Weird Car’s weird cars! ‘VANDEN PLAS GOES FOR A DRIVE’

[barefoot]

Sounds like an E10 problem to me. My t2 hated the stuff. I carry a bottle of snake oil that I pour in first on the rare occasions that I'm forced to use it.

[lesapandre]

I'm hazarding blocked fuel filter and rusted tank. I'm not sure where the filter is on these - it may be in-tank gauze. Run along the fuel lines. 

Could also be water contaminated.

Run along the lines and clean everything filtering the fuel. 

May also be blocked carb jets - but before you dismantle run a line off a can and see if 'Norman' runs OK.

Then you will know it's the pipes/tank.

If you have it  - blow some compressed air down the fuel lines if the tank end will detach without all the fuel running out.

Possibly fuel pump - perishable diaphragm or if electric - points.

The other thing may be duff points - lot of aftermarket rubbish about. Get some proper ones.

Then try coil/condenser.

🤺🏇🤺🏇🤺🏇⚔️🏹

[lesapandre]

Oh and just check the carb dashpots are topped to the correct level.

The only other thing that occurs to me is an intermittent ignition circuit wiring fault on the aged components and wires. Sometime the ignition switches short- I assume  this starts 'on the button'.

There is no interlock to worry about on the pre-select - Mr Chudleigh-Warner was not troubled to install such  effete safety devices 😂

[Schaefft]

It's probably not overheating then. Does it easily start now that it's back home? Condensation in the distributor cap is a major issue for these which only causes issues once warmed up a little. Misfires are the symptom until it has evaporated.

Alternatively your fuel pump control module capacitors could be on the way out. In my case this caused the fuel pump to rapidly to turn off and on (which was still good enough to run the car perfectly fine.

Of course the fuel pump could be on its way out as well, just needs proper diagnosing.

 

Edit: Oh hold on, we aren't talking about the W140?😂

[captain_70s]

Can't imagine E10 would effect running, pretty sure these were designed to run on post war misery petrol.

More likely it's swilled some shit up from the bottom of the tank and blocked something. 

[Weird Car]

Got in it this morning and it and after a tiny bit of hesitation she fired up and ran lovely again, checked the radiator and it was full so I don’t think it over heated 

 

https://youtu.be/5bE1LcWJ_fQ?si=UnUolcp3AKKsUl8O

 

have a video of it running 

[lesapandre]

58 minutes ago, Weird Car said:

Got in it this morning and it and after a tiny bit of hesitation she fired up and ran lovely again, checked the radiator and it was full so I don’t think it over heated 

 

https://youtu.be/5bE1LcWJ_fQ?si=UnUolcp3AKKsUl8O

 

have a video of it running 

It will do what it's done before once it heats up or goes for a drive. I'd check everything carefully to avoid an ftp. 

It may be fuel vaporisation too. I wonder if it has/had a heat shield or this is a recommended mod? 

Glad it's OK. 

Overheating would have boiled it  and you'd probably have seen staining around the filler. 

I'd just give everything a nice once over.

Could be points or a slipping distributor. 

Nice old car. Very stylish indeed. 😎 

Check the anti-free that it's not icing on a run.

I'd flush the whole cooling system. Bound to be gunked up.

[Christine]

1 hour ago, lesapandre said:

 

Check the anti-free that it's not icing on a run.

 

Check  carb is  not icing up too..it was bloody cold and damp yesterday .  I had a Midi van  that iced up and stopped , even when warmed up . Does the air intake rotate to the exhaust  manifold? 

[lesapandre]

52 minutes ago, Christine said:

Check  carb is  not icing up too..it was bloody cold and damp yesterday .  I had a Midi van  that iced up and stopped , even when warmed up . Does the air intake rotate to the exhaust  manifold? 

May have a winter setting?

[Angrydicky]

Fuel gauge will probably be a seized sender arm. Scrape all the crud away from the pivot point, penetrating oil and a screwdriver to get it moving and work it backwards and forwards (with plenty of penetrating oil) until it’s freed off properly.

Often the floats weep over the years and are full of stale petrol. I’ve successfully soldered them up before but you need to burn out the old petrol first with a blowlamp, healthnsafety eat your heart out.

As others have said, strip and clean the carb, jets and filters, including the one in the fuel pump. There will almost certainly be a load of crud in the tank too so that would benefit from flushing out or even sealing with the POR15 kit if it’s bad enough to justify it.

Theres one of these Conquests rusting away on a driveway near me, shame really.

[bezzabsa]

old car so check all the electrics are up to task..especially running at night with lights, heaters wipers etc running..possibly condensor failing?

Nice car tho......

is the jaaaag hearse yours too?

[Weird Car]

1 minute ago, bezzabsa said:

is the jaaaag hearse yours too?

It’s a Daimler Hearse I’ll have you know 🤣 and it was, now sold to another forum member 

[vulgalour]

Going of the fuel filter situation on our Lanchester, which is really similar to the Conquest, there probably isn't one in the conventional sense.  There's likely a gauze in the fuel pump, probably in the top of the sediment bowl, and another where the fuel hard line joins the carburretor and that'll be it.  Carbs on this era are really simple things and very easy to dismantle and clean.  I recall from HMC's posts that he's had intermittent running issues with the Conquest for a while, the sort of thing where it was never broken for long enough to investigate before self healing.  My money would be on crap in the fuel, or breaking down ignition components like disintegrating spark leads or a failing condensor.

[Weird Car]

Waved goodbye to Lady Die today as she drove off into the sunset with @Sunny Jim

in other news progress is happening with the Great Daim, I’ve cleaned and re gapped the points, they were very dirty, also topped up the dash pots as they were dry and she’s far more responsive on the throttle now, I want to bring the idle up ever so slightly though as on idle in gear with no choke she’s trying to sit at 400rpm  which feels far too low, I’m genuinely really enjoying it though, pure 50s British stodge is my guilty pleasure, could I have potentially found another keeper? 🤔

 

[Weird Car]

So my friends Ovlov got delivered today, thanks to @Marshall2810 again, he’s really smitten with it, such a utilitarian old bus, the doors shut with such a reassuring thud and everything just seems so well built,  we did have a little go at getting life out of the old girl, we had her firing a couple of times but after that nothing, further examination of the points tells us they’re sticking, sometimes open sometimes shut so a good clean of all the parts are in order, or even an electronic ignition kit maybe? More progress hopefully tomorrow 

[Marshall2810]

12 minutes ago, Weird Car said:

So my friends Ovlov got delivered today, thanks to @Marshall2810 again, he’s really smitten with it, such a utilitarian old bus, the doors shut with such a reassuring thud and everything just seems so well build,  we did have a little go at getting life out of the old girl, we had her firing a couple of times but after that nothing, further examination of the points tells us they’re sticking, sometimes open sometimes shut so a good clean of all the parts are in order, or even an electronic ignition kit maybe? More progress hopefully tomorrow 

Pleased to see it arrived safely and you're both getting stuck in straight away! Agree on the lack of spark theory, it certainly smelled like it was getting fuel so reckon you're on the right track 

[Weird Car]

Oh I also just realised that I failed to mention that the S class has now gone and has been replaced by this 1990 Eunos Roadster that I absolutely adore. I’ve wanted one since I was 17 but was never in the position to have a 2 seater until now so it’s been great  making up for lost time. I’ve actually owned it since the 1st of February and I guess just forget to update my thread 🙃

[SilverMachine]

much love for the ovlov, needs a more period radio though! even if a modern one is hidden away! i loved my little mazda, but the soft top rested on the top of my head, so the majority of the time i had it the hard top was fitted! should have kept it and modified it but i needed something to lug logs and coal in so ended up with a diesel focus,with a rather bizzare blue interior!  which although did the job well, my mechanic snapped a glow plug in it so that was that! dose your mazda have the bizarre cassette cd stereo? or was that only the later ones like i had?

[Weird Car]

8 hours ago, SilverMachine said:

dose your mazda have the bizarre cassette cd stereo

Unfortunately been updated to a modern Bluetooth unit which to be honest suits me better as it’s a daily driver 

[Weird Car]

Volvo update, we have life! Mark sent me this video this morning he’s got it going after cleaning the carbs and the connectors to the coil, it’s running lumpy though so I assume the carbs want balancing which he’s supposedly doing later on

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/GiS0YbKWWB4?si=OtJbZkds-nBZ7Bfy

[MAF260]

Good to see where that lovely Daimler went!

19 hours ago, Weird Car said:

 

 

 

[Weird Car]

1 hour ago, MAF260 said:

Good to see where that lovely Daimler went!

 

It hasn’t actually departed yet, it was owned by the guy who owns the Volvo now, I sold it on the forum for him on Saturday 

[MAF260]

59 minutes ago, Weird Car said:

It hasn’t actually departed yet, it was owned by the guy who owns the Volvo now, I sold it on the forum for him on Saturday 

Apologies for my stupidity, I hadn't realised it was you who advertised it! Clearly I was too caught up in 70s nostalgia - certainly seems like it could be a suitable car for your fleet!

[Weird Car]

23 minutes ago, MAF260 said:

certainly seems like it could be a suitable car for your fleet!

One classic Daimler is enough for me lol 

[Weird Car]

Yikes last post March 25th? Think it's time for an update don't you?

 

 

First off a state of the Fleet address 

 

 

Daily driver for work

 

2021 Ford Transit 2.0 10 speed auto "not my personal vehicle but work allocated" 

 

 

 

 

1990 Eunos Roadster auto 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plan was to flog this off but I've now decided to keep it "you'll see why in a sec"

 

 

 

And last but not least 

 

1967 Vw Beetle 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that's the current fleet now let's get into the fun stuff 

 

 

 

So not long after my Scotland trip last year in the bug I had a message from my friend Sam with the Trabant "the same one from the Scotland trip pictures" he mentioned to me how he was eager to take his Trabi back to Zwickau for a road trip holiday and wondered if I fancied taking Herbie along too to act as a rear gunner and stop off at Wolfsburg obviously too, of course I agreed and the planning was under way 

 

 

 

After much back and forth this was the plan we came up with 

Night 1 

Mensil France

Night 2 

 Luxembourg “passing through Belgium”

Night 3

Lippstadt Germany 

Night 4

Wolfsburg Germany 

Night 5

Zwickau Germany

Night 6

Nürnberg Germany 

Night 7

Pleidelsheim Germany

Night 8

Épinal France

Night 9

Reims France

Night 10

Le Mans France

Night 11

Caen France

Ferry home on day 12

 

all in all it seemed like a pretty fun and exciting trip 

 

 

 

so with air b&b's and ferry booked I started prepping Herbie 

 

 

Issue one

 

No nearside brake light, 

 

Ah rusty light fixture, solution replacement

 

No after pictures but take my word for it it worked 

 

next up was tyres 

4 brand new for £410 fitted and balanced “massive ouch”

 

 

 

then the fun started 

I was on my way to work a few months ago and my charge light came on, now the car had been sitting a little while over winter and being 6v my first thought was check the battery, and surprise surprise a little fuzzy 

 

 

 

nothing some wire wool and electrical tape won’t fix

 

 

and just like that it’s charging again

 

After I had the wheels fitted the car started handling terribly so I took it to a VW specialist I know who had a quick look and came to the conclusion it was the tie rods, all absolutely shot 

 

so new ones fitted 

 

I then get a message from the mechanic saying he can hear a scraping noise from the front brakes “at this point we’re 2 and a half weeks from departure” I think you can see where this is going, well long story short he ended up replacing the ENTIRE BREAKING SYSTEM and I mean practically everything, back plates, shoes, drums, slaves, all the lines, flexi and metal, and by now were pushing it for time, but one thing we can’t seem to sort is the master cylinder, we’ve tried 3 brand new cheap ish eBay ones, all broken in different ways whist the good expensive ones are on 8 week back order, and yes we did try rebuilding the original and it still didn’t work, by this point it was 2am on the morning of the trip, our ferry out was at 4am

 

 

and to add insult to injury Sams Trabant was having literally the exact same issue as my beetle, "what are the odds?"  I’ll give my mechanic friend his credit though he did stay open until 2am trying to fix it

 

so I had spent roughly £2000 trying to prepare Herbie for this trip round Europe just to have this happen, I was faced with 2 choices 

 

1 cancel the trip

2 cram all our bags into a tiny Jap import Mx5 and head for France 

 

So here’s me at the Ferry port 

 

 

yep high mileage MX5 with a very questionable MOT, holy sills, cracked windscreen, no drivers side mirror and no working windows to the rescue 

 

after no sleep we drove onto the boat 

 

Average Brittany Ferry’s Breakfast

 

 
 

And my first drive on foreign soil

 

already classic spotting lol

 

 

 

 

but not long after leaving Caen we made it to our first room and then proceeded to crash out 

 

the following morning we were back on the road and headed 500 kilometres ish to Luxembourg via Belgium 

 

 

 

 

of course we made it absolutely trouble free

 

353 kilometres covered the next day battling storms and some of the harshest rain I've ever seen we crossed the border into Deutschland and made it to our huge apartment in Lippstadt, an absolute bargain for €62

 

 

 

Not as many kilometres covered the next day, just 239 but we made it to Wolfsburg.

 

I really wished Herbie was with me for this day especially considering we could literally see the factory he was built from the window but ho hum I was really proud of the Mazda non the less

 

 

 

 

Before leaving Wolfsburg we HAD to check out the VW factory and museum 

 

 

 

 

But we soon had to get back on the road again

After 324 Kilometres we found ourselves in the extremily industrial city of Zwickau, in the former Democratic Republic of Germany 

It was a very "rustic" motel but the view outside the window was some lovely communist motors which made up for it slightly.

 We also passed what I assume was the VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerk, the factory where Trabants were produced! So overall a good day

 

 

 

After a slightly shorter 206 Kilometre drive we found ourselves in the absolutely gorgeous city of Nuremberg

 

Chod spotted

 

After only a 185 Kilometre drive the next day we made it to Pleidelsheim

We had a long stretch of Autobahn so I thought I'd really give the mx5 some beans and we reached the giddy heights of 95mph before the vibration through the peddles made me think it wise to back off

 

this was our last night in Germany and we were then headed back to France and to the lovely town of Epinal the heat was starting to overheat my phone and it was quickly shaded 

 

 

 

The  next day we continued edging closer back to Caen and made it to our hotel in Reims and obviously had to stop at the old grandstand 

such an amazing day

 

Next up was Le Mans and in order to get there I decided to say screw it you only live once and go straight through the centre of Paris without a clean air sticker or any of that lark 😳

obligatory Eiffel tower pic, what an incredible experience 

then one last big drive from Le Mans back to Caen 

 

 

 

So after 3306 kilometres we were back in England, what an absolutely fantastic trip made even better by this gem of a car, a car with too many issues to mention that barely scraped through its last MOT and we were forced to take 2 hours before our boat was due to depart, all that way in crazy heat, on crazy roads and with 2 crazy drivers, it bucked the odds and i'm so immensely proud of it and i'm glad it got to see some lovely parts of the world like we did! 

 

 

No news as such on the Bug or Sam’s Trabant yet other then he’s still waiting on parts obviously, more fleet news to come when I have more to update you on

 

 

 

[wesacosa]

Looks like an epic trip. Shame about the Beetle and Trabbi but MX-5 to the rescue 

[Weird Car]

4 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

MX-5 to the rescue 

It's definitely cemented it's place on my fleet after that road trip absolutely trouble free

[wesacosa]

9 minutes ago, Weird Car said:

It's definitely cemented it's place on my fleet after that road trip absolutely trouble free

That's pretty much why my Favorit is still sat outside the house after my Monaco adventure (which apparently according to Facebook was 6 years ago this week 😬)

[Weird Car]

But now it's time for a major life update, as i'm sure many of you know I hate talking politics but the united kingdom just isn't quite what it used to be and as much as i'm all about progressing towards a better world the UK is just in my opinion too far gone especially now my rights as a trans woman are slowly being stripped away, so about 10 months ago i decided enough was enough and started saving with the intention of moving to Germany, this roadtrip was a test of sorts, not just of my German speaking skills but if I could fit into their way of life, driving, shopping, interacting and such and it turned out I couldn't just do those things but I could do them well with a confidence I never knew I had so that settled it, next July I'm moving to Germany, I already have accommodation sorted in Wolfsburg and I'm in the process of receiving my works visa, so all exciting times, obviously Herbie will be coming with "he can't escape a roadtrip that easy" and the mazda will be staying here in my garage for when I visit home as it'll be far cheaper and easier to fly home then drive lol

 

So yeah, big things on the horizon 

[wesacosa]

17 minutes ago, Weird Car said:

But now it's time for a major life update, as i'm sure many of you know I hate talking politics but the united kingdom just isn't quite what it used to be and as much as i'm all about progressing towards a better world the UK is just in my opinion too far gone especially now my rights as a trans woman are slowly being stripped away, so about 10 months ago i decided enough was enough and started saving with the intention of moving to Germany, this roadtrip was a test of sorts, not just of my German speaking skills but if I could fit into their way of life, driving, shopping, interacting and such and it turned out I couldn't just do those things but I could do them well with a conference I never knew I had so that settled it, next July I'm moving to Germany, I already have accommodation sorted in Wolfsburg and I'm in the process of receiving my works visa, so all exciting times, obviously Herbie will be coming with "he can't escape a roadtrip that easy" and the mazda will be staying here in my garage for when I visit home as it'll be far cheaper and easier to fly home then drive lol

 

So yeah, big things on the horizon 

Well, we will be sorry to lose you from our South East AS gang that's for sure. Who else would bring a single figure MPG Rolls Royce up from the South coast for our meet ups , and obviously the reasons you mention for your departure paint a depressing view on where things are at the moment and a worry on where they are heading 

That said, I am a big fan of Germany and I'm sure you'll have a great time there. Although they do have some funny rules like not allowing you to wash your car on a Sunday and the having to wait for the Ampelmann to cross the road soon gets boring 😂. I guess it opens up options to add some Germanic oddities to the fleet once you've settled in too