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

[CitroJim]

Excellent! I have a set of very high quality and functional reverse-flute sockets and the ability to apply significant amounts of heat to the job, both of which may help in successful stud extraction Zel... If you feel that might be a plan you know where I am

If you need further studs I'm sure my lathe could provide

[Zelandeth]

The Bronze Barge is back home again.

Good news: It's a thousand times better than it was.

Bad news: The drop links and anti roll bar bushes I had sourced are wrong.

Drop links are about an inch too long and the wrong shape. Anti roll bar bushes are for a 22mm ARB, the one on the car is 24mm it looks like.

Can't say I'm massively surprised. I knew finding parts for this car was going to be a bit of a trial and error game going in.

They replaced both of the lower ball joints and one baggy track rod end and reset the tracking. There is still a very light knock/rattle there but it's very minor. Plus I know where it's coming from now so it's a minor "that wants sorting" issue rather than being worried the whole front end was about to come apart. Something must have had a bunch of play taken out anyway as the really heavy knock that you could feel through the whole car has gone.

I'm not actually nervous of driving it now.

A box arrived for it this morning too.



Quite a few things in there, but most notably at the moment are a new set of HT leads, new rotor arm, spark plugs and distributor cap. That will hopefully evict our occasional miss (which never appeared again today).

The HT leads are notable for having ends which are actually compliant...I actually thought the outer boots were plastic on those currently on the car.



The crankshaft position sensor and the tools necessary to change it will be living permanently in the car as I've had those fail without warning before. As it's easily accessible on this car for a change just keeping a spare on hand seems like easy insurance there.

The belts just look pretty tired so I figured for the sake of a couple of quid I'd just change them. One of them squeaks at idle too.

The driver's door has decided to be a pain about latching again today...I'm just going to need to dismantle them all to be cleaned and properly re-greased.

[Zelandeth]

Spot the difference to earlier photos...



Not really obvious! New cap, rotor arm and HT leads are on.



The old leads are just a *little* past their best. I'm pretty sure these are supposed to be flexible...



That's just come off a warm engine too. Suspect you could probably use it as a hammer when cold. I know the insulation of at least one is seriously compromised based on the belt it gave me, so these will be going in the bin.



I suspect they may well be the originals, though I didn't spot any immediately obvious date code. I'll have a closer look when the wind isn't repeatedly having me chase things around the garden and trying to close the bonnet on my head.

This evening's challenge: See if I can find anywhere that stocks the correct drop links.

On the car:



What I was sent:



The new one has a cranked link rather than totally straight and is about an inch too long. Time to do some digging. I'm guessing if it came down to it the bushings in the original one could be replaced...sure I'm not the first one to have this sort of problem.

[bobins]

I'm not suggesting using autodoc, but do the measurements for these match up ?
https://www.autodoc.co.uk/car-parts/oem/7700766869

7700766869 being the Renault p/n.

[Zelandeth]

I'm not suggesting using autodoc, but do the measurements for these match up ?
https://www.autodoc.co.uk/car-parts/oem/7700766869

7700766869 being the Renault p/n.

Useful to know. Showing a 131mm length rather than 154mm, so seems more hopeful! Less helpfully, not in stock.

Having the actual part number should be helpful at least.

[CitroJim]

Good work Zel

I'm not suggesting using autodoc,

I've used them extensively for AX parts and touch-wood I've experienced no problems... Have you had any problems with them Bobins? I ask as I'll soon be giving them another chunk of money for more AX stuff whilst they still have it...

[bobins]

I'm not suggesting using autodoc,

I've used them extensively for AX parts and touch-wood I've experienced no problems... Have you had any problems with them Bobins? I ask as I'll soon be giving them another chunk of money for more AX stuff whilst they still have it...

Never used them and no problems with them, it's just that I'm wary of recommending someone I've not used.

[bobins]

7700766869 being the Renault p/n.

Useful to know. Showing a 131mm length rather than 154mm, so seems more hopeful! Less helpfully, not in stock.

Having the actual part number should be helpful at least.

That p/n is actually for one of your Renault 25 2.0L so it stands a good chance of being possibly the right part.

[Zelandeth]

Good work Zel

I'm not suggesting using autodoc,

I've used them extensively for AX parts and touch-wood I've experienced no problems... Have you had any problems with them Bobins? I ask as I'll soon be giving them another chunk of money for more AX stuff whilst they still have it...

They're generally okay. The thing to keep in mind though is that their returns process is horrifically awkward and that their customer service is basically non existent.

The first lot I got here were from there there system however reckons these fit.

Link.

Which quite obviously they don't. So far I've found three places with them in stock. Turkey, doesn't ship to the UK. Italy, doesn't ship to the UK, and Russia where obviously we aren't going to be getting anything from for a while. So I need to do some further digging.

At least looking at the design though it shouldn't be impossible to re-bush the originals if it comes to it. Which given these are consumables which it's pretty plainly obviously hard to get hold of and only going to get harder to find as time goes on may just be the more sensible way forward unless I stumble across someone with stock in the next couple of days.

[CitroJim]

Zel, I wonder, if those too-long ones have the right bushes could an engineering firm shorten and re-profile them to make them correct?

Thanks for the experiences with autodoc. The only issue I've had was with a AX dipstick that clearly wasn't!

[Zelandeth]

Zel, I wonder, if those too-long ones have the right bushes could an engineering firm shorten and re-profile them to make them correct?

Thanks for the experiences with autodoc. The only issue I've had was with a AX dipstick that clearly wasn't!

I need to confirm if they are correct first. Vast majority of places seem to think the anti roll bar itself is 22mm, whereas the one on the car is 24mm, so the lower bush may well need to be cut slightly larger.

Also I'd need to be very careful of falling foul of MOT rules regarding modifications to suspension components. I had a problem a good few years back where we had had the lower shock mounting lug welded back onto a wishbone after one of the tiny welds that had originally attached it had cracked. The result was far stronger than it had left the factory (bearing in mind I'd already replaced the wishbone once because of exactly this fault once) - yet it was failed as an unsafe modification. So I wound up having to replace the whole wishbone for a second time, which made me particularly grumpy as I couldn't find a second hand one so had to fork out north of £200 for a new one. I could see a cut and shut drop link getting picked up on similarly.

How to weld it together without cooking the bushes is another challenge to be overcome, so I reckon you'd probably need to strip it down far enough that (assuming it was possible) stuffing new bushes into the old ones probably would make more sense.

[CitroJim]

Ahh, I was unaware of the regulations surrounding the modification of suspension components Zel... Thanks for the education

In that case, re-stuffing the bushes may be best.. I'm wondering if a similar work-around to what I used to do with Activa ram bushes may work - turning up new bushes out of suitable nylon material on the lathe.... Thinking aloud here, having not seen the fine detail of them...

[Zelandeth]

Ahh, I was unaware of the regulations surrounding the modification of suspension components Zel... Thanks for the education

In that case, re-stuffing the bushes may be best.. I'm wondering if a similar work-around to what I used to do with Activa ram bushes may work - turning up new bushes out of suitable nylon material on the lathe.... Thinking aloud here, having not seen the fine detail of them...

They don't look to be anything too special. Easier than a lot of cars as it's just a bolt and washer holding the top end on and looks to just be a friction fit around the anti roll bar at the bottom. A lot of cars have a ball joint on one or both ends of the link.

I imagine a polybush that will do the job at both ends probably exists, just a matter of finding the exact spec.

-- -- --

Only had about ten minutes to spare today between other jobs but threw the new spark plugs in. I hadn't seen until I started the job that they're taper seat plugs, so very glad they came out fine.

Obviously haven't been in there very long at all, but checking shows the ones which came out are the wrong heat range, so I'm glad to have replaced them.



Haven't had a chance to take the car out for a run since the ignition system has been gone through yet. Will hopefully find out if it's made any difference tomorrow - not really expecting a particularly noticeable difference. Cleaning the throttle body and idle air valve, that might make a bigger difference based on prior experience, but I've not even looked at those yet.

Noticed this afternoon that unnoticed by me the Caddy ticked over 10K miles since I picked it up while we were out yesterday.



It was something like 50 miles shy of 100K when I got home from collecting it as memory serves. That was almost exactly a year ago plus about a week.

Have oil and a filter here waiting to go in, just waiting for an afternoon that's not horrible or where I'm busy using the thing to get a service done! Once the weather dries up a bit the poor thing really needs another good deep clean too.

10K spread through the fleet over a year isn't unusual to see, but it's been a while since I've had one vehicle manage that much in a year.

[Zelandeth]

Somewhat of an occasion today in that the Renault was used as An Car and actually got driven out of town for the first time since I picked it up.



Knowing the front suspension was no longer about to fall to pieces played a part in being willing to actually drive it more than a couple of miles from home! About 45 miles covered today.

Glad to report that the ignition system overhaul does seem to have got rid of our miss. She's still slightly lumpy on very light throttle, but I've not even looked at the state of the throttle body/idle air control etc yet - so that's probably all gummed up something rotten. Speedometer remained operational for the whole trip too.

The door issue however I think will be this weekend's job. The driver's door decided not to latch again when I parked up there - and it took me a good 15 minutes of fiddling around with it before it decided to behave. That needs to be properly fixed before the car goes out again as it's something which absolutely has the ability to get me stranded somewhere. I don't think there's actually anything mechanically wrong with the latch, I think it's just either the original grease having dried out after 34 years, or even more likely the horrible waxy spray grease that seems to have been liberally used on any part that's vaguely meant to move on this car, presumably when it was put back on the road. The throttle cable linkage is covered in it and you can pick chunks of it off like dried candle wax. The locks have clearly also been doused in it - and it wouldn't surprise me if that was entirely to blame for the issue.

Watch this space I guess! Hopefully I don't wind up having to try to source replacement latches as I don't imagine that would be particularly fun these days.

[Zelandeth]

Had to run out for a few things today. Given the debacle with the driver's door on the Renault yesterday the sensible thing to do of course was to take the Caddy.



Yeah, we all knew that wasn't going to end up happening didn't we?

Door behaved itself perfectly today, though the speedometer only joined the party about 3/4 of the way through the trip. Investigation of that is already on the to do list though. Pretty sure it's a connection issue in the panel as the odometer and trip meter both keep working normally, so I don't think it's losing the speed signal from the pickup on the gearbox.

This is the horrible stuff I was talking about that's been slathered all over pretty much anything that's meant to move on this car, including the door locks.



I'm sure at some point it had lubricating properties, but it's like fully set candle wax now and can be removed in chunks with a screwdriver. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest that if this is removed and replaced with something with actual lubricating properties that the door locks started working normally again.

I don't *think* getting the latches out is too difficult on this car. Hoping that's the case, after which point I'll probably pretend they're a carburettor and dump them in the ultrasonic cleaner to cook for an hour or so to get rid of the old grease.