The new news 24 thread

[drum]

After months of doing nothing to any of my vehicles, I've decided to try and fix them all simultaneously.

The 109 (Land Rover not Messerschmitt) has had a borked starter motor all winter. Yesterday I took it to the local auto leccy place who replaced the solenoid, turned down the armature on the lathe and replaced the brushes etc. It's a Lucas job but doesn't belong to the perkins 4203 lump. A PO has bodged it on with clamps. The refurb cost an eye watering £150 but it's good to get the use of the LWB's towing and crap shifting capacity again.

 

I shuffled some of the chod. The 88" has gone into the shed and the allegro has taken up its place on the drive. The shed is five miles away so it was a pain in the arse when the allegro wouldn't start and I didn't have the jump leads. It had started the other day after some fettling but the battery was too flat to fire it up today. I took the battery of the Land Rover, sat it on the inner wing and started it with that. I wasn't sure if it would keep running with the battery disconnected but sure enough it did, so I put the leads back on its own battery and let it charge away. Try that on a modern.

 

I had to move the maestro to get the 88 in the shed and it roared into life after months sat idle. After a wee spin up the road and back, I was reminded how much I like it. It's probably my favourite car so I need to get on with sorting out the rear wheel arches and get it back on the road.

 

I've also been spending some time on the 1964 88" LR. I'll not bore with the details here until I've got some pics to show.

 

The td5 has been sulking on the drive for months with a severe steering fluid leak so it will get some attention in the next few days.

 

The shed with the 109 poking out

 

The lovely maestro

 

The '64 88"

DSC_0253 by jboath1, on Flickr

[castros_bro]

66% of something for your weakend Sir?

 

[Angrydicky]

Back from touring around mid-and-north Wales. The Somerset covered 820 miles, towing a trailer tent and didn't miss a beat all the way

[twosmoke300]

Hilmanimp , would those spring bolts have been unf originally ?

[HillmanImp]

Hilmanimp , would those spring bolts have been unf originally ?

 

I have no idea.

 

The fact that I did not use them would probably explain that

 

I was going to order some more today but forgot to being in details of what I needed like a douche.

[cms206]

Just found out that one of my friends, a fellow driver from one of the wee local bus companies, jumped in front of a train on Tuesday night. He was 41.

Fuck.

[nacho man]

Just sold my st170 for a tiny little profit which means three cars in a row have netted me some cash. Still down £645,342 overall.

 

Hope it don't break down or ote as the guy who bought it was a bouncer and not one of them little fellas, he was old school massive.

[Lord Sterling]

cms - Sorry to hear that, nowt is worth doing that for it has to be said. Mahmoud told me about a similar thing that happened to a nieghbour of his. A very quiet old lady who was very nice natured, she lived on her own as her husband had died years before. She didn't seem to have any troubles but one day just jumped in front of a train.

[xtriple]

I posted a 'Happy Birthday' post to an acquaintance on Facebook the other day, got a message from a mutual friend that he had hung himself a few months ago!

 

I deleted the post bloody quick sharp!

[gordonbennet]

Couldnt agree more about the Civic Type S they are cracking little cars, still quite a few about but good ones really hold their value as I've spent tonight looking at them to replace my Accord. The next gen Civic Type S just felt cheap and badly screwed together in comparison, plus it was a gutless 1.8 instead of the perky 2.0.

 

Any chance of the name and number of the auto spark, I always used to use Burwell and Ward down by the old tip but they have both retired now and it's run by someone else.

 

That's who did it, no complaints from me, bloke told SWMBO that he couldn't guarantee it as a long term fix and it might well need another bag at some point, however it's given daughter a breathing space and hopefully (flap flap oink) she's learned a lesson about neglecting stuff that needs doing.

[dave21478]

Was prodding about under the Escort today fitting new brake pads, the old ones were right down to nothing left at all.  The exhaust heatshield was hanging loose, which I noticed when it was up on the ramps for its MOT. It was pretty well gubbed with all the fixings pulled through so I just yanked it off rather than trying to straighten it and fit bigger washers and stuff....aint nobody got time fo dat.

I also noticed that the Lambda sensor in the downpipe appears broken - its screwed in fine but the body is flapping about and I think the wires might be broken inside....didnt want to pull it about too much. I wonder if thats why it struggled with the emissions test? Anyway, just ordered a new universal one from ebay, so will see how that goes.

I also fixed the stiff gearchange by unbending the gear selector steady rod which I must have bent when I jacked the gearbox up too high.

 

I then went Full Vulgalour on it with my box of cleaning goodies....washed, clay bar, polish, then extra-gloss.....looks exactly the bloody same as before I started! Silver is such a boring non-colour for a car. What made the big difference was cleaning the windows....the boot windows were covered in dog nose-prints, the rear side windows covered in child tongue prints and the front windows were manky due to imbeciles de-misting them with the backs of their hands I assume. God, I hate dirty windows on a car. I scrubbed the interior plastics with cleaner and gave it a good hoover out and some supermarket-bought floor mats tidied up inside.

 

I then let loose my inner 17-year old and fitted some ICE. My cheapy USB headunit went in nicely and works well, it only has 2 front speakers which were gassed so I rummaged a pair of Pioneers out of the toolbox, then an ancient wee Kenwood 4 channel amp went nicely under the boot false floor and a small 10" sub box in the boot itself. Amp runs the two fronts and bridged the rear channels for the sub - it sounds pretty decent - not just for thump-thump dance stuff but every type of music is massively improved with a sub woofer.

[JohnK]

Somebody had a similar problem that turned out to be a master cylinder seal flipping when the pistons were pushed back. It was cured by putting a broom handle on the pedal overnight I believe.

Top Shiters tip this. Worked a treat on my mates Mondeo!

[vulgalour]

Suicide sucks, both for those considering it and for those left behind.  I have no comfort to offer, having found myself in the void of considering it and nearly doing it beyond the knowledge that there's not really anything anyone can do to stop you.  You either pull out of it or you don't.

[tooSavvy]

Somebody had a similar problem that turned out to be a master cylinder seal flipping when the pistons were pushed back. It was cured by putting a broom handle on the pedal overnight I believe.

 

I made a few enquiries about 'master cyl seal' borkage when doing the Savv pads first time (dealer MAY* have loosened the nipple/refilled with fresh - dunno)...

 

No one came up with any previous... Sooooooo... I pushed the piston back verreee sloooowwwly.

 

No harm done. 

 

 

TS

[RobT]

I was supposed to go and see that Renault 25 I posted in the ebay tat thread this afternoon. It's only 80odd miles away near Clacton so I thought leaving at 2.30pm from South London should get me ahead of the Friday rush traffic. Did it fuck. The M25 was at a standstill so god knows what the A12 would be like, and it's the school hols too so I though it might be quieter. I didn't even bother joining the M25, just headed back and had a relax in the park seeing as the sun was out.

 

Does anyone know what a phase 1 25 with MoT but 212k on the clock (!!) is worth? At a guess I'm thinking around £800-1000. There's another on ebay at the moment at £1995, but I'm thinking that's overpriced dealer stock. The seller of 'my' one says it doesn't look like a 212k car, and I'm inclined to believe him looking at the pics. I wonder how many gearboxes and ATF coolers it's been through! Here's the link:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281654552920?_trksid=p2060353.m1431.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

I'll just bid without seeing it and repent at leisure.

[FakeConcern]

Don't you love it when someone puts a scrapes & dents in your XM & buggers off?

[richardmorris]

Deliberate damage?

[FakeConcern]

Deliberate damage?

I don't think so, lately I've only parked (on the road) with off side to the pavement so may be a push chair or wheel chair? At home it's always on the drive.

[coalnotdole]

Few more photos of the rebel van retrim... I spent most of this morning re doing the carpets in synthetic rather than tufted which was what I'd cut out yesterday. I've not got enough of either to finish the job so I'll have to order more and the synthetic is miles cheaper and bearing in mind its a van and gets used hard i think its going to be a better choice than tufted wool.

 

 

 

 

I'm now at the stage where I'm ready to think about stitching some edging. There will be a vinyl edge on the gearbox tunnel at the front, and at the back

 

 

I've not quite decided how this will work as it doesn't look as straight forward as the red rebel because the rear seat aperture is a different shape, Heres How it looks on the red rebel:

 

 

I've reached a stage with the carpets and I'm probably going to have to wait until the extra carpet I've ordered arrives before they can be finished off.

 

So instead I fitted a headlining, this would have been an optional extra on the van, but standard on estate Rebels.

 

 

 

Finally this rubber matting arrived today, so tomorrows task will be to buy a new sheet of ply and remake the load floor.

 

 

[mat_the_cat]

A week of no rain (highly unusual) has turned North Wales into an inferno

 

This was taken from just outside our front door, but fortunately there is a road between us and the fire. Might make for a slightly sleepless night though!

 

[stuboy]

spur moment trip to folkestone.... were have all the rides and amusements gone... 

[captain_70s]

I actually got up off my arse and fixed my car! It now has a functioning starter motor, just need to sort the steering, brakes, clutch, exhaust leak and propshaft and it'll stop being quite such a nightmare to drive...

 

Meanwhile the 1300 needs a new exhaust and some head work, really I could do with a lottery win right about now!

 

 

[dollywobbler]

I was going to wash the XM today, but my wife seems to be using my wash bucket to store huge lengths of willow, which she's currently turning into a bench. Ugh.

[Inspector Morose]

I might have bought a car. It's old, and far away but not small.

[DVee8]

^^ More details needed ^^

[rml2345]

More acceptable Dutch Japanese car excitement!

Whilst investigating a clonky noise from from the front suspension, I found a loose CV joint boot.

 

 

Joint seemed OK so repacked it and the loud noise has disappeared leaving a quieter noise.

Fuck sakes!

Anyway, I painted up the scruffy wheel centres for the alloys as they looked really bad.

 

 

Amazing what you can do with model paint.

[Inspector Morose]

 

 

It's the shiters version, of course, a 60 four cylinder.

 

What the flying fuck have I done?

 

I also may be speaking with a considerably higher voice soon as I haven't told SWMBO that I've just spent a chunk of money on a hopeless case that's many miles away.

[rml2345]

^ Yes but as soon as she's seen it I'm sure you'll be sleeping in it as well.

Looks worth it though.

[dollywobbler]

 

Still lovely weather here. Put another £10 of fuel in today just to see out the next few days. How I'll miss hooning past tourists in my feeble old car.

 

In other news, I've spent much of the day trying to scrape tape adhesive off the XM's roof. That aluminium tape was a bad idea it seems! Have tried many potions including white spirit, petrol, electrical contact cleaner, Sticky Stuff Removal gloop I got at B&Q and even Autoglym's Tar Remover - which seems remarkably similar to the Sticky Stuff Removal gloop, but is about twice the cost. Bloody excellent for getting rid of tar spots though.

[DVee8]

^^ Try Vim or graffiti remover.