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Christmas Collection, With A Bit Of Help From Shiply!


Andrew353w

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Thanks for your comments, LightBulbFun! The procedure was meteoric in speed, especially as I sent for papers over the Christmas and New Year! I joined the Skoda Club via their website and, using the details supplied by the D.V.L.A. as to whom I should contact in the club, called the guy on 23rd. December. He advised me to post as much corroborating evidence as I could to him; this included pictures of the front, back & sides of the car, together with the original beige-coloured log book and bill of sale from the original garage. I also enclosed pictures of the original plates. I posted the package on 23rd Dec. and he returned it on 1st Jan., duly authorised. I then posted the package on to the D.V.L.A., who sent me the new log book on 13th Jan. In short, the efficiency of this has staggered me; less then 3 weeks from start to finish AND over the Christmas  break-not bad! 

There are a few things I want to correct, including the original date of registration and the engine number. The original beige  log book should be evidence enough of the original date of registration. As to the engine number, there's an endorsement on the beige log book, showing the engine size to have been  changed from 1089cc to 1221 cc, but the engine number wasn't changed. The number in the log-book starts with "11", indicating a 1089cc engine, but in reality, the number on the engine in the car starts with a "12", as per a 1221cc engine, for an Octavia "Super" but the car isn't badged as a "Super"..... More investigations may be needed! Thanks for all your positive comments and suggestions, and yes, I DID have all the papers and pictures safely returned! Picture of engine number here:

 

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  • 1 month later...

Just a short update on my Skoda Octavia. During the last month I've not had much opportunity to tinker with the car, but the D.V.L.A. have come up trumps again! Having successfully managed to bring the old registration number "back to life", I sent the new log book back to Swansea with a covering note, explaining that the engine is a 1221cc one, not the 1089cc one, and also asking for the date of first registration to be altered to 28th August 1961, as opposed to the 1984 date. I sent a copy of the original beige log book as evidence of both these changes and within a fortnight another new log book arrived, showing all the alterations! Result! 

The battery size is enormous! It's the same size as goes into a V.W. camper van, which is pretty big! I've gapped & fitted new plugs (a rather odd size!) and the car now runs.... or rather it runs with the help of easy-start being sprayed into the carb! The oil warning light seems temperamental, sometimes going out & sometimes staying on, but I'm not panicking yet, as the oil's been in the sump for 15 years & I plan to change it pretty soon anyway. I'll use some flushing oil too.   

Having put the battery in, I've discovered the headlights are rubbish! They're 35/35 watt "symmetrical" dipping ones, which means:

1/ they're pitifully dim!

2/ unlike most headlights, they just dip downwards, but NOT to the left. That's what "symmetrical dipping" means....

Does anyone know where I could buy some 155mm glass headlamp lenses?

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  • 1 month later...

Dear fellow Autoshiters, I need a bit of help with the Skoda Octavia, well, its keys....

When I bought the car I was given a set of keys, consisting of an ignition and a door key; both keys were worn, so I sent them to a specialist company in Brighton, who cut a spare set for me, and posted them back, via Royal Mail Special Delivery (how many of you know which way this is going now...) Owing to the Coronavirus situation, Royal Mail no longer collect signatures to confirm delivery of the package..... BUT, on this particular day I was at home, recovering from my Coronavirus vaccine injection, so I know it wasn't delivered. To cut a long story short, i'm TWO sets of keys down & I can't start the car! 

Has anyone tried to have a key cut from the barrel? I've easily removed the barrel from the dashboard, but wondered if it's possible to have a key cut, using the barrel as a template. Any thoughts?   

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  • 2 months later...

Not really a Christmas collection thread any more, but things have nevertheless been progressing. The ignition key barrel and key have been returned to me, duly repaired and I've fitted the barrel back into the car's dashboard. Pragos, an excellent Czech source of classic Skoda parts have supplied a new fuel pump, which I've fitted and confirmed that it works properly. I've also disconnected the electric fuel pump that the previous owner had mounted on the engine bay inner wing, although I've yet to remove it. The car now runs happily with petrol being pumped from a 5 litre can, via the new pump, to the carburettor. What's more....I've driven the car, under its own steam, up and down the access road to my lock-up, in first and reverse gear.  HEYYYYY! 
 
The fuel line to the tank is not blocked, as I confirmed by using a piece of rubber hose to connect my tyre pump and blowing compressed air into the line, removing the tank filler cap and hearing loads of bubbling! I still want to remove the entire contents of the tank, both old and new petrol, muck and associated crud. I'll do this by removing the tank from the boot (it's only held in by a couple of bolts & the hose to the engine bay) and flushing it out in the open air, carefully......  Once done, I'll re-fit and confirm the new pump can draw fuel from the tank correctly.
 
The headlamp re-chroming has been postponed sine die as I've now rebuilt both headlamp units using rubber parts from Pragos and will fit these back onto the car very soon. I still find it incredible that Skoda supplied these cars with pathetic 35/35 watt headlamp bulbs! Continuing on the electrical theme, my shenanigans with the wiring have prompted the windscreen wipers and heater fan back to life! Previously these items were dead, but, perhaps as a result of my tightening of the screw terminals on the back of the ignitions switch, these now work! Another few jobs ticked off the "to do" list....

To be honest we're a long way from driving the car on the open road, but progress is being made!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I removed the petrol gauge, as it was constantly reading "full", only to find it's a strange design, with an ignition live feed and TWO wires going back to the tank, which in turn is earthed to the car's chassis. While I had the gauge out of the car I checked it, using a 12 volt battery; with a live 12 volts to the "+", I earthed the other two terminals in turn, which produced a "empty" for one side and a "full" for the other, so the gauge's working fine! I can't fathom out in my mind how the float's movements are reflected in the gauge's movements, though. Maybe I'm thick, but all the gauges I've seen before have ONE wire going to the tank, which passes lass or more voltage, depending on the level of the float. Why would a car such like this have so complex a gauge, or am I missing something? 

Has anyone come across this arrangement before?   

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21 hours ago, Andrew353w said:

I removed the petrol gauge, as it was constantly reading "full", only to find it's a strange design, with an ignition live feed and TWO wires going back to the tank, which in turn is earthed to the car's chassis. While I had the gauge out of the car I checked it, using a 12 volt battery; with a live 12 volts to the "+", I earthed the other two terminals in turn, which produced a "empty" for one side and a "full" for the other, so the gauge's working fine! I can't fathom out in my mind how the float's movements are reflected in the gauge's movements, though. Maybe I'm thick, but all the gauges I've seen before have ONE wire going to the tank, which passes lass or more voltage, depending on the level of the float. Why would a car such like this have so complex a gauge, or am I missing something? 

Has anyone come across this arrangement before?   

its not a case where the Gauge has a built in regulator so it takes 12V, in and spits out a known fixed regulated voltage say 10V which as its pulled further to ground by the potentiometer in the sender unit, moves the needle on the gauge accordingly? is it?

hence why it has 2 wires going to the tank, 1 is the regulated voltage output to the sender and the other is the "sense" line coming back from the tank

(I know most Lucas systems have an external voltage regulator for powering the gauges a fixed voltage, as a fluctuating voltage would affect the fuel gauge reading and so on)

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Thanks, LightBulbFun, your thoughts have helped. There's no voltage regulator in the circuitry or wiring, which might explain the way it's set up. Thinking about it more (beats counting sheep.....) I've worked it out to this: the two wires running from the gauge to the tank are connected to 2 sides of the electro-magnet inside the gauge and to either side of the float, which is in turn earthed via the tank, to the car's frame. When the tank's full of petrol the float rises, so more current passes through the wire connected to the "full" side of the gauge, moving the needle to indicate this. As the level of fuel drops, less current passes through the "full" side and more through the "empty" wire, thus reducing the reading on the fuel gauge. Simple, when you think about it! 

As if that weren't strange enough, the temperature gauge isn't shown on the electrical diagram at all....because it's a tele-thermometer! What I had thought was an insulated wire, running to the sender in the cylinder head....isn't! The "sender unit" (if I can call it that!) expands a wire in a Boden cable, which moves the needle in the gauge. Presumably therefore it works regardless of whether the ignition is on or off, so you can see if the cylinder head is becoming hotter after turning off the engine without having to leave the ignition on! Clever buggers, these Czechs! Talk about "thinking outside the box".....

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Ah... Fuel level + Surprising (always!) :)

My Estelle, when cornered 'enthusiastically' [well... I was driving an IMP before buying it] , the fuel needle shot 'UP ... >> ... DOWN' etc. Moreso with a nominal, say, third full.

The gauge is 'hot wire', not bi-metallic, and directly reports gauge sender variations.....

YES..... My wife & I both laughed and she did encourage me to 'maximise the deflection' lol (aye, shes a keeper).

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