jgra1 blog

[CitroJim]

It was good to see you yesterday John and delighted the trailer towed a bit better on the way home

The speedboat blog looks very good. Be looking forward to updates very soon

[jgra1]

you too Jim, and many thanks again
(can you swim?)

a few pics of my newly extended lean to...

http://nowt-john.blogspot.com/

this was part of an old diary that i have kind-of taken over ,, its thin and full

most normal tools are in a box for someone's poorly PowerSteering pump replacement job in the morning.. on a 406 coupe (2l)

note the poor oak drawer thing i found on the bonfire.. well made.. drawers still open despite the VFR**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff] engine, and 406 autobox on top underneath sits a v6...

this is the main undercover area I have, it can get a tiny bit cluastrophobic...
running now 6 different vehicles, from here, is interesting

took day off and made a start on tidying it all up.. shattered now and want breakfast

the WVO empties I need to give back to the oilman over the weekend !

[jgra1]

some issues discovered with the 406

..taken from another forum.

hi all.. I have started to piece together why my coupe is handling so badly..

the background is that I brought the 1998 Polaris V6 back in November, as a non runner. I fitted a 50K engine and a new belt, and the car was running fine but then pretty much left alone until today (hardly driven)

Anyway, a trip to a garage has shown a leaking rack, a bent near side hubflange (I knew about this), front wheels towing in, rear near side wheel towing in, front brake inbalance of 38% (could be related to hub warpage)
the powersteering fluid is low.. also the speed sensed power steering cuts in and out often

these steering issues are causing the following scenario..

I think - a grinding through the steering at low speeds

Mid corner, you can have full assistance, or normal-speed assistance, and worst of all, the low fluid is causing the steering to try and lock mid corner if the wheel is turned to sharly/quickly.. so effectively no assistance... any one of the three is possible on a bend .

this is causing havoc with handling as you might expect.. add to that a wobble at most speeds and under braking from the hub, and then unbalanced brakes, finally throw in some out tracking, and its why my car is a dog

i must stress again that the car has hardly been on the road since the engine went in, I would never knowingly drive it in this condition..except to find the problems..

ade is the next port of call, unless anyone thinks rack is fixable.. guessing a seal.

[jgra1]

after 3 days of work on various projects, today I took the TD for a trip along the South coast.. first stop was the 'oilman' who liberated 400 Litres into barrels in the xantia -we had some chat.. and it transpired that the clean neat way of WVO'ing a TD is a 1000L container.. end of story... a pump will need to be brought..

However barrels do have advantages...I mentioned a calculation of Greece and back with only 'what you brung' about 3000 miles or so ... will see ...

somewhat slowed by this weighty slop, I ventured onto Malcolm (citroenut) for the remaining part of a gazeebo he gave me a few months ago.. the marquis is a monster at 9m by about 3 x 3.. I am not sure yet what to do with it... my landlady will speak for me I think Malcolm has been working on a charming 2cv van.. and his knowledge of them is astounding.. for my part, it looked very pretty in dark blue (the colour I want my boat) and very practical.. its a shame it has some filler additions and some rust...

From there, I carried onto the delightful Romney Marsh, to get a fuel tank* for the boat, and also a chat about various aspects of owning an old speedboat.. thw whole family piled into their 17th century kitchen to discuss boats, WVO, cartography and PSA v6's

I came back through the lovely Rye, and stayed awhile.. it was deathly quiet from a mariners point of view.. the light show and thunder was quite spectacular..

a few more pics on

http://old-speedboat.blogspot.com/

Car was great.. hauling all the weight, foot to the floor all day... The TD... empty and pressing on, it's all about careful gearchanges and not 'dropping off' boost.. throw a load into it, the small early patch of torque becomes very useful and noticeable..

* A red 25L plastic can, with a screwlid and a fuel out fitting... nothing more

[jgra1]

Evenin all...


Last night I did a bit more on the camper internal walls, tonight I took the outboard engine's lower casing off to see why it wouldn't go into gear.. the very simple gearbox is fine, the shaft that selects reverse/N/Forwards was siezed somewhere near the top

I began to remove the middle main casing, but the small 6mm bolts holding it to engine all feel very springy.. so I left them..

I then turned back to a project I began last June, an old 250 kawasaki that was rescued from a ditch!.. tonight I finally got the fourth lock (petrol tank) working smoothly with the keys the locksmith cut from the original ignition lock

it's been one of the tricky jobs, getting all four locks to work .. there are no more

Mainly : Exhaust, radiator, footpegs, brake bleed, and then an MOT and one rescued bike!

trying to invest time in all 3 of these vehicles at the same time now..

the xantia is ok... the 406 is in need of major steering work..

[jgra1]

off topic again

see the boat middle right... this is similar to mine.. an old 70's thing

http://people.dsv.su.se/~klas/Boats/Clu ... ubman.html


how do I work out a template for the screen I need.. it will look very similar to that, but I imagine the shape from a flat peice of platic would be a thin mouthed smily face ? ....

[jgra1]

blimey! 5 months since i was here

well.. the xantia droplinks I fitted aug 2008 (22K miles ago) have been rattleing for a few weeks.. I went the same way and brought another cheapo set as I couldnt bear the £35 each from a stealers, my friend paid (not including nylocs!)

this time I pulled the boots clear and got some grease in there, before fitting.. noticed the outer pads are on the limit, and the discs look thin and worn also the offside tyre was on the limits so used my last part worn I had kicking around..
Track rod end loose and the aux belt has lost some grooves....

so, a few jobs to do, added to that there is a suspect broken main earth or pos from battery to engine, the usual noisy aux tensioner, and maybe a glow or two gone

on the bright side I have had little to do to car in the last year.. guess thats why I have it all to do now

I changed the fuel filter finally when the car wouldn't drive any further.. the EM light came on more and more over a few days as a warning..

Tank pickup was cleaned again, in similar condition as it was a year before.. hard to believe the car ran !.. I have a pic somewhere...

I am going to try and MOT it a bit early, its due 13th December I think.. but I have booked some time off work to go n holiday!!

over 90 days on a very tight budget to the Southern Hemi getting quite scared now.. been doing the same job and routine for 14 years and its already a shock and I havent even gone yet....

leaving in 3 weeks to Thailand

John

[CitroJim]

Hi John

Good to see you blogging again!!!!

What other destinations apart from Thailand?

[jgra1]

hi Jim

Thailand, maybe Laos, then KL, overland to singapore, Cairns to Sydney, and NZ and finally a stop in Fiji

over 90 days, work are keeping something open for me

all vehicles costing 200£ a month to store

[CitroJim]

Wow! that sounds like a great trip John. May I suggest a visit to Darwin whilst you're in the top end of Australia

It'll make for an interesting blog

Bit pricey for car storage

[addo]

Ground Control to Major John...

You back on terra soggier yet?

[lexi]

Good blog John. Drop links: Get Lemforder from GSF at 19quid each . I remember the Kwacker 3cyl 2 stroke........scary handling!!. Boat stuff is always interesting

[jgra1]

oops forgot about this

thanks Lexi

addo yep

will update my recent car boat stuff here later

[jgra1]

my current to do list concerns mainly my LX 1999 Xantia, which has seen some neglect in favour of other more intersting machines in the last two years

I rebuilt the engine, added a new clutch and other items in the summer of 08.. and have had many trouble free miles running on WVO since then.. I now want to lend the car to a girl so I have decided to do the small jobs that are needed.

The list is

Fix OSR door card back on after diagnosing the central locking problem was nothing to do with that but was a break in the wire a the pillar. (Quite how i can drive around manually unlocking that door and leaving the car looking a mess for so long is beyond belief )

renew NS handbrake cable..

renew front pads

free up the headlight adjusters / or make sure they work ok..

indentify why the aux belt is 'thrumming' on it's run between AC and crank

change aux belt tensioner

Work out what is wrong with the main earth cable as the car is impossible to start without a second retrofit earth cable on even with that it turns very slowly!

Work out whats happened to the ABS system and why the light goes on/off with the charge light

change front tyre

fix screen washer jets or replace them

check towbar wiring

Airbag light usual..

Injector cleaner

check the operation of the cooling fans, they were doing something odd I seem to remember, end of last year,,, probably not working

bonnet, wing, possibly bumper needed

A very good clean

then at some point get an MOT.. my usual tester has gone missing.. so the car may get slightly different scrutiny than usual

the 406, main job is to fit LPG, and investigate the usual PS leak

John

[davetherave]

A fairly comprehensive list, and dont forget the problems you will inevitably find as a result of fixing others!