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

[mickthemaverick]

Yes Jim, missed opportunities there Zel!! Unless.......?.

[CitroJim]

Yes Jim, missed opportunities there Zel!! Unless.......?.

At least you now know you won't need to shell out too much for one Zel - unless it needs a new shell...

[Zelandeth]

Problem with anything like that from an auction is it's such a gamble. They're both cars which can rot to a terrifying extent and isn't too difficult to tart up to look halfway decent for auction photos.

I'd not consider either unless I had a whole bunch more pictures or knew the seller well enough to trust their description that it indeed wasn't a rot box. While I don't mind tidying things up a bit, I'm really not looking for another major project.

Much though I agree that the Spitfire is a lot of fun, sadly I really don't fit comfortably in the driver's seat of one so that wouldn't be on the list for me.

[Zelandeth]

Had a spare half hour this afternoon so decided to have a look at the Rover. Needed to be a pretty quick one rather than anything particularly in depth. My choice was the fuel pump.

This is an SU electric pump and I'm pretty used to how these should behave when all is well. Few rapid clicks while the system fills the float bowl, then just a click every ten seconds or so as it keeps up with fuel demand. This one clearly wasn't happy as it was clacking quite loudly and erratically. My guess was that this was happening as there was air trapped in the pump. These pumps should be mounted with the outlet uppermost so that any air can be expelled - the pump here had notably been mounted with the outlet at the bottom.

After a bit of faffing about I managed to manipulate it into something vaguely resembling the correct orientation. This obviously isn't the correct pump so there was a bit of swearing involved in getting the lines to reach. The cable tie is also temporary - I'm also missing the original mounting brackets.



While it's a mess, the pump does seem to be happy now. It's clicking quietly once every five to ten seconds when the engine is running. Before it was clacking quite loudly and the rate was all over the place.

Only a little job, but that was one I really wanted to get to the bottom of. Especially with all the fuel pump problems I had on the P6, that's something I really want to trust!

[CitroJim]

Ahh Happy memories of the old SU electric pump! That one looks as if it's been fairly recently refurbished?

At least it looks to be in a slightly better place in the Rover then in the old, original Mini!

[Zelandeth]

Ahh Happy memories of the old SU electric pump! That one looks as if it's been fairly recently refurbished?

At least it looks to be in a slightly better place in the Rover then in the old, original Mini!

I think it's just a new one rather than refurbished. If they had gone down the refurbishment route the original pump would probably be there. Which is annoying as they are Not Cheap - £3-400. Which I'm guessing is the popularity tax as they're also used on some of the Series II/III Land Rovers. The original one was basically two SU pumps bolted together with the output chambers combined together. One drawing from the main and one from the reserve lines to the tank. Nice redundancy having a totally separate pump (and more importantly set of points!) on hand at the flick of a switch.

At some point it will be returned to the correct configuration - but that sort of expenditure to replace something that's working fine is a fair way down the priority list at the moment.

[CitroJim]

To have two totally independent pumps and a reserve system was a most excellent idea Zel, knowing how troublesome those pumps could be.

[Zelandeth]

To have two totally independent pumps and a reserve system was a most excellent idea Zel, knowing how troublesome those pumps could be.

This is the original pump arrangement.

J R Wadhams product page.

Quite a substantial looking lump.

[CitroJim]

To have two totally independent pumps and a reserve system was a most excellent idea Zel, knowing how troublesome those pumps could be.

This is the original pump arrangement.

J R Wadhams product page.

Quite a substantial looking lump.

Gosh! A double-ender

[xantia_v6]

Not to be confused with the very similar double ender fitted to V12 Jags 1971-74, which only had a single inlet.

[Zelandeth]

Not to be confused with the very similar double ender fitted to V12 Jags 1971-74, which only had a single inlet.

Well when you're measuring fuel use in gallons per mile you're going to need a pretty substantial pump!

[Zelandeth]

Now for something different...

Wasn't sure if I was going to bother including this bit of additional news from the weekend away at ConFuzzled or not, but you lot have seen some snippets from a few conventions over the years, so let's continue that trend. We'll be back to our usual scheduled automotive chaos in the next post unless anyone has specific questions I'm replying to.

I actually took very few photos over the weekend. Quite simply because the vast majority of that is usually done when I'm wandering around outside as around the main entrance of the hotel is where a lot of people tend to congregate and silliness tends to occur. However as it was hotter than hell there were fairly few people about, and I was really only able to handle it myself for about half an hour at a time myself and really didn't feel inclined to lug a camera around with me. Which is a shame as I had taken a couple along.



I did get probably a dozen or so shots that I think were worthwhile, but all on a 110 film I've not finished yet. Given that works out at near enough a pound a frame once it's processed I tend to chose my targets carefully. If I had any common sense I would ditch the format...however we all know how much common sense I have. I just have too much of a sentimental attachment to it and I enjoy using it too much. As long as the film continues to be available I'll continue to use it. Especially if this roll I've been putting through that little Vivitar range finder come out well as it's such a nice little camera to use. The attention to detail on that thing for a little 110 is just absurd. For all it's "just a 110" it's a really nice little camera to use.



Speaking of common sense, that absolutely went out of the window on Sunday afternoon with a bit of a pricy purchase from the convention dealer's room.

Um...Hi!



Fun fact: Using a phone in that situation is really hard. I'm also an idiot given there was a Canon 40D right behind me which has actual buttons on and would have been far more user friendly than arguing with voice controls or self timers. Never said I was smart.

This marks the end of a full TEN YEARS of procrastination on my part as to whether I would get a suit at some point. With the notable exceptions of my then new Peugeot 107, the Volvo and (if it counts) the house, I'm pretty certain this is the most expensive thing I have ever bought.

Honestly, I'm happy to see that makers have been putting their prices up a fair bit over the last couple of years. They had in my opinion been grossly under charging for the most part until quite recently. If you're selling something that takes literally hundreds of hours to make by hand, you really should be asking a realistic price for it! Stings a bit as the buyer, but nevertheless I'm glad to see that things seem to be moving in a direction to allow our creators to actually earn a halfway decent wage.

He didn't actually get much of an outing at the convention largely because of the heat (compounded by me being in a room without working air conditioning), and because I kind of wanted my other half around for the first trip out to act as a spotter so I didn't do anything excessively stupid while I got used to the limitations I was having to work with. Apparently I was plotting world domination at one point.



I think that can probably be best summed up as "looking for something to happen to." Which I think ended up being interrupted by the appearance of another photographer. Obviously looks a bit silly there with bare arms, but I hadn't been planning on this happening so didn't have anything more appropriate on hand at the time. I sure wasn't wearing a sweater given it was 30+C outside. Thankfully the communal areas in the hotel were kept relatively cool - just wish the same was true of all the rooms. There will normally be a long sleeved black thermal management shirt on which will make the joins less visible.

Initial observations? A lot of fun. Getting used to having such limited vision will definitely take some practice but it's not as bad as I was honestly braced for. Definitely be a while before I'm confident enough to go wandering around unattended outside or anything, but I didn't have any problems in the fairly controlled environment in the hotel, including a few stairs and an awkward poorly signed ramp. That tail is an absolute liability as well.

I'll need to get some better photos at some point, but probably won't post too much on this here as it's massively off topic for a car forum, and I try to limit it to things which are at least vaguely automotive or engineering related for the most part.

Now you know what was in the giant bag of additional luggage I needed to take back home with me which made me very glad I'd taken the Trabant rather than Invacar.