Andy's awful autos: Vanden-blah

[Andyrew]

Day 3

A bit of a fail this one. However the mindset of having to write a brief day to day update is good as it make me want to pick all the little jobs that i can complete in a short amount of time. Which are usually the kind of little jobs we put off.  Tonight was a bit of a later start so i wanted a quick simple task. Never seem to turn out like that do they?

Tonight was a leaking bead on one of the  Discoverys back wheels something that this car suffered with for ages. I popped the wheel off, whipped the tyre off to reveal a very crusty bead and this took long time to clean up. Cleaned up i chucked the tyre back on and smeared in some bead sealer. Could i get the bloody bead to pop? Nope. Not having it, it was very warm in there tonight and i feel the old tyre and bear sealer drying quickly combo is the issue.  The workshops next to the farm house so the compressor chugging away late at night is something i avoid.  I was sweaty and getting grumpy so i called it a night. Short and unsucessful but at least some progess was made. Even if it wasnt finished. 

Ill pull it off and try again tomorrow and it will probably slip straight on. 

Untill tomorrow, that is all..

 

[Tepper]

Glad to see you're back at it! If it's still not playing ball, one trick that has worked for me on stubborn beads is a ratchet strap around the circumference of the tyre - might be worth a go?

[Andyrew]

Day 4

A poor effort tonight, a chat with my friend / landlord and a phonecall with a mate having a bit of a rough time see very little time for tinkering but a task had to be done. Anyway the tyre was popped off and cleaned up again. This time it popped on first time. Chucked back on the disco and thats one job off the list.

After my chat with my mate it seems Tomorrow will be freelander recovery as the reman bosch alt i fitted a few months back has crapped out, 

Sister rews zafira will also be limped up as  it seems its also decided to slowly die. Ive no idea whats the problem so a bit of investigation is needed.  Its down on power hunting at idle and seems to be pinking from the exhaust under load.  

Ill start with all the basics before any parts darts starts. 

Sorry no pics so have a pic of the awesome scale model of the allegro @quicksilver made. 

 

 

[SiC]

Fancy a Triumph Spitfire/TR6 poster? I picked a couple up free from my local Moss earlier. 

[Andyrew]

Day 5

Been an interesting day and not in a good way but thats another story. 

After work i collected my friend from his work and we proceed to get the freeland shifted with its duff altetnator.  Battery swapped for the charged battery from the astra and flat battery put into the astra ( then jump started using the charged battery)  

It was decided to limp the freelander up to the workshop guessing the battery had enough charge to make it.  And make it it did helped by the fact the alt had dedicided to work perfectly fine. 

New unit under warranty being ordered into my work and we shall go from there.

 

[grogee]

I hope this coming week brings many successes, sounds like this week was a challenge. Hang in there 

[Andyrew]

Day 6. 

Today see me over the FOD to grab the Shitfire for a bit of a sunny sunday thrash. 

Not much tinkering occurred. Pop the plugs out of mrs6 herald and brimmed the cylinders with some oil to let it soak in the hope it will free up. 

Shitfire seems to have swilled up some shite from the tank as there was a few coughs and splutters and the inline filter thats probably 200miles old looks pretty clagged up.  Maybe a good clean out required. 

Tomorrow, freelander alternator removal. 

[SiC]

Crud sucking in, around and into the tank pickup could well be causing some rough running. 

If you fancy that Spitfire poster, PM me your address and I'll find a tube to put it in then send it out to you. 

[Andyrew]

Coming at you live from the streets of leighton buzzard

 

[Rustybullethole]

How to look cool whilst having a breakdown. 

[Andyrew]

Hello? Fuel?  Anybody in there?

 

[Andyrew]

Walk of shame5

[Rustybullethole]

I laugh. Only because ive done the same too many times to mention.

[Andyrew]

[Andyrew]

[Andyrew]

[Matty]

Suspence?

[grogee]

Ignition? 

[Rustybullethole]

How many of those plastic gallon cans do you have in your garage?

[SiC]

Rule #1 on old car that we all learn:

Always bring a full petrol can until you are certain the fuel gauge and sender are indicating some sort of truthfulness.

 

I first learnt this from a mate with a 60s Beetle when we were at uni. He calibrated the fuel gauge by putting a 99 pence price sticker where empty actually was on the gauge. Except he always bought a fuel can still as he didn't trust us fuckers to not move it. 😂 Being skint students, it was often a game of fuel gauge roulette anyway.

At least checking the fuel level manually on these is trivial!

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, Andyrew said:

Am liking your can-do attitude - or did you have to buy a(nother) one?

[Andyrew]

land rovers.  Such a joy to work on. 

 

 

[stuboy]

10 minutes ago, Andyrew said:

land rovers.  Such a joy to work on. 

 

 

land rovers leak, so u must leak

[Andyrew]

4 hours ago, Rustybullethole said:

How many of those plastic gallon cans do you have in your garage?

Many, they are like bags for life. Never in the car im in at the time of need.  Yet ive always got one when someone else needs one. 

[Rustybullethole]

5 minutes ago, Andyrew said:

Many, they are like bags for life. Never in the car im in at the time of need.  Yet ive always got one when someone else needs one. 

I feel the same pain. Despite giving away many I have at least ten kicking about and had to buy a new last time one was required.

[Andyrew]

Day 7, 

Been a more interesting one this one. 

I had the day off and with a dead freelander on the plan with some time inbetween the new alt turning up with the owner in my astra and some spannering i figured id have a tinker as the shitfire had coughed and spluttered on the way home last night. Id changed the very grim fuel filter up front.

Id popped the floats open and sure enough some crud swilling about at the bottom. This was given a quick clean out aswell.

Time for a test drive. id pop out to get some new nuts and bolts from browns and a few bits from the shop which would only kill a few mins . . 

As we can see above above this didnt go as planned.  As i pushed the little shite up the rather busy road A helpful passer by (who he and his wife were both mechanics) dived out to lend a hand. With a random old plug that was in the boot he could see spark for me and after i popped open the carbs to find 2 very empty floats he was looking at the pump and with some cranking the pump pushed nothing out and didnt seem to have any suction .With this the helpers left me too it. 

I sucked on the fuel filter and while fuel came up it soon started to bubble. I check the dial and sure enough its showing about 3rd of a tank. Using a quarter inch extension and an old spark plug i beater the sender retainer out and had a peak inside. it was what appears exceptionally low. 

I buy some juice and a can and wander back lob it in and suck on the filter to help the pump out just incase the pump is a bit weak.  A gob full of fuel later im happy we have a good supply. 

 

 

 

 

[Andyrew]

The pump then, i strip it appart and its pretty grim inside but i was expecting a split or tear internally but nothing. Just alot of crud. I clean this out with a filthy rag that was in the engine bay. Re assembled and with my mate now at the scene he cranked it over while i blocked the pump untill it fired fuel out. We then done this a couple of time untill it was at the carbs. 

A few cranks and the old turd fired into life.  We left for the steady trundle to the workshop. 

Well thats not true, i trundled a few hundred yard got bored and then just went full onions as it was running alright.  Got home with out a hitch. 

Theres two inline fuel filters one in the boot and one in the bay. The boot one is very clean. The engine bay one however grim. Id say the hard line is rotten internally and this crud giving these issues.  Time for a new hardline and a good clean throughout.

[Six-cylinder]

On the other hand your decadent van (electric windows and mirrors) started up just fine to get out of the way of the mower.

[Andyrew]

58 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

On the other hand your decadent van (electric windows and mirrors) started up just fine to get out of the way of the mower.

A swanky old girl, power windows, aux heater, abs, multi adjust seats. 

No air bag tho! 

[Andyrew]

Freelander fondle.

The freelander stopped charging, chucked all the warning light on and ran on the battery. After switching the battery we decided to limp it to the workshop.  On the trip over it worked perfectly. 

Suspected the alt so a replacement was collected and shoved in, still didnt charge. Really should have spent more time doing diag.  Checked and the alt was charging but it wasnt making it to the battery. 

The live goes from the alt and picks up on the stud of the starter and off to the battery. Upon removing the boot we found a heavily corroded connection.

You can see the starter has been removed and what a bastard that was. With it off,   it was time to bust out the grinder.  The nut was stuck solid so i carefully ground a side down and cracked it off, really dont want to replace a starter just for this. The cables were cleaned up and everything re installed. 

The starter now spins over faster than it ever has and we had volts at the battery.  All sorted.

Friend leaves and later i recieve a call that theres an concerning claking noise from the alt area that started a few miles into the trip. 

So have we just swapped out a good alt for a new but faulty alt? Or just a rattly bit of arch liner. Guess ill find out tomorrow.