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

[Zelandeth]

I've been having a ponder as to what the Invacar and a Merc would commonly share. The only things I could come up with would be a lamp bulb, the petrol in the tank, and the air in the tyres

There is more intertwined history than you might think...the engine is made by Steyr-Puch...

Linky

There was a G-Wagon parked next to the parts desk...

[Dormouse]

As an aside to while away the time, how many miles has your Camper done and how does it's running compare to the TE?

[Zelandeth]

As an aside to while away the time, how many miles has your Camper done and how does it's running compare to the TE?

Barely run in at 65K miles.



It's a massive exercise in over-engineering as a vehicle and drives like the day it left the factory as a result.

In sharp contrast to the S123 this was clearly maintained for much of its life with little regard to expense. As evidenced by how clean the innards of the engine are, this is what I found when I pulled the cam cover off to replace the gasket a couple of years ago.



Also evidence of the over engineered nature of it...this is a 2.3 litre normally aspirated diesel engine tuned to produce a staggering 78bhp. Yet in addition to a radiator the size of a small country they also fitted it with a separate oil cooler that must be about a quarter of the size of the radiator.

It's hard to really compare the two to drive, you can never rush anything in the van. She accelerates at the rate she chooses and it really makes no difference whether you take it easy or really push things. She's also rather loud, courtesy of an eBay special exhaust which apparently doesn't have any baffles in. I keep meaning to do something about that but it keeps not getting to the top of the list. Gearchange is also classic old commercial in that you can't rush it. The change is actually pretty precise, but it refuses to be rushed - I usually double declutch just because it keeps the timing right and just feels natural in something like this anyway. Dogleg first as all proper commercial vehicles should have...

Ride is astonishingly good for something with solid axles and leaf springs all round. Very much does the sort of floaty thing at speed I usually associate with old coaches. All in all is quite a pleasant way to cover miles.

[white exec]

...and a duplex chain, which you would have thought Merc might have run to...
Beautifully clean!

[Dormouse]

Do you like the sedate, deliberate progress the camper makes. It reminds me of our 508D which was exactly in the same vein of "don't try to rush me" - it sailed along, quite happily.

[Zelandeth]

Do you like the sedate, deliberate progress the camper makes. It reminds me of our 508D which was exactly in the same vein of "don't try to rush me" - it sailed along, quite happily.

She scoots along astonishingly well on the motorway, an indicated 75mph seems to be where she is happiest once you've got enough road to wind up to to - and will happily maintain that easier than 60. It definitely confuses people when they're overtaken by a 30 year old camper. Especially given that it goes past making a noise like a light aircraft. The "Juggernaut Mode" which seems to occur at speed was a surprise...I was expecting bumbling along at 50 to be the order of the day generally.

Not quite as good though as the proper double-take I got from the guy in the Prius on the A5 today when I sailed past in the Invacar. People really do not expect to see that making progress like that, or it being able to use the outside lane without getting in anyone's way.

The only time I really find the lack of go can be a bit tiring is on back roads around here because of the obsession with having walls/hedges right up to the edge of the road so you've got near zero visibility so have to be on and off the brakes a lot and can't do much to conserve momentum.

[Dormouse]

Tah Da!


You have just made the 5000th reply on your own blog page

Congratulations

[white exec]

Gosh, Zel, and wow!
Have been following your engineering, plumbing, electronic, graphic, and multi-pronged escapades for a good while now — and it's always a really good read, peppered with insights and discoveries (and a good bit of nostalgia). Congratulations and thanks are due - not only for keeping on top of it all, but also for making the time to photograph and write about it in such enjoyable detail.
Extraordinary pages, by an extraordinary man!

[Dormouse]

Yes Zel, you and all the other contributors are what makes this Forum special to a Newbie like me. So a message to everyone out there - keep the Blogs coming!
It is going to take me a long time to read them all but it is amazing that you all take time to contribute. Pat yourselves on the back.

[Dormouse]

Back to our 508D. It was the same on twisty roads, you just sort of took your time. It frightened the H*** out of a motorbiker one day in the Borders. The Merc would have been OK, I would have just hosed the mess off. But the biker needed more than a hose to clean his leathers! How can you not think something that big is going to be around the next bend and where the heck are you going to go if it is!
On the open road it was like yours too. At speed it was just felt like it could sit there all day, up hill, down dale until it ran out of fuel. But drop speed and it took a while to get back up there.
The rear side windows were from a Hillman Imp, door and rear, and I used the Imp rear ones upside down and painted a body flash at the same angle upwards to match. Happy Days!

[Zelandeth]

Well I can't see me giving up the hobby so you lot are stuck with my ramblings for the foreseeable future I think!

-- -- --

While waiting on parts from Mercedes for the S123 I figured it was a good opportunity to get a service item on TPA I'd been putting off done. Gearbox and diff oil change.

What came out was quite grim, not glittery though, just very degraded. Was really thin and seemed to have lost a lot of its lubricity. The oil that went in last year was from a very old container, and even though it was still sealed I think it may have broken down over time on the shelf. The new oil that went in today was actually new and hopefully will fare better.



While I was in there I took a look at the condition of both CVT pulleys and the belt - these items live quite a hard life so it's worth checking for any signs of distress whenever you're in the area, especially as we've been experimenting with a current belt type rather than the exact one originally specified.

Everything looks fine though, looks like the Dayco HP2020 belt is able to stand up to the job.

It's been on there since last August and has about 1500 miles on so far.







Main reason I had been putting it off was that getting to the level plug for the diff is an absolute pain in the tail. It's not quite so bad now I've done it a few times as I know where it is (you can see it or touch it, but not both at the same time), but is still bloody awkward. I'm sure the intended way of changing the oil was to have the car on a lift in which case it would be dead easy. Having the original seat would make it easier too actually as the backrest can be easily removed from that, not possible on mine so you're working around it.

I've found that cracking the level plug off from in the engine bay but then unscrewing and removing/refitting it from in the cabin and then doing the final tightening from the engine side seems to be the easiest solution.

The "light scattered showers" the weather forecast predicted this afternoon proved to be anything but. "Persistent and mostly heavy" was a better description. So we got a few more typical photos of her out and about rather than just when it's nice and sunny for a change.





My weatherproofing improvements have definitely helped, though I do still have a little water getting in around the offside of the windscreen occasionally.

Somewhat to my surprise, the demister actually does just fine when you're on the open road so long as you keep a window cracked slightly - problem is that as soon as you drop below about 50 it basically ceases to have any effect whatsoever - and the cabin being so small means that it fogs up very quickly. Obviously there's no way to direct air to the side windows either so you really do need a demisting cloth to live in the car.

Windscreen wiper does a better job of clearing the screen than you'd think with how tiny it is, though an intermittent wipe function would be nice...you really want two hands on the handlebars whenever possible so having to keep turning the wiper on/off gets a bit tiresome after a while.

Not that I generally plan to use the car regularly in monsoon conditions, but if I get caught on a longer run in poor weather it's nice to know that it's not a huge problem.

[mickthemaverick]

You might find this useful Zel, I fitted it to my Reliant and it worked well!!

BFTW

[white exec]

The belt on your CVT is interesting, because it looks like a toothed/timing/cam belt, rather than a notched V-belt (replacing the original solid V-belts).
What's its history, Zel?

[Zelandeth]

The belt on your CVT is interesting, because it looks like a toothed/timing/cam belt, rather than a notched V-belt (replacing the original solid V-belts).
What's its history, Zel?

The ribs I believe are primarily to increase the surface area for cooling purposes.

The original belts were made by the thousand under contract to DHSS by major manufacturers - I've seen them with both Dayco and Gates labels on, however it appeared to be specific to this application. We've been lucky enough to come across quite a large stash of NOS parts, including half a dozen or so CVT belts - one of these shown below.





A bit of measuring later we found that the Dayco HP2020 was pretty much identical to the originals - well within the tolerances of the sample of originals we were comparing to anyway. This is a bonus as the HP2020 is used by quite a number of ATV type vehicles to this day - including big names like Kawasaki. So they're pretty easy to find, especially in the US (I bought this from Rock Auto - even including shipping it was half the price of anyone selling it in this country).



One of the vehicles I found it as OEM specification was rated at well over 50bhp, so the 19.3bhp here shouldn't be stretching it too much - though they're probably not generally going to be doing as much high speed work, which is why I've been keeping an eye on it. It definitely smells of hot rubber after sitting at 70 for a while, but seems to be holding up fine. I generally stick to 60-65 on dual carriageway/motorways though as that's where she seems happiest.

While we've got a pretty decent stock of NOS belts it made a lot of sense to me to see if we could find a workable modern equivalent as they're not going to last forever, plus they're only getting older. This initial experiment being triggered by me having one let go one day without any warning. This was from my own parts stock though which had come with KPL and I reckon had degraded due to poor storage (that's been a running theme with most parts that came with that car), and the other NOS ones will probably last just fine.

It was a lesson learned though - and I now keep a spare belt and the tools (one spanner - it's literally a ten minute job) needed to change it in the car.

[xantia_v6]

I think that the ribs are designed to increase the gripping surface area while reducing heat generated by flexing.