The primer I applied yesterday appears to have reacted with the paintwork underneath it and had dried to a crackled finish - but hadn't actually dried fully. So there's going to be a lot of work to remove that befo?re I can move forward with that. Kind of wish I just had some nice gloopy coach enamel to throw at it right now!
After a couple of hours of fighting with that I lost patience with it and moved onto other things. The moment that my sa??nder decided to expire with an almighty bang I decided to take as an indication it was time to move on to something else. I'll drop by Toolstation tomorrow and pick up a more substantial sander...have a feeling that's something which I'll thank myself for in the long run.
Number one in "other stuff I need to do" ?was trying to track down the blasted clutch fluid reservoir cap which I'd in a spectacular show of hand-eye coordination dropped down the back of the engine. Thanks to the "busy" nature of the engine bay in the Activa I couldn't even see where it had ended up, never mind being able to get at it. ?
Attempt number one to coerce it to fall out the bottom was by poking an air line down the back of the engine and blasting it in various directions. No luck. This was then upgraded to the hose pipe, equally unsuccessful. Eventually I gave in and got the ramps out. ?
After a not inconsiderable amount of poking and prodding the cap eventually dropped out, not entirely sure where from actually as it just randomly landed n?ext to my head from somewhere else. ?
Managed to get?? the thing back on this time. I suspect there's still some air in the system somewhere as the pedal isn't great. That will need some further thought as there's no provision for bleeding the system. For now th?ough it's driveable at least so I'm not going to worry too much.
Having finally sourced the correct fan belt for the van I figured it was time to see if I could get that on and see if? it would resolve the extremely irritating squeaking at idle. In addition to a very dry squeaking which I'd initially thought to be a bearing in something disintegrating until I discovered it stopped if you sprayed water on the belt, it would also periodically do the slipping fanbelt screech, especially if you had the headlights on putting some load on the alternator. To be fair that's the only thing which really does pull power from the battery...glowplugs are usually on for <5 sec?onds and she usually fires first compression stroke so the starter motor doesn't really have time ?to drain any appreciable charge from it...I was pretty sure the belt was just old though. ?
For reference - here's the squeak we're talking about...not pleasant. ?
[YouTube]Jybge7Re9Vw[/YouTube]
This took far??? longer than it really should have as it took me a good 45 minutes to work out how to release the belt tension. This is a bit more involved than in some cases as there's an automatic tensioner which needs to be backed off. That still doesn't give you enough slack though until you've also disconnected the vibration damper which is attached to the other side of the tensioner. Then there's *just* enough slack to wrestle the belt off.
While it's free of any damage the running surface is really quite badly glazed.
It was? quite obvious??? when trying to get it off that anything you did that made the belt move resulted in ear piercingly high pitched squeaking - fair sign the belt was the source of it squeaking at idle. Despite the new belt being 2mm shorter (according to GSF 6PK1015 is an obsolete size, nearest they could supply is 6PK1013) it slipped on without protest. I then spent the next half hour trying to reassemble the tensioner.
On the plus side, it will take me ten minutes next time I do it. Not difficult, there is just a very specific order you need to do things in. Hopefully I won't drop my socket set into the engine bay next time either.
So, after well over an hour...did we stop the squeak?
[YouTube]7x2ZIuHc5DA[/YouTube]
Yes...we do now appear to have a squeak free van. Exhaust? still rattles a little at idle from time to time but there's ?not much to be done about that as it seems to be something actually internal to the silencer, it doesn't always do it anyway and isn't audible from inside the cab at least
Quick road test supported my initial assessment that indeed we do now seem to be squeak free.
Finally... that's only been on the to do list since September.
Last task for the day was a "period bodge" for the Lada.
Yesterday we were in a hurry to try to get to a shop before they closed (we made it) and as such were "making? goo?d progress" at a few points, much to the bafflement of a couple of Audi drivers. The car was quite happy to do this and actually feels a bit better for it - however the duct tape on the offside wing didn't survive the extreme velocities involved and started to disintegrate.
I'd never bothered messing with filler or anything as I'd always found it horrible stuff to work with and I reckoned I'd just make things worse. Plus I know the wings will be changed long term anyway. However as mentione?d a couple of days ago this Fibral stuff is far, far more user friendly...so I figured we'd give it a sho?t.
Stuffed a couple of foam offcuts under there ju?st to hold things in place while it sets, then set about filling the gaps.
End result (prior to sanding of course) was this. ?
I reckon once that's sanded back???? and painted we should be able to get a perfectly acceptable repair there. If I can get it to a point where it's "inoffensive" rather than being the first thing you notice I'll consider that progress.
As far as the actual rust goes I'm not worried. I've absolutely drowned the area in Dinitrol and there's no sign of it having got any worse since I got the car. She's kept off the road when the salt is around too which I'm sure has helped ?too.
If this looks okay once I've tidied it up I'll probably do the same on the other side. Oh...and I reckon this stuff should do just fine to repair the rear windscreen washer bottle...so I can fix that and get the rear window washer going...only been broken since 1993.
Have a sneaking feeling I'll be roped into gardening all day tomorrow so probably won't be much to report then. ?
Correction it might well be a Navajo after all....no little windows in the roof above the cab. What do you reckon Zel? It had dimples if that helps!
