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

[bobins]

Rifa's are still in regular demand for old Rega turntables

[CitroJim]

Rifa's are still in regular demand for old Rega turntables

Needed to preserve the fine tonal qualities of said turntables I assume.... Maybe others cause brittle treble and muddy bass

Whereas a Rifa gives the music a nice smoky note...

[bobins]

When they go on the blink you get an interesting reaction on the turntable - the platter randomly goes backwards and forwards every second to three seconds. It quite literally doesn't know if it's coming or going !

[myglaren]

Interesting. I bought a Rega for my youngest daughter a couple of years ago. She loves it.

[bobins]

I think the modern ones don't have the Rifas in them, or at least not the ones with a dedicated separate power supply.

[Zelandeth]

Finally got around to fixing a patient on my workbench which has been patiently waiting for...uuuuh...about five years. After a bit of battery terminal microsurgery, my HP 11C is back up and running.

I've been having to slum it with the TI-66 since it failed. Usually having picked up the 11C and then realised it didn't work.

Well, that or the other half dozen calculators stacked up under my monitors, but the TI-66 is always my other go to. Always just found myself drawn to those with a landscape layout. Would love to see what a lot of people would make of the 11C and having to deal with RPN! Do wonder actually how many properly pocket sized calculators used RPN...had in my head that it was on the way out by and large by the time the pocket calculator had really become commonplace. Should do a bit of reading to see how far off the mark I probably am.

I do admit that the TI-66 gets a mention just for being the one which does the easiest job of polar to Cartesian conversion, which saved me a lot of headaches back when I had to mess about with that nonsense at college. The 11C though has always been a favourite though ever since I got it.

[CitroJim]

I think is great how you preserve and keep what was once cutting-edge calculators going Zel Along with all the other vintage stuff..

I reckon you have the beginnings of a museum and a very interesting one at that...

[Gibbo2286]

I've been using this old thing for many years, it stopped working last week for the first time but just needed a new button battery

[Zelandeth]

As we had a nice dry day on Wednesday I figured it would be a good opportunity to give the Rover a bit of a run while attending to the day's errands.

Of course as this car apparently hates me, something had to fail.

Both the odometer and trip meter have stopped moving. Given the fuel gauge is currently non functional this is more than slightly annoying. Guess I'll be pulling the instrument cluster out yet again to investigate that at some point shortly. On the plus side I'm getting pretty well practiced at that now.

After a little over seven months worth of delays mostly thanks to Barclay's being willfully awkward seemingly simply because they can, a little chunk of money left to me by my nan landed in my account in the last couple of days. The bulk of this is going to be sensibly stashed away in an ISA, but some of it had been allocated as my "fix the Trabant" fund. What followed was by far the most expensive car parts order I have ever placed.

Realistically the car is probably worth £1500-2000 on a good day if it wasn't broken. However I really like the little buzz box and I really don't care whether it makes sense. Even if I went out and bought a lovely pristine looking example there's no guarantee it wouldn't go pop 500 miles down the road. This car has already had a fair bit of work done in terms of nice quality of life upgrades in the disc brakes and rear camber correction kit. So once I've got the engine issues and a couple of bits of rust squared away it should be a pretty well sorted car.

Cosmetically she's always going to be a bit scruffy. I'd like to get the correct bumpers refitted and I'll be getting some paint done to prevent rust creeping in in a couple of places, but this isn't ever going to be a restoration. Slightly scruffy I think kinda suits a Trabant anyway. The interior is actually surprisingly tidy and anyone who knows me knows that's the bit I'm most picky about.

That order of parts consists of a 700cc uprated engine core, a Mikuni TMX27 carb, the altered exhaust manifold to retain the pre-heater for the cabin heater (the normal shroud on the manifold gets in the way of a taller carb), a new clutch and full set of engine/gearbox mount bushes - would be silly not to change those while I was in there.

I hovered for quite a while both over whether I went for the upgraded power unit, likewise over whether to get the Mikuni carb. Though eventually came to the conclusion that when we're looking at a bill like this a few hundred quid really isn't going to make the world of difference. So I figured I'd just do what I could to make the car as good as possible at the end of this. A jump from 26 to 30bhp doesn't sound like much in the grand scheme of things but in a car this small and light should definitely be noticeable I'd think, and the carb in particular apparently does improve the driveability. Jim will I'm sure be able to vouch for how important a decent carb is in the world of the two stroke engine as well.

It will be really interesting to hear the new engine run and realise quite how many noises the old one *shouldn't* have been making the whole time I was driving it!

Looks like this is a pretty firm confirmation that the Trabant has cemented its place as a long term fleet member.

Slightly annoying is that around €500 of that figure is made of core unit surcharges which could be refunded if I were to return the original engine and clutch to Trabantwelt - unfortunately the cheapest I could find at a brief web search to send a parcel of that size/weight back to Germany with a vaguely reputable courier is well north of £350. Which given the faff involved in cleaning and sealing everything up suitably for shipping and then packaging it properly isn't going to be trivial just makes it seem more trouble than it's worth for a rebate which maybe comes to about €100 actually ending up back in my pocket. It is what it is though, I'm not going to complain when we've got a specialist we can just go and buy things like this from. Plus loosely reassembled the old engine could be quite an interesting thing to be able to show along with the car at shows - it's such an odd looking thing compared to anything you'd expect to see in a car but you really can't see it in the car as it's buried under tinware.

Procedure should basically be:

[] Disconnect ignition breaker connector & HT leads (already done I think).
[] Disconnect fuel feed line to carb.
[] Disconnect throttle and choke cables.
[] Unbolt engine mounts.
[] Unbolt bell housing.
[] Remove old engine.
[] Replace engine & gearbox mounts.
[] Extract and replace clutch release bearing.
[] Transfer contact breaker module to new engine.
[] Transfer alternator to new engine.
[] Transfer cooling fan to new engine.
[] Install clutch on new engine.
[] Insert new engine.
[] Fit carb.

...Connect up everything again, refit exhaust...you get the idea. Setting the timing is probably the most finicky part as that needs to be set to 2mm of piston travel BTDC, and yes it IS apparently important to be accurate.

Quite excited to drive it again, poor thing has been slowly turning green on the drive for far too long. It's still going to be a terrible car in so many ways, but it just makes me smile for reasons I can't quite explain.

In other news, Tesla would like us to demonstrate that the weather has indeed gone cooler in the last couple of weeks by virtue of blowing his coat and getting his proper winter coat. So...much...fluff...

That took maybe a minute. You can tell he really needs it as he generally hates being brushed but will just about tolerate it if it's this bad as it obviously itches. It does amuse me that they don't both do it at the same time - Star did this well over a month ago and just doesn't know what all the fuss is about.

[CitroJim]

Delighted the Trabant will soon be back on the road Zel

[bobins]

Realistically the car is probably worth £1500-2000 on a good day if it wasn't broken. However I really like the little buzz box and I really don't care whether it makes sense.

It's not supposed to make sense, we do these things because it's good for the soul.

Slightly annoying is that around €500 of that figure is made of core unit surcharges which could be refunded if I were to return the original engine and clutch to Trabantwelt - unfortunately the cheapest I could find at a brief web search to send a parcel of that size/weight back to Germany with a vaguely reputable courier is well north of £350. Which given the faff involved in cleaning and sealing everything up suitably for shipping and then packaging it properly isn't going to be trivial just makes it seem more trouble than it's worth for a rebate which maybe comes to about €100 actually ending up back in my pocket. It is what it is though, I'm not going to complain when we've got a specialist we can just go and buy things like this from.

Do they have a time limit on returns and surcharges ?

[CitroJim]

Realistically the car is probably worth £1500-2000 on a good day if it wasn't broken. However I really like the little buzz box and I really don't care whether it makes sense.

It's not supposed to make sense, we do these things because it's good for the soul.

Absolutely 100% agree with that

[mickthemaverick]

Try a squirt of lemon juice Zel, that's always good for the sole

[Zelandeth]

Do they have a time limit on returns and surcharges ?

I'll need to do a bit more reading to check that. Viewing the whole site through Google Translate which makes it a bit clunky. I really need to find out exactly how big the resulting parcel would be as a few kg and an inch or two makes a *huge* difference to the quotes I'm seeing. The values I've been using thus far have been a guesstimate at best. The return parcel will definitely be lighter than the one on the way to me as it will just contain the engine core unit and clutch - no carb, engine mounts and probably most important exhaust manifold. If I could get it back there for ~£100 it would probably make sense, but above that I think it's probably just more hassle than it's worth.

It's not supposed to make sense, we do these things because it's good for the soul.

Absolutely 100% agree with that

Absolutely. If we were doing this because it made sense my driveway would be completely devoid of any classics and probably just contain a single EV of some description - though actually *what* I'm honestly not sure. For a long time I'd kind of assumed that eventually I'd find my way into a second hand Model S. While they're never going to win any prizes for looks, I very much liked the whole experience of driving the two I've been behind the wheel of. Sadly now I just can't bring myself to associate with the brand - partly because of what a stark raving lunatic Musk has turned into and partly because they seem to have become as much a go-to choice for the absolute scum of the driving road as BMWs and Audis. I actually in all honesty don't know what I'd end up with.

Try a squirt of lemon juice Zel, that's always good for the sole

Congratulations. When I read that earlier I very nearly inhaled the coffee I was drinking.

[mickthemaverick]

There is a strong likelihood of me driving to my daughter's in Germany in May this year. If their return policies permit I may be able to take your parts back then. It would only cost you the return fuel from my daughter's near Mainz to the supplier, if that is profitable Zel?