said hello to the pistons

 

Does the 3.2 V6 Ecotec have a belt or chain? Closer than ever to taking the plunge for a Signum and it would be good to know...

 

Belt it would seem...

 

http://www.lmfvauxhall.co.uk/Timing-Belt-Kits-c-1781

[M'coli]

I put the Skoda up for sale on RR earlier this evening. First two messages were from a chap in Blackpool who wouldn't be able to collect it for a while, and a certain leather-seat-averse vegan gentleman from the North East. Part of me wants to sell it to him just because I'm curious to meet him...

If you sell it to him, make sure to leave a kipper somewhere it'll rot nicely...

[R9UKE]

You just want a travel assistant, not a signum!

 

LOL You're right - it's such a shite feature, a must have!

 

 

Belt it would seem...

 

http://www.lmfvauxhall.co.uk/Timing-Belt-Kits-c-1781

 

Thank you sir.

[alf892]

Second hand engine £150 at most.

 

I had a look on ebay, it was about £200 for a new lump but then you have to add the labour costs in for the fitting off it, (I couldn't do it) and it soon mounts up again, my neighbour had a quote from a local garage of £1000 to fix it!

 

Plus to be on the safe side there is a cambelt change needed on any replacement engine, just to be on the safe side! Ecotecs are well known for this kind of damage when the belt snaps. Odds on all 16 valves said hello to the pistons

 

 

True........I bought one from a mate much the same when enemployment came to visit late last year. Reall nice order and even a tank of fuel. It was fine until the pas/aircon/alt belt went and got inside the cam belt cover and lift the cam belt off the crank pulley.....so the whole lot went round out of time. I budgeted for 16 new valves (100 quid) but did not realise that you have to hammer the valve back in a bit which knackers the guide. This happens because the valve gets bent when fully open and so there is no compression left on the valve sring to release the collets. It only happens to the exhaust valves but they are 8 quid each. Luckily I only gave 80 for the car and had a trouble free 6 months of motoring. All in I think it owed me about 350 but realistically you can't include the cam belt kit in any comparison as you would have to fit this to any second engine you put in.

 

In the end I sold it for 750 after it went straight through the Mot

[DSdriver]

I will be collecting a DS23 efi engine tomorrow that I won on ebay. I'll try and make a road trip photo thread out of it as I'll be picking it up in the Safari.

I will take it straight to Rad at Pallas Auto for expert assessment and while I am there collect the saloon which is now rebuilt after it's crumple zone test.

The plan is to get the engine checked out and any necessary rebuild done before swapping it with the lump in the saloon which has bottom end rumble.

[mnde]

I'm going to collect the GSA from Hitchin tomorrow after a long stay in the workshop having some new underbody protection and a repair to stop a long-running water ingress problem, which - if anyone's interested - was finally traced to the bulkhead drain where the metal has rotted out surrounding the rubber drain tube, and water was traced trickling down into the footwell and the floor/inner wing box sections through a gap between two panels. Here's a recent picture.

 

 

Hoping to hook up with Chris so we can go up in a Renner of some description to avoid me having to take the train, but he's not answering his phone...

 

Mark.