Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[CitroJim]

In my experience Zel, manually adjusted drums are a world better than any self-adjusters so if yours are manual be happy!

And if they are automatic and you can swap to manual then even better...

[mickeymoon]

In my experience Zel, manually adjusted drums are a world better than any self-adjusters so if yours are manual be happy

I agree 100% with Jim! Drums are the work of the devil anyway, and self adjusting ones are those he designed when he was having a bad day.

Manual ones are a piece of cake to set up properly.


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[CitroJim]

Trying to get the auto-adjusters working reliably on a Pug 206 is an experience I'll never forget and still have the mental scars

Give me Xantia rear discs and all the problems they can suffer any day!!!

[Zelandeth]

Interesting. Is this one component Lada actually got right then? The auto adjusting cylinders rarely give trouble on these cars, whereas the manual ones are usually a royal pain to get adjusted right, and even more so to get them to stay there.

...not half as bad as the brake callipers on the older Saab 900s with the front handbrake though, they were truly dire! If you wanted a working handbrake you would literally be messing with it every other week.

[demag]

The handbrake on the Kia Carens was bad usually requiring frequent adjustment which necessitated removing the handbrake consul between the seats.

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[mickeymoon]

I had a couple of front-handbrake 900s. I recall the handbrake only ever worked anything like right on MOT day..

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[Zelandeth]

I had a couple of front-handbrake 900s. I recall the handbrake only ever worked anything like right on MOT day..

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Precisely! You adjusted it the day before and crossed your fingers it would stay adjusted long enough to get to the testing station...

[CitroJim]

I think those of us who have driven hydraulic Citroens for may years have become spoilt by having very good and generally very trouble-free handbrakes!

[myglaren]

My daughter had a couple of SAAB 900's and never had any handbrake problems at all. Very few problems with either of them - just the floppy top on the second one and clutch on the first.

[Zelandeth]

The post facelift cars had the handbrake moved to the rear and changed to conventional called designs which rarely give any trouble unless seriously neglected. Think it was 86 or 87 that the changeover happened.

The Lada went in for the MOT today and got a clean sheet. Emission test was as usual for these cars somewhat testing, but we scraped through eventually. Fact that the cat for some reason is about 2/3rds of the way along the system makes it hard to get up to temperature for a start...

Having watched the readouts slowly oscillating has pretty much confirmed to me that my lambda sensor is having issues - it is working but seems to be switching states very slowly.

Only advisory was that the front brake hoses are slightly perished, which I already know about and already have new ones ready to go on.

[Hell Razor5543]

Well done Zel (for all the hard work) and Lada (for being nice to Zel).

[CitroJim]

Zel, excellent news on the Lada MOT Lovely job!

[mickeymoon]

The post facelift cars had the handbrake moved to the rear and changed to conventional called designs which rarely give any trouble unless seriously neglected. Think it was 86 or 87 that the changeover happened.

The changeover happened in 87 as you say. It could have been organised by Citroen... I had a 1987 T16 which had facelift and non-facelift bits as though it was a parts-bin special.

My favourite one was a manky black 1984 square-nose T16 FPT saloon I paid £67 for.. and it had a new gearbox! I did the pot and resistor mods on the APC and turned it into something that looked like a scruffy old grandad would drive, slowly, yet it went like stink

Good work on the Lada!

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[Zelandeth]

Just read the emission test results...max allowable CO level is 0.300%.

Result we recorded was 0.297%. Though it was wandering all over the shop to be honest...really need to get a new lambda sensor.

Have just heard from someone in Birmingham who is breaking a 1.7i Niva though...so may well have a better solution to that soon!

Really wish I had an exhaust gas analyser though as it would make checking stuff like this a lot easier...

[CitroJim]

That was a close result Zel but a result is a result and that's all that matters!