invacar LightBulbFun's Invacar & general ramble thread, index on page 1, survivors lists on Pages 24/134 & AdgeCutler's Invacar Mk12 Restoration from Page 186 onwards, still harping on...

[High Jetter]

39 minutes ago, dollywobbler said:

Took TWC to a show 30 miles away today. Bear in mind that in the previous year she'd only done 100 miles. I think I've done more than that in the past week as I wanted some miles covered before driving further from home.

Lots of attention as ever. A car that truly makes people smile. Unless they're behind me on a hill...

Looking great. Smart Riley too.

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

Took TWC to a show 30 miles away today. Bear in mind that in the previous year she'd only done 100 miles. I think I've done more than that in the past week as I wanted some miles covered before driving further from home.

yeah I missed the live stream but I watched it afterwards just for the TWC content   shame I missed it as I could of gone full Nerd on the "Passenger carrying is forbidden" plaque for you when that subject came up  very much looking forward to the fleet update/digging out of TWC video

2 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

Lots of attention as ever. A car that truly makes people smile. Unless they're behind me on a hill...

reminds me of the time I was elephant racing past a Lorry on one of my motorway trips, only for a slight incline to knock me back, but not wanting to lose valuable momentum I am keeping at it, but I have this large silver car up my chuff and I am thinking "just pass FFS the 3rd lane is perfectly clear" eventually he flashes his lights at me so, I figure alright-alright-alright-fine I drop back and pull in behind the lorry to let him go past, and then I see he was the chap towing a trailer I passed earlier in the trip (who legally could not go into lane 3 to pass me) so my apologies to whoever that was, if I had realised that it was someone towing a trailer sooner I would of pulled in sooner, I do try and be considerate where I can!

although I admit I do get a kick of schadenfreude when I do overtake a lorry and watch as everyone who comes up behind me then has to try and funnel themselves into lane 3 (or wait behind me), who needs variable speed limits to even out traffic flow when you just have a 56mph restricted lorries and a mad man in an Invacar  

 

[Andrew353w]

9 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

However its sounding a bit like its not wanting to go into gear cleanly, but not sure if idle speed needs tweaking down (if its too high the clutch shoes will engage prematurely)  or if the clutch shoes need some tweaking, (I know from when someone else had their clutch shoes relined they had problems with high spots in the new material causing the shoes to bind/engage prematurely) but hopefully just the idle speed that needs tweaking down, as the aforementioned clutch-shoe tweaking would mean dropping the engine or gearbox again, and im sure Andyrew would love* to that again (in out-in-out-shake-it-all-about?) 

It's not only the tick-over speed that needs to be watched in a vehicle with a centrifugal clutch, but the smoothness of the tick-over. This is particularly so with a 2-cylinder engine. If the tick-over is uneven the "pulse" when the cylinder fires causes an increase in the idle speed for a second, causing the clutch to engage, thus preventing a smooth gear engagement. Having tuned more Dafs than I care to remember I know this only too well! Adjust the idle and mixture screws to obtain a smooth, low tick over and your gear selection should be perfect! It can take a bit of time and effort but it's worth it. Good luck! 

[LightBulbFun]

On 27/07/2025 at 23:27, dollywobbler said:

I think I've done more than that in the past week as I wanted some miles covered before driving further from home.

have watched the most recent video on TWC  Awesome to see TWC out n about  

I noticed a bit of shunting/"hopping" on moving off there at the 38:26 mark,  you might want to keep an eye on that, as looking back on how REV behaved before the drive-belt let go, it was clear shunting was getting progressively worse before the belt let go all together, and once I fitted the new belt the shunting went away all together.

so I would say keep an eye on that shunting/judder and if you feel/notice it getting worse, preemptively put a new belt on there  

(also as an aside in your preflight checks did yah check tyre pressures? especially the front tyre pressure can make a big difference to the effort/feel of the steering, so thats worth keeping an eye on, especially with TWC being on Dunlop LP591 wheels which IIRC are a riveted construction rim and I dont think you have tubes installed? pressures are 17 front 22 rear for reference ) 

[dollywobbler]

Yes, pressures were checked.

The shunting doesn't seem to have got worse but the belt is squeaking a lot. That belt has been on for 6 years and probably 2000 miles or so. Pulley gap has been checked. 

One thing with gear selection. If you rev the engine, it takes a very long time for the gearbox internals to stop, which means you won't get into gear without a crunch for ages. This is why I have a bungee to hold it in Forward because if it does pop out while driving, you lose forward power for an annoyingly long time and have to come to a stop. And wait. And wait...

I presume this is why the DAF advice was always to try and start "in gear". 

[LightBulbFun]

6 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

One thing with gear selection. If you rev the engine, it takes a very long time for the gearbox internals to stop, which means you won't get into gear without a crunch for ages. This is why I have a bungee to hold it in Forward because if it does pop out while driving, you lose forward power for an annoyingly long time and have to come to a stop. And wait. And wait...

Yeah, seen a few people I have chucked REV into get caught out by that, I always tell them if you end up giving it revs in neutral, wait for the internals of the gearbox to spin down first before attempting to engage drive! I have never had REV jump out of gear under normal circumstances (only time I have had that happen was once when I was still driving about with the bent gear selector rod)

6 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

I presume this is why the DAF advice was always to try and start "in gear". 

and thats terrifying because you do that in a Model 70 at least and it will try and drive itself off into the sunset (or the nearest wall, or the nearest other Model 70 you have parked near by) especially if you have choke on and forget to set the handbrake (and even with the handbrake engaged, you will then be slipping the clutch shoes which probably wont do them or the drum any favours!)

I do notice with TWC you seemed to be able to change gear even with the choke still on somewhat tho, which is quite interesting as theres not a snow balls chance in hell I could do that with REV, she needs to be firmly off choke and idling before I can engage drive or change drive directions, or she will go *crunch* otherwise!

so thats rather curious, be interesting to see if the behaviour is any different with REV's new set of clutch shoes  

[dollywobbler]

I guess after this long I know what the safe revs sound like. Mental rev counter! 

[Christine]

Oh , wrong thread  

[LightBulbFun]

7 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

I guess after this long I know what the safe revs sound like. Mental rev counter! 

what I mean is that you seem to be able to get away with more engine revs and still be able to engage drive, compared to My Model 70, where if your anywhere near the throttle or choke, the clutch will engage and prevent you from going into drive, very much has to be off choke and idling to go into gear, and the idle speed has to be just right, but with TWC it looked like you where able to put her into reverse while the choke was still partly engaged and engine speed was above idle?

according to the workshop manual the clutch should start to engage at 1200 rpm and be fully engaged by 1500 RPM, would be interesting to put a tachometer on the engine and see how that tallies up in real life  I have also always wanted to see someone stick a tach on a Model 70 to see how the engine revs behave in different driving scenarios 

[Andrew353w]

22 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

I presume this is why the DAF advice was always to try and start "in gear". 

Yes, Dafs should be started in gear. The neutral position's only really needed by a mechanic working on the engine. If the engine's set up properly (ignition & tuning set correctly) the engine should fire without much (or any!) choke even from cold. I remember when I used another 33 for my daily commute from Barnet to Heathrow for a year it would start "on the button" even in freezing weather and hardly ever needed any choke. The tick-over was uneven until I'd driven about half a mile, but it never stalled. 

[doug]

Spotted on Facebook. Celtic park apparently. Can just make out the first 2 letters of the reg.

[LightBulbFun]

3 hours ago, doug said:

Spotted on Facebook. Celtic park apparently. Can just make out the first 2 letters of the reg.

tis RAR88R the full picture can be seen here  

https://www.thecelticwiki.com/legends-and-supporters/supporters-disabled-supporters/

[All-Cisterns-Go]

59 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

tis RAR88R the full picture can be seen here  

https://www.thecelticwiki.com/legends-and-supporters/supporters-disabled-supporters/

 & pound to a penny that car was known as "Rah-Rah" at some time in its life...

[Snake Charmer]

3 hours ago, All-Cisterns-Go said:

 & pound to a penny that car was known as "Rah-Rah" at some time in its life...

Rasputin after 1978?

[danthecapriman]

Yo @LightBulbFun, I’m disappointed in you! Your thread has left the first page😄 I had to actually look for it.

Anyway, you might have seen this one before but,

From here:

 

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Yo @LightBulbFun, I’m disappointed in you! Your thread has left the first page😄 I had to actually look for it.

Anyway, you might have seen this one before but,

From here:

 

very cool! no that is not one I have seen before  tho I funnily enough have seen a similar scene in Manchester of all places!

https://autoshite.com/topic/32723-lightbulbfuns-invacar-general-ramble-thread-index-on-page-1-survivors-lists-on-pages-24134-adgecutlers-invacar-mk12-restoration-from-page-186-onwards-still-harping-on/page/282/#comment-2636528

but whats particularly extra awesome about your find, is the Routemaster that Invacar Model 70 is over taking, is RML882/ER882 WLT882,

which is the very Routemaster owned by Mike Fuller which I had a private ride on when I was about 8! for as I have mentioned before, my mum has always been very supportive of my hobbies, and when she saw how distraught I was over the withdrawal of Routemasters, she endeavoured to try and make things right as well as she could, now she could not bring them back of course, but eventually we stumbled across the RMOOA and also managed to get in touch with a couple Routemaster owners, one of whom was Mike Fuller, who mum managed to convince to give us all a private Jaunt in his Routemaster, ER882! I still remember the day very well, especially getting off the train at Bedford, and seeing the Routemaster just nonchalantly parked in the train station car park amongst all the other normal cars! and that surreal feeling that that it is there for you and you only! (well and my brothers, the oldest of which brought his Camera with him so I did get some photos of the day ) 

if anyone here was a member of the RMOOA around about 2008 or so, and still has their old member magazines from back then, you will find a picture of 8 year old me in front of this RM  as I was the youngest RMOOA member at the time!

 

 

so its quite surreal to see it with an Invacar going past, what are the chances of that! almost prophetic! 

 

as an aside to that, I wonder if there are bus enthusiasts still making videos like that? is there a video of me overtaking a bus in REV somewhere on youtube?  (I have driven past a few Routemasters with REV, but not overtaken any like that yet!)

 

[Christine]

[danthecapriman]

46 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

very cool! no that is not one I have seen before  tho I funnily enough have seen a similar scene in Manchester of all places!

https://autoshite.com/topic/32723-lightbulbfuns-invacar-general-ramble-thread-index-on-page-1-survivors-lists-on-pages-24134-adgecutlers-invacar-mk12-restoration-from-page-186-onwards-still-harping-on/page/282/#comment-2636528

but whats particularly extra awesome about your find, is the Routemaster that Invacar Model 70 is over taking, is RML882/ER882 WLT882, which is the very Routemaster owned by Mike Fuller which I had a private ride on when I was about 8! for as I have mentioned before, my mum has always been very supportive of my hobbies, and when she saw how distraught I was over the withdrawal of Routemasters, she endeavoured to try and make things right as well as she could, now she could not bring them back of course, but eventually we stumbled across the RMOOA and also managed to get in touch with a couple Routemaster owners, one of whom was Mike Fuller, who mum managed to convince to give us all a private Jaunt in his Routemaster, ER882! I still remember the day very well, especially getting off the train at Bedford, and seeing the Routemaster just nonchalantly parked in the train station car park amongst all the other normal cars! and that surreal feeling that that it is there for you and you only! (well and my brothers, the oldest of which brought his Camera with him so I did get some photos of the day ) 

if anyone here was a member of the RMOOA around about 2008 or so, and still has their old member magazines from back then, you will find a picture of 8 year old me in front of this RM  as I was the youngest RMOOA member at the time!

 

 

so its quite surreal to see it with an Invacar going past, what are the chances of that! almost prophetic! 

 

as an aside to that, I wonder if there are bus enthusiasts still making videos like that? is there a video of me overtaking a bus in REV somewhere on youtube?  (I have driven past a few Routemasters with REV, but not overtaken any like that yet!)

 

That’s such a cool little story! 
Im amazed that Routemaster is still around really. What are the chances.

You could try to recreate that scene now of course! Or is that going too far😄

Its a pity the number plate on the Invacar isn’t legible.

[LightBulbFun]

On 27/07/2025 at 22:25, LightBulbFun said:

On 27/07/2025 at 19:21, Dyslexic Viking said:

@LightBulbFun can I ask what's the situation with Rev?

Will you get it back soon?

main last bit of info I have had is that one of the floats in the carb had been found to be holed and no longer floating, so thats been replaced with a good used set of floats out of another carb, which fingers crossed will give me back my idle that was last seen going missing somewhere on the M40, and the engine went back in with the new Clutch and freshly ultrasonic'ed carb etc.

However its sounding a bit like its not wanting to go into gear cleanly, but not sure if idle speed needs tweaking down (if its too high the clutch shoes will engage prematurely)  or if the clutch shoes need some tweaking, (I know from when someone else had their clutch shoes relined they had problems with high spots in the new material causing the shoes to bind/engage prematurely) but hopefully just the idle speed that needs tweaking down, as the aforementioned clutch-shoe tweaking would mean dropping the engine or gearbox again, and im sure Andyrew would love* to that again (in out-in-out-shake-it-all-about?) 

so theres a plan to fire Zel into REV so he can take her for a quick spin to try and get a feel for things, since he knows what a Model 70 should behave like and is a bit closer to Andyrew then I am, but thats still waiting on some other things to be wrapped up first, I know a leak from the differential was being chased, which is nice to hear, would be good if that can be made oil tight, since theres no convenient dip-stick tube to check for its level, so its always been a worry/anxiety point for me.

but not sure when she will be back per-say, but hopefully not too long, most of the major mechanical work has been taken care of now, its mainly just taking care of the snagging list so to speak  

further to this heres a couple pictures from @Andyrew of the Awesome work he has done  I have included a couple photos I took of the same area in REV from before the work was done (including one from 2019, before *any* work at all was done) and the difference is quite striking! theres been a tremendous improvement of everything!

 

 

 

and this is just the broad strokes, I have a bunch more photos showing everything from different angles all the fine little details/improvements, like the sealing of this big plate on the side of the differential, I admit I didn't even know this plate was even a thing let alone that it was leaking!

and again one of my own photos to show a before shot, look at the difference! and how much cleaner/nicer it is now then before!

I think we are pretty much on the home run now, new front suspension and door seals has also been fitted, along with the new heater ducting thats just been fitted, theres not long to go now pretty much all the major jobs have been taken care of at this point  

[LightBulbFun]

36 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

That’s such a cool little story! 
Im amazed that Routemaster is still around really. What are the chances.

the survival Rate of Routemasters is quite good on account of the fact they are quite litreally a moving London Land mark  especially of the RML class of the 524 (24 prototypes ER880-RML903 and 500 production ones RML2261-RML2760) because of their high passenger capacity while standard length RM's where withdrawn throughout the 1980's-1990's, RML's where explicitly saved and concentrated in the Central London area where the massive loadings, still gave conductor operation an advantage (because you could chuck all the passengers on the bus and bugger off, *then* take the fairs while the bus is motion)

there was only one RML that London Transport sold off for some unknown reason in the 70's (RML 2691) and RML900 which was written off in an accident in the 1980's but bought by Clydeside scottish and rebuilt, other then those 2 (and maybe one or 2 that where stripped for spares by London Country in the 70's) the entire fleet RML remained in service until the early to mid 2000's by which point of course the RM was well established as an Icon and so pretty much every RML passed directly into some form of preservation of further commercial service

ER882/RML882 ended its London service days on Route 38, so there is a fair chance I would of ridden on it in period   

36 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

You could try to recreate that scene now of course! Or is that going too far😄

it would be quite fun to recreate indeed! on the London theme, this is one i'd quite like to recreate, just need to find someone with an RF, (im sure at some point @SiC will inevitably end up with a Riley kestrel as he works his way through the ADO16 range  )

36 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Its a pity the number plate on the Invacar isn’t legible.

indeed! being shot in Hackney I really wonder if its MHJ22P the Invacar that I first saw parked on the road with my mum in 2003, which planted the seed all those years ago!, that would be very surreal if it was!

[Mrs6C]

A lot of good work has been done on REV, by some very generous people. It's heartening to see the ongoing improvements still being made to it, alongside the maintenance jobs. Amazing how much difference a good clean can make, too, after several hundred miles' worth of road dirt, rain water, oil residue etc. had made their home in the engine bay!

[auntiemaryscanary]

1 hour ago, Mrs6C said:

A lot of good work has been done on REV, by some very generous people.

I wholeheartedly agree. Some v v fine folk have got this 3 wheeler moving, then road usable and now continue to make considerable improvements.

[dollywobbler]

Heart-warming for sure. I think TWC needs a holiday!

 

LBF - the ADO16 in that shot is a Wolseley rather than Riley Kestrel. Light up grille badge ahoy!

[Dobloseven]

1 hour ago, dollywobbler said:

Heart-warming for sure. I think TWC needs a holiday!

 

LBF - the ADO16 in that shot is a Wolseley rather than Riley Kestrel. Light up grille badge ahoy!

Are you sure about that?

[Andyrew]

Those photos are a good reminder of how much its been improved.

It's many hours of swearing and re doing things and taking off parts again that you thought were done to sort another job, all part of the learning curve I suppose. I like these car but they are an awful design.  Many times I found myself cursing the lack of forward thinking. 

With the possible next invacar to be coming this way for some love I know now what to do (run, run away at great speed) and how I will be approaching it.

 

 

 

[quicksilver]

2 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

Heart-warming for sure. I think TWC needs a holiday!

 

LBF - the ADO16 in that shot is a Wolseley rather than Riley Kestrel. Light up grille badge ahoy!

The one behind the Invacar is definitely a Wolseley. The one to the left of the RF might be a Riley though.

Totally agree on the generosity shown to you and REV by so many different people. It's been a long road that's seen her visiting many far-flung parts of the country.

[Dobloseven]

17 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

The one behind the Invacar is definitely a Wolseley. The one to the left of the RF might be a Riley though.

Totally agree on the generosity shown to you and REV by so many different people. It's been a long road that's seen her visiting many far-flung parts of the country.

I see where the confusion is coming from.The brown one at the show next to the Invacar is definitely a Riley.The one in the period photo is definitely a Wolseley.

[martc]

I was at the Whitby Traction Engine rally yesterday, and this Argson was there, is it known on here?

Pocket billiard inducing clearly.

[LightBulbFun]

6 hours ago, Andyrew said:

Those photos are a good reminder of how much its been improved.

It's many hours of swearing and re doing things and taking off parts again that you thought were done to sort another job, all part of the learning curve I suppose. I like these car but they are an awful design.  Many times I found myself cursing the lack of forward thinking. 

With the possible next invacar to be coming this way for some love I know now what to do (run, run away at great speed) and how I will be approaching it.

interesting!, its always interesting to get other peoples views, and given the experiance you have had with REV, it would be good if some of the pitfalls you encounter could be documented/mentioned, so if anyone is in the same place, they can head your warnings and avoid getting tangled up in heater hoses and throttle cables or what have you  especially you have obviously been in much deeper with the whole driveline and suspension removal etc! so it would be very interesting to hear of your experiences, what where those parts that had to come back off again  

also especially as I think @dollywobbler is planning a fairly big TWC overhaul soon, perhaps your findings could spare a few grey hairs, unless you specifically want to sit back with the pop corn and watch on his youtube videos as he finds all the things you did?

[LightBulbFun]

5 hours ago, martc said:

I was at the Whitby Traction Engine rally yesterday, and this Argson was there, is it known on here?

Pocket billiard inducing clearly.

oh very cool! NPF224 is Indeed a known survivor, but its always nice to see any Argson out n about, and I appreciate the detailed photographs