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phil_lihp

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It's nice to hear you like it. Maybe all that time I spent on Pandas wasnt wasted. I'd knock out the sliding wedges the calipers move on and red rubber grease them. The steel sliders have a habit of welding themselves to the alloy calipers with neglect. This also wrecks the wheel bearing after a while as its only pushing on one side of the disc. They were never spectacular brakes but they should be perfectly capable of locking the wheels up on tarmac if shoved.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Collection stage 2, where I finally get to actually see the Marbella in real life, booked for Saturday.  Excitement!

 

I hear that the brakes may be looked at this week if the kind gentlemen looking after it for me get time to play with it.  

 

I'm a little undecided on the bull bar - what's the AS hivemind's opinion, keep or remove?  I realise it probably weighs as much as the rest of the car and may be losing me vital MPHs and MPGs but on the other hand it means slightly less death might occur in a collision.  I'm not sure if it was ever original fitment on the Marbella or if it's just a Panda 4x4 one.

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Don't take it off! The bull bars are structural.

 

Well, the bolts that hold them on also hold the front subframe / chassis / whatever to the car. If you do, you'll need shorter bolts to put back in the holes or the car will end up like Bambi on ice, both front wheels going opposite directions.

 

Don't ask how I know!

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I would remove the bull bar.  With iffy brakes the slightest nudge into the car in front or a wall or what have you will bend the bar back probably resulting in smashed headlights, cracked grill etc.  I'm guessing they're not too common on ebay - well less common than shorter bolts.

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All valid points but seeing as it's likely an integral part of the front suspension, I'll go for the easy life and keep it.  Gives it character, anyway.

 

Stop the press: I realise HML is only as accurate as the DVLA data it retrieves (i.e. not very) but nonetheless...

 

https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=marbella

 

Only 22 left!   Adrian Flux had it come up as a 'Jeans' edition but that's not right, I suspect it's one of the two Specials left taxed.  

 

Plenty SORNed mind, so perhaps there's hordes of them awaiting discovery in dusty garages around the country.  Pretty much where mine has come from I suspect, allegedly it's a 1 owner from new car.

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Slartibartfast and I had some time after work so had a look at the Marbella braking system in advance of Phil_lihp's collection on saturday. It was a nice evening so we thought we'd make the most of it!

 

We jacked the car up to get a front wheel off and have a good look, during whicvh we discovered that it actually sits quite high, so much so that my trolley jack on full lift hadn't actually lifted the wheel off the ground, so we had to get the scissor jack out the boot and use that as it went up higher. There is an additional widowmaker jack under the bonnet but we valued our lives highly enough to not want to use that! Happily the car went up with the jack, so i can confirm that the front drivers side jacking point is alright.

 

Car up and wheel off we had a look at the discs. They are actually quite big considering, and SBF pushed the pedal and I was utterly unable to rotate the hub. The bit under the pad was nice and clean metal and the calipers moved as expected. There is plenty of meat on the pads too.

 

We had a look at the state of the brake fluid and its about the right colour (beer colour) and up to the right level, though may have some/lots of water in it? There doesn't appear to be a servo either.

post-5525-0-12844100-1538075176_thumb.jpg

 

We had a look at the bleed nipple on the top of the caliper with a view to bleeding the system and putting new fluid in. I had a good look at it, then tried to crack the bleed nipple off with an 8mm spanner. I was very careful because what we really don't want is to shear the nipple off. I applied as much torque as I dared, then tried tapping it with a big ratchet spanner, then tried using an 8mm socket all to no avail. We decided we'd give up with this becuase its not our car, and I don't want to break it. We didn't have anything to apply heat with, but I reckon if you had a blowtorch or something it'd give up the battle.

 

post-5525-0-97373000-1538075755_thumb.jpg

 

The light was fading by this point, so decided we'd put it back together for now. While the brakes aren't very good, they do work, and don't pull to one side which we decided meant that looking at the other side was a bit pointless.

 

Something we did discover is that the handbrake is totally ineffective, so the rear brakes may actually be the source of the lack of retardation? We might see about jacking up the back and seeing if the wheel can be turned by hand with the footbrake on tomorrow?

 

With this done, SBF and I got down to the important jobs.

 

SBF turned the radio on and tuned it in. I'd had a go at this while driving it back the other night but it made roaring noises at me, and keeping it from going into a ditch was occupying most of my attention so I left it alone. It started playing 'Manic Monday' by The Bangles (?) which seemed period-appropriate for the car!

 

Then we had a good look at the mechanism of the front seat. It tilts and slides, then we discovered that the back can be angled up and down too, how decadent. The front seats are surprisingly comfortable too. SBF went in the back which is a bit snug for a 6 foot person!

 

Next we had a look in the engine bay, the engine is the same size as the heater box, and the radiator is the same size as a slice of bread. The whole lot looks pretty tidy though, the suspension turrets are in excellent condition. There is some weird wob at the foot of the a-pillars but it seems very solid? The passenger sill is in very good shape, but the driver side one is a bit crusty, but not beyond redemption. there has been no sill welding to date that we could see.

 

The tyres are in really good shape, they are 'Minerva' brand M+S tyres with loads of tread, no cracking and datestamped 2014 which is pretty good we reckoned.

 

Thats about all - oh we found there is a crooklok in the back but between us couldn't work out how the hell it was supposed to work. It has a lock and there is a key to go with it, but the actual application of the device stumped us. any input gratefully received!

 

So, this looks to be about as much as we can do before the weekend other than checking the rear brakes tomorrow lunchtime.

 

 

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Thats about all - oh we found there is a crooklok in the back but between us couldn't work out how the hell it was supposed to work. It has a lock and there is a key to go with it, but the actual application of the device stumped us. any input gratefully received!

 

 

My old 106 came with a locking device which may have been branded Crooklok, it wasn't until I got it back from a friend I'd loaned it to that I found out how it worked- which was that you put the open end over the handbrake lever, then put the car in fifth (or whatever gear was closest to being directly ahead of, and far away from, the handbrake) then wrapped the hinge end of the device around the gearstick and locked it up. It thus prevents a casual thief from releasing the handbrake or being able to change gear.

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This thing was a straight bar with a hook at each end, there is a lock about 2/3rds of the way along which when unlocked, allows the bar to extend about 50%, but the hooks remain at each end. Its not entirely clear what you are supposed to do with it? I mean it'd be a pretty decent club, or you could use it to fish keys out of a drain, but as for securing the car its not entirely clear.

 

SBF's best suggestion was to hook it to the steering wheel and the passenger side interior doorhandle, but I reckon it'd take a determined toddler about 0.005 seconds to get it off.

 

it does lock and unlock though. and extend.

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Have you hoicked on the handbrake to spread the rear shoes then applied the footbrake more than once? The wheel cylinders should "pump up" and the pedal will feel firmer if this works. Releasing the handbrake will return it to shite footbrakes as the springs in the rear brakes pull the shoes back.

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This is all quite brilliant, I haven't ever even met Stanky and Slartibartfast yet and they've really gone above and beyond on this one.  I am very much looking forward to Saturday when I finally get to participate.

 

Reassuring to know that the brakes are at least intact and basically functional, I'll have a closer look and fiddle once I get it home.  Drums are not something I've ever really played with much before, although I do understand how they work so I'll learn something in the process.

 

I strongly suspect that most of these 80s & 90s anti-theft devices were much more about visible deterrent than any actual security - if your car has one and the next one doesn't, leaves yours less likely to be pinched I suppose.  This will of course be of huge benefit next time I park next to another Marbella in Sainsburys car park.

 

Incidentally, I just looked up that song, released in 1986 so quite appropriate given the Marbella was launched that same year.  

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It did seem a bit over-spec! I reckon a few old AA batteries would start the engine up, its so tiny! The battery looked new-ish as well, though I forgot to check the datestamp in it. Have you had the V5 back yet? The paperwork is in the car, but we've only got the green slip. I think SBF did the change of keeper online?

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Are we sure the apparent uselessness of the brakes isn't simply down to the lack of a servo?  If you watch Wobbler's test drive of my Innocenti he reckons the brakes are terrible, but they always pass the MOT and they will lock the wheels up if needed - you just need to brace against the seat and heave on the pedal.  If you're not used to unservo'd discs they will feel properly shit to start with.  Strangely unservo'd drums don't seem to be so bad.

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Are we sure the apparent uselessness of the brakes isn't simply down to the lack of a servo? If you watch Wobbler's test drive of my Innocenti he reckons the brakes are terrible, but they always pass the MOT and they will lock the wheels up if needed - you just need to brace against the seat and heave on the pedal. If you're not used to unservo'd discs they will feel properly shit to start with. Strangely unservo'd drums don't seem to be so bad.

Exactly this.

 

Plus some cars do just require a good old shove on the pedal.

 

I think the fact that drums can be more effective without needing a servo is down to the geometry of things helping to "pull" the shoes against the drum as the wheel rotates, this provides a natural servo action to some extent. It's also why they can be prone to snatching when things are well out of adjustment. Whereas on a disc system you're always just squeezing a metal plate between two pads.

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Are we sure the apparent uselessness of the brakes isn't simply down to the lack of a servo?   If you're not used to unservo'd discs they will feel properly shit to start with.  Strangely unservo'd drums don't seem to be so bad.

This.

 

Anyone used to modernz brakes who jumps into a Fiat X1/9, which has unservoed discs on all 4 corners, is in for a surprise. Once you get used to the pedal pressure needed, they are actually very sharp and powerful brakes but initially you would swear there's a block of wood under the pedal.

 

Of course doing that the other way around means you jump into a modern and end up with an imprint of the steering wheel on your forehead.

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