I'll get round to it at some point - Bratislava and Back: Things not to do in a mk2 Clio

[Rust Collector]

18 minutes ago, mat_the_cat said:

What bits are you after? I haven't seen anything on the BXC Facebook page.

I went old school and posted on the BX forum. I need a heater valve for my TZD so that I can put the dash back together, but I can’t palate the £166 that chevronics charge for one. Mine works perfectly, but someone has snapped one of the connectors off of it when looping it out after the heater matrix burst. I replaced the heater matrix for £18, and luckily thought to pull the tap out whilst I was there otherwise I would’ve been really pissed with myself 😅

[Fumbler]

3 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

I went old school and posted on the BX forum. I need a heater valve for my TZD so that I can put the dash back together, but I can’t palate the £166 that chevronics charge for one. Mine works perfectly, but someone has snapped one of the connectors off of it when looping it out after the heater matrix burst. I replaced the heater matrix for £18, and luckily thought to pull the tap out whilst I was there otherwise I would’ve been really pissed with myself 😅

£166 is cheap by their standards! An interior light lens is £60 and I was billed £75 for a blower resistor pack.

[mat_the_cat]

On 2/20/2022 at 11:25 PM, Fumbler said:

I was billed £75 for a blower resistor pack.

You won't like hearing this now, but the usual fix for the blower transistor (not resistor) pack, is free, just removing a spot of corrosion which builds up. If the blower has failed full on, you're looking at £3-4 for a replacement transistor.

https://www.bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17847

@Rust CollectorI don't check in on the forum as often as I used to, but I don't have a heater tap or oil cooler anyway!

[Fumbler]

10 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

You won't like hearing this now, but the usual fix for the blower transistor (not resistor) pack, is free, just removing a spot of corrosion which builds up. If the blower has failed full on, you're looking at £3-4 for a replacement transistor.

https://www.bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17847

@Rust CollectorI don't check in on the forum as often as I used to, but I don't have a heater tap or oil cooler anyway!

That's what I initially thought as well. The "resistor" bit is a misnomer and stupidly I'm pretty sure I have one in my spares stash. 

[Rust Collector]

A few small jobs done this weekend. First was to check in on the ropey BX and see if I can get it to start reliably, as this was basically procrastination as a warm up to actually picking some tools up. Turns out it starts fine in the dry, so I think I just need to remove and clean the ignition components as I reckon the grime on them is becoming conductive when wet and leaking voltage. Easy job for another day then.

Next up is swapping the suspension out on the Favorit. The lowering springs look good, but they just don't sit quite right in the spring seats and this has been an issue. Back on to the stock springs for now so that I can get an MOT. Better get used to the body roll again. Looks like it's on stilts now.

Still need to do the rears, should get them done this week if we have a dry evening.

Another small job was to sort out the marker lights on the trailer. I had bought different lights to make reversing easier in the dark, but I still haven't fitted those and at £2.50 a corner it made sense to just replace what was there before in the meantime. It makes the trailer safe again, as towing it in the dark without anything showing the width was a) sketchy with black wheel arches and b) illegal.

Much better. The healing trailer mk.2 now has all the required lighting, which is handy as I've just put a deposit on something that will need a ride on it shortly!

[wesacosa]

Need to swap the rear dampers and front strut top mounts on my Favorit..Is it a crappy job? Haven't really looked into what is involved yet

[Rust Collector]

Rear dampers are really easy, for me the worst part is removing the trim and carpet from the boot as I'm clumsy with stuff like that. Last time I took the stock springs out the rear I seem to recall I undid the top bolt, jacked the car up to take the weight off the springs, and then once they weren't compressed anymore I undid the bottom bolts and took everything out.

To do the top mounts on the front you'll need a spring compressor, but it's still not a bad job. 1 bolt joining the shock to the control arm at the bottom, 2 nuts holding the assembly into the shock tower at the top. I should really change my top mounts too, plus the bearings, it's just one of those jobs that keeps getting put off as it's not a major problem right now...

[wesacosa]

cheers. I got all the parts last year but have been tied up with the XM and Panda this last 6 months so its dropped to the back of the queue

[Rust Collector]

Collection of the new toy has not yet happened sadly, as I came down with Covid a couple of weeks back and I tested positive full the full 10 days frustratingly. Seeing as I had to keep myself away from other humans for a bit it seemed like a good opportunity to do some project car procrastination work.

I've had a change of heart with the recently acquired shed of a BX that I picked up for parts, and I've decided that it should be given a second chance to live on. This was largely down to two reasons: firstly, there isn't really anything on that is useful for my other BX. Secondly, when I finally managed to get it start I discovered through sheer belligerence that the gearbox will in fact engage reverse, the  Phase one of it's second life will involve getting it running properly and tracking down all the mechanical niggles, and as I tend to do a lot of odd jobs up at my parents' house it will get used for running round their land during this period. Phase 2 will be to replace the windscreen, which will be useful experience for when I have to undertake this job on the Prelude. Phase 3 will be welding, which will be quite some undertaking and is unlikely to happen this year but may be a job for next summer. The end goal for the car is to get it roadworthy at some point in the next couple of years, whilst at least keeping it running and getting a bit of enjoyment out of it in the meantime.  In the spirit of this car being an absolute shitter, I will be trying to keep costs down to a minimum on this one so expect some ingenuity*.

First job then, best chuck some fuel in from the big jerry can purposefully kept there for the cars that can't make the trip to the local pumps. After seeing that rear quarter, imagine my surprise to open the fuel flap and find that the filler mounting panel wasn't completely borked.

Next job on the list then was the noise... I managed to track down a back box and rear section for under £60 delivered which I thought was a result. Fitting it was fun, as the car refused to start that day and so jacking it up was an experience (you will see the absolute state the sills are in further down). As it was sat with the suspension fully lowered it took two jacks on the first side, one to lift the frame rail near the rear axle to get the sill high enough up, all the while with the car feeling like it was at risk of snapping in two. I was not risking axle stands, and the positioning of the jack meant that the wheel ramps had to go in backwards. Shiny new stuff ready to go on:

I discovered that the rear section hanger had fallen off the car, the previous owner had replaced it with a cable tie which I added to - I will weld a proper hanger on at some point, but in the interim it's not a major problem.

Much better

The back section is off a saloon, so I will need to cut and extend the tip at some point for aesthetics, but with the cable tie bodgery the back box is sat a little further back than normal so a proper adjustment will need to wait until the crustyness is addressed. For now at least the car won't scare the horses as much.

I didn't fancy jacking the car up a second time to get it down off the ramps, so I persisted with trying to start her. Eventually she fired up, and I just had to address the wrong way round wheel ramps. Some pallets and a bit of stunt driving was in order.

Unscathed from the death defying jump, I moved on to 'fixing' the torn in half air hose.

Beautiful. Opening the filter housing to perform this repair* revealed that the previous owner had decided to omit an air filter. I also noticed that the fuel filter was looking a bit past its best, and the fuel hoses attached to it were pretty ropey.

Euro Car Parts had an air filter for £1, an offer I couldn't resist. Whilst there I grabbed a fuel filter for £9. Out of necessity I then raided Halfords for their finest fuel hose. A quick search of the garage later for clamps and we were good to go.

Much better:

I did later find the original air filter. It turns out it hadn't been tossed; it had just been relocated to the boot for some reason, then squashed for good measure...

Filtration sorted, I finally twigged that the random air feed at the side of the engine wasn't connected to anything, so I fitted it back to the warm air feed where it should live.

Firing up the car and leaving it running for a bit showed that the flap inside does draw warm air when cold and cold air when warm which is positive. The cold air feed is missing though, and I didn't have any suitable ducting at hand so that's a small job for another day.

The offside rear door was another niggle on the car - the lock was jammed and you couldn't open the door from outside or inside. Some gentle* persuasion on the handle and lock pin eventually led to it giving in and locking fully, which then allowed me to unlock it. Opening this door was like opening Pandora's box sadly

Nice. File that under 'I'll do it some other time' then.

LHM was next up, as the dash warning light was constantly illuminated and the level was low. Luckily the car come with 2 bottles of LHM rolling round the footwells, so I raised the suspension to the wheel change height and topped her up. Behold! warning lights gone:

I found it best to ignore the seemingly faulty fuel gauge and oil pressure gauge, and instead I set the digital clock  for a low effort win. To offset this, cosmic balance was restored by the LHM warning lamp illuminating again.

My intention for the next day was to clean the car in order to get it to a point where I didn't feel like touching it could make me ill. First though, to celebrate the fact that the car now reliably started each time I wanted it to run, I went for a short drive round the fields. The dog joined me in the celebrations.

Cocking around completed, I thought it best to take some before pics of the grottyness.

Then the fun stuff

I got to use this thing in anger for the first time, I'm not sure how much it cleans but it makes you feel like you're doing something helpful at least:

And here she is somewhat cleaner for my efforts:

I got cocky and washed the engine bay too.

Whilst I've gotten away with this on countless cars over the years, the tired starter motor on the BX has since given up. I'm going to give it a bash tonight to see if it comes back to life once dry, but the solenoid was already a bit iffy so I suspect I may have to repair or replace the starter now. On the plus side, at least I won't get my hands too dirty now!

I didn't want to end on a downer, so with the light fading I found a small job to do. The bonnet release wasn't working, and the secondary catch pull is also missing. So if the bonnet gets shut past the secondary catch, you have to do a contortionist act to get back in. A quick look at how the mechanism worked revealed that the bowden cable should probably be seated in the arm. I removed the latch, undid the cable adjuster, tightened it up, then refitted it... I shut the bonnet, and then I can't tell you how satisfying it was when the bonnet release handle popped the bonnet effortlessly. Sometimes it's the little things in life I guess.

Next up was the secondary latch. The addition of a cable tie looped through the spring on the rear produced something half useful.

So that's where I'm at with this thing now. I'd like to use it for some of the work I need to do up at my parent's over the net few weeks, so the priority now is to get the starter motor repaired/replaced. I'd also like to fit this which I've had in the garage for some time, as currently the car is radio-less and I feel like it would fit in nicely:

It's made some nice light relief from the other projects whilst I've been a bit under the weather, and I have to say I'm getting a little bit attached to this old thing the more time I spend with it. It's a long, long way off, but maybe one day she will see the road again.

[grogee]

Saisho!!! How cool is that?

Great work on the BX. I am jealous and haven't scratched my Citroen itch yet. However I can see it needs a bit* of work. You've made great progress so far. 

I found welding was OK if you're not in a hurry. I wouldn't like to do it against the clock but taking time with the prep and regular tea breaks and it was ok. Mind you I was only doing a couple of minor patches, I should think le BX might need some more advanced metal origami. 

Can I ask where you got this contraption, and whether it fits to garden hose or pressure washer?

[Fumbler]

My oh my, he's actually going to save it! To engage the choke on those carbs you need to press the go pedal down before starting the engine. However, you're then at the mercy of the flimsy waxstat  mechanism to ease it off once the engine warms up. Digging the colour on it, plus those bumpers don't seem to have faded at all. Double winz.

[wesacosa]

great work.  glad it will live to fight another day

[Rust Collector]

15 hours ago, grogee said:

Saisho!!! How cool is that?

Great work on the BX. I am jealous and haven't scratched my Citroen itch yet. However I can see it needs a bit* of work. You've made great progress so far. 

I found welding was OK if you're not in a hurry. I wouldn't like to do it against the clock but taking time with the prep and regular tea breaks and it was ok. Mind you I was only doing a couple of minor patches, I should think le BX might need some more advanced metal origami. 

Can I ask where you got this contraption, and whether it fits to garden hose or pressure washer?

Thanks mate - I've been fortunate in that both the BX's were free to a good home. I've wanted a BX ever since I was a kid and I noticed them, so I'm happy to have found a couple!

Pretty much all my welding to date has been undertaken on a tight deadline for MOT re-tests, it's all I know 😅 Whilst you'd think it would be nice to have an open ended deadline on this, as I'm very lazy it doesn't help my motivation levels. We'll see how it goes, but with the other projects currently on the go I suspect it will be a job for next year potentially.

The chassis washing thing is one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275221068530

My partner bought it for me as a present last year, but it was something like half the price back then I seem to recall. At the time I was using my 4x4 in the mud a lot so being able to spray the underneath was useful. It connects to a pressure washer using a quick release connector. My pressure washer is a Karcher so I had to buy one of these adapter things:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254813866615

14 hours ago, Fumbler said:

My oh my, he's actually going to save it! To engage the choke on those carbs you need to press the go pedal down before starting the engine. However, you're then at the mercy of the flimsy waxstat  mechanism to ease it off once the engine warms up. Digging the colour on it, plus those bumpers don't seem to have faded at all. Double winz.

'Save' might be a strong word 😅 But it's not getting split up or scrapped at least. The choke seems to work ok from what I've observed, the throttle is sticking though and I get the impression that the engine has been flooding at times so I will still take it off and adjust it. I've discovered it has the wrong carb on it - I think the 1.9 should have a Solex 34/34 or something like that, and I've actually got a Weber 32/34 fitted currently.

[grogee]

Thanks for the info. The chassis washer is 'only' £50 on Amazon, for info. I'm tempted but funds don't allow this month. Perhaps one for the birthday Santa. 

KOET Undercarriage Cleaner, 16inch Car Chassis Washer for Pressure Washer, Dual-purpose Surface Cleaner Under Car Water Broom for Undercarriage Driveways Patios Sidewalks https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08DTSR5PF/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_JHSAZZ0GD4SXA05A2MG9

[Fumbler]

9 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

Thanks mate - I've been fortunate in that both the BX's were free to a good home. I've wanted a BX ever since I was a kid and I noticed them, so I'm happy to have found a couple!

Pretty much all my welding to date has been undertaken on a tight deadline for MOT re-tests, it's all I know 😅 Whilst you'd think it would be nice to have an open ended deadline on this, as I'm very lazy it doesn't help my motivation levels. We'll see how it goes, but with the other projects currently on the go I suspect it will be a job for next year potentially.

The chassis washing thing is one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275221068530

My partner bought it for me as a present last year, but it was something like half the price back then I seem to recall. At the time I was using my 4x4 in the mud a lot so being able to spray the underneath was useful. It connects to a pressure washer using a quick release connector. My pressure washer is a Karcher so I had to buy one of these adapter things:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254813866615

'Save' might be a strong word 😅 But it's not getting split up or scrapped at least. The choke seems to work ok from what I've observed, the throttle is sticking though and I get the impression that the engine has been flooding at times so I will still take it off and adjust it. I've discovered it has the wrong carb on it - I think the 1.9 should have a Solex 34/34 or something like that, and I've actually got a Weber 32/34 fitted currently.

Good to see it's sort of running well. I have a Weber 32/34 just like yours and they're interchangeable with the Solex models so I shouldn't worry about it too much.

[mat_the_cat]

The oil gauge is a level indication only, and operates when the ignition is first turned on. The rest of the time it does absolutely nothing! Only the top spec models got the pressure gauge.

[Rust Collector]

Time for a small but tedious job that I've been putting off for a bit.

A while back the Volvo refused to start. A brief diagnostics session showed that she had a spark, the timing was correct, but the fuel pressure was very low. You could hear a noise from the tank when you clicked the key to the on position, so I started off by swapping out the fuel filter. This didn't solve anything sadly. A cheapo chinesium fuel pump was obtained and fitted, and she came back to life again. The only problem was that the universal pump was a crap fit, and the inlet sat marginally higher than the original pump - I didn't fancy taking the risk and getting stranded, so a bank breaking £25 was spent on the correct fuel pump via Autodoc. I then let the pump sit in the garage for a few weeks/months as is standard operating procedure.

Last night I was looking for a job to do that wouldn't be wildly taxing, cost anything, and would help me get some space cleared up at the stables. Volvo fuel pump it is then. This had the added bonus of meaning that I could put the trim back in and make it look like slightly less of a shit tip:

Plus refitting the access panel would hopefully keep the rodent visitors out...

whilst disconnecting the battery I get my regular reminder that I need to pull my finger out and do some welding on this car soon

I took the fuel cap off just in case there was a pressure difference between the tank and the atmosphere in the vague hope it would make pulling the sender out easier. Whilst doing this I noticed something blindingly obvious that I hadn't worked out before:

For some reason I thought that red thing was some kind of removable thingamabob for doing something I hadn't needed to do yet. Turns out I was just being thick.

Time to remove the sender then, not a massively difficult job just awkward as it is fitted at an angle in relation to the tank floor and the sender has a bend in it also. I find that pulling it as far out as it will go in a straight line towards the rear of the car, then rotating it anti-clockwise and coming out diagonally at the rear right hand side of the hatch is the easiest method.

I built a work bench a while back with the intent of bringing it up to the stables. Unfortunately, it is currently screwed to my fence as a makeshift spur whilst I wait for the place down the road from me to get some concrete spurs back in stock. Best look for a makeshift bench then.

Splendid. With the pumps out you can see the size difference, between the cheapo universal and the Ridex pump which appears to be a cheapo universal inside of a plastic housing to bulk it up. The silver pump is the original that I pulled out of the tank first time around. It does still pump if you give it 12v, but it can't seem to sustain the pressure needed for the car to run.

Happily it transpires that the Ridex uses the same electrical connector as the chinesium unit, so no wiring shenanigans required. You will notice that the new strainer was too large, so I had to re-use the old one when reassembling the sender unit

The most enjoyable* part of this job is putting the whole unit back in the tank. I'm assuming it's because of this plastic baffle thing:

The whole assembly sits with the pump end sat canted down and to the right. It's also sprung, presumably to provide a tight fit to the bottom of the tank whilst allowing you to wrangle it in. I've not yet found a knack for getting the unit back in place that doesn't involve a long time spent swearing and scuffing knuckles as you try to blindly slot the end in to place whilst it tries to snag on literally anything it can in order to stop you from seating it. It eventually goes in when you find the magic spot, in a kind of 'what was all the fuss about' way. So, all back together then with the original clips I could find and some new ones to replace the ones that inevitably went missing:

Wiring back where it possibly belongs:

Mouse resistant hatch installed:

And the most satisfying bit, all the trim back in the boot to leave me with a car that looks a bit less like a total shitter:

I'm pleased to report that with the battery back on her, she starts and runs with no issues at all. So that's one ballache job off the list. Time for a reward then - I got to enjoy the cosy, warm feeling of 90's dash illumination in the dark whilst letting her run up to temp.

Remaining work to be done on the Volvo is swap out the p/s pump, find the hose that's causing a whistle in the engine bay, replace the straight through exhaust with the stock one that's in my garage, and then a bit of welding just for balance!

Next car I'd like to work on though is the Zastava, I really need to weld the floor up and put the interior back in as it's been cluttering my garage for way too long now! That could be something I tackle this weekend if all goes well and I'm not given a list of other jobs to sort around the house and garden.

[Rust Collector]

Another long post again I'm afraid - I find it hard to get in front of my PC to write stuff up as it happens!

Seeing as I've got a million and one jobs on at the moment I thought I best do some tinkering over the weekend. Priorities were to remove the starter from the BX (this did not get done), find the source of the screaming/whistling noise that the Volvo has when cold (this may have been found) and replace the O rings in the coolant system on the Shogun Sport so that I don't have to borrow my Mum's L200 for towing anymore (half done).

The main thing that I got done was procrastination, as for whatever reason when I set out with a task to complete, every other job that I've also got to sort becomes far more appealing. For example, one of the water troughs had been turned off for years as 'it needs a new float valve' according to mother. After taking this diagnosis at face value, this sounded like an excellent way to waste time. Sadly, it turned out that the float arm just needed bending, but it still meant I could waste time watching a trough fill.

The upshot is that my mum doesn't have to drag a hose over to this now to fill it, the downside is I had to find something else to do to avoid doing anything 'proper'.

Never fear, whilst fitting a latch to the gate recently (it had previously been tied shut with a chain and a lead rope added for maximum security) I noticed that the sign on the gate had gone limp. That seemed like a worthy time waste. Sadly it only took a bit of drilling and 2 rivets to sort.

Cheap brownie points I guess if nothing else.

Next on the list of things I can do instead of doing what I set out to do originally then; Lawn tractor drive belt time.

The old belt was shagged and I overheated the tractor last time I used it. I bought a belt that should* have been the right size, replaced it, and it wasn't tight enough to work. I bought 2 different sized belts to hedge my bets a few months back, and put them somewhere safe... Wish I hadn't of done that! After about 20 minutes of searching, it turned out I'd put them in the logical* place that I would look for them next time.

The fitting of a drive belt to this tractor is great fun* as the easiest method to get the belt over the bottom pulley is to start underneath at the rear and disconnect the driveshaft from the gearbox at the back axle.

I hate spiders, so I did not enjoy shoving my hands blindly in here. I did have some help at least:

I did eventually get it down the driveshaft and then fed around the cooling fan.

The first belt was too short to get on the adjuster however. What is it that they say about a 50/50?

I couldn't be bothered to feed it back the way it came, so I sacrificed the fiver it cost me and cut the belt off. Belt number 2 was then fed in from the back, and whilst longer than belt number 1 it was still pretty tight. Fortunately I had the belt fitting tool with me and with a turn of the fan she was on.

Beautiful. Time to chuck the battery in that I had on charge then.

Then it was time to snap the key

The key snapped because part of the original key is also snapped in the barrel, which luckily means I can use the other spare key from my tool bag

Occasionally a relay would tick, but there was no real sign of life on the dash despite there being 12v present at all the positive feeds on the loom. Some head scratching later and a wiggle of the battery leads confirmed that I just needed to fit a battery screw.

Ignore the creeping green death, I'm sure that's fine*.

All dash lights are present now, but the engine still wouldn't crank. I'm fairly sure it's a problem with the interlock handle/switch thing, but with daylight fading alternative measures were taken.

This got her turning over, and she's spluttering out smoke like she usually does on a cold start, but she wouldn't fire. I reckon a bit of easy start will get her going, but that's as far as I got as a new job was added to the list. The horses were low on hay, and it had been floated that I'd be sent to pick up some bales. Luckily it was able to be delivered in which saved me going out, but seeing as I hadn't put bales on the healing trailer mk2 yet I thought it would be as good a time as any to try her out for size seeing as I had a yard full of bail to put in the barn.

4 bales is plenty I think! Paltry in comparison to the efforts of the chap who dropped them off, and had managed to get 11 on his Ifor. It will get us out of a stitch if he can't deliver though. I'll order some 10m straps so that I don't have to double up, and I'll then use my shorter straps to get some side to side action going on. I went for a drive around the tracks to see how the load behaved, it was interesting to see that the bales almost behave like a live load as they are all independent of one another despite being strapped down. It towed well all the same, so that's reassuring for the future.

With that all out the way, shall we do some actual car stuff then? 😅 Oh, go on then...

The Volvo was first up in line for some attention. I'd like to start using it again now the fuel pump is sorted, but one of the things putting me off is the shrieking noise it makes currently. It's hard to pick up on the video, but it's absolutely piercing. I reckoned it was probably the suspect looking emissions recirculation thingy on the left of the block there, expertly repaired by the last owner with tape. Removing it made no difference though. Next suspect was the p/s pump. I took the drive belts off one at a time, running the car inbetween, but this still made no difference. The noise was still there, and to my ear it's coming from the driver's side of the block. There's no moving parts there once the drive belt is off, and no air hoses there with the emissions thing removed, so I suspect I have an exhaust leak from the manifold or downpipe. The noise gets much better once the block is warm, so presumably as everything expands the leak seals up somewhat. I have some exhaust work scheduled on this, so I'll get the shop vac on the exhaust and have a leak finding session at the same time I fit the stock exhaust back on.

Last night's vehicular entertainment was in the form of dismantling part of the cooling system on my Shogun Sport. I half heartedly started taking the plenum off a couple of weeks back, then other bits got in the way and it got put on the back burner.  Let's pick up where I left her then...

Urgh. I bloody hate the plenum on this. This coolant pipe here under the intake was the target:

A blood offering was made to the car gods using the nearest bracket, and after much cursing the top half of the plenum was out

Much better. Then it was just a case of fighting that coolant pipe out. The retaining bracket is bolted to the head just in front of the firewall, which is great* for access. I wasn't leaving without it though, and eventually she came out. I'll try not to think too much about how grim it is inside the coolant system...

Lovely stuff. I'll be cleaning the pipe up to make sure it doesn't have any pinholes in it, then cleaning the receiving ends up. I've got some new o rings on order, hopefully this will sort my random coolant leak out as it's supposedly a common fault on these. If this doesn't solve my problem, I think I may have to start dicking around with an endoscope or something to try and figure out where this leak is. That's for another day however.

Small amount of progress procrastination achieved on the BX also; I have worked my way through the existing radio wiring mess and installed the loom and cage for the Saisho. I would have taken pictures once in, but a) my phone went flat and b) the lcd display on the unit is buggered 😒

I should really clean the inside of the BX at some point, it is properly grim. The dog has contributed on the BX also, there was a rabbit underneath it at the weekend and in frustration at not being able to get to the rabbit he has started pulling the mud flaps off the car...

Cheers Vito, that's just what the crusty sills needed!

Another small diversion recently presented itself when my partner sent me this picture the other day (don't get excited)

A drive to Brighton to change the wheel for her ensued, I left her on the spare for a day but it's not great so tonight I'll be putting the summer wheels on - this in itself will be a bit of a dicking around session as 2 of the better summer tyres I have for her car aren't on wheels, so I need to take the 2 most shagged tyres off the summer set and put the 2 decent ones on using the manual wheel destroyer tyre changer in the garage. I would like to swap the Insight back on to its summer tyres also, not sure if I'll have the time/motivation for that tonight though as I don't have a spare set of wheels for it currently so it means removing/refitting tyres from each rim. I'd prefer to tackle that once I've got a spare set of steelies to mount the winters on so that it's all done in one go.

I promise I'll do some work on one of the interesting cars soon! 😅

 

[High Jetter]

I've been trying to turn procrastination into an art form for decades, thanks for the tips!

[Rust Collector]

More fun* up at the farm, plus (finally!) a new toy dragged home along with some tangential ramblings based on the events of the past week or so.

I have car parts and tools stashed all over the place currently, so one small project on the go is the consolidation of everything and storing it in some sort of manner that makes sense and stops me buying things over and over again/wasting time driving from place to place trying to find something I have a dull recollection of owning. Action shot of some of the crap stored at work coming back with me in the most inappropriate car I own for this job:

The dog apparently experiencing some existential despair there judging by the expresion.

With those boxes clogging up the spare room in a test of the strength of mine and my partner's relationship, it was time to go and have a look at fitting the exhaust that came with my Volvo, as I've gone off the back box delete setup that came with it.

Admire the craftsmanship* of the custom system:

The good news is that the exhaust system has been chopped about so much that none of the components match up to the original system, so I'll either have to buy more parts to replace components further upstream until I find a point which hasn't been fucked around with, or figure out a point to cut the exhaust and weld a flange to it. In even better news, I spotted this:

Nice. There was only one thing for it - chuck everything in the boot and move on to something else whilst trying not to think about it

Easy job required to boost morale then. That'll be the BX starter motor. With the air cleaner removed it was fairly straightforward to extract.

The appropriate diagnostic kit was located, the diagnosis - not working. I'll strip it and see if I can rebuild it using the other spare I've got here one evening. If not I'm sure ebay will be able to supply a high quality cheap shitty replacement.

Best find another job then. The lawn tractor had resisted running last time I was up here, however by using the triple threat of a screwdriver, a jump lead and easy start I got it running again.

The sand school had gotten a bit knackered during the lawn tractor's extended maintenance downtime, so I had a quick bash at grading that in order to earn some brownie points with the mother.

Next up were two small jobs to facilitate collection of the new toy. The mudguards on the healing trailer mk2 were a bit high and were frequently stopping doors from opening. This was not good for me, as I'm 15 stone and very inflexible - going in and out of cars through windows is not something I relish. A cheapo set of replacements that had a lower profile were sourced secondhand and fitted.

Problem two was that the inside of the electric connector on my Mum's L200 had broken, the pins were pushing through and shorting out. One of Halford's finest plastic replacements later and we had fully functional electrics again which was handy.

Until I took this photo, I had never quite noticed how severe that drop plate is!

All ready to go out on a retrieval mission today then. The weather was great so it was a pleasant drive out for a couple of hours, especially as I was loading this at the other end:

It is of course the wrong way round on the trailer, but sat as far forwards as it was it towed absolutely fine.

On the way back to the stables I stopped in scenic Newhaven by the sewage treatment plant for a couple of extra photos as I wasn't expecting to have much time after unloading; lots of rust and other nice things on display here!

Safely home, I only got this before my brother and I handballed her off the trailer

I just love how this thing looks, even in the state it is currently. I can't wait to give it a clean and get it firing up! I've already made my blood offering to the car gods whilst unloading the car - the steering wheel is some kind of bakelite style plastic that has almost entirely degraded. In usual fashion, I said to my brother that the the steering wheel would probably cut my hand open and I should probably put gloves on. And then it almost immediately jabbed a splinter of plastic into my little finger, cutting a nice flap and leaving me with a nice plastic splinter to pick out.

I'll leave you with a picture of what is currently my favourite dashboard in the fleet.

At the rate things are stacking up I will probably have to stop dicking around and put some proper hours in soon - let's hope the warm weather sticks around for a bit!

 

[Fumbler]

It looks like someone's been at the starter motor before- that one's a shite remanufactured unit from Lucas. I've had great* luck with Lucas reman parts...

...so I'm not biased in any way!
 

Loving the Zaph btw.

[Back_For_More]

Kudos on the BX decision - hope the tinworm hasn't extended too far into the depths.

New arrival is a little beauty. Almost an art deco look/feel to it.  Looking forward to the procrastination on that soon too.

Great work all round - your procrastination puts my actual hands on effort to absolute shame!

[Sham]

This is what winning looks like.

I'm deeply jealous.

[ProgRocker]

Nice eclectic collection of cars there. You have a Zastava Yugo as well. 

Good luck with the Zaphorozetz - or however it's spelt! 🤪

[TrabbieRonnie]

Great thread, you are living the dream! 

Zaph looks a great addition to the fleet.

[Rust Collector]

On 4/16/2022 at 11:36 PM, Fumbler said:

It looks like someone's been at the starter motor before- that one's a shite remanufactured unit from Lucas. I've had great* luck with Lucas reman parts...

...so I'm not biased in any way!
 

Loving the Zaph btw.

I did clock that it looked cleaner than everything else in the engine bay but didn't give it much thought - remanufactured ancillaries are often a bit sketchy! On a tangent that photo looks incredibly artistic with that lighting 😅

On 4/17/2022 at 7:55 AM, Back_For_More said:

Kudos on the BX decision - hope the tinworm hasn't extended too far into the depths.

New arrival is a little beauty. Almost an art deco look/feel to it.  Looking forward to the procrastination on that soon too.

Great work all round - your procrastination puts my actual hands on effort to absolute shame!

 

On 4/17/2022 at 8:02 AM, Sham said:

This is what winning looks like.

I'm deeply jealous.

 

On 4/17/2022 at 8:09 AM, ProgRocker said:

Nice eclectic collection of cars there. You have a Zastava Yugo as well. 

Good luck with the Zaphorozetz - or however it's spelt! 🤪

 

On 4/17/2022 at 8:16 AM, TrabbieRonnie said:

Great thread, you are living the dream! 

Zaph looks a great addition to the fleet.

Cheers folks! I have a bit of a ZAZ photo dump to do, plus I've spent the evenings this week fettling the Zastava so once I get a decent amount of time in front of my computer I'll get an update going again.

I am very happy to be amongst people who think that dragging home decrepit cold war cars is the dream, I can't say many people I speak to in my day-to-day goings about would describe it as such 😅

[Rust Collector]

The problem with getting things done, is it drastically reduces the amount of computer time I have... Apologies once again, as I've got quite a lot to post in order to get caught up!

First off, last weekend I took some photos of the ZAZ to document the condition she was in once she landed. Here she is in all her glory:

A few goodies were stashed in the front:

The big silver tube is the cabin heater, which appears to burn petrol using a glow plug. I'm sure this is totally safe* however I think it's best left unplugged for now. The brake master cylinder is seized but happily it appears to be the same generic FIAT unit that my Zastava also uses which is readily available from ebay etcetera.

The motor is pretty cool; it's my first air cooled car, first rear engine car, and first V4 all in one!

I reckon the exhaust will sound pretty interesting.

The last bit of weirdness to point out in this installment is the wheel PCD and centre bore...

The drums protrude through the wheel, and there is a flange round the edge that the wheel bolts to. From technical drawings I've looked at, this flange is square... the obvious choice of shape for a rotating component!

To do list for the ZAZ currently is to sort out the ignition wiring so that we can crank the starter (currently this is achieved by shorting the red wire poking out the rear grille), sort out the steering wheel so that I don't get tetanus, replace the brake master cylinder and see if the wheel cylinders are fucked. If they are, the rears are ok as they look like they've been knicked from the FIAT parts bin, but the front drum has twin leading shoes and the cylinders look like proprietary parts - I may need some help from the hive mind on those, I'm hoping someone may know of a car with a similar setup that I can rob parts from. Worst case scenario parts can be ordered from Russia, but they're not cheap and I'm assuming that could be a slightly awkward process currently.

Seeing as my mum and her horsey friends will be mostly enjoying seeing the ZAZ whilst they use the sand school, my brother and I gave the car a wash to make it slightly less unsightly.

If you stand a distance and squint, it's kind of alright...

Whilst we had the cleaning kit out, I gave the seat a rub with some vinyl cleaner - I think it needs a bit more than my half hearted effort, but it took the grime off at least so it feels less disgusting to sit inside.

I also had to have a play with the dual action paint destroyer to see if I could do anything about the cloudiness. I mean the paint is absolutely fucked, no two ways about it, but shiny and fucked would be better at least...

Errr... Tests inconclusive.

We hand balled it back behind the stables to let it get dirty again, and then there was nothing* left for me to do but to finally sort the welding out on the Zastava unfortunately. Lots of photos of the progress on that to come next!

[RichardK]

Are you in the IFA club? Someone posted a pic of the adaptor plate they made for balancing ZAZ wheels (Tavrias are the same but three hole, not four).

Watching this with great interest as mobility/surgery aside I really want a 968 - they sound fascinating.

[RichardK]

FWIW I need ZAZ bits as well and honestly you need a friendly Ukrainian webshop - which until recently wasn't a problem but I dithered on making a list of bits I wanted. You might be surprised to find just how invisible ZAZ is even on European/Balkan online stores...

But if we get a list of ZAZ parts needed it all builds up to making a collection run make sense. Or a big box of things to make it worthwhile for a supplier to send.

[Rust Collector]

25 minutes ago, RichardK said:

Are you in the IFA club? Someone posted a pic of the adaptor plate they made for balancing ZAZ wheels (Tavrias are the same but three hole, not four).

Watching this with great interest as mobility/surgery aside I really want a 968 - they sound fascinating.

Not currently, although they are in my periphery - for some reason I had it in my head that they were for East German stuff, although I haven't done much research so I'm unsure why I think that!

I was reading your thread recently and your ZAZ looks to be in great condition, it was a real shame to hear that you may have to move her on but great to see the hard work you're still putting in to her.

21 minutes ago, RichardK said:

FWIW I need ZAZ bits as well and honestly you need a friendly Ukrainian webshop - which until recently wasn't a problem but I dithered on making a list of bits I wanted. You might be surprised to find just how invisible ZAZ is even on European/Balkan online stores...

But if we get a list of ZAZ parts needed it all builds up to making a collection run make sense. Or a big box of things to make it worthwhile for a supplier to send.

I regularly travel to Slovakia to visit my partner's family - we are next scheduled to drive there in July all being well. I don't mind lugging back things that will fit inside the Insight, although as you say there's no real representation for them on the secondhand websites I trawl for cars and spares. On the Slovak sites you can literally find buckets of spares for old Skodas, Trabants, Ladas, Wartburgs, Moskvitch... Even some bits for FIATs, Zastavas, UAZ and others normally. Air cooled Tatra V8's? Sure. ZAZ parts? Nothing last time I looked 😅