The new news 24 thread

[hairnet]

607

 

sonata or magentis

 

avensis estate

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2011-SEAT-EXEO-2-0-TDI-CR-S-120-/271969367260

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seat-Exeo-2-0TDI-SE-/161804882379

 

the trouble of putting an ad on and then no pics - should be suk dat shurely - verdict TWAT (and they do it for a living)

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2011-KIA-CEED-ESTATE-2-ECODYNAMICS-1-6-CRDI-1-OWNER-12-MONTH-MOT-FSH-/262013049818

[jonathan_dyane]

Where do I get bearing shells for a Renault 6?  Also after the paper gasket under the liners and probably piston rings.  Otherwise, all seems pretty healthy in there.

First try Margret Maddock on 01244 851227. I have all kinds of obscure piston rings and bearing shells off them over the years from ancient Citroen's to 1950s David Brown's and they never failed to locate parts and are very reasonably priced *but* I haven't had cause to use them for a few years and they may have retired.

 

If she isn't doing it anymore I'm sure she will be able to recommend someone.

[vulgalour]

I'll get some pictures to show the damage.

[Jim Bell]

I'm not sure why they are suddenly struggling to get the waste collected but if its a sign of things to come could be a good thing, I really can't be bothered with loads of ibcs again and the vermin probs the oil brings so would have to keep it to just a handfull of customers this time.

I'll have some. Regular.

[dollywobbler]

The Vulcan is flying within a few miles of home. Which seems like a good excuse to go greenlaning in the Dyane.

[Six-cylinder]

The Vulcan is flying within a few miles of home. Which seems like a good excuse to go greenlaning in the Dyane.

It is routed to pass over our house on its way to you, anything you need transported!

[Six-cylinder]

Timmed at 13:49

[stillOrange]

I'm getting slightly nervous... double roffle night ahead and I have same number in both...

[doobietoo]

Cut the grass, first time since June which was a mistake really as the plan was to do some more work on rex the VDP. As always half way through cutting the grass down comes the rain. Bloody nuisance really as I need to get the old engine out ready for the new one I am picking up on the way home from Chumbly... oh well I will just have to drink Pimms and wait for the evening footy.... off to the Allegro club spares open day tomorrow to see what they have squirrelled away. ridiculous early start in the morning to avoid the bank holiday grockles on the coastal drive from Darzet to hastings and have to go to Modcentral or Brighton as its known on the way back to keep Mrsdoobietoo happy....so I better not wear my leather jacket....

[The Moog]

Saab has done a wee on the drive. Being modern it also bonged at me to tell me it has run out of wee and needs topping up.

 

Will have to see where it is coming from, fingers crossed it is nothing too bad.

 

In other news rover will be departing tomorrow!

[wuvvum]

Because I am a twat, I thought it would be a good idea to drive from Southampton to Norwich on an August bank holiday weekend.  It wasn't.  My left leg still aches from pressing the bloody clutch so much.

 

Still, at least there was some decent chod on the road - beige Edsel wagon in Southampton, maroon Skoda Rapid and beige Hindustan Ambassador going the other way on the M25, a tidy L-pate Carlton 2.0i CDX saloon also on the M25 but going the same direction as me, and I got overtaken by a Honda PC800 a few miles from home.  Also, some lad in a Corsa had gone into the back of a Bentley Mulsanne at the Mildenhall roundabout.  Whoops.

 

Yesterday I managed to drop the Hyosung whilst trying to get on it - my leg somehow got caught in my jeans and I couldn't get it over (as it were).  I put it down quite gently so there's no damage to the tank or the stunning* fake snakeskin paint job, but the gear lever appears to be made out of cheese as the sticky-out pedal bit snapped off, rendering up-changes more or less impossible.  Fortunately at the time I was round my mate's who has a garage full of random odds and sods, so the bike now sports a piece of brass pipe bent in a vice at a 90° angle and held onto the remains of the gearlever with two jubilee clips.  It was meant as a get-you-home bodge, but it works well enough so I might as well leave it on there...

[dave21478]

I bought a cheap winch for the Freelander.

Not because I am one of those "its gripped, its locked, its sorted, lets offroad" knobbers but mostly to help me with felling trees, of which I have a huge amount to do this coming autumn.

I normally use the car as a ground anchor with a steel cable and hand winches to pull a tree if I need it to fall in an awkward direction which is tricky on my own so this winch, which has a wireless remote, should be handy.

 

In my normal style, I built the mounting bracket from scrap steel lying around the farm and went slightly* overboard. Its made from 5 and 6mm plate and looks like you could mount an anchor winch for a cruise liner on it.

After I finished I looked up winch mounts on google images and they are generally much lighter than mine.

Eh, whatevz...

 

 

[Rusty_Rocket]

^^^ Really neat job Dave5678

[Mr_Bo11ox]

That is a neat job. You are super practical DaveNumbers. Tell us the story of converting your Freelander to LHD!!!

[Lacquer Peel]

 

Tell me if I'm teaching my granny to suck eggs, but you can do a lot of trick felling with wedges and even a cut involving a bottle jack to help fell trees where you want them to go.

Winch takes a lot of the faff out though...

[dave21478]

That was relatively easy to do. It took me a long time due to motivation issues and finding some parts, but well worthwhile.

 

I bought the car in Scotland at my usual bankrupt stock/broken old shit auction at Thainstone for £1000, which was cheap for one of these back then. 11 previous owners, no history at all, no working rev counter and a suspicious lack of warning lights on the dash when started. This turned out to be due to a previous owner opting not to fix any faults but to take the cluster out and chisel the teeny surface mount LEDS off the circuit board.

A replacement cluster, a replacement ABS pump and a garage with the software to reset fault codes and it was fine.

I drove it down here and registered it, which was a MASSIVE PITA as apparently commercial 2 seat variants were never homologated for use in France. I got a letter and tech spec from Land Rover saying its exactly the same as normal Freelanders apart from the number of seats and the rear being panelled. No dice. I had to go though the French version of an IVA which Im sure you can imagine the paperwork required......  When it was finally done I met a kitchen designer on a job site who had a 2 seater commercial just like mine that he had bought from the bloody dealership! Not homologated my fucking hoop!

 

I decided to convert it to LHD as it appeared simple. The dashboard is symmetrical with window switches etc in the centre console which is a manufacturer trick to minimise production costs for two seperate versions of parts. Dash out, the instrument pack unbolted from the right and fitted to the left side where the cubby holder/grab handle used to be and vice versa. I had to extend the dash loom as it wasnt reversible and shifting the fuse box looked like too much faff so I crimped and heat-shrunk about 20-odd wires to extend them for various things.

I had found a crashed one in a breakers by chance one day. I only had a few hand tools with me so I went to a supermarket and bought a cheap tool kit and went back to nab the bits. I took a few bits of interior trim, and really needed the rack and pedal box. The car had suffered a properly hard crash on the left front with the cabin kinda crumpled up. Getting the pedal box out wasnt likely as it looked a bit bent and there was claret and lumpy bits all over the carpet too. The steering rack came out with some help from a jack to open up a crushed part of the inner wing. I had also wanted the heater box and cabin filter etc but never did in the end due to the state of the inside.

You have to cut the steering column support off the right side of the dash, which means drilling out a load of spot welds, then re-weld it on the left. The original pedal box fitted ok in the end but I had to make a few mounts for it and the master cylinders. I also had to fabricate a bump on the floorpan for part of the steering rack.

Everything else was just details. I dont have the cabin filter in mine as the old one had to go to make room for the LHD pedals and I have never found another in the breakers so in winter it tends to mist up the windows a lot, but its not the end of the world.

 

It was a fair amount of faff, but considering just buying one here would have cost me €4k easily, it was worth it overall.

[dave21478]

I have wedges and stuff for felling, but most of these trees are 3 of 4 feet diameter trunks and its way too easy for them to pivot over anything you drive in and go whichever way its weight wants to take it. With a winch I am certain which way it will fall and much safer.

[Lacquer Peel]

If the trees are that big I don't think a small winch on a Freelander is going to help massively, especially if you can't get the pulling rope high up the tree. I've seen a tractor winch fail, luckily there was a backup holding rope.

[dave21478]

I get the strap right up as high as I can. It doesnt take much actual pulling force from the top.

I normally use a couple of these and a snatch block....

But that means winching as much as I can, running over and cutting deeper, running back and winching more, running back and cutting deeper etc etc. So this is going to be saving all that faff.

[RobT]

Amongst all this manly talk of felling trees and doing a complex conversion to LHD, all I've done is clean the Cavalier today in readiness for taking it on hols. Checked the levels, tyres, and like a twat also poked around at the sills as couldn't help myself. The arches and sill ends really are a mess so I need to sort out some weldage soon as it 'aint nice to look at.

 

 

In reference to the forever car thread, if I wasn't such a fickle sod I'd just keep this and be done with it.

 

 

Talking of fickle, I think my Rover phase is over, or atleast for the time being. Not got much enthusiasm for my new R8 so once back from holiday I'll be selling it, by which time the V5 should have come through hopefully.

[stillOrange]

Is anybody there after a large luxurious petrol hungry Volvo or a small Japanese hatchback?

 

I will have to sell one of them...

[vulgalour]

Well.. heating used engine oil in a pan on the hob at home is not the best way to free pistons from liners.  In part because it hasn't freed the piston from the liner but mainly because of the smell.  The downstairs of my house now smells like so many broken engines and it's a little bit nice but also a little bit headache inducing even with house holes wide open.

[cort16]

Been welding up the Cortina for a few hours this afternoon. A few more holes plugged. Fucking thing.

[trigger]

Here's a odd one, my Sierra has gone off to the garage to be welded up but it keeps cutting out and running on 3 cylinders, long and short of it is they say the reason it keeps dieing (and the reason it was parked up in the first place) is that the valve stem seals have gone (It's a 1.8 CVH), the oil is bypassing the valves and clogging up the plugs when it first starts making it cut out. Does that sound normal?, It does smoke like Dot Cotton on a bad day to be fair when it starts?.

 

I've ordered a set of seals and a rocker box gasket anyway as it's only £18 all in delivered but it's still more hassle i could do without, especially as the car was only meant as a little cheapy project.

[wuvvum]

especially as the car was only meant as a little cheapy project.

See, that's your mistake right there.  Anything bought as a cheapy project is 100% guaranteed to end up as just the opposite.

[vulgalour]

^Truth!

 

''oh hey, a little old Renault for £80, I'll have the on the road in NO TIME''

[vulgalour]

Anyone in the North-East got a Hydragas/lastic pump?  Could do with a borrow soon.

[Richard]

Here's a odd one, my Sierra has gone off to the garage to be welded up but it keeps cutting out and running on 3 cylinders, long and short of it is they say the reason it keeps dieing (and the reason it was parked up in the first place) is that the valve stem seals have gone (It's a 1.8 CVH), the oil is bypassing the valves and clogging up the plugs when it first starts making it cut out. Does that sound normal?, It does smoke like Dot Cotton on a bad day to be fair when it starts?.

 

I've ordered a set of seals and a rocker box gasket anyway as it's only £18 all in delivered but it's still more hassle i could do without, especially as the car was only meant as a little cheapy project.

 

It's so normal on the CVH engine that there's a special tool for  changing the seals with the head in situ.

[Anglevan]

Agreed, I'm sure I still have the tool to fit the seals. Very easy job. Had the same issue on my mk2 XR2.

[dave21478]

Yeah, you need one of these....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sealey-Valve-Spring-Compressor-Ford-Cvh-Valve-Spring-Compressors-Tool-VS150-/291296006359?hash=item43d29850d7

 

Every CVH car I have owned (and a fair few for friends) has needed the seals done.

 

Rocker cover off, plugs out, wind one piston up to TDC, screw down that tool on one of the studs to compress the valve spring, release the collets (a wee magnet is handy here) wind off the tool and lift out the spring, pop the seal out and knock a new one in, use tool to refit and compress the spring, refit collets and repeat for the others, not forgetting to make sure the cylinder you are working on is at TDC otherwise the valve will drop down into the cylinder and really spoil your afternoon.