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

Post pictures and stories about your cars both present and past. Also post up "blogs" on your restoration projects - the more pictures the better! Note: blog-type threads often get few replies, but are often read by many members, and provide interest and motivation to other enthusiasts so don't be disappointed if you don't get many replies.
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Zelandeth
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#251 Post by Zelandeth » Sun Apr 28, 2019 9:04 pm

Not much to report. Was busy this afternoon so only had an hour to devote to car stuff.

Decided to see if the track rod ends would play nicely as if so swapping the the rod would be the work of a few minutes.

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It was immediately apparent that the split pins weren't interested in moving. Fine, that's a fight the garage can have tomorrow. I'd really rather not immobilise the vehicle fighting with it.

I did however spend a bit of time scraping thirty years worth of congealed brake dust impregnated grease off the back of the hubs and axle.

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That's just nasty.

The work of the garage should be sped along by the fact that they don't need to separate any of the TREs from their respective linkages as there is an entire new drag link and tie rod complete with new TREs ready to go on. Should allow them to copy the alignment settings easily as well which will save a few minutes.

All proper genuine parts of course. Nice to see stuff still coming in old school grease paper even today.

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Hopefully we'll have a fresh MOT in the next 24 hours.
My website - aka. My *other* waste of time
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 88 Renault 25 Monaco. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.

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JPB
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#252 Post by JPB » Mon Apr 29, 2019 8:36 am

Zelandeth wrote:
Sun Apr 28, 2019 5:19 pm
There is a grease nipple on the rear section of the front propshaft, but I *think* that feeds the UJ rather than the splined part...could be wrong though...
I would have expected a grease nipple that feeds a U/J to be mounted in the spider rather than in the connected section of shaft, otherwise there would need to be some means of feeding the grease through the arms of the joint's yoke and into the spider, then back out through the yoke to the journals, but it's entirely possible that I'm not understanding this properly. :|
Either way, the main thing is that the vehicle does at least provide a reason for using a grease gun when working on it, one of the many key features of a classic vehicle that is so much more useful than a massive Android device in the driver's field of vision, or a plethora of cup holders with hydraulic actuation for their lids.
;)


Wishing you success with the retest. :thumbs:
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true.. :oops:

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Zelandeth
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#253 Post by Zelandeth » Mon Apr 29, 2019 10:40 am

Ugh...just had a call from the garage. Rear brakes are basically stuffed. The drums are actually bevelled (have to assume courtesy of someone running it with the handbrake dragging for ages), shoes are obviously as stuffed as the drums, and both wheel cylinders are shot.

There has always been more travel in the brakes than I would ideally like and a vibration apparent through the pedal but not the steering was occasionally apparent when braking down from speed. So it's not a huge surprise, though obviously unwelcome as it's going to mean yet more £££ to be spent. Had really hoped the brakes would be a case of "clean, reassemble, adjust & retest" in addition to the other remedial work.
My website - aka. My *other* waste of time
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 88 Renault 25 Monaco. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.

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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#254 Post by gazza82 » Mon Apr 29, 2019 11:09 am

Zelandeth wrote:
Sun Apr 28, 2019 9:04 pm
It was immediately apparent that the split pins weren't interested in moving. Fine, that's a fight the garage can have tomorrow. I'd really rather not immobilise the vehicle fighting with it.
Back when I was fixing up my old Austin, I used to find a well fitting long ring-spanner would usually snap off old split pins and let the nut come loose ... a long breaker bar or an impact driver and good fitting socket would probably do the same now ...

I've removed a few that way and then drilled out the remains!
"If you're driving on the edge ... you're leaving too much room!"

Retirement Project: '59 Austin A35 2-door with 1330cc Midget engine and many upgrades
Said goodbye: got '98 Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 TSpark to 210K miles before tin worm struck

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Zelandeth
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#255 Post by Zelandeth » Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:18 pm

gazza82 wrote:
Mon Apr 29, 2019 11:09 am
Back when I was fixing up my old Austin, I used to find a well fitting long ring-spanner would usually snap off old split pins and let the nut come loose ... a long breaker bar or an impact driver and good fitting socket would probably do the same now ...
If I wasn't very much working against a ticking clock I'd have just gone down that route. As it was, the only slot the garage had to fit it in before I actually need the van was today - so wasn't going to dig myself too deep a hole.

I still distrust ball joints following one particularly stubborn one on a Saab where I wound up having to take the entire hub off still attached to the lower wishbone off because the thing refused to part company with either of the things it was attached to in spite of all the nuts coming off deceptively easily.

Nearly 20 years ago but the memory still fills me with dread!
My website - aka. My *other* waste of time
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 88 Renault 25 Monaco. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.

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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#256 Post by gazza82 » Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:13 pm

I guess the parts were probably never expected to still be in the same place after so many years. I guess I'll have a fight with a couple of TREs when I start my Austin refurb!!


Front wheel drive hubs fill me with dread. I've taken one to a local garage still attached to the drive-shaft and suspension strut just to get the hub nut off!! The face on the garage manager was a picture as I unloaded the front quarter of an Alfa 156 .. just because of a nut .. their very expensive impact driver still struggled!! :shock:

A Clio front wheel bearing nearly broke another garages press .. the amount of pressure they had to apply to remove it was way higher than anything else they had ever used!! They said the resulting bang was so loud people came from a couple of doors down to see what had happened!! :o
"If you're driving on the edge ... you're leaving too much room!"

Retirement Project: '59 Austin A35 2-door with 1330cc Midget engine and many upgrades
Said goodbye: got '98 Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 TSpark to 210K miles before tin worm struck

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Zelandeth
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#257 Post by Zelandeth » Mon Apr 29, 2019 5:18 pm

gazza82 wrote:
Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:13 pm
I guess the parts were probably never expected to still be in the same place after so many years. I guess I'll have a fight with a couple of TREs when I start my Austin refurb!!


Front wheel drive hubs fill me with dread. I've taken one to a local garage still attached to the drive-shaft and suspension strut just to get the hub nut off!! The face on the garage manager was a picture as I unloaded the front quarter of an Alfa 156 .. just because of a nut .. their very expensive impact driver still struggled!! :shock:

A Clio front wheel bearing nearly broke another garages press .. the amount of pressure they had to apply to remove it was way higher than anything else they had ever used!! They said the resulting bang was so loud people came from a couple of doors down to see what had happened!! :o
Ah yes, hub nuts. Pretty sure it was the same Saab on which I shattered an impact rated socket getting the hub nut off (32mm from memory) when we had three people jumping on the end of a roughly 8' long scaffold pole being used as a breaker bar. Only reason the wheel wasn't just turning was a combination effort between the brakes and transmission lock as it was an auto and in park.

The bang when that went was like a gunshot - and I still have a chip in one of my teeth from where I face planted into the garden path.

That was a bit of a running theme with that car though. Anything where a moderately tight 10mm bolt would do, a 17mm or larger one which appeared to have been tightened by Thor himself would have been used - invariably before several other parts were fitted meaning you couldn't get a decent driver on it.
My website - aka. My *other* waste of time
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 88 Renault 25 Monaco. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.

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Zelandeth
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#258 Post by Zelandeth » Tue Apr 30, 2019 11:03 pm

Given I've been scrambling to get the van ready for a trip later this week the Invacar has taken a bit of a back seat. Hasn't moved since the last trip out when I had issues with the drive system slipping. The basic issue seemed to boil down to the poor shape the surface of the pulleys were in. Dealing with this issue was being hampered by the fact that I hadn't been able to get the pulley retaining bolts out. This was despite having applied enough torque to tip the car onto two wheels.

Today I had a bit of free time, and with the van away at the garage figured I may as well see if after soaking for a week or so, if the secondary pulley bolt was any more interested in moving.

After a brief fight...

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Finally!

Doesn't take a genius to see why the system has been struggling and making a royal mess of the belt.

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I'd seen that the fan on the back of the pulley was pretty well shredded, wasn't really obvious how bad till it was off!

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This may well have something to do with the not insignificant vibration I've been suffering at speed given it will have been making a royal mess of the pulley balance.

It's just a thin bit of pressed steel... corrosion and centrifugal force over the years have done a number on it. If I find there are issues with pulley temperature I'll have a look at improving that side of things...we can probably do better than a bit of time with modern electric fans I reckon.

For now though I've just pulled the shattered remains of it off, which will *hopefully* significantly reduce the vibration issues I've had. Time will tell.

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Astonishingly the moving elements aren't seized, despite looking like they've been dredged off the Titanic.

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The one thing I hadn't realised until today through was how mental the preload on that pulley is - I'd originally half planned to take it apart to clean and lubricate the innards - however now I've decided to leave it well alone for now. I have visions of it taking my head clean off if I were to mess with it.
The primary pulley is aluminium so was in generally better shape. It was a pretty quick job to clean that up by running the engine in gear and using a sharp chisel as an improvised lathe.

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I had planned to do something similar with the secondary pulley using my workbench and the drill...until I realised that the drill is in the back of the van. In a yard at the far side of town. D'oh!

So plan B was a bit more of a hack, just attack it with the carbide mop on the grinder.

Couldn't quite get right into the grove but should have got most of the running surface I think.

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Gave the top a bit of a scrub too.

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Just got things back in place (with a new belt - the old one had lost about 1/3" worth of width) before running out of time.

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I'll get it bolted back in, adjust the belt and give it a test run tomorrow... I'm honestly really curious as to whether it will make any difference!
My website - aka. My *other* waste of time
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 88 Renault 25 Monaco. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.

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Zelandeth
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#259 Post by Zelandeth » Wed May 01, 2019 11:48 pm

Today while I was pacing around waiting for the van to turn up I was able to get the Invacar put back together.

Plus I was then able to get out for a test run to get a couple of errands run.

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The main issues which had been making TP quite unpleasant to drive were threefold:

1. Severe judder when taking up drive.
2. "Slipping" of the drive at speeds over 45mph or so.
3. Low frequency drone and vibration at speed (not unlike a duff wheel bearing but a couple of octaves lower frequency).

YouTube Video Link

Sorry for the camera shake...I didn't have my good camera mount to hand so the flimsy one had to do.

Given I'd only done a relatively quick clean and thrown on a new old stock belt I wasn't expecting miracles.

Okay...I underestimated things!

The judder when taking up drive is almost gone. Still there to some extent, especially if you give it beans from a standstill. Not worrying about that though as it's apparently just something that the drive system does and isn't a fault. Just a limitation of the design.

Slipping has totally disappeared as far as I can tell. Have had her up to 60mph twice today and even cruised there for a couple of minutes. Behaved impeccably.

I can conclusively say that this was the cause of the "rumble" at speed. It's now gone...even up at the legal limit...whereas she tended to start shaking herself to pieces as soon as you saw the speedo needle move over 40mph or so.

I'm a happy camper. If this is an indication of what I can expect once everything is sorted, she's definitely going to be getting used a lot more as time goes on. Aside from just being fun and different, the drive out today was actually *nice* which was a big step forward.

Sad I'm away for the weekend so won't be able to drive her again until Monday now.

-- -- -- --

That's us up to date on the Invacar...onwards to the van.

Well I put the van in to a well reputed garage who mostly do HGV/PCV work in the hope that we would see good professional service.

Despite the folks on the desk being really polite and professional I'm not particularly impressed.

First up was the question mark over the "missing" rear reflectors. The tester at the time wasn't interested in entering into discussion. So I stuck a couple of additional ones on at near enough driver eye level.

The tester totally failed to notice these...and went and stuck an additional two on the back of the van down next to the tail lights. It looks like the thing has been attacked by a 90 year old who's raided the caravan aisle in Halfords.

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Not impressed. Especially as they're not even fitted straight.

I eventually managed to convince someone to come and look at it...gent I spoke to immediately agreed that the reflectors which both I and their guy had fitted were utterly unnecessary. Doesn't help the fact that I now have an additional pair of squint reflectors (which further impinge on the already not great side viewing angle of the indicators) which appear to be held on with the adhesive they glue the wings on to modern passenger airliners with. They ain't moving.

That hacked me off. Especially as they did it without asking me first. It looks like the thing has been attacked by a 90 year old who's raided the caravan aisle in Halfords.

Likewise the "work done" lists headlight beam adjustment. I did that myself the day before it went back in.

When they phoned me to inform me the brakes needed work, they also listed the propshaft CV boot as still needing changed. Despite me having done that the day before. Just makes me want me to ask "Can you just confirm for me that you have actually looked at the vehicle?"

There was also no further call once they had tracked down parts to confirm that I was okay with them going ahead and spending nearly £250 on parts before going ahead.

I only figured that it was ready to collect when the invoice arrived in my inbox. All £550 of it.

Picking the van up, in addition to the obvious complaint about the hideous reflectors, two wheel trims weren't properly attached and the bodywork has a not insignificant number of greasy hand prints on it. Not a deal breaker...and I'd not blink at it from a little local garage I'd paid £100 to do a job...but this is a big concern who have just charged £300 odd of labour...sorry but I'd expect them to have spent five minutes wiping things down before calling it done.

Oh...speaking of details I'd expect them to get right (especially given their PCV/HGV background) would be this.

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This isn't overfilled. This is overflowing. I am not impressed.

I had also asked for the old components be returned (not least because I was curious to see if the brake drums were recoverable as they don't grow on trees these days), that never happened.

Not impressed.

Anyhow, we need to now try to get things ready for a weekend away between this evening and tomorrow afternoon. The bombshell being dropped that we won't have mains power on site arrived at about 1730 today too...yay. Definitely pushes getting the gas system back together up the list as we'll need the fridge to be running on gas then.

Nothing was in place when we started out this evening aside from the water... getting there now.

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Obviously the pipes need to be clipped in place and such, but we're getting there. There's a blanking plug on the manifold outlet for the hob as it isn't currently fitted. Everything has been leak tested and is good so far. Unfortunately the fridge doesn't seem to want to work on gas (no life from the control unit), so that's something else for the to do list tomorrow.

Also high on the list is smacking the front bracket for the middle exhaust section with a hammer so it stops buzzing... we've got a two hour drive ahead of us...and that buzzing would drive me absolutely mad on a run that long!

I'll be writing a letter to the garage and see what they offer by way of an apology...a shrug, a verbal "I can only apologise" and crediting me for £2 worth of unnecessary reflectors (which I now need to figure out how the heck to remove) against a £550 invoice just isn't going to cut it guys.
My website - aka. My *other* waste of time
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 88 Renault 25 Monaco. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.

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Zelandeth
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#260 Post by Zelandeth » Fri May 03, 2019 12:55 am

We had originally planned to be heading out today even though the event doesn't really start off until tomorrow afternoon. However we did a bit of math and figured that by the time we had done everything we needed to here we would be arriving there after dark. There's no guarantee of lighting at the camp ground as we're essentially just parked up in a field next door to a camp ground, so we decided to just head out tomorrow early on. All it means is that the charity have made an extra £20 or something from us so no big issue. Did leave me time to get a few more things done though.

First issue was the non-functional fridge on gas. I hadn't ever tested this before (nor connected a gas supply to it to allow me to). The fridge is an Electrolux RM 212, which means that the gas side of things is the only complex thing about it as it has automatic electronic ignition. So instead of the normal clicky ignitor button you have a switch.

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In theory, when this is on it will automatically sit there ticking away whenever there is no flame detected (with a little red light in the switch blinking so you can see it's trying). However mine wasn't doing anything when the switch was turned on. What is annoying here is that there is no manual ignitor nor any access to the burner which would allow me to light it the old fashioned way. Equally annoying is that most of the wiring diagrams for this fridge I've found are for the older version which lacks the electronic ignitor...

After a not insignificant amount of swearing and headscratching I worked out that we had a multiple offender on our hands. The wiring to the ignitor was totally wrong *and* the switch contacts were dirty. The best decision I made at this point was to just rip all the wiring out and redo it from scratch. Which took five minutes. That done we had it cheerfully going "tickticktickticktick..." when turned on. Adding gas to the equation...

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Much better. I gave the flame failure detection system a good workout to make sure it behaved and it did.

Knowing the gas system worked I made a point of actually securing the flue and sealing the joint to the body...much aluminium tape was involved to cover the good inch or so gap I made between it and the surrounding woodwork. The flue doesn't actually get massively hot, but I'd rather keep good distance between plywood and hot stuff.

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Of course with gas onboard a new bit of equipment needed to be installed.

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I like these CO alarms as they give a useful indication of any low background level which wouldn't actually trigger any alarms.

I let the fridge running for a couple of hours while I was doing other work...

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So everything I needed was finally working. Oh...and I stopped the exhaust rattling by smacking the front most bracket with a hammer.

Just needed to get all the junk out of the van and clean stuff up.

All the non-van related stuff chucked out the luggage locker...

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Empty and prep the toilet for use. It had been left with a cleaning solution in...seems to have done a good job, no smell whatsoever and looked pretty clean in there. The treatment agents for these toilets seem a lot better than when I first used one twenty years or so back it has to be said.

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Stick the fridge on mains mode so it can cool down overnight before we load it up for the trip in the morning.

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Gave the cabin and cockpit a clean up - the bit I always enjoy.

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Cockpit scrubs up well.

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So that's it... tomorrow we will be off as of 11 or so hopefully.

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Hopefully an uneventful trip ahead. Hopefully!
My website - aka. My *other* waste of time
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 88 Renault 25 Monaco. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.

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