Today I mostly .....

Any topics of general interest (not lada related), post them here.
User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:23 pm

Some progress at long last on the BX.

Made a run over to Chevronics today to pick up some parts for the BX.

Image

That's a set of both rear axle brake lines and a steering rack gaiter kit. I only need one of both to my knowledge, but I'm assuming that if one of the brake lines has let go the other isn't likely far behind. Likewise with the steering rack gaiters. So just getting both made sense.

With those fitted and one small patch to the nearside sill made we should hopefully be ready to present the car for an MOT. Given how long she's been off the road I'm fully expecting that to turn up a list of things needing sorted, but hopefully not a catastrophic one.

Just really hoping I don't need to replace all the rear hydraulic lines as that gets highly involved in a hurry! Especially as the fuel tank is full which is an annoying step to need to address before the subframe could be dropped...a task in itself I'd *really* rather avoid.

Given I've had a pretty poor run of experiences with specialists in a plethora of fields over the last few years it was a very welcome surprise to see how helpful, friendly and organised Chevronics were.
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Wed Sep 15, 2021 11:23 pm

Figured I'd try to keep up the momentum on the BX progress.

Didn't have much time today so decided to concentrate on a bit more diagnosis on a minor but important item that's currently non functional - and judging from the MOT history has been that way for a while: The speedometer.

Of course being the exceptionally cool rotating drum affair this is doubly important as there's no point in having something that interesting that doesn't work!

Image

Pulling the instrument panel out is a fairly painless task and only takes about five minutes once you've learned where the fasteners are and that 3 out of the 5 steps in the Haynes manual are totally unnecessary.

Spinning the input to the speedometer with an external source (Allen key) revealed the speedometer responded, if a little sluggish to return to zero. After twiddling the thing for a couple of minutes I'd got the trip meter to move visibly as well. This is good as I'm sure I've read that the drive to that can fail.

This meant I needed to delve deeper. I had hoped that maybe I just hadn't seated the cable right (it's a right pig to get on as there's next to no slack in the cable). Unfortunately driving the car back and forth without the instrument panel in place showed no movement from the cable. Not what I'd hoped for...that means either the cable is broken, detached at the gearbox end or the drive in the gearbox is stuffed.

Of course being a suitcase engine the gearbox is in the sump...and mostly totally invisible from above. This is the grand total of how much of the cable I can see before it vanishes down below the rocker cover.

Image

I note it does appear to be a two part cable...I kinda wish I'd known that before the swearing involved in getting the instrument panel out the first time. Next job will be finding out if the break is in the upper or lower portion.of the cable...if the upper that should be a pretty easy fix.

If it's the lower section that's going on the "sort once it's a working car again" list. At least it's no huge hardship these days with a plethora of smartphone apps available to provide a GPS based speedometer. That'll do just fine to/from the MOT station.

Before I go any further the panel needs some further attention as the speedometer illumination has failed again (this is about the fourth time).

The panel needs a good clean anyway as there's a lot of gunk on the inside of the plastic lenses and I'd like to make sure that the worm drive for the odometer/trip meter is properly greased up. This will give me an opportunity to try to repair the damage to the flex PCB and see if I can track down where the permanent 12V feed to the clock is disappearing (it currently resets to 0:00 every time you turn the ignition off).

I have a good quantity of warm white wide angle LEDs on hand so will do a bit of experimentation with those for the illumination. I'm not messing about with the warning lights, but given the dash illumination is on whenever the ignition is on the BX *and* I know this dash has a plethora of scratchy connection issues, if I can eliminate the heat, power consumption and maintenance aspect there it would be a bonus. Don't worry, if it looks horrible I won't proceede with it and will just try to get the normal lamps to behave reliably.

Just one of those things which while I've got it in bits anyway seems worth looking into.
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Fri Sep 17, 2021 2:19 am

This evening's entertainment.

Image

Image

I had hoped this would be a pretty quick strip down, clean and reassemble.

Strip down is pretty easy.

Image

Definitely needed a clean!

Image

Sadly my hopes this would be a really quick job didn't last long. Apparently at some point in the district past someone has tried to fix the dead speedometer...by unloading about half a can of WD40 into the instrument panel.

Everything is slimy and sticky. While unpleasant this isn't generally a huge issue as I just need to clean it. Here's the issue though...The oil has got in between the plastic window in front of the banks of warning lights and the plastic window in front of them.

In itself this is unpleasant to clean up...but the big issue is that it has eaten away the printing on the filter gels. This is what I found when I peeled them apart.

Image

Image

Image

Quite how badly this has eaten away at things is clear when you hold them up to the light.

Image

Image

Realistically I'll need to either remake these or find replacements. I'll make sure to get a high resolution scan to allow me to make a replacement digitally and print out on transparency film. I don't have time for that right now, so this will be a project for somewhere down the road.

For now I've done a bit of patching with a marker.

Image

Image

Not great but better...at least the dash illumination won't shine through the left hand one like it used to like this.

Image

The single biggest cleaning task I was worried about though was the bit of plastic which has that diagram of the car printed on it. The plastic is edge lit and provides a light pipe effect to make the diagram glow. If that came off I'd be stuffed really, I don't have the resources to remake that.

Thankfully this was the result of ten minutes of VERY careful cleaning with a microfibre cloth.

Image

Jumping ahead a bit, here's how this area now looks when lit up.

Image

Far less blotchy light coming through from behind and it's way brighter now as the plastic is clean. The bezel isn't fitted there so there's a lot of spill from the sides.

The warning panel on the right always looked blotchy before because the filter gel was actually stuck to the plastic lens.

Image

That area now looks like this.

Image

Quite a lot of warning lights that just aren't used on this car being in humble RE trim.

[] Brake pad wear indicator (no bulb fitted or evidence of it having ever had one).

[] Glow plugs... obviously, it's a petrol engine.

[] Clutch temperature warning for the semi-auto gearbox - it's a manual.

[] Exhaust temp - only applies to cat equipped cars.

[] Oil level warning - very sadly not fitted. That may get upgraded as it's a feature I think is really sensible to have.

In addition to these though, this one isn't even in the handbook.

Image

I assume was there intended to show when the engine was cold (note that the BX never had a temperature gauge fitted), but never actually got used. Would be quite a nice thing to reinstate.

Equally there two red lights alongside the "Econoscope" (a two-light based vacuum meter basically) in the middle of the dash.

Image

These aren't mentioned in the handbook either.

Over on the other side we're also missing the indicators for the doors being open...these would be LEDs in these four holes.

Image

I'm quite surprised that they actually went to the extent of omitting the LEDs... I'm kinda curious to know if they were fitted if the indicators would work. Only in the front obviously...there aren't door switches on the rear doors...or bonnet, or boot...so those lights *definitely* won't work.

The pointer for the speedometer needs a good scrub up and coat of paint...it should be white, not lumpy and rust coloured.

Image

I'm still having big issues with scratchy contacts basically everywhere on this panel, so we may end up going with a more wholesale LED retrofit as I can just solder them in.

The panel has obviously issues...there are a bunch of broken clips, the above moth eaten light gels, and several "interesting" prior repairs to the flex PCB. Oh, yeah and I need to fix this mess under the clock.

Image

I'll need to find a pin out for so I can figure out what's meant to have voltage or ground on it to sort that. The clock itself does work...insofar that it turns on with the ignition and then keeps time. However it resets to 0:00 as soon as the ignition is turned off. It also doesn't dim when the headlights are turned on as I think it should.

The flex PCB on this is one of the most difficult to follow I've ever worked on, so really hoping I can find a proper schematic which shows the pin connections so I can just buzz them out with the meter rather than having to trace every one out... That's for tomorrow though. Oh, and trying to remember where the bottle of sewing machine oil is so I can put a tiny dab on the speedometer bearing to hopefully thin out the WD40 goop currently in there. Little smear of grease will go on the work drive for the trip/odometer too...which was one of the main reasons for pulling it to bits.

This has turned into a bit of a ramble, sorry!
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Fri Sep 17, 2021 9:40 pm

You remember me saying that the work to recreate the warning light masks was for "somewhere down the road" yesterday?

Yeah...about that. Look what I ended up doing this evening after dinner...

Image

Image

The end result of which were these.

Image

Image

Everything is on separate layers, so I can have a play around with different options regarding getting a clean print, good colour purity etc. Just need to wait for the transparency sheets to arrive. Fun fact: Laser printer transparency sheets are expensive suckers!

There are quite a few imperfections as it's all been done by hand so I'll need to tidy up a couple of the legends (sidelights and glow plugs being the two which stick out at me the most). A lot tidier than what's in there at the moment though. I've got a file somewhere with a large library of automotive symbols etc I could paste in, but restoring the original ones seemed worthwhile.

Tiny job...and one utterly unnecessary to the proper running of the car...but satisfying all the same.
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Sun Sep 19, 2021 12:05 am

Well today has been spent generating this mess.

Image

Last couple of trees that need to come down are going to require access from the other side of the fence to remove the bulk of the weight before we can bring them down.

Have got a mechanical job out of it though, the exhaust decided to fall off the chain saw. Gaskets have had it, so possible it's been leaking for quite a while.

Image

The marks on the back of the silencer and heat shield certainly suggest that theory is correct.

Image

Image

That silencer seems to have a lot more to it than I'd expect, it's really surprisingly heavy.

New gaskets and some locknuts on the studs this time so it can't unbolt itself again and we should be good to go. Doesn't look like the mating surfaces are damaged at least.

Now however I am utterly broken, and will probably be feeling that way for most of the next week!
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Mon Sep 20, 2021 11:50 pm

Really quick additional job on the instrument panel done today while I'm waiting for the transparency film to turn up.

Sanded back and repainted the speedometer pointer white.

Image

Looks a good deal brighter back in the panel than it used to.

Image

Another item on the "missing" list has been ticked off now too thanks to a friend.

Image

Yep, she now has a parcel shelf again. Yes it's black rather than brown/beige but being a neutral colour it's less obtrusive than something like blue would have been. I'll take the wrong colour over missing anyhow.

At least it hides all the junk in the boot now.

Image

Small details yes. Though I still see it as important as the less things which are missing, the more likely my enthusiasm to keep pushing forward on getting the car sorted is to continue.

Has it helped take the rate the thing hurls itself open at? Nope...it still wants to smash my teeth out!

A while back I had intermittent issues with the alternator on the Jag not charging... though it has been behaving for a while and I made the mistake of mentioning that within earshot of the car the other day.

It heard me apparently and rewarded me with this on the voltmeter today.

Image

*Sigh*

I'll need to see if I can get the brush pack out with the alternator in situ (as I *really* don't want to have to mess about with the belt tensioners again). It doesn't actually look too hard to get at by the standards I'm used to on this car.

Image

I'm sure I'll end up swearing a lot at that pair of power steering lines a lot though...

From the symptoms I'm hoping it just needs a brush pack as I really could do without spending on a new alternator on this right now...
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Wed Sep 22, 2021 1:06 am

Now for one of our irregularly scheduled occasional distractions.

While it's very unlikely anyone remembers, a few months ago I was able to get hold of a HP12C calculator. One of the Voyager series from the early 80s thanks to a friend picking one up for me that popped up on Facebook Marketplace.

The 12C is a bit of an oddball in that it's heavily specialised for the business and financial sector. Upon its introduction back in 1981 it almost immediately became hugely popular - to the point of becoming the defacto standard...which is why you can still go out and buy a brand new HP12C today. Yes the underlying hardware has gone through a few revisions, but it still works exactly the same and save for a slight change of the colours and updating a few keypad labels it still looks exactly the same. I believe mine dates from the mid 90s based on the handbook that came with it.

Image

The Voyager range contained five models.

10C: A basic scientific calculator. This wasn't produced for long as it wasn't that much cheaper than the next model up despite lacking a lot of the features. Produced from 1982-84.

11C: Mid range general purpose scientific calculator. Produced 1982-89.

12C: Specialised for the business and financial sector. Produced from 1981 to the present day. Being HP's longest and best selling single device to date.

15C: An advanced scientific calculator. Produced 1982-1989 with a limited re-release in 2011.

16C: Specialised for use in computer programming applications. Produced 1982-89.

These have all got quite a following among collectors. The 12C being made in such numbers means that while they *do* change hands for substantial sums of money, if you're patient one will probably pop up somewhere. The rest of the range having been out of production for 30 odd years though means they are rather more sought after and finding cheap ones is harder. It's not unusual to see buy it now prices of around £250 on eBay for most of the. (The 16C seeming to command the biggest premium), so I'd generally considered them out of my reach.

Until a slightly cosmetically challenged 11C popped up with a reasonable-ish buy it now...I made an offer, it was accepted and a few days later I had this in my grubby paws.

Image

First photo taken on that desk since I installed the new lighting a few weeks ago too.

I've always liked these...RPN, nice form factor, really nice keypad, but the 12C isn't really great as far as being a good one to grab because of it being so financially orientated. The 11C though should be far more usable. There is *absolutely* a learning curve though if you've not used one of these before!

The display does have a bit of bleed but it doesn't seem to affect the usability. The self test function - yes, these have a self test function (hold down the multiply key when turning the power on)...

Image

...Turns on all the display segments to indicate a successful test. Like so.

Image

The only indicator really affected is the one to show the blue "g" function key is active. Not going to worry about that.

Definitely an interesting little calculator and one I'm really glad to have got hold of. One day it would be nice to get the whole lineup (16C at least), but barring lottery wins that ain't likely to happen! I'm surprised I found this one to be honest even if it's a little scruffy cosmetically.

Back to the cars next.
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Wed Sep 22, 2021 11:24 pm

Actually had a few consecutive hours available today so flipped a coin between pulling the alternator on the Jag (which has of course started working again) and delving into the diagnosis of what's going on with the Merc.

Merc won.

Step 1 I decided was to have a proper look at the camshaft. I knew a couple of lobes were badly scored but wanted to see what state the bearings were in - I had a feeling they were likely to be shot and haemorrhaging oil, hence the less than stellar pressure at a hot idle.

Off we go again. Getting used to doing this now!

Image

Let's have a peek at what lies under each of the rocker assemblies one at a time.

So what's behind door number 1...

Image

Pretty much exactly what I was expecting to be honest.

An impressively scored up bearing with a lot of slack, which you can actually see looking closer. Pretty sure you shouldn't be able to slot a finger nail between the camshaft and the carrier.

Image

Don't think I need to get a Plastigauge out to confirm there's too much free play there.

The cam followers feature some pretty epic scoring as well...the deepest of which must be about half a millimetre deep.

Image

Image

Number 2 was pretty similar, though with slightly more severe bearing scoring, cam followers were *slightly* less mangled.

Image

Image

This was the first one where I couldn't remove all of the bolts from the rocker frame itself because of how much carbon buildup there is in the bolt holes!

Number 3 however was where things got real exciting...

The cam followers are utterly wrecked, both inlet and exhaust.

Image

Image

That however pales into total insignificance compared to the state of the camshaft...

Image

Wait...that doesn't look right, let me move a bit to get a better look...wait...what the? Oh hell...

Image

Yep... pretty much the entire cam lobe of the number 3 inlet valve has been totally *obliterated.*

Image

I'm pretty certain this is the most mangled non-broken camshaft I have ever seen... it's *definitely* the worst I've ever seen on a running engine. Never mind one that seemed to be running quite happily aside from being a bit rattly. That's easily 5mm plus change of material that has been worn away.

Number 4 also has quite a lip on the exhaust valve...which would have been impressive wear if we hadn't just seen the above photos.

Image

Number 4 inlet actually looks normal!

The followers on this one were probably the least badly deformed of the lot, though that's not saying much.

Image

Goes without saying that the whole camshaft assembly inboard of the timing sprocket is scrap metal. Well I don't think it is actually...this is more the sort of artefact that should be hung on the garage wall as a warning to future generations!

I did start the engine up with the rocker cover off briefly simply because I wanted to confirm we did have good oil flow up there, as there's obviously a load of damage been caused by oil starvation or *severe* contamination. We do - in fact so much oil is gushing out from around the rear two and front bearing that it totally overwhems the drains in the respective areas of the head and starts flooding over the top of the head after the engine has been running for about five seconds.

Probably why everything under the car looks like this and why so much was pouring out before the rocker cover seal was changed.

Image

Definitely plenty of oil getting to the camshaft now...

Image

Though sadly too late, this hardware was mortally wounded years if not decades ago.

There's like 1/8" of this gritty sludge just caked over everything.

Image

If you remember back to when I first set the valve clearances I checked and found that the spray bar which runs above the camshaft was about 70% clogged, with the front most jet being the only one that was working properly. This ties in with where the most damage seems to be...so I'm calling on oil starvation as the main cause. The lack of zinc additives in modern oils probably hasn't helped given the cam follower design. A separate additive will definitely be going in with the oil once this mess is sorted out.

It's a bit hard to see, but in person you can make out glittery residue in the head valley around number 3 far more than anywhere else, which supports the thought that the mangled camshaft may be where a lot of the glitter I found in the oil had come from.

Image

So if the bottom end has survived, we might just get away with a head swap.

Image

Before going all the way down that lengthy road (being used to OHV engines a head swap on an OHC engine feels daunting!) I'd really like to take a look at the condition of the engine bottom end. Simple enough to get a quick health assessment done, drop sump, pop a couple of bearing caps off and see if we can see copper and if the crankshaft looks smoother than the surface of the moon. Simple enough.

Oh.

Image

How the bleep do you get the sump off this thing? There's a stinking great cross member in the way. Sump appears to go back to about the red marker in this photo, a good foot or so behind the front of the aforementioned metalwork.

Image

Even if I could figure out how to get to the half dozen or so bolts buried above it and removed the engine mount attached to it... I'm not convinced I'd have enough clearance to pull it out.

Think I need to go do some reading to figure out what really simple trick it is that I've missed...or getting the sump out will wind up with me 3/4 of the way down the road to removing the engine...by which point I may as well just take it out anyway! Feels like I must be missing something though given how serviceable most things on this car seem to be. I did wonder if the sump was split into a front and rear half, but if so I can't see the join.

Definitely an instructive day...and kinds good news in a way. The camshaft being so chewed up to this extent definitely would have an impact on oil pressure I'd think and we've definitely found a likely cause for the glitter. It's just possible the bottom end might have survived...

Either way I want to check the condition of it before going to the trouble and expense of a head swap. Plus given the amount of grime in and around the top end I fully expect the sump to be as bad or worse...and worry about the oil pickup strainer.

Now I just need to figure out how the fluff to get the sump off! Simple right?
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Fri Sep 24, 2021 3:42 am

Somewhat frustrating day here. Well on the Merc front anyway.

I wanted to have a look at what the journals under the camshaft looked like. More for the sake of my curiousity and because everything at this stage is an education.

Now this is where I fell into a trap that it sounds like many people working on these engines have. The only OHC engines with chains I've messed around with had tensioners which were either manually tensioned or ran off oil pressure. As the camshaft is keyed to the sprocket, provided I didn't let the chain go slack so it could slip at the bottom end it shouldn't be an issue.

Yeah...oops.

Turns out the timing chain tensioner on the M102 engine is near aerospace levels of over-engineered.

Tensioning method number 1 is an oil pressure actuated plunger as I'm used to.

Tensioning method number 2 is a spring based setup as a backup and to ensure it doesn't go slack when the engine isn't running.

What's caught me out is number 3. There's also a ratchet mechanism which means that the tensioner can add tension to the chain as it wears, but there's no way for it to go the other way...the only way to reset the thing to take tension off is to completely dismantle the tensioner. Which involves quite a bit of faff.

So I've now managed to move the car from "sick" to "non runner."

I did have the sprocket tied up, but apparently I gave enough slack that it now won't go back on.

Great.

I have read up on how the tensioner works, but working through such a small gap looks like a right pain. Hopefully I can get back to where we started out again tomorrow.

Oh, the camshaft bearing journals are scored to hell, exactly as expected.

Judging from how many stories I've read of people who have had things like snapped camshafts or timing chains after work on it or head gasket changes even done by professional garages, I'm far, far from the first to make this mistake.


The transparency film I'd been waiting for to sort the dash on the BX arrived.

Thankfully because I was working on a scan I had taken I knew the dimensions would be right when I printed it. Didn't look too bad at first glance (yes this is the wrong way round in the photo).

Image

Though precisely as I expected opacity was clearly going to be a problem. There was also an issue with boundary alignment between black and coloured areas. I knew this sort of thing was going to be stretching the abilities of my printer so this was not a huge surprise.

Image

I'd already got a plan in place for this though - and was one of the reasons why I made the image in several layers.

I printed this in several layers (from back to front):

2X with the colour filters and black borders (coloured areas slightly oversize to ensure the edges are pure).
1X with the borders and legends on.
1X with the borders only.

The result looks like this when held up to the light, looks a lot more convincing I think you'll agree.

Image

I was just holding the sheets together by hand there which is why I have obvious registration errors visible.

With everything back into the panel it looks far better than the blotchy, faded original ones.

Image

Image

Such is the curse of digital cameras that it's really hard to get an accurate looking photo of how it looks when lit...but this is vaguely close. Colours still look more washed out in the photo and the hotspots aren't really that pronounced.

Image

There is more of a hotspot than with the original filters but personally I don't find it objectionable. If that was an issue it would be easy enough to slot in a diffuser of some form behind the filter stack.

Opacity was going to be most critical on the left hand light bank as one of the dash backlighting lamps is behind it. So looking at this in the dark was going to be important to see if I could see the light bleeding through.

Using the night mode on my camera to obtain a really overexposed photo allowed me to confirm a solid "nope" on that. Exactly as I hoped.

Image

The edge lighting on that panel for the car diagram is actually far more subtle, this is more accurate in how it looks.

Image

Might get that dropped back in tomorrow. LED illumination hasn't been done yet, but I've too many projects going on right now so could do with it back in the car and off my workbench. Hoping in daylight I can get some better photos too.
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Fri Sep 24, 2021 9:37 pm

Well we've found why the BX speedometer doesn't work.

Image

That little bit of plastic should be attached to the end of the lower cable. So unless I can come up with a bodge I'll be needing a new lower cable.

The dash is back together now though. Looks far less scruffy.

Before:

Image

Image

After:

Image

Image

All seems to be behaving.

Image

Image

Image

I really had not appreciated quite how big a visual impact just repainting the pointer on the speedometer would make.

After dark I was able to take a look to see if the panel lighting was behaving...yep!

Image

There used to be horrible blotchy bleed through here...

Image

Much better now.

Image

The slight bleed through on the right is actually just due to the frosted surface on the plastic light guide rather than light getting through the backing.

I've not been able to sort the clock yet so have just disabled it... having it show 0:00 every time the ignition was on was more annoying than it just not working. I'll get to that at some point in the future.


I've decided to take a step away from the Merc for a few days as I was just getting frustrated with it today.

Have discovered that to get the timing chain tensioner out (because I need to take it out and dismantle it to reset it so I can reattach the sprocket to the camshaft) I first need to remove the alternator. Of course one of the mounting blts is just spinning and I couldn't find the right size spanner to lock it in place. I'd already spent half an hour chasing tools around by that point and getting clocked on the head by the bootlid didn't help.

I'll get back to it after the weekend.

Oh. Looking at a car this weekend too. Yes I know...don't ask why!
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Sun Sep 26, 2021 11:29 pm

Two entries in one today as I ran out of time and energy halfway through yesterday's one...

-- -- --

Currently I have five cars on the drive. That's two too many.

Current status of them...

[] Jag: Intermittent charging fault. Reeks of fuel when the tank is more than 3/4 full. Sold anyway, waiting for the new owner to complete their house move so they've got space to take it on. I intend to stick a fresh MOT on before it's handed over (and obviously sort the alternator).

[] Van: Working...though being 2.6 metres tall means it's not the most practical daily driver as so many places around here have height barriers.

[] Merc S123: Currently half way to having the cylinder head removed.

[] BX: Hasn't been on the road in at least 11 years, we're making progress but still a ways from being a working car.

[] Invacar: Working, though the brakes need adjusting.

So yeah...two out of five. Not a great average.

Absolutely the last thing I need is another project...so why the heck was I looking at one yesterday? Honestly I think the answer is because I'm an idiot.

I went to look at it with heavily tempered expectations, though was really quite pleasantly surprised at what I found.

So what did I find?

Looking a little bit sorry for herself from being in storage for several years and sporting a few dents and dings which have occurred during that time, but here she is.

Image

Image

Here's the real surprise though given this is an unrestored 70s Vauxhall...

Image

Image

Image

Incredibly little rust for one of these. I did find a couple of crunchy bits though, would have been downright miraculous if there weren't a couple. One is a hole just in front of the rear offside wheel. Which is probably the most difficult one to sort as it'll be an awkward pig to get to with welding spatter going in my ear.

Image

Oddly the nearside...which is where I'm used to there being the most rust...seems perfectly solid here.

Image

The crispy looking bit at frame left is the wheel arch lip rather than anything more sinister, poor framing on my part.

The other bit of note is on the nearside front chassis rail. A patch was done for the last MOT this car was back in 2010, however rust has got into the seam and blown it out.

Image

This initially looked quite alarming and had me thinking it was going to be a sigh and walk away situation when the whole surrounding area went "scrunch" when I poked it...but it didn't. It all feels solid and does look to be a case of cutting out that old patch and letting in new metal. It's one of those hugely rare instances where welding is concerned that it's both easy to get to and doesn't require half the car to be dismantled. Wheel off and one plastic fuel line to be tucked out the way should be all that's needed.

Image

While we're under the bonnet already, look at those inner wings and shock towers...

Image

Image

We only had about a pint of petrol in the tank today so only managed a few minutes of running before running out, but she fired straight up and ran incredibly smoothly, albeit a bit tappety. Though from what I remember these engines did tend to rattle a bit.

This was about ten seconds after she was started up, so still on the choke.

https://youtu.be/lQuMSIKQChc

This was originally an automatic but suffered a gearbox failure somewhere in the distant past - why the car spent its first stint in storage for a while. Back in 2007 it was rescued and converted to a 5-speed manual using a gearbox from a Manta. I know for a while the previous previous keeper had been chasing an odd running issue which seemed to point at a timing problem, however we don't know for certain whether this was resolved or not...we haven't been able to replicate it though so I think there's a bit of crossing fingers and hoping there.

There will be a bit of repair needed under the battery as the panel there is a bit thin and there are a couple of pin holes. Access is fine though and I'm classifying that about a 0.2 out of 10 on the worry scale.

Being a GL this has stainless steel sill covers fitted...which is always a bit of a potential can of worms.

Image

However from what I can see this is pretty much the story most of the way around.

Image

Image

I gave them a decent thump along the full length both sides and the only bit I could detect any give in was the last couple of inches at the rear on the nearside where I'm absolutely sure there's a hole.

Image

Bottom and inner sides of the sill are still there though, so not panicking too much. Wouldn't be the worst repair ever.

While the exterior has survived the last 43 years extraordinarily well it's nothing compared to the interior.

Image

Image

Image

The 80s Manta gearknob and gaiter have to go and be replaced with something more period appropriate. The console (which is also Manta I think) will need to stay as there's a gap in the carpet due to the gearbox change having required modification of the tunnel as the Cavalier one would normally be further forward.

This may have something to do with why there's so little wear there.

Image

Always a sucker for a dash with funky warning lights that aren't just square or round, even if my camera couldn't make heads or tails of the colour.

Image

The door card for the nearside rear is present, it was removed a couple of weeks ago when folks were looking at whether the dent in that door could be pushed out by hand. Needs a bit more strength than that, but I reckon both of these could be sorted to an acceptable standard without too much drama.

Image

Image

I have always had a soft spot for these. An almost identical car was actually the first car I ever drove at about age 12, so there's a lot of nostalgia there. Memory is a funny old thing, first thing I noticed was that I remembered the smell of the interior. Never actually driven one on the road though!

It's a car I've always liked, for all the front end styling is divisive. Just never come across one for sale that was for sale that wasn't rotten, heavily performance modified, too expensive for me or any combination of the above. I wasn't looking for this...and in fact deliberately avoided looking at it too closely when I was last over there a few weeks ago because I knew I'd wind up asking "how much?" if I did. Then it popped up for sale...so here we are.

This is pretty much spot on for what I'd like...tidy enough that it could clean up well with a bit of elbow grease, not having comfort destroyed in favour of track lap times, and a pretty simple car to work on.

Something will have to go to make way for it though!

-- -- --

Having finally picked up the brake pipe for the BX I really had no excuse not to get cracking on sorting it.

Somewhat to my surprise both ends unbolted from the unions with relatively little effort. Rounding those off was high on my worry list.

Image

Image

All of the lines look crustier than I would like...so I can see them all being changed before the car is pushed into use.

While the clamps holding the pipe were really fiddly to undo it wasn't really that difficult.

Image

Putting the new one in was equally fiddly but without drama. All in was about two hours, though at least half an hour of that was fiddling around trying to figure out where half the tools were.

Image

Oh.

Image

Yeah...about my diagnosis of that pipe being at fault... totally wrong. It must be the main brake supply line to the rear axle. Really hard to tell as I can't see the actual location of the leak, but it's not suspension related as the leak only happens when the brake pedal is pressed.

That will be fun to change. I know the official way to do this involves dropping the subframe...which is a road I really would rather have avoided at this stage when I don't even know for certain how far from an MOT we are.

Bit frustrating to be honest having spent that amount of time on something which probably didn't need doing!
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Tue Sep 28, 2021 11:56 pm

Yesterday with fuel basically impossible to come by it was obviously a good idea to take out the most economical member of the fleet to run my errands. Especially as I had a can of petrol in the garage for the mower... enough to add about a quarter of a tank to the gauge in TPA.

Been a while since I got any new photos of her, so grabbed a few while we were out.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Guessing she will be out and about quite a bit this week.

Having now got hold of a 12mm Torx bit I had hoped to get some more work on the Merc done today...

Image

Yes, the weather had other ideas. As a bonus there's about an inch of water in the garage again. Oh what fun.

My current plan is to swap out the cylinder head for my spare and see what happens. Basically as there's nothing to lose by trying save for a few hours of time and a gasket set. If it's the bottom end of the engine that's self destructing it should be pretty immediately obvious as the oil pressure will continue to decay and we will keep seeing glittery oil. At least then we'll know.

Aside from £500-£900 plus postage for a replacement engine itself, probably £150 of sundry parts I'd change while it was out, I'd need probably £2-300 of tools (not least but including an engine crane). I reckon that's a large enough chunk of money that it's worth a few hours of my time throwing spares I've got at it and seeing what happens. At the end of the day if it doesn't sort it I'll just unbolt the head again and it can go back into the spares store!

The arrival of the Cavalier on the scene really has complicated things... Really hadn't been anticipating any more automotive arrivals for a while. Very much looking forward to getting stuck into it though.

Biggest issue though is that I need to clear a space before I can get it delivered...Jag isn't going anywhere for over a month. Merc Currently is obviously...in bits. BX...well I really want to get that back on the road. Bah...need to make a slot somehow! Preferably quickly as I'd like to try to get at least some of the work done before the weather totally dives for the winter.

Yes it will be delivered. I know it's technically MOT exempt, but I'm not about to go all Vice Grip Garage on this...I know the front brakes are shot, there's a bulge in the nearside front tyre the size of an egg, we're missing part of the exhaust, and it's been sitting in a shed for at least 11 years. Plus there may have been an unresolved running issue prior to that. If I was still in the back end of rural Aberdeenshire, maybe if I changed the tyres, made sure it actually ran well and sorted the brakes...Down here...not happening!
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Wed Sep 29, 2021 10:11 pm

Back at it this afternoon.

Step 1 I decided was to label the handful of wiring connectors which would need to be removed. Have to admit this is one of the reasons I love K-Jet injection systems...so simple electronically.

Image

IAC valve is hiding just out of shot above the frame.

Checking it with a straight edge the spare head appears to be flat. Once it's had a good clean I'll inspect it closely for any signs of damage. Being used to relatively tiny and not performance focused OHV engines those valves look positively huge. I guess that's the real bonus of an oversquare engine with a crossflow head...more room for big valves.

Image

I'll be transferring my inlet manifold complete with fuel distributor over, but I'll be removing it from the head off the car. Both as the inlet manifold will give me something to get hold of to help lift it and because a couple of the retaining bolts are a real pig to get to with it in the car.

Definitely want to use mine though. Assure from it being filthy it looks like the plastic housing on the fuel metering head has started to fail on the spare.

Image

A vacuum leak there could cause absolute mayhem with regards to fuelling. Hoping the one currently on the car is better or I'll need to come up with some sort of repair.

Let the strip down commence!

Image

A huge surprise arrived midway through this when I went to tackle the part of the whole job I have been dreading the most. Removing the exhaust manifold.

I have never had to remove one on a car which has not been an absolutely horrible war of a job.

Image

Right up until today. This just unbolted from the head without any drama whatsoever. Okay, was a 50/50 mix of the nuts unscrewing and the studs winding out of the head but that's irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. I have never known a manifold come off that easy. Ever.

So...this brings us up to here:

[] Rocker cover, camshaft carriers/rocker assemblies and camshaft removed.

[] Exhaust manifold clear of head.

[] Coolant drained (block drain is hidden behind exhaust manifold, hence choosing that sequence). Oil had already been drained before we started.

[] Throttle cable and gearbox kickdown cables disconnected.

[] Various electrical connectors disconnected and de-threaded from the vacuum pipework they wound their way through before.

[] Vacuum line to brake servo disconnected at manifold end.

[] Engine earth strap disconnected from inlet manifold.

[] Fuel flow and return lines disconnected and moved clear (after discovering the hidden 10mm bolt holding them to the fuel distributor.

[] Disconnected heater hose from rear of head.

[] Removed half a dozen small bore vacuum lines, not forgetting the near invisible one to the gearbox.

[] Unbolted the thermostat housing from the front of the head.

[] Removed the top alternator mounting bolt.

[] Removed head bolts ( including the sneaky ones right at the front and the *really* sneaky one over by the warm up regulator masquerading as a plugged coolant sensor hole.

Yeah...to put into perspective how filthy this head is, this is how much gunk I had to scoop out of the head bolt heads before I could get the bit into them properly.

Image

That is probably the best part of 1 X 2 cm.

After a certain amount of swearing we got to the point where the head has split from the block.

Image

However I haven't so far been able to get it to separate around the full perimeter quite yet. I've also realised that due to the design of the timing chain tensioner that I need to faff around with that first before I can fully remove the head. The tensioner has a pin which passes through the middle of the loop of the chain...so either than pin needs to come out or the chain needs to be split. Apparently the inner of this pin however is threaded so you can wind a bolt into it and then pull it out of the head... we'll see if that's true tomorrow.

Kinda feels like a failure that I didn't get the head fully out today, I had really hoped to. We're about 95% of the way there though.

I can't start rebuilding things yet anyway as I'm still waiting on the head and inlet manifold gaskets (exhaust ones are of a type which should be fine to reuse) to arrive. Depending on what the weather is up to tomorrow we'll hopefully either get the whole head off the car or start stripping down and cleaning the spare one.

I'm telling myself to stop being bloody lazy and lap the valves in, though I can't for the life of me tell you where my valve spring compressor is...

It's a bit of a strange engine to work on...a lot of it is really well thought out and easy, but every now and then there are just a few bits which are seemingly needlessly complicated or awkward. The non-resettable timing chain tensioner and chain guide you need to use a puller/slide hammer to remove from the head immediately spring to mind.

I have checked the measurements of the head bolts and they're all well within spec so should be fine to be reused. I can't see any evidence of this head ever being off before so far so not a huge surprise.

Just need a really good clean as like everything, they're covered in sticky black tar.

As is now about 3/4 of my toolkit, the garage door, my hair and the side of the van.

Image

Hopefully we'll have good progress to report tomorrow.

Of course just to add to the fun the heavens decided to open just as I was tidying up...and immediately stopped about the second I closed the garage door.

Image

With a bit of luck we'll be able to do a side-by-side comparison of the two heads tomorrow.
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Sat Oct 02, 2021 10:10 pm

Well so much for...well everything since lunchtime on Thursday I think it was.

The rest of my week and Saturday up until about an hour ago instead of getting anything I wanted done, instead was spent in the kitchen. Cleaning, removing, storing then cleaning where things had come from. All this to deal with an infestation of grain mites.

Oh...my...god...I hurt in places I didn't know I had, my hands are shredded and I hope I never have to smell vinegar ever again. I think we've pretty much got rid of the little blighters, but only time will tell at this point.

...Then I have to put everything back in again! Though at least that shouldn't take half as long as it's not going to involve cleaning everything the moment I pick it up.

I really hope to never see these those things again, ever.

Not...Fun...


So *hopefully* I can actually get back to doing something useful tomorrow or Monday. Which would be nice. I'm kinda hacked off at having lost three days to this mess. Had hoped to be putting things back together on the Merc by this point. Oh...well...aside from the fact that the head gasket set hasn't turned up yet. Apparently it's stuck in customs judging from the parcel tracking. Where it's been since Thursday. Oh what fun.

Just to add to the fun the leisure battery on the van appears to have packed in given it was showing under 9V despite having been charged only a couple of days ago. That'll be cheap to replace I'm sure...110Ah capacity if I remember right.

Oh, and water is peeing in somewhere in the upper offside rear corner. Right where I sorted last year. Blarg. That's probably just getting silicone sealant thrown at it along the edging strip for now as I simply don't have time to go pulling the coachwork apart right now (nor dealing with the can of worms that is opening) and we can fully investigate and do a more permanent fix in the spring.
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Diamond
Diamond
Posts: 2695
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2002 3:40 am
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Tue Oct 05, 2021 12:00 am

Distraction time...

Ugh...my head gasket set which has been stuck in customs since the middle of the week apparently is now on its way back to the sender according to the tracking. Deep joy. Fine, will go see if Motorserv can get the necessary bits in tomorrow.

In slightly less depressing news a little parcel arrived this morning. Buried within an improbably large amount of bubble wrap was this.

Image

As with many things which arrive in the post for me this falls under the heading of "was very expensive when it was new."

Around £140 - in 1973. That equates to somewhere around £1500 in 2021.

So what is in the case then?

Image

A calculator...you probably guessed that already. Albeit a very expensive one for such a basic feature set. This is the important bit.

Image

This is a Sharp EL-805. The first pocket calculator ever to make use of a liquid crystal display. Rockwell actually got there first to use an LCD in a calculator the previous year, but they were AC powered desktop units...which didn't really take advantage of the low profile nature and low(ish!) power consumption of the technology. Sharp were the first to really take that step.

Yes, I do have the three models using the Rockwell design on my eBay saved search list, because I absolutely want to get hold of one of them obviously!

This isn't the LCD technology you're used to. This was the first commercially applied form of the principle, a dynamic scattering mode (DSM) panel, rather than the twisted nematic displays which took over after only a couple of years. The more modern displays use polarisation changes to block or allow the passage of light, whereas DSM displays simply are totally clear when unpowered or are opaque when power is applied. These early displays were very fragile and used an order of magnitude more power than later display technologies.

While they had their limitations they are extremely striking looking things.

Image

Image

Image

The EL-805 was particularly noteworthy in that the whole calculator more or less is built on the same panel of glass which the display is constructed from. You actually view the display *through* the circuit board which is quite unusual. This turned out to be a technological dead end really but nevertheless was an interesting approach back in the early 70s. I will of course get some photos of that setup with the case off when I get a chance.

Very glad to have finally got hold of one of these, it's a model which has been on the radar for quite a long time. The last few I've seen have sold for well into three figures so I was quite surprised that the cheeky offer I submitted through eBay was accepted...not complaining though!

The big brother to the EL-805 was the EL-808 which I managed to get hold of last year. This was a far larger portable desktop calculator which was clearly designed to showcase the new display technology at its best.

Image

If such things interest you, some more information on that one can be found over here.
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.

Post Reply