EightMegs' Terrible Toyotas - One now running!

[Wibble]

22 minutes ago, EightMegs said:

Took the Carina on its first long journey since I swapped the engine in August, went to The Gower on a camping holiday and ended up heading over and back to Port Talbot twice to meet up with a group of friends who were there on a separate holiday.

The Carina made a decent anchor point for a washing line.

There's quite a lot of drift wood around Aberafan beach and we ended up collecting a pile of it for a fire and I lit it with a butane blow torch and a can of Holts Easy Start, someone shouted "Ray Mears would be proud" from the promenade as I was spraying a jet of flame out of the can. The gear change felt very vague in both directions, with second gear feeling like it was to the left and back from first, and I decided it warranted a look when I got back to Bournemouth. I averaged 42mpg over the course of the trip, despite hitting 60mph in second more than once on the M4. This £450 engine from Bradford is a good 'un.

It turned out to be down to one of the gear linkage retaining clips falling off, which turned out to be three pounds at the local stealers. 

Then, last week, I headed off to visit the family back in Ireland. While driving through the ticket barrier at Fishguard, which inexplicably has the kiosk on the left side of the car, even though neither Ireland nor Wales drives on the right, the Gorilla Glue I used to stick the passenger window into the window regulator let go almost a year to the day after I slathered it on. I'll use something more flexible next time.

The crossing was rough enough, they ended up having to chock the car in front of me as it was rolling back and forward, not a great performance from a modern. I unfortunately had to cross with a coach tour of hysterical yanks, one of whom started screaming when a wave rattled the bottles in the bar, but the traffic was light on the other side and I made it to Carlow before it got dark, 13 hours after leaving Bournemouth.

After visiting family in Carlow and Kilkenny, I continued my southward pilgrimage to the city where I was born where I shockingly saw two dolphins in the River Suir while stuck in traffic next to the Thomas Francis Meagher statue on The Mall, I never realised they came that far inland, or to places as grim as Waterford for that matter. I left for Rosslare from South Kilkenny at 5PM yesterday and made it as far as Cardiff West Services just before two in the morning, where I stopped for 15 minutes at the Costa.

I got back to Bournemouth via Bath, Warminster, Salisbury, and Ringwood at 5 o'clock this morning and was then rudely awakened at 10 by hedge cutting. The journey was relatively uneventful other than a blown dash illumination bulb, the slipped window regulator, and a slow leak from a clutch union. I think given the amount of time I had it laid up and the amount of work I did, that's a result.

What an amazing trip and respect for the Toyota. I haven’t done Fishguard to Rosslare since I was a kid. Normally go via Holyhead or Cairnryan. I have cousins in Carlow and I’m delighted you had a successful journey.

[EightMegs]

The slide on my sunroof hadn't worked since around Shitefest '23 but it decided to start leaking a few months ago, and it turns out the runners and drains were just full of congealed leaf goo. A good cleaning and some 3 in 1 oil and it tilts, slides, and keeps the interior dry again.

Then, today, I turned my attention to getting the dash illumination and odometer working again, as that's been stuck on 146,499 for years. I swapped it over to the spare instrument cluster that came with the car when I bought it, but although the illumination and odometer worked perfectly, the speedometer wouldn't return to zero and instead got stuck between 10 and 20 MPH when I was at a dead stop. It could be coaxed into dropping to zero by smacking the dash, but after driving around for half an hour to see if it would free up with use, I threw in the towel and put the old cluster back in, albeit with the bulbs (which are actually blue!) from the spare cluster and all was well again, though I still have no odometer.

The cluster is actually quite modular and the instruments are only held in with four screws at the back, so I took the speedometer out of the spare cluster to try to free it up but I'm not sure what lubricants are safe to use on an old school speedometer, any advice would be appreciated.

[EightMegs]

Came home from work on Friday and the Carina was clearly not at its best and when I opened the door I could smell brake dust and my front right wheel was hot enough to fry an egg on. I had already bought pads and discs because they felt a little bit warped since I got them a bit hot coming back from Bristol, and this finally gave me the kick up the arse to actually get the job done.

Piston looked rough when I finally got it loose from the caliper, but I gave it a good scrub in the sink with some wire wool and it cleaned up fine. There wasn't any pitting and the dirt I couldn't shift that I was able to feel with my fingernail, so I moved on to cleaning out the bore.

Again, no pitting, so I dried out the piston in a toaster oven and put it all together. I was actually able to slide it in with my thumbs which I've never been able to do before.

Everything went back together smoothly, but when I was doing up the slide bolts I could feel and hear some slop in the top mounts, which is frustrating given I only changed them three years ago, but I hit a huge pothole on that side a few months ago and that could well have done it.

 

 

[EightMegs]

A guy on a scooter banged on my window while I was stopped at a red light on my way home from work and let me know that neither my running or brake light was working on the nearside, so I headed to Halford's for a replacement and found that the bulb was loose in the holder.

The spring loaded contacts were as far out as they could go, but they still weren't touching the base of the bulb.

With the aid of a solder sucker, a pair of pliers, and a lot of tugging and swearing, I got the old holder out of the unit and soldered in a new one off eBay. I only had a roll of red wire annoyingly, feels wrong having a red earth.

Borrowed a long extension lead from work and soldered it into the rear loom on the side of the street, got a few weird looks, but it's all working now. Only outstanding issues at the moment are a window out of its track and the sloppy steering column UJ I can't figure out how to get out, but I'll get there, probably not without taking the dash apart though.

[EightMegs]

Got myself a new set of roof bars from Yogi24 since they miraculously still stock them for 88-91 Toyota Carina IIs, they weren't the best fit but they were a hell of a lot easier than any of the universal kits I've used over the years. They're quite sturdy pieces of galvanised box section and they can allegedly take up to a 75 kilo load, although I only really intend on using them to move my 12ish kilo canoe which I built out of a single sheet of plywood three years ago and still haven't gotten around to actually paddling. I discovered SUPs not long after I finished it and found it a lot less hassle to blow up something that fit in the boot instead of borrowing a van to move the canoe.

I will need to take out the oversized sailing dinghy buoyancy bag when I move it because it sags down and gets in the way, but I'm glad I can avoid putting mounting loops on the top mounts by using the front and rear towing eyes.

[High Jetter]

I had the estate, J865 OPB. Brilliant load lugger, smuggled carried a lot of turf.

[EightMegs]

If you've been following the thread, you'll remember that my window decided to fall inside the door again in the queue for the ferry at Fishguard Harbour last September, and I've finally found the time to sort it out.

As predicted, the glass had slipped out of the arm that I'd Gorilla Glued it into a year earlier. It turns out this pantograph and sector gear style window regulator needs some compliance between the regulator arm and the glass because the window track is curved, and the glue cracked along the edge.

I decided to use some Tiger Seal this time around, which started off smoothly, until the plunger in the tube got stuck and I responded by squeezing the handle harder.

I tried thwacking the shit out of the plunger on the tube with a screwdriver, and that went about as well as I should've expected.

So I resorted to spooning it into the groove with a flathead screwdriver.

And I left the door card off for the rest of the day while it dried in case any had dripped into the linkage and gummed it up.

At which point I learned just how loud central locking solenoids actually were.

 

And then, today, I gave it a go and it seemed to be back to normal, hopefully the Tiger Seal has a bit more staying power, and then, when I stood up, I thwacked my forehead on the roof rack where I've got a nice lump.

Then I screwed the door card back on, which, being a 35 year old Toyota, involved five screws. I ought to find a new membrane but it doesn't seem to get damp inside without one, so I might not bother.

[Westbay]

10 hours ago, EightMegs said:

If you've been following the thread, you'll remember that my window decided to fall inside the door again in the queue for the ferry at Fishguard Harbour last September, and I've finally found the time to sort it out.

As predicted, the glass had slipped out of the arm that I'd Gorilla Glued it into a year earlier. It turns out this pantograph and sector gear style window regulator needs some compliance between the regulator arm and the glass because the window track is curved, and the glue cracked along the edge.

I decided to use some Tiger Seal this time around, which started off smoothly, until the plunger in the tube got stuck and I responded by squeezing the handle harder.

I tried thwacking the shit out of the plunger on the tube with a screwdriver, and that went about as well as I should've expected.

So I resorted to spooning it into the groove with a flathead screwdriver.

And I left the door card off for the rest of the day while it dried in case any had dripped into the linkage and gummed it up.

At which point I learned just how loud central locking solenoids actually were.

 

And then, today, I gave it a go and it seemed to be back to normal, hopefully the Tiger Seal has a bit more staying power, and then, when I stood up, I thwacked my forehead on the roof rack where I've got a nice lump.

Then I screwed the door card back on, which, being a 35 year old Toyota, involved five screws. I ought to find a new membrane but it doesn't seem to get damp inside without one, so I might not bother.

Use a bin liner and (in best Blue Peter style) sticky tape !😂