The new news 24 thread

[wuvvum]

Got most of the MOT fails sorted on the Innocenti done this weekend, although I cheated slightly with the "offside front position lamp adversely affected by the operation of another lamp" - the sidelight was going dimmer and brighter as the indicator flashed, I tried putting a secondary earth in but that didn't seem to help so I ended up just chucking an LED bulb in - it draws less power so puts less strain on the shonky wiring, and the flasher unit is electronic so flashes at a constant rate whatever the current draw, so that's all good.

Unfortunately the welding is going to be a bit of a twat - it's not where I thought it was, it's on the inner wing and it's a double skinned bit right behind the strut tower, with a brake pipe passing through it for good measure.

The other side has gone in the same place but not quite as badly.  I'm going to get the garage to quote on it I think - it looks like something that'd be a lot easier to do with the car up on a lift than rolling around underneath, so if they don't quote me too stupid a price I'll get them to do it.

Fitted a fuel filter to the Renault 4 and took it for a spin, the first decent run it's had in several weeks.  Definitely running better now, although still needs the idle tweaking.  I actually overtook three dawdling giffers in the space of about two miles on the coast road - being so light and low geared it actually gets past dawdlers reasonably well, certainly a lot better than the Visa or the Innocenti.  It's also rather more refined (although everything is relative) since I stuck on a secondary door seal - there was a gap round the driver's door which got a tad* noisy above 50mph.

Got the screen wash working again on the Mondeo - it had a bump on the corner of the front bumper at some point and that was enough to snap the plastic pipes joining the washer hose from the pump, so I bought a couple of joiners and a length of hose from Wilco and bodged it back together - to do it properly you have to take the bumper off which is a right pain in the arse but I managed to do it with just taking the headlight out and removing the undertray.  The washer bottle still leaks if you overfill it but it holds enough to be usable.

Took the Mobylette for a quick buzz round the block this afternoon just to check that the new tyre is all OK and likely to stay in place.  It felt absolutely fine and the bike ran spot on, although I think the new exhaust I bought for it is slightly more restrictive than the original as it seems to struggle to get much over 30 at the moment.

The 107 passed its MOT on Friday so that's good for another year now.  Welding turned out to be slightly worse than anticipated but the total cost was around 200 quid including the test fee, which is acceptable I think for another year's economical motoring - although who knows whether I'll keep it that long...

[Rust Collector]

MOT day for the scrap money E Class today. It should be going through any minute now... And in true form I remembered something I was meant to fix on the way to the test 🤣 Fingers crossed it doesn't do too badly.

[Rust Collector]

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

MOT day for the scrap money E Class today. It should be going through any minute now... And in true form I remembered something I was meant to fix on the way to the test 🤣 Fingers crossed it doesn't do too badly.

Oh dear!

It's failed on the bonnet cable and the front brake pad wear sensor.

I knew about the bonnet cable as I broke it at the weekend, one is on order from Germany and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it arrives in time for the retest.

The wear sensor needs further investigation and was the thing I forgot about at the weekend - I'm sure I accidentally damaged it a while back doing something else. I'll order replacements and I'll chuck some new pads on whilst I'm there as I'm sure I have a spare set in the garage.

It got a minor for 'chafed' brake hoses on the front so I'll take a look and see what's going on there. New hoses shouldn't be mega money.

The advisories are just for general corrosion and the tatty front bumper. I'll tidy the underneath up at some point and chuck a load of underseal on, and I'll replace the bumper when a replacement appears for sensible money.

[Sunny Jim]

My company car for the next week. Just arrived at Glastonbury where I'll be working as a driver for the Croissant Neuf Stage in the Green Fields.

Any other shiters going this year?

[somewhatfoolish]

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

I knew about the bonnet cable as I broke it at the weekend, one is on order from Germany and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it arrives in time for the retest.

Bodge it with a piece of string/zip tie/baling wire if it doesn't?

[Rust Collector]

12 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Bodge it with a piece of string/zip tie/baling wire if it doesn't?

‘Broke it’ was probably bad wording on my part - it’s gradually stretched to the point that it can no longer release both catches. It has been a ball ache since we got it so I should’ve done it sooner really… a stitch in time and all that 😅

[sdkrc]

"could you please check if my van is still there?"

"I'm sorry but it's still there"

[Yoss]

I don't get many pictures of both Škodas together as they have to park line astern in the drive but I was getting the Triumph out of the garage yesterday so moved them both to the top of the Close.

[RoverFolkUs]

On 6/17/2023 at 11:27 PM, Ghosty said:

124 has left the building, I'll leave the new owner to the rest.

Have had messages about the MX5 from a chap on the Isle of Man(!!!) who's willing to go full-on collection mission for it.
Speedy  was over today, we tried to do the cambelt on his Civic but the big end pulley bolt is an absolute ballache to remove, so we gave up. Checked the belt and it's a recentish Gates with plenty life left, so we'll defer that for a bit. We did the valve clearances, put new gaskets in the rocker cover, changed the spark plugs and fitted a new radiator though. All that has yielded a massive improvement. After that we took the roof off the MX5 and took it out for a cruise. I honestly enjoyed being a passenger in the MX5 more than driving  it...

 

Have you got a weighted impact socket for doing honda crank bolts (and a suitable impact gun) ?

They're a must. 

Well not literally a must, but they make it a lot easier. A worthwhile addition to anyone's toolbox. 

[Stanky]

10:30 am -"hi Stanky, yeah we need you in Manchester tomorrow. We've told the client you're coming"

"FFS people, ok, on my way"

Jumped into the mercedes, suit and trousers in the boot, laptop, and booked a hotel. Put 10 gallons of pez in and hit the road.

Other than lacking AC, it lapped up 250 miles with zero prep, handling fast motorways, traffic jams and delivering me to my temporary HQ in 4 and a half hours, and showing 46.7 mpg. 

From a 22 year old, 2.0 NA petrol engine.

It just works, it's got some foibles but for a supposedly low point in mercedes engineering, and for a low spec car it just does what it does perfectly. It's fast enough, frugal enough, capacious enough and comfy enough. It's like driving an old slipper. 

I do admire the optimism of the trip computer, but 43mpg indicated is 38mpg real world, so I think I've tickled 40 to the gallon which isn't half bad, considering.

[Ghosty]

8 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Have you got a weighted impact socket for doing honda crank bolts (and a suitable impact gun) ?

They're a must. 

Well not literally a must, but they make it a lot easier. A worthwhile addition to anyone's toolbox. 

No, bloody need one. We only have a corded impact gun, we need a new one.

[artdjones]

1 minute ago, Stanky said:

10:30 am -"hi Stanky, yeah we need you in Manchester tomorrow. We've told the client you're coming"

"FFS people, ok, on my way"

Jumped into the mercedes, suit and trousers in the boot, laptop, and booked a hotel. Put 10 gallons of pez in and hit the road.

Other than lacking AC, it lapped up 250 miles with zero prep, handling fast motorways, traffic jams and delivering me to my temporary HQ in 4 and a half hours, and showing 46.7 mpg. 

From a 22 year old, 2.0 NA petrol engine.

It just works, it's got some foibles but for a supposedly low point in mercedes engineering, and for a low spec car it just does what it does perfectly. It's fast enough, frugal enough, capacious enough and comfy enough. It's like driving an old slipper. 

I do admire the optimism of the trip computer, but 43mpg indicated is 38mpg real world, so I think I've tickled 40 to the gallon which isn't half bad, considering.

They've never been terrible for engineering, although the more complicated they were the more potential there was for ideas that didn't really work to be incorporated .Like all German car companies - "we Germans are so good at engineering that these really complicated ideas are bound to work perfectly". The simple ones just keep going as always. The quality dropoff particularly affected paint and rustproofing, so that they weren't even as rust resistant as a W123.

[wuvvum]

The fleet is getting silly again.  Having been in single figures for a while I'm now back up to 13 cars, which is too many.  I really need to get rid of three.  Two are easy enough - I don't have a particular need for the Mondeo and one of the floppytops can go too - but the third is more difficult, I'm not selling the Rover or the Toyota and I really don't want to get rid of any of the "interesting" cars, and I also really want to keep one floppytop on the fleet for the rest of the summer.  That only really leaves the 107, but I'm quite fond of that.  Decisions decisions...  In the meantime I have a couple of sale threads to write.

[captain_70s]

Much wailing and knashing of teeth has occurred with this thing the last couple of days as @juular, Mrs_Juular and I have been trying to get it to run.

Good compression, good oil pressure, ign timing seems spot on, good spark, carb came off a running engine, all potential vac leaks are sealed, spins over by hand fine but it'll just cough and splutter enough to kick the starter out and then die.

Fucking Triumph.

[richardmorris]

Mechanic friend rick just been over to replace the fuel lines in the 2cv. Interestingly, the one from the sender on the top of the tank hadn’t split at all. It had just fallen off- it is rock hard though.

 

if anyone needs a nylon length of the front to rear pipe i didn’t need it cam can post for £10.

[Zelandeth]

4 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Much wailing and knashing of teeth has occurred with this thing the last couple of days as @juular, Mrs_Juular and I have been trying to get it to run.

Good compression, good oil pressure, ign timing seems spot on, good spark, carb came off a running engine, all potential vac leaks are sealed, spins over by hand fine but it'll just cough and splutter enough to kick the starter out and then die.

Fucking Triumph.

I absolutely didn't spend several hours dismantling and reassembling several key components of a Skoda Estelle once before discovering that I'd put the leads on the distributor cap on with the rotation reversed - it did exactly what you're describing.  It would pop and cough sounding like it was trying but obviously wouldn't run.

[MrGTI6]

Been on the waiting list for the Toyota GR86 since it came out, but missed out on the first allocation which sold out in 90 minutes!

I thought with supply issues and emissions regulations that I'd missed my chance, and I wasn't prepared to buy secondhand due to the huge markup over list price. 

Couldn't quite believe it when I received an email this morning saying that I can now order one! 

Never bought a new car before. Think I might have to sleep on it! 

[New POD]

5 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Much wailing and knashing of teeth has occurred with this thing the last couple of days as @juular, Mrs_Juular and I have been trying to get it to run.

Good compression, good oil pressure, ign timing seems spot on, good spark, carb came off a running engine, all potential vac leaks are sealed, spins over by hand fine but it'll just cough and splutter enough to kick the starter out and then die.

Fucking Triumph.

Put the spark plugs in the oven on gas Mark 5 for 30 mins. 

Assuming everything else is okay, it will start. 

[chadders]

5 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Much wailing and knashing of teeth has occurred with this thing the last couple of days as @juular, Mrs_Juular and I have been trying to get it to run.

Good compression, good oil pressure, ign timing seems spot on, good spark, carb came off a running engine, all potential vac leaks are sealed, spins over by hand fine but it'll just cough and splutter enough to kick the starter out and then die.

Fucking Triumph.

Fuel? Dodgy ignition switch?

[captain_70s]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

I absolutely didn't spend several hours dismantling and reassembling several key components of a Skoda Estelle once before discovering that I'd put the leads on the distributor cap on with the rotation reversed - it did exactly what you're describing.  It would pop and cough sounding like it was trying but obviously wouldn't run.

Been there, done that...

We had no.1 in the right place initially but thought the arm was rotating clockwise so it would cough on two. Then reversed everything so it was 180 out...

It is now, finally, correct though. 

The SU is "tuned" to the jet flush with surface and then two spins of the nut. This should be in the ballpark but you can't do much else with the car not running.

Good spark at all plugs.

I did wonder about the ignition switch as it seems to die as soon as the starter disengages.

Weird thing is the car ran on Sat with the old engine. Same carb, dizzy, alternator, starter, manifolds, etc.

[Asimo]

“Only firing in the start position” is sometimes because the resistor in series with the coil is open circuit: a relay bypasses the resistor in the start position. 

[MJK 24]

Spanish plated 16v BX on Exeter Services this morning.

 

 

[SiC]

1 hour ago, captain_70s said:

did wonder about the ignition switch as it seems to die as soon as the starter disengages.

Ballast wire or resistor not providing power by the sounds of it. 

I'd temporarily run a wire from the coil positive to battery positive and try again. A la mustie1.

My Spitfire has the silly resistive loom wire instead of a ballast resistor. I imagine your Dolomite may have the same as it's a late car. 

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Been there, done that...

We had no.1 in the right place initially but thought the arm was rotating clockwise so it would cough on two. Then reversed everything so it was 180 out...

It is now, finally, correct though. 

The SU is "tuned" to the jet flush with surface and then two spins of the nut. This should be in the ballpark but you can't do much else with the car not running.

Good spark at all plugs.

I did wonder about the ignition switch as it seems to die as soon as the starter disengages.

Weird thing is the car ran on Sat with the old engine. Same carb, dizzy, alternator, starter, manifolds, etc.

Suspicion now points at ballast resistor, wiring to coil or switch...try running a feed directly from the battery to the positive of the coil and then see if it goes...

Things are usually set up to bypass any ballast during cranking (to compensate for the voltage drop while the starter is cranking), so if the main feed has failed it would fire while cranking but would die as soon as the key is released from the start position.

[Split_Pin]

Damn, just missed it

 

[Jazoli]

31 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Damn, just missed it

 

I didn't on Sunday

daughters i20, she was most put out and had been looking forwards to doing it herself.

[GingerNuttz]

2 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Been there, done that...

We had no.1 in the right place initially but thought the arm was rotating clockwise so it would cough on two. Then reversed everything so it was 180 out...

It is now, finally, correct though. 

The SU is "tuned" to the jet flush with surface and then two spins of the nut. This should be in the ballpark but you can't do much else with the car not running.

Good spark at all plugs.

I did wonder about the ignition switch as it seems to die as soon as the starter disengages.

Weird thing is the car ran on Sat with the old engine. Same carb, dizzy, alternator, starter, manifolds, etc.

These dizzies go counter clockwise and number one is the bottom looking in from passenger side usually, between 9-6 o'clock with number one at tdc.

Will it fire with fuel sprayed down it's throat? If it doesn't you're either ignition timing or a tooth out on the cam/crank.

[richardmorris]

[bunglebus]

Servicing the Vitara today

Air filter looks new 

As do the plugs

So I'll save them for next time. Oil was as black as your hat and the coolant appeared to be rusty water - so both changed. Better order a cambelt too I suppose

[richardmorris]

Summer solstice at Glastonbury Festival's very own quirky take on 'Stonehenge' using vintage cars - Somerset Live