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

[Hell Razor5543]

Might I suggest that you see if you can get a BW/CART key (British Waterways/Canal And River Trust)? You probably won't be able to (unless you know somebody who has a narrow boat, and you then offer to pay for the cost), but if you can there are Elsan point at very regular intervals along the canals (normally no more than a couple of days cruising apart). This could allow you to empty the Elsan when you are out on holidays, rather than having to wait until you get back home.

[Zelandeth]

Given I've been scrambling to get the van ready for a trip later this week the Invacar has taken a bit of a back seat. Hasn't moved since the last trip out when I had issues with the drive system slipping. The basic issue seemed to boil down to the poor shape the surface of the pulleys were in. Dealing with this issue was being hampered by the fact that I hadn't been able to get the pulley retaining bolts out. This was despite having applied enough torque to tip the car onto two wheels.

Today I had a bit of free time, and with the van away at the garage figured I may as well see if after soaking for a week or so, if the secondary pulley bolt was any more interested in moving.

After a brief fight...

This image seems distinctly anticlimactic after so much hassle!

Finally!

Doesn't take a genius to see why the system has been struggling and making a royal mess of the belt.

Pulley running surfaces generally shouldn't look like a rust coloured version of the Lunar surface.

I'd seen that the fan on the back of the pulley was pretty well shredded, wasn't really obvious how bad till it was off!

This *used* to be a fan

This may well have something to do with the not insignificant vibration I've been suffering at speed given it will have been making a royal mess of the pulley balance.

It's just a thin bit of pressed steel... corrosion and centrifugal force over the years have done a number on it. If I find there are issues with pulley temperature I'll have a look at improving that side of things...we can probably do better than a bit of time with modern electric fans I reckon.

For now though I've just pulled the shattered remains of it off, which will *hopefully* significantly reduce the vibration issues I've had. Time will tell.

Hopefully now less off balance

Astonishingly the moving elements aren't seized, despite looking like they've been dredged off the Titanic.

Crusty...but surprisingly still functional.

The one thing I hadn't realised until today through was how mental the preload on that pulley is - I'd originally half planned to take it apart to clean and lubricate the innards - however now I've decided to leave it well alone for now. I have visions of it taking my head clean off if I were to mess with it.
The primary pulley is aluminium so was in generally better shape. It was a pretty quick job to clean that up by running the engine in gear and using a sharp chisel as an improvised lathe.

Aluminium = easier to clean

I had planned to do something similar with the secondary pulley using my workbench and the drill...until I realised that the drill is in the back of the van. In a yard at the far side of town. D'oh!

So plan B was a bit more of a hack, just attack it with the carbide mop on the grinder.

Couldn't quite get right into the grove but should have got most of the running surface I think.

Slightly smoother

Gave the top a bit of a scrub too.

Slightly less rusty

Just got things back in place (with a new belt - the old one had lost about 1/3" worth of width) before running out of time.

Nearly ready for a test run

I'll get it bolted back in, adjust the belt and give it a test run tomorrow... I'm honestly really curious as to whether it will make any difference!

[Zelandeth]

Today while I was pacing around waiting for the van to turn up I was able to get the Invacar put back together.

Plus I was then able to get out for a test run to get a couple of errands run.

Invacar back out and about again

The main issues which had been making TP quite unpleasant to drive were threefold:

1. Severe judder when taking up drive.
2. "Slipping" of the drive at speeds over 45mph or so.
3. Low frequency drone and vibration at speed (not unlike a duff wheel bearing but a couple of octaves lower frequency).

[YouTube]ixCHdSoluLA[/YouTube]
Apologies for the horrible camera shake. I didn't have my decent camera handy, and the phone holder works fine for being a sat nav display...not so much for recording video...hence the jiggling.

Given I'd only done a relatively quick clean and thrown on a new old stock belt I wasn't expecting miracles.

Okay...I underestimated things!

The judder when taking up drive is almost gone. Still there to some extent, especially if you give it beans from a standstill. Not worrying about that though as it's apparently just something that the drive system does and isn't a fault. Just a limitation of the design.

Slipping has totally disappeared as far as I can tell. Have had her up to 60mph twice today and even cruised there for a couple of minutes. Behaved impeccably.

I can conclusively say that this was the cause of the "rumble" at speed. It's now gone...even up at the legal limit...whereas she tended to start shaking herself to pieces as soon as you saw the speedo needle move over 40mph or so.

I'm a happy camper. If this is an indication of what I can expect once everything is sorted, she's definitely going to be getting used a lot more as time goes on. Aside from just being fun and different, the drive out today was actually *nice* which was a big step forward.

Sad I'm away for the weekend so won't be able to drive her again until Monday now.

-- -- -- --

That's us up to date on the Invacar...onwards to the van.

Well I put the van in to a well reputed garage who mostly do HGV/PCV work in the hope that we would see good professional service.

Despite the folks on the desk being really polite and professional I'm not particularly impressed.

First up was the question mark over the "missing" rear reflectors. The tester at the time wasn't interested in entering into discussion. So I stuck a couple of additional ones on at near enough driver eye level.

The tester totally failed to notice these...and went and stuck an additional two on the back of the van down next to the tail lights. It looks like the thing has been attacked by a 90 year old who's raided the caravan aisle in Halfords.

How many reflectors do they want?!?

Not impressed. Especially as they're not even fitted straight.

I eventually managed to convince someone to come and look at it...gent I spoke to immediately agreed that the reflectors which both I and their guy had fitted were utterly unnecessary. Doesn't help the fact that I now have an additional pair of squint reflectors (which further impinge on the already not great side viewing angle of the indicators) which appear to be held on with the adhesive they glue the wings on to modern passenger airliners with. They ain't moving.

That hacked me off. Especially as they did it without asking me first. It looks like the thing has been attacked by a 90 year old who's raided the caravan aisle in Halfords.

Likewise the "work done" lists headlight beam adjustment. I did that myself the day before it went back in.

When they phoned me to inform me the brakes needed work, they also listed the propshaft CV boot as still needing changed. Despite me having done that the day before. Just makes me want me to ask "Can you just confirm for me that you have actually looked at the vehicle?"

There was also no further call once they had tracked down parts to confirm that I was okay with them going ahead and spending nearly £250 on parts before going ahead.

I only figured that it was ready to collect when the invoice arrived in my inbox. All £550 of it.

Picking the van up, in addition to the obvious complaint about the hideous reflectors, two wheel trims weren't properly attached and the bodywork has a not insignificant number of greasy hand prints on it. Not a deal breaker...and I'd not blink at it from a little local garage I'd paid £100 to do a job...but this is a big concern who have just charged £300 odd of labour...sorry but I'd expect them to have spent five minutes wiping things down before calling it done.

Oh...speaking of details I'd expect them to get right (especially given their PCV/HGV background) would be this.

Now I'll need to remove the whole lot to clean up and repaint behind it.

This isn't overfilled. This is overflowing. I am not impressed.

I had also asked for the old components be returned (not least because I was curious to see if the brake drums were recoverable as they don't grow on trees these days), that never happened.

Not impressed.

Anyhow, we need to now try to get things ready for a weekend away between this evening and tomorrow afternoon. The bombshell being dropped that we won't have mains power on site arrived at about 1730 today too...yay. Definitely pushes getting the gas system back together up the list as we'll need the fridge to be running on gas then.

Nothing was in place when we started out this evening aside from the water... getting there now.

Copper spaghetti

Obviously the pipes need to be clipped in place and such, but we're getting there. There's a blanking plug on the manifold outlet for the hob as it isn't currently fitted. Everything has been leak tested and is good so far. Unfortunately the fridge doesn't seem to want to work on gas (no life from the control unit), so that's something else for the to do list tomorrow.

Also high on the list is smacking the front bracket for the middle exhaust section with a hammer so it stops buzzing... we've got a two hour drive ahead of us...and that buzzing would drive me absolutely mad on a run that long!

I'll be writing a letter to the garage and see what they offer by way of an apology...a shrug, a verbal "I can only apologise" and crediting me for £2 worth of unnecessary reflectors (which I now need to figure out how the heck to remove) against a £550 invoice just isn't going to cut it guys.

[Hell Razor5543]

If it is any use to know my Mum found a 'recipe' for cleaning tablets for the Elsan. Here it is;

1 cup bicarbonate of soda, 1/4 cup citric acid, a few drops of oil, a little white vinegar, preferably in a spray bottle. Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly, then add the oil, and spray, carefully, just a little white vinegar onto the mixture, trying not to let it fizz. Press the mixture into ice cube trays (preferably silicone) and leave the cubes to harden (can be as much as 24 hours in damp or humid conditions). Store in an airtight jar. I use it in my Elsan every time I empty it - I put one pod into the bowl and fill it with clean water. Leave it for a few hours, then let it down into the cassette, and it will clean that, too.

[Zelandeth]

We had originally planned to be heading out today even though the event doesn't really start off until tomorrow afternoon. However we did a bit of math and figured that by the time we had done everything we needed to here we would be arriving there after dark. There's no guarantee of lighting at the camp ground as we're essentially just parked up in a field next door to a camp ground, so we decided to just head out tomorrow early on. All it means is that the charity have made an extra £20 or something from us so no big issue. Did leave me time to get a few more things done though.

First issue was the non-functional fridge on gas. I hadn't ever tested this before (nor connected a gas supply to it to allow me to). The fridge is an Electrolux RM 212, which means that the gas side of things is the only complex thing about it as it has automatic electronic ignition. So instead of the normal clicky ignitor button you have a switch.



In theory, when this is on it will automatically sit there ticking away whenever there is no flame detected (with a little red light in the switch blinking so you can see it's trying). However mine wasn't doing anything when the switch was turned on. What is annoying here is that there is no manual ignitor nor any access to the burner which would allow me to light it the old fashioned way. Equally annoying is that most of the wiring diagrams for this fridge I've found are for the older version which lacks the electronic ignitor...

After a not insignificant amount of swearing and headscratching I worked out that we had a multiple offender on our hands. The wiring to the ignitor was totally wrong *and* the switch contacts were dirty. The best decision I made at this point was to just rip all the wiring out and redo it from scratch. Which took five minutes. That done we had it cheerfully going "tickticktickticktick..." when turned on. Adding gas to the equation...



Much better. I gave the flame failure detection system a good workout to make sure it behaved and it did.

Knowing the gas system worked I made a point of actually securing the flue and sealing the joint to the body...much aluminium tape was involved to cover the good inch or so gap I made between it and the surrounding woodwork. The flue doesn't actually get massively hot, but I'd rather keep good distance between plywood and hot stuff.



Of course with gas onboard a new bit of equipment needed to be installed.



I like these CO alarms as they give a useful indication of any low background level which wouldn't actually trigger any alarms.

I let the fridge running for a couple of hours while I was doing other work...



So everything I needed was finally working. Oh...and I stopped the exhaust rattling by smacking the front most bracket with a hammer.

Just needed to get all the junk out of the van and clean stuff up.

All the non-van related stuff chucked out the luggage locker...



Empty and prep the toilet for use. It had been left with a cleaning solution in...seems to have done a good job, no smell whatsoever and looked pretty clean in there. The treatment agents for these toilets seem a lot better than when I first used one twenty years or so back it has to be said.



Stick the fridge on mains mode so it can cool down overnight before we load it up for the trip in the morning.



Gave the cabin and cockpit a clean up - the bit I always enjoy.









Cockpit scrubs up well.



So that's it... tomorrow we will be off as of 11 or so hopefully.



Hopefully an uneventful trip ahead. Hopefully!

[Hell Razor5543]

Enjoy yourselves, and have an uneventful driving experience.

[furriegurrie]

I really enjoy reading your blog. We also have an old camper, a '78 Fiat with a Citroën LHM brake system. I haven't done much on the camper side of things. I'll dig up a link to my topic on another (French/Citroën) forum if you're interested. Have a great trip!

[Zelandeth]

I really enjoy reading your blog. We also have an old camper, a '78 Fiat with a Citroën LHM brake system. I haven't done much on the camper side of things. I'll dig up a link to my topic on another (French/Citroën) forum if you're interested. Have a great trip!

Always interested to read of an oddball vehicle...and that sounds quite definitely in that category! To be honest the vast majority of the work I've had to do on the camper side of things here has been undoing poorly conceived "upgrades" and putting it back how it should be. There will be some changes made soon, but properly thought out ones which are actually useful!


We have made it here in one piece.

Here in one piece - and set up before the rain started

Can categorically say having now had 150 miles to test the theory that the new exhaust has vastly improved the ability to make progress on the motorway. Even if it does leave us with a soundtrack which isn't dissimilar to a WWI era aircraft at times... Mercifully it's actually not that loud once you're up to speed or that could have become wearing rapidly. At 60 though it's totally drowned out by the rest of the mechanical racket and wind noise.

Given we're at a camping event I'm not hugely surprised that I don't have the oldest vehicle here. What did surprise me though is that it's not a VW that is (no classic ones here at all actually).

Early L200...before they were trendy!

When did you last see one of those?!?

On the same topic...bonus classic Toyota spotted when we stopped for lunch too.

Hi-Ace/Lite-Ace or Town-Ace...I can never remember which is which... couldn't even when they were common.

To say it will be a quiet weekend will be overstating the fact given we're sharing the camp site with something like 200 huskies...there is much howling going on outside!

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

....It's really not a small van

talking of which, clocked this huge Talbot Express conversion recently. Quite a Behemoth. Drivers Door looks very non-standard.

If its any comfort Zel, the MOT Sheet on this vehicle suggests someone's had to put some serious money into to keep it legal. (looks a bit unloved but does have a current ticket)

[furriegurrie]

Here you go:
https://www.citroen-forum.nl/forums/viewthread/227768

I think I've placed it on here before when I asked for suggestions and tips for our UK holiday.
It's all in Dutch, but with Google translate it might be readable. As it is as much a Fiat 242 as a Citroën C35 it is tolerated on this otherwise mostly Citroën dedicated forum.

Not much done after replacing the starter motor. Been away on a couple of small trips only as we moved house last year. Now extending and renovating so not much time. It's not been out of it's hidingplace this year....

[Zelandeth]

That's quite a fascinating little van. I've only had a quick look through the pictures so far but will throw it at Google Translate when I'm next at my desktop PC.

Must have been really modern for 1978 having double glazed acrylic windows like that, I'd have expected old school glass at that age. The instrument cluster really is the only thing which is a visual clue to the actual age really isn't it. Not that it means much given I don't believe the cab of the Merc T1 changed appreciably from its launch in 77 through to the discontinuation in 1994 (save for the big 4/6/8 series which continued as the Vario witha facelift and slightly updated interior).

Have a snap of two from earlier today when we've had (sporadic) actual sunshine.

Sunshine... it's not a trick!

Or is it?

It is actually something of a trick. Yes it's sunny, but there's still a bitterly cold 40mph wind! So quite a bit of hiding inside is still happening.

[Zelandeth]

We decided to head back home today as the event just wasn??'t really panning out how we had hoped. ? Nothing dire, but they just really hadn't done a good job of making it possible for folks who didn't already know someone there actually get involved. It wasn't *bad* just could have been better - likewise the general information provision was just lacking. We only found the skip for general rubbish after twenty minutes of blindly wandering the site and the fresh water tap by asking a fellow camper. Never did find where to dump the contents of the grey water tank so that was just left in there to be dealt with at home. Also totally forgot to dump the contents of the fresh water tank purely because I'm stupid, so that ?was an additional 40kgs of ballast dragged home unnecessarily!

I fuelled up just a couple of miles into the return trip, showing a 26.9mp?g figure for the outward leg. Not bad for a van this size, especially as I've not been actively doing anything to try to improve economy while driving. ?

?Arrived home 117 miles later with this much left. ?

Reckon that is £15-20 used - not bad for a 2.8 tonne brick

Reckon? that's probably sticking around the expected MPG. Will probably fill up tomorrow so I can track performance over the trip. Glad to report that the van has not missed a beat the whole time. ?

Home again

Given? all of our stuff was still in there and we've been enjoying making use of it we've decided to throw the??? dog back at the r?est of the household, have rearranged cars, levelled the van off so the fridge works, and will complete our weekend's camping - in our own driveway.

Think we can consider this a successful field test overall?.

[Zelandeth]

Couldn't resist??? getting the Invacar out for another run today. Previous to this the furthest I got in one day was 9 miles (having aimed for ten but miscounted).

That?'s 17 miles today in one afternoon. Doesn't sound like much, but it's progress and is a step towards actually going somewhere beyond this corner of Milton Keynes. Most importantly today that was seventeen miles WITHOUT anything misbehaving or falling off. That is why it's progress. ?

Because it seems to have become a thing now what I take photos everywhere she goes, did the same today.

B&Q was the first s?top (looking for some sticky back plastic to tidy up some of the cabinet facing in the van).

This? was? the first time that I had a proper crowd of people turn up while I was in the store who wanted to know what it was and the story behind it was. One of the folks there did remember them who? was very surprised at the complexity of the car beneath the very 50s looking bodywork. ??

?As they didn't have what I needed, wound up at Homebase (who did have it once I'd walked round the whole store five times looking for it). Bonus Lotus i?n the car park?. ?

Next stop???? was Morrison's - though the photo from there for reasons best known to the gods of tech has vanished into the void. So you will just have to trust me.

The difference in the drive system is night and day compared to before I started cleaning the pulleys up, she is now quite happy to cruise at 50mph. 60 is definitely on the cards but she's obviously more ?comfortable at 50. I do have a video of this (with a better camera than the last one), however so far it's being stubborn - once I kick YouTube into behaving I'll get it added here. ?

It is noticeable that the judder when pulling off has become more noticeable today, though it wouldn't s?urprise me if the belt tension needed a tweak now she's done a few miles.

I may well get the secondary pulley back off tomorrow and finish cleaning it - I'm hoping the drill will be able to spin it fast enough to get the pulley sheaves to open up as that will make it a lot easier. ??We'll see I guess...

?One thing which is really obvious now looking far better is the state of the PCV system. There was a lot of mayo in the oil filler o?riginally, but after the run out today that's looking *far* better. ?

That?'s more li?ke it.?

Edit: after a somewhat protracted argument with both Google Photos and YouTube, the video should now be online...

[YouTube]l4Y9nbmUeWA[/YouTube]

[Zelandeth]

Apparently? teaching the dog the command "through" to walk through a tunnel was a bad idea. He has now realised that he can squeeze under things we he previously saw as impenetrable barriers.

?Hence this greeting me when I got home from taking him out for a run round our local dog park earlier.

You fluffy idiot...

Apparently? I'm going to need to add some additional bars...

The question of "which sticks better?" between duct tape and self adhesive aluminium foil tape has been answered. The original patch I ?stuck on the air intake resonator on the van was duct tape, it was blown off in a matter of minutes. The ally foil tape repa?ir is still there and still quiet 240 miles later. It's hard to believe how much quieter fixing this 1/2" or so diameter hole makes life in the cab! ?

The ally tape has it.

It will? do for now??????, at least until I find a replacement air box.

Speaking of tidying stuff up...a?nyone got one of these light switches (or even just the knob) floating around? While this one wo?rks fine it looks like somebody has used the knob as a chew toy and it really bugs me. ?

How do you even do this to your dashboard?!?

So far the dealer???? and eBay have turned up blank. The latter though doesn't mean much given that pretty much the entire search result list is "promoted" content which appear to have absolutely nothing to do with my se?arch string... ??

Have pulled???? the secondary pulley back off TPA ready for proper cleaning before being met with a slight impass because I'm stupid.

It's clear from the deposition of belt material on the service hatch that it's the secondary pulley that is responsible for shredding it exactly as I expected.

That black dust is everywhere...

What I had?? failed to take into account is that the bolt screws into a shaft which passes most of the way through the pull?ey...not straight into something level with the back. So I need to get some threaded rod to make what will essentially be a? really long bolt to attach the pulley to my drill which will be essentially taking the place of a lathe. Will get that done tomorrow and hopefully get everything back tog?ether for ano?ther t?es?t.

Felt like a right idiot when I realised the bolt was a good couple of inches too short to just bolt it onto the drill!

[Hell Razor5543]

Apparently? teaching the dog the command "through" to walk through a tunnel was a bad idea. He has now realised that he can squeeze under things he previously saw as impenetrable barriers.

?Hence this greeting me when I got home from taking him out for a run round our local dog park earlier.

IMG_20190508_130122.jpg

Apparently? I'm going to need to add some additional bars...

When an intelligent dog really uses their brain the results can seriously surprise you. A very long time ago my Mum taught her Alsatian (Butch) to 'seek' by dropping a broken watch (when in the park), and then, later in the walk, sending him back to try and find it. He seemed to cotton onto the idea, but (after a few goes) he started to take longer to return with the watch. Mum got suspicious, and the next time she took a mirror with her. When they got to the park Mum started using the mirror to see what was going on. It turned out that Butch would, every so often, double back and check to see if she had dropped the watch. When he DID find it he would hold it completely in his mouth, with nothing showing. Then, when Mum told him to seek, he would head off round the nearest corner and then catch a quick forty winks!