Small (or maybe not) project. 91 elan

[Saltire]

And not just the physical parts; the advice is worth at least as much as the “stuff”.

[Giniw]

[Brit-Car-Nut]

Back on topic:

(From USPS): We attempted to deliver your item in UNITED KINGDOM at 10:28 am on July 30, 2018

[Tuga2112]

Back on topic:

(From USPS): We attempted to deliver your item in UNITED KINGDOM at 10:28 am on July 30, 2018

that is believable. there's no one at home right now.
no phone calls. (except for the romanian guy who doesnt understand the consept of "trailer for sale no offers" )
no emails received either.

they sure seem to be very carefull with informing you of any progress, i seem to be left in the dark (i guess thats fair as it probably looks like a friend sending some stuff ).

John, i can work from home if needed. im not sure how usps works in this situation, but within reason. i can collect this after work. (although its likely to be past their office hours)
ill check the emails you sent me for inforamtion about the postage/package/delivery and try to get in touch with them.

[Brit-Car-Nut]

The package has not been in USPS responsibility since it left the US. UK Post and Parcel Force are the causative parties.

[Tuga2112]

The package has not been in USPS responsibility since it left the US. UK Post and Parcel Force are the causative parties.

if its with parcelforce then ill have a red card through the door with the location of the parcel to collect.
luckily-ish my brother works for royal mail, so he probably can colelct it before the "its ready by xx" time. they tend to look after themselfs as usuall with most processions .

John,

ill send you an email with an update tonight.

[Simon_P]

UK deliveries with USPS and Royal Mail are quite straightforward.

USPS ship it here and hand it over to HM Customs and Excise.
Royal Mail appoint a customs clearing agent to fill in the paperwork (£15)
HM Customs and Excise asses the value of the shipment and work out what Duty is payable usually around 2% they then work out how much VAT is payable based on the value of the shipment plus the cost of postage at 20%
HM C&E then pass the shipment and the Invoice to Royal Mail
Royal mail send a card with the amount payable on it and the tracking number.
You pay - it gets delivered.

A few observations :

The threshold for customs in the UK is £18 including postage. In the US it is a few hundred $

There is a no man's land where the Government is in control

It is pretty much the same process the world over.

For businesses it is much slicker it would for example be possible to trigger the" paperwork" transactions from a lorry registration plate as it drove past. So don't believe the talk of increased time due to leaving the EU it's nonsese. Evidence of this when you pay tax up front with Rockauto it gets delivered straight to your door.

It then becomes clear that most of our politicians have absolutely no concept of what is behind the Trade Tarrifs that they talk so knowledgably about.

It is also clear that the threats from big businesses are also remarkably ill informed or intentionally misleading. Aircraft parts are universally zero rated so I've no idea what the boss of Airbus was fussing about a week ago.

[Tuga2112]

parcel force letter arrived with the bill.
just need to make sure the delivery happens when theres someone here now....

as far as the coils... well. that will have to wait till the 18th.... the seller told me they "ran out" and factory will need to wait till then to deliver another batch

[HJ2]

Want About MSD coils as aan alternative ?

[Tuga2112]

Want About MSD coils as aan alternative ?

im happy to consider alternatives.
MSD doest mean anything to me, is that a brand ? or an acronym for another car that has compatible coins ? or a acronym to a different design of coils ?
i need some more detail please.

in my world that means
microsoft dos or microsoft diagnostics

[HJ2]

It’s a brand

[Tuga2112]

It’s a brand

im assuming your refering to this ?

the coils im seeing on ebay are all less than 30 quid delivered, these may be better quality. but at the moment im looking for "put back on the road" solution, and not an upgrade.
also, the good news is. my celica clutch master cilinder is fixed again, so i can wait to put the elan back on the road

[HJ2]

You ae correct!
And it’s not even an upgrade as there is no additional performance.
However available

[Brit-Car-Nut]

Your ignition control module package made it to your post office.
https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmA ... kingnotify

[Tuga2112]

Your ignition control module package made it to your post office.
https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmA ... kingnotify

Got them now.
will try to find the willpower to fit one in the yellow car over the weekend

[Tuga2112]

modules installed in both cars,
im a bit tired of waiting for coils to be sourced from the UK, so i just ordered a couple sets from rockauto, with an estimated delivery of 5 working days i cant complain.
soon i will be 100% sure of what is going on with the car.

i started it after replacing the module and it had a missfire as soon as it started. then it ran without missing a beat for 2 minutes to find the iddle, and another whole minute while iddling witout missing a beat.
this is all cool, but considering there has not been any rain for a while, i assume a cracked coil would appear to be running fine.

[Tuga2112]

continuining on the brakes saga.

the car needs MOT... me takes car for MOT... car fails MOT on 3 issues... cv joint boot with a cut... service brakes and parking brakes.

i was suspecting the parking brakes would fail, as my rear calipers seem to have a hard time to re-position themselfs to move the pads forward.
this is easily resolved by adjusting the cables (which in turn will make it unable to reset the position im sure)

refering the service brakes. the results were
"fronts are ok, just clean the rust of the discs and pads and will be fine"
"rear discs look good and the pads are fine. i think you need to clean the sliders"
it turns out this whole adventure started because i rebuilt the calipers all together.. so i know the sliders are in perfect working condition.
this leads me to the next suspect in the chain
proportioning valves. and how to rebuild them. or alternatively, upgrade them with competition grade stuff like a few other members have done before.

i feel inclined to upgrade with these as mentioned by Dave in the past for the folowing reasons.
seems to be less hassle to fit (remove old, put new in)
allows me to fine tune the rear brakes to distribute the braking power perfectly evenly, which to me sounds to be safer ?
im having some dificulty finding epdm o-rings with exactly 3.75 inside diameter (seems the common ID is 3.68) and the minimum purchase quantities are a bit high for someone not setting up a business of refurbishing prop valves

i would appreciate some help with either opinions or tips on how to find the correct o-rings

[Giniw]

Have you had the opportunity to use the brakes after their refurbishment? Did you change the pads and rotors? (I suspect not as there is rust on them?)
As for the rear maybe you just swapped the pads from side to side and as a result they just need to bed in for a while?

[Tuga2112]

Have you had the opportunity to use the brakes after their refurbishment?

yes, 4 20mile trips mostly motorway. effectively commuted to work twice

Did you change the pads and rotors? (I suspect not as there is rust on them?)

no, although the car has got new ferrodo pads about 1 year ago and new front discs 2 years ago (done 4000 miles since 2016)

As for the rear maybe you just swapped the pads from side to side and as a result they just need to bed in for a while?

that sounds likely theres a 50/50 chanse of that.
i could swap them again in the rear for the sake of testing this out although that wouldnt increase the braking power, it would only re-balance the power distribution

[Giniw]

Motorway probably wouldn't allow the pads and rotors to bed in very well I suppose, but it's hard to say as 420 miles is already a long journey (although I suspect I should read 4*20 miles, which is a bit less indeed, and probably did not do much to the rear brakes ^^)

i could swap them again in the rear for the sake of testing this out although that wouldnt increase the braking power, it would only re-balance the power distribution

Not so sure, as it could make the brake pads contact surface much more little than nominal for quite "a few" miles (especially if your rear rotors are not very flat any more)

I too had very weak braking at the rear after refurbishment ... I considered refurbishing the proportioning/limiting valves too but before I did that I fitted new pads and it now brakes very well at four corners (4 rims are warm and dusty from the brake dust, and when the rotors are rusty after I wash the car they become instantly clean when I brake).