The new news 24 thread

[DSdriver]

Fuel leak chaos on the DS saloon today.

I drove it home from the storage with it faffing all the way and when I got it on the drive at home I noticed there was a pool of petrol developing under the offside sill. Behind the sill cover is the fuel filter and pump. Removal of half the sill cover involves about a dozen self tappers. Once it was off I found that the leak was coming from the fuel filter. Not the connections but the joint in the casing. I disconnected the inlet pipe and stuffed a conical wedge up it then checked to see what I could bodge it with. Found an old clear plastic fuel filter that I bought a job lot of many moons ago which is probably totally unsuitable for modern fuel with ethanol but better than nothing. The only problem was that it is shorter than the metal jobby so a longer bit of pipe had to be found. Eventually got it sorted and only lost a couple of pints of petrol into a bowl and some up my sleeve.

I have bought a new filter from the local car parts store but decided that it would have to wait as being doused in super unleaded once a day is quite enough. Anyone any idea how long it will take for the plastic filter to melt?

I presume that the bit of rubber sheet wrapped around the old filter and fastened with a couple of cable ties was some sort of anti rattle device and hopefully not an attempt by a professional mechanic to bodge up a leaking filter.

[skattrd]

Deal with the R25 for a fuego didn't happen - bugger.

[Ross_K]

Personal record. Not one, not two, but three different Pikeys have knocked this week about buying the 604.

 

"I'll give ya some money, take it off ya hands..."

"Ok, give me £1500 and take it away"

"That's a fair bit more dan I was tinkin'"

"It's the cheapest road legal one for sale in Europe and you still can't afford it? Shame that.."

 

So far, it's still the banger racers who're the only ones to actually have the cash. Fucking depressing that.

 

I'd move it somewhere secure soonish if I was you. If that many pikeys have been to your door, someone's going to have it - with or without paying...

[vulgalour]

When it's wet (and I've only noticed this since moving the Princess more permanently into the garage) the Princess doesn't always like to start first time and sometimes, when I've set off, will throw a tantrum and pretend like she's going to stall. Bit odd as it only happens when it's damp/wet/raining tonnes. Also found that in the wet conditions, if I have to do lots of fiddly manoeuvring, the engine runs on a bit. None of this happens in the dry and it's not particularly worrying, just irritating, genuinely surprised she's not played up like this sooner really. I'll just keep plodding away at the maintenance side of things and eventually get a bit more on top of the issue; distributor cap and rocker cover gasket next, I think.

[DSdriver]

Have you tried spraying the leads and distributor cap with WD40 to keep the damp out?

[vulgalour]

I have not... is that the usual fix?

[Lankytim]

After a week of standing the 205 dizzler started FIRST TIME, the interior leak seems to have been cured as even after a weeks worth of rain everything was bone dry inside. As a reward it was treated to a dose of cockpit shine and 20 litres of finest Texaco diesel. The plan is to run it on a mixture of veg oil and diesel but I guess halfa tank of the real stuff should aid an MOT pass. The rear wash/wipe was fixed but I ran out of time to get the windscreen jets working. Roll on the MOT!

[DSdriver]

I have not... is that the usual fix?

Standard practice for mini drivers with the dizzy just behind the grill.

[MrDuke]

I have not... is that the usual fix?

Standard practice for mini drivers with the dizzy just behind the grill.

Another (almost-)standard practice being to stick a plastic shield over the sparky bits to help avoid future tantrums. Either buy a nice clear jobbie from somewhere, or make one out of a suitable detergent bottle for moar shite pointz.

[worldofceri]

Well, after having the Beetle running the other week, my Mum reported that there was an overwhelming smell of petrol in her garage. By the time I got there the smell had completely disappeared; And so had all my fuel. Seemingly the best part of a gallon of pez had leaked out and evaporated. Nuts.

 

So I chucked a bit more petrol in and backed it out again. Pleased that the battery still held some charge. The leak seems to be coming from the fuel line where it doubles back on itself after coming out of the tank. Glad there's not a hole in the tank, although that would actually be straightforward to replace. I've never messed about with fuel lines before and it looks a bit awkward so this may have to entrusted to Someone Who Knows What They're Doing. I'll have a crack first like, natch.

 

Wings are back on though. Sort of.

I bought some shiny new bolts and immediately over-tightened the first one when trial fitting and couldn't get the bugger ondone again. I jammed my ratchet handle trying to undo it and then nearly drilled a hole through my thumb and figured it might already be time to call it a day.

 

As an aside I noticed that the spare tyre was 'Made in the German Democratic Republic'. Yikes! How long has it been since the Berlin Wall came down?

[vulgalour]

1989 was the year the Wall fell. Thanks for the tips on the tantrums, I think I'll try a cut down 2 litre pop bottle shield first, see how we do with that.

[dollywobbler]

WD40 on leads and dizzy is only an emergency measure really. It can make things worse in the long term. You can get ignition sealer stuff that might be better.

 

On our Mini though, it's always started fine whatever the weather. It's excessive moisture when moving along that caused the issues before we fitted a shield.

[vulgalour]

What I'm finding is that all my engine niggles are the same as those on the Mini, just scaled up to Princess size. The distributor is on the front of the block so I'm guessing that it's doing precisely what Minis do. It also explains why there's a crusty old film of something that's been sprayed on the old leads and dizzy cap, we had wondered if that might be Easy Start or something similar. It's all new to me this, I'm used to my reliable* Fords, and VWs.

[philibusmo]

Spent some more time yesterday afternoon on my computer case as it was pouring with rain so Lancia based hijinks were out of the question. Having spent hours filling and sanding some areas on the front of the casing I took photos and then looked at the previous ones to find that 2 hours has made not the slightest bit of difference.

The rest of the case however is looking much better...

I'm not particuarly happy with the top, which is the wrong way round in terms of grain so will be getting re-done.

I'm still waiting on Yodel to pick up incorrect processor, a whole week later. I am not amused by their lack of progress and I can find no way on Amazon to contact them about the issue which is quite annoying as it looks like I may end up with a £200+ processor which is completely incompatible with the rest of my setup, in a damaged box, all thanks to two useless couriers.

[dollywobbler]

The other thing to try is electronic ignition. You can get in-dizzy kits for not a lot of dollar. Clean up and Vaseline the coil connections as well. That one's cheaper still.

[vulgalour]

Electronic ignition is on the list, it's just never really been a priority for me until recently, certainly one of those things I should investigate doing before winter unless the other suggestions get me through the dampness of course.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing that PC case finished, it's like a better version of what I did to my own, some elements of which I really ought to redo and others I really ought to finish.

[Lord Sterling]

A couple of weeks ago when I found bleedin' water in the footwell, my cousin (a Vauxhall apologist) gave me a Kenwood CD player. One of those mid 00s chavvy aftermarket Halfords types. Found that it needed a small rear connector to connect up to the rest, brill, so a £1.50 purchase of a connector and few days waiting saw one arrive in the post.

 

Whilst being generally lazy after a day spent trying to get some spots I decided to fit this up to my car and see if it was the working one, ole' cuz had 2 Kenwood CD players but wasnt sure which one worked and gave the one he thought did. As it turns out, he was right, it worked beautifully, it took a matter of minutes to connect and fit, the radio and player worked wonderfully, it worked well with the speakers too giving a crisp and clear sound, I thought it would blow the speakers to pieces, but it didnt (Well, I turned it loud but not up to full blast)

 

I thought about leaving it in but to be honest it looked a bit chavvy, I like original stuff and I like listening to my late 90s crap recordings of Tim Westwood's Radio 1 Rap Show, besides, the newer 'Rover' radio was just as good sound-wise only I cant control the bass and treble, which quint frankly i dont need to as the sounds are more than perfectly acceptable. Plus I couldnt find, for the life of me, my collection of CDs. I had them in my possession not a couple of months ago, but now I really dont remember where I put them despite a few half arsed attempts at finding them.

 

Crap pic of new player:

 

 

Until I finally find my CD collection I think I'll leave the 'Rover' tape player in.

 

Whilst I was faffing about in the car during the failing light, I though about fitting up one of the higher-spec 'Rover' radios I had in my possession, now it would have been well-easy to do this, unfortuinately, for some uncomprehensable reason, Philips had decided to use these types of radio wire reciever insert:

 

 

Instead of the normal one like this:

 

 

What the hell they were thinking I dont know, looks like another purchase on my card coming soon

[Pete-M]

The two aerial connectors are because Clarion "diversity" radios used two aerials in an attempt to cancel out FM reception issues in places like Tokyo. Rover used a lot of Clarion radios (Badged as Rover) which use "diversity" aerials.

 

There's normally a couple of elements in the windows and aerial amplifiers which need a live from the set.

[Lord Sterling]

Cheers Pete. Are there some connectors I can buy to bridge the connections or am I only able to use these in my mk2? (Which has the same stereo) I'm guessing some Halfords or other Motorfactors type places might supply them if there are any.

 

I have a boot-mounted CD changer for which I can use with these stereos.

[Ross_K]

Yep you can buy the adapters in Halfords or anywhere else that sells chavvy tat for Saxos.

[Negative Creep]

Oil change in the Bluebird. Had a look at the Yugo and established there was no spark from the dizzy before rain stopped play. Have found someone who said he can weld it, so hopefully progress will actually being fairly soon

[dollywobbler]

Plastic garden chairs are crap. They keep breaking. So, I made a new one today, using a frame found in a skip and some battens from a bed we broke up many years ago.

 

It's great!

 

In actual car related news, I decided to check the state of the LHM filters on the BX Safari in a bid to cure the PAS issues. They were pretty dirty so I cleaned them up with petrol and put them back in. Result! PAS now working fine. Also investigated the gearstick rattle. I've decided it doesn't like 2CV gearknobs. I've tried two now. Will try and get hold of an actual BX one as the one fitted has broken apart.

 

Also investigated the steering squeak. There's play in the column but I can't identify where. Perhaps a U/J? I can pull the wheel away from the shroud (ie in the direction of the column) very slighty. It's enough for it to sink back and catch on the shroud. I've smeared a bit of grease on the back of the wheel for now, but have also removed the collar that operates the self-cancelling indicators. They drive me mad. I'll have to watch it though as the indicator relay is nigh on mute.

[meshking]

Spotted a blue toyota will vs on the m4 last week. Very strange looking thing from the back, quite liked the side view. I'm guessing there aren't very many on uk roads?

[sporty-shite]

Spent the day arsing about outside with cars, which was nice.

 

Valeted the interior of the previously very dirty Lupo, which has come up very clean and blue. Got the Celica out of the garage for a wash and polish. Started after cranking over for a short while, and now looks pretty damn good, after a wash, clay and run over with AutoGlym. Still thinkingg it might have to go, though. It's a shame to have it sitting around doing nothing.

 

Tomorrow, I need to sort out my insurance renewal. Looks like I'll be switching to a trade policy so I can do a bit of part time tat-meddling. Hopefully, I can at least make enough money to cover the cost of the insurance and have a bit of fun with it.

 

Still trying to think of the best way to shift this fucking Alfa, as well. Considering asking a couple of the local sales pitches if they want to take it on sale or return

[philibusmo]

On Saturday morning in the brief spell that it wasn't raining I adjusted the points gap on my fiesta 1.1 mk1 and cleaned up the points and rotor arm. I previously thought the rough running was to do with the carb, but after turning and twisting every available screw, knob and linkage on the thing with no difference I though I should check points and timing.

 

I think that I may have accidentally set the carb to race mode. After the ignition tidy up it now goes like a Kenyan on speed.

I have never known it to go so well before, who would ever have thought that a 1983 1.1 fiesta with the economy carburettor and gear box could be quite alarmingly sprightly.

[ashmicro]

I had a 950 mark 1 Fiesta Pop, and it went pretty well too.

 

In other news, the wankers in Belfast where I bought my bike say they can't service it. And the sodding battery keeps going flat. I think I'll buy a proper Yuasa one, rather than the HooFlugDung special I got for a score from the motor factors.

[cort16]

SD1's getting painted tomorrow night, which has just meant 4 hours of sanding, filling, sanding, cleaning and masking. I think it's as good as it's going to get.

You know there's a part of me that doesn't want to finish it. What am I going to do now?

[Shep Shepherd]

Replaced TV2's knackered driver's door check strap with a new one this morning. The old one came out in bits:

 

 

No wonder I had issues with it

 

As is my wont, I managed to cause collateral damage to the car while doing the job; an eBay replacement electric mirror control switch is on its way to me as I type

[Ross_K]

Spotted a blue toyota will vs on the m4 last week. Very strange looking thing from the back, quite liked the side view. I'm guessing there aren't very many on uk roads?

 

The Will VS is perfectly normal compared to the WIll VI. I've got some photos of a local one somewhere...

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I put some new brushes in my alternator, and that's perked it up a bit - it's now pumping out a stable 13.8. I'll keep an eye on the volt meter.