FatHarris - tales of a motoring moron ***Bank holiday fixing bonanza 27/5***

[hairnet]

elk merk waardig

[High Jetter]

5 minutes ago, hairnet said:

elk merk waardig

Even w3w can't locate that 🤣

[fatharris]

Waiting for the Chunnel.

Luckily I've got some light reading with me.

Shame I can't read Dutch, mind.

[Jenson Velcro]

Looks like you may be on the same crossing as @Mr_Bo11ox in the Simca

[fatharris]

The 1100 with the grey rear quarter? We waved and had a chuckle at each other but he got on the earlier one I believe!

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

[Mr_Bo11ox]

That was indeed me!!! 

[fatharris]

That was indeed me!!! 

Well purchased, she looks excellent!

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

[Dick Longbridge]

Small world!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Small world, big shite network!!

[fatharris]

Just got home.

1052 miles covered this weekend.

39.3MPG achieved over three tanks.

I'll do a full write up later 😁

[fatharris]

Yesterday afternoon, I pulled my finger out and fitted the correct gaskets to the MX5s cat.

Dropped it off the test station before they closed, as the retest window closed today.

Thankfully, whilst at work, I received the good news:

So, I picked it up from the test centre after work, and whipped the battery out to go back into the BX for some more work.

First up was investigating the coolant sensor issue. Various wiring checks were conducted to ascertain we were getting the correct voltage into the black box, but the was no voltage on the sensor plug itself.

Narrowed the fault down to this plug which had corrosion to all the terminals.

Replaced all the contacts, and cleaned up the contacts on the black box.

And success!

With the car running, I set the ignition timing - it was almost spot on, so it only needed a tiny tweak.

Next job was an easy one - I bled the front brakes, which is simply a base of propping the brake pedal on, and cracking the bleed nipple. Rears will be done at some point soon.

With that job done, it was time to re-bleed the cooling system, and it hasn't gone well. Despite replacing the copper washer several times, it still weeps from just under the screw thread.

I'm going to source some fibre washers to try and get it to seal better.

As an additional annoyance, the coolant temperature didn't go past 65, despite running for nearly 20 minutes until it ran out of fuel. Guessing there's still an airlock somewhere, the thermostat is new and it did get to 95 on Thursday so I'm a bit confused.

Anyway, now it's had a couple of heat cycles, I took the middle timing belt cover off, slackened and re-torqued the timing belt tensioner nuts.

Reassembled everything and cranked it over on the starter - thankfully no horrid noises!

Cheers.

[fatharris]

First thing this morning, I hit the parts catalogue and called the main dealers - thankfully, they had some correct bleed screws and washers in stock, so I swung by after work.

Annoyingly, this STILL wouldn't stop weeping, so I had to resort to a wee bodge with silicone.

This ended up working, the coolant was successfully bled, wasn't leaking and the car reached the required temperature, with the cooling fan kicking in when required:

Finally, I could resume the rebuild.

Air filter housing and associated ductwork first.

Then the wings and inner trims:

And finally, the front bumper, bonnet, scuttle, headlights and wiper arm - this got a new blade.

The old front blade was moved to the rear as it was still okay and better than the rear:

With that done, I refitted the wheels, kicked the ramps underneath, fired the car up and raised the height. The fluid was low so I gave it another splash.

Reversed it off the ramps and onto all four wheels again.

 

As I've already bled the front brakes, I torqued the bolts up and fitted the trims.

Not much left to go now!

Annoyingly, despite it working perfectly a couple of months ago, the headlight switch is now not latching the high beam on, so the race is on to find a replacement before the MOT on Wednesday.

Cheers.

[Sigmund Fraud]

18 minutes ago, fatharris said:

Annoyingly, despite it working perfectly a couple of months ago, the headlight switch is now not latching the high beam on, so the race is on to find a replacement before the MOT on Wednesday.

Are you sure it's the switch, rather than the relay ?

[fatharris]

Are you sure it's the switch, rather than the relay ?

Unsure - the high beam works when pulled back, but it doesn't feel clicky when I pull it back.

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

[Sigmund Fraud]

4 minutes ago, fatharris said:

Unsure - the high beam works when pulled back, but it doesn't feel clicky when I pull it back.

I'd try the free fixes first - pull the relay out and give it a good shake, then drown the base of the stalk in contact cleaner. Hopefully that will fix it, and save paying a fortune (by AS standards) for a new stalk.

[fatharris]

I'd try the free fixes first - pull the relay out and give it a good shake, then drown the base of the stalk in contact cleaner. Hopefully that will fix it, and save paying a fortune (by AS standards) for a new stalk.

I'll be getting onto that tomorrow evening as a priority, cheers!

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

There is just something about these BX's that really do it for me.  Never had one, the family have never had one, only been in one once for literally 5 mins........but if you'll forgive me a yoda moment and say 'much want there is in this one'!  Looks like you're doing a cracking job and when you get it out on the road you can give yourself a proper metaphoric pat on the back, unless you've arms like a particularly long-armed orangutan?

 

 

[fatharris]

9 minutes ago, Oi_Oi_Savaloy said:

There is just something about these BX's that really do it for me.  Never had one, the family have never had one, only been in one once for literally 5 mins........but if you'll forgive me a yoda moment and say 'much want there is in this one'!  Looks like you're doing a cracking job and when you get it out on the road you can give yourself a proper metaphoric pat on the back, unless you've arms like a particularly long-armed orangutan?

 

 

It was a five minute drive of @twosmoke300s early BX that got me interested in them, as well as my previous Xantia 😁

[mat_the_cat]

I have in my possession a spare stalk (which I previously sold to @Sunny Jim - it's a long story!) If he is OK with selling to you I could post it out.

[twosmoke300]

Well done mate , it will look nice when you put the correct indicators back on it .

 

[fatharris]

2 hours ago, twosmoke300 said:

Well done mate , it will look nice when you put the correct indicators back on it .

 

Give over, it looks better in ginger and you know it!

Wonder how you feel about yellow headlight tints? Could make it proper French then

[twosmoke300]

looks gash and wrong , as bad as fitting black n silver no plate and you know it

 

[mk2_craig]

BXs look cool no matter what colour lights. Black plates only on actual French registered cars though please

[twosmoke300]

It’s no Mk1 😂

[fatharris]

Quiet day today.

Started with having a check underneath for any leaks - thankfully nothing spotted.

Went on to secure the battery, bleed the rear brakes, fit the spare wheel and carrier, rear wheel trims, and dragged it out into the sunshine for the first time in months.

It was absolutely filthy, so I ran a bucket and sponge over it to get rid of the dust coating that had enveloped the car during its tenure in the garage.

Came up pretty nicely!

Then I spent a pair of hours tidying the garage up because it was carnage in there, before lowering it to normal height and driving it back in the garage for the night. I'll check the height tomorrow and see if there are any leaks again.

I've hopefully sourced a light stalk to fit, then a quick spruce up of the interior and it'll finally be finished and ready for an MOT, and we will see what that entails. If the light stalk doesn't arrive in time then it'll still go in for test and we'll see what happens with that. 

Getting so close I can taste it now! 😁

Cheers.

[fatharris]

On 15/05/2024 at 22:18, Sigmund Fraud said:

I'd try the free fixes first - pull the relay out and give it a good shake, then drown the base of the stalk in contact cleaner. Hopefully that will fix it, and save paying a fortune (by AS standards) for a new stalk.

Just to give closure to this, the stalk is at fault - yanking it hard and fast (OO-ER) will make the high beams latch on, so somethings clearly not good with the switch internals.

[Sigmund Fraud]

1 hour ago, fatharris said:

Just to give closure to this, the stalk is at fault - yanking it hard and fast (OO-ER) will make the high beams latch on, so somethings clearly not good with the switch internals.

PSA stuff from the era are prone to dust etc. creeping into the contact surfaces of the stalks and making the switches misbehave - did you try the contact cleaner trick ?

I see that the magic of Autoshite means a replacement stalk will be delivered to you soon, but this thread suggests you've done enough work already so if you can avoid taking the steering wheel, cowling etc. off it will be a bonus !

[fatharris]

PSA stuff from the era are prone to dust etc. creeping into the contact surfaces of the stalks and making the switches misbehave - did you try the contact cleaner trick ?
I see that the magic of Autoshite means a replacement stalk will be delivered to you soon, but this thread suggests you've done enough work already so if you can avoid taking the steering wheel, cowling etc. off it will be a bonus !

Absolutely agree, I'll give the contact cleaner a go, never hurts to have spares though, this car seems to go through these stalks!

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

[fatharris]

Ah, fuck it, I'm meant to be heading out the door on the beers but I wanted to get this update out.

First off, massive, massive thanks to @500tops for being an absolute bloody legend and dropping off the headlight switch off at my house when the timings got mucked up and I couldn't meet him - he wouldn't take any money for it, so we dealt in the international currency - cans of beer 😅

Straight away, the clicking mechanism felt a lot more positive than on the current one, so I thought there was no point in fart-arsing around, let's get it changed.

Battery disconnected, steering wheel off and cowlings removed/unshipped for access.

Whilst there were no part numbers on the switch to check, they looked the same, with the exception of the metal cage that contains the anchor nuts to secure the stalk to the column - this was easily transposed over with the help of a flat bladed screwdriver.

Screwed it back into the column, connected the battery, bolted everything back together and gave it a shot.

SUCCESS!

Last piece of the puzzle was done by Austin - fitting the badge back on the steering wheel.

With the list of jobs looking bare:

I'd say that finally, the BX is MOT-ready.

Just needs a little wipe down and hoover of the interior which I'll do tomorrow afternoon, because I'm going to be hung over to hell tomorrow morning!

Cheers all, have a great weekend.

[Tickman]

Bloody well done