The new news 24 thread

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I'm stuck in the middle of one of those simple jobs which spiral out of control. 

 

Mini. Something snaps in the indicator stalk and it goes floppy. No problem, second hand set off eBay arrives today. Swap goes without hitch until I snap the plastic clamp by over tightening it. Shit. Superglued it back on but, of course, it snapped off immediately. 

 

So it's a little loose. Proceed anyway. All back together... except the horn sounds every time you indicate. Loose connection inside the switch, which becomes a completely broken connection after a few seconds probing. Indicators work now, but no horn or main beam. No way to reconnect this wire, it's sort of crimped to the stalk during assembly. 

 

Now I'm going to attempt to make one good switch from the two broken ones, although the chance of success is approximately 0.0001%. 

[M'coli]

I hope you're doing this in lab condition those look like digestive biscuit crumbs down the bore holes

No, that's crud...the amount of wrastling this took to lift meant that a lot of the crud from the gasket left on the face of the head got scraped off and is now down the bores...a bit of grease will get that out.

[wuvvum]

Moar exhaust-related fun and frolics today.  This time it was the turn of the Vectra to lose a back box.  It's a rather odd setup really - the exhaust centre section goes into a fugging huge silencer box on the left of the car (which is fine).  That silencer has two outlets - a tailpipe exiting under the rear bumper, and another pipe going across the car to a smaller silencer on the right.  It's this pipe which has snapped (almost flush with the L/H silencer so GR0 4 bodging back together), leaving the silencer dangling by its one rubber hanger and dragging on the road.  Fortunately it was a loose enough fit on the hanger that I was able to waggle it off at the side of the road and then dump it in the boot - otherwise I would have been calling the AA out for the third time in two months. 

 

Had a look on eBay and the cheapest replacement I can find is £189 - and that has longer tailpipes that would require cutting holes in the rear bumper.  I'm going to have to see if I can get someone to weld it all back together - assuming there's enough there to weld to...

 

The car isn't excessively noisy as it is - in fact it has quite a nice burble - but I was about to put it up for sale and I can't really sell it with part of the exhaust missing.

[skattrd]

Lack of boost on the boring has been fixed - yay!

I had a diagnostic done by a VW tdi specialist, long story short, it was the ASV (anti shudder valve) that was at fault. This has now been disconnected (unplugged & cable tied open) and the car now has much powah ... Thank fuck for that, driving the car with the turbo effectively doing nowt was driving me nuts.

 

Tomorrow I'll be removing the ASV, EGR and N18 valve. When these pieces of crap have been removed most of the vacuum hoses can be taken out as well, so if I  ever do have a vacuum leak it'll be much easier to find.... I have spent far too much time of late checking for sodding vacuum leaks.

[vulgalour]

Okay, so eventually I'll be replacing the Golf with a TR7, I'm pretty sure of that.  I have a massive want for Triumph's rusty wedge rivalled only by the want I had for BL's rusty wedge.

 

I also know the Golf needs repainting eventually and since it's unlikely I'll be able to blend in to the existing blue which is good but could be better, my thoughts turned to other possible hues.  Trouble is, my favourite colour - to match the grey exterior trim and brown interior trim - is not a colour that I suspect is wise to apply to a small convertible.

 

 

Jaguar Heather Pink is a glorious thing and I like it very much.  But could I live with the daily abuse I'd likely get for it being on a Golf soft top?

[Cavcraft]

I've only ever seen that colour on a S1, was it really an option on later ones?

 

Anyhow, and this should probably be in the 'grumpy' thread, I've just had the pleasure* of driving this 13 miles today:

 

esc front ns use this by Cavlover1, on Flickr

 

It's up for grabs (sans MOT, tax, one wheelarch etc) for circa £170 if anyone is desperate enough to want it, but it'll be bridged very soon if not gone.

[cobblers]

Look at that sunstrip, it's fuppin poetic!

[Sigmund Fraud]

I hope you're doing this in lab condition those look like digestive biscuit crumbs down the bore holes

 

PSA gaskets are made of reconstituted digestive biscuits ; FACT

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Look at that sunstrip, it's fuppin poetic!

 

IIRC this is the second Escort to be offered on here with a MOTORSPORT sunstrip. 

[Junkman]

Jaguar Heather Pink is a glorious thing and I like it very much.  But could I live with the daily abuse I'd likely get for it being on a Golf soft top?

 

Of course you could. FTW alone you could. There are more reasons why you could though. You should.

[Wilko220]

GR9 for a bloke called Motor with a bird called Sport. Almost worth convincing your missus to do the deed poll thing for, in fact.

[wuvvum]

The Spacy is now fully working.  I still don't know quite what I did but the fuel tank is now allowing fuel through, so I screwed the vacuum-operated fuel tap back on, connected the pipes and it fired straight up.  I took it round the block just to check everything was shipshape, then pumped up the tyres and took it for a run down the bypass.  The windscreen that I'd fitted earlier today turned out to be rubbish - at 50mph the wind bent it so far back that it was almost touching the chin of my helmet - so that'll be coming off again (I'll take advantage of the handlebar plastics being off to try and find out why the headlight isn't getting any power), but other than that it all seems fine.

 

On a less positive note, the Alfa started running on 3 again last night.  It's back on 4 today, but I now reckon that the coil pack on #1 cylinder is on its way out, so I'm going to order a replacement.

 

I also ordered a set of plugs for the Xedos today.  I went for the normal type as I was buggered if I was going to fork out £60 for the platinum-tipped jobbies.  So that's going to be a fun job for next weekend - even the front bank is a pain to get to as the intercooler has to come off, but the rear bank is going to be a complete arsehole.  I'm hoping the plugs cure the problem - my reasoning is if it was a coil pack problem the EML would have come on.  It should be a bit easier to sell once it's running right.

[vulgalour]

Good news with the Spacy, is it the only bike with a pop-up headlight?

[twosmoke300]

Nope some Suzuki katanas had them too

[catsinthewelder]

I'm just back from a rather nice week in Devon that the BX has done it's best to spoil.  We set off a bit late mostly due to having to weld the clutch operating wotsit back together.  That has behaved but that is no doubt due to a spare arriving from the fine Mr Twosmoke300 of this parish.  It dropped through the door of our holiday house while this was happening

 

 

This was a fine example of listening to the nice HBOL,  if your not supposed to grease a thread then don't, not even a little bit.  Fortunately the balljoint came out of the hub at 15mph on the housing estate rather than 85mph on the M5.  A nice chap came from the AA and we only blocked the road for about 2 hours putting it all back together.  (it really was a two person job, I hate to think how long it would have taken with one)

 

He also diagnosed my water leak that k-seal wouldn't touch as the pump which was nice.

 

A couple of days later we ventured up to an old abbey north of Plymouth,  while negotiating this vast metropolis the battery light came on so I ignored it until we got there and parked on a hill.  Grabbed the spanners to tighten the belt up while the kids were munching thier sandwichs only to find that it wasn't there.   No matter, I'll have a couple of hours on the way back to get another so on the way back in we found a garage with a VDP outside.

 

 

Nipped in and got directions to the nearest factors who were shut,  so collered a pedestrian for directions to another in the city centre who we found eventually.  So the nice chaps there sold me a belt and off on me way I went.  Stopped off at a suitably hilly farm shop to fit the belt while Ms C bought dinner and found it was too long.   Bump started the car (again) and headed back into the city where a Unipart was found at about 4.45pm with a sloping car park.   So bought the right belt and fitted it there and then.  Drove back fithy and knackered.

 

Today I topped up the water first thing and set off, after 30 miles or so the coolant light was on so stopped and re-filled then bought 20 litres of water for the drive home (over 200 miles)  and used about a pint.

 

New cambelt and water pump next week then off to Durham.  This should be fun.

[vulgalour]

I think I have a timing belt and water pump for a BX that I didn't use on the Stripey estate.  Could be of use to you?

[skattrd]

Bloody hell Rich, it sounds like an eventful holiday you had there.

 

Minor news, EGR delete now fitted to the boring, and the engine bay looks so much tidier without all that crap in there. It should have been a simple job, but of course one of the studs on the EGR pipe snapped off, cue 2hrs of trying easyouts (didn't work) then carefully drilling the sodding thing out. Anyway, it's all fitted and the car feels so much better. It may be removing the EGR, but I also cleaned out the turbo and the inlet manifold as well. Next up for this car is DMF removal and fitting a solid flywheel with a new clutch.

[catsinthewelder]

I think I have a timing belt and water pump for a BX that I didn't use on the Stripey estate.  Could be of use to you?

 

They should be the right ones,  PM sent

[dollywobbler]

Ah, those will be the ones I purchased. Hope they're of use Mr Inthewelder! Should be spot-on for yours. Crank pulley bolt can be a sod, and access is 'frustrating' but it's not too bad a job.

[trigger]

I spent a few hours repairing the poorly repaired damage on the wing of the Civic yesterday.

 

My 1976 (1974) Honda Civic 1200 by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

 

It's really hard to tell in this photo but the old filler at the front of the wing has all crazed and cracked and the paint was the wrong colour as well as the arches being all dented and misshapen so I decided to make a quick repair to temporary tidy it up, it went a bit better than expected.

 

 

 

I filled and reshaped all the arches and painted it with some aerosol i got made up at the local motor factors, the repair is spot on but sadly the paint colour is a bit of a naff match, it's too yellow, but it will have to for now, sadly i didn't take any photos of the filler work as i wasn't expecting it to come out so well!.

 

Also on the way back from taking a quick look at local show this afternoon I nipped in to the Honda garage in Colchester, i had a quick word with the sales manager who said i could take some photos of the car next to a new model, the sales manager was most impressed with the car as he hadn't seen one before and couldn't believe how much different it was to the new model!.

 

My 1976 1st Gen Honda Civic and a 2013 Honda Civic by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

 

My 1976 1st Gen Honda Civic and a 2013 Honda Civic by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

 

My 1976 1st Gen Honda Civic and a 2013 Honda Civic by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

 

My 1976 1st Gen Honda Civic and a 2013 Honda Civic by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

[Richard]

These pictures really do show how unpleasant the current Civic is, I bet the old one beats it in almost every way.

[dollywobbler]

Note especially that in the old days, rear visibility was actually possible. 

[Wilko220]

Progress!

[M'coli]

Ah, those will be the ones I purchased. Hope they're of use Mr Inthewelder! Should be spot-on for yours. Crank pulley bolt can be a sod, and access is 'frustrating' but it's not too bad a job.

On the 205 it was released using a 22mm socket, an extension bar that takes a 3/8" bar (or a big srcewdriver) through it to pre-load it with torque and a cheapo impact wrench to release the bastard - the impact wrench on its own wasn't enough.

[CreepingJesus]

Now this is why I have Green Flag: they follow me to Asda in case anything goes wrong...

Well, one of them does anyway! 10/10 sir.

[cort16]

My mate who does property rentals was working on a house locally and spotted a forlorn looking BMW 850i sitting in the drive across the way. A quick knock on the door and a chat later and he's bought it for an unprincely sum. It's a bit of an unknown quantity. It runs badly and needs a shock is the things he knows about. I'm now standing by like a vulture waiting for him to get fed up of it so I can make my move. I think an 850i would even shame the XJR for fuel consumption.

[dollywobbler]

On the 205 it was released using a 22mm socket, an extension bar that takes a 3/8" bar (or a big srcewdriver) through it to pre-load it with torque and a cheapo impact wrench to release the bastard - the impact wrench on its own wasn't enough.

 

On my BX, I used a bloody great scaffold bar wedged into the ground and then started the engine. Worked an absolute treat. Bloody terrifying though!

[vulgalour]

My first properly new picture and a great way to kick off a new week.  I had this urge to draw something inspired by Russian religious ikons this morning and instead ended up with this, which I'm actually rather pleased with.  Certainly the sort of thing I'd like to draw more of, so we'll see how I go.  Sam Glover should also be credited for unwittingly providing the inspiration for the content.

 

Should you wish to buy the original of this it is for sale.

[Sigmund Fraud]

I had this urge to draw something inspired by Russian religious ikons this morning and instead ended up with this,

 

Brilliant ! In my distorted mind, it could be the theatrical poster for some long-forgotten, esoteric Tarkovsky creation !

[Lord Sterling]

Hmmm, been watching Crimewatch UK from 80s and 90s on Youtube and whilst there has been a 'tache and chodfest, it seems one lone bank robber in '99 from Cheshire area used a Green Vanden Plas 1300 Princess reg: VPX 374K as a 'getaway car' or at least it was spotted near the scene on one occasion.

 

Doovla says it was last taxed in 2011. Anyone come across this car before?