Living with Zastava Florida Business - Suspension done

[IronStar]

Minor update: I got a call from LPG place. The LPG mixer was most likely never serviced since first installed and as a consequence completely fuxxored and needs replacing. It could be rebuilt in theory, but a new one is more cost-effective. Looking forward* to more findings of neglect, bodgery, and general brokenness. 

[IronStar]

7AM start to pick up the car today. Carb guy I really wanted to talk to before driving off has some stuff later, and was there ‘till 9AM so it had to be this early. 

Now twin barrel carbed! With 2/3 of the fucking LPG system replaced! Actually goes allright for a fucking change.

Brand new fuel pump was duff, seal was too big and blocking fuel from getting into the engine. 🤦‍♂️  Got new plugs, HT leads, some other assorted hoses, and other bits.

Vacuum valve that’s supposed to be operating when aircon is on is shot though, and the result is it stalls on idle with aircon on. Annoying, with parts that are probably unobtanium, but I’ll try. They mentioned that it can maybe replaced with LPG/Petrol valve and made to work like that.

What’s way more annoying was a call I got from the shop some 5 minutes after I left.

- There’s a huge puddle where your car was, and I think it wasn’t there 5 minutes ago. I might be wrong but….
- Temps seem ok, but I’ll check immediately.

Stopped. It seems fine. Oh, there’s a couple of drips, maybe condensation from aircon? Let’s give it a few more minu…*fan kicks in* *pink liquid shoots out* *temperature going above 90* Oh fuck me. 

- Yeah, it’s from the car. I can’t see where exactly, somewhere on the back of the engine, but as soon as the fans kick in, it starts leaking like a sieve. 
- Oh for fucks sake, really sorry man, can’t believe we didn’t catch it in the garage. Look, don’t worry. Can you bring it back without overheating it? I hope you didn’t get too far?
- Nah, a kilometer tops. I’ll let it cool down a bit and drive back.
- We’ll find it later today, just leave it in front of the garage. I’m really, really really sorry. 

Car left to cool off a bit, driven back no problem. Left it at the entrance, with a coolant puddle spreading underneath. 

Taking a bus home now.

Seems that this car has decided to fight me every single step of the way. 
 

[stuboy]

rather coolant than fuel leaking

[IronStar]

3 minutes ago, stuboy said:

rather coolant than fuel leaking

There is next to none in the tank as it didn’t work properly on petrol since I bought it. At this stage, I’m honestly worried about brimming it. Only one way to find out if it leaks though. 😅

[IronStar]

A split hose next on intake manifold caused the coolant dump. It was upset when manifold was switched to a twin-barrel one, and pressurization of system caused it to start leaking. Hose swapped, normal service resumed.

Today’s “you thought it’s going to be a smooth ride? You sucker.” entertainment* was provided by fuel cap. The LPG filler is hidden behind fuel flap, next to petrol cap. Cap got lodged under the LPG filler, and it couldn’t be unscrewed.

Cue 5 minutes of swearing and trying to remove it, before guy working at the station came out with “need a hand?” Yes, but not because I don’t know to pour petrol. He tried as well, then came back with a screwdriver. I unscrewed LPG filler, to make some space to turn the fuel cap, and after some fiddling away it went. This cap is a screw-on type, so I predict fun will continue to be had until I can figure out a replacement that doesn’t catch. 

The car actually shifts now! It’s no hoon at 65bhp, but it’s also light, and goes rather well when floored! Did some 50km today, with no drama. I even got stuck in Belgrade’s rush hour, which is probably the worst type of traffic an old car can be in, but it coped really well! No unexpected temperatures, no shakes, all is well. I don’t trust it as long as I don’t make some 500 trouble-free kilometers.

Stereo sound was lost somewhere along the way, so I’ll need to check where did it go, so speaker surround will be going down again. I also went to the garage, and refitted most of the roofliner trims back on. I forgot to take photos, but other than some clips that just don’t want to go in need to be convinced, it’s almost all there. I also dumped the bits I was driving around in it, so it’s actually a car with useful space inside now.

It also got bumped in parking foodchain, as I forgot to pay for resident parking permit in front of my flat, so with 307CC being away, it was dropped into a garage, like a proper pampered queen. 😄

Next up?

Suspension needs to be sorted. Rear shocks are virtually non existent, and it’s no fun listening to squeaks, and driving with no suspension. Front top mounts are dead-dead and need to go. 
I’m also still trying to find a sparky that can re-wire the stereo properly, and sort out the rev counter. We’ll see how that goes.

Overall, I’m so chuffed that one car is finally back home, and the reason it went into a garage seems properly fixed. 

[fatharris]

Loving the work being put into this mate

[IronStar]

1 hour ago, fatharris said:

Loving the work being put into this mate

Thanks man! I really like it despite all the snags, and I would love to see it properly sorted.

They are such a rare sight nowadays, especially pre-facelifts that I have very limited time before they're gone and no more parts are available. 

[IronStar]

Yugos and Zastavas in general, when new, arrived with a toolkit that’s essentially everything you need to do any work on the engine or interior. These have, of course, been mostly long lost and I think I saw only one car for sale that still had them either the car. Going through the boot the other day, I was thinking - yeah, there needs to be some tools in the back, in case I need to tighten up something. Spare wheel has been kicked out in exchange for that stabby cord thing, but it would still be a good idea to have something to tighten the wheel with. Quick look on classifieds, and turns out there’s still NOS tool box available for ~20€ delivered. Impressive for a thing that’s been out of production for over 20 years now.

I also wanted to sort out the blown dash bulbs the other day, started disassembling, and when I threw it all back together, I thought I saw a blink when I locked the car. Unlock *blink blink* Lock *blink* Lock the locked car *blink blink blink*. I was wondering who the hell installed remote central locking with no indicators, but thought it’s probably one of those things. Apparently not, it just wasn’t working right.

 

Minor thing, incandescent interior bulb was swapped for an LED unit, so it actually illuminates the interior now. I need to measure it and get a warm white / yellow one ordered, as only white was available, but this is a small but significant quality of life improvement. Annoyingly, there’s no switch, it just turns on when door is ajar, but there’s a blank next to it, so I might wire something up in the future.

I wanted to fix the lights behind the switches, but Florida also uses absolutely insane system with fiber optic that gets light up from a single bulb, and inevitably gets broken and ripped from the fixtures in the switches, so I left that alone. There’s enough space to shove in a bare led and keep it in place with a glue gun, so that’s what I’ll probably do at some point. 

[IronStar]

Back to the dash lights.

When I said it’s fiber-optic cable background lighting, I was serious. Someone in Zastava thought that tried and tested reasonable solution of fitting a switch with a bulb is not a good idea. What they did is fitting a single bulb and running fiber optic cables to switches. It looks like this in pre-facelift Yugo

Now, you may think “well that’s a shit idea, was there some sort of fixture or bulb shortage in Yugoslavia? Surely they got rid of that for newer models or with a facelift?” Nope to both. It also comes with a bespoke connector that’s absolutely shit and prone to cracking and even when it’s working fine it’s so dim it makes you wonder why did they even bother in the first place. What they did in Florida is running not one, but two sets of fiber optics. Heater controls have same optic loop, with predicable results of only small part of the actual controls having any light on them. Oh and because all of this is not insane enough, bulbs controlling all this are buried behind the instrument cluster, requiring you to rip everything out to get to them.
So that’s what I did tonight.

What can be done to rectify this is running LEDs with 560ohm resistor to every switch, then using a hot glue gun to get it in place. 

I know that Wago blocks are frowned upon, but I can’t think of any other solution that is not overly complicated that allows me to swap a failed switch or a LED diode without ripping apart entire harness again.

Ideally, I’d like to replace the switch holders as well as they’re cracking and in generally poor condition, but if I don’t find them, Wagos allow me to swap it out at a later date easily. 

I’m still thinking of a solution for the heater controls block. I was thinking a LED strip behind a diffuser, but that’s too bright and generates too much heat. I tried with leftovers of 220led/meter strip, so maybe better results with a low power 60 one? If I don’t figure it out by the time I’m reassembling this, I’ll just leave power wires for that, and figure out a solution later, as that bit doesn’t require dash taking apart.

While I’m there, I want to take care of the failed dash backlight as well. Remove the bulb and…oh, it’s one of those insane things that make you change an entire fixture, not just the bulb.

I’m absolutely not taking this apart again unless absolutely necessary, so I’ll just replace all the bulbs in the cluster hoping not to see the back of it for quite some time. 
 

Reassembly day hopefully tomorrow 🤞 

[Black_GT]

9 hours ago, IronStar said:

I’m absolutely not taking this apart again unless absolutely necessary, so I’ll just replace all the bulbs in the cluster hoping not to see the back of it for quite some time. 
 

Reassembly day hopefully tomorrow 🤞 

The illumination on the switches looks great!  This bulb with holder looks very much like what was used in 80s VWs - when I fixed the dash lighting on my Scirocco a few years back I was able to buy the bulbs with the holders pretty cheaply 

[grogee]

Wago blocks are OK I think? Especially if you may be changing things around in the future. Big Clive on YT likes them and he knows his onions when it comes to electrics. 

I guess there's potential they might wobble around and rattle if not secured with a cable tie. But maybe squeaks and rattles aren't high up the list of Yugo concerns. 

'Posher' Metros, Maestros and Montegos have a variation on this fiber optic nonsense. Each steering wheel stalk contains a fiber optic cable that routes light from a single bulb mounted under the steering column. The idea being that the control symbols are lit up at night, something I haven't seen on more modern stuff. 

It's typically shonky Lucas design but it does kind of work, it's pretty fragile though. 

[IronStar]

20 minutes ago, grogee said:

Wago blocks are OK I think? Especially if you may be changing things around in the future. Big Clive on YT likes them and he knows his onions when it comes to electrics. 

I guess there's potential they might wobble around and rattle if not secured with a cable tie. But maybe squeaks and rattles aren't high up the list of Yugo concerns. 

'Posher' Metros, Maestros and Montegos have a variation on this fiber optic nonsense. Each steering wheel stalk contains a fiber optic cable that routes light from a single bulb mounted under the steering column. The idea being that the control symbols are lit up at night, something I haven't seen on more modern stuff. 

It's typically shonky Lucas design but it does kind of work, it's pretty fragile though. 

I'll find a place to secure them so they don't rattle around. Florida is fairly quiet on the rattles and squeaks front and will get even better with the suspension renewed. The only very squeaky bit is the driver's seat which is a bit broken, but I'm looking to get that reupholstered and sorted in the near future as well.

I know there's a bunch of Lucas-licensed electric parts in Yugos, so this might be one of those. I still don't understand what's wrong with running a bulb to whatever needs to be lit up though. Terrible idea, awful execution. 

 

5 hours ago, Black_GT said:

The illumination on the switches looks great!  This bulb with holder looks very much like what was used in 80s VWs - when I fixed the dash lighting on my Scirocco a few years back I was able to buy the bulbs with the holders pretty cheaply 

Thanks! 

I think I found the right bulbs, I swapped them out, but they don't look as snug as I'd like. I'll try it out and see how it goes.

[Zelandeth]

The fibre-optic system will date back to the Fiat origins of the design - they used the same setup on the Panda/Uno/Tipo and probably others.  Jaguar in the 80s were a huge fan of fibre optics too.

[MorrisItalSLX]

10 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Jaguar in the 80s were a huge fan of fibre optics too.

They certainly were, the bastards!

I destroyed all the heater controls fibre optics on my XJ6 SIII trying to remove the radio, all very brittle.

[IronStar]

Garage needs to be vacated for the impending arrival of the Mini, so It’s reassembly o’clock!

The dash in this car is out of Lada 112. I really don’t understand why the fuck did they bother to force this ugly, ill fitting piece of Russian crap in instead of what was in there before they did an interior facelift. It even looks completely out of place when you lift the cowling.

Anyway, lights for the instrument cluster were acquired, and all the backlighting is now operational.

Wago was employed to distribute power 3-way, to both sides of the cluster, and to heater controls. 
Assembly was reverse of disassembly, with lots of swearing going in the direction of Zastava and their ill-fitting plastic moldings. In general, I’m an apologist for a lot of things they did or didn’t do, but things like this

are just unnecessarily and unacceptably bad. 
Also it’s impossible that they didn’t catch in QA that switch mounts are shit, and switches end up looking on a piss as it rattles away.

Anyhow, it all went back in and now looks like this

Result!

I still didn’t figure out the heater control backlight, so for now it’s staying with a wire hanging in there 

I also got older center-cap style hubcaps. The car is still getting alloys, but these were a fiver for 4, and were NOS so felt rude not to. I don’t think they were ever factory fot on Floridas, but meh they look nicer that what’s on the car now IMO. Long-term, if I’m making 1.6 16v Yugo, I want these on banded steelies.

 

Next up on comprehensive list of making this car actually nice - (mostly) suspension. I got new top mounts and bearings, new halfshaft boot, rear bearings, and I’m hunting for shocks. Rears shouldn’t be an issue as they’re Golf 2/3 units. Fronts are off Ritmo, and there are two types. No idea which one is one until they’re taken off, so that will be reactive I guess. It’s booked for that work next week. 

[IronStar]

Text heavy, not many photos, as I didn’t get any of the work done, and I forgot to take pictures of the parts I got. Bear with me.

Florida went out to get new suspension. It even got picked up (and returned) in front of my place, which was a proper shocker to me, as I really didn’t expect that sort of thing. Tame Zastava mechanic moved to remote suburbs of Belgrade, and has determined it’s easier to pick up and return cars, than get people to drive all the way to him. Or something. IDK, but not going to complain as it’s not a paid extra and saved me a lot of trouble for not having to run out of work to hand it over.

As outlined in the grumpy thread, despite most Floridas having most of the rear suspension of a mk2 Golf, this one, in late-model madness, doesn’t. I mean, it does, but not really. Springs are wider than on normal Floridas, and consequently mounts on shocks are wider than on mk2 Golf units.
 

Obviously, these units are NLA unobtanium, so fuck you and your car. Thankfully, tame Zastava mechanic decided not to give up there, made some calls, realized that Bilsteins have these mounts removable, and  that the best course of action is buying these and machining the mounts to fit the Bilsteins. Mounting rubbers are thankfully same as mk2 Golf units, so that went in. I will say I’m not happy paying Bilstein prices instead of QWP I initially got for the car, but to be fair, I’m really lucky that he could be bothered to find a solution, and not told me to fuck off. Pricy but made to fit is infinitely better state of affairs than not having rear suspension. 

I can’t stress enough how amazing this guy is in general, and how amazing he is with old cars. He’s proper old school, and doesn’t really do new cars. But he did thousands of the 90s and older ones, and has patience of a saint to faff around with NLA parts, people that have stashes of NOS parts, old scrappies that are around for ages that stock things that everyone else turned into Whirlpool long ago. people that know people, and is all the things you’d expect of a great mechanic, but is a lost art for ages now unless you’re mates. He really doesn’t stop until the problem is solved, car works and his customers are happy. Amazing. Really. Honestly. Shockingly cheap as well, but I really try my best to tip. 

Fronts were a bunch of NOS parts. Monroe shocks, bearings that looked like they were sitting on a shelf for 35 years but scrubbed nicely, top mounts in Zastava baggies.

To finish it all, it got new propshaft boot along with new gearbox oil (old ones was 400km old, but heyho), FAD rear hub assemblies went in, as well as coolant that replaced water that was in the system after it dumped it all out when LPG was done.

I’m told that there’s no mechanical issues that are obvious to him, and car generally looks to be in a good shape. He also told me that he had one of the neighbors dropping over to his garage, asking about the car and saying how he loved it, which is a bit* unexpected, but apparently tide is turning for Floridas as well. Also told me he knows a great sparky (of course he does) that doesn’t get snobby around cars like this that can look into rev counter and re-wiring the stereo to ISO. Oh and he loved the LED backlight, and found it way nicer than what was there from factory.

I went for a short test drive. In an absolute shocker, having new suspension is much nicer to having blown suspension, and new Bilsteins on the rear are nicer than NOS Monroes on the front which have been sitting in a box on a shelf for 20 odd years. Car is genuinely comfortable and not bouncing all over the place. 11/10, would have suspension again.

Total cost was very very very reasonable too. Under 400€ for all after I return QWPs, which I think is really good value for the amount of time spent and work done.

Next up? Sparky to rewire the stereo and fix rev counter. Rear parcel shelf mounts can be replaced now as rear suspension has been swapped, so they don’t need to be upset again. Driver’s seat is disintegrating and is really uncomfortable, so it’s either getting replaced, or lately I’ve been leaning towards getting it fixed. There’s a small hole in the fabric itself, but its squeaky and sponge inside failed, leaving it an uncomfortable mess. I’ll get a quote (or five) to sort this out and keep it original. LPG needs a onceover after a run-in. I still didn’t order the aircon vacuum valve. It needs proper wheels and wheel trims in the bin. And, finally, elephant in the room - it needs welding and ideally a respray. This one I’m absolutely frightened of, as it takes forever as evidenced by Cabrio. This one hasn’t been crashed and needs things swapped over and sills welded, so hopefully faster? We’ll see how it goes.