1986 Vauxhall Carlton CDi, Daily use of a 37yr old car. Now with electrical gremlins

[sutty2006]

10 hours ago, Matty said:

I've actually got one I don't want if you can't find yours

Not found it yet. I might not even have one. I could be hugely mistaken or possibly have dreamt it. Can I buy it off you just in case? 

[Matty]

33 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

Not found it yet. I might not even have one. I could be hugely mistaken or possibly have dreamt it. Can I buy it off you just in case? 

I took it off that little Austin. Don't need to buy it bud just cover the postage. Its not like I'm doing anything else with it! Give me ten mins and I'll photo it

[Matty]

Longest ten mins ever. If you want it PM me your adress and I'll get it off next week

[woodbine]

Some bling. Nice!      😎

[sutty2006]

The Carlton has made it to its first show. The grumpy bastards hot rod and classic car show, middleport. 
 

 

[sutty2006]

So I was clearing stuff around in my unit and found a box of manta ECUs…… and this! And idle control ecu! Bingo! Or so I thought…..

 

 

it’s for a 6 cylinder. 
 

bugger. 

[sutty2006]

Daily use is going well. No FTPs. But it has developed a bit of incontinence from the cooling system. I did find a small cooling hose loose, but still getting a small pool of water on the floor over night. Oh well. I’ll cure it soon. Reeeeaaaaaallly need to swap the tank sender over to get a working fuel gauge. Put more fuel in today and it seams to hover around the reserve mark. Might do that next weekend. 

[sutty2006]

Straight outta the 80s. 
 

Keep forgetting I have a 2015 Allroad as a daily, I’d quite happily send the Carlton into daily service but as I’m moving all my tools and equipment outta my sheds I am going to give it a rest for a few days. 
 

 

[Matty]

On its way this aft pal

[sutty2006]

Todays jobs. 
 

Service gearbox. 
 

 

[sutty2006]

Filters right. 
 

 

gasket isnt

 

 

ill ignore that. 
 

gasket was past it. 
 

 

new one came in a pizza box. 
 

 

a USED pizza box. Yum. 
 

[sutty2006]

So the tank gauge sender that came in the car was wrong. 
 

 

so I did the right thing and binned that. Took the pipe off and fuel came out so there’s a good chunk of fuel in. I’ll have to run it down a bit before I take some brave pills and take it out. 
 

So I fitted the AA badge to make myself feel happy! Big thanks to @Matty for that! 
 

[danthecapriman]

Did you try the leftover pizza!?😆🤢

Cars looking great though.👍

[sutty2006]

45 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Did you try the leftover pizza!?😆🤢

Cars looking great though.👍

More disappointed there was no slice. 
 

drove it home,  hesitant a bit, topped up the blood juice and took it for another spin and now it drives perfect. 👌

[woodbine]

2 hours ago, sutty2006 said:

Filters right. 
 

 

gasket isnt

 

 

ill ignore that. 
 

gasket was past it. 
 

 

new one came in a pizza box. 
 

 

a USED pizza box. Yum. 
 

Good job changing the filter. Who knows, judging by the state of the big gasket, it maybe be the original. Certainly very old. How did you manage with the wrong small gasket? Make one up?

And the $64,000 question - was there much metal on the pan's magnet?

[sutty2006]

4 minutes ago, woodbine said:

Good job changing the filter. Who knows, judging by the state of the big gasket, it maybe be the original. Certainly very old. How did you manage with the wrong small gasket? Make one up?

And the $64,000 question - was there much metal on the pan's magnet?

There was the usual sludge but nothing to break sweat about. Definitely the original gasket I recon. The small one didn’t break, so I left it well alone and put the new filter on. Seams happy! 
 

[sutty2006]

It’s official. She’s branded. 
 

 

[woodbine]

1 hour ago, sutty2006 said:

So the tank gauge sender that came in the car was wrong. 
 

 

so I did the right thing and binned that. Took the pipe off and fuel came out so there’s a good chunk of fuel in. I’ll have to run it down a bit before I take some brave pills and take it out. 
 

So I fitted the AA badge to make myself feel happy! 
 

 

If that spare sender you're holding is the one that came in the spares boxes, I may be able to shed some light. When I had the MK1, the sender failed. Part was obsolete, but managed to get what I think may have been a MK2 sender from a Vaux dealer (name escapes me) who also specialised in old/obsolete Vaux parts. They also supplied the blanking rubber, which I assumed was to blank of the stub for the fuel return on an injected or diesel MK2. I fitted the new sender to my MK1 with the blank as the MK1 was carbed. When the MK1 was scrapped I pulled the sender off as it was quite new. That spare may even be for a diesel - I don't know, it just got me out of a hole at the time and worked perfectly.

So yes, the spare may well be the right one. I've never changed the one on your car as it worked perfectly. Guessing being laid up for years has done something to the sender.

AA badge looks proper. Definitely the right choice.   👍

[sutty2006]

4 minutes ago, woodbine said:

If that spare sender you're holding is the one that came in the spares boxes, I may be able to shed some light. When I had the MK1, the sender failed. Part was obsolete, but managed to get what I think may have been a MK2 sender from a Vaux dealer (name escapes me) who also specialised in old/obsolete Vaux parts. They also supplied the blanking rubber, which I assumed was to blank of the stub for the fuel return on an injected or diesel MK2. I fitted the new sender to my MK1 with the blank as the MK1 was carbed. When the MK1 was scrapped I pulled the sender off as it was quite new.

So yes, the spare may well be the right one. I've never changed the one on your car as it worked perfectly. Guessing being laid up for years has done something to the sender.

AA badge looks proper. Definitely the right choice.   👍

It’s not correct, as the one that’s on it is bolt on, the one wrapped up in paper is twist on and has different size feed hole. Shame. But it’s no big drama. Once the fuel has gone down a bit with useage I’ll pull the old one out. I recon there is corrosion or jelly on the track that supplies variable resistance. It may just want cleaning. 

[woodbine]

6 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

It’s not correct, as the one that’s on it is bolt on, the one wrapped up in paper is twist on and has different size feed hole. Shame. But it’s no big drama. Once the fuel has gone down a bit with useage I’ll pull the old one out. I recon there is corrosion or jelly on the track that supplies variable resistance. It may just want cleaning. 

Ah yes, missed the bolts. Yes, hopefully a clean as you say.

[sutty2006]

So today I got some workshop time in. 
 

had two jobs. 
 

1. remove tank sender. Fix and refit

2. free off offside track rods to allow tracking to be done next week. 
 

On the ramp,started with track rods.  track rod wasn’t even seized. Free as a bird. Result. 
 

then I took the tank sender out. OH MY GOD. 
 

 

 

that’s not good. The float was seized 98.659%. I gave it a clean up, and freed off the float with a bit of maintenance spray. Result. 

 

It cleaned up ok, but still a bit of rust here and there. I connected it back up to the car wires and I got it working. 
 

 

winner! Or was it. 
 

nope. After refitting it to the tank, connecting it up and lowering it back down, nothing. Gauge not registering. 
 

so I pulled it back out again, and buggered about with the track and connection piece for waaaaay too long and got some resistance readings but off and on. So I’ve given up. It’s toast. 

“order a new one?” The masses cry! 
 

FIND ME ONE. Please!!!!!! I’m desperate!! 

[Wibble]

I’ve said it before but have you tried COPE? They have senders listed for Mk2 Carlton that look pretty similar.

[sutty2006]

28 minutes ago, Wibble said:

I’ve said it before but have you tried COPE? They have senders listed for Mk2 Carlton that look pretty similar.

Cope? Who the f**k are they? 
 

have you got a link? 

[Dyslexic Viking]

I would have thought that one to an Opel Rekord E would be the same but apparently not.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134228366064?hash=item1f40a252f0:g:5u8AAOSwuIFfkn2E&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8Oubt6gZ7Z9JYZsViLbw3NEDw1tZJ3CpxeIsNemZosIVPDPBDQOOsxiD3yUZPpcrH%2F69n6YGQ%2BweIPQrUdzmpPAKY3MHSgHqnb18OVFeJG8Qqx4WDb9DhXXqb8c3teDSXXYeKrYSzxNYniem7cZjmqcaaxUG6vKC6LT79OLFVU6X9ojGdtMiT8kehfE6X0L8smEfM1%2BGW5W4gb%2BY8ChCJx%2F6moJGA6aPnLXVLH7K%2BGAv9NrcLlq9AsgNhLihjqJg%2F2JHnuOsYZS%2FkuH6Gm2%2Bpb4qV8xiAlY4KC7V1ZAFzMKwATXkBan8nCZLVex2cThK1Q%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR86D_6P1YQ

[Wibble]

https://www.copeparts.nl/en/shop/rekord-e-carlton-mk2-commodore/fuel-exhaust/page/2

[sutty2006]

15 minutes ago, Wibble said:

https://www.copeparts.nl/en/shop/rekord-e-carlton-mk2-commodore/fuel-exhaust/page/2

Those two are for earlier versions unfortunately and are completely different 😢

[Wibble]

Ah shit, soz!

[sutty2006]

I think my next project will be something that’s 14x easier to get parts for. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

I have looked for you on various classic Opel parts websites and all the ones I find are different, they are all similar to the one I posted a picture of. So it seems the Opel and Vauxhall tank level senders are different. Don't understand what GM was thinking.

[sutty2006]

49 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

I have looked for you on various classic Opel parts websites and all the ones I find are different, they are all similar to the one I posted a picture of. So it seems the Opel and Vauxhall tank level senders are different. Don't understand what GM was thinking.

Crazy isn’t it.