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...

[Pieman]

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

SM?? Pah! Look at all the Capri’s, and that Granada! The GUY J4 artic at the beginning. And the BEA front entry Routemaster with its trailer…

And, and… notice the colours of everything! No monochrome boredom back then.

And best of all, not one single Audi.  Indeed the only German car I saw was a Beetle at the start.

[Weird Car]

[Christine]

Had this one  Dez ? 

[Zie]

Stolen from Facebook, Langworthy Road Salford. 1973

[LightBulbFun]

14 hours ago, Weird Car said:

tis TTW906R i would love to know who the new owner is, they appear to actually being using it as an Invacar! like I use REV, not just as a fun/old car to rock about in, but also as intended as a genuine mobility aid

which is fun because, IIRC, Stuart Sold TTW906R back in the day, to someone who was looking for an Invacar as a mobility aid, so its funny how its kept on being that  

 

[LightBulbFun]

If anyone’s wondering what the life of one of the NOS CVT drive belts is, it’s apparently about 1300 miles

Now am currently awaiting recovery by kennels road on the side of A12, at least it let go *after* I had picked up the lightbulbs LOL

[Mr Livered]

Commiserations. Hope you're not there long/it's not too cold etc

[Andyrew]

Don't forget the spares tucked in the engine bay cabled tied to the roll hoop 

[beko1987]

Should have taken the modern* car

[beko1987]

2 minutes ago, Andyrew said:

Don't forget the spares tucked in the engine bay cabled tied to the roll hoop 

The aa/rac guy isn't going to know what's about to hit him is he? 😂

[Weird Car]

23 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

If anyone’s wondering what the life of one of the NOS CVT drive belts is, it’s apparently about 1300 miles
Now am currently awaiting recovery by kennels road on the side of A12, at least it let go *after* I had picked up the lightbulbs LOL

Shoulda bought a trusted example 🤷🏻‍♀️

 

nah just joking 🙃  hopefully it’s an easy enough thing to fix roadside 

[Christine]

Especially with technical support being there to help...

[lesapandre]

Luckily you are off the road and it's OK weather atm. Be colder after sundown - keep warm.

Looks like  a recovery job? You're a fair way from home there. Very best of luck.

Looks amazing even broken down - great pic 👍

🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

[Andrew353w]

When you've recovered from your ordeal send me the dimensions of the CVT belt and I'll see if the supplier of the DAF ones has one to match. Those fitted to Dafs last for at least 30,000 miles and are usually changed owing to their age, not because they fail. May be it wasn't adjusted properly? No insult meant, just a thought. 

[High Jetter]

Any progress on this yet? Hope you're not still awaiting the cavalry

[ETCHY]

4 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

If anyone’s wondering what the life of one of the NOS CVT drive belts is, it’s apparently about 1300 miles
Now am currently awaiting recovery by kennels road on the side of A12, at least it let go *after* I had picked up the lightbulbs LOL

Future calendar pic methinks.

Hope you get sorted soon.

[trigger]

There's been a Invacar spotted today in my area, apparently up in Framingham and even as far south as Marks Tey which is a fair distance in a normal car! Young chap with glasses driving it?

 

Anyone know who it is?

[trigger]

Oh for fuck sake! Just looked further up the post and it's you! 😂 

[LightBulbFun]

a little while back I spotted a small but nice bundle of Philips SL lamps (and other vintage lightbulbs) on facebook market place, so eventually I decided to go get em, they where about 100 miles away, so I elected to take my long distance cruiser

which is REV of course  (for a 200 mile round trip like this, I need to be as comfortable as I can be, also wanted to give REV a good run as it had been about a month since she last had a trip out)

first petrol stop, 39 Mpg  

got to the sellers without issue, and got loaded up with the goods

well other than it turns out Invacars are not friendly to loose stone driveways, front wheel just tears it up LOL

and for 3 loud bangs at separate times near to my destination, I had a good look around the car checking various things but could not find anything amiss, apart from the support for the air filter housing had snapped

was soon on my way again, to my second fill up for the return trip, 48 mpg returned over 105 miles, a new MPG record  

and then 20 minutes later, I got a large clue as to what those 3 bangs where as the CVT drive belt decided to not anymore

and then all of a sudden, this comes to a screaching halt just ahead of me

at first I thought he almost had an accident for some reason, but no, he saw me on the side of the road and decided to (in rather dramatic fashion!) stop and see if he could help or not

but he realised changing a CVT drive belt was a bit more involved then say changing a flat tyre and he had a deadline to meet, so I bid him fair well and thanks for going out of his to stop and try and help, so I called out Ye Olde Breakdown assistance

they where going to just send out a recovery truck, but having mentioned on the Phone I did have a spare drive belt, they sent out a man-in-a-van, who after following instruction and a bit of assistance from me, got the spare drive belt fitted and I was eventually on my way back home

 it was 2 hours from initial breakdown to me on the move again, thats very good service i'd say, they got to me in under an hour and actually got back on the road rather then home on a recovery truck

and back home like it never happened

 

 

thankfully the drive belt did not take anything out on its way out unlike last time, but there is the question of why did it fail, and I do wonder about age? the newest NOS belts will be about 25 years old at this point (I do wonder all the more, which are the newer belt the dayco 43-5639 or the Dayco STY801, we have both in the spares stash, I wonder if theres a date code that can be deciphered?)

and although this belt was wrapped in its plastic bag still when I fitted it, I do wonder if it had just deteriorated over time? this was a Dayco 43-5639

here are some pictures of the failed belt, a noticeably different failure mode compared the last one that went pop. I'd say the 3 bangs I heard on the way there where probably teeth/bars flying off the drive belt as it started to fail before it fully let go

thankfully there are modern equivalents you can still get, so if it does turn out that all the NOS belts have aged out, there are still current protection options once can, I might try proactively fit one of those modern belts and just for good measure replace the primary pulley with a New one as well

 

(this was supposed to be posted last night, but I somewhat fell asleep/passed out just before posting it, safe to say I was quite knackered after that whole ordeal as I had been awake since 1AM! I was hoping to get back by 2PM or such not 7PM!)

[LightBulbFun]

8 hours ago, trigger said:

There's been a Invacar spotted today in my area, apparently up in Framingham and even as far south as Marks Tey which is a fair distance in a normal car! Young chap with glasses driving it?

 

Anyone know who it is?

[LightBulbFun]

16 hours ago, beko1987 said:

Should have taken the modern* car

this is my Modern car! its about 3 years newer than the VDP! LOL

16 hours ago, Weird Car said:

Shoulda bought a trusted example 🤷🏻‍♀️

 

nah just joking 🙃  hopefully it’s an easy enough thing to fix roadside 

I know the irony is strong LOL, commentator's curse as they say! but I will say if the VDP1300's gearbox exploded, theres no* way your fixing that at the roadside and driving 100 miles back home, like you can with a Model 70  

(*well I would not put it past a fair few people on here to do a whole engine swap at the side of the road in regards to an A Series Automatic thats gone pop, but your unlikely to be carrying a spare on you tucked away in a corner somewhere!) 

[Dyslexic Viking]

I would think that age had a lot to do with it breaking. 25+ years old is a lot. And there's a reason why timing belts have age intervals and not just mileage intervals. So if it were me, I would buy new belts and put a new one on Rev before the one on there now also fails.

[Dobloseven]

Bet the breakdown guy will have a tale to tell his mates!Well done,though.Wonder how long the belts were lasting back in the day.

[Remspoor]

1 hour ago, Dobloseven said:

Bet the breakdown guy will have a tale to tell his mates!Well done,though.Wonder how long the belts were lasting back in the day.

But he never took photos so they will not believe him.

[chadders]

1 hour ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

I would think that age had a lot to do with it breaking. 25+ years old is a lot. And there's a reason why timing belts have age intervals and not just mileage intervals. So if it were me, I would buy new belts and put a new one on Rev before the one on there now also fails.

I've found the same is true of NOS wiper blades, a bit of a pain if they're an unusual type so that you can't just cut down modern ones. 

[garbaldy]

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

but I will say if the VDP1300's gearbox exploded, theres no* way your fixing that at the roadside and driving 100 miles back home, like you can with a Model 70  

Buy your gearbox didn't explode if it had then that too won't be fixable on the road side,  

We have same drivetrain on the gator and it's on its second drive belt in 1500+ hrs of hard use. Maybe you just got a dodgy belt ?

[Andyrew]

Top work for the recovery guy and you getting it sorted at the side of the road! 

I recall welding one of those inlet brackets a few years back for Mrs6 one, I guess the bracket just fatigues from the filter shuttling back and forth.

Regarding NOS belts, any old stock parts that contain rubbers or glue will always be a gamble. 

I recall you had multiple belts in the parts bundle? Could just run it for certain amount of miles and change them out, NOS or used for 1k miles they all end up in landfill either way. 

 

[dollywobbler]

I'm pretty sure TWC has travelled further on her NOS belt but it's a good reminder that trouble can strike.

The only time she's snapped a belt (while testing an incorrect pulley) there was fair warning as bits of the belt started flailing about. Belt replacement isn't too tricky but I can imagine it is not easy on a back you need to protect. Fair play to the rescue people fixing rather than transporting.

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, Dobloseven said:

Bet the breakdown guy will have a tale to tell his mates!Well done,though.Wonder how long the belts were lasting back in the day.

yeah I am not sure! the workshop manual contains what to look for 

but not how long its supposed to last, I know that the Ministry service machines with minor services every 3000 miles and a major service every 6000 miles

so I would presume the belt would of been changed at one of those? but I have never actually seen the service sheets for the Model 70 sadly

1 hour ago, dollywobbler said:

I'm pretty sure TWC has travelled further on her NOS belt but it's a good reminder that trouble can strike.

The only time she's snapped a belt (while testing an incorrect pulley) there was fair warning as bits of the belt started flailing about. Belt replacement isn't too tricky but I can imagine it is not easy on a back you need to protect. Fair play to the rescue people fixing rather than transporting.

yeah thats why I am bit wondering why it let go, because other NOS belts have lasted alright so far I think! the only warning I got with this one was 3 loud bangs a few miles apart, and (looking back at it) an increase of drive-line noise, and then the drive belt shredding itself about 20 miles later! it otherwise operated completely smoothly right until the point of failure (it was not like REV's original belt, which gradually got more and more shunty at slow speeds before it went pop on the M25)

2 hours ago, Andyrew said:

Top work for the recovery guy and you getting it sorted at the side of the road! 

I recall welding one of those inlet brackets a few years back for Mrs6 one, I guess the bracket just fatigues from the filter shuttling back and forth.

Regarding NOS belts, any old stock parts that contain rubbers or glue will always be a gamble. 

I recall you had multiple belts in the parts bundle? Could just run it for certain amount of miles and change them out, NOS or used for 1k miles they all end up in landfill either way. 

indeed theres a fair few belts on the parts stash, and the chap I got the currently fitted belt (and the now dead one) has about 500 of the buggers or something daft like that!  

I have got one more spare here at home that ill dig out and pop in the cabin to replace the spare I have now used

the only problem with changing belts regularly like that, besides the bit of a PITA it is, is that I dont have any spare locking tab-washer-thingies for the pulley bolts, and I am not sure how many more cycles the current one(s) on REV can take before the tabs snap off

its one of those things that would be good to have a bag load reproduced somehow if possible! 

 

 

[High Jetter]

45 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

I dont have any spare locking tab-washer-thingies

I take it they're unique? Tab washers are used in a lot of applications, would be a bit surprised if nothing could be adapted.