It’s only a small leak, honest

[Rambo]

And I would advise anyone else to do that too. Only keep 1 vehicle SORN'd for essential use because you're not going anywhere anytime soon so forget it And remember they need to be kept off a public road or street legally.

I have done that for 3 out of my 4 vehicles. Taxing them again is very easy on line and I have used the monthly direct debit approach for several years now

Sorry J, a bit again

[Saltire]

No problem, Mark. I’m very happy for this to turn into the “What I did during Covid-19” thread

And anyway, I think you’re right. Taxing a car’s a doddle these days and it makes no sense to have the others on the road (especially the Golf for which I have to pay the £300 a year excess - long story). I’m fortunate in that I have a big driveway (8 cars or so), but the Golf’s in the garage and the Elan is up at a friend’s stables on his two-post lift.

Let’s hope we can enjoy an Indian summer later in the year.

[clemo]

Removed my post and put on daily chat .

[Saltire]

Made some good progress over the last few weeks. Car’s on SORN and sat in the workshop. As you may remember, I got the powder coating back just before the lockdown. At that time I was still stripping everything down. I’ve now started to reassemble, and thought I’d take some pictures to remind me what I’ve done if I ever need to take it to bits again. So:

Power steering reassembled with all brackets blasted and painted

New thermostat and temp sensors, housing cleaned

New coil packs and controller; powder coated support bracket

Beginning to fit the Samco hoses from last years group buy. Red part is high temperature shield over EGR pipe, to protect the Samco hose

Building up the refinished cross-member; note the new stainless fasteners and the powder coated air intake

New plug leads in and routed

Who was it who was asking about chassis earth a while ago? This is the ‘before’ image

And this is what it looks like now

Still to do:

- finish the hoses
- fit the new radiator (which is where all this started)
- refit the refurbished front bumper
- refit the refurbished headlamp motors and pods (I’m *still* waiting for the new inner lamps to be delivered; the outers were fine to reuse after cleaning)

And then all I need is for Boris to let us out to play . . .

[Rambo]

Two chances of that

PS after you have fitted the rad. and added coolant check carefully for any leaks. After fitting the new Samco hoses (twice now) you usually get a small weep after a period of time. Easily sorted though, particularly if yo have easy access underneath

[Saltire]

Two chances of that

PS after you have fitted the rad. and added coolant check carefully for any leaks. After fitting the new Samco hoses (twice now) you usually get a small weep after a period of time. Easily sorted though, particularly if yo have easy access underneath

Thanks Mark; now you mention it I recall seeing that somewhere, but I’d forgotten. Sound advice

[Saltire]

All back together!

Shiny under bonnet

The engine’s not really as golden as it looks; it’s just the garage lighting.

Only real hiccup was that the new temperature sender put the gauge into the red at the top of the scale. IR thermometer showed water well within limits and fans didn’t kick in, so tomorrow’s job is to put the old (working) sender back.

Nice new Samco hoses not weeping anywhere, as far as I can see, so that’s a result too.

However, the car’s on SORN, the insurance runs out on Friday week, and the MoT on May 15th (not yet showing as extended), so no prospect of a runabout any time soon

[GeoffSmith]

All back together!

Not planning on taking it out at night then?

[Saltire]

Bit of a problem, there, officer.


No headlamps.


Pods are off, cleaned, joints lubricated, dip units cleaned, re-lubed and back in with stainless screws from the One-Eff Emporium. Still waiting for the replacement main beam inner units which were ordered 5 weeks ago

Don’t think I’d get away with a stealth Elan . . .

[Rambo]

Looks lovely J. And that black Isuzu lettering looks classy too (unlike Geof's tacky red lettering )

[Saltire]

Thanks, Mark. There doesn’t seem to be any ‘standard’ colour for the letters, so I just used my creative talents.

Even so, it doesn’t look bad

I did consider having the cam cover cleaner and painted, but having read some of the experiences on here, I’ve left it for the moment. May tackle it with some fine wire wool or similar depending on how long we’re incarcerated.

Hopefully that will be it in terms of major jobs for the moment, although I’d still like to get the seats retrimmed, and I noticed during this work how shabby the paintwork is getting. Some of it came up OK with the DA polisher, but some is sadly past saving

Just the engine to tune now and it could be back on the road

[Rambo]

No doubt the bungling BoJo will have some say in that

[Saltire]

When I was at school (and it’s my thread so I can go if I want) the Debating Society used to have a balloon debate once a term. The premise was that there were several famous people in the basket of a hot air balloon, which was sinking towards the ground. You were volunteered to play the part of one of the celebs, and you had to make a cogent case as to why you shouldn’t be chucked out to lighten the basket and save the others. The audience voted, and the last one in won.

Be fun for the BBC to run a similar debate with today’s set of UK party leaders

[Simon_P]

Great idea! Laura Kunesberg could be the host, then they could chuck her out first for asking damn silly questions.

[lotustonybassplayer]

[Saltire]

Well, here's a head-scratcher. I finally got the newly rebuilt headlamp pods back in place today, to go with the overhauled motors and the replacement main beam lights. And they work beautifully.

Sort of.

When I switch the lights ON, the pods go down.

And when I switch the lights OFF, the pods pop up.

They were working fine before I started what I'm now calling the "Covid overhaul", and I haven't touched the pod lift or pod delay modules, or disturbed any of the earths (apart obviously from those at the headlamps themselves, which I've remade). I'm therefore inclined to think it's unrelated to the modules, but to do with something I've done.

So what am I missing? What have I screwed up? And do the pods need to go through some kind of reset cycle if they've been off the car?

Ideas welcome please, before I resort to the gin

[Brit-Car-Nut]

Jonathan,

This is a bold line in the WIKI guide to rebuilding the motors:

WARNING: If you remove the motor completely, make sure it is replaced in the same orientation otherwise you will end up with winking or inverse headlights - the pod will be raised when the headlight is off and will descend when the headlight is on!

[Fredjohn]

An off the wall thought. Have you re-assembled the cranks the wrong way?

I remember my old granny's treddle sewing machine could go either way depending on how you set it off!

EDIT posted at same time BCN. Guess we're saying the same thing.

[dapinky]

I remember my old granny's treddle sewing machine could go either way depending on how you set it off!

Puch Maxi moped! if you pedaled the wrong way to start it, the engine ran backwards....... and thus you rode backwards until you either stopped, or, more likely, fell off

[Saltire]

I remember my old granny's treddle sewing machine could go either way depending on how you set it off!

Puch Maxi moped! if you pedaled the wrong way to start it, the engine ran backwards....... and thus you rode backwards until you either stopped, or, more likely, fell off

Thanks all. That occurred to me about 10 minutes after I got back home from the workshop. I’ll have a look tomorrow.