The new news 24 thread

[dollywobbler]

Just arrived home with the Scrote and a large grin Pegged at 60 all the way due to painful steering judder (tracking?) and doing an excellent impression of an air-cooled VW like all good CVHs should Also some impressive crashing over bumps as it was a bit lower than it looked in the pics, but still handles well enough. Can't believe how good it feels being behind a brown dashboard again...

Pics may follow tomorrow.

 

Nice one. Look forward to pics. Steering shudder would need the tracking to be a LONG way out. I'd be checking balljoints and track rod ends. Pretty promptly.

[catsinthewelder]

Citroen snapped its clutch cable last night, I've left it in the (free) carpark and got the bus home with the kids. Just phoned the local factors and they have one in stock so I'll nip up in my camper later and hopefully fix it.

 

Either that or decide fixing a car in the snow on top of Clee Hill is silly and get it towed

[Cavcraft]

^I read that as "a large gin". I need a night out!

 

Today, I shall be mostly looking at this with a view to buying it:

 

 

1984 944 S 2+2. I reckon it's maybe a bit salty @ 3 bags, but if it's a good 'un I'll offer 2 and a half. Difficult to tell from such a shit photo.

 

Let us know how it works out please, Andy. Still have a major league hankering for one of those and always keen to hear what they're like to live with.

 

 

EXCELSIOR NEWS:

 

Corsa is a runner!!!111!!!

Pissed about moving the dizzy round this morning while trying to start it. Found the 'nearest place' as it were, then whizzed the plugs out as we'd been keeping foot to the floor while trying to start it. Cleaned plugs up, lobbed 'em back in and bingo! it started first crack.

Days of much happiness, just got to put a few bits back on, tighten some shit up up, drop the oil, flush it and top up and off to go. I don't even care (for now) that the Aldi won't start and doesn't seem to be getting fuel to the injectors!

[messerschmitt owner]

Citroen snapped its clutch cable last night, I've left it in the (free) carpark and got the bus home with the kids. Just phoned the local factors and they have one in stock so I'll nip up in my camper later and hopefully fix it.

 

Either that or decide fixing a car in the snow on top of Clee Hill is silly and get it towed

is it definitely a broken cable and not a broken pedal box. If it was a diesel and the roads were quiet, they'll start in gear and careful changes would see you home if the roads were quiet.

[dollywobbler]

Aye. I can also vouch for the BX being fairly easy to drive sans-clutch. Think mine was the classic pedal box collapse, but this was back in 1999.

[barefoot]

 

Today, I shall be mostly looking at this with a view to buying it:

 

1984 944 S 2+2.

I reckon it's maybe a bit salty @ 3 bags, but if it's a good 'un I'll offer 2 and a half.

Difficult to tell from such a shit photo.

 

If it's 84, it's not an S, it's a Lux

Only made S 86 & 87

[John F]

 

Today, I shall be mostly looking at this with a view to buying it:

 

1984 944 S 2+2.

I reckon it's maybe a bit salty @ 3 bags, but if it's a good 'un I'll offer 2 and a half.

Difficult to tell from such a shit photo.

 

If it's 84, it's not an S, it's a Lux

Only made S 86 & 87

 

+1 - much too early, plus if it doesn't have "16 Ventiler" on the engine cover & the front wings it's not a 944S. It should have the oval dash as well.

 

BUT if it's 1984 it'll be an early pod-dash 8-valve... these are notoriously difficult to shift as the oval-dash models look a million times better and can also be bought cheaply nowadays. 3 large is far too much, I'd pay 1500 quid absolute tops for a reasonably tidy early model. (Except I wouldn't. I'd buy an oval-dash model for the same money.)

[DSdriver]

Just arrived home with the Scrote and a large grin Pegged at 60 all the way due to painful steering judder (tracking?) and doing an excellent impression of an air-cooled VW like all good CVHs should Also some impressive crashing over bumps as it was a bit lower than it looked in the pics, but still handles well enough. Can't believe how good it feels being behind a brown dashboard again...

Pics may follow tomorrow.

 

Nice one. Look forward to pics. Steering shudder would need the tracking to be a LONG way out. I'd be checking balljoints and track rod ends. Pretty promptly.

 

Always check the simple things first, has it lost a wheel balancing weight?

[John F]

Just arrived home with the Scrote and a large grin Pegged at 60 all the way due to painful steering judder (tracking?) and doing an excellent impression of an air-cooled VW like all good CVHs should Also some impressive crashing over bumps as it was a bit lower than it looked in the pics, but still handles well enough. Can't believe how good it feels being behind a brown dashboard again...

Pics may follow tomorrow.

 

Nice one. Look forward to pics. Steering shudder would need the tracking to be a LONG way out. I'd be checking balljoints and track rod ends. Pretty promptly.

 

Always check the simple things first, has it lost a wheel balancing weight?

 

Or even tyre condition / pressures... I bought my nephew a 1999 Scrote recently that had massive steering judder, this improved hugely with the right tyre pressures & disappeared completely when new tyres were eventually fitted.

[ashmicro]

944 is a turkey. You chaps are quite right. Additionally, while the car is cosmetically very good, it's 1983 and not an S as you chaps said, it has a grumbling waterpump, the coolant looks like mud and the seller is a bellend.

 

Furthermore, I phoned the chap who I got my Jaaaag from, and spoke to his wife to ask her if they knew of any 944s going. She said "ooh yes we have a grey one"

 

Here it is:

 

 

 

DOH!

[MrDuke]

Nice one. Look forward to pics. Steering shudder would need the tracking to be a LONG way out. I'd be checking balljoints and track rod ends. Pretty promptly.

 

Always check the simple things first, has it lost a wheel balancing weight?

 

Or even tyre condition / pressures... I bought my nephew a 1999 Scrote recently that had massive steering judder, this improved hugely with the right tyre pressures & disappeared completely when new tyres were eventually fitted.

 

Could well be balancing - the seller was running a different set of wheels, and just lobbed these on for the sale, not sure when they were last used tbh. Tyres seem OK but I'll check them over too.

[Cavcraft]

It might even be worth swapping front wheels for back ones and see if that makes a difference, it could even be a slightly buckled wheel so try one at a time (o/s/r swapped with o/s/f) etc and see what happens.

[catsinthewelder]

BX is home, the cable had snapped at the pedal end.

 

Weather was quite nice when I got there so a couple of hours tinkering in the sunshine at a beauty spot. If you ever need to change the cable on one of these make sure you have plenty of cable ties. The grommet in the bulkhead is more or less invisable and inaccessable from the engine bay so a daisy chain of ties is damn handy to drag the new cable back into the car.

 

Turns out I'd broken down outside a workmates house so her husband kindly followed me home and gave me a lift back to fetch my van

 

Thanks for advice, didn't fancy trying to drive clutchless with the kids last night incase it went wrong

[scooters]

Just agreed to rescue a shite dog from a shite life...black lab called Tyson....

Mrs wants to rename him Digby' after shite 1973 film about a large sheep dog. I want to call him ' Rover' obviously ....

 

Anyroad really glad I spent all last weekend detailing the inside of the fleet only for them to he trashed by hairs, slobber, claw marks, mud and having irreplaceable bits of trim chewed to buggery!

 

 

 

So it will be called Digby then.....

[Pete-M]

Ok, wtf is going on?

 

604 has so far clocked up over 1500 views and has 110 watchers. Yet I've not had a bid for days. Not since it met the reserve. Not a peep. No phone calls and for the last few days no desperate hopers trying to swap rotten Jag XJS cabrios for it.

 

I was offered a nice looking 635 CSi Highline for it "Need more doors, missus kicking off about loading the kids into it", but at the moment I'm trying to get rid of cars, not buy more.

 

I'm half tempted to pull the auction and send it to H&H or similar and see how it does there instead. At least that way it's over in a day... Can't all be people using sniper programs to bid can it? Or is it just people gawping and wondering what it'll fetch?

 

I hate eBay.

[Cavcraft]

eBay is odd like that Pete. At least it's met it's reserve, so in theory you should be able to relax and hope that bidding continues. Quite often the bidding goes dead for a period of time, I find this usually happens if you have a 7 or 10 day listing and usually (but not always) it's the last couple of hours, especially the last few minutes, that things start picking up.

 

As said if it's met reserve I wouldn't worry too much, just keep a watchful eye out for the usual morons who have little/no feedback and a similar amount of brain cells.

[cort16]

Most folk hold off until right at the end as they don't want to bump the final price up until they need to so I recon it'll be okay as a 110 is a shit load of watchers.

[DSdriver]

As mostly said above Ebay bidding starts off with people testing the water to see who is a serious bidder, then when a reasonable price is reached they pause to stop the price from going too high before putting in their hopefully winning bid about two seconds before the hammer goes down.

The watchers are probably other 604 owners keeping tabs on current values.

[trigger]

 

I had Father Trig around last night to "help" me fit my steering rack, when i say "help" i mean him do all the work and me running runaround grabbing spanners and getting sworn at for "having a shit lead light"...

 

We also changed a link bar and a few bushes as well as rebuilding the N/S caliper as it has rusty pistons, this morning i had to buy a new track rod end and fit it and put it all back together, Sadly the steering wheel was on the piss as i ran it up to ATS who tracked it all up and had to readjust the steering wheel, They told me to just give them a drink when I'm passing next, I think they was just grateful of something to do and the garage was dead.

 

Been for a road test this afternoon and it's great, and best of all the brakes don't pull anymore, result!

[Cavcraft]

Nice on Trig, bit of a result there.

 

Today we pissed about trying to start the Audi (see VAG help required thread) and actually got it running a few times, but the diesel pump has problems. Hey ho, I'm sure we'll sort it.

Lad's Corsa due for MOT soon and the n/s/r foglight had dropped into the back bumper. No problem, I'll just remove the bumper and fit the spare one we bought. Fail. The plastic clips on the bumper itself are knackered so I just sort of half heartedly tried to mastic it in place and used some tape. It might actually do the job as it only needs to work (it does) and be visible (it is) for MOT.

Corsa auto had another coat of looking at/final checking over, all is well in the headgasket department but the garage that did it last seem to have butchered the dizzy so we need one of those now too

Merc: was going to take out the standard fit radio cassette (because the multi changer CD cartridge doesn't work) and lob a modern CD player into the dash but we sort of ran out of time due to arsing about with the Aldi.

[dollywobbler]

Aye. Good going Trig and Father Trig.

 

Pete - I must admit, I don't get excited about Ebay auctions until there's less than a day to go. In fact, I only found the Maverick with 2 minutes left on it. I imagine a lot of people are watching it to see where it ends up value wise as they don't exactly crop up regularly. However, I suspect there will be late bidding. Even in real auctions, there are some who like the auctioneer to say "going..." before showing their hand.

[cort16]

Fitted my cheapo gumtree wheels to the 7 series and I think it actually looks better than the old 18 inch ones. My wheel perv mate recons I've totally scored with them as they're rare racing dynamics. I've no idea.

740_1 by cort16, on Flickr

[Skizzer]

^ That looks proper mean

[cobblers]

Yeah, you stole them wheels at £140. BMW looks PROPER BO, Two thumbs fresh!

[John F]

944 is a turkey. You chaps are quite right. Additionally, while the car is cosmetically very good, it's 1983 and not an S as you chaps said, it has a grumbling waterpump, the coolant looks like mud and the seller is a bellend.

 

Glad to be of assistance in helping you avoid a bad 'un!

 

BTW you should be able to get a later (and much, much better) 944 S2 for the sort of money you were talking of spending

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Proper pleased with how the wing came out.

 

Unfortunately I forgot to take a before picture, but it was several shades of blue, totally rotten around the headlight and accident damaged on the side. It's not a perfect repair and the rust will eventually return but if it buys me another couple of years I'll be happy!

[catsinthewelder]

Well done that looks ace

[Lord Sterling]

I think I'm begginging to understand why everyone seems to be frustrated with Rover electrics. One night I got into my car after work and was met with this:

 

 

Yep, one of the button lights had gone out, these kind of things annoy me immensly, maybe I shouldnt be so sensative but hey ho. It needed to be sorted out, so I thought it'd be a simple job, merely accessing behind the button and changing a bulb. So today whilst having a spare bit of time, I thought I'd try and tackle this. I'm not very good at fiddling with these kinds of things and sometimes I do get it wrong but I'm pretty much willing to have a go as long as it isnt out of range of my abilities.

 

The one bit of centre console where the switchpack is located was pretty easy to undo, undoing the switchpack from the console was a little more fiddly but actually messing about with the switchpack was bloody frustrating, after more faffing about I finally sort of managed to free it up bit more and remove the top cover and buttons from the switch pack:

 

 

Frustratingly though, upon doing that I found that the bloody bulb was actually soldered onto the circuit board, so not a simple remove and replace job

 

At this point I decided to give up and replace everything. Now, replacing everything wasnt as easy as taking it apart, under the buttons were a couple of loose springs for the seat buttons as well other little bastard bits like plastic lugs on top of springs and such forth....

 

 

Taping the the buttons wouldnt have helped as the plastics lugs at the bottom of the buttons would have come off

 

So, I decided to try and remove the switch pack itself which turned out to be a nightmare, access was seriously limited and fiddly, new swearwords were invented and bits of screws and switchpack tried thier very best to play hide 'n' seak with me..

 

I though about removing the whole center console but I didnt have the right tools and space was almost impossible to get to:

 

 

All I needed to do was unplug the switchpack from its plug:

 

 

But I couldnt work out for the life of me how to get this off, the clips on the plug looked needlessly overcomplicated. More swearwords and frustration and I finally got the sodding thing off, I couldnt believe it, it was actually easier than it looked, just looked overcomplicated whilst packed away in a tight space.

 

 

So after replacing the switchpack/centre console/lid and various other bits thast I cant be arsed to remember I did manage to replace, then blow a 7.5 amp fuse for the rear ciggy lighter, I bashed another fuse in, tested it and was at least happy that I'd done that.

 

And who said working on cars was theraputic?

[Pete-M]

604 finished on eBay. No bids in last day £1220 finish.

 

Bit fucked off to be honest, but I've learnt a valuable lesson: Stop fucking about with old cars.

[warren t claim]

604 finished on eBay. No bids in last day £1220 finish.

 

Bit fucked off to be honest, but I've learnt a valuable lesson: Stop fucking about with old cars.

 

Are you letting it go for that?