Nibbler’s Universe: past and present. New car added to the fleet!

[AnnoyingPentium]

2 minutes ago, Nibbler said:

A couple of days ago I was offered a Skoda Fabia 1,4 Classic 2006 for free. My wife’s friend had her car in for MOT and it failed.  Some minor stuff and a leaking brake hose. So she wasn’t even allowed to drive the car home. Spanish flag as we call it here in Sweden. Her plan was to scrap it, but offered it to me for free. I like the Fabia but I have too many cars already so I sent a message to my friend Eskil who was up for a free Fabia. He took the bus down from Stockholm and we fixed the Fabia outside the MOT station. You could feel that it wanted to be saved. Everything went smooth. So today with a fresh MOT, Eskil  drove it the 5 hour journey back to Stockholm. 

1.4 16v (as I can see from the engine cover) is probably the petrol engine to have one these, especially the 100hp version.

[Nibbler]

7 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

1.4 16v (as I can see from the engine cover) is probably the petrol engine to have one these, especially the 100hp version.

This Fabia has the 55kw/75hp engine. I rented one of these back when they were new and it was nice. Especially compared to the HTP version that was hilariously slow. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 minute ago, Nibbler said:

This Fabia has the 55kw/75hp engine. I rented one of these back when they were new and it was nice.

We only got this version of that engine here in the UK when mated to an automatic or in the early versions of the Sport and Bohemia special models. It was the 74kW/100hp version in the 'normal' versions.

2 minutes ago, Nibbler said:

Especially compared to the HTP version that was hilariously slow. 

They are, the 12v is grim, and the 6v is torture. I've done 20,000 miles in the 12v and it's been good, but power is a tad lacking!

[Nibbler]

9 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

We only got this version of that engine here in the UK when mated to an automatic or in the early versions of the Sport and Bohemia special models. It was the 74kW/100hp version in the 'normal' versions.

They are, the 12v is grim, and the 6v is torture. I've done 20,000 miles in the 12v and it's been good, but power is a tad lacking!

We only got the 12v here in Sweden. Remember accelerating uphill out on the motorway with my friends HTP. Since that moment I wanted one, so if this Fabia would have been a HTP I probably would have kept it for myself. As I like slow cars. 

[Rightnider]

Wow, that’s some serious dedication! And nothing beats a free car. 
 

I once had an 2004 Polo, it must have had the same engine since it was a 75 hp model. Probably the same car underneath…

[Nibbler]

Another blast from the past: Mercedes 220D -75. I took the train to Gothenburg, bought it and drove it home. Noisy and with crappy seats it was not an enjoyable journey. After a couple of years i sold it and I can´t say I miss it. It looks like it´s been exported from Sweden in 2022. 

The car beside the Mercedes is my ex-girlfriends Honda Accord 2,0 LS -94. Total reliability. She had that car for many years and drove it 220 kilometers every day. 

[Nibbler]

Project Capri moves slowly forward. I given myself one month before the engine is supposed to be installed. Only three obstacles remains. 1: the front crossmember. 2: a couple of small rust holes in the lower part of the firewall. 3: the new AEF brake cylinder doesn’t  fit the original brake pedal. The AEF is a non servo one, as a brake servo won’t fit when a fuel injected engine is used (205 Pinto from a Sierra). There are other problems, but I refuse to think about them for now...

The front crossmember is bad! See picture.

 

[Nibbler]

So far this year: speedometer, oil and filter, new stereo, new big battery, new battery connectors, welding, some paint and I went to the west coast of Sweden and bought another gearbox... hopefully working and with a reverse gear.

74 kilometres done... 

[stuboy]

On 2/28/2023 at 3:46 PM, Nibbler said:

Project Capri moves slowly forward. I given myself one month before the engine is supposed to be installed. Only three obstacles remains. 1: the front crossmember. 2: a couple of small rust holes in the lower part of the firewall. 3: the new AEF brake cylinder doesn’t  fit the original brake pedal. The AEF is a non servo one, as a brake servo won’t fit when a fuel injected engine is used (205 Pinto from a Sierra). There are other problems, but I refuse to think about them for now...

The front crossmember is bad! See picture.

 

lightened by designer and nature...

[Nibbler]

So it begins! 

[Nibbler]

After some initial problems with mouse damage, bad connectors  to the starter and battery we now got the engine to run. But not without a helping hand to the airflow meter. So work continues…

[Nibbler]

We changed the airflow meter. After that we have idle when the engine is hot. Also found destroyed vacuum lines. So that is our next mission. 

[Nibbler]

Today was a bit of a disaster. After changing quite a lot of bad vacuum lines we had high hopes. But there was no improvement. After that we decided to change all fuel injectors and their seals, then broke a fuel line fitting and gave up…

[Rightnider]

Bollocks! Your new workshop looks spacious. Is tinkering okay with the landlord?

[Nibbler]

On 18/06/2023 at 07:17, Rightnider said:

Bollocks! Your new workshop looks spacious. Is tinkering okay with the landlord?

Yep, he was there for a while but didn’t say anything.

[Nibbler]

Had the VW T3 in for our version of MOT. Two guys checked the car over. One of them bumped into the Turbo… and I thought that was it. Ah, it’s a diesel he said and it was a PASS! 
 

They should have seen me 15 minutes before I rolled into the testing station. Pressure washing an oil leak away and removing the engine hatch so they hopefully wouldn’t notice that the engine now is a bit bigger than it should be and therefore sticks out through the engine hatch.

[Nibbler]

Yippie! Visited a boot sale. Found these holding a tent down. 15 inch Saab rims with 4/108 bolt pattern made by Ronal. Fitted standard to the anniversary edition of the Saab 9000 or extra option for a late 900. 

[Nibbler]

A good day today. The T4 Multivan passed the Swedish car inspection. So now it’s good for two more years.

Took the Audi 100 out on its first proper test drive, it needs to have the cobwebs blown out off it. It’s done 300 kilometres in the last 10 years. First drive went to an abandoned Swedish air force base. I almost had a trouser accident when I lifted off the throttle at 100 km/h and the car turned sharp right… on acceleration it turn’s slightly too the left, but when you lift off the throttle it bites. Need to look into that. Otherwise it cruises really nice. Work for the upcoming weekend includes changing a noisy generator and some other minor stuff.

[Nibbler]

Audi 100cc 2,3 1988 tinkering today. Holy crap. I drove the kids to school in this! This is a picture of the bolt “holding” the lower ball joint… No wonder it felt vague, turned sharp right when you released the throttle and was all over the road.

(I hope, because I haven’t done a test drive yet)

[Nibbler]

No, that didn’t solve the problem.

[Nibbler]

So I went on to more important stuff…

[Nibbler]

You need to take every chance you get. So while the 7 year old has his football practice. I do some work on the Audi Diesel as the coaches doesn’t want parents there anyway.

[Nibbler]

It’s mice eviction time! Taking the nice blue interior out of the 2,2 -84. That’s nowadays  a parts donor for both the 2,3 and the diesel. I now feel the urge to have a serious talk to the cats. They are slacking…

[Nibbler]

Audi 100 Diesel: Had some time after work before it got dark. So I tried to get the gearbox better. The linkage is badly worn. I had some success, reverse is now easier to find. Fifth is also easier but the linkage needs new bushings.
 

The other problem this car has is that you can’t switch the engine off with the key. The former owner claimed ignition switch, but I measured 12 volts at the fuel shut off valve when the ignition was on and zero volt when it was off. I can hear the valve working but the engine won’t stop. So I guess the valve is bad? 
 

Other stuff I realised is that the battery is bad and the clutch is on its way out even though it feels fine when you drive. 

[Asimo]

On 9/10/2023 at 12:23 PM, Nibbler said:

No wonder it felt vague, turned sharp right when you released the throttle and was all over the road.

Might be the rubber bushes at the inner end of the track-control arm.  The steering of my ‘88 Audi 100 got very weird when one of these rubbers broke up.

[Nibbler]

7 hours ago, Asimo said:

Might be the rubber bushes at the inner end of the track-control arm.  The steering of my ‘88 Audi 100 got very weird when one of these rubbers broke up.

Yes it is. The inner end on the right one is the suspect. With parking brake on, the right wheel moves 2 centimetres when you apply some engine power.

[Nibbler]

Audi 100 Diesel: Had a few minutes to spare. So I changed the fuel shut off valve and success! I can now turn the engine off with the key. The work was really simple, took maybe 10 minutes including getting the correct tools. But the battery is definitely bad, had to jumpstart it.

[Nibbler]

This past weekend’s fun…

Audi 100 Diesel: Oil change, changed the 95 Ah battery and refitted the air filter. There was a cheap sports filter fitted. Probably because it was easier to use jump leads or a starter pack that way. 
 

VW T4: oil change. Then into winter storage.
 

VW T3: gearbox change. Well that went downhill fast.. while prepping the new gearbox I noticed that it looked slightly different. So I measured it and found that it was around 2 centimetres shorter than the old gearbox. Posted a picture on a T3 Facebook group and a nice German gentleman answered. Yes it’s an T3 gearbox, no it will NOT fit because it is an early one. Then I sat and stared at the floor for about an hour then packed up and went home…

I also used a rotating wire brush, see selfie. 

[Nibbler]

Not much happened this last weekend. Audi #2 & 3 went into hibernation. Toyota Aygo #1 got winter tyres and some additional lightning. First snow fell this past Saturday but melted instantly.

[Nibbler]

Goodbye Stinky! Sold back to its previous owner today.