Angie's new car......

[Jamie N]

Nice bit of work there Dave. Hope you were well masked up!.

[dapinky]

Nice bit of work there Dave. Hope you were well masked up!.

I won't cut and shape glassfibre (mechanically) without looking like a nervous person in a crowded room during a Covid outbreak! It's odd what we (I?) used to do years ago without thinking, just out of ignorance, nowadays I have goggles, glasses, masks and suitable clothing for virtually everything..... the days of smashing up an asbestos sheet roof wearing shorts and flip-flops using a sledgehammer and throwing the bits into a car boot to get them to the tip are well behind me.

[Simon_P]

are 'k' nuts the same as nyloc nuts or is this a different type of nut your referring to ?

As Dave said basically a squashed flange nut... But an aircraft grade squashed flange nut for applications where you don't want it to come undone. The bolt is high tensile as is the k nut, the required torque is double the recommended torque and exceeds the maximum recommended tightening torque for a nyloc. Those screws each provide 2.5tons of clamping force and carry the weight of the car whilst being subjected to load/unload of road shock - potholes and the like....That's why they are x10 the price of a standard nyloc.
Edit.with pictures of suspension I wrongly assumed that the reference to K nuts was suspension related - read the earlier post and it is brake m/C related (I don't remember them being anything special Will have to look) anyway the point is the same if they didn't use the cheapest part there is likely a reason.


A nice bit of fibreglassing dapinky. I also try not to breath the dust these days. on the safety theme I watched a video yesterday - it is apparently surprisingly easy to kill yourself welding I was shocked (pun intended) at just how easy.

[dapinky]

This *may* be the last update for a while..... as I am very nearly at the end of my job list (for now) and the only thing left to do is paint the car! Okay, it's not quite like that, as there is always new stuff to do, but nothing that needs to be part of a major project, so it may or may not get written about.

So, to try and round stuff off, the rear hubs/discs situation is that I am waiting on the supplier to get back to me about new items, so in the meantime, and not wanting to use the car with the old hubs on, I have bitten the bullet and followed Rons' lead with a change of hubs.

I don't feel that it is "my" project to talk about as Ron had already done much of the thought process and donkey work in making progress, and I simply came along, stole his thoughts, refined a couple of minor things and measured it all up on the bench and on the car to ensure that we are not setting ourselves up for a future problem.

All looks okay for now, and I'll leave it for Ron to claim the glory (if he wishes to) for the whole thing. Suffice to say, I have all new parts on the rear (hubs, bearings, discs) using 'off the shelf' parts and everything fits and works as it should, with no discernible loss of anything. It does involve a bit of machining work to the hub uprights, but the whole thing can be reversed to OE spec if required in the future.
I haven't driven it far enough to make any sort of report, but the brakes (including handbrake) work fine, and no wheels have fallen off!

The whole lot has taken me a bit over a week to sort out, but if I were to do it again, it can be done in a couple of hours (not counting the machining, which I outsourced so was at the mercy of the guy on the mill - but it wasn't a long job when he got round to it. It can be done at home if you have a mill or a lathe with enough room to spin the upright between the chuck and the baseplate.

Anyway, I have also got round to fitting my fan override system, which is a tad more involved than a switch across the sender unit, but actually quite simple to implement (once you have thought about it).

It is a slight variation on the system that Jonathan (Saltire) has previously published, whereby the whole lot is done from under the binnacle cover inside the car, which was a progression from the simple switch as used by many of us since Clemo first mentioned it many years ago.

Anyway, it involves the purchase of a few items - a timer relay, a 5-pin relay socket (wired), 5 male spade connectors, 5 female spade connectors, a few bits of wire and a Heated Rear Window switch from a Vauxhall Senator B / Opel Omega A.

Some of the parts are not actually 100% necessary, as all you really NEED is a simple switch fitted between Pin 85 of the fan relay (Position 'C' in the top row of the relay board under the binnacle) and Earth.

Anyway, you need to remove the binnacle cover (2 screws) from the top of the dashboard, and you will see the relay board towards the back of the hole (front of the car!). It will contain 2 rows of relays, with either 7 or 8 units fitted (the extra if you have AC on the car). The one we need access to is Position 'C' - which is the central one in the top row (but there may not be any fitted to the sockets to its right).
Initially, I intended to remove the board and access the wiring from behind, but soon decided that would be too much work in confined space........ so decided that if I simply pulled the relay out, then fitted a 5-pin relay socket to the board, I could plug the relay back into the socket and it would be electrically as when I started...... so using a colour-coded pre-wired socket, with male spade connectors on the ends of the 5 wires, and tail wires coming off from pins 85, 86 & 87 (Black, White & Yellow), it all plugged back together.

The 3 wires from the socket (and relay, by default) are connected to Earth, the Timer and the Switch respectively, along with a couple of other connections between parts.

Hang on, lets have a picture here, it may all make more sense as I explain it....

There you go - simples!

The earth is easily found on the metal bar running across the dashboard, with a couple of Earth points already fitted - there is a spare M5 threaded hole just waiting for a bolt through a new earth ring!

The switch is mounted in the place of the blank socket cover by the clock, and wire need to be run up to the binnacle area, and one from the cigar lighter socket.

Now, should you not have a Senator/Omega switch, you can use a generic momentary switch wherever you want to put it, and then just connect it to the 2 wires on the Timer.... then you don't need to worry about the earth & lighting wires to the switch, or the connection between Pin 87 (Yellow) on the relay to the Switch.... these 3 wires simply allow the switch to be illuminated when the lights are on, and the LED to illuminate whilst the fans are running - not 100% necessary, but nice to have . Obviously, the switch itself can be fitted using just the pins 4 & 6 and it will all work fine, except the switch won't illuminate, and there will be no LED when the fans are on.

Connections to the rear of the switch are simply female spade connectors.

That is pretty much it. Setting the timer is a case of deciding how long you want the fans to be on for, whether you want them to cycle on/off continually for set times, or whatever.

It is all adjusted using the 2 pre-set pots and jumpers - you can chose any timings up to over an hour, in increments of 0.1 seconds depending on jumpers, but I set mine to run for somewhere near 10 minutes - it doesn't need to be any more accurate than that. For anyone who worries about the temperature, it can be set to 15 minutes+ or whatever you want it to be.

Once the fans are running, they can be turned off with another touch of the switch (can't see the necessity for this feature, but it is there if you want it).... and I didn't use the cyclic running function.

I know that there are 'standard' timer relays out there that can be used, but most are not adjustable for time, and as the unit I used was £3 it seemed like it was worth a punt.

I have had the HRW switch for a long time, but one on eBay at the moment is £12.
Relay socket I had, but they cost a quid or so
Spade connectors (10) I had, but would be about a quid
A bit of wire is whatever it costs (I had some).

So, it cost me very little, but if I were needing to buy the bits it would be under £20 (under a tenner if you use a generic push switch)....... and you'll never have to worry about your car getting too hot in traffic, or flattening the battery if you leave a switch on when you lock the car.

[Simon_P]

I have had the HRW switch for a long time, but one on eBay at the moment is £12.

I particularly liked the recirculation switch graphic as I thought it was more 'fan like' Ive had it so long I can't remember how much it was - You've inspired me Dave and 15 years is probably long enough thinking about it.

[dapinky]

I have had the HRW switch for a long time, but one on eBay at the moment is £12.

I particularly liked the recirculation switch graphic as I thought it was more 'fan like' Ive had it so long I can't remember how much it was - You've inspired me Dave and 15 years is probably long enough thinking about it.

It's amazing how we see something happen, think "that's a good idea, I'll copy that" - find the odd parts we need on eBay, and then put it away on a shelf for many years until it comes up again!!!

Anyway, if you are inspired, and would like a timer unit to use, send me your address by PM..... it *may* have been cheaper to buy 5 of them from Ali Express than it was to get one from Ebay UK. And the postage from China has improved a lot, 8 days from order to arrival is pretty good, I *may* still have a spare unit or 2 .

[Tuga2112]

i shall be sharing my own take on this fans switch sometime soon in detail. but for now here's a quick explanation

unlike you. i made my LED light up without the cigar light positive wire.
no 555 relay.
normal 2 stage round switch.

i kept it as simple as i could and have a button that grounds the temperature sensor, tricking the "car" to think the coolant is too hot.
because the line is +12v (or 5 i dont recall) i have used its own signal power to power up the LED and found a suitable resistance that allowed the signal to read ground as far as the car is conserned but let enough juice through the LED to let it light up.

the switch is fitted right next to the wing mirrors control unit. but IMO still looks like a factory fit (although more of a 90s style than the big chunky 80s carlton switches in the dashboard)

[378S2]

Why do you prefer to fit this switch / relay than fit a lower temperature sensor? Mine has one that triggers around 1/4 on the gauge and it’s always been fine, even in the very high ambients of summer (43 is the hottest I’ve taken the car out in).

[dapinky]

Why do you prefer to fit this switch / relay than fit a lower temperature sensor? Mine has one that triggers around 1/4 on the gauge and it’s always been fine, even in the very high ambients of summer (43 is the hottest I’ve taken the car out in).

Mainly because in the UK ambient temperature, the issue isn't that the car constantly runs too hot, but on occasions it does happen (sitting in Summer traffic)....

.... the engine is designed to operate at a certain temperature, and I would hope that the engineers who put it all together actually worked out the best temperature for the fans to kick in so it maintains the optimum temperature.....

... I did consider a lower temperature fan switch, but decided that an over-ride was a better option.

I may be completely wrong with my theory, but it's done now!

[RonR]

Ambient temps aren't the problem here, it's being stuck in traffic jams with no air passing through the radiator - something common in UK but you perhaps don't see much of in Oz?
I'm sure that was a major contributing factor in my HGF - which occurred the day after being stuck in a 3-4 hour stop-start jam on the way to Castle Combe.

[378S2]

Interesting. Well it never kicks in while I’m moving, the airflow keeps it below 1/4. Then when I stop at the lights or in traffic (can be quite bad) it’ll kick in fairly quickly - perhaps 5 min stationary or less on a hot day. It’ll run for a
Minute or two. My theory is that the switch is just above the optimum temperature.

Works for me, but similarly just a theory. Thanks for the info.