Today I mostly .....

Any topics of general interest (not lada related), post them here.
Geoff Stainer
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Geoff Stainer » Sun Feb 25, 2018 12:42 am

Personally speaking, I'm thoroughly enjoying reading about your progress as you move along and the way you write it. I'm a great believer in the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" so please continue in the current vein.

Good luck and best wishes.

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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Sun Feb 25, 2018 4:25 pm

Okay, will keep posting here then!

Well that was painless!

Couple of hours spent sitting out in the lovely sunshine this afternoon tidying up some of the engine bay wiring and reconnecting the tail lights properly. One thing I did change was to do the earthing locally. Originally they were grounded through a wire in the loom which went all the way back to the front bulkhead ground point. I decided that was daft, so grounded both ends of that wire, and stuck a ground connection to each cluster to a bolt under the ignition coil bracket on the near side, and the voltage regulator bracket on the offside.

Sure enough, look at that...we have fully functioning tail lights.

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(Note that there's no hazard flasher functionality - I may well add that via a "bolt on" unit as it seems a useful feature to have).

I was expecting a bit of a battle to get all three bits working at once, but nope...Brake, tail and indicators all operate correctly without having any effect on each other.

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They are currently missing their gaskets, so I'll need to come back to that at some point in the future, but it'll do for now.

Glad to report that the dashboard indicator is also behaving itself. You've no excuse for forgetting to turn the indicators off in this thing as it's by far the brightest light on the dash - I had to use the flash to get this photo without it totally washing out. Amber is the one for the indicators, again like quite a few other cars from this era (and still quite common on motorcycles I believe).

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Sadly the fuel gauge is totally open circuit, so will need to pick up a new one to replace that at some point.

Yesterday evening I also got the speedometer out of the dash and took it to bits. The main reason for this was that it was full of cobwebs and one very dead spider.

Cleaned up not bad I reckon...Just the right level of patina left I think, but tidy enough for its age - especially having been open to the elements for over a decade!

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Was interested to discover that it's actually lit externally...the lamp is just clipped to its bracket and lights the face through a cutout (and blue filter) in the side of the bezel.

...Really am going to have to start thinking bodywork soon.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Mon Feb 26, 2018 8:53 pm

...Continued with the restoration work on the AC.

The new indicator stalk arrived today.

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The only difference (aside from the connector - which may well have been on the original one when it left the factory for all I know) I could see on the new stalk was that the new one has a purple wire that doesn't exist on the original. I've just terminated it and left it alone for now - guessing it might be a feed for a dim/dip device or something like that as it looks like it leads into the contacts that handle the headlight switching.

Pretty quick and painless job to get it wired in and the cover back in place.

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...Though we did initially have a bit of a head scratcher, in that turning the indicators on resulted in all four flashing (and the flasher unit sounding distinctly unhappy about this). Took a bit of head scratching, but it turned out to be that the screws I'd used to fasten it to the column were too long and were bridging the contacts for the left/right selection. Switching them out for some that were slightly shorter resolved that issue and got things working as they should.

The offside ones still flash slightly faster than the nearside ones for some reason, will sort that out later. My money's on dodgy tail light earths until proven otherwise.

Funny how adding something like this does so much to make the dash look more complete.

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I've not wrapped the wiring for this again yet, as I think I want to make it a bit longer as it currently pulls more on the loom at full right hand lock than I'd like. That's a job for another day when it's warmer though and I've more time.

In other news, the fuel gauge has revived itself! Noticed today that it was "twitching" when I turned the ignition off - and sure enough, it now responds as it should do to varying the impedance between the connections for it. Guess I'll pull it out of the dash for a clean then if it's going to work.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Tom. » Mon Feb 26, 2018 9:06 pm

Geoff Stainer wrote:Personally speaking, I'm thoroughly enjoying reading about your progress as you move along and the way you write it. I'm a great believer in the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" so please continue in the current vein.



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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Mon Feb 26, 2018 10:20 pm

Tom. wrote:
Geoff Stainer wrote:Personally speaking, I'm thoroughly enjoying reading about your progress as you move along and the way you write it. I'm a great believer in the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" so please continue in the current vein.



Geoff.
X 2 :)
Thanks Tom.

Lada will be featuring shortly as I've a bunch of bits here waiting to be fitted. Hopefully the gritters will be put away soon so I can get the Riva back on the road for the new year. Missing driving it...
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Wed Feb 28, 2018 7:45 pm

Yesterday I very briefly ventured out in the garage to look for some parts, and abruptly beat a hasty retreat as it was *freezing* in there. I did however come across the rear view mirror in one of the boxes, so reattached that to the car.

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It needs cleaning yet, and will need to come off anyhow when I want to get the trim panel above the windscreen out to be re-covered...but I figure it's safer in situ than in the bottom of a box full of heavy metal things.

It sounds like we *might* be moving towards a deal on another one of these (missing most of its drivetrain and interior) which if it works out would tick a lot of boxes that currently have "missing" or "unserviceable" next to them. The tricky bit will be deciding which one to actually dedicate the work to. The floor and chassis on the "donor" vehicle sound like they're in better order than on mine...and it's got a mostly complete albeit scruffy in places body.

My gut feeling - especially as I'll probably want to remove the donor body to improve access to do some of the repairs - is to keep working on this car. Reasoning mainly being that this chassis number already has a V5C associated with it, and there's a working engine and drive system already in it. Swapping the bodywork I reckon will be a lot less work than disturbing an engine which generally seems to be happy enough with life as it stands. Plus the brakes here are only a few pipes (and possibly a couple of cylinders) away from working, whereas on the donor they're seized on. The electrics on there are apparently in poor state as well...Mine are a mess, but actually generally working reliably.

It's still very much a deal in development though, so might not even work out yet...but if it did, it would potentially save me quite a lot of work.

I'd definitely offer that rolling chassis and the body I've got here should anyone want it - I reckon for someone who's not got any real interest in restoring one of these to their original condition could create something that's a lot of fun with it - a 50s hot-rod inspired beastie with the huge rear arches and a suitably mad bike engine could be a lot of fun. The chassis construction is simple and over-engineered enough that it's a huge blank canvas to someone with some engineering know how.

----

Had one of those days today where I seem to have spent the entire day firefighting small jobs all of which took 20 times longer than they should have done, do didn't have much time to dedicate to interesting things.

I did however get a photo worth sharing. Our dog, Tesla was at one point sitting outside in the snow, successfully looking quite regal as he surveyed his snowy kingdom.

However, when I went to get the photo, what I got instead was this.

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Not what I was aiming for - but far more amusing. A bit off topic, so I apologise - but it seemed worth sharing.

While watching everyone around me working themselves into a complete and utter panic because we'd had 1/32" of snow here, I decided that the cool weather was an ideal opportunity to take the dog out for a decent run. It's been a while since he was out (because it took me several weeks to actually get around to sorting the puncture in the C5's offside rear tyre), and he seemed to enjoy it. I'd missed using the C5 as well.

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Was out for a good hour and a half, and I think I maybe saw two people the entire time. You'd seriously think it was some sort of nuclear winter with lethal fallout...not just a bit of snow.

I did get a couple of things done on the AC - I've extended the loom from the indicator/headlight stalk so it's not stressed by the movement of the handlebars - I've routed the wiring in such a way that it shouldn't wind up rubbing against anything over time too hopefully.

No photo of that because A: It's not really that interesting, and B: Because I'd left my phone in the house so I don't have one!

Main tasks for tomorrow are to find a proper live feed for the main beam flash function, enlarge the cutout in the stalk base cover to allow that to work without fouling on the cover, and finally to hopefully figure out why the nearside indicators flash at twice the rate of the nearside ones. My money's on comedy earthing issues with the tail light clusters as the lampholders are quite tarnished.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:01 pm

Unsurprisingly given the weather today, didn't get a huge amount done on the cars.

Had really wanted to be starting to get the Lada ready to be back on the road by now, but that just ain't happening with several inches of snow out there - and more to the point - the several tonnes of salt being dumped on the roads every day as a result.

The postie today did deliver the new ignition light assembly I'd been waiting for though so I could hopefully get a full compliment of working warning lights on the AC's dash.

Annoyingly, it turned out that the new one had a very slightly different bezel design to the originals...

New on the left, old on the right (this is the remains of the oil pressure light from my spare dash).

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This was clearly going to make the new light stick out even more like a sore thumb than it already would have. I figured my choices were either spend another thirty quid for full set of four new ones that would match...or try to fudge something together.

Luckily I was able to retain enough of the housing after I extracted the rusted old lampholder using excessive amounts of brute force, that I could get the new lamp holder to seat properly.

Result?

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A full quartet of working warning lights (the main beam one is just really dim so you can't see it unless it's dark) that work. Even better, none of them are obviously new and shiny, they all match. I'll take that as a win.

Also seems to suggest that the Dynastart is behaving pretty much as it should. Voltage regulator could maybe do with a slight adjustment as it cuts in very slightly later than it probably should, it's not far off right though.
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Current fleet: 02 VW Caddy 1.9SDI, 90 Mercedes 208D Autotrail Navajo, 85 Sinclair C5, 78 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6GL, 73 AC Model-70.

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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Neil Chowney » Sun Mar 04, 2018 7:17 pm

..... changed the glow plugs on my Freelander 2.

If anyone asks if you want to do this job, decline politely but firmly.

4 hours from start to finish... and I know what i'm doing...... :(
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Tue Mar 06, 2018 2:22 am

Urgh...yep...done that before...no thanks!

Today I mostly...

Got a parking ticket. Apparently the car parks in one of the business parks here are in fact *not* all part of the same site...and I've been kicked for "leaving the site" after parking up. For all of five minutes, while I went to pick up take out from McDonald's.

Only car in the bleeding car park bit in question too.

Now I'm Autistic...one of the ways this manifests itself for me is that I am somewhat obsessive about making sure I do things right, and breaking rules knowingly will generally have an effect somewhere on a scale between feeling uneasy and causing an outright panic attack. I'm sure this drives people nuts, because it means I actually abide by the 50mph limits on the motorway. Sorry. So you can be sure I'd looked at the notice beforehand...it just never even occurred to me that the bit on that side of the flower bed wasn't the same as the bit on the other side.

Been driving since 2003, and this is the first time I've been slapped with anything.

I'm torn between both livid that it's obvious that it's blatantly set up as a money making racket, and now second guessing my reading of every road sign, lane marking and traffic signal when driving.

That'll probably take months for me to get over. Also...now 2:22AM...and it's just spinning around over and over and over again in my head.

Also: there went my budget for car stuff for this month.
LOZ: Oddball cars, lighting information, and anything else I remember to upload!
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Neil Chowney » Tue Mar 06, 2018 6:51 pm

******, anyone would think that they just wanted your money........
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Neil Chowney » Tue Mar 06, 2018 6:52 pm

hey that just bleeped out my rude word...... :-)
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Geoff Stainer » Wed Mar 07, 2018 8:38 pm

I know exactly how you feel mate. I received a ticket from Newport through the post last year complete with a photo of my car. The offence was "parking on the roadway." It was actually a loop off the main road with marked bays on the left hand side which were all full. As I was only going to buy a newspaper I parked opposite the bays. The road was wide enough not to obstruct anyone wanting to pass or pull out of one of the bays and there were no double yellow lines, evidenced by the photo they sent. I didn't see a sign at the time although I could see one on a post in the photo. The next time I was up that way I made a point of going to Newport to check. There was a small sign which said that vehicles should be in marked bays so I have to hold my hands up by not checking thoroughly enough. What I was bemused by was the fact that the area I had parked in is now adorned with double yellow lines. They definitely were not there when I parked and, as I've said, they do not appear on the councils photograph either. It does gall me though. It is my only "slap" and I've been driving since 1978!
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Wed Mar 07, 2018 9:22 pm

All right...enough about me spitting feathers about parking tickets...back on topic.

So yesterday evening I got a few things done on the Invacar.

I'd tracked down my pipe flaring tool, and ascertained that despite having not used it for probably more than a decade, did remember how to use it. Feels slightly odd to be using it actually on a car rather than on HVAC kit on the farm!

[] New front union to flexi line...

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[] Offside rear centre to axle flexi line (the distribution union at the rear is helpfully buried underneath the rear bulkhead).

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[] Nearside rear...

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[] I'd also managed after far more work than it should have been, to get the access panel out so I could get at the drive system.

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The belt is actually in good condition, though the tension needs adjusting. So I set about giving the adjuster itself a good dose of Plusgas as it's probably not moved in decades.

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However I can't even *see* the three nuts I need to loosen off down on the front of the chaincase. Need to get in here with the degreaser and pressure washer then we can talk. Not going to start undoing things blind as three of them secure the whole unit and allow it to pivot to adjust the belt tension - the other three hold the faceplate on! I'd rather not accidentally undo the wrong ones.

[] Rear Brake Flexi hoses.

It doesn't take a genius to see that the rear flexis will need changing before the car can even hope to think about getting an MOT due to the rust on the ferrules (there are actually chunks missing of one of them). No problem, got a pair of new old stock ones with the car!

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...Oh. Bother. These two pipes should be the same...They obviously aren't!

Best guess is that I've been given a pair of rear pipes for an Invacar Mk 12 as that's the main interest of the gent who sold me this one. No big issue, just a bit irritating. Shouldn't be too hard to source a pair of hoses elsewhere.

[] Battery Clamps.

The battery terminals I'd been using were very much a case of "what I had laying around in the parts box" rather than ideal for the job. Threw a pair of quick release ones on there today to make getting the battery in and out quicker. Will be less of an issue once it's properly re-located to the nearside of the engine compartment (currently missing the battery tray), when the battery will stay put and I'll get an isolator switch fitted. I trust the electrics in this thing about as far as I can throw it however, and I'd rather not burn the house down...so the battery is disconnected whenever I'm not running the engine or actively testing anything electrical.

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I should point out as well that the battery is usually bungeed in place here so it can't go anywhere. It's not ideal, but isn't a massive issue just moving the car around the drive. I should hopefully have the proper battery tray on the way soon so it can be returned to its correct location. There's also now some heat shrink on the positive terminal crimp, so far less opportunities for me to cause fireworks with a carelessly swung spanner.

Despite the slight setback with the brake flexis (which is annoying more than anything because it would have been nice to be fully able to draw a line under "brake pipes" as a subject today), having completed the missing bits of pipe meant that I could actually test the braking system out for the first time. Somewhat astonishingly, first tests seem to suggest that we have three functioning brakes. I'll need to get each wheel up individually to double-check that tomorrow, but certainly seems that way.

This has meant that I can actually do some slightly more meaningful drive system tests...

Youtube Video Link

I'll shift the Lada over to the other side of the drive tomorrow so I have a bit more room to play with.

Seems happy enough though, even though it's obvious the drive belt needs tightening as it's not hard to make it slip. Obviously I can't be *too* enthusiastic in my testing yet given the lack of seat belt...um...or seat...or floor at the moment. Feels like progress though.
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Current fleet: 02 VW Caddy 1.9SDI, 90 Mercedes 208D Autotrail Navajo, 85 Sinclair C5, 78 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6GL, 73 AC Model-70.

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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Geoff Stainer » Sat Apr 07, 2018 9:17 pm

Hi Zel.

Any progress to report on the Inva car? It's been a month since your last update. My curiosity is getting the better of me. :)

Best wishes.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:10 pm

Geoff Stainer wrote:Hi Zel.

Any progress to report on the Inva car? It's been a month since your last update. My curiosity is getting the better of me. :)

Best wishes.
Yes - though we're at the stage now here I need to wait for a few things to happen before I can really make huge progress.

She's just generally running a lot better, and I do have working brakes. I seem to have an intermittent leak from one wheel cylinder though, and the master cylinder isn't perfect. Not to worried about that though given that all involved parts are readily and pretty cheaply available.

The big news really is with the bodywork. I've managed to sort out a deal with another owner to take on what has been serving as their spares car. This will be sans quite a lot of bits (engine and gearbox for a start, door locks, and most of the interior). The body on that one is rough, but is at least mostly actually *there* unlike mine! It's also missing pretty much exactly the bits as a whole that I've got here on mine - so it should be entirely possible to make one good one out of the two.

Now whether my mechanicals will end up being transplanted into that Invacar or whether it will donate its body to mine will remain to be seen. It sounds like this one may well have an immaculate floor and chassis - in which case it's a no brainer really just to drop my drivetrain in and tidy up the bodywork as necessary. They're both AC versions, which should help in terms of ensuring that everything should just fit. While the Invacar and AC versions of the Model 70 are notionally one and the same - there do seem to be some subtle differences to the chassis design and wiring loom among other things.

Until the "new" one arrives in my driveway though, there's not going to be a massive amount to report. I'll still be ticking off little jobs on stuff that can just be transferred over to whichever car I work on, but I'm not going to go overboard with stuff in case I wind up duplicating effort.

Yesterday's task for example was to pull the exhaust off so I could give it a proper clean up with the carbide mop prior to giving it a skim over with some paint. There's still evidence of the original grey enamel finish on it, so I'll replicate that as best I can - Though it will remain to be seen how long it lasts! Not sure how hot the silencer will run really...it's pretty huge relative to the size of the engine...

Main thing I really need to do is to pull the carb off and give it a proper clean to see if it resolves the "sneezing" habit that this one has. Even though it's massively better than it was, it's not gone yet. Seems to lean out massively briefly when transitioning between the idle and main jets based on what I'm seeing happening. It's fine at idle and it's fine under load - it's just going from idle to picking up load that it struggles. Well...sometimes. Some days it's absolutely fine...hence my theory that there's something floating around in the carb.

I had been planning some work involving getting it onto the ramps so I could give the underside of the engine and the gearbox a really good going over with the pressure washer - though I'm holding off that until I know what I'm doing - as if the engine and box are coming out, it'll be far easier to so that when they're sitting on the ground not attached to the car. No point in making things hard for myself.

One thing I do plan to do in the near future is to get it up on the axle stands and exercise the drive a bit. I can only shunt back and forth in very short runs in the driveway, but this will allow me to get it "up to speed" essentially and confirm that the governor is behaving properly. Should also allow me to exercise the rear brakes a bit and confirm whether they're balanced (or not!).
LOZ: Oddball cars, lighting information, and anything else I remember to upload!
Current fleet: 02 VW Caddy 1.9SDI, 90 Mercedes 208D Autotrail Navajo, 85 Sinclair C5, 78 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6GL, 73 AC Model-70.

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