Zel's Fleet Blog...Rover, Renault, Peugeot, Trabant, Invacar & Sinclair C5

[Zelandeth]

Been very little going on lately. Life has been busy leaving little time for car things.

A bit of numeric symmetry arrived today.



We ended up switching to a different brand of oil with the last tank of fuel on the Trabant, and it definitely doesn't like it as much as what I'd been using before. It's far more grumpy about idling - so I'll definitely be returning to the Castrol 2T that I had been. Only wound up with this one (think it's a Comma oil) as a target of opportunity while it was picking some other parts up. Will switch back with the next tank.

In old tech news, there was only one model left I had set up as a saved search set up for on eBay. The Toshiba T3100SX. With that I'll have completed the lineup of machines that my father used to bring back from work in the 90s.

This is a machine though which has been on the list for a while and I expected it to stay there as they generally fetch really strong money nowadays. Until one popped up with a £25 buy it now price. I'd barely even read the listing before grabbing it. Even if it turned out to be nothing but a parts machine at that price it was cheap.

It also turned out to be shipped by one of those people that think a couple of layers of the thinnest bubble wrap you can imagine and some brown packing paper are going to provide any meaningful protection going through the post.



I really don't quite understand what goes through people's heads when they post things like this.

Nevertheless it seems to have made it unscathed.



Normally I'd have been worried about the plasma display - however in this case I knew it was already broken.



I am 97% certain that I have a spare display panel for one of these in The Pile of Bits of Dead Toshibas in the loft from one I scrapped back in the very early 00s.

Have to wonder what stories this might have to tell. Definitely seems to have done a few miles.



I'm thoroughly expecting this to need a bunch of recapping to get the power supply up and running again. On the plus side if my memory serves me rightly, the HT supply for the display on these is derived by a pretty conventional inverter actually on the display driver board. This is good as it means that the main system power supply doesn't have anything awkward to emulate like a +295V DC rail for the display to handle. Unlike for instance the IBM P70 which is waiting patiently for me to deal with, with a dead PSU which does include the HT supply for the display.

Then like buses...hey look, another one!



This wasn't as cheap as the last one, but was still right at the bottom of the usual price curve of these machines, so I grabbed it. While it's significantly less beat up than the last one there are immediate signs that this is likely to be a parts machine.



Corrosion that appears to be leaking out from inside the machine doesn't generally bode well.



Crossing my fingers that the hard drive (which is just behind that rectangular cover) hasn't been wrecked. As seemed to be Toshiba's fashion around this period, these machines use a drive with an oddball interface rather than a normal IDE/SCSI or ST506/MFM setup. Equally annoyingly, they seemed to love using *different* oddball interfaces on each model. The T1200, T1600, T3200 and this all use totally different arrangements. The T1200/1600 at least do use the same actual interface, but the drives aren't interchangable as they're 20/40Mb versions respectively, and there isn't any way to configure things so the right drive needs to go in the right machine. I can kind of give them a pass when the T1200 was being designed in 1987, as 3.5" drives were still pretty cutting edge then, never mind something suited to stuffing in a laptop with automatic head parking and ability to spin up/down the spindle under power management control. However by 1990 when the T3100SX launched 3.5" IDE drives were pretty commonplace, so the logic seems more questionable.

While it may well be in far worse shape internally, one thing this has over the first one is an intact display.



Given the cover on the mounting screws is missing I do wonder if this has at some point had a replacement display. Either way there's no visible screen burn I can see at least.

It also has a UK rather than US keyboard layout.



I know I definitely have a spare one of these up in the loft, but not having to go spelunking to find it would be a bonus. Plus this one is far less worn than that one in the loft.

This one also came with all the original documentation and software which is always nice to have.



Only thing I'm missing is the external power supply. Which I'm not too surprised by to be honest given that they had a bit of a reputation for randomly going bang (loudly) and dying even back when these machines weren't all that old.

When I'll actually get time to get stuck into reviving this I'm not sure. Though I'd rather do it sooner than later as if the innards are being slowly eaten by capacitor and battery goo I'd rather put a stop to that. We'll see I guess.

[Zelandeth]

While the Trabant generally runs fine, she's always been a bit grumpy when dropping to idle after working hard for any period of time. The idle has always been a little low anyway, but with the slightly warmer weather arriving this has brought it down to a 50/50 chance of stalling for a minute or so after stopping after a higher speed run unless I keep a tiny touch of throttle on. We're not talking much, just the weight of my foot on the pedal is enough, and if it does stall it will instantly start back up just fine, so we're not looking at a soft-seize situation or anything, I think the idle is just a tiny bit too low.

Aside from clearing a bit of sediment from the float bowl, I've barely even looked at the fuel system as a whole on this car, so this was a good opportunity to look at things a bit closer.

Compared to what you're probably used to, this carb has very little in the way of adjustments available. There's an idle mixture screw, a main mixture screw, a fast idle preset that's part of the choke linkage...and that's it. Not even an idle speed control. That's handled entirely by setting the pre-load on the throttle cable itself. Which does make a certain amount of sense as it ensures that even when the throttle is notionally closed that some fuel (and therefore oil) will still be delivered to the engine even in the absence of anything fancy like oil injection. Keep it simple, stupid.

The only other screw on the carb is part of the choke linkage and is involved in bringing the idle speed up while the choke is on...this is what many, many people mistake for the idle speed adjustment screw.



The idle mixture screw is really easy to get to. It's the large slotted screw roughly centre frame below.



I shouldn't have been able to wiggle that by hand. It had all but unscrewed itself. Took several full turns in before it did anything whatsoever, and even then there's very little drag on it which suggests to me that the O-ring under there has probably seen better days and is likely causing an air leak.

Speaking of air leaks, that's something it's worth keeping an eye out for those on a two stroke. A really quick and dirty way to check for them is to cover the intake with your hand with the engine at idle. It should cut out pretty much immediately. Not two or three seconds later. Like mine does. Hmm. Likely candidates are the carb to block join (especially as the bolts are a bit of a pig to get to as the exhaust, alternator and carb itself are right in the way), jug gaskets or crank seals. Everything there aside from crank seals I have in stock already. Though between the obvious issues we have with the carb adjustment screw seals and the fact that it's weeping from the float bowl cover a tiny bit I think we'll be ordering an overhaul kit for it.



While I was under the bonnet I took care of the fan belt that seemed a little loose. Fun fact: If you're unbolting things right next to the alternator it's smart to disconnect the battery first. Otherwise it can be really exciting if you drop a 17mm spanner and it brushes against the main positive connection - thankfully as it fell to the ground rather than welding itself in place. That will teach me to be lazy. Won't make that mistake again for a couple of years!

The bite point of the clutch has always been really quite high. Though there was loads of adjustment available on the cable so I gave that a bit of attention. There was basically no free play on it before, but with a good 1/4" of tension taken out of the cable things seem a lot more sensible.



Interestingly this also seems to have significantly reduced the clutch judder. It's still there, but way less pronounced than it was. Which makes no sense to me as the free play in the cable shouldn't in any way impact on how the clutch itself engages as you release the pedal. I'm not going to complain about free fixes, but ones I don't understand always result in a certain amount of head scratching. My only real theory here is that with the clutch not fully releasing before that the release bearing (which is just a graphite bushing in this case) was getting hot and that was causing things to bind up. No idea, but that's the best theory I've got.

Last matter I attended to was the very worn out rubber bushes on the thumbscrews which secure the front panel. They very much looked 40 years old.



For the second time in a week my salvation came from the random plumbing supplies box in the form of a tap washer.



Much better.



Which brings us up to date. Time to get a carb overhaul kit ordered in along with a set of crank seals. Whether I need them at this stage or not it makes sense to get them on the shelf as they'll be needed one day I'm sure.

The bite point is now about 1/2 way through the travel and feels much more natural.

[Zelandeth]

The Partner actually saw a bit of attention yesterday. One of the primary annoyances I'd had since the car was bought were a plethora of rattles and squeaks from the tailgate. I knew one of the main culprits here was the trim as you could see it bounce every time you closed it. Two random self tappers into the frame suggested that someone had previously had a go at dealing with this. Removing them and pulling the panel revealed several broken clips.



That won't have been helping our case. Thankfully I did have suitable replacements in stock so swapped those out. This helped, but the panel was still able to flop around a lot in the middle...I think just by virtue of it being the boot trim in what is essentially a van. So I followed the example of the previous owner and added a couple of machine screws where the worst flex was (albeit properly drilling and tapping the holes), which has helped massively.

I found another huge amount of rattling was being caused by these grilles in the frame.



I did faff about for about half an hour using several methods to try to shut these up, but eventually just opted to delete them for now. I just couldn't get them to not rattle.



Next step will probably be to seal them in place with some flexible sealant. That's a job for another day though.

Again, a great improvement. Still rattling though. Plus squeaking.

The squeak was very clearly coming from where the tailgate was touching the guards on the tail lights.



This was something I'd been meaning to look into for a while, as the whole clusters were clearly not sitting properly.



The reason for this turned out to be a previous owner failing an IQ test. When they couldn't get the clusters out, rather than consulting the handbook to look for the clips they had missed, they just reverted to brute force and snapped both clips on both clusters.



Given that the first three matches I found on eBay for second hand clusters clearly also have snapped clips this is apparently a common issue. I'll clearly need two replacement clusters though to get them properly installed not fouling on the tailgate. Removing the guards has got us clearance for now at least. I want to give them some fresh paint on them anyway as they're pretty scruffy.



They're far heavier than I'd expected. I really thought they would just be really flimsy things but they're a good deal more weighty than I'd expected.

Last obvious rattle source is actually the trim on the outside of the bootlid. As evidenced by the witness marks from where it's been moving.



Sure enough, of the four mounting points I can see three are broken. I'll add that to the shopping list then.

I've also adjusted the stop buffers - and improvised a replacement for the missing one which has further helped. That has vastly improved how positively it closes if nothing else. Not expecting silence in the cabin, but I'd like to get rid of as many unnecessary squeaks and rattles as I can.

[rich.]

Are there any before and after videos?

[Zelandeth]

Are there any before and after videos?

It's not one of those things you'd really be able to discern over video I think, not with the equipment I have to hand anyway. Getting something with a halfway decent mic is something I'm working on as I would like to get some more onboard footage from all the fleet. Especially the Trabant.

-- -- --

The fixes on the tailgate have definitely vastly improved the number of cabin rattles in the Partner. I've been running round like a headless chicken last couple of days trying to get everything I need to before I head away for the weekend tomorrow, so have done quite a few miles in it last couple of days.

Once I'm back I think I really do need to get shopping for a new axle, it really is pretty miserable on anything other than a perfect surface now, with the rear end being really crashy - which is just exacerbating any rattles. Knocking 5psi off the tyre pressures has helped a bit, but that's a sticking plaster rather than a solution.

Having largely shut up the tailgate has highlighted the next most obvious source of knocks and rattles, and that's the nearside rear door. My money is on wear on the locating pin or the bush it slots into when the door closed. If it's anything more involved than that it will likely be ignored for a while as I'm not getting deeply involved in taking apart sliding doors. Plus their tendency to rattle is probably the biggest drawback they have aside from weight, so I'd likely be on a hiding to nothing anyway.

Had hoped to get time to clean the Trabant today. However just ran out of time. So it'll just have to make the trip absolutely covered in pollen.



Doesn't look like it will be raining where we are over the weekend so have chucked the carpet and trim back in the boot.



Not sure why that to my mind makes the car feel so much less shoddy, but it does. Here's the before photo from the carpets there being cleaned.



Not perfect, but absolutely good enough and way better than it was.

Aside from looking tidier, having the carpet and trim in there does make a huge difference to the noise levels. The boot seems to act like a big resonance chamber without it in.

I had planned on swapping out the plugs for a new pair as the ones in there are the wrong heat range according to my reading. However the cross referencing for the right ones apparently didn't work as the plugs that turned up are too large a diameter to fit. Need to double check my notes and whether what arrived is what I ordered (this was an eBay seller so that's not guaranteed). That's a job for future me though.

For now I've checked the tyre pressures, fan belt tension, and that nothing seems in any more imminent danger of falling off than usual, so that's probably as far as the prep work will be going. Trip is only sixty odd miles but it always seems longer in my mind because I only do it once a year I think.

Wonder if I'll end up parked next to anything interesting in the car park this year. These were last year's contenders.





That P4 is definitely going to be one of those cars I always look back on fondly. Definitely one of those cars which I reckon is drastically under valued in the classic circles, and I'd definitely not discount owning another one one day.

[Zelandeth]

Well carp...



Expensive "Oh carp" as well.

Something major appears to have let loose in the bowels of the engine. Was running absolutely fine, bumbling along at about 45, there was a single cough, then about five seconds later it sounded like all hell broke loose. Immediately shut the engine off and coasted into this lay by. Engine now hits a hard spot when you try to turn it by hand.

Best case? A piston ring has broken up. Given this engine has always been a bit ratty though I think that's probably being optimistic.

Waiting for recovery. Then I'll need to leg it down to MK Central and find a train to Birmingham I guess!

My partner needs the Partner over the weekend, the Rover I don't trust to make it for a second as it's still having fuelling issues, and TPA sadly is still buried in the garage, and currently missing a fuel pump as that's just about making the Rover currently run.

First "there's no way we're fixing this at the side of the road" I think I've ever had in one of my own cars. We didn't try to sort the issue on the Saab as I was literally about a mile from home and I'd flagged down an RAC patrol so it was just easier to stick it on the recovery bar than faff about in the rain.

This ain't getting fixed here though!

[rich.]

Oh bugger

[Zelandeth]

Recovery was on the scene in about half an hour. Can't really complain at that. Yes there's a £25 excess, but again absolutely can't complain about the service provided by AutoAid.



Soon enough we were bouncing our way back to MK.



Dear...God...that Mitsubishi thing has to be the worst riding vehicle I have ever been in. The reason you got no updates while en route was because it was so bouncy I literally couldn't read my phone for more than about ten seconds at a time.

Lovely driver as well, we had a great natter on the way back. Even if it did take for bloody ever because of an accident on the M1.

Car now deposited at home. Confirmed it is indeed still the same now cold. Rotates absolutely fine through about 2/3 of a rotation, then hits a hard stop. Will dig into it once back from ConFuzzled.

Hard to say what exactly will be done until I've dug into the engine to see what's actually happened and how much damage there is. Given the noise it made there definitely will be some carnage. The original air cooled twin setup will be staying though, as I know some people will suggest alternative upgrade options. If the engine is completely smoked, a question will have to be asked as to whether the replacement gets rebuilt to standard spec (as I'm obviously not just going to drop an unknown unit in), or whether some go faster bits get added.

Taking bets on what's let go? Can't immediately see anything external amiss (I did wonder from the noise if the fan bearings had collapsed and it was hitting the cowl, but no). Broken ring? Catastrophic crankshaft failure? Disc valve that's come apart and jammed in the case? Wrist pin having escaped a piston? My gut feeling is it's not a bearing issue as it didn't get worse, this went from normal to "Oh my god" instantly. For all I know the engine has always been a bit of a rattler I'd have expected some degree of degredation rather than instant failure.

If I'd had more time I would have pulled the plugs and checked if both pistons were still moving. Sadly had to leg it to make the train.

[rich.]

My guess is it's broken..

[rich.]

What is the result? Con rod?