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

[van ordinaire]

For MoT purposes, isn't there a specified rate - or is it a range?

[Zelandeth]

There's an allowable range. It's pretty wide actually from what I recall. Skoda has the same issue, if you turn the heater fan on in that the indicator flash rate drops a good 30% as they're on the same circuit.

So...today I set out with a few tasks in mind. First up, try out a few more avenues for tracking down a new windscreen for the Lada, which is needs prior to the MOT courtesy of a lorry last year taking a giant chunk out of the windscreen right in the middle of the prescribed area. This is proving problematic. The glass cover through my insurance (which being a classic specialist, you might expect to be able to deal with less common cars) can't get one. Nor can Autoglass, National Windsceens, Pilkington, nor the three or four I Emailed on Friday. Tom at Lada doesn't have any in stock at the moment either - and needless to say the costs of shipping one windscreen over from Russia are "a little on the high side." Annoyingly a few suppliers who had stock shown on their websites apparently don't have any. ...So update your websites then!

Next up, I decided to have a go at changing out my Heath Robinson set of hacked about hoses etc for the fuel supply - only to discover that I've obviously either turned totally stupid since I ordered the pipework, I'm missing something obvious - or I've taken a bunch of stuff out the box at some point and am now missing a couple of hoses...as I seem to have far too many bits of pipe with female fittings compared to the number of stubs for them to attach to. I'm going to consult the diagrams then have another look at it tomorrow and see if I can make heads or tails of it then. On the plus side, it doesn't seem to have lost a drop of oil or coolant since it was parked up for the winter in October.


Then went on to tinker with the Invacar...basically because I was feeling distinctly disgruntled that the Lada had decided to be awkward, and wanted to do something. Now, there's no point in me doing too much more here until I've got the donor car home...so this was all just faffing about with it because I felt like it.

Having managed to reasonably well clean out the fuel tank I have laying around, I decided to fit (read: Bungee it to the front chassis outrigger) this, as it would allow me to run the engine without having to balance a fuel can on top of the oil filter...which was always somewhat of a carry on.

10mm Microbore copper pipe is a nicely snug fit in 5/16" fuel hose, so that's providing the main front-rear section, and there's then a "reducer" consisting of a piece of brake pipe braised into the 10mm tubing which allows me to drop the hose size down to the 3/16" that feeds the fuel pump. This whole mess is then bungeed to the door runner and chassis leg. It's a total mess, but in the grand scheme of things a heck of a lot safer than balancing a plastic fuel can on top of the engine!

Meant I could do this for the first time!

Not immediately obvious - but that means running the engine with the engine cover in place.

I did have a brief interruption at around this point when I spotted movement out the corner of my eye. I had a visitor!

Presumably having been hiding in the leaflitter by the fence, he (or maybe she) had I have to assume been attracted to the vast quantities of warm air being blasted at the ground by the air cooled engine running in the background. He was carefully gathered up (after one brief escape - hence the above photo, and the fact that I now have little froggy footprints on my engine cover), and escorted back to the corner I suspect that he'd emerged from in the first place.

I've also attacked the engine cover a bit further with a stiff brush and some cutting paste to remove some more of the ingrained dirt, and I think it's actually starting to do something.

[CitroJim]

Must be the time for frogs and toads to emerge from whatever they do over winter...

I was surprised to see how many I saw squashed on the roads and Redways whilst running yesterday... Especially whilst running near significant bodies of water...

Most of the run is a blur now but for some reason those squashed amphibians stick in my mind...

Hope the Lada issues are soon resolved Zel...

Love the Invacar fuel tank mounting method

[Zelandeth]

My approach to the current setup is that while it may be incredibly dodgy, it's actually fuel-tight. Anything has to be better than having an open container of petrol balanced less than a foot above the exhaust.

The donor car actually has a (correct) fuel tank fitted, so it's only a short-term solution anyhow. It's not going anywhere in the meantime! I have to admit that using bungee cords to secure the pipework was a new one for me, but I can't find the bag of cable-ties so had to improvise!

I have been having a bit more of a think about the brakes too. The odd thing seeming to be that if you apply them quickly, they seem to work fine - however often applying them gently will result in the "pedal" just sinking to the floor. As soon as any braking effort is felt, you can leave pressure applied indefinitely and the pedal doesn't slowly sink or anything. It seems to be just initially getting the cylinder to pump fluid that's the issue.

Looking at the diagram of the innards of the master cylinder (mine has the slightly later type with the plastic header tank, but I don't imagine the internals being massively different)...

I have to wonder if the conical seal in the valve which actually actuates things is maybe in less than stellar condition or is sticking...Hmm.

[CitroJim]

Generally Zel, what you describe is a symptom of bad master cylinder seals...

But it's a brand-new one isn't it? Or is it NOS? If NOS then the rubber bits may well be past their best...

[Zelandeth]

NOS Jim.

Not complaining really as it just came with the car, and a factory new one with warranty is only £53, so hardly the end of the world.

Wouldn't surprise me if rebuild kits exist too, might have a dig around later...

[Gibbo2286]

For MoT purposes, isn't there a specified rate - or is it a range?

Not less than 60 nor more than 120 flashes per minute.

[Gibbo2286]

Your master cylinder could have a variety of different bore sizes so you need to be sure before ordering parts, this company might help.

http://www.biggred.co.uk/

[Zelandeth]

Your master cylinder could have a variety of different bore sizes so you need to be sure before ordering parts, this company might help.

http://www.biggred.co.uk/

Yep, we've used them before for bits and pieces.

If I do decide to take it to bits, easy enough to measure the bore. Pretty sure I do have a note of it somewhere though...

Made a bit of room on the driveway today so I could shuffle the Invacar about a bit more, shuffled the Lada over to the one side to give me the whole amount of space to play with. I can state for the record, that even with a slipping drive belt, the rate at which that thing will spring off the mark is sufficient to be quite surprising.

The fact that the windscreen wiper was able to do its job for the first time in probably a couple of decades gave me far more satisfaction than it probably really should.

It actually almost looks like a complete vehicle from the back.

...if you squint a bit and focus on some detail in the far distance anyway.

From the front...not so much.

This allowed me to exercise the brakes a bit, and generally just try to get a bit more heat into the engine than you can at idle. I had hoped I might actually be able to see the speedometer move off the stop to confirm that it actually worked, but no dice sadly. The rest worked though, and it's been useful for me to get a bit of a better feel for the steering just shuffling around the drive. Went swimmingly for a while, until after backfiring a couple of times she stalled.

Yeah...that thing I said about the fuel tank having been cleaned...Apparently it's less clean than I'd have hoped.

Okay, that's enough mucking around until the donor car arrives I think, so I can actually start properly sorting stuff out rather than wasting time bodging more things that I'm only going to have to take to bits again later.

[van ordinaire]

Just a thought about the Lada's screen, wouldn't the Fiat one fit? I'd always understood that externally, it was only, effectively, a styling exercise so the basic bodyshell, particularly, I'd have thought, the greenhouse remained the same.

[Zelandeth]

I *think* so - even though the only body panel unchanged was the roof.

Autoglass' compatibility checker said no, and that's all I've really got so far. It's a good thought though...one I'll chase further later now you've reminded me of it.

[Zelandeth]

Brief Invacar running issue resolved.

Turned out to be my home made fuel pipe reducer. Guess is that I didn't get enough heat into it for the braze to take properly and it cracked when it cooled. The torch was running out of gas!

Decided to cheat in terms of doing the size reduction by sticking another filter in there. Given the crusty tank, that can't be a bad thing. Might see about getting it out into the drive again later and see if it will keep behaving.

Main task for today (aside from sorting the aforementioned point of air ingress into the fuel system) will be to attack the front of the gearbox with the pressure washer so I can actually see it. There are 40+ years of crud stuck to it and it's rather disgusting.

[Zelandeth]

Slight priority shift on account of the new aux drive belt for the Activa having arrived.

What's the procedure for a belt change on that? Assuming set suspension to hight, support car, remove wheel arch liner and access from there, and that the tensioner will be obvious. Is it manually set on this or spring based like on the TD?

Hoping the belt is the right one just now, as there's no text left on the original, easy checked though once it's off.

[CitroJim]

What's the procedure for a belt change on that? Assuming set suspension to hight, support car, remove wheel arch liner and access from there, and that the tensioner will be obvious. Is it manually set on this or spring based like on the TD?

Zel, yes, go in through the wheelarch after removing the mudshield and it'll be obvious... The tensioner is a big thing, spring-loaded that sits on a pivot...

All you need to do to release the tension is to insert a suitable tool in the square hole in the tensioner plate and pull it out of the way... It will have a suitable index hole so that it can be pinned back to allow easy belt swaps...

If you find the tensioner is a bit iffy I have one here...

[Zelandeth]

Well that was relatively painless.

As always, made far more pleasant by the fact that everything on this car that needs to unbolt just does. That's one aspect of working on the Saab that always ended up being infuriating in short order, was that almost any job whether it be changing a light bulb or suspension arm, started with "let's see which over-tightened and/or seized fasteners we need to argue with today."

Wheel arch liner out the tensioner is obvious, and conveniently has a 3/4" hole in so I can just stick the ratchet in it and heave. My favourite old bit of exhaust pipe was roped in as a "torque amplifier" to make life a bit easier.

Sadly I didn't see the comment about an indexing hole nor spot it until after I was done - but this did the job just fine! Obviously was wearing gloves and keeping fingers out of the way as far as possible.

I was just about to start unthreading the old belt when there was a got almighty clattering noise from above me, as though I'd suddenly driven at high speed into a hail storm and suddenly my eyes were full of dust.

Bird's nest had apparently chosen that exact moment to fall out of the tree next to the drive, landing on the windscreen right next to where I was sitting.

Well there had to be *some* excitement, didn't there?

Having the old belt off, I discovered that there was actually still some text still left, which allowed me to confirm that 6PK1650 was indeed the correct size.

Also became apparent that the old belt was indeed "past its best" for want of a better term.

There are a lot of areas where the base of the grooves is heavily polished, wouldn't be surprised if that's where the squeaking had been coming from.

Both the tensioner and the idler by the alternator have a little bit of left/right play in them and aren't silent when spun - but they're not gritty, and keep going for a good ten seconds after they're given a good spin, so should be fine for a while yet I think. They're also no warmer than anything else in the engine bay after a run.

Reassembly was as they love to say, the reverse of disassembly. Took me a couple of tries to figure out what the exact order that you needed to do things in, and made a mental note that if I do this again to take the plugs out so I could turn the engine over more easily by hand when trying to get it to "snap" over onto the last pulley. Nothing too troublesome though.

The big question though was whether this would have helped...and sure enough, the car is now squeak-free.

The tensioner being far easier to get at I think makes this a lot easier than the same task on the 1.9TD - plus it being a far cleaner engine meant that I didn't wind up black from head to foot like I did when I changed the belt on Gabby!

I did note that it looks like there's a bit of oil seepage from the crankshaft pulley oil seal. Nothing dire by any means, just enough that I've cleaned it up and made a mental note to check back on it next time I'm doing work in that vicinity. The car has never left oily drips anywhere, nor has used a drop of oil on the dipstick since I got it - so I'm not going to worry about it.

Car seems incredibly quiet at idle now!