Fabergé Greggs: Xsara won’t start and it’s all my fault

[Fabergé Greggs]

1 hour ago, BeEP said:

There was never an extra engine steady on models with the 'remote' gearchange (as the Morris has).  The gearchange extension itself provides the steadying effect.  Later models with the 'rod' change box had steady bars from offside end of block to rear top of subframe and from nearside end of gearbox to the subframe behind it.  The latter can be fitted to models with the earlier box by drilling one hole in the subframe. The former requires the corresponding bracket (which was built into the subframe) and switching to the later clutch slave cylinder with the bleed nipple on top, as the bar fouls the nipple at the rear of the cylinder.

Aftermarket steady bars were made for the ado16; I used to have one made by Cosmic (better known for their wheels) but unfortunately sold it a few years ago.

There should be a bracket from the bottom of the exhaust downpipe to the gearbox/diff.  I can't remember exactly what I did on the Morris but I know I put something on!

Yeah there’s a U-clamp there which does seems to do a good job of keeping it steady- I had a look around for the proper clamp but couldn’t seen to find one. I’m loving your suggestion of sorting this with the above manifold- seems like it should be a much more robust connection.. 

what size of clamp would this new join need? Is it 1 3/8? 

 

 

[BeEP]

1 hour ago, Fabergé Greggs said:

what size of clamp would this new join need? Is it 1 3/8?

Now you're testing me!  I do have one of those manifolds on the shelf, albeit modified at the top to match a MG Metro inlet (which is thicker) and missing the outer sheath at the bottom, so I'll have a look tomorrow and make a guestimate.

[Fabergé Greggs]

Now where are we with the fleet? 

Having done everything to it, I sold the Vespa sprint and I'm backing using my much loved LML- it's just generally more stress-free leaving it about the place. 

I acquired this 1 litre beater as a suitable chariot for the learner driver of the household, but I've been loving it too! It's ridiculously upright and tiny and the most basic of base. Specs include: 

• Electric mirrors 

And nothing else. Locking is manual on each door with a key FFS. Was that even still a thing in 2006? 

 

The reason it's so great is all that SPACE in something SO TINY 

Parking turns out to be something to look forward to it's so bloody tiny. 

It's got 3 cylinders totalling 950 or so cc, and yes of course it's objectively slow but it's also surprisingly willing- torquey and yet quite willing to rev. It's almost exotic sounding isn't it? Okay, almost. 

If you listen to start of that video you can hear the fuel pump. At various times it sounds like it's going to self destruct- I really need to change it before it self destructs somewhere on the motorway in the rain. The problem is I hate spending money in garages on modern cars and I hate working on modern cars and it's a tank out job. 

The 3 cylinder roar is pretty characterful, verging on rough when cold. I've lobbed some injector cleaner in and cleaned the MAF and it seems to be smoother after a bit of an Italian tune-up. I should probably clean the throttle body too but that looks ever so slightly more involved.

Other niggles include the need to get a set of tires. The ones on these are all mismatched and I've become a right tire fusspot in my old age- I don't think they're doing anything to help the laughable handling. Hence the request for some wheels that would fit it in my wanted thread. It had a nasty wobble at 60-70mph before so I got the front set balanced which definitely improved things- the bloke said that it had a big dent in the front left rim that he hammered out. It's better but still there so maybe I need to get the rears balanced too or just get a new set. 

I'm off up to Scotland soon so I either need to do the drive in this (I'd happily do it if the wobble was fixed and fuel pump done), Morris (madness) or Saab, as a last hurrah before the ULEZ takes it forever. 

[Fabergé Greggs]

New manifold arrived for the Morris thanks to the tip-off from @BeEP so I set about the manly task of turning my borked manifold into an inlet. 

Much, much grinding ensued. 

Getting closer 

It was at this point that I thought, "hang on, this inlet is located on the studs by the exhaust part of the manifold, this ain't gonna work". 

I think I'm gonna need something like this that properly locates in the studs. 

I'm guessing I can do away with the water heating. 

[BeEP]

Provided you are careful (and have ground enough metal off the manifold so it doesn't 'sit' on the exhaust manifold) you can locate it accurately enough by simply lining up the flanges with those of the exhaust manifold.  I ran my 1300 estate (RIP) like this for years without a problem, and the white 1300 with GT engine I bought last year now has a similar set-up fitted, albeit it is still a few jobs away from being on the road.  Obviously you could also go down the aftermarket water-heated manifold path; the 1100's heater pipe is ideally situated for routing through the manifold; I have this set up on the limeflower 1100.

[somewhatfoolish]

On 5/3/2021 at 3:04 PM, Dave_Q said:

Good reports on this type of thing on the Expert/Dispatch groups:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313210085491

I think any paint is just going to end up painting your hands.

Definitely one of those; there are a few positive reviews for these on PistonFascist, although "real PU leather" sounds like it's made from the hide of the rare Nauga beast rather than cows.

[Fabergé Greggs]

So where were we? 

Inlet manifolds for the Morris. One of the joys of a shared workshop is my neighbour has a collection of amazing stuff: a quick rummage revealed a Metro inlet manifold. This fitted great apart from the clamping depth being considerably thicker than my exhaust manifold. A careful bit of angle grinding got us closer to where we need to be: 

Before too long I had that all attached and clamped with some fresh nuts & gaskets. 

Next hurdle was that my exhaust front section was the same diameter as the clamping area manifold. Beep kindly sent me a section of exhaust but I ended up welding on a small 35mm sleeve to enable me to clamp it on. A lot of measuring and umming & ahhhing took place before just lining it all up by eye and going for it.

 

Next hurdle: the clamp was impossible to fit without it fouling the exhaust mounting bracket. This meant chopping a bit out of the bracket. Only problem was, access was tight and I couldn't get the bracket off without first removing the freshly fitted manifold. Dayum. 

Manifold loosened, bracket off, reshaped, and everything fitted back gets us here: 

After all that fiddling, measuring and making I was rewarded by the rest of the exhaust going on without bother. It's all quite simple stuff but working under a car always feels a that bit more cumbersome and nasty. 

Whilst I was underneath I did notice that the driveshaft couplings seem to be eating themselves a little bit, visible if you look closely. 

I have been noticing some vibrations under load in certain conditions, so I'm wondering if some fresh couplings with roller bearings are in order such as these 

http://www.minispares.com/product/Classic/Drivetrain/CV Joints/QL5000.aspx?0801&ReturnUrl=/search/classic/QL5000.aspx|Back to search

The eagle eyed of you will notice its all pretty oily under there. Obviously because British, but I think a fair deal of it was coming from the rocker gasket. I popped a fresh cork gasket on and it seems nice and dry now. 

 

Damn shame I didn't get all of this done in time for FOTU, but I did have a pleasant day of it being a car today: around 100 miles of joyful bimbling in rain and shine.  

 

 

[RobT]

Blimey that sounds a bit of an effort.  Maybe I was lucky with my manifold replacement then.   Although I'm not entirely convinced the new but used replacement doesn't have a crack somewhere.

[Fabergé Greggs]

6 minutes ago, RobT said:

Blimey that sounds a bit of an effort.  Maybe I was lucky with my manifold replacement then.   Although I'm not entirely convinced the new but used replacement doesn't have a crack somewhere.

Bums. At several points of faff I wished I’d just replaced like for like, but I’m hoping this is a more reliable solution. Who knows, maybe even an extra horse or two. When are we doing the London ado16 cruise? 

[RobT]

2 minutes ago, Fabergé Greggs said:

When are we doing the London ado16 cruise? 

A week day evening?  Mine's running at the moment.  Not sure how long that'll last mind...

[Fabergé Greggs]

It's been a big day today: Bye bye Saab, I loved you to pieces 😭.

Knowing it's going to a top shiter honestly makes all the difference though. 

Onwards with this little BranFind

And this cute bum 

[Vantman]

Welcome back Scruffy Saab----

[BorniteIdentity]

4 minutes ago, Vantman said:

Welcome back Scruffy Saab----

Brilliant.  Well played VM.  

[Fabergé Greggs]

I said goodbye to the Agila. Although it was hilarious, it was becoming less hilarious on a regular 500 mile round trip.

Incoming is this zenith of an car:

The journey home was serene: I sometimes think that all these folks that mindlessly buy new middle sized cars are absolute geniuses. It just feels so much like a car it's striking. I feel like I could just get in it and it would do car stuff. Many thanks to @Crackers and his Dad who got up at 5am to fill it with fuel for my journey home! I didn't get to do any thrashing, but I look forward to reporting back on what all the fuss is about with these when I go up to rural Scotland in a couple of weeks and take it down my favourite road. 

Now I proudly own 2 exemplary examples of "an car" in blue, separated by a mere 40 years. 

[Crackers]

Enjoy! Thanks for an easy sale 😀

[High Jetter]

Oh, has @Crackers lost his focus? What's next?

[Fabergé Greggs]

The sensible Focus has been grand- did the annual 1200 mile Christmas trip without fuss. 

MOT time today- last years advisories were thus: 

• Both rear tyres slightly perished in and around the tread
• Offside Rear Anti-roll bar linkage pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement (5.3.4 (a) (i))

I lobbed a new set of rear tires on it a while back as they were deffo too perished for comfort. Matching Avons no less. 

I'm pretty sure that the ASR ARB linkage pin is still worn as there's a bit of a rattle at low speeds from the back. I had fully intended to sort this but instead resorted to the old psychological trick of getting it really clean and taking it to the most lenient place I know. The tester, after proclaiming.. "bloody hell, that looks like it's just come out of the showroom" issued me thusly: 

Yay! Disappearing advisories! 

 

[Dave_Q]

Great car-ing, can imagine it just driving down roads and stuff all day if required, or even just sitting there on the road in readiness for such activities.

Just read back through and saw you sold the old Vespa and kept the new not-Vespa, I can see why.

I've nearly finished with this PK I've been building and whilst I do look at V-range smallframes and kinda wish I had held out for one of those, the fact they now appear to be worth PROPPA MUNNY would just mean I was scared to take it anywhere. 

As this PK is badly rattle can painted, by me, I won't mind as much when it falls over or I drop something on it in my total shit-tip of a workshop.

[Crackers]

19 hours ago, Fabergé Greggs said:

The tester, after proclaiming.. "bloody hell, that looks like it's just come out of the showroom" issued me thusly: 

Yay! Disappearing advisories! 

Result - really pleased about that. 

[grogee]

On 10/3/2021 at 4:33 PM, Fabergé Greggs said:

I said goodbye to the Agila. Although it was hilarious, it was becoming less hilarious on a regular 500 mile round trip.

Incoming is this zenith of an car:

The journey home was serene: I sometimes think that all these folks that mindlessly buy new middle sized cars are absolute geniuses. It just feels so much like a car it's striking. I feel like I could just get in it and it would do car stuff. Many thanks to @Crackers and his Dad who got up at 5am to fill it with fuel for my journey home! I didn't get to do any thrashing, but I look forward to reporting back on what all the fuss is about with these when I go up to rural Scotland in a couple of weeks and take it down my favourite road. 

Now I proudly own 2 exemplary examples of "an car" in blue, separated by a mere 40 years. 

A high point in Ford's history. I have had a few Mk1s, all good. My favourite was a silver 1.8 hired from Edinburgh airport and driven all over Scotland for my (1st) honeymoon. Mrs Grogee #1 must have trusted me because the highlight of that honeymoon was ragging the absolute tits out of that car across Highland roads. Just an absolute joy to drive. 

Mrs Grogee #2 wouldn't put up with such nonsense. We went to Egypt on honeymoon (yay) but took the kids (boo) and didn't even hire a moped (double boo).

[Fabergé Greggs]

On 1/10/2022 at 10:23 AM, Dave_Q said:

Great car-ing, can imagine it just driving down roads and stuff all day if required, or even just sitting there on the road in readiness for such activities.

Just read back through and saw you sold the old Vespa and kept the new not-Vespa, I can see why.

I've nearly finished with this PK I've been building and whilst I do look at V-range smallframes and kinda wish I had held out for one of those, the fact they now appear to be worth PROPPA MUNNY would just mean I was scared to take it anywhere. 

As this PK is badly rattle can painted, by me, I won't mind as much when it falls over or I drop something on it in my total shit-tip of a workshop.

Hit the nail on the head regarding the Focus! Ticks more car boxes than it has any right to. 

Your PK project keeps makes me want to sort mine out! However I'm super skint at the moment and so dragged it out to reluctantly put it up for sale. But then looking at it made me want to keep it. But then I need the money. But then I really want to try and at get it running at least.. 

Then, in a weird twist of fate, I was GIVEN this GTS250 (125 badges in an attempt to make it less stealable)  by a very nice lady at my work, who I generally chat about motorbikes and cars and stuff with. She used to commute on this but it was, of course, stolen. Twice. It hasn't been used since the last time it was recovered from a ditch somewhere about 4 years ago, but I don't believe it's written off. Anyway, I said that I'd happily help her get it working some time but then today she just threw me the keys and said "have it". Result! 

It's got a flat battery, old and flat tires, the brakes are seized. But it was FREE and I love a freebie almost as much as I love a project. 

Oh, couple of other hitches: 

• It doesn't ULEZ but I think I can work around that with a certificate of conformity from Vespa. 
• I don't have a licence to ride it. Watch this space.. 

 

 

[Marm Toastsmith]

Result! Just saying, I have a license and don’t live in London… dibs?

[Dave_Q]

Free GTS?

Let me know if you need any keys or locks for it as I can make new master keys etc.

Also the GTS I had briefly (before it got stolen, obvs) was an 06 plate 250 and it came with a certificate from Piaggio that the man said got it ULEZZED but did cost him a hundred quid or 2. Taking it to Riverbank or whatever they are called nowadays might be cheaper/quicker than getting one from Piaggio.

[Ian_Fearn]

@Fabergé Greggs are you genuinely considering selling the PK? 

[Fabergé Greggs]

2 minutes ago, Ian_Fearn said:

@Fabergé Greggs are you genuinely considering selling the PK? 

Yeah, drop me a PM  

[Fabergé Greggs]

This brake is seized AF as are all the bolts. Liberal WD40 applied. It's clearly gonna need some new pads at least so I'm not worried about getting it everywhere. 

Hotwired yo!

 

Let's get at the battery then.. 

I didn't expect the charger to kick in but low and behold... 

Bit rusty under here, but some firm prodding (!) Didn't reveal any nasty rot, so I should get away with a wire brush and some rust converter (he says optimistically) 

 

[Dave_Q]

There's an immobilizer chip in the key, it won't start without the right key detected.

I really don't know why scratters attempt to steal them tbh, the immo system is not defeatable without some specialist kit. Surely after doing that level of damage to 10 or 12 scooters and never getting one started you'd think they would pick a different target?

[Fabergé Greggs]

2 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

There's an immobilizer chip in the key, it won't start without the right key detected.

I really don't know why scratters attempt to steal them tbh, the immo system is not defeatable without some specialist kit. Surely after doing that level of damage to 10 or 12 scooters and never getting one started you'd think they would pick a different target?

You can tell how many have been attempted by the cost of replacing that glovebox panel from eBay. £150 FFS!! 

[Dave_Q]

Someone on the FB group has one for 40 quid if it's not already sold.

[Fabergé Greggs]

Well something ain’t right. With a charged battery connected, nothing happens when I turn the ignition on other than the immobiliser light starts slowly flashing. The thing is, it should do this with the key in the off position. 
 

I also don’t get any dash lights or any other power, other than the seat release solenoid working. If it was purely an immobiliser issue then everything would work other than the starter.
 

Tomorrow I’ll check all the fuses and then have a go at seeing if the ignition switch is dodgy.