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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.