Vulgalour's Vehicles - 10/03 Ignition Switch Woe

[vulgalour]

Princess update.

I may repeat myself a bit, I'm not sure where I am on various fora I update so here's a brief recap:

Hydragas pump bodge resulted in me dropping the suspension half an inch by accident and then the pump stopped working. Pump is currently in bits while Mike gets new stuff to make it work again so we can lift the car back up. Awkwardly, that now means the car is stuck with arches on the tyres again.

Headlights were earthing through the throttle cable for some reason. This was resolved by checking and fitting good new earths to the new headlights, courtesy of my brother and Mike, and now the headlights work fine.

Weirdly, after fixing the headlights and doing nothing else, we went to start the car to run it for a bit to put some charge back in the battery (we'd had lights on and off for a while testing stuff) and it wouldn't start. Even stranger, the handbrake warning light was on with no key in the ignition but would extinguish if you release the handbrake. Choke and oil pressure lights came on as normal with the ignition but turning the key to start the car just resulted in those and the handbrake light going out and nothing else. The interior light wouldn't operate at all. No fuses blown, no bulbs blown. The car was, effectively, dead.

A few days and much headscratching later it was determined the problem must be in the dashboard part of the wiring as it was the only part that hadn't been tidied and debodged. Today, just to see if it would, I put the key in the ignition and the car started fine, perfectly normally, and all electrical functions were restored. I didn't fix anything or inspect anything, just literally put the key in the ignition and started the car.

I came to the conclusion the car must be haunted.

Then my brother pointed out some electrical tape on one of the ignition wires so we unwrapped that to see what was going on and in this blurry picture you can see that there's a split in the casing of the white wire with bare wires exposed at the kink. Although these were insulated from the rest of the wiring by the tape, this could in fact be a broken wire offering a poor connection so it will be repaired. It's possible this was used as a live feed for a radio or the old tape deck that was in the car when I got it.


The other small bit of news was that I found an indicator flasher relay that I believe to be the correct sort to replace the later 90s Nissan one that was bodged in by a previous owner. Plug and play at least and when I have the dashboard plugged back in I'll be able to check that.



More updates when I have them.

[Luxobarge]

I think you might have a faulty or missing engine earth strap - the one that goes between the engine and the chassis.

That's probably why you had a sticky throttle cable a while back - it can be that the throttle cable is the only path back to earth and when you start the car it welds up the cable. Also, can't see how the headlights can earth through the cable if you've got a good earth strap in place?

[vulgalour]

We thought that too, but the earth strap is present and correct. It doesn't actually make any sense and it's not the first time I've had weird problems like this with the car. Take the time it managed to put the cambelt off timing but drove back from Rotherham a distance of about 30 miles with no problems only to conk out on my drive. Or the time that the carb decided the in and out fuel pipes are the wrong way around. Or the time the wipers decided to stop working for no reason and were then fine. When the throttle cable was sticking it wasn't because it was an earth and when it started doing that I hadn't even touched the headlights.

Thing is, it all works fine now, nothing is earthing through the throttle cable and all systems are normal. Occasionally it likes to throw up strange problems that are utterly baffling and make no sense.

[vulgalour]

Princess progress is shelved at the moment, after having put the new dash fascia together I've successfully made sure none of the dash now works. Switch cleaning time I think.

The Rover decided to blow its head gasket last week, joy of joys. Luckily I was right outside the unit when it happened so I didn't cook it. Then my back problems struck halfway through the job of removing the head so I haven't got any further. Hoping to get back on that this week since I'm on the mend now.

I'm borrowing my brother's Applause again until the Rover's head is inspected and hopefully fixed. An involved job, but worth it for me on this particular car.

Finally, the engine shop I dropped the Renault's engine off with at the end of last week. That's much quicker than I was expecting, tbh. On their first inspection they suspect muddled caps - NOT MY FAULT! They're in the order they were when I dismantled everything - to be the reason for the crank locking when everything is torqued up. They want to be extra sure that it's not something else so were asking my permission to take the head off.

I'm not precious about my work on this one, it's my first attempt at an engine rebuild and they've done lots and lots so it'll be reassuring to know everything is as it ought to be. Bill so far is £70-80, it's uncomfortable not really knowing how much things like this are going to cost until they're done but needs must.

Fingers crossed it really does just need new bearings and possibly a crank regrind, then I've got very little to do to sort this little monster out.

[vulgalour]

With the Renault outside waiting for the engine to come back - verdict thus far is muddled caps as no other damage has been obviously present, I'm just waiting on final inspection and a call to tell me I can collect my fixed engine - the weather decided to help me with some more leak hunting. Here we go then, a tour of the leaks and what I think I need to do to fix them.

To start with, the boot is still letting water in, as evidenced by this puddle on the parcel shelf.


Taken me a while to figure this one out entirely but it looks like it's getting past the boot seal itself which has certainly seen better days. Looks like a generic profile on the seal so shouldn't be too bad to replace. It's coming in through the rear screen seal as well but nowhere near as badly as through the main boot seal.




The other puddle is this one.


That's caused by the side windows which also don't seal well, partly because the seals are too short. They just need a blob more sealant where the gap is to sort this. Looks like it's getting through just at the bottom edge of the sealant bridge. Really I should fit new seals to these rear windows to resolve this and again they look like a generic profile so I might do that in the future.




Next, this big old lake under the passenger seat. Here's where we get into the territory of difficult to locate leaks because on the passenger side there's a lot of them.


Most of it is coming through the top of the rear door.




Mainly because the stick-on seal (factory standard as far as I can tell) is knackered on all the doors and more knackered than the rest on this one. Admittedly, having gutters on the car would help lessen this as the water would be channeled away from them and I have priced up replacement universal guttering to do just that. Door seals will help too anyway in keeping the water out on the move.


The windscreen had appeared to have stopped leaking. Unfortunately that isn't the case and it is still letting water in along the top edge. I'm going to squidge more sealant into the top of the windscreen seal as was done when I got the car. At least with a cloth headlining I can see where it's coming in and have some idea of where to put the sealant. So, passenger side first which again is the worst side.


The door seal on the front door is also shot, the door doesn't fit as well as the others either, and that's letting water get in at the sill.


What was confusing me was that water did just appear in the footwell on the passenger side and I could never figure out how. Liberal poofing about of talcum powder highlighted just how it's doing it. Water is running down the outside of the bulkhead and then seeping through the body-to-chassis seam and into the car. That's more difficult to resolve, to do it properly it's going to be a body-off job so I can put some proper sealant/tape on before bolting the body back to the chassis. The bulkhead above this seam is completely dry.


Driver's side of the windscreen is also letting a small amount of water in.


As with the passenger door, the seal is shot and water is getting in and pooling on the sill. There is another drip from under the dash somewhere just to the right of the pedals and I've not figured that one out yet. I might have to fix the other leaks to find it. There is a small splash to the right of the pedal that highlights the leak, it's not massively clear in the photograph.



None of these leaks are a huge worry for now, I've emptied the car of anything that might be damaged by the water and since it's at home I can mop it out regularly. Once the engine is fitted I can get the car back in the garage out of the weather. Your recommendations for where to obtain generic seals are welcome, just remember the ones on the doors are a self-adhesive foam strip type, there's not channel to fix a conventional seal to.

[gazza82]

I've been told Woolies Trim are good for seals and things .. http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/

Car Builder Solutions might be another ... http://www.carbuildersolutions.com/uk/trim

[vulgalour]

Both good suggestions, it looks like they might have what I'm after between them for not a great deal of outlay, which is nice.

[Grumpy Northener]

The other one being a specialist in door seals & windscreen rubbers plus general trimming materials is: www.eastkenttrimsupplies.com between the three mentioned you should find what you want - from experience I would advise given on the amount of leaks that you have to deal with that you attack them on a one to one basis - curing one on a methodical basis before you commence another - otherwise you will probably find yourself getting quite annoyed / frustrated with yourself - believe me I have been there many times before

[vulgalour]

I'll likely do the boot and passenger doors first as they're the worst for letting water in at the moment and work my way around from there. East Kent is another good suggestion, combined with Woolies and Seals Direct it looks like I've got a source for all the relevant seals I need for not too massive an outlay.

[JPB]

Having a choice between retailers is all well & good, but when I needed door rubbers and an engine bay lip seal for the Fiat, I went directly to Baines who supply to the public and manufacture. They're not always cheaper, but do superb quality stuff and have the best prices more often than not.