Travels & travails with a C15 (& other vehicles)

[CitroJim]

Van, I loved that above Keep 'm coming - I always enjoy your posts

But don't panic. Base
eight is just like base ten really - if you're missing two fingers."

Or just use your fingers and ignore your thumbs...

Base 8 (octal) would be the natural base for the Simpsons and residents of Springfield generally... Look at their hands next time you watch an episode

[Zelandeth]

It's also astonishing how confusing it is attempting to deal with words with more than eight letters in a game of charades when you're wearing a costume that only has four fingers on each hand.

That causes a good few moments requiring clarification - not that charades with that guy behind it is anything less than mad confusion anyway. Seriously...The Forth Road Bridge?!? How on earth was anyone meant to get that?!?

[van ordinaire]

I have no qualms about lifting large chunks of works by someone who also wrote a song about/dedicated to (if not actually glorifying) - plagiarism!

Discovered this evening that the C15's low fuel warning light DOES work, quite pleased about that really - although a little disappointed, as have only done 321 (no, really) miles since filling up [with ultra-cheap German diesel - @ €1.13 a litre (but only on the day I bought it! ].

[Hell Razor5543]

Copying the work of one person = plagiarism
Copying the work of several people = research

[CitroJim]

Copying the work of one person = plagiarism
Copying the work of several people = research

So true!

[van ordinaire]

An intersting observation, James, particularly in the light of the following from Prof. Lehrer's ode (tribute) to Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky:-

"I am never forget the day I first meet the great Lobachevsky.
In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics:
Plagiarize!

Plagiarize,
Let no one else's work evade your eyes,
Remember why the good lord made your eyes,
So don't shade your eyes,
But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize -
Only be sure always to call it please 'research'."

For those of you unfamiliar with the works of Tom Lehrer, it continues (& I summarise):-
"I am never forget the day I am given first original paper
To write. It was on analytic and algebraic topology of
Locally euclidean parameterization of infinitely differentiable
Riemannian manifold.
Bozhe moi!
This I know from nothing.
But I think of great Lobachevsky and get idea . . .
I am never forget the day my first book is published.
Every chapter I stole from somewhere else.
Index I copy from old Vladivostok telephone directory (there's even a - very - loose French connection, as later:) Metro-Goldwyn-Moskva buys movie rights for six million rubles,
Changing title to 'The Eternal Triangle',
With Brigitte Bardot (remember when this was written) playing part of hypotenuse."

Reading this as a poem (of sorts) may be tres amusant - hopefully, BUT it was sung ('though I use the word - & I just know I'd be forgiven by the great man for saying so - in the loosest sense) The odd grammar makes more sense when delivered in a faux Russian accent!

&, finally - desperately trying to get back on topic (not always easy on this forum - &, yes, I know I am as much to blame as any) - I have time for this nonsense because having wangled the extra day off (so came down to Zunny Deb'n - where do rain 8 days out of seb'n - last night) can't get out to sort out the Eldodorado &/or Cherokee so am no better off in terms of whether I'll be able to get to Coleford on Sunday. I decided that bringing the C15 down to go up to Glos. - & back - on Sunday, only to have to drive back up to London on (Bank Holiday) Monday wasn't really on, particularly as, while the Cherokee might have to wait, the need for getting the Eldo sorted is becoming more pressing.

[CitroJim]

Van, never worry about getting back on topic too much - one of the joys of this forum is how topics drift off into some very interesting areas...

As yours often do

[Zelandeth]

Still reckon I learn more from things having wandered off topic on here than every other forum I've spent time on combined *on* topic!

The threads which wander wildly away from their original purpose are almost universally interesting.

[van ordinaire]

I agree with you both & I wouldn't want it any other way but I just wanted to get back to the core business, as it were.

That leads me to an up-date: finally managed to dodge the rain long enough to have a quick look at the red Cherokee; no obvious coolant leak, so topped it up, only took a couple of litres - though what the proportion of anti-freeze is now I've really no idea. Started it (for 1st time in a fortnight on the long standing idle green one's battery - so that was encouraging) - nothing untoward - but after a while it suddenly started howling (bit like very noisy fan cutting in) - seemed to be PAS pump, which reminded me, steering had been getting noisy on lock, etc. Raining again by now & had put off going into Paignton, so shut bonnet, got in - & was reminded brake warning light didn't go out. Pedal's not as hard as it was, but it doesn't sink to the floor - or pump up (oh, & fluid level hadn't dropped since I'd topped it up Sunday week) so reckoned it was safe to drive. Went into Paignton (only a couple of miles) no cause for concern BUT, is that PAS noisy? Which gave me a thought, sooooh, when I got back, I checked the fluid & - it WAS low! Topped it up - but remains to be seen what, if any, difference it's made. Is it just neglect (don't think I've checked it in the 15 months I've had it) OR is that PAS fluid, not ATF, occasionaly dripping off the Pitman
arm? (the PAS & trans cooler hoses all run very close together over the top of the steering box). Temp stubbornally stayed one notch below 100* - it's own "Normal" - but can't check level 'till morning, when it's cold! Brake issue's a bit of a puzzle & clearly needs further investigation (think I'm going to be very grateful for that rattle gun) but not causing concern - so, weather permitting, think tomorrow, I'll return to this too fast flasher problem with the Eldo.

That's it - Good Night!

[van ordinaire]

Good Afternoon (ye gods, is it THAT late?!) & Happy Easter!

Another damp, dreary, dismal day on the English Riviera. (was that really a light dusting of snow I saw on the roof of the red Cherokee in the small hours - or a trick of the light?) so really don't fancy working under the Eldo's open bootlid - the job threatens to be frustrating enough - without drips down the back of the neck. Yes, of course I've worked in worse conditions (as recently as Christmas '16), but that's not the point!
Did dive out for long enough to check coolant level in the "red one" - & it took as much again as yesterday. These engines have a reputation for airlocks & being difficult to bleed so pinning my hopes on that BUT getting uncomfortable about headgasket (although it's never over-heated).

Tea-time update (before demolishing the last 2 hot cross buns!): almost stopped raining - but it IS cold, but remembered there was one inside job I could do on the red Cherokee, dismissed it as inconsequential, given the real issues it's now developed, then remembered something Zel said about the theraputic value of such trivial tasks when things aren't going to plan, with which I concurred at the time. When I wanted to fit an alternative to the horn push, I couldn't find my box of switches, etc so had to buy one. Not an easy task in/around Torbay but found one in Newton Abbot's only car parts shop. Not what I really wanted (one with a longer steel shaft) BUT it was only about £2 AND it was all (as far as I knew) that was standing between me an MoT. Those long flick switches must be priced by the mm 'cos those I found were silly prices. Anyway found one in the (sadly much reduced) autojumble section at Essen - for very little money! So substituting that was the task I'd set myself (it was going to be part of a bigger job, which will now have to wait). What makes the job interesting is that you cannot get behind the dash where the switch is mounted - & the hole was onlly just big enough! Sooooh, this is how it's done: remove escutcheon ring from switch, freezer tape some fairly stiff wire to toggle, which is pushed back through the dash, locate where leads appear under dash & by gently pulling them & feeding the wire attached to the toggle back & down, switch will (eventually assisted by gravity) appear behind the driver's knee pad. Winkle it out, draw enough of the wire taped to it to work on it, untape it & tape it to toggle of "new" switch, swap the leads over. Carefully draw that wire out through the switch hole, making sure the leads don't snag on anything as they are drawn up (you really don't want to find that having juggled the switch into place, one of the spade terminals has come off!). Once the tip of the toggle appears though the hole in the dash, the real fun begins. The switch will need some help to turn through 90* in a confined space; fortunately, with the radio still in a rear footwell, a finger can be inserted in a small gap and - just - reach the switch to push it up, while drawing the wire out through the hole. At which point I discover that there is barely enough space behind the dash for the overall length of the switch, however juggling wins the day & there's enough toggle protruding to grip with a pair of pliers (actually needle-nosed "Moles" would have been better) - only
to find the boss of the switch is fractionally bigger than the one it's replacing - & THAT was a tight fit Push switch back a fraction & with judicious use of a Stanley knife "oval" the hole to the left, until the switch can be pulled through & fixed. All this was done from the passenger seat, so the wheel's not in the way (the switch being to its left) & I can work right handed, but now back into the driver's seat to determine the angle of the switch, so it operates in the same plane as the finger which will operate it. Orthopaedics over aesthetics! 'sit, tighten escutcheon, tuck leads up behind knee-pad & snap back into place. Now have switch with more positve AND sensitve action which is, literally, at fingertip

[CitroJim]

Fingers crossed it's just airlocks Van

[van ordinaire]

Sometime after my last post it occurred to me that having had to add so much PAS fluid, perhaps I should've bled it - so, mental note not to be too surprised/disheartened if, in the morning, it still siighs & groans. In fact, it wasn't 'til the 1st small roundabout (i.e. several lock changes in quick succession) that it made any sound at all - but, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Day dawned damp & dismal - again! However, unlike working on a car in it, wasn't going to let it stop my regular Saturday morning jaunt - particularly as an extended road test might prove informative. Brakes were put to the test very early on as the 1st set of lights on the Ring Road changed when I was closer than I'd like, given past experience of mud tires on wet tarmac (in fact, pre-MoT prep, when I, effectively, reinstated the back brakes) I would've been concerned. In fact, came to an undramatic halt with plenty of room to spare - & with no bad messages from the pedal!
Off the Ring Road it was much wetter, with puddles reaching the middle of the road BUT, approaching Princetown I could see snow in the distance & then I was driving among it, not just in the lee of walls/ hedges but in ditches & hollows &, turning off to the village, strewn across the road. Entering the village I was greeted by the sight of parked cars still covered with snow. Really not prepared for that, not only at the end of March - but after several days of steady rain!

After all that, breakfast & back in Torbay after 55 miles of fairly testing roads for brakes steering & cooling system this morning - nothing untoward at all: the temp. gauge behaved exactly as it should, e.g. krept up a little following a quadbike up hill for, 5 mins or so, but as soon as I resumed 40 mph, it dropped back. Had thoughts about that since - to which I'll return.

On the Riviera, at least, it has actually stopped raining & the ground's starting to dry out, so - time to brave the cold & tackle some of these issues (really needed something requiring more exertion than electrical trounle shooting on the Eldorado). No trace of any coolant leaks, & for the 1st time, could check underneath. Mixed blessing that - 'cos if there's still a loss . . .
Remembering - or, rather, constantly being reminded about, the brake warning light, of course it could be nothing more than the microswitch on the handbrake sticking/ou of adjustment - but why, suddenly & what a pain, having to get under that console again. Something nagging me about the sensor in the master cylinder - not in the reservoir as one might expect, but the distibution block. Another weird Jeep locking electrical connection, this time a cap with with 2 sprung legs that latch onto the socket in the top of the sensor. Manage to get that free - but cant'd pull the plug out the socket. Hmmm, maybe tackling the console might be easier!
While in that under-bonnet area, not why (or, rather, how) get sidetracked into dealing with battery terminals: amazed that, since swapping batteries, it's not failed to start. Manage to get the +ive clamp tight with the aid of shimming the post & use of ratcheting ring. -ive requires a bit more effort/initiave: by dint of installing new isolator (conveniently languishing in passenger footwell of the green one NO, don't ask - it's a long story) thus turning the clamp through 90* I can use a socket on the nut (+ open ender on the head, 'cos the register on the clamp won't stop it turning) & actually get it tight enough. However these clamp bolts are much (3/8" ?) too long & with it now vertical, decide to trim off the excess too be sure it doesn't foul the underside of the bonnet.
Start it up & roll underneath to investigate the rattle I noticed a couple of weeks ago: it's the exhaust, 2 of the mountings have sheared! That's a welding job, so I'll have to speak to someone; I know who i'd like to do it - but don't think he'll be very keen, especially in January (which it might as well be).
Finally get to use my rattlegun in anger (so to speak) - never got a wheel off a Cherokee so easilly! Will need pads, surprised to see how much they've worn - but not enough to explain the fluid loss. Have to see what CP4L can do - otherwise it'll have to wait 'til I'm back from USA.
Shift it forward, so back wheel's by dropped kerb & with a bit more of a performance (see my Lidls' post), wheels off - & the drum: cylinder needs new seals but I knew that & had decided that if it got through MoT it could wait for better weather (mind you, I sort of had Easter in mind then). Definitely needs shoes now though - that's what comes of having them making some contibution to the braking effort!
Having put everything back, came in for a hot drink, then decided, as I had, finally, got something done, it was too cold to start t'other side (please God, the rain doesn't return tomorrow) so, as it had had time to cool down, checked coolant level: there was a little in bottom of overflow, whereas previously it'd been empty. Hopefully that's progress, so will add antifreeze tomorrow. Turned it round, so otherside is by dropped kerb AND it's parked in the direction of traffic - is it only me that's concerned with that now?
Which brings me back to the temp gauge; is the engine running cool - or, do I have a lazy gauge? Either would explain it usually registering one notch under 100* BUT, if it is the latter that would explain why I've fondly believed it's never over-heated (also the fan cuts in at a lower indicated temp. than I'd expect). Thinks, time to swap over the sender from the green one!

[van ordinaire]

Some may have noticed, some may even be relieved that I bin away - literally for the 1st 20 days of May, when I was in the US/Canada (on another roadtrip with musical associations as have now managed to traverse the whole of Highways 61 & 49). The washout that was Easter really put me off (little did I know it was just preparing me for a tropical thunderstorm in Arkansas & flooded roads in N'Orlins). I might fill the in gap, as an overview, but, for the moment, sharing this finally galvanised me into putting a finger (or 2) to the keyboard: this evening went out to the C15 for the 1st time since, I think, the last Thursday in April, got in it, turned the key & drove to Lidl's! So? Well when I 1st went to look at this poor sad ol' thing in March 2015 (was it really that long ago?) they needed to jump start it. Thought at the time, if that battery gets through the winter I can't complain - but it must've been standing in their yard for rather longer than I'd supposed. Wonder if I'll have as much luck with the red Cherokee on Saturday morning??

[Wookey]

If the clutch is dragging, and adjusting it fixed it, but only for a short time, and adjusting it again fixes it again, then you need to plan on having the 'box out.... odds on the release bearing is chewing its way thought the pressure plate, and sooner or later will go all the way through leaving you with no clutch at ..

Yep. I can confirm that. I had this in my wife's VISA some time ago (OK, about 1993).

Glad to see someone keeping a C15 going. There aren't that many left.

[Gibbo2286]

Somebody offering a Cherokee on Ebay for spares Van.