collection MK1 BX16 TRS 'SE' - Make it or break it, a tale of neglect and fondling

[Wingz123]

You need a farmer with a trailer who can do you a favour if your only moving it local. 

[Tomtation]

Thanks folks, will ask around.

Regarding the TRS, tinkering has occurred. It is idling waaaaay better now, and starts alot easier although it still misfires under load. I haven;t checked the cambelt for a slipped belt, also the distributor isn't in the middle of it's adjustment so may tweak that - the distributor on my similarly XU engined GT also almost dead central in it's adjustment range. I also had a reccy at the lights, I swapped over the RHD headlights and put in some old headlamps I had lying around, all lights worked except for the front indicators! A clean of the contacts saw that right, so now all exterior lights work.

New bits!

I replaced the fuel filter, they are very cheap and i'd hope it at least would help it's running. The old one didn't look too bad, but it is at least 10 years old and soaked with old fuel. I put a new fuel pump to filter hose section in too, as it was splitting.

 I also replaced the thermostat as the radiator coolant wasn;'t getting hot after a reasonable amoun tof idling, I wasn't confident the stat was opening and was worried it was stuck closed. When I took it out, it could be pushed open, but that doesn;t necessarily mean it opened at temperature, new ones are cheap so replaced anyway. Coolant is a very satisfying bright green! Old stat is tarnished but both are stamped 82 degrees so I managed to find the right one after all, there was quite a lot of choice, my thoughts were an automatic would need the lowest opening temperature. The new stat was very very slightly too big and wouldn't sit recessed in the housing, so I used the chunkiest O-ring so a good seal could be made, no leaks so far! Quite a lot of coolant escaped during the replacement, so I ran the engine until the coolant level dropped (=stat opening) and topped it up and once the temperature rose, the low speed fan came on! So the fans do work, this is good news. On closer inspection, the radiator seems quite good too - which means I hopefully don't have to buy a new one when it gst swapped to the GT, they're fecking expensive, these twin-fan radiators as used in the 16v and TD BX's.

NExt I looked at fixing the LHM leak, it was a return line from the FDV to the LHM reservoir, a new pipe section is over £100! So as it was a low pressure return line, I made one up out of 8mm fuel hose, a couple of connectors and some pipe clips. The old pipe was broken at the T piece.

There aare three connections, the existing sound pipe to the reservoir, the FDV return line and possibly an accumulator or power steering return?

The home made Y piece, couldn't find a T piece locally. I hope the plastic inline and Y piece connectors stand upto the task, I would have gone with metal/brass etc if there was an option so these will hav e to do for now. I will keep an eye out for leaks, but there are none so far.

All done! So I now have confidence in the cooling system, there are no current LHM leaks (risky statement on an ancient BX!), the ignition system is mostly new (all except coil and ignition module) and the fuel system is liekwise sorted (not carb, this may yet be the running issue under load). So it is ready to be moved over to the barn where it's bigger sibling, the GT is, they can snuggle up together then until I finish my studying next June-ish. There should be room for the two of them in my end of the barn, the owner is my husbands Aunt and so far took no money from me for storage, but I have insisted now that I will have two in there, the other end is also used for car storage by someone else - but mine are way more interesting compared to a new Mini and smart fortwo!

[Tomtation]

Been a while since I last posted on here, or anywhere really! Round 1 of exams week after next so bricking it a bit. I repeatedly fail to get a photo of the two MK1 BX's next to each other... Although they have been farm-mates since late August, I didn't actually get it into the Barn pictured above until October. It was just sitting in the corner of the yard.

Actually, getting it into the barn was OK (although it did stall a few times in the 20ft drive from yard to barn), but then getting it over to my half of said barn, shifting the GT up to the LHS and putting the TRS next to it was a medium sized challenge. However! They are both snug in there under their tailored covers, keeping their heir dry etc.

I can’t remember where I left it on here, so "In other news, TRANSPORT COURT ACTION STILL BLOODY ONGOING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Phew, as expected there was absolutely no response whatsoever from the accused regarding anything that was sent to him, so the court ordered in my favour, win! But that was literally all that happened. So I got further irritated, and further out of pocket by speaking with a High Court Enforcement Group, these folks are like bailiffs but have a writ from the High Court that gives them slightly more powers. The poor folks visited the address 4 TIMES only to pretty much be told to bugger off and that nobody knows nothing. The 'unidentified male' wouldn't speak to the officer and made his 'unidentified female partner' speak to them, showing a council tax bill with a single occupancy discount (under investigation), she did confirm on a subsequent visit that the bloke who I now think is called Faisal Rashid (rather than Muhammad Faisal as registered with Shiply) does live there, and he has 2 trucks registered to him with that name. The 3rd visit my enforcement officer was in a queue behind another, who had already clamped the car...

The last visit turned abusive and aggressive, and I have been asked for guidance from the enforcement agency, I’m not sure how much more they can do. The writ they have is in the name of Vehicle-logoistics247 which seems to not exist outside of Shiply, so on their suggestion I’ve enquired about changing the writ to have the name Faisal Rashid and/or the others given and asked if they have any other suggestions in proceeding with it. It really is getting tiresome and i'm being super polite because who knows what can be used for evidence? *gritting teeth*

Anyone on here know legal stuff? I've thankfully never had to do this before. I do have his bank details so could apply for a Third Party Debt Order, but this costs another £110 and will only, potentially, give me some of the contents of the bank account I have details for on the date the Order is given - a gamble!

What is wrong with people, eh?

[mat_the_cat]

I never realised it was so easy to rip people off and potentially get away with it!

[Wingz123]

Hahaha Muhammad faisal. The account next week will be Moh Faisal, then the week after Mohammed Faisal. Then the week after that Faisal Mohammad and so on and so forth..... then will probably start on the Khans, then maybe the Ahmeds or if they feel like it the Hussains when they've exhausted those. People dont question it properly because are scared silly of the repercussions. I digress slightly but that's how you end up with all the brothers and uncles using one uber driver account you may have seen in the news recently. How are you going to tell?

They'll have the money.....they always do......

Why do people bring this trouble to their door? Do a proper job, build a solid reputation, provide value and feel good - that's how I operate anyhow and you can sleep at night with a clear conscience!

I maybe a little more expensive than some of these jokers on shiply but I run legal! And you can guarantee a dependable service. Ive heard stories of Romanians running round the country on red diesel with no insurance.....how am I supposed to compete with that??

I commend you for your tenacity though.

[Tomtation]

A small update folks, this is still ongoing, I almost gave up last week and was writing an email to the HCE folks to throw the towel in, but then my natural obstinacy kicked back in and I was like"HELL NO" ?

The high court enforcement group have hit a wall and I am enquiring if the courts can change the name on the case/writ to the individual, not this fictional company 'vehicle-logistics247'. Im irritated enough to also ask if the amount claimed for can be amended whilst we are about it, to include subsequent costs and interest - this has been ongoing since last June, so interest is the least of what I would like back from this unpleasant individual.

[Wingz123]

That vehicle logistics 247 has been on that shiply as long as I can remember. I used to bid for work before it got silly and remember seeing that name. 

[mitsisigma01]

Sorry to hear this shit is still going on, can you not set up a trap for the robbing bastard in conjunction with the baliff/agents, can they not seize his truck as an asset??? 

[Tomtation]

Progress has been made! The poor TRS has been raped of most of it's engine bay a/c stuff with the a/c specific engine sump pan left to swap over, I am slightly anxious about this as some have reported that it fouls some flywheels, one way to find out! Some components have been refurbed but there is more work yet to be done. I have written it up on the BXClub with pictures and everything so if you fancy a perv, go and have a gander.

https://bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16175&start=615

Further developments have revealed that the 'french' TRS is actually a Swiss car, this is what the 'SE' is all about, there are 6 of these in Switzerland, TRS with 'SE' extras. Being Swiss it has the dreaded anti-pollution system that apparently killed so many carburetted Swiss cars over the years. A chap on the BXClub FB group said that garage forecourts were littered with MK1 BX's in GT or TRS flavour with the 16 and 19 XU engines and anti-pollution systems, as they couldn't be made to run properly and pass the Swiss emissions limits, so couldn;t be driven on the roads. There seems to be only 15 MK1 BX's left ion Switzerland... Very sad ?

This could well be the cause of the running issues i'm having with it, the guy has some manuals he might see if he can send me, but I'm feeling like taking the carb and as much of the anti-pollution system off as I can, and putting a replacement 'standard' weber DRTC on so it still mates up with the manual choke mechanism. The Swiss anti-pollution cars only made 75bhp! Which is the same as the 14, and in this case with an autobox will make for suitably depressing progress making!

Glad to see this project is actually progressing! The GT will get its A/C after all, but I haven't tackled the dash yet so don't hold me to that.

[mat_the_cat]

I can reveal some developments in this, in that there will shortly be a nice shiny new set of hoses on their way to be fitted!

Most of it was completely straightforward, but one hose was a little unusual, so I thought I would post up the solution in case it helps others.

Modern AC systems have different sized suction and discharge ports on the compressor, to match the different sized hoses required. But for some strange reason, R12 systems often have the same sized port for both. Hence I needed to find a rare fitting with a #10 O ring connection, which crimped to a #8 hose. I found one in the US, but it wasn't quite as simple as that!

As I was using reduced barrier hose (easier to route, plus it's what I had in stock) this has a smaller OD for a given hose size although the same ID. I couldn't find an off-the-shelf fitting anywhere, so had to make a hybrid. First I cut off the too large ferrule...

...and carefully ground away the remains.

The cheapest way of getting a suitable single ferrule was to look for the lowest price fitting, and just cannibalize the one on that!

Mate that to the first fitting...

 ...and crimp on the hose.

The same technique can be used to recover an existing hard line, and crimp a new rubber hose to.