FatHarris - tales of a motoring moron *Rover Dead?*

[fatharris]

56 minutes ago, IronStar said:

Do you want it / need it? I have a crate of beer money ready for it if you don’t 😄

It's yours mate, it'll need a new glass because it's cracked but I'm sure that's not beyond your means to replace!

I don't have the means to test it, but cover P&P and it's yours 😎

[fatharris]

Early start yesterday as we congregated for the trip up to Shitefest.

I was very pleasantly surprised to see @twosmoke300 turn up in his LNA -unbenownst to me (he told me he was coming in his Ducato) he had been beavering away at it to get it back on the road for the trip!

The SMax belonged to Dan, and the Terrano belonged to Pete - he bought it for £500 off FB marketplace with the description stating it had 'overheated, but only once'. Pete, being ever optimistic, slapped a bottle of Steel Seal in and set off.

For 25 miles.

This was duly abandoned in a car park, Pete hopped into the LNA and we continued onwards.

We stopped for breakfast at the Brightside roadside diner which was appropriately shite-themed.

Aware of the journey being asked of the Citroens after both having long lay-up periods (the LNA had been off the road since 2002!) we preplanned a route away from constant motorways, and popped through Cheddar Gorge, where we stopped for a quick Wollard of us and our cars.

Eventually, after a quick dogleg through Wales, we arrived.

The LNA and BX did excellently, with the LNA averaging 54MPG. The BX wasn't filled up, but had covered 330 miles and still has a third of a tank left.

Conscious of the fact this is the longest journey the BX has done in years, I popped a spark plug out to check the mixture. Phill had told me the rear end smelled very fuel-y from the rear so I was keen to check.

The good news is the plug was biscuit brown so the mixture was fine, the bad news was this:

ARSES. Thankfully fellow Shiter John (I'm sorry, I forgot your username already!) had a spare GM plug that matched the size and depth of the original and the car started so I'm happy.

Friday was lovely, with a few beers and chinwags with everyone.

Today, Phill had a special delivery from the Shitely express:

It is a Honda Camino 50 pedal and pop bike which was last on the road in 2000 according to the battered tax disc.

Even came with a free helmet, a Kangol from the 80s that was exceptionally dusty!

Unfortunately, the piston is seized solid, so it's time to heat and beat various parts to make it move - progress is painfully slow, but progress none the less.

Hopes of getting it running by the end of the weekend are fading but we still remain optimistic!

Cheers 😁

[fatharris]

So, we tried our best, releasing the piston, which then revealed the piston rings were stuck in.

 

This took an eternity to free up, and despite hours of fault finding, adjustments, and a shitload of pedalling, brake cleaner and fuel, the most we could muster was a few pops, some smoke and a little bit of running on but ultimately it failed to run.

Fuck it.

Time for a beer.

[fatharris]

Afree a lovely BBQ with the rest of the AS crew, we all ended up having an early night - we were bloody knackered from the Camino tinkering!

With the cars all loaded up and ready to go, we set off around 0840, with us taking the direct route as we all had faith the cars would make it with no dramas.

All three of the vehicles were behaving themselves, with only one stop required to nip up the squealing LHM belt on the BX.

Citroens doing Citroen things with proper roly-poly bodies 😁😬

Eventually, 25 miles from home, the convoy pulled over to deal with an errant straggler from the way up.

Yep, the Terrano was collected from the car park and we set back off, with Pete checking the temperature gauge like a hawk 😅

After a short while, we all arrived at the finish line - the cars had all made it! The Terrano is likely to have a head gasket change very soon. 

From my perspective the BX was superb, averaging 46mpg on the entire trip - Phill and Dan did comment that the exhaust absolutely reeks of fuel, but the consumption was fine, as were the plugs. Will need investigation in due course.

Fast forward to today and I spent an evening tidying up the garage, stowing everything from the camping trip.

Now it was clean and tidy, I immediately set about making it a shit tip again by opening the package that arrived from Japan:

In the box were the following items: 

New full roof skin

Roof fixtures and fittings

2 x Air filters

Dizzy cap

Rotor arm

Spare blank key

Timing belt tensioner spring

Expansion cap tank

The Laguna has now gone into the garage, and it has quite a large work package to go through this week in preparation for the MOT next month.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to start it tomorrow, but MrsH is in the Rover for  now, which suits her just fine 😁

Cheers!

[fatharris]

Well, MrsH called me at 0830 with a nervous tone.

'Don't get mad, but....'

Obviously my mind was racing.

'I wound down the window on the Rover and it won't come back up, it's moved to the other side of the seal!'

With a photo sent to assure me it has been professionally sealed from the weather:

I dragged the Laguna out of the garage with the kids seats in and drove to her workplace, with the intention of swapping cars so I can get this fixed before the Laguna gets dismantled.

In the end, it was a ten second job in the carpark to re-seat the window in the correct runner so I left her with the Rover and headed for home.

Whilst heading back, I was following a white Panda and noticed the exhaust was shaking quite a lot. After a bit more time following, I noticed the rear wheel was also not rolling smoothly and was shuddering horribly. Mindful that I was a lone bloke and the driver was a lone young female, I tried repeatedly to flag her down and get her attention, until eventually she noticed me and pulled into an Aldi car park.

I was right, the carcass of the tyre wasn't right. I offered to help her change to the space saver wheel, which turned out to be low, but @twosmoke300's garage was two minutes away so I popped over with it to put some air in and changed the wheel for her.

The photo doesn't highlight how out of true the tyre was - something wasn't right with it and it was only three years old!

Either way, she was grateful for the help, and I got home just in time to leave for the school run.

Once back, it was time to get stuck into the Renault, with removing everything I needed to replace.

Last year, I tried to change both track rod ends - one side came off, but the other side was seized solid. We want this car to hang around for a lot longer, so they needed removing.

Absolute bastard of a job to do on axle stands.

Hated it so much I did it twice 🤣 was worth doing both sides as the gaiters were starting to perish.

Next up, the suspension units we coming out for new top mounts. Turns out I need the bearings at the bottom though, the tops were fine, but we'll get those changed at the same time.

Then it was the turn of the catalytic converter.

This was the main job needed, as it was horribly rattly and was starting to affect performance.

Not hard to see why, mind.

The replacement one is slightly longer so I guess some of that will be chopped off, but that's a job for another day.

Cheers!

[fatharris]

Today was a one-job kind of day, and boy was it a doozy.

Throwing myself headfirst into the Laguna's timing belt, although I was pretty crap at taking photos today.

Halfway through the strip - finding TDC was a pain in the arse for this, thankfully the Laguna has had a belt in the past so there were tipped marks present, which helped massively.

Access to the required parts was actually pretty decent, fair play to Renault.

Old belt visible, thankfully not in horrendous condition.

Idler pulley changed, the tensioner pulley was changed too.

New belt and pulleys in. Despite being a manual tensioner, tightening the belt was a walk in the park, as there was a threaded screw hole in the upper timing belt cover which allowed you to screw an M6 bolt in to press against the tensioner.

Belt went around on the crank pulley half a dozen times, until I got it lined back up to fit the locking rod into the block.

All the timing marks were checked, double checked and checked again for good measure.

All looking good.

With the engine mount refitted, I went for a test start and nearly shat myself, as I forgot I had the catalytic converter removed so the Laguna was in full rally mode 🤣

The remaining rebuild for this job is getting done tomorrow, but for now, the all-important sticker was popped on.

The old belt was starting to show signs of cracking - with no history or clue when the belt was previously changed, we'd been playing cambelt roulette for over five years, so we got lucky!

Cheers!

[fatharris]

Busy day pottering about on the Laguna today. Minimal photos though!

First up, I finished reassembling the engine after the timing belt change. There's a bit of a whirr when revved, but to be honest I can't remember wjat it sounded like before and I've double checked the tension of the belt.

Today was the turn of the exhaust, which was an exercise in fucking about. The centre box was removed to allow fitment of the cat.

The centre box is getting quite careworn and will need changing at some point. Refitting this arrangement turned into a bit of an ordeal - it was obviously a tight fit to assemble, then I had an issue with the backbox clamp snapping and I ordered the wrong one - right one ordered.

Either way, the cat has been fitted. As the centre box input pipe was getting crusty and delicate so I applied some exhaust tape and got a new clamp on it.

Onto the next job of the day -  the inner tie rods. I assembled them on the bench and crawled back underneath to fit them.

The steering rack boots were also replaced, as was the OSF track rod ends (NSF was changed last year).

The boots were a bit of a bastard - unbelievably tight but eventually with a little smear of rubber grease they went in.

Didn't photo it but I did use the last of the Lanoguard to spray the corrosion hotspots on the underside. Will look at buying another bottle soon.

Tomorrow is Wadebridge Wheels, one of the biggest classic car shows in the South west, with over a thousand exhibits on show. Dan is taking the BX up and I've taking the Beat. I was meant to wash them both but it's been torrential rain here all day. Bugger.

Cheers!

[fatharris]

Up at 6am to wash cars, what the hell has happened?

I used to be cool, I swear.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

We aren't able to make it to WW this year, so I'm relying on you to pap some photos of the cars on show! I bet yesterday's weather didn't help anything either. 

[fatharris]

5 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

We aren't able to make it to WW this year, so I'm relying on you to pap some photos of the cars on show! I bet yesterday's weather didn't help anything either. 

Here's my view from the Beat 😁

[Dick Cheeseburger]

37 minutes ago, fatharris said:

Here's my view from the Beat 😁

Oof, that yellow Cherry!

[fatharris]

Big photo dump from Wadebridge Wheels 2024. For some reason, the portrait ones won't insert correctly, despite rotating it several times on the PC.

The BX and Beat drew plenty of interested people keen to chat about it, and both made it home safe and sound.

 

Edited July 21 by fatharris
Added camera photos to this post as the links weren't working in Tapatalk.

[hairnet]

cherry cherry

bluebird oof

legacy oof

[MorrisItalSLX]

I’m in love with that Automatic Princess!

[fatharris]

Very quiet week on the cars this week.

 

Only thing that happened was the shock struts were sorted by Dan - removing the old components highlighted a snapped spring so that was duly ordered.

The Renaults of this era use a different setup - the steering is done on a bearing on the bottom spring support.

The bearings on this were...how do I put this delicately? Absolutely fucked.

(You can see the snapped spring in the background too)

Luckily some new ones were fitted.

It was observed that the shocks themselves were pretty crusty and I didn't fancy going through all this in a couple of years, so I wirebrushed the NSF one and applied Lanoguard Moto Grease to it with a paint brush. Loads of people said it is a pain to apply because it's near solid, but a few seconds on the tub with a heat gun worked an absolute treat.

Unfortunately, the offside front unit didn't respond well to the wirebrushing and rust scraping.

Whilst that spring cup is technically removable, there are no spares available online, so the shock is scrap.

Luckily, eBay produced a pair of Monroe shocks for £65 delivered and they'll be here on Tuesday. A bit unlucky but there's no point doing a half assed job.

Instead, I cleaned, wirebrushed and Moto greased the underside of the chassis shock mounting points, and anywhere that was exhibiting signs of bubbling paint or corrosion.

I've also got a new set of ARB links as well, to help freshen the area. Big poke in the eye for Toyosports, who sold me a pair on eBay, only sent one in the post, then shrugged their shoulders and offered a half refund when I complained about this. Dickheads.

Should make some more progress this week, after the wife's birthday of course. 

Cheers.

[grogee]

Thanks for the show pics @fatharris.

@scaryoldcortina do you know anything about the XR6? I'm assuming it's a South African import? 

[fatharris]

New shocks arrived yesterday.

First issue, they don't come with spring cups, which is what I bought them for in the first place.

 

Second issue:

They wouldn't fit on the hub anyway.

Fucks sake! They've now gone back to the seller for a refund and Dan is sourcing spring cups to go on the old dampers.

I'll probably pull my finger out and get some work done elsewhere today as I've not touched it in over a week.

[fatharris]

Spoke too soon, didn't I?

MrsH just dropped the little one off at the nursery and has informed me the Rover has a binding rear caliper.

Winner 🤦‍♂️

[fatharris]

*Sigh*

It was absolutely bloody blazing today and I had the privilege of getting the Rover roadworthy again.

I've ordered a new caliper for it, but I figured it would be worth trying to get it sorted beforehand.

The MGRover group expert John McFeely (RIP) wrote a good guide  to freeing up the caliper in situ.

With it lightly stripped, exercised and lubratied, it should be a large improvement.

There was an odd squeaking whenever I rotated the brake disc, even with the caliper and pads off, so I removed the disc to find the source.

The heat shield has crumbled slightly and was the cause for all the noise! A quick wirebrush, blast with the airline and a dose of GT85 where the two surfaces meet and we were in business!

Quick test drive revealed all worked well, with no major differences in the temperature across the axle, so that's back on the road in time for MrsH to take it to work tomorrow.

As for the Laguna, unfortunately the part Dan got from the factors was the top mount which I don't need.

Pulled my finger out and got online and eventually found a set in Germany, so they'll find their way to me at some point.

Cheers!

[fatharris]

A very slow fortnight.

First things first, the BXs LHM belt started squealing again. This was a regular occurrence, requiring retightening every 500-ish miles, so clearly something was up.

Looking at the run, the belt seemed somewhat squint in the run around the tensioner pulley.

As it was apart for months, I think I must have reassembled the alternator bracket and tensioner pulley in the wrong configuration so I dismantled it and fitted the pulley inboard of the bracket.

An inspection of the installed belt had highlighted uneven, accelerated wear, the left hand side in the photo is worn to a longer flat than the right.

The original, pre-rebuild belt was fitted and the run seems a lot squarer now so hopefully that's the end of that.

We took the BX and the Beat to a show and all worked well. There's a slow drip of LHM from the OSR suspension unit but nothing to cry about.

Then I had to down tools on everything as I sustained a fracture in the radial head of my left arm. Thankfully it appears to be healing nicely and I've got most of my movement back, the strength will follow in the coming weeks.

My brother's wife came over from the Netherlands for a UK visit, so she had the kids for the night whilst MrsH and I celebrated her 30th birthday and our 10th wedding anniversary.

Luckily, the restaurant had our date night itinerary laid out for us!

One of the other benefits from my sister in law coming over was she had some car parts for the Laguna in her boot - namely, the front suspension strut spring cups from Germany!

I was surprised to note that these are OEM ones too, although the part number differed from the one given by the Renault dealership in the UK.

The website seems to think they'll work though, so we'll find out!

And that's me for a while, I'll drop the shocks off to have the parts changed over, but the Laguna is now out of MOT so any illusions of a test drive will have to be done on the drive to the MOT.

Cheers!

[HillmanImp]

Did I see @fatharris driving the BX through Hayle earlier or was that another one? I saw it to late to catch the reg. 

[fatharris]

46 minutes ago, HillmanImp said:

Did I see @fatharris driving the BX through Hayle earlier or was that another one? I saw it to late to catch the reg. 

You absolutely did!

We went into Hayle to play some Crazy Golf 😅 I did see an early Almera and the occupants had a little snoop over it.

Not much to report on vehicle updates - only major thing of note was the BX.

Last weekend, it completed my annual pilgrimage from Cornwall to the Peaks District - this job is normally entrusted to the Beat, but the steering is still a bit too heavy for my arm.

It performed the job admirably - I didn't even bring a tool kit with me on the journey! It averaged 46mpg on the journey, and aside from an intermittent high idle on the way home (a sticky linkage within the choke capsule is the suspect as it cleared with a jab of the throttle), it was excellent and I now trust it fully.

Cheers 😁

 

[HillmanImp]

On 27/08/2024 at 21:19, fatharris said:

You absolutely did!

We went into Hayle to play some Crazy Golf 😅 I did see an early Almera and the occupants had a little snoop over it.

Not much to report on vehicle updates - only major thing of note was the BX.

Last weekend, it completed my annual pilgrimage from Cornwall to the Peaks District - this job is normally entrusted to the Beat, but the steering is still a bit too heavy for my arm.

It performed the job admirably - I didn't even bring a tool kit with me on the journey! It averaged 46mpg on the journey, and aside from an intermittent high idle on the way home (a sticky linkage within the choke capsule is the suspect as it cleared with a jab of the throttle), it was excellent and I now trust it fully.

Cheers 😁

 

I saw the BX and thought it was you in it but didn't catch the reg. 

Am down there on holiday and was just popping out for some tea, was in the Elgrand as all my other cars are far to economical to drive 450 miles, as I like to make life as financially difficult as possible. 

I could've bought another car and driven it here with all the fuel I've used and I'm still here. I could've bought another by the time I got back. 

Or I could just buy something from HMC and leave this lump here..... Where's his thread?........ 

[fatharris]

I saw the BX and thought it was you in it but didn't catch the reg. 
Am down there on holiday and was just popping out for some tea, was in the Elgrand as all my other cars are far to economical to drive 450 miles, as I like to make life as financially difficult as possible. 
I could've bought another car and driven it here with all the fuel I've used and I'm still here. I could've bought another by the time I got back. 
Or I could just buy something from HMC and leave this lump here..... Where's his thread?........ 

Was it a white one? Think it was W reg?

If so, consider yourself spotted too

[twosmoke300]

No updates for a bit ? Whole fleet must be running faultlessly . Hell of an achievement given how terrible they all are . 

[Jenson Velcro]

Too busy juggling spares and spanners? I don’t know where he gets the time, energy and enthusiasm, especially with a young family. Kudos 

[fatharris]

Phill is being facetious because he knows what has happened since the last update.

As expected, I'm still not doing much with cars as I continue to rest and let the arm recover as much as possible within reason.

The new spring arrived for the other Laguna shock absorber, and it was bad news - the spring overhang over the spring cup was too risky for us to chance it.

The cheeky money saving option has now fully failed and I've had to spend 2.5x that amount for the correct cups which are located in France so they'll take a while.

Feeling a bit down, I figured I'd get Herman fired up and running for a bit. He doesn't really require too much for the MOT but has been sat for several months, and not fared well. That being said, a donor battery was hung in place and he started up first time and moved to the car wash spot with no fuss.

This rear quarter is by far the worst part of the car.

Unfortunately, whilst moving the car around, I like to have the window down so I can get a better view etc for shuffling. The window made an awful graunching nose on the way up, and stopped moving.

Ah, that'll be why then.

Either way, Herman was given a wash to remove all the moss and shite off.

I've got a replacement battery and window regulator on the way too, so that and a tickle with the sparkly stick on the exhaust should hopefully see an MOT.

Not pictured, but I declared the Laguna SORN and immediately taxed the MX5 from 01 Sep - I've not used it at all last year, and barely touched it last year. Time to change that.

Finally, today was my 10th wedding anniversary. We took the BX to the next town over for a mooch and some tapas, filling it up on the way home. As it was payday, we decided to take the Rover to the petrol station for a fill up too.

This was a nightmare, as the rear caliper decided to bind back on again, so we pulled into the nearest car park, 1/2 miles from our house. Putting the handbrake on and off again seemed to clear this fault, so I drove it home.

When I got back, I noticed that the suspension on the passenger front side wheel was properly tucked into the wheel arch, with absolutely zero bounce on the suspension in that corner.

After a bit of one-handed faffing, I got the trolley jack under the side jacking point (car was now too low for the central one), gave it a little pump, and the wheel was already in the air - the shock was stuck in!

A few more pumps, stopped only to push the wheel down a bit until the suspension had bottomed out gave me enough reason to assume that the shock itself had bent or failed.

I've got a set of two ordered from eBay and I'll be changing the rear caliper to clean the fault.

All in all,  I'm tired and cranky, but on the way up. Watch this space.

Cheers!

[fatharris]

Well, time to crack on.

As I'm still broken, I had to rope in my long-suffering apprentice.

So, whilst awaiting parts to fix the issues at the front, it was time to deal with the issues at the back.

So, on ramps and stands, and wheels off.

Caliper off.

Caliper going on.

We went for a full vacuum bleed, then went for a manual bleed afterwards. Annoyingly, some brake fluid ended up spilled on an alloy wheel, so there's been a bit of lost paint in some crevices. Ah well. I'm still waiting for bits so that's parked in the corner for now.

Shall we get an old friend out?

The MX5 has barely been used in the past 12 months - only used twice this year, both trips to the MOT station.

Since the MOT in May, it was parked under a tree, resulting in the thick layer of tree sap coating everything.

MrsH had a suggestion of coating the entire car in parts cleaner to soften the sap, before pressure washing it off.

This ended up working great! It took a couple of goes around the car to get it fully off, and then a comprehensive sponging occurred - weirdly, the parts cleaner appears to have helped remove a lot of the paintwork oxidation too, so it even came out relatively shiny.

A smart person would probably give it a coat of polish, so we'll see how I feel later!

Tomorrow, I've got a mate popping round with a code reader for Herman to clear the ABS codes, so that'll be another obstacle out of the way for now.

Cheers!

[fatharris]

Mate popped round with the laptop and reset the error codes. The ABS light is still on but I imagine it'll need a mile of driving to clear that.

Weirdly, the computer also gave mileage readouts of the various ECUs/dash clock. There was....quite the discrepancy.

The left one is what the dashboard shows, can't remember what the right one represents.

But I can assure you it hasn't done over 600k miles!

Ah well, new batteries should be here tomorrow so that will be the Mazda on back on the road hopefully.

Cheers!

[83C]

Feel your pain dude, always two steps forwards and one back running a fleet of old cars!