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

[CitroJim]

Fantastic to see the Rover is coming along very nicely Zel and how lovely to see the BX back up and running again

And congrats on the Trabby MoT - surprised it still needs one or was it a voluntary one?

[Zelandeth]

Fantastic to see the Rover is coming along very nicely Zel and how lovely to see the BX back up and running again

And congrats on the Trabby MoT - surprised it still needs one or was it a voluntary one?

Entirely voluntary. Didn't need one last year either. As long as the car is in my ownership it will continue to be tested annually. Likewise once I've got it a bit further along the Rover will also be submitted for a test.

Just seems sensible to me. I'm not perfect, I miss things and I don't have a lift or a set of brake rollers. Seems especially sensible for a big, heavy car like the Rover - especially when you're dealing with things like single circuit brakes.

[CitroJim]

Entirely voluntary.

I quite agree Zel. Although I'm looking forward to my two becoming VED-free I shall also continue to have them MoT'd. I'm a little suspicious of my own ability the days to be sure all is good. Brakes especially is a best guess. I'm also not very confident that the majority of owners of vehicles over 40 years old are competent to be objective. I wonder how may old 'classics' that are technically road-legal due to their age are nothing more than mobile death-traps. How many owners think 'Ahh, that'll be OK...' and cross fingers...

Have an accident and it could all get very nasty if your car is not MoT-worthy...

[Zelandeth]

On the "non critical to operation but INCREDIBLY ANNOYING list" was the speedometer bouncing around all over the shop to the point of being totally unusable.

I get the impression that I'm not the first person in here. I don't know exactly how the lenses for the indicator and main beam tell tales would originally have been retained, but I'm pretty certain that sticky tape wasn't the answer.



The fine film of congealed WD40 was also a clue. I had a feeling that dried grease was probably the biggest issue we were facing, and the input spindle being quite stiff to turn furthered that assumption. I cleaned up the gunge as best I could, put a touch of a more appropriate lubricant where I reckoned it should be and put it back together. I couldn't actually immediately come up with a better solution than the sticky tape to hold the light lenses in place so just did exactly the same thing a little more tidily. It's not mission critical and is something I can come back to at a later date. I think these speedometers are always going to be prone to a little wobble, especially at lower speeds simply because of how the advance mechanism for the mileage counter works. It has a sort of ratcheting escapement which is always going to load and unload the head a little. I think it will be a lot better though - run off a drill it actually runs smoothly now which it didn't before.

While I was putting things back together I noticed that there's a bodge wire looping an additional ground for the indicator tell tales into the circuit - with that removed the offside one doesn't work at all. So we've got a ground fault somewhere in the dash or indicator circuits. I have noted that one side flashes faster than the other and it wouldn't surprise me if these are related. I'll sit down with the schematics at some point when I've got a bit more time and do a bit of detective work on that.

The switch from the oil/fuel gauge selector has been removed from the car to see if I can dismantle and repair it. Despite being a pretty common Lucas switch, the momentary spring loaded changeover arrangement is less common (rather than on/off) so I've not actually been able to find one for sale new so far. I have found some without the spring return so that's my backup plan.



You can't see any difference here but I can sure feel it. The ignition barrel is no longer flapping around in the dash. Turns out that the nut behind the dash just needed to be tightened up a little - the trim ring on the outside was running out of threads before actually clamping things in place before.



Haven't actually *achieved* much, but did get stuck into the brakes today.

Pulling the offside drum didn't reveal any particular horrors.



Everything seems to be free to move (after initially having to subject the adjuster to a certain amount of violence), and as best I can tell everything seems to be present and correct. Both drums and the shoes could do with a good clean up with the wire brush. I'm not doing that dry though as asbestosis isn't fun and I didn't have time to get everything I needed to do a wet clean today - so everything just got hosed down with brake clean.

Given I was under the impression that this drum was binding I was quite surprised when the drum just came straight off. The other side conversely was locked absolutely solid until I wound probably a full turn or so off. Both were set to "wheel locked then wind off two clicks" as per the manual.

I did get a slight surprise when I removed the wheel trim on the nearside (aside from it launching itself at me and whacking me in the face - that happened with the last P4 as well).



Which seems to have been holding this in place.



I did have a brief moment of "Oh my god, is that holding the half shaft in?!?"

No, it just appears to be a hub extension to help locate the wheel and is non critical from a structural perspective. It's labelled in the manual as "extension piece to aid wheel changing" so I'm not going to worry about it.



I'll try to figure out a way to secure (or remove) that somewhere down the road, but as it's not causing us any issues right now I'm ignoring it.

I didn't get any further with this side today as I couldn't remove the drum retaining screws by hand and didn't want to risk chewing the heads up. I'll get the proper impact driver and bits out and have another bash at it when I've got another chunk of time.

Evidently I do have more work to do however as a quick test run around the block showed that the offside rear WAS indeed binding. Nearside was in the low 30s, whereas the drum on the offside was up to 95C...after maybe half a mile at less than 20mph. Further investigation needed. The pedal definitely feels a bit better though - I'm not expecting miracles anyway as the discs are pretty glazed as well it looks like, but the car does stop reasonably well.

The handbrake mechanism needs to be dug into. As I thought, it was indeed wound all the way off, so the lever wasn't applying any tension to the linkage at all. However taking up that slack the handle is basically solid and isn't providing any braking effort. Which kind of surprises me given the amount of mechanical advantage the lever gives you - whatever is stuck is quite well stuck. Things actually at the wheels seemed to be moving freely, but there's another two or three pivot/relay levers I've not got an eyeball on yet, so guessing one of those is sticking. Yay...more crawling around under the car getting eaten alive by the ants. My favourite!

Watch this space. Obviously I need to get into the nearside drum as well to check things out as well.

That loose looking bolt I noticed by the fuel tank a few days ago was investigated and found to be tight. It's just way longer than it really needs to be, but whatever it's holding in place (fuel tank?) isn't going anywhere.

[CitroJim]

Good work Zel

WD-40 and sticky tape is not good in those places and indeed, WD-40 is good practically nowhere... That stuff is possibly the most over-hyped and the most damaging thing to be put in a spray can ever. I wonder if it was the third and most dangerous invention of Thomas Midgley Jr, the inventor of CFCs and Tetra Ethyl Lead (for leaded petrol)....

Those rear brake shoes look well worn... Or is that just the camera angle?

[Zelandeth]

Good work Zel

WD-40 and sticky tape is not good in those places and indeed, WD-40 is good practically nowhere... That stuff is possibly the most over-hyped and the most damaging thing to be put in a spray can ever. I wonder if it was the third and most dangerous invention of Thomas Midgley Jr, the inventor of CFCs and Tetra Ethyl Lead (for leaded petrol)....

Those rear brake shoes look well worn... Or is that just the camera angle?

They've definitely got some miles on them and I probably will change them in due course - but they'll still do the job for a while. Would look to change them anyway as they're not particularly expensive and deleting an asbestos hazard never seems like a bad thing to do. Discs and pads will likely get done on the front as well as the discs don't look great and as with the linings of they're as old as they look are likely contain the same stuff.

I think the camera makes them look a bit worse than they are. As does the fact that the carriers are absolutely massive. I reckon they're bigger than those on the back of the camper were. The drums themselves definitely are.

[Zelandeth]

Frustratingly little progress in the last few days as the weather has been so utterly erratic and has generally been being (very) wet precisely when I've had free time. Yesterday was particularly odd - I wound up hiding in an underpass for about 20 minutes with the dog from an absolutely biblical cloudburst - but literally five minutes walk back to the carpark park when it passed it was clearly bone dry and hadn't seen a spot of rain.

Finally managed to get things to line up for half an hour today.

These came off. Surprisingly they did just unbolt even if they weren't exactly enthusiastic about it.



I was fully expecting to have to take the grinder to them. I don't think the bushes had been doing anything for a good while based on the fact that a good half of the actual shaft on the drop link had been eaten away on both sides.



The upper "bushes" on the offside one actually just seem to be random bits of rubber that were vaguely the right size too and are way too soft (which is why I thought one was totally missing). It appears that the top of the rod broken off as well and someone rather than change it just tapped the very top of it and jammed a metric 17mm nut on there!



Guessing that may be why it didn't have the original bushes in - as there wouldn't have been enough length available to get the nut on.

Much better now.





The locknut for the nearside needs to be retrieved from where I dropped it into the spring seat. There's a lovely void in there to capture things - I managed to drop a socket in on both sides and spent several minutes fishing them back out. That dish is also why they're somewhat prone to rotting the spring seats out as all kinds of gunk can build up in there.

This seems to have got rid of the horrendous clonk from the offside and comedy sproinging noise from the nearside at least when rocking the car by hand. Haven't road tested it yet though. Drop links were definitely beyond dead and needed to be done though so wouldn't have been helping anything. ARB mounts themselves look fine though.

I was thinking a little more about the brakes and how I seemed to have had things set right but bound up again when I drove it. I do wonder if we might have a swollen flexible line involved. Been a while since I ran into that, but it would be plausible. The flexis definitely are pretty old so I reckon I'll just get a set ordered in and change them - a decent idea from a peace of mind perspective anyway. I've got fittings and brake line in stock if any rigid lines get damaged in the process. Quite a lot of the pipework (and the master cylinder) does look to have already been changed. I'm going to continue my focus on getting the handbrake working and seeing if I can get adjustments dialled in first though as that's something I can do while waiting on parts. Also I'm *really* not comfortable driving a car with single circuit brakes without a well working handbrake as an emergency backup.

Apparently TPA has been getting jealous. Went to take her for a quick run round the block to clear her throat after a fair few stop/start cycles being shuffled around the driveway and appear to be missing indicators and brake lights. Poking the wiring behind the dash brought things back to life. I know there's some hackery going on back there I've been putting off dealing with for the last five years...looks like it's probably about time I got around to sorting that before something catches fire. That's probably going to be after ConFuzzled at this point unless I decide that the Rover just ain't going to be ready. Though I have my doubts about that at this point given how slowly things seem to be going, and reckon it will likely be the Trabant that ends up going. Would rather not be showing the same car two years in a row, but it is what it is. I couldn't keep up with the comments/questions/conversations the Trabant attracted as it was so sure it would be well received either way.

[CitroJim]

Frustratingly little progress in the last few days as the weather has been so utterly erratic and has generally been being (very) wet precisely when I've had free time. Yesterday was particularly odd - I wound up hiding in an underpass for about 20 minutes with the dog from an absolutely biblical cloudburst - but literally five minutes walk back to the carpark park when it passed it was clearly bone dry and hadn't seen a spot of rain.

That is amazing Zel You and I live around 5 miles apart and here in Paggers we did not have one single spot of rain... In fact the sun shone most of the day and was perfect for drying a line of washing...

Good to see more progress on the Rover

I can only think TPA has been near too many French cars recently

[Zelandeth]

The fact that it was so hyper localised was definitely something I noticed. The difference between "drenched" and "getting a tan" really was a few hundred yards.

I think it's just been a matter of time before I had some electrical issues with TPA given I've always been able to see this through the slot in the dash (where the gear selector would be if that configuration was used).



Which is never a good sign. Especially when it's all rusty (remember this car sat outside for around 20 years - with the doors open based on the state it was in when I got it). So the fact that I've not had to mess with it yet is honestly extremely surprising.

I actually want to change the dash moulding as the one in the car has a giant split in it - which is what the black panel bolted to the top of it is hiding.



I do have a spare dash moulding in the garage though which doesn't have a big crack in the top. If I'm pulling apart a bunch of the wiring anyway, probably a good time to change that.

[CitroJim]

I always shudder when I see 'Choc Blocks' in any wiring Zel. Only slightly less then when I see a 'Scotchlok' Bloody evil things - both of them

[Zelandeth]

Increasingly looking like the Rover will just be staying where it is over the weekend. Had a little more time to investigate the brakes this afternoon.

I've found two problems with the offside rear. The handbrake return spring on...what I'm terming the actuator block (the thing bolted onto the wheel cylinder that works the handbrake) is missing. No 24 on this diagram.



Which I'm sure won't be helping things.

I'm also pretty sure that I have the wrong pistons in the adjuster as they do not sit parallel with the end of the barrel like in the illustrations in the manual.



No idea if they're just swapped around top to bottom (failing to picture in my head if they're identical or not) or if there's a mishmash of parts from each side in there. Guessing between these issues that's likely why I'm having such a hard time getting the adjustment right. The handbrake does operate on this side (in terms of it stopping the wheel rotating by hand anyway) but unsurprisingly isn't keen on releasing until you poke it given that spring is missing.

Still haven't got into the nearside - the drum securing screws *really* don't want to come out.

Also noting that there's a leak at the nearside rear wheel so likely I've got a leaky axle seal. That will be fun, never had to change one of those before.



It smells like gear oil and feels too slippery to be brake fluid to me, so pretty sure it'll be a stuffed axle seal.

Given I've most likely got oil contaminated shoes on the nearside, the offside ones look pretty worn and I need to take everything to bits anyway it seems - just going to order and fit new shoes. Given the discs look like hell, going to just change those as well. Ones on there might clean up, but if I've got to pull it apart I'll keep them on one side and potentially they can be future spares. Likewise going to change all the flexible lines as they're definitely not in their first flush of youth and I'm not convinced at least one of them isn't at least partly swollen internally as the brakes seem to be slow to release.

I *am* going to have a go at bleeding things though to see if that at least improves the pedal action - and if I'm changing hoses I'll obviously need to get the bleeders loose anyway so may as well make a head start on that. Realistically though, unless it causes an absolutely miraculous improvement, the car isn't going anywhere until I've been through the system end to end. There's absolutely no excuse for taking chances with brakes. Hoping for a quick fix by adjusting things (even though they clearly were well out of whack) really was wishful thinking.

Would have been nice if it was that easy, but it is what it is. A bunch of new hardware on there will at least mean I know everything is tip top then. Not going to happen before Thursday afternoon though! So probably be the Trabant making the trip...need to find my earplugs!

[CitroJim]

Hopefully, you'll find replacing the leaky halfshaft seals quite straightforward Zel... I expect it's all fairly heavy so you'll have needed to have had your three Weetabix for breakfast on the day you do it

Good plan on the braking system. Always wise to do a full overhaul on such a safety-critical system and judging by the weight of the car, I can imagine it takes a bit of stopping from speed!

[Zelandeth]

The whole car is just a strange combination of things done, things half done, new bits, old bits and in between. Be curious to see what I find when I get the other drum off. Curious to see if the wheel cylinder on that side looks relatively new like on the offside.

It is a heavy old lump though, and one which will hustle along far more quickly than it looks like it should, so yes - the brakes definitely want to be tip top. It's definitely a car where you really do appreciate there being a chunky old servo on the brakes. Obviously not a given back in that era!

Apparently the cars know when you're on a deadline! The Trabant today has developed a rumble from somewhere at speed. There is a little play in the one rear wheel bearing so I'll nip that up tomorrow, and there's a little play in the steering on the nearside - I need to borrow a helper tomorrow to see if I can track down exactly where that's coming from. I'm not entirely convinced either of those things are responsible, but it's what I can quickly investigate. Hopefully it is just the wheel bearing needing nipped up - noticed that that wheel has a pretty good buckle in it, though I doubt that's new. I've probably only just noticed it. Does give me more incentive to get a set of matching wheels for the rear though.

The possibility is definitely here though that it's something coming apart in the gearbox given the utter racket it's always made, though honestly it feels more like something from the rear of the car than the front. I DO need to do something about that though either way. Speaking to someone else who has one who says they can fairly happily cruise at an indicated 90kph, whereas if I venture much beyond 80kph it really sounds like something is about to explode...so I'm getting the impression that a lot of the sounds of mechanical strain are coming from the gearbox rather than engine.

As far as my immediate plans are concerned though, assuming this isn't something I can quickly resolve without needing parts, I'm down to two options. One - Take the Invacar. Which has covered about five miles since 2024. I can't even *remember* what was on my to do list when I parked it up for the winter in 2024. Or I take the train. Which went SO WELL last time round, ending up with me ending up with a door to door journey time of almost ten hours. From Milton Keynes to Birmingham International. I was not amused by that nonsense. Especially as someone who spent eight years working in public transport, you'd think of all people I'd be able to make it work properly for me...nope.

Going to be another long trip in the Invacar wondering what I've forgotten about isn't it? A trip on which she started misfiring right towards the end of last time and I absolutely never got to the bottom of or was able to reproduce once I got home. My best guess is that there was just a little bit of gunk in the carb, likely in the idle circuit which then cleared itself after a couple of miles of the drive home...but it nagged at me for months that I didn't know what had caused it.

I'm having a bit of a ponder about the fleet as a whole as well. Not brought on about the current ridiculous situation of having five cars and none I'm currently confident in (and are available - Abby needs the Volvo) for a 65 mile drive, though that is kind of ridiculous when you mention it!

First up, the Renault is sold. It has been for a good few months now, the buyer has just got caught up in some work nonsense which has them currently stuck overseas. So it's just waiting for them to have some time to arrange collection. It's going to the right home given that they more or less daily an Aventime so they know full well what they're getting into!

Rover obviously is very much a project at this stage, but hopefully over the next couple of months will progress into a usable car. Once properly sorted it will also be one which I'll be quite happy to do properly long trips in - I'm already looking at visiting friends up in Aberdeenshire as an excuse for a road trip later in the year which will be over a thousand miles there and back with a bit of running around. Also be a car which I can just as happily bumble along gently on back roads or throw on the motorway and just go - somewhat to the surprise of the drivers of modern cars dawdling at 60 in the middle lane when I go howling past them. Oh...on that note, I actually have it a bit of throttle during my last test (albeit briefly), and I can definitely confirm that the exhaust on this one deeeeeeeefinitely is a fair bit more rorty than on my previous one. Though being a straight six, it's a noise that still very much fits rather than just being vulgar and boy racerish. I know everyone goes nuts over a V8 or V12, but I still personally maintain that a straight six with the right pipes on still sings better...

On the subject of high speed cruising, one of the reasons it does so well at it I think is that in top with the overdrive engaged it has for the time some very tall gearing meaning that 70 is more or less 3000rpm on the dot. Most cars I've driven from the early 60s would be screaming away around four grand at just 60...70 really wasn't something you wanted to do beyond the odd overtake if you had any semblance of mechanical sympathy.

Trabant has very very much proven to be a wildcard. My plan for it when I bought it was that it would be six months of fun, during which I'd tidy it up a bit and then sell it on maybe even make a couple of quid for a change. That was three and a bit years ago...and at least four times it's (optimistic!) value spent on parts and upgrades. It's staying. While it's never going to be my first choice for a journey of more than 45 minutes or so, as a local runaround it's just cracking good fun and never fails to put a smile on my face. Honestly aside from a duff brake light switch it's been pretty much faultless over the last year as well. Certainly in the context of a 43 year old, near 100K mile compact car that's clearly never lived a charmed life and that honestly I drive the wheels off day to day, I'd say it's been pretty damned reliable. Yes it has some issues...a noisy as hell gearbox, a windscreen that leaks like a sieve and the lock cylinder on the boot basically needs to be picked with the key rather than used conventionally every time you use it...oh, and I keep forgetting I need to reattach the passenger window glass to the runner...but they're all Old Cars Things which could be issues on any old car rather than being unique to it because it's a Trabant.

Not sure why I keep feeling the need to defend it. Well yes, I do...because so many people based everything they "know" about them on urban myths and the sort of nonsense peddled by Top Gear rather than reality.

The Invacar. While I greatly enjoy it as a thing, I do have to admit to struggling a bit to justify it since the Trabant has cemented a place on the driveway simply because they tick so many of the same boxes. However the Trabant does it while having a decent sized boot, and the ability to carry two people in reasonable comfort or even for short trips four adults. Oh, and it has an actually useful heater. It's orders of magnitude easier to work on as well. While it's not a complicated vehicle, the Invacar has the classic challenges of any small car AND the challenges of something built largely by hand in small numbers. It honestly is maddening to work on sometimes because of stupid things like mixed fastener sizes and a complete lack of captive nuts on fasteners.

The fact that I hadn't driven it since I parked it up for the winter at the end of 2024 I think says a lot. I might feel different if we were still living in a more normal town, but it really isn't well suited to driving around MK...you need to slow down too much for roundabouts and while it's really surprisingly nippy up to about 30, the acceleration from there to 60 is painfully slow, especially on any sort of gradient. The fact you're at the mercy of the CVT doesn't help there as there isn't anything you can do to improve the situation. Being such a lossy system (I've heard mentions of up to 20%) isn't going to help given than you've only got 19bhp to start with. On paper there isn't a huge difference in power to weight between it and the Trabant (approximately 47 Vs 50 bhp/metric ton) but the difference in performance between the two really is night and day - and that's even taking into account the fact that the Trabant has absolutely no bottom end torque being a two stroke and not really coming alive until probably four or five grand. The engine in the Invacar is a gorgeous little thing though and while it absolutely makes sense for the intended purpose, the CVT really does strangle it in terms of performance.

I've kind of half toyed with the idea of whether to try to sell it a few times, but I've always baulked at the idea because it's a car that I'm very unlikely to get another shot at given how values have gone. Plus being a car that I've breathed life back into basically from dead it's something I do have a bit of an emotional investment in as it has been quite a journey.

However a bit of a medical scare last month (if you ever want to get your GP to respond quickly on something, present with a blood pressure reading of over 190/140 - that really gets their attention, especially when you've already spoken to A&E and they've told you they aren't interested) has kind of reminded me that you only live once. A car which has been on my list forever has been an MGB. Yes I can hear you all sighing already. I know they're not going to win any prizes for dynamics or originality, but as a car to drive I just *like* them. Especially if in convertible form it would then tick a few quite different boxes to the Trabant but would also act as a decently distance friendly backup for the Rover. While I prefer the look of the GT version, I think I'd actually enjoy the roadster more - it's a summer toy really and having had a convertible once before it's something I really DO miss on the right day...and with the summers we seem to be getting these days I may as well get something out of that!

So I think later on this year I may start seriously looking at rehoming TPA (or given she's tiny maybe, seeing if there's somewhere off site I could arrange storage at not a silly price) and start shopping around for an MGB. I do have my eye on one currently which while a little rough around the edges does look to be a fundamentally sound car - and almost perfectly matches the Rover in colour...but no idea whether that would come to anything.

They're also a low risk car being so plentiful, shouldn't really be difficult to move on again if I did get bored down the line.

I reckon that either the Trabant or an MGB should both actually fit in the garage with a bit of shuffling as well as they're quite narrow, which isn't by any means universally true given it's a very narrow garage.

Will anything actually change? Who knows. However I was pondering it a couple of days ago so you got to deal with my inane ramblings!

I apologise for the myriad typographic errors in the above post...Google have updated things again and one of the things that includes is autocorrect. Apparently this has made it orders of magnitude more aggressive, and it even changes things several words back from where I'm actively typing based on what its (no doubt powered by some AI rubbish) smarts thinks I'm typing. I only have so much patience for re-checking and correcting things I've already corrected again!

[CitroJim]

Oh Zel, I was in your situation once - three cars and none serviceable. I had to borrow my daughter's car for an essential trip and on that trip I decided to buy a modern and have at least one car serviceable at all times. Hence the purchase of a brand-new C1...

Since then, I've stuck to that and still do with my van currently occupying that spot.

No way could I part with either TPA or the Trabby. Keep both and scratch that MGB itch - whatever it takes

I could never part with either of my two AXs. Like yours, both just about irreplaceable now and they're FUN

[bobins]

Whilst I can definitely see the desire to get an MG, I'd factor in the issue that - whilst we appear to be getting the odd extremely pleasant summer spell these days - there very quickly comes a point where a convertible car without air-con in very hot weather and your head getting hotter than the tarmac actually becomes a bit of a drawback. Sitting in traffic with the outside temperature at 30 degrees is sub-optimal. However...... blatting around the lanes on a lovely summer's day with a favourable temperature outside is somewhat pleasurable and should not be postponed