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

[Zelandeth]

The fresh water tank has been refitted to the van and plumbed in.

The attachment is currently temporary - bungee cords and a ratchet strap - as I will want to take it off again soon to paint the area above it. Plus it won't have water in when on the move anyhow so I'm not worried about it going anywhere.

Slight weep from the fill hose connection, but it's otherwise behaving. It's currently filled with a system cleaner to be left to sit overnight. I've also spotted one leak in one of the grey water lines that will want a spot of self amalgamating tape applied when it's dried out.

To be fair the main reason for doing this was that I was fed up of tripping over the tank, and finally managed to get the cap off the filler port yesterday (the lock was previously seized).

Have also adjusted the pressure cutout on the water pump. It was previously set high enough that it was 50/50 as to whether it would ever actually stop pumping. It now behaves as expected.

[Zelandeth]

Little to report as it's been a busy few days.

Have thoroughly flushed both the fresh and grey water systems in the van, and today refitted the water inlet gauze filter on the pump when the new one arrived. I snapped the hose barb off the original one so had to change it. The original replacement is floating around in the postal system somewhere and will probably appear now I've got the replacement for the lost replacement.

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

thought of you when I was up at the Wythall Transport Mus' at the weekend. An impressive collection, af friendly bunch of guys and a venue I'm sure you're more than a little familiar with.

[Zelandeth]

Being totally honest, the only venues I'm familiar with down here are the motor museum at Gaydon and Stowe House where FotU was held the last couple of years. Oh, and the spot in Stoney Stratford...though that basically is just the town centre though so doesn't count.

My plans to get out to more shows this year really hasn't happened so far!

Main progress last couple of days has been in the bathroom. Doesn't look like much at a glance, but sorting out the ceiling and coving at the top of the rear wall took forever. Especially when I realised that the skylight was only held together in one corner and that there was no sealant between it and the roof. How the rain wasn't pouring in I've no idea! Easily enough sorted, but it of course cost me time.

Also spent quite a bit of time tidying up and securing the pipework (the feed from the fresh water tank to the pump and the supply from there to everything (and the hot water line coming back to the bathroom) all go through that space. So I didn't want stuff moving around and rubbing through. Or just moving and rattling...lord knows there's enough to do that anyway! I was lucky to find the original piece of wood that used to cap that area off, as it would have been fiddly to make up.

I've decided that I'm just going to board over the nearside wall up to the level of the window. While the lowest part of the wall has been pulled to bits, the ply above ankle height isn't interested in moving, and if I'm to do it properly I'd really need to remove the window...and I don't have the patience for that right now! I'm not really worried about a few bits of plywood, not as though it's heavy!

It's an absolute pain of a room to work in. It's plenty big enough for *you* to be in. However the moment you've got a few tools you start tripping over them, and trying to manhandle things like plywood sheeting it quickly becomes a maddening three dimensional puzzle. Most of the awkward stuff has been done now at least - the triangular piece to go in the corner between the nearside and rear wall has already been cut out (yay for using cardboard templates!), just ran out of time and energy at the time.

Have had a shot at getting a better driving video using a different camera, so will see how that's come out tomorrow. Hopefully there will be less anti-shake algorithm failure than the on the last one.

[Zelandeth]

Okay, quick update here for folks who don't follow me elsewhere. My presence and ability to post updates may be somewhat sporadic for a bit.

My husband, who has been away attending a workshop through his work, has suffered a suspected stroke. In Shanghai.

Currently we know zip beyond the fact he's in the 10th People's Hospital in Shanghai, and was conscious when the first responders were in attendance.

It sounds like we've mobilised the entirety of the US Embassy if the call we had with them earlier was anything to go by. Having been utterly unable to contact the UK Embassy there, the Chinese Embassy here or the Foreign Office despite several hours of trying. US guys were immediately helpful and have apparently dispatched someone to the hospital to physically check in on him, get a proper update on the situation and give us some idea of what the plan is likely to be.

Sadly given the situation there I can't just jump on a plane and get to his bedside. There's a three to seven day visa process to go through (that's assuming that the process was expidited apparently), and even once there... I'd probably never even get in the door as I've no legal grounds to be there as far as the Chinese are concerned.

Nothing else to say at this stage really as we've no idea what shape he's in. For all we know he could be sitting in a hospital bed, frustrated that he can't get hold of us, or he could be in a coma - or anywhere in between.

So yeah... it's been a day. Tomorrow's probably going to be as bad if not worse. The seven hour time difference doesn't help either.

[myglaren]

Sorry to hear that Zel and hope it all turns out OK

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

similarly, let us know if we can be of any assistance anyhow

[RichardW]

Sorry to hear that Zel, hope he's feeling better soon.

[Zelandeth]

Have had sort of almost an update, though due to China's data protection laws being even more madly paranoid than ours, I've still no details. To be honest we don't even know for certain if he's awake or in a coma... he's in the intensive care unit, so no communication equipment will be available to him even if he is able to speak.

The general priority beyond immediate care as far as the healthcare guys are concerned is getting him back to the UK. Though it's definitely sounding like that's going to be at least weeks until we can really start looking forward to that - of course I'm trying to be positive labelling that as when rather than if.

It's maddening not to be able to get any real information.

We're waiting for some further information from the US embassy there as it sounds like they *might* be able to provide assistance in getting visas sorted out. As it stands, I'm not able to tick the boxes needed.

Luckily his parents can...so they're currently getting things sorted out to get over there. Hopefully at that point we'll actually be able to get some more solid answers with regards to his current status.

Edit: and in other news, my web server is back online again. The machine for reasons unknown ceased responding to http requests a couple of days ago (it kept coming back up for brief periods of a few minutes). Couldn't find any obvious cause.

Have to admit that I've never really gelled with CentOS on there. It's just different enough to the Debian based Linux builds that I've been using for the last ten years as to leave me spending a lot of time on Google trying to work out where things are that would normally have needed only a moment's thought. Other headaches were the fact that it seems very fond of needing to restart to install updates, which at least in the case of this system took forever. I've also never managed to get the remote desktop functionality working reliably.

So my solution to this was to wipe the thing and just stick straight up Debian on there. In less than half an hour I'd got it installed, had Apache and the distributed computing clients on there and had the contents of the website transferred back over from the backup.

Hopefully it can be forgotten about back in the corner for the next couple of years again now, save for periodically cleaning it obviously.

[Hell Razor5543]

Zel, I hope everything gets better for you and your family. Here is something that (when you are feeling up to it) might interest you and divert your mind;

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/the ... spartanntp

[Zelandeth]

Oh I'd lose hours in there I'm sure.

If it weren't for the blatant human rights insanity over there we'd probably have made a trip to Russia by now. It's a fascinating country with some fantastic historic architecture, history etc...and I'd certainly not be in the area without visiting the factory. Lada has been a subject of fascination for me since a very early age, so the chance to see the factory would be something I'd not miss.

As it is, I'd not go near the place at the moment...for many the same reasons as I was worried about Darren going to China for. I'm not going into those issues though as it gets far too political in a hurry.

Really do hope it will change one day as I'd really like to visit the place, some of my best friends are from that corner of the world for one thing. The odds of me coming back with a Lada 2110/2111 would be quite high though, as I really fancy one...and it would be something that would utterly baffle everyone on the road.

[Michel]

I do hope that no news on your blog is good news Zel...

[Zelandeth]

Well we've finally got him home as of this evening.

It looks - at this point - as though we've been very lucky.

Aside from some speech slurring and being a bit generally weak he seems to have come out of this fairly unscathed. Of course the "fun" part is that care now gets signed over to the NHS - who I'm sure will be rather less efficient and determined than the private health care team who have been behind things so far.

[Zelandeth]

So ...far too long ago... you may recall that having transplanted my only slightly dodgy brake master cylinder from my spares Invacar, I'd attempted to bleed the brakes only to have one of the metal brake lines immediately pop. I'd also had to swap over one wheel cylinder following a bleed nipple snapping off.

Today I finally decided it was time to stop faffing around and sort the brakes. I knew from prior investigation that the unions on the central distributor T joint were already rounded before I got to them. All attempts to coerce the retaining bolt out failed. I'd hoped to get it off the car and see if I could extract the unions off the car. Not going to be a five minute task at least.

So my backup plan was to grab the same T piece off KP...it was equally disinterested in moving. Frustrated at this, I whipped the front out off KP. It's essentially the same thing but with an extra port with the brake light switch screwed into it. Will do to at least find out what bits of the brakes are working and what isn't, I'll introduce the one on the car to the angle grinder some time soon and sort it properly.

I decided to save some time at this point as I figured the main front to rear line was equally likely to need changing (it's quite hard to actually see as it's tucked up close to the floor and buried among a bundle containing the fuel line, wiring loom etc. KP has had a NOS pre-formed one fitted...however it's incredibly stiff and even with the floor pan and half the body missing was an utter pig to fit. So I decided to just use copper as it's so much easier to work with and I've a heap of it in stock.

It's currently just dangling under the car too...patience for carefully routing stuff was insufficient today, especially when it started raining.

I'm just going to clip it along one of the chassis rails I think. Yes it will be slightly less well protected, but in the same breath it will make the line far easier to give a visual inspection. The pipe on KP originally failed in a location that's totally impossible to see unless you have the car on a ramp or jacked up far enough to be fully underneath.

I was rather annoyed that the bleed nipple on the offside rear and front wheel are well stuck (I'm not reefing any harder on them for fear of shearing them off) despite them both having been open recently. Have soaked them in Plusgas again and will try again soon.

However the one wheel I've properly done hose easily, and I've done the front as far as the Flexi hose banjo bolt.

The result of this? I actually have brakes! Not very good...but it's a start and is enough to make getting it back into the garage far less terrifying.

I'll hopefully be able to get the remaining pair of wheels properly bled tomorrow and then see which cylinders need changing. Oh, and it's nearly out of fuel again. Seriously considering adapting a 20l Jerry can as a temporary fuel tank (get a new one and braze on stubs for a fuel outlet and vent) as so far nobody has responded to my requests for a quote to make a new one.

[Zelandeth]

Having been out a couple of times when it was drizzling lately I had ascertained that the wiper blades on the van were fit only for the bin. It was borderline dangerous to be honest, so a new set had to go on. Though having checked everywhere I could think of locally I couldn't find anyone with traditional wipers in 20" - so had to go for one of those hybrid aero-like ones.

The parking positions were laughably out of kilter and it was really annoying me. There seemed to be a lot of variance as to where they should sit judging from photos online - however conveniently there's a nice illustration on the front cover of the handbook.

I was prepared to find the arms rusted onto the spindles but was pleasantly surprised to find they came straight off...so five minutes later had things tidied up a bit.

The clock in the back of the van stopped a week or two back, so new battery went in there. While I was there I noticed that the top bracket holding the fire extinguisher to the wall wasn't screwed into the wall. That will have been the source of rattle number 239928746 in the back of the van sorted then.

Moving into the cab I decided it was time to investigate the rattle from the nearside which had been driving me nuts.

Doesn't look like much has been done here...

However I can vouch for the fact it has...

There should be four bolts holding the trim panel under the dash in. Two of these are shared and also secure the kick plate under the carpet, and there are an additional two nuts that bolt it down to two studs protruding from the floor panel.

A grand total of *one* of those fasteners was present.

Oh...and I also discovered that the bracket behind there which all the relays are attached to should be screwed to the back of the panel just below the fusebox. However because the original screws for the speaker that used to be down there got in the way they had just left that dangling by the wires.

So a whole bunch of fasteners from the random box of fasteners were added to this area - result being about an 80% reduction in rattles from that side of the cab.

Really need to get some proper floor mats...