Practically Classics Forum

After seeing what weather the USA is getting, and that we Brits get it a few weeks later.
I thought it best not to touch the electrics first but to drain the cooling systems on both
my old girl and mothers Volvo and get some anti-freeze them asap!

The Neon was done very easily, and quickly the Volvo wasn't straight forward, it didn't
take all its liquid as the upper rad hose had disintegrated inside and created a blockage,
when I had the thing running it didn't build up pressure and then the rad hose split.

So thats 2 cars off the road, I'm not touching dad's discovery. Volvo hose ordered!
I don't know if it was a reaction to the anti-freeze or something else but my health went
south faster than a (insert appropriate regional saying here )

The Idle Air Control Valve arrived this morning, but the wind from a bonfire was
blowing smoke over the car for most of the day. I eventually old one which came
out in bits! I think this might have been the reason for bad idle I had when I had
the car running previously.



I have managed to get mother's Volvo fixed so I will be attending a car show and
a bit of an auto jumble at Ryhope on sunday, photos post in the usual place.

As the engine hasn't been running properly, the accessories belt has moved and
started to ride up and onto the edge of the power steering pump pulley.
Previously the pump had to have washers as spacers so the pulley was correctly
lined up. The washers this time had put the pulley slightly offset, which didn't
show up till the belt had gone around few times.

So as the weather was just good enough (as was my health) I remounted the
power steering pump pulley without the spacers. Then I proceeded to clear out
all the leaves from the engine bay and from around and under the car, and from
inside of my little tool shed, they just get everywhere!!!!!

does it have an mot?

No MOT as yet, the bracket holding the end of the gear selector cable sleeve has
come apart. I might not need to remove all the battery and ecu etc assembly to
sort the problem, but it is pain! I'm going to have to remove the side transmission
mount and make the bracket as part of the transmission mount adapter I had made
so I could drop the engine and transmission by almost 2inches.

I only popped my head under the bonnet today as it was a warm dry spell just after
lunch. Other wise I have been in doors usually with my head under a towel with a
steam and vics bath! I hate colds I can't fight them off and take three times as long
to get shot of them

My father works up around Gateshead and Newcastle, and it has been snowing up
there, so totally different to what the forecasts were saying, and I was hoping to
work on the car later this week. Looks like I might be clearing the snow off her
instead!

Eh? I was working in Toon today and trust me when I say that it was 59F by the river with a little light drizzle. What planet has your Dad been working on?

At 6am it 1as 1 degree here (that's about 34 in old money). I can't see any snow but frozen windows on every car. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be working outside.

At 6am it may well have fallen to around 4C, whicj is the equivalent of the reading my max-min thermometer gave from during the night but by time I was setting out to work at around 11, it was already up to 14C here and there & thereabouts down in Newcastle too, I wondered whether maybe this was the world's most local snowfall so I rang a colleague just now and asked whether she's seen any in Sheriff Hill, a high area of Goatshead but she confirmed that on their side of the river it had also been warmer than the seasonal average.

Donations to the "FFS get John a Centigrade-reading U-therm" appeal gratefully accepted as it confuses me when the car says it's 14 and the max-min in the back garden says it's a bit lower than 60 but not as little as 55.

My father works for gateshead council and mears so lord knows where he was!

i was outside digging.. it had stopped raining