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

[CitroJim]

Great video Zel

[Hell Razor5543]

Zel, if they would help I have a set of Aston Super Wrenches. Ideally they need one flat surface to get a decent purchase on, but I have seen a video where a QVC tester used a pair of them to do pull ups, with them gripping a standard length of scaffolding pole. I could probably pop up to MK on Wednesday.

[Zelandeth]

Cheers Jim.

Hopefully it's clear there how much better it's running in the engine department than when you last saw it! Starts on the first touch now warm or cold. Just need to get the choke cable sorted so I can actually do that from in the car rather than "turn key, leg it out back to remove clothes peg holding choke closed" on the first start of the day.

I've actually managed to convince the choke cable to move now - though it's still really sticky. Once I've got the control box off the floor I'll pull the inner out and see if it's stuffed or whether a good clean might see it sorted. Sadly bowden cables a couple of metres long aren't something I have laying around. The one for the heater moves perfectly freely - but naturally is about 6" too short to be repurposed!

Need to get the brakes adjusted then continue trying to work out why the free-play is so variable. The only theories I've got at the moment are that there's still some air trapped in the master cylinder, or there's something wrong with the master cylinder.

Have successfully got one thing done this morning at least - have finally managed to get the indicator stalk *firmly* attached to the handlebars now after it fell off again yesterday. Have had a devil of a time finding exactly the right size of screws to secure it. Need something that's just big enough to bite properly into the stalk housing (bakelite), but not so big as to make it split because of the pressure (as had happened to the old one). The length is also critical as the indicator terminals are about 0.0000001mm away from the screw holes, so if they're too long it shorts the indicators out. This also precludes any hope of using nuts and bolts to help reduce the odds of splitting the housing. Thanks for that Lucas...I seem to have managed to get that sorted now though. Hopefully.

[CitroJim]

I could probably pop up to MK on Wednesday.

James, if you do, I have one of your books here

And it would be good to see you too... I work on Wednesdays but I'll be home in the afternoon...

[Zelandeth]

Zel, if they would help I have a set of Aston Super Wrenches. Ideally they need one flat surface to get a decent purchase on, but I have seen a video where a QVC tester used a pair of them to do pull ups, with them gripping a standard length of scaffolding pole. I could probably pop up to MK on Wednesday.

Thanks for the offer, but I should be okay I think. I reckon there's enough of it left that I should be able to get a socket onto it once I've cut the pipe off. Worst comes to the worst and it really doesn't want to come out, I'll pull the wheel cylinder out and get the dirty great plumber's wrench on it. So far that's only ever let me down when I physically couldn't get in to use it due to other stuff in the vicinity. It'll mangle the fastener in question beyond recognition, but when it's already mangled to start with...

Have got a little Power Grip spanner as well, which so far hasn't proven itself yet as the only thing I've tried to remove with it so far was the mangled nut on the Skoda's exhaust...and it gripped the mangled nut all right...and snapped the stud instead! That was the last time that sealed until I had the head off so I could get at it properly...It stays in the toolbox though as I reckon it will be a lifesaver when I get the exact job that I need that exact tool for.

Today hasn't been hugely productive as I had quite a few things I needed to get done around the house instead. I did however decide I'd had enough of messing about with the tail lights deciding that they'd work every third time they were tried. I knew this was just down to tarnished contacts in the lampholders rather than anything more sinister. The tail light clusters are pretty cheap and nasty to start with and have been missing their gaskets for goodness knows how long.

Now I could faff around with sand paper, emery cloth etc for goodness knows how long...however instead I busted out what is by far my weapon of choice for a myriad of tasks where abrasives are concerned - these clean up strips, available from Toolstation. I first came across these in the US, where they're a standard item (albeit often on a reel rather than pre-cut strips)...however it's only recently I've discovered that Toolstation stock them. Suffice to say this made me happy, as they're extremely handy for cleaning up things like anitifreeze residue from coolant pipe stubs, getting stubborn oxide coatings off electrical contacts etc. Ten minutes each side and I've got things working a lot better I think. Long term I should probably think about replacing the clusters as the terminals have definitely seen better days.

One thing I have discovered is that courtesy of having a thermal interruptor type flasher unit is that if you want both left and right indicator circuits to flash at anything vaguely like the same rate, you need to have carefully matched lamps in both sides. Currently the left is waaaay faster than the right, and it follows one perfectly normal seeming P21W bulb, which I have to assume has a slightly lower hot impedance than the others. They're all pretty crusty as well though, so a full new set will be going in shortly. While I was in there I gave the little metal discs which serve as reflectors a good polish up as well.

The lenses have just come out from a run through the *ahem* parts washer, and I'm glad to report have come out looking like new. I lost patience trying to get the grime out of the tiny grooves in the sides, it was taking forever!

The one is slightly faded around the edges of the indicator section, so I'm probably going to stuff an amber bulb in there just to remove any doubt of it causing issues at MOT time.

I've also now formally said "Yes, I'll have it" regarding the "spares car." My main intention at this point is to use the body panels from that to sort mine out - but I'm keeping an open mind at this point. If it looks like it makes a massive amount more sense to transfer the missing bits from mine over to this one, that's the road we'll take. They're both ACs and aside from a couple of control location options (the heater/choke console is above the windscreen in that one rather than on the floor), they should be identical, save for that one being a 1973 example rather than 1975. The floorpan sounds like it's in good order there though, so if it turns out that the chassis and floorpan are actually spotless...well we'll see. I'm making one good one out of the pair either way!

The body on there needs some repair work done as it's quite scruffy in places, but it's "repair" work rather than outright reconstruction from scratch! They were made for the purpose in this case though, in the fact that we have pretty much the perfect combination of missing/present bits on each car to make one good example without a mass of duplicate bits.

[Michel]

Great update Zel, thanks for taking the time to write it.

You do appear to have spelt "dish" wrongly. It's not spelt "ahem"..

[Hell Razor5543]

Zel, the offer is there if you change your mind. I would also suggest a regular dosing of Plus Gas for a few days before you attempt to undo the fitting.

[van ordinaire]

Don't rush out & buy amber bulbs, I've got a box of them - somewhere.

[Zelandeth]

Pretty sure I've got some floating around here too! Just need to find ones which produce sane flash rates too...

[Zelandeth]

Quick update before I get stuck into the list of stuff I need to get done today.

Progress on the Invacar is likely to pause for a bit beyond the occasional bit of tinkering and potentially seeing if I can get the brakes to co-operate 100%. Reason for this is that I don't think it makes much sense to get too buried in stuff until the donor vehicle has arrived here and I've had a chance to have a look at it and decided which one will become the "Project" and which will become the "Donor."

What I am going to probably try to get done over the next few days (well, not tomorrow as I'll be dashing off down to St. Paul's in London for a regular get-together tomorrow) is to get the proper fuel system stuff installed on the Lada with a view to getting it back on the road shortly...as I'm pretty sure that my MOT tester wouldn't be too satisfied with the somewhat Heath Robinson mess that is the fuel pump at present. On the plus side - being all factory new stuff, it should at least fit!

[van ordinaire]

Not sure I understand how the flash rate can be affected by choice of bulb; not something I've come accross before BUT I do have a similar issue with the Eldorado: the n/s indicator is at a rate that suggests a a bulb's failed. The previous owner said it only started when he replaced the rear indicator bulb on that side. Now, I know American stop/tail light bulbs are different (as, indeed, are motorcycle bulbs) - but how, I don't know 'cos they are all the same spec &, indeed, interchangeable. M/c bulbs have round contacts - but then so did the earliest 12v car bulbs I can remember. I'm pretty sure one of the 1st things I tried was to swap the bulbs side to side - but it made no difference - so that takes care of the impedence thing. Must admit I thought, pre-electronic, all flasher cans were the same (i.e. in the way they worked) if that is wrong, your solution might be to change it for another with the same terminal arrangement (there aren't many).

Those rear lights look like a standard trailer item (although not the most common) so should be readily available, & cheap, especially at an autojumble or similar event.

[Zelandeth]

The flasher here is quite simply a bi-metallic strip that heats up and breaks the circuit, cools and re-makes it. Seems that a surprisingly small difference in the current through a bulb can make a large difference in the rate.

For instance there's about a 50% difference between running off battery only, and having engine running and battery charging. The 21W bulbs varying between 20.8W and 21.2W seems to be enough to make a difference!

Most flasher units have an actual timer in, so they're not so sensitive to issues like this.

[van ordinaire]

So, that's something else I've learned, but it might explain why later flashers are so much bigger.

Your solution would seem to be, to change the flasher for a later one.

[Gibbo2286]

One of the reasons for flasher bulb faults is internal shorts between the stop and tail filaments also I've seen single pole bulbs fitted in double pole sockets and vice versa and of course the dreaded bad earth on the backshell that makes the whole system go awry.

[Zelandeth]

The fun and games for the most part has been the oft mentioned dodgy earths. I've done quite a bit of work to improve that so far - the fact they've relied on pop rivets through ally into steel for the current path isn't helpful!

Doesn't need to be perfectly matched side to side, so long as the flash rate is vaguely sensible. The variance with engine speed, electrical load etc just adds to the charm I think, flasher will be remaining original.