Nibbler’s Universe: past and present

[Nibbler]

Presentation:

Name: Nibbler.

Born: 1978.

Country: Sweden.

Occupation: Motorcycle driving instructor and motorcycle dispatch rider in the Swedish home guard. Married.

Likes: Heavy metal, slow diesels, Ford Capri, airplanes, Saab, Motorcycles, English sports cars, Steam engines, Volkswagen vans, old Philips cd-players, deserted buildings, Rally, flea markets, Honda, die-cast, Eastern European vehicles, Toyota and history. 

Dislikes: automatic transmissions. 

Current fleet:

Ford Capri 1600 GT -74 (Mk.1)

Audi 100 2,0 Diesel -83  

Audi 100 2,2 CC -84 (parts car)

Audi 100 CC 2,3E -88   

Audi 100 Avant Turbo Diesel -86

Audi 100 Avant 1,8 -86                                        

Honda Civic 1,4 -16

VW T4 Multivan -95                                                    

Toyota Aygo -10

Honda NSR 125 -91                                                     

Suzuki RG 125 -88                                                        

Honda CBF 1000 ABS -06                                      

Honda ANF 125 Innova -07

 

Volkswagen Transporter Diesel tinkering today. Lost reverse gear just before winter storage and thought it was time to find it again. So I changed the gear lever bushings today, quite a simple job. The result was that gears 2-3-4 are now easier to find than ever. First gear has disappeared completely and reverse is still nowhere too be found... Yippie! I 

More about this car later... 

My friend David had a bigger job... changing the infamous  camchain on his Passat 1,4 TSI.

[Nibbler]

So this is my Volkswagen Transporter D 1983. An ex Atlas Copco service van. Originally it had an naturally aspirated 50 hp diesel. The owner before me changed the engine to a JX 1,6 Turbodiesel from another Transporter. That engine went into self destruct mode the same day I bought it. It later turned out that the oil pan had gravel and small stones in it... When I got home after a 8 hour drive at 70-80 km/h the engine was shot. Spewing out oil through the crankcase breather and refusing to go down in rpm. Oh crap! 

[artdjones]

3 hours ago, Nibbler said:

That engine went into self destruct mode the same day I bought it.

The VW 1.6 diesel tends to do that. I'm not sure where its good reputation comes from.

[Nibbler]

8 hours ago, artdjones said:

The VW 1.6 diesel tends to do that. I'm not sure where its good reputation comes from.

Do they have a good reputation? Don’t know how well that engine copes in Golf. But in T25/T3 the workload is too much. 

[Nibbler]

Todays Volkswagen Transporter garage session resulted in all 4 gears working smoothly, reverse gear is present again and I did an oil change on the gearbox.

 

[bear-in-the-air]

So where was reverse and 1st lurking?

[Nibbler]

14 hours ago, bear-in-the-air said:

So where was reverse and 1st lurking?

I found them lurking in the bowels of the gearbox. But I got them back to work by adjusting the linkage. A rather tricky and time consuming job, but well worth it in the end.

[Nibbler]

So after the disaster with the Transporters engine I had to find a replacement. My first choice was to try and find a AAZ engine or an AEF. AAZ 1,9 TD is more  sought after and found in Golf and Passat in the mid nineties. AEF 1,9 is usually found in Skoda pickups. I ended up buying an AAZ dirt cheap with unknown history and did the engine swap together with my two fantastic friends Eskil and Anton. During the swap we changed cambelt, waterpump, turbo, a driveshaft, clutch, and all the things that’s needed to adapt the engine to its new life: at a 45 degree angle. It was a great moment when I finally could turn the key and the engine fired right up.

Here is a picture of  Eskil, hard at work!

 

[Nibbler]

Current vehicle #2. Time for a Ford! Bought this Capri 1600 GT -74 in 2019. Bought it from the original owner who had it on the road until 1988. Completely unmolested except the front wings. Here in Sweden we got our Capris from England, so this is manufactured at the Halewood plant. I’m slowly making it into a RS lookalike. The original engine was a complete mess so I bought a 205 EFI from a Sierra. Status right now: some welding done, front suspension overhauled, engine bay painted, changed seals in the gearbox and collected a shitload of parts before Brexit made it too expensive.

[Rightnider]

That’s a great car, Nibbler! If I’m not mistaken I’m behind the Honda in the collection picture?

[Nibbler]

5 hours ago, Rightnider said:

That’s a great car, Nibbler! If I’m not mistaken I’m behind the Honda in the collection picture?

And here you are again. Swinging a sledgehammer or something.

[Rightnider]

My favourite tool! 

This must be one of the last Mk1 Capri's ever to be sold by its first owner.

[Nibbler]

Car from the past: Honda Accord 2,0 ES 1999 made in the UK. The best car I have ever owned. Bought it cheap and used it for 10 years without any problems. Total reliability. Changed a couple of bushings and a brake calliper and had to have a leaking power steering pipe changed. That was it. When it was driven to the scrapper it had done  well over 260000 miles. Engine and gearbox still working perfectly. It was bad for towing though, with the engine gutless at low rpm’s. The headlight was crap so it was necessary to fit some additional lightning. It’s dark here in Sweden during the winter...  A car I truly miss! 

The picture with Borgholm castle in the background was taken on its last journey.

[Nibbler]

MOT time... I’m Nervous. It’s a Volkswagen, anything can happen.

[Rightnider]

You’ll be fine!

[Nibbler]

1 hour ago, Rightnider said:

You’ll be fine!

It’s a pass! 

[Rightnider]

Congratulations!

[Nibbler]

Car spotting at the best music festival in Sweden: Muskelrocken or Muscle rock for you non Swedes. That Toyota Corolla got me bloody excited!

[Rightnider]

That Ford van… I want it. 
 

Had the old buses been driven there? They look a bit stationary. 

[Nibbler]

3 hours ago, Rightnider said:

That Ford van… I want it. 
 

Had the old buses been driven there? They look a bit stationary. 

Yep, that Econoline was mint!  

PEZ 150 Is stationary I think. It’s some sort of photo exhibition inside of it. The others are not stationary, the last one is Siena Roots tour bus. 

 

[Nibbler]

3 hours ago, Rightnider said:

That Ford van… I want it. 
 

Had the old buses been driven there? They look a bit stationary. 

Yep, PEZ150 a Volvo 63508 from 1961 has been off the road since 1997.

[Nibbler]

Current vehicle #3. Volkswagen Multivan 2,5 -95. Bought this from my friend Anton. Anton had a hard time with this car and sold it to me after about a year. Most of his time with the car was spent in a specialist workshop trying to change/programme the engines brain. It also suffered a broken clutch cable during Antons ownership. He mostly threw money at it, changing exhaust system, bushings and all kinds of stuff.

First owner was a Hockey team in Fagersta. The car had a respray many years ago and when I bought it, it had bad fitting Mercedes 16” alloys. It now looks more like a Caravelle than an actual Multivan.

I have continued to throw money at it. Changing cam belt/water pump, wheel cylinders, brake lines, tyres, handbrake cables, bushings, shock absorbers, battery, cooling fan resistor, fixing central locking gremlins and much more. 

I love this car and we use it quite a lot. Both for camping holidays and for flea market hunting.

 

[Rightnider]

Nice car, a test drive would be nice. I’ve only driven 2.5 diesels, manual and automatic, when they were common in the taxi trade.

[Nibbler]

22 hours ago, Rightnider said:

Nice car, a test drive would be nice. I’ve only driven 2.5 diesels, manual and automatic, when they were common in the taxi trade.

Yes you need to do that! It drives really nice. And you haven’t driven the T3 yet, that’s a completely different experience 😀

I’ve never driven the 2,5 Diesel. But I have had a go in a  long wheelbase 2,4D Syncro. The slowest accelerating car I’ve ever driven.  

[Nibbler]

Current Vehicles  #4 & 5. Toyota Aygo 2010 and 2007. The grey 4-door is so new, in so good condition and so well equipped that I won’t talk much more about it today. The one I’m gonna talk about is the red one. Poverty spec model with no extras. At the time we bought it, it was the cheapest one in Sweden for sale. Second day of ownership the right side front wheel bearing destroyed itself in a spectacular fashion, and a few month later the clutch lever broke. I managed to nurse it home without the clutch. It was a 2,5 hour drive to get home... I’m quite good at changing gears on motorcycles without using the clutch so that knowledge came in handy. Once sorted it has been completely reliable. And it’s fun to drive! 

[Rightnider]

What?! Another one?

[Nibbler]

2 hours ago, Rightnider said:

What?! Another one?

Yep, a 4-door in really good condition. 

[DSdriver]

Interesting thread, keep 'em coming.

I presume Bra Vision on the side of that van does not mean what an Englishman would hope?

[Nibbler]

10 hours ago, DSdriver said:

Interesting thread, keep 'em coming.

I presume Bra Vision on the side of that van does not mean what an Englishman would hope?

No, sorry to disappoint you. It has nothing to do with boobies, sadly ☹️

[Nibbler]

Time to fix one of the last (for now) electrical gremlins on the Multivan.  The heater fan resistor. But daylight is fading...