FatHarris - tales of a motoring moron ***All gone a bit wrong 1/7***

[fatharris]

No real update today, just noticed when getting the BX out of the garage and doing a driveway shuffle that I've never had a photo of all the cars together.

One day, I'll get them all washed and take them all to a scenic location for a mass photo. It'll be a massive logistical and financial ballache, but it'd be nice to be done just the one time.

[fatharris]

Had a quiet couple of days, just enjoying the fleet.
The BX ticked over 91k and appears to be running well. Choke is still taking some figuring out.

This week I had a delivery in the letter box:

[mention=31938]inspec71[/mention] had done a very comprehensive report of our group trip to the Netherlands for the EMWalhalla show, which made it to print, typically with a photo of the Rover and an opened bonnet (it was a levels check, I swear!) (Blurred out the text because pls buy physical magazines and keep them going!)


This weekend was a local classic show in Wendron - as we now had a couple of cars worth showing, MrsH and the boy took the Honda, and I took the BX with our daughter. 



Highlights below:

This was for sale for £6k and was resplendent in retro graphics for a local company.

BOOMER PLATE BOOMER PLATE












This came in on the back of a lorry.

Hopefully it doesn't see the road like this as the A pillar simply ceased to exist.




This was one of two silver N14 1.4 Sunny's - this one was identical to my first car.

As the show started winding down, I seized an opportunity that had been there a while, and relocated the Beat. The owner was kind enough to close the bonnet for some comparison photos and we had a lovely chat afterwards.





For perspective, the engine capacity in the Viper is over 12 times larger than the Honda  
It was a good show, and the cars received a lot more attention than I expected, particularly the BX - everyone and their dad had one back in the day!
Cheers

[Noel Tidybeard]

2 hours ago, fatharris said:

This weekend was a local classic show in Wendron - as we now had a couple of cars worth showing, MrsH and the boy took the Honda, and I took the Beat with our daughter. 

 

make your mind up!

[fatharris]

make your mind up!

Oops!

Edited

[rusty_vw_man]

Never played with a BX carb, but I have played with some other solexs over the years. 

Having a slightly high idle that doesn’t want to come down reliably I have found seems  to be either a small air leak (worn spindles were a personal nemesis) or just that the engines a little bit tired, the carb isn’t perfect and it likes an extra 50rpm. 

If it sounds nice and even I’d be inclined to call it a win and move on! 

[fatharris]

Well, today has been a sequence of shite.

First off, I noticed a new knock in the rear of the BX, so I popped under for a look.

The back box pipe had started to dislodge itself, so that was re-secured.

The LHM belt started squeaking on the way home too, so that was nipped up.

Noticed there's a bit of a squint in the run - can any BX experts confirm if this is assembled correctly?

With that done, it was onto the Rover. I'd not driven it since discovering a pretty crusty brake pipe on the OSR side. I got it onto the axle stands to get access.

Not driving it proved to be the correct move, as the pipe sheared when the union was loosened.

Thankfully, the pipe came out without too much fuss - this has been dropped off to @twosmoke300 who will make a replacement.

With that done, I still wasn't happy with the BX's idle. Did some more carb fiddling and eventually found the culprit:

This lever isn't returning to the fully relaxed position when the choke is off. I've lubricated everything throughly and will keep an eye out for a strong return spring to help things along!

And then - disaster. The battery light wasn't coming on with the ignition, and the alternator wasn't charging the battery. Thank fuck I was home!

To be honest, I was floundering a bit on this one - the initial thought was the alternator was still charging the battery but at a reduced output - pulling the negative lead off whilst the engine was running confirmed no output at all as the engine died immediately.

Next was checking the battery light bulb in the dashboard - this was serviceable, and nothing suddenly worked when I swapped it with another bulb and holder within the instrument panel.

Some multimeter probing revealed there was battery voltage present on both sides of the light holder with the ignition on, when it should have only been on one side.

The small alternator lead was checked with a test light, which was rather dim. 

This test was repeated on the rear of the instrument cluster, and it was even dimmer still - it was a very dim orange.

I've leant on Phill very heavily for advice in this fault (thanks mate) and think this has been narrowed down to a connector block above the gearbox that was minging. A quick clean with some IPA and a nail brush brought back some results.

The light was back, and cleared when the engine ran, but it was flickering dimly when applying electrical loads and the battery still wasn't being charged. Think it would benefit from being stripped and cleaned, or even reterminated.

I'm away from it until Wednesday, but sadly this means I'm unlikely to fix it before Silverstone on the Thursday.

To top it off, I'm not back from Silverstone until Monday evening, so it's a little bit unlikely that it'll even make Shitefest. As I'll only have a couple of days to work on it.

So, this means I currently only have the Beat immediately to hand. Not helpful when I've got all the camping kit and two mates to ferry up.

Gutted it has happened, but grateful it didn't happen whilst on a long trip.

Cheers .

 

[rainagain]

Sometimes it feels like they’re just fighting you all the way! Keep it up you’re doing a great job. 

[twosmoke300]

7 hours ago, fatharris said:

Well, today has been a sequence of shite.

First off, I noticed a new knock in the rear of the BX, so I popped under for a look.

The back box pipe had started to dislodge itself, so that was re-secured.

The LHM belt started squeaking on the way home too, so that was nipped up.

Noticed there's a bit of a squint in the run - can any BX experts confirm if this is assembled correctly?

With that done, it was onto the Rover. I'd not driven it since discovering a pretty crusty brake pipe on the OSR side. I got it onto the axle stands to get access.

Not driving it proved to be the correct move, as the pipe sheared when the union was loosened.

Thankfully, the pipe came out without too much fuss - this has been dropped off to @twosmoke300 who will make a replacement.

With that done, I still wasn't happy with the BX's idle. Did some more carb fiddling and eventually found the culprit:

This lever isn't returning to the fully relaxed position when the choke is off. I've lubricated everything throughly and will keep an eye out for a strong return spring to help things along!

And then - disaster. The battery light wasn't coming on with the ignition, and the alternator wasn't charging the battery. Thank fuck I was home!

To be honest, I was floundering a bit on this one - the initial thought was the alternator was still charging the battery but at a reduced output - pulling the negative lead off whilst the engine was running confirmed no output at all as the engine died immediately.

Next was checking the battery light bulb in the dashboard - this was serviceable, and nothing suddenly worked when I swapped it with another bulb and holder within the instrument panel.

Some multimeter probing revealed there was battery voltage present on both sides of the light holder with the ignition on, when it should have only been on one side.

The small alternator lead was checked with a test light, which was rather dim. 

This test was repeated on the rear of the instrument cluster, and it was even dimmer still - it was a very dim orange.

I've leant on Phill very heavily for advice in this fault (thanks mate) and think this has been narrowed down to a connector block above the gearbox that was minging. A quick clean with some IPA and a nail brush brought back some results.

The light was back, and cleared when the engine ran, but it was flickering dimly when applying electrical loads and the battery still wasn't being charged. Think it would benefit from being stripped and cleaned, or even reterminated.

I'm away from it until Wednesday, but sadly this means I'm unlikely to fix it before Silverstone on the Thursday.

To top it off, I'm not back from Silverstone until Monday evening, so it's a little bit unlikely that it'll even make Shitefest. As I'll only have a couple of days to work on it.

So, this means I currently only have the Beat immediately to hand. Not helpful when I've got all the camping kit and two mates to ferry up.

Gutted it has happened, but grateful it didn't happen whilst on a long trip.

Cheers .

 

It’s ok - your silverstone “fweends” are used to your vehicles breaking down en route

[fatharris]

It’s ok - your silverstone “fweends” are used to your vehicles breaking down en route

It's not even just Silverstone, the Laguna's tyre went egg-shaped during a trip to London with the same friend, and the year prior to that, the Omega started running like absolute shite about two miles from our destination in London.

I've asked if his Accord is free this year

[twosmoke300]

1 minute ago, fatharris said:

It's not even just Silverstone, the Laguna's tyre went egg-shaped during a trip to London with the same friend, and the year prior to that, the Omega started running like absolute shite about two miles from our destination in London.

I've asked if his Accord is free this year

Sometimes it’s quality not quantity you know 

[fatharris]

Sometimes it’s quality not quantity you know 

I was hoping with enough time/money/parts/sanity, I could achieve both.

Apparently not.

[twosmoke300]

Never mind - think of how much change you will see in your kids when you get out of the garage.

 

[fatharris]

1 minute ago, twosmoke300 said:

Never mind - think of how much change you will see in your kids when you get out of the garage.

 

Apparently I've got a second kid?

News to me.

[EyesWeldedShut]

5 minutes ago, fatharris said:

Apparently I've got a second kid?

News to me.

One of my nightmares:
<knock, knock>
Opens door to find thirty something, hirsute geezer on doorstep.

"Daddy".

[twosmoke300]

1 minute ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

One of my nightmares:
<knock, knock>
Opens door to find thirty something, hirsute geezer on doorstep.

"Daddy".

I have similar nightmares about owning a bx and trying to use it as actual transport