Cats clapped out Cars. Wafting North

[catsinthewelder]

Just found out this went live yesterday.

Was great to see Ian and Miss Hubnut, thought I'd best keep quiet but more progress has happened since.

[LightBulbFun]

57 minutes ago, catsinthewelder said:

Just found out this went live yesterday.

Was great to see Ian and Miss Hubnut, thought I'd best keep quiet but more progress has happened since.

tis really awesome to see the Mighty Dacia again! and im glad progress is being made to returning it to the road, I really do love the Dacia and its story  

im surprised @dollywobbler has not pinched it back as a family wagon given its an estate and all that

(maybe he can part exchange with an Oltcit? LOL)

[catsinthewelder]

Balls, blew a brake pipe on the MOT this morning along with the electrical earth to the lights stopping working at just the wrong moment.

[Lacquer Peel]

Was sorry to not see you and the Dacia today. It sounds like it will be on the road again soon hopefully 

[Scruffy Bodger]

On 7/14/2022 at 5:54 PM, catsinthewelder said:

I'd like to have spent today fixing one of the older cars but getting anything done was a bonus.  The Focus has been poorly for a bit, I thought I'd fixed it with a new boost hose but the test thrash up the hill put the engine light on.

This was helpful as we'd erased the codes before so actually googled it this time and found a thread on Passion Ford.  A chap kindly wrote about his battle to sort out his car and said the cause was this thing.

It's a turbo pressure solenoid valve and apparently the cause of a vacuum leak which would make this actuator arm.

Dip up and down as the engine tops up the vacuum every 10 seconds.

It was a wonderfully easy repair as my boss let me use this.

Which is our new toy at work.  Buzzed it up, whipped the undertray off and found this 

Loosen one nut and remove another, swap over 1 wiring connector and 3 hoses then put it back on and test.  All seemed well so once I'd had a quick look at the power steering leak (middle of a pipe where the pipe clip has been rubbing) it was time to put the undertray back on and fetch it down.

Clear the P0299 code and she's good to go.

That same part was responsible for the problems on my V50 but it didn't throw any codes. In my case the car had power when cold but then lost probably 50% of it when warmed up, took me ages to find it and minutes to fix it!

[catsinthewelder]

In an episode of spectacular prevarication about tidying my shed I decided to clear out the campervan so there was somewhere out of the rain to put things coming out of the shed.

The camper came without keys so ages ago I bought a lock set for a VDP Metro as it was cheap and would theoretically fit.  It might well have done but the existing locks were rusted into place so it went back in its jiffy bag.  I found it earlier and had an idea.  The Metro key will lock the passenger door but not unlock it however it works perfectly in the driver's door so the van is secure in the first time I've owned it.

[High Jetter]

I had many cars like that, have a big box of keys! You never know...

[catsinthewelder]

Dacia has passed its MOT retest

 

Think I've solved the charging issue and the coolant light being stuck on by swapping 2 wires over.  Now I'm trying to remember if the battery light ever came on with the ignition as it doesn't now.

[dollywobbler]

YES! I can't remember either...

[Lord Sterling]

Sweet, great to see more progress on the Dacia! 😁

Really gotta catch up with @dollywobblersoon. Love watching the videos!

[catsinthewelder]

Bike trip is go, made it as far as Gloucester.  Roads are very wet from yesterday

Better pictures on Wicked Van Hire Facebook.

[catsinthewelder]

Today didn't go too badly.  Loads of water on the roads from the overnight rain had us wading through puddles and our kit wet through despite very little rain today (except the boss who has good kit and was dry as a bone).

I did slightly fall off which wasn't ideal.  Scuffed a pannier, broke the headlight shell and a mirror adapter but got away without injury which was the main thing.

Fixed* the bike this evening with gorilla tape and texted the lad I had the exhaust from to see if he wants to sell me more bits.  Other than that it went pretty well.  My Keeway coped with 200 miles of mostly flat out without problems.  The Honda barely complained.  The Sinnis Hoodlum we thought might not make the start line has been fine.  The other Sinnis failed to start at a services but could be bumped, made some awful noises at full power and gave the rider severe arse ache.  He's ordered a big foam pad to collect when we next pass Ludlow.  

Lands End tomorrow!

[catsinthewelder]

50ish miles down, just stopped for a coffee before the next 50 to Lands End.

Seen a MK3 Astra rally car and a Skoda Felicia Fun and crossed the Tamar bridge.

Bike doesn't sound wonderful and has dropped out of 3rd into neutral a couple of times.  Might try a quick oil change later.

[catsinthewelder]

Stage 1 achieved

Fair play to the folk at Lands End who let us all into the carpark free as it's a charity thing, would have been best part of £20 otherwise.

 

Raised nearly £1500

 

[hairnet]

madness

hope the rest goes ok

 

[Sham]

This is insanity - top work

[catsinthewelder]

Back to Ivybridge in Devon for a 2nd night at a mates mums house (she lives elsewhere).  Her weird neighbour took his bike out at 4.30am and woke up the 2 lads kipping in the van who thought our bikes were being nicked.  He then called the police about suspicious behaviour who called on the door at 6 so that was a restful night!

No other dramas today although my bike lost all electricity other than its spark just before we got back here.  After a bit of fiddling about I now have no neutral light (rather than on all the time) and most functions restored.  Will pick up a couple of bulbs tomorrow to hopefully restore the others.

Time for a Chinese and a beer or two.  

Back to Ludlow tomorrow.

[catsinthewelder]

At the lunch stop just north of Bath.  Bikes are mostly running well although my electrics are somewhat intermittent.  I look down to see if the fuel gauge is reading to see if it's worth indicating!  Can't see the phone screen or really hear the instructions so we took 3 different routes to get here.

 

Weather is nice so everyone's happy

[catsinthewelder]

Set out from the pub with a right turn onto a busy road, the gaffer left 1st and we immediately lost him.  After about 10 minutes the next bike saw a little gap and all 3 of us took it!  The van was stuck there for ages.  We had a nice steady ride briefly interrupted as I'd somehow got the earpiece of my intercom trapped behind my head which went from irritating to excruciating.  Made it to the garden centre where we were supposed to be (2nd attempt, another garden centre 200 yards away was incorrect but had a Xantia being worked on, a MK1 Clio in the carpark and a Bluebird tucked behind some pallets but the owner asked if he could help so I didn't take pictures). No sign of the gaffer or van, we checked the tracker and they were both together so we thought he'd broken down.  Turned out the road he used was shut, as was another and the 3rd road he reached just as the van passed.  10 minutes later they arrived so we headed back.

Did briefly break down, felt like I'd run out of petrol but tank was half full.  Think it might have been a loose plug cap as it fired up just as we were about to chuck it in the van.  So glad it's got a kickstart as well as electric.

Made it back to Ludlow about 4.  Meant to work on the bike there but wasn't happening so I bought bits and headed home.  I've changed the headlight bulb, plug and oil.  Wiggled a few wire so hoping that the electrics work tomorrow!

[High Jetter]

Would some maps have helped? 🤣

[catsinthewelder]

We all put the same postcode into Google maps and had a quick look to see if it looked like the same route.  I could certainly have missed a turn and been rerouted without noticing though!

Might try the old fashioned method of turns written down on paper.  More or less know today's anyway.  A49 to Warrington, then head for Preston.  Then A6 north until we stop for the night.

Raised over £1500 so far

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/wicked-removals

 

[catsinthewelder]

Didn't go too badly today, one set off in the van as an old injury was playing up leaving 3 on bikes.  This seemed to keep us together better.  First stop was Church Stretton as we were frozen.  After a quick brew we were far better and made it to just north of Shrewsbury for a quick pause in the sun.

After that it was straight up to the Raven near Whitchurch for breakfast.

From there we headed up through Cheshire and over the new Mersey crossing.  A quick stop in St Helens for a Mccoffee and a ice cream from a garden centre just north of Preston.

From there the roads became amazing

We'd all sort of assumed that Google maps would drag us straight up the A6 but it had a Forest of Bowland shaped suprise.  It was a good 45 minutes of the perfect kind of roads for 125s.  Straights just long enough to hit 50 if you redlined it then all kinds of curves, dips and beautiful scenery.

After a while we were in Kendle for a well earned brew before a bit more of the same took us back to the A6 ready to go over Shap.  The scenery here is beautiful and the two with better power to weight ratios enjoyed it up and down.  I certainly enjoyed the down but the up stained my sense of mechanical sympathy a little screaming up in 3rd to try and stay above 35mph!

It would have been a nice evening to camp but none of us fancied waking up in wet tents tomorrow so we couldn't say no to a £50 Airbnb near Carlisle tonight.

I think we're heading for Perth tomorrow as we don't think we'll manage 200 miles in the rain.

My bike has run well but electrics other than spark became non existant.  Traced it to a loose negative terminal and everything is back other than the tail light.  Might attach a bicycle light or just try to run in the middle of the pack!

 

[catsinthewelder]

Scotland achieved, breakfast with corners is ordered

 

[catsinthewelder]

Short day today, just done 150ish miles to an Airbnb just north of Perth.  Roads were cracking but the bike isn't happy.

As soon as we set off after breakfast it wasn't running right.  Felt like it didn't have quite enough fuel but is probably electrical.  At full throttle it's spluttering and not reving as far as it should.  Will ride nicely at 6000rpm but needs to do 8000rpm to keep up with traffic.   After putting up with it for miles I stopped, gave the HT lead a good covering of oil and belted the carb with a spanner for good measure.

This improved it quite a bit, wish I'd just done one of those things so I knew which did it.

Amazingly when I found the others waiting for me in the next village there was a motorbike shop over the road so I tried to buy a new HT cap and was given one!  Should have bought some lead too though as I can't get the old one off it's lead and don't want to make things worse.

Later we tried removing the fuel filter in case it was causing fuel starvation.  It wasn't and a full tank of fuel didn't help either.

With the plug off it was grey on the anode with a bit of black soot on the bottom so too much fuel rather than not enough.

Time for more tinkering. 

[Tickman]

You are making good progress.

I'll give a little wave as you are not too far away at the moment.

[catsinthewelder]

@Tickman the way things are going I might call about that GS125

Many thanks to @doug

[catsinthewelder]

Long day today, set off at 7 and just made it to Wick.  Got absolutely soaked so considered heading straight to accommodation but it's stopped raining so going to go for it. 

Fortunately the bike is running properly today, she's getting slightly tired but I'm a lot more hopeful it'll make it home now.

Many thanks to @Asimo

[catsinthewelder]

It got very wet, we're going up in the morning

[Cavcraft]

It's great reading this (except for the issues with your bike) look forward to the next installment.

[catsinthewelder]

It's alright @Cavcraft I'm sure the seller said it had a warranty 🤣