Dollywobbler's Consolidated Tat Thread

[dollywobbler]

Suspect it is the diff LBF, but the belts keep getting rather noisy. Mind you, I've not cleaned the pulleys or anything since the new belt and pulleys were fitted in 2019 (and yes, the spacing is spot on).

[Remspoor]

21 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

Yeah, Kitch owns the Fox. I helped him collect it. I do not need another!

On the other hand if you had two you could make a four seater. 🤔

[LightBulbFun]

9 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

Suspect it is the diff LBF, but the belts keep getting rather noisy. Mind you, I've not cleaned the pulleys or anything since the new belt and pulleys were fitted in 2019 (and yes, the spacing is spot on).

Yeah I noticed the belts squealing recently which is interesting given as you say she has had brand new Pulleys and and belt fitted 

I dont think TPA  squeals in such fashion (although ill let @Zelandeth verify that!) so I wonder what goings on with TWC exactly in that regard that

TPA's also had a set of new pulleys around the same time frame you got new pulleys for TWC, and they have also been used a quite a bit since then, and I dont think the pulleys have been touched since being fitted and spaced

 

I wonder if something happened to cause your belt to become glazed and its just exacerbated the issue since then?

 

[Zelandeth]

49 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

Yeah I noticed the belts squealing recently which is interesting given as you say she has had brand new Pulleys and and belt fitted 

I dont think TPA  squeals in such fashion (although ill let @Zelandeth verify that!) so I wonder what goings on with TWC exactly in that regard that

TPA's also had a set of new pulleys around the same time frame you got new pulleys for TWC, and they have also been used a quite a bit since then, and I dont think the pulleys have been touched since being fitted and spaced

 

I wonder if something happened to cause your belt to become glazed and its just exacerbated the issue since then?

 

TPA is fine once underway, but I've never been able to do anything about the squealing below about 10mph.  Has done it both with the NOS belt and the Dayco HP2020 on there now.  

I've just kind of shrugged and chalked it up as "one of those things."

I've inspected things a few times since the belt went on ~2000 miles ago but haven't ever felt the need to touch anything as it all looked fine.

[dollywobbler]

Ah, good to know I'm not the only one. TWC squeals quite badly at very slow speeds, but tends to quieten down as speed builds. Or maybe it's drowned out by the howling diff...

[Zelandeth]

11 minutes ago, dollywobbler said:

Ah, good to know I'm not the only one. TWC squeals quite badly at very slow speeds, but tends to quieten down as speed builds. Or maybe it's drowned out by the howling diff...

Yeah, it's only really noticeable at what I'd describe as car park speeds.  Basically as soon as you get to the point you'd be changing into second gear in any normal car pretty much it quiets down.

...Or is just drowned out by the racket everything else makes!

It does seem to be worse some days than others, though I've yet to find any rhyme nor reason to it.

[mat_the_cat]

On 5/24/2022 at 8:57 PM, Crackers said:

Looking forward to the return of the GSA. I know opinions vary but personally it's my favourite car on your fleet. 

Likewise. I've never been a fan of the later dash, but recently its Frenchness is growing on me quite a bit. @dollywobblerIf you ever sell at a time which coincides with me having actual money...

[Remspoor]

getting ready for Japan Classic in The Netherlands? Watch this and brush up on your Dutch.

Car based in Eindhoven so it should be attending.

 

[Remspoor]

Issues with the engine an the engine light blanked off. I would assume you have not changed the electronic hardware. I would use a decent code reader to see if any issues from the old engine are still stored.

[dollywobbler]

Hooked up diagnostics yesterday. Had one code for crank sensor, but I think that was an anomaly or dirty connection, as it didn't come back. Diagnostics showed the engine speed when cranking, so at least confirmed the sensor was working. Video coming tonight on what was going wrong. It's been one heck of a project! Never felt so clueless in my life.

[LightBulbFun]

I just wanted to say on the GSA electrical woes, as well as checking voltage, you should also check voltage under-load 

since you can have an electrical connection thats good enough to support a reading a volt meter of some kind

but will just fall over once you put any load on it, a bit like a weak bridge, you can say "yep there is a connection between these 2 bits of land and heres a person walking across it" but the moment a lorry goes across it all falls down

 

so it might be worth getting someone to measure with the volt meter while someones trying to crank it over if the voltage falls off a cliff then you know you have a dodgy connection or earth somewhere

 

[richardmorris]

On 5/25/2022 at 10:14 PM, mat_the_cat said:

Likewise. I've never been a fan of the later dash, but recently its Frenchness is growing on me quite a bit. @dollywobblerIf you ever sell at a time which coincides with me having actual money...

I loved the circuit board dash as a child ( 10) . It seemed very futuristic in early 1980s.

[OM646]

Watching the video and the disintegrating dials, didn't one of the Berlingos in the scrapyard have a set of good condition green dials? 

One could always Frankenstein those dial faces into your existing cluster 

[Noel Tidybeard]

girl at work has red/blue seats in a silver blingo!

[High Jetter]

11 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

girl at work has red/blue seats in a silver blingo!

How intimately do you know this?

[Eyersey1234]

Hi Ian, was TWC one of the government Invacars?

[LightBulbFun]

26 minutes ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Hi Ian, was TWC one of the government Invacars?

indeed she was

it always tickles me when someone comments on an Invacar picture "only the government ones where scrapped/banned from the road and the only ones you see on the road today are the few private examples"

its quite the opposite! pretty much ever Invacar/full bodied machine you see these days is an Ex Ministry example!

I only know of one private example Invacar that is even somewhat vaguely on the road these days still, any and all other full bodied machine you come across on the road will be an Ex Ministry example

 

its just the usual people not doing their research and spouting the usual "fake news", along with the "oh they where banned from the road" bollocks etc LOL

it happens every-time someone posts an Invacar on some public social media place

 

 

although the DHSS did mean to destroy every single Invacar it owned at the end of its useful life, the exact wording being "mutilate beyond economic repair", that just simply never happened, because you cant dispose of 40 to 50 thousand cars (Counting All  full bodied Villiers, Electrics and Model 70's) over 50 years, without a few escaping out the back so to speak!  

but on the flip-side very few full bodied private cars where produced, of all the Full bodied types, from what numbers I can gather, only about id say 100 or so where sold, if that

so the survival rate of private cars, even tho they where not actively withdrawn like the Ministry cars where, was just a lot less then Ministry cars because just so fewer where produced and it was not helped that they for the most part looked like a Ministry car, so very much would of and do fly under the radar (although a few where not blue so would of helped them stand out!)

thats why I get really excited when I find a private car, or an example of one on the DVLA even if its long dead, just because they where so rare even in period

 

[Remspoor]

@dollywobbler Twin rear wiper action on a PSA vehicle.

[lanciamatt]

On 6/16/2022 at 2:38 AM, LightBulbFun said:

indeed she was

it always tickles me when someone comments on an Invacar picture "only the government ones where scrapped/banned from the road and the only ones you see on the road today are the few private examples"

its quite the opposite! pretty much ever Invacar/full bodied machine you see these days is an Ex Ministry example!

I only know of one private example Invacar that is even somewhat vaguely on the road these days still, any and all other full bodied machine you come across on the road will be an Ex Ministry example

 

its just the usual people not doing their research and spouting the usual "fake news", along with the "oh they where banned from the road" bollocks etc LOL

it happens every-time someone posts an Invacar on some public social media place

 

 

although the DHSS did mean to destroy every single Invacar it owned at the end of its useful life, the exact wording being "mutilate beyond economic repair", that just simply never happened, because you cant dispose of 40 to 50 thousand cars (Counting All  full bodied Villiers, Electrics and Model 70's) over 50 years, without a few escaping out the back so to speak!  

but on the flip-side very few full bodied private cars where produced, of all the Full bodied types, from what numbers I can gather, only about id say 100 or so where sold, if that

so the survival rate of private cars, even tho they where not actively withdrawn like the Ministry cars where, was just a lot less then Ministry cars because just so fewer where produced and it was not helped that they for the most part looked like a Ministry car, so very much would of and do fly under the radar (although a few where not blue so would of helped them stand out!)

thats why I get really excited when I find a private car, or an example of one on the DVLA even if its long dead, just because they where so rare even in period

 

I should probably ask this in your thread , but never mind. What tells you it's a private car or ministry car when doing your checks , chassis different?

[LightBulbFun]

1 minute ago, lanciamatt said:

I should probably ask this in your thread , but never mind. What tells you it's a private car or ministry car when doing your checks , chassis different?

indeed the chassis number of most private invalid vehicles are different to a Ministry example of the same type

 

[LightBulbFun]

as a side note last Sunday was TWC's 50th Birthday!  it will be TPA's 50th next year which is a bit scary in its own right!

[dollywobbler]

Ah nuts! I failed to notice that. I am hoping to do a big birthday roadtrip this year, but I'm thinking I really need to sort that noisy diff out before I do. Or maybe it's just sawdust time...

[LightBulbFun]

5 minutes ago, dollywobbler said:

Ah nuts! I failed to notice that. I am hoping to do a big birthday roadtrip this year, but I'm thinking I really need to sort that noisy diff out before I do. Or maybe it's just sawdust time...

im frustrated I missed it myself! I made note a few times in the month that it was coming up, only to blow right past the 19th!

 

on the diff front, I think I mentioned this before, but you still have TPA's transaxle right? perhaps you could borrow the diff from that, or just drop the entire gearbox in whole   as I imagine putting Sawdust in is just masking the problem rather then solving it, and is liable to still leave you with an exploding diff

otherwise it is just a Fiat 500 diff, (although I sadly dont know the ratio of said diff is, its something I Have been wanting to know for a while!), so you could in theory just borrow one from a fiat 500 or such  

[dollywobbler]

TPA's gearbox is locked in forward gear, though the diff may well still be good, and certainly has fewer miles on it than TWC's. Just not entirely sure what's involved with a diff swap. Probably torque wrenches and stuff.

[LightBulbFun]

50 minutes ago, dollywobbler said:

TPA's gearbox is locked in forward gear, though the diff may well still be good, and certainly has fewer miles on it than TWC's. Just not entirely sure what's involved with a diff swap. Probably torque wrenches and stuff.

if only there was a full workshop manual for the Model 70 that might detail how to change the differential

Oh hang on  

DHSS Workshop Manual For The Model 70 Three Wheeler(OCR).pdf

the only scary sounding part is the need of a special tool to set the preload on some bearings but im sure something can be figured out, its all standard Fiat stuff here, so a Fiat 500 licker will know what to do!

 

indeed I have wondered why TPA's gearbox is locked in first gear, I cant imagine it being hard to solve, the gearbox of a Model 70 is pretty damn simple so unless its locked because its full of water and a rusty mess, I cant imagine it would be too hard to free off

(and likewise I do wonder why TWC's gearbox keeps jumping out of gear!)

 

[wuvvum]

6 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

(although I sadly dont know the ratio of said diff is, its something I Have been wanting to know for a while!)

There's an easy way around that - take REV's diff to bits and count the teeth on the pinions.

[LightBulbFun]

Just now, wuvvum said:

There's an easy way around that - take TWC's diff to bits and count the teeth on the pinions.

FTFY

(and if things are as bad as they sound, you might be able to count them as they come out of the drain plug hole...)

[Andyrew]

You Could just turn the drive to the diff and count how many rotations to one full rotation of a wheel. 

 

[dollywobbler]

I am working on a complete transmission swap, which is more within my skillset than taking one apart. I'm concerned that my spare transmission might be rather far from good if it has locked in gear - damp ingress perhaps.

[Sham]

This is not the kind of car you can just part swap on, since all the spare parts have been sat in fields for decades.

That's why the Dizzy is locked and the gearbox jumps out and the diff screams.

Eventually, it will have to be actually fixed. The only way to do that will be to actually fix it.