A long time ago in a Galaxie far, far away (running after 3yrs)

[Dyslexic Viking]

58 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

I have the budget for a new* car and I'm looking electric.

@Kiltox what do you have available now?

Since you have now become AS own dodgy used car seller.

[Kiltox]

Less of the dodgy  

2019 Renault Zoe 40kWh, 17k miles, £6995
2016 Renault Zoe 22kWh, 75k miles, £4295
2012 Peugeot Ion, 41k miles, £3295 

[sdkrc]

I've already committed to buy a cheapo electric next week depending on an MOT.

I also now need a conventional ICE car for long trips. 

[somewhatfoolish]

Rent one when needed. Or play shite roulette in the force ale section. 

[loserone]

3 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Rent one when needed

Not a bad call

[sdkrc]

I will always be a proponent of backup cars. I also hate renting. 

[SiC]

Why not give it a go replacing the bearings if the other option is to binning it anyway? Good learning exercise if you know failure is the same outcome as not doing it. 

[camryv6]

Buy a £0 road tax Citybug as a spare ICE car.

[captain_70s]

19 hours ago, sdkrc said:

 I will still need an ICE backup car for long trips. 

1966 Ford Galaxie, more IC then you can shake a stick at.

[Supernaut]

2 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

1966 Ford Galaxie, more IC then you can shake a stick at.

Plus some EC thrown in for good measure.

[loserone]

Hope a long drive with a small battery doesn't make for a tough start with a new appliance 

[sdkrc]

The absolute fucking state of the charging infrastructure in the UK. I wish nothing but the worst hemorrhoids on the folks responsible for charger software and lack of standardisation 

[sdkrc]

Well, that's me an electric wanker now.

It's safe, cheap and about as reliable/hassle free as I can get for fuck all money. Interior is nice, it's spacious, has working air con, isn't crusty as fuck, has full MOT etc.

Car cost £2250. It's a 24kw Sunderland model. Battery health is decent and I'm seeing 60-75 miles per charge. Charging at home I'm gonna see costs around 6p per mile. 

[sdkrc]

Drive home was 170 miles. The state of the infrastructure and the apps is a total eye opener. 

 

First charger I use:

- couldn't find it in the car park

- needs an app to use

- can't find the charger in the app because of unclear labelling 

- first charge fails but pre authorised £50

- second charge pre-auths another £50 and works... but the app says 0% charge the whole time

- cost £6.50 for 35 miles! What the fuck.

 

I used zapapp to plot my route. It sends me 10 miles up the M6 and then 10miles down southbound. 

I find a closer BP pulse in gretna.

It's in an unlit car park. The charge cables aren't lit at all. It doesn't recognise the Pulse card @loserone kindly gave me. It doesn't recognise my bank card. It doesn't recognise my other bank card. The screen soft locks not once but twice. 

I drive back down the motorway with 10 miles left on the charger. Gridserve. Spent 5 mins plodding round the petrol station and car park to find it. 

[somewhatfoolish]

I take the view that, not withstanding that EVs have existed nearly as long as cars have, once held the land speed record and briefly were the cutting edge of urban last mile delivery chariots, charabancs etc, EVs were practically invented about 12 years ago and the charging network is not keeping pace with the rate they're appearing. Imagining you're a brave victwardian* pioneer with a ridiculous handlebar moustache(women too), wearing an enormous greatcoat, bowler hat and very silly trousers helps when you butt up against the shambolic fuckery of the state in the form of wanky charging infrastructure apparently planned by a toddler laying out their Duplo bricks on an atlas.

 

*If victwardian isn't a word it should be.

[sdkrc]

What kind of car owner would I be if I didn't bodge something in a comically inept way?

Old 12v battery appeared to be unhealthy. After I charged it, it went down to 55% state of health and it wasn't a beefy battery to being with. The leaf is fairly notorious for eating 12v batteries so I don't particularly want to play roulette.

I slapped in an old Bosch that didn't even come close to fitting and secured* it with a B&M bargains ratchet strap.

Highly recommend getting a battery tester. Used this a fair bit and it's saved me a few times.

[somewhatfoolish]

Eating 12v batteries seems a feature of 1st gen EVs. Nice welsh battery tester you have. 🤣

[loserone]

How's the fleet doing @sdkrc?

[Matty]

20 minutes ago, loserone said:

How's the fleet doing @sdkrc?

Need hot Galaxie action !!

[sdkrc]

There's a doings a transpirin' boy! 

I rebuilt the carbutator (maybe) as it was leaking. I got an adult's help by showing @blackboilersuit the rebuilt carb and asking what everything does "I mean there's nothing there that would STOP it from running" 

Replaced the missing coolant

I swapped all the spark plugs and fucked my knuckle up so made this for the other stubborn sparkplugs

 

Just figuring out how to run the fuel from this milk bottle now

 

And other self indulgent photos

[Supernaut]

Bearing in mind what happened last time you tried to start that thing, and all the recent dawn raids in the central belt due to gangland violence... Are you sure it's a good idea to try?

[sdkrc]

Sports

[Matty]

44 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

Sports

Cmon on tenterhooks here waiting for the rumble

[sdkrc]

Holy fuck. 4hrs in. No starting of any kind but have made some form of progress thanks to our man in the Zoe @320touring.

Distributor timing was done with a clockwise firing order, it should've been anticlockwise. This was fixed.

The points needed adjustment. 

And finally and fatally, the rotor wasn't spinning. 

This was a new distributor and took some effort to squeeze in. Spent an hour trying to take the dizzy out with limited tools but it appears to be extremely stuck. 

It's extremely weird as the last time we tried to run it, it was coughing and close to starting. Now it appears as if the drive gear isn't engaging at all. 

Any advice welcome.

[sdkrc]

Staying outside for the first time in 2yrs. Will be looking for a crow bar tomorrow and watching some videos tonight.

4 or 5 people stopped to talk to me about the car. 

Progress today:

- new spark plugs

- fuel pump confirmed happy

- carb no longer leaks

- no start issue diagnosed

[SiC]

58 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

Any advice welcome

@PhilA for our resident American car mechanical expert 

[320touring]

Factory fuel feed was rigged up too..

[captain_70s]

1 hour ago, sdkrc said:

And finally and fatally, the rotor wasn't spinning. 

This was a new distributor and took some effort to squeeze in. Spent an hour trying to take the dizzy out with limited tools but it appears to be extremely stuck. 

Does the rotor shaft spin freely by hand or is it stuck solid?

Either it has become disengaged from the drive sprocket, in which case I'd expect it to spin by hand. Or something bad has happened to the drive mech and it's jammed up, in which case I'd expect something broken inside the engine...

[sdkrc]

There's strong resistance spinning the rotor shaft but it's not stuck solid. 

[captain_70s]

Hm. 

My best guess is the dizzy has shifted upwards slightly (or was never entirely seated), so the dizzy drive is scrubbing against the cam drive rather than properly engaging OR the shaft has snapped somehow.

I had the former issue with the Dolly where I thought the dizzy was properly engaged but it wasn't. As I was having to seat it with a rubber mallet it was hard to know if it was actually engaging solidly at the bottom of it's travel or just getting stuck.