THE GUBBERMINT ALWAYS KNOWS BEST

[seth]

I was think of using scotch locks

 

Please don't! Scotchlocks are SHIT.

 

Yes, please don't make your car suffer the ignominy of the laziest form of electrical connector* known to man

[trigger]

I'm not a fan of scotch locks neither so i doubt I'll use them, but i don't want to cut the connecters off as i plan to fit the original radio back in when i sell it.

 

I've just bought that harness I've posted above of ebay as the main plugs is correct, i can't see the right one for the speaker socket in that autoleads book you've posted Rod.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

This is autoshite remember, scotchlocks are the No. 1 way of inappropriately wiring a set of fogs into your car (without fuse) so as to burn your headlight switch out in a few days.

[Cavcraft]

Gave up on trying to get the bulbs for the Corsa clocks for now. Screwed it all back together, did a bit more cleaning up and got a hot air gun to dry and restore the wheelarch trims somewhere back to their original black colour. Partial result as they do look a bit better but possibly too faded now to make them look really good.

 

Anyhow after a few checks I gave it a run out this morning, about 12 miles or so: it was a bit slow to start off with but it's not really had a proper run out in months we think, and from the 'mayonnaise' that had been in the oil I reckon it's never really been off choke in God knows how long. Anyhow let it warm up properly then gave it a bit more welly the further we got and after a short while it pulled much more cleanly, the steering and brakes are spot on, it never coughed or spluttered and it actually pulled well considering it's got a small engine combined with a spaz box.

[Rod/b]

I've just bought that harness I've posted above of ebay as the main plugs is correct, i can't see the right one for the speaker socket in that autoleads book you've posted Rod.

 

It's not a Ford plug, it's a standard DIN type speaker plug, albeit doubled up for MAX HASSLE, and which you'll have trouble finding a socket to fit it as they were generally seperate - i.e. 1x plate and 1xpin per channel. You can buy DIN 2 pin sockets, but they're too chunky to get 2 on that plug at once , however if you've got a steady hand and either a dremel or a hot wire, you can chop the plug down the middle to seperate the channels, and buy two sockets to plug into.

 

Personally i'd advocate chopping it off and soldering the bare cables onto your new unit's loom. The round pin is + and the flat one is -. When you come to refit the Ford set, Maplins sell replacement plugs: http://www.maplin.co.uk/in-car-speaker-plugs-44119 so don't be TOO precious about chopping that plug off as you can replace it. (I'd buy the plugs now as they are old-school, so goodness knows how long they'll stock them for)

[seth]

Oh yeah, now I'm stylin'

 

Silly Ebay "cos its there" purchase just got delivered. How can you not be wowed by this brown tinted perspex sunvisor extension?

 

 

[tonedepear]

^ WINNAR

[barefoot]

That's a bit cool although I'm a little concerned by the length of your gear lever extension.

[Shep Shepherd]

A new toy for The Volvo arrived today, namely a Stebel 'Nautilus' air horn, which I plan to install independently to the car's existing (ex-Volvo 850) twin horns, hence the separate switch and wiring kit:

 

 

All being well, I plan to get it on the car at some point early next week. Should be fun!

 

Hopefully, the car's new stereo unit will also be with me soon (I have to pick it up from the mail delivery office on the way home from work tomorrow), thus allowing me to drive it again - I find it quite wearing to drive without a source of music, news and information, so the car has been unused since its existing stereo failed, despite it having half a tank of petrol...

[dollywobbler]

Angered by the boot shot of the Saab, which shows how dirty the rear lamp units are, I removed them from the car so I could clean them properly. Dirty was between the lens and the main body of the lamp unit. Perfect filth trap. A few minutes work with a hose and a pipe cleaner had them sparkling again. Then I found a touch-up pen in the boot and attended to some of the (very) minor paint chips on door edges and the like.

 

I've been rewarded for my efforts with a car that from more than about 4cm away, looks exactly the same as it did before. Conclusion - detailing is pointless.

[trigger]

It's not a Ford plug, it's a standard DIN type speaker plug, albeit doubled up for MAX HASSLE, and which you'll have trouble finding a socket to fit it as they were generally seperate - i.e. 1x plate and 1xpin per channel. You can buy DIN 2 pin sockets, but they're too chunky to get 2 on that plug at once , however if you've got a steady hand and either a dremel or a hot wire, you can chop the plug down the middle to seperate the channels, and buy two sockets to plug into.

 

Personally i'd advocate chopping it off and soldering the bare cables onto your new unit's loom. The round pin is + and the flat one is -. When you come to refit the Ford set, Maplins sell replacement plugs: http://www.maplin.co.uk/in-car-speaker-plugs-44119 so don't be TOO precious about chopping that plug off as you can replace it. (I'd buy the plugs now as they are old-school, so goodness knows how long they'll stock them for)

 

Thanks for that Rod, That kinda makes sense, I'll have a go at it later.

[Mike D]

928 now has lovely clean gearbox oil, new brake pipes and flexi's, MOT at 10am tomorrow

[Cavcraft]

Good luck Mike, keep us posted!

[The Moog]

Sold Ashtray and bought another micra for the GF. This time a whole 1.3 of raw power. Did a deal with a bloke from a tyre shop and it looks like the car has been used in a stables. Stinks of horses, full of dog hair and needs a good clean. Still £500 cheaper than anywhere else seen one. Will stick it through MOT to see what it needs.

 

Saab had Green stuff pads, new discs and fluid all bleed through. Winding in front calipers was a proper pain and involved lots of swearing. Hopefully it will actually stop now Need to decide whether to do something about the rust and sort out the cutting out on full boost issue.

[Shep Shepherd]

Collected The Volvo's new stereo from the mail delivery office at 0630 today. It was installed and fully operational by 0645:

 

 

Funny how things change yet stay the same, isn't it? ^^

[Spottedlaurel]

Booked into a Javelin trackday on the old airfield at Woodbridge tomorrow, complete with Wuvvum and Baz as my passengers. The Camry did remarkably well at Marham last year, but sadly that was cancelled as they’re using the runway there for other things right now, so this looked like a good, local alternative.

 

Not sure if there’s much in the way of shite booked-in (a Maestro of some sort, regrettably I imagine an MG rather than a 1.3 or a diesel, and a Suzuki Swift) but should be a very enjoyable day out. Report to follow, hopefully in the grin thread...

[trigger]

I would have liked to come along to watch but Im going to London for the weekend tomorrow.

 

I've heard of the airfield in woodbridge but I've never been before, you'll have to let us know what it was like.

[dollywobbler]

I did a rally day in the 2CV at Woodbridge a while back. Great fun! I even managed to beat a Golf GTi...

 

Hope you get some pics of super-speed-shite.

[barefoot]

Drove to the M1, the Island just before J24 is like driving through a ploughed field.

The tarmac is absolutely fucked and I lost a Scirocco hubcap.

Luckily they've not been made since 1999 and the dealer net work just shrug.

Seem to have found one via VW Heritage.

 

Do you think I should send the bill for eleven quid to the highways agency with some photographs?

[Lord Sterling]

820e - Following on from when I picked it up I was told that the car was overheating whilst left standing and running (To check P/S wasnt leaking from newly fitted pipe) I thought, oh no, here we go again, White mk1 Rover 800, overheating (Just like my White Sterling did ) Thankfully it only turned out to be a non-functioning fan. Did a bit of investigating and found the problem to be a dodgy connection, the connection had a bit of oxidisation on the contacts, cleaned up all contacts and had the fan cutting in when it should.

 

When I picked the car up from Romford a few weeks ago, the formewr owner told me she would have to leave it running for 10 mins to allow the engine to heat up properly, apparently if driven straight away it would lose power and cut out. Whilst sorting the fan, I found a paper-like pipe running from the manifold to one of the air filter pipes, the pipe bit on the manifold and completely ripped off and looked like it had been like that for a while, my mechanic mate told me it helps the engine warm up quicker, so I cut off the old piping from the manifold and refitted the remaining pipe, now the car runs a bit better and certainly warms quicker than before. The former owner told me that she even took it to her local garage ('Time Tees' garage Upminster) and they couldnt find the problem!

 

I also bagged a couple of sunvisors as the old ones had the outer sides completely ripped off which left a load of dried up orange foam crumbling onto my lap.

 

I also managed to get the original radio working, turned out to be a blown fuse, though once I'd refitted it I need the code, I found the code hidden amongst the paperwork and got it working, sadly, my replacement stereo had swallowed a cassette and I had to dismantle it to remove the cassette, now the stereo is in pieces and cant really be put back together, no major loss though, it wasnt very good anyway.

 

820e still needs a service, cambelt, T-cut, headlining, and one of these wheel trims:

 

 

I think I'll leave that to my mate, give him something to do.

[Rod/b]

Time Tees Upminster is now a fucking Costa Coffee. My hometown, and i was gutted to see what had become of the Rover showroom when I went back at Christmas.

[Lord Sterling]

Yeh I noticed that whilst doing a recce of the area via Google Earth, it was then a showroom, but as you say the showroom is now a Costa, shocked me when I saw it. The garage is still trading though.

[The Moog]

Finally took Saab out for a spin today. Forgotten how many little jobs need doing (Headlining, Rust spots, Rear spoiler, rear wheel bearing, car cutting out on full boost, etc).

 

Then the front right caliper decided to stick. Meant that burning brakes and smoke accompanied journey home. Got back and parked it up. Came in and looked at calipers refurbed. Then went to move it properly into its parking space and the thing just freed itself. Took it for a spin to double check and it looks like it is back working. Cant help but feel it is teasing me and will need the calipers doing.

 

My fault for treating it to new brakes if I had left the old ones on it would have been fine! Still got to make my mind up whether to spend money on it getting it proper fixed or just run it into ground. Already has gone from £300 car to over £1k without blinking

[Mr_Bo11ox]

is i one of these with thehandbrake on the front wheels? Those are the worst calipers of ALL TIME.

[dollywobbler]

is i one of these with thehandbrake on the front wheels? Those are the worst calipers of ALL TIME.

 

Or I wonder if it could be something that strikes similar Citroens - seizing handbrake cables. The BX would occasionally and randomly jam a brake on. I was once flat out at 55mph. Pulling over and furiously stamping on the brakes and pulling on the handbrake seemed to sort it out, but I fitted new cables in the end.

[The Moog]

Yep front handbrake model. I think that once the caliper start being a pain they never get better. Car has sat in barn for 3 years so I would imagine it hasnt done it any good. Refurbed ones from evil bay are £120 ish.. ouch

[Rod/b]

Yo Moog, do us a favour. Can you have a looksie and see if you reckon you can get the drivers doorcard off your Scab with the door shut? I've just bought an 86 Turbo and the drivers door doesn't open. I'm also approx 3500 miles away from it...

[M'coli]

My Saab has sold!

[cort16]

I've just been at the local scrappies on the look out for some SAAB front leathers seats. Sitting right in the middle was, what was a real lovely V reg BMW 728i Sport.

What a lovely car that must have been. It must have suffered fatal mechanicals to end up in there as genuine e38 sports make good money. When I opened up the boot there front struts where in there with a big Alpina stamps on them and the most collosal calipers I've seen. Shame really.

[Mike D]

MOT =PASS!!!

 

It's freaking AWESOME