The new news 24 thread

[nacho man]

Also note the patented xud air box rattle noise reducing mod*

 

 

 

 

 

* piece of cardboard/rag wedged in

[dollywobbler]

Went for another drive in the Skoda Rapid. Got angry with STUPID tourists. The sort of idiot that decides to stop in the road with a left indicator on so you can overtake. Just before a blind crest. They were driving a Ssang Yong Rexton. Maybe that says it all. Though to be fair, a VW Touran going the other way was also annoying me. Cornering speeds of a pedestrian, then nail it on the straight! I imagine their brake pads will be worn out by tomorrow.

[derskine]

Went to Scottish Ford Day and didn't have to park in the car park.

 

[phil_lihp]

Much work was done this morning.

 

 

Well, an oil change anyway.  Also changed the air filter and 4 spark plugs plus the wiper blades, still waiting for the new power steering belt to arrive.  It's now a happy little car.  Incidentally, thank you Mazda for assuming everyone who services a 323 1.5 has a spare 5 year old to help with the oil filter - it could barely have been less accessible if it was inside the sump.

 

Given the state of the bodywork, it looks like the car wasn't serviced too long ago, the oil was dirty but not revolting and the plugs weren't too bad either.  No service history with it at all but even the timing belt looks fairly fresh.

[fordperv]

Went to Scottish Ford Day and didn't have to park in the car park.

 

 

i am loving the pics of the tina in all its patchy patina

[Shep Shepherd]

Attempted to get all of the dashboard switch and centre console illumination on The Wentworth working today, as only about half the bulbs in the former worked, while the latter was in complete darkness. As it was, I found out that all but two of the bulbs which needed replacing were the type which are fixed into their holders (totally unlike The Volvo) and as such are only available from Volvo dealers, breakers yards or Skandix* in Germany

 

I managed to replace the rear ashtray/centre console storage area and the gear shift indicator bulbs, as they were found to be the capless types as used by most cars of the early 1990s. Replacing the latter was a bit more involved than I'd liked it to have been, to say the least (again, totally unlike The Volvo), but I got there in the end.

 

I also removed the centre console to give it a clean, whereupon I found this old photo of a young woman lurking underneath it, which looks like it has been in the car for a very long time:

 

 

I wonder who she is or was? Thinking that she may be the car's guardian, I put the photo back where I found it, where I expect that it will remain forever.

 

Later on, I re-fitted the car's rear mudflaps properly, so they no longer protrude from the sides of the car at a weird angle. Self-tappers FTW

 

 

 

*My preferred option.

[spike60]

After buying a Porsche 924 blind on Ebay I've spent the last month polishing a turd, getting stuff like doors, windows, lights, brakes and starting working so now it has reached the dizzy standard of attempting a 120 mile return trip yesterday. As an added bonus I fixed the odometer with a lot of swearing and 1 drop of superglue. Little to report except 1 hot front brake on outward trip and the ultra heavy clutch frayed it's cable. Oh, and the CD is shit but I already knew that.

It was untaxed since 2007 despite bring MOT'd every year and is due an MOT in 4 weeks and only emissions are worrying me. Does anyone know how to clean injectors on a Bosch J-Tronic? Misfires on start up, front plug white. middle 2 grey, back black and damp. Smells rich. Any ideas welcome.

 

 

Polished turd.

 

 

 

 

[Shep Shepherd]

^

Pull them out and spray carb cleaner through them?

[skattrd]

How about filling the fuel filter with injector cleaner and going for a quick razz.

[spike60]

I put injector cleaner in tank as directed on bottle, didn't make a toss of difference. When I had a Corvette I put injector cleaner in the nearly empty tank and the car ran like a pig, it didn't thank me for the strong dose. Air filter was new when I got it, last test I would imagine. Fuel filter isn't new but can't see it affecting it too much. It developed the miss on start up while I've had it.

Cap, plugs and leads new but I think misfire fuel related.

[M'coli]

As this doesn't warrant a collection thread, I'll post it here: the missus' old Pug 106 Escapade is now the new daily driver, having the insurance start at midnight this morning.  The 205's still in residence (and has MOT until 26th November), but for £195 with no no-claims, the little Escapade is insured in my name foir the next year.  I'm enjoying steering with no power assistance for the first time in ages.

[wuvvum]

Today I have mostly been poking around the Renault 6 to see just how much rust there is.  Quite a lot, is the answer.  The holes in the scuttle panel have got worse - they're going to have to be bodged again for now though unfortunately, I do have a NOS scuttle panel in the shed but it's going to be a long time before I'm good enough at bodywork to attempt to fit it.  The back doors are going round the edges (although I knew that already), and the nearside rear wing is rusting round the light, most of which is catchable but it has gone through in one area behind the bumper. 

 

Crawling round underneath, the passenger side isn't too bad really (it'll need one small patch on the front chassis leg, and a slightly larger one on the front edge of the floorpan).  The driver's side is quite a bit worse - as well as a hole in the "sill", it will need a large section of floor replacing (about 10" by 10").  It's the bit that goes between the bulkhead and the inner arch, so it's not accessible from above - so it looks like I'm going to be lying on my back and getting bits of molten metal in my ears.  That's still a way away yet though - at the moment my welding isn't really good enough to tackle a Simca 1100 pickup, let alone a Renault 6.

 

I also bought a bicycle.  The cheapish hybrid bike I've been using to get to work (when not mopedding) for the last couple of years has slowly been falling to bits.  The rear derailleur keeps seizing up, it's losing bolts and screws left right and centre, one of the front wheel bearings is on its way out, and on Friday the front brake lever assembly snapped clean off.  It just doesn't have the build quality for the kind of mileage I do on it (although it's better than some of the cheap dual suspension mountain bikes I've owned - but then it should be as it was more expensive).

 

I decided I wanted hub gears this time, having quite liked the 4-speed Nexus hub on a bike I owned a few years ago.  Looking on eBay there wasn't much in my price range, and those that were were bloody miles away and collection only.  There was one in Essex, but it had a 17" frame so I would have been riding with my knees round my ears.  Then I spotted this on Gumtree in Norwich for 25 quid:

 

 

It's a slightly older (late '80s I reckon) Peugeot with a 3-speed Sturmey Archer hub.  It'd been unused for five years and was rather mucky when I went to look at it, with flat tyres.  It looked basically sound though, so I paid, stuck it on the bike rack on the back of the Rover of Doom and took it home.  I chucked a bucket of water over it and it didn't come up too badly - there's odd bits of surface rust, and the rims are a bit scruffy, but it's still quite presentable.  Nothing was seized (although the brakes are rather noisy - think the blocks have probably gone hard), the tyres pumped up OK and the gears work.  It's a comfortable thing to ride (if not the lightest bike on the road), it has a nice big frame, and it feels well put together.  Only things to do to it in the immediate future are to replace the luggage rack with the one off the other bike (which has a sprung holder thingy on it), fit a stand, and get rid of the silly red BMX grips.  I'm quite pleased with it for the money.

[Largactil]

LNA spending started in earnest today - I'd like to say that in true 'Roadkill' fashion I made a list written in Sharpie pen on a large piece of cardboard, but the reality is that I made an Excel spreadsheet. PHAIL.

 

Anyway, new boots all round - 135/80/13 tyre options are limited these days, and many seem to be Ling long ditch finders.

 

I noted that an enterprising soul has fitted mighty 145/80/13's to his LNA wheels without issue, so ordered a set of Uniroyal Rain Experts in this flavour.

 

£29.29 per tyre from Tyre Leader, and they have a fitting agreement with my local garage at £8.50 a corner - Four new quality tyres fitted & balanced for a whisker over £150; I think I paid that for one tyre on my modern...(!)

 

eBay has been scoured for new-old-stock bargains, and a comprehensive service kit put together for not a huge amount of coin. (Mister-auto - a French CARPARTS4LESS-type company are pretty good too).

 

Speaking of CARPARTS4LESS, if anyone's looking for oil I got 5 litres of 10w40 semi synthetic 'Triple QX' (Shell?) for £11.55 delivered - Bang in "SAVEME75" at the checkout to get 7.5% off. (Have to spend at least a tenner).

 

MOT is up 4 weeks today, so a target has been set.

[skattrd]

I have just won an auction for some twin 40 Delortos and Lancia manifold from eBay. Fuck the new roof, I'll gaffer tape the old one together as roof money is being spent on the new carbs.

[spike60]

I have just won an auction for some twin 40 Delortos and Lancia manifold from eBay. Fuck the new roof, I'll gaffer tape the old one together as roof money is being spent on the new carbs.

When you fit the twin 40's you'll have the roof off all the time anyway to listen to it!

[Micrashed]

In a desperate effort to stay occupied and not to slip into a coma after my week of nights I have been "pottering" today.

In one of the jobs - painting up a couple of spare MicraShed Rimz ready for the KingPin Alpine remoulds to go on tomorrow) hopefully they will be dried out by tomorrow after discovering that they were full of water and slugs.

 

[Cavcraft]

Garage rang about the Vectra MOT: one drop link, some sort of rear suspension mounting bush (or something like that) one brake pipe and the centre rear seat belt.

Considering it's on about 170,000 miles and wouldn't know what maintenance was if it came up and kicked in the purple headed womb broom, I'm quite happy with that.

[Craig the Princess]

Took the Yellow Allegro Estate to the Burghley Horse Trials and Shackerstone show at the weekend. Made it to Burghley ok but on the way over to camping at Quorn there was a complete loss of power followed by the engine cutting out. Managed to coast into the first turning, if there a more British way of saying don't come into my street than a sign like this?

 

 

Toolbox was located under the boot floor of the estate, so all out following the only bit of rain all day.

 

 

 

Anyway despite some evil looks from an old boy BMW X5 and an old dear in a Golf  we opened the bonnet, looking in the fuel filter showed some brown gunge dredged up from the tank (despite the tank having been drained after doing this before). After sucking some fuel into the float chamber we continued the 4 miles to the campsite just in time for sunset.

 

 

Decided to leave an extra 30 minutes early to get to the show on Sunday, all going well down the lanes with the thousands of cyclists in Leicestershire on a Sunday morning. Got about 6 miles and cut out again, this time finding a handy blocked farm entrance.

 

Peter (Beige1100) managed to blow an obstruction out of the carb float which enabled us to carry on and we managed the 120 odd miles home.

 

As we are off to Ireland in the car at the end of the month we decied to swap the tank from another Allegro for the journey. I managed to remove the tank from the other car no trouble but the yellow car had a pretty full tank so somehow I managed to burst a Hydragas pipe getting the tank out. So with about 3 days spare to the holiday I will need to fit a replacement pipe.

 

[drum]

My '68 109 land rover failed its mot on a weeping brake flexi hose. Not weeping from a join but half way along its length. The hose must only be 18 months old but it was a britpart item and I had clamped it at one point when trying to diagnose the reason for crap brakes.

Luckily, I have a spare flexi, so easy fix for once.

 

Having spent all weekend trying to get the lights working properly, I thought I better check the wipers, washers and horn late last night. Of course the horn was silent and the wipers didn't work.

 

The horn just needed a wire wiggle. The wiper switch had decided to pack in the day before mot day. Fortunately, I could sort it out before bed time.

[Honey Badger]

I have just won an auction for some twin 40 Delortos and Lancia manifold from eBay. Fuck the new roof, I'll gaffer tape the old one together as roof money is being spent on the new carbs.

http://www.roofshop.co.uk/cms/Products/Flat-Roofing/New-Products/Fix-Rcryl.aspx

 

 

That's not a permanent fix but it's bloody good stuff, developed by my mate at work and it's got a really high acrylic resin content compared to the others, I work for the company that makes the resin and it's been tested pretty rigorously, including the leaky integral gutter on my garage for the last 3 years with no sighs of leaking, it will bridges small gaps but not big ones though.

[barefoot]

Back from my holidays to find Scirocco MOT'd & dropped off back at barefoot Towers.

 

One of the failures was for a severe leak on the offside rear shock absorber.

Could this have been a factor in my dramatic fun spin of the other week?

[mat_the_cat]

Given the recent Discovery thread I thought I'd fire up the rolled one, just for fun. So I cleared a bit of the undergrowth away so I could get to it for a jump start, and then the fun began...

 

 

 

The petrol pump didn't run (assuming seized) and for some reason the gas system wasn't working either - no life in the dashboard LED display. I then wired all the gas solenoids to the positive side of the coil, which got a cough but the stepper motor in the vapour feed was in the closed position and only allowing a sniff through. So I whipped that out and replaced with a length of hose (it's only there to trim the fuelling based on lambda feedback, which is the least of my worries!) and it fired straight up Even the AC still works!

 

 

Still not sure I'll ever do anything with it, but it'd be nice to build a pickup out of it or something. Either way, I ought to keep the engine in running order seeing as I rebuilt it not long before the accident.

[The Moog]

Replaced the power steering fluid on 405. The stuff that came out was brown treacle. New bottle from Wilkinson was only £8 and no more groaning or annoying flat spots.

 

Emboldened I decided to try the alloys I keep meaning to fit. They are the ones that were originally on xsara then xantia then went to Angyl which were then swapped for steels.

 

The pics make them look better than they were. Huge gap between arches and just looked wrong. Off they came,old wheels back on and now up for sale

[hairnet]

steels wtf?

[Shep Shepherd]

On a whim this afternoon, I replaced The Wentworth's distributor cap and rotor arm with as-new Bosch items from my Volvo stash which had been fitted to The Volvo for about a week in 2006 (long story). I'm glad I did, as going by the date stamps on the ones on the car, they were the factory fitted ones and as such were dicked:

 

 

No photo of the rotor arm, as I had to break it into pieces in order to remove it from the distributor shaft - it must have been undisturbed for a heck of a long time! I'm surprised that the car ran as well as it did with the old parts fitted. I don't think that would have been the case for much longer, though.

 

I may replace The Volvo's cap and rotor at some point as I have discovered yet another as-new one of each in the car's underfloor storage area, but first I really need to adjust the handbrake, a job which I have been putting off due to getting THE FEAR every time I consider doing it; I really, really can't see it being a simple matter of turning the adjuster, but I need to do something soon as the poor car has been off the road for nearly three months due to its MOT running out in June

[cort1977]

Today I have mostly been poking around the Renault 6 to see just how much rust there is.  Quite a lot, is the answer.  The holes in the scuttle panel have got worse - they're going to have to be bodged again for now though unfortunately, I do have a NOS scuttle panel in the shed but it's going to be a long time before I'm good enough at bodywork to attempt to fit it.  The back doors are going round the edges (although I knew that already), and the nearside rear wing is rusting round the light, most of which is catchable but it has gone through in one area behind the bumper. 

 

Crawling round underneath, the passenger side isn't too bad really (it'll need one small patch on the front chassis leg, and a slightly larger one on the front edge of the floorpan).  The driver's side is quite a bit worse - as well as a hole in the "sill", it will need a large section of floor replacing (about 10" by 10").  It's the bit that goes between the bulkhead and the inner arch, so it's not accessible from above - so it looks like I'm going to be lying on my back and getting bits of molten metal in my ears.  That's still a way away yet though - at the moment my welding isn't really good enough to tackle a Simca 1100 pickup, let alone a Renault 6.

 

I also bought a bicycle.  The cheapish hybrid bike I've been using to get to work (when not mopedding) for the last couple of years has slowly been falling to bits.  The rear derailleur keeps seizing up, it's losing bolts and screws left right and centre, one of the front wheel bearings is on its way out, and on Friday the front brake lever assembly snapped clean off.  It just doesn't have the build quality for the kind of mileage I do on it (although it's better than some of the cheap dual suspension mountain bikes I've owned - but then it should be as it was more expensive).

 

I decided I wanted hub gears this time, having quite liked the 4-speed Nexus hub on a bike I owned a few years ago.  Looking on eBay there wasn't much in my price range, and those that were were bloody miles away and collection only.  There was one in Essex, but it had a 17" frame so I would have been riding with my knees round my ears.  Then I spotted this on Gumtree in Norwich for 25 quid:

 

SAM_0770.JPG

 

It's a slightly older (late '80s I reckon) Peugeot with a 3-speed Sturmey Archer hub.  It'd been unused for five years and was rather mucky when I went to look at it, with flat tyres.  It looked basically sound though, so I paid, stuck it on the bike rack on the back of the Rover of Doom and took it home.  I chucked a bucket of water over it and it didn't come up too badly - there's odd bits of surface rust, and the rims are a bit scruffy, but it's still quite presentable.  Nothing was seized (although the brakes are rather noisy - think the blocks have probably gone hard), the tyres pumped up OK and the gears work.  It's a comfortable thing to ride (if not the lightest bike on the road), it has a nice big frame, and it feels well put together.  Only things to do to it in the immediate future are to replace the luggage rack with the one off the other bike (which has a sprung holder thingy on it), fit a stand, and get rid of the silly red BMX grips.  I'm quite pleased with it for the money.

Looks good for the money that, very nice.   New pads and grips and it should serve you well.   Much better geometry than a lot of these cheap mountain bikes with the bottom bracket way to high, crap suspension forks etc.   If you find the ratios on the hub gear too high you can play about with a bigger sprocket, they're cheap and easy to do.

[holbeck]

Baur Cabriolet just passed it's MOT

 

Just required the indicators sorting, some suspension rubbers, track rod ends, and a back box.

 

Not bad for a car that was last MOT'd in 2006

 

 

Just in time for winter.

[John F]

Got two new Nankang NS2s for the Calibra, balanced & fitted, plus a puncture repaired on one of the Disco's General Grabber ATs for £107 yesterday.

 

Much chuffed at cheapness

[trigger]

 

 

Someone at my work is selling get this stunning 220 W155, 68000 miles with long mot for £2750ono. I won't lie, there's a temptation there, I actually think it's a cooler car than the Cortina too.

[vulgalour]

The Pug looks bizarre on the Xsara alloys, really totally bizarre.