Flying fleet roundup..

Although the stars of this blog in recent times have been the Oxford and the GSA, work continues on other fleet members as well.

Sometimes successful, sometimes not.

Here’s a round up of what has been done recently:

The 335.

This beast has been slumbering for a long time after it became apparent that it was running rich, misfiring and producing spectacular backfires on LPG.

My brother spent a day methodically working through causes.

First up, the plugs were filthy. He got them cleaned up and refitted – we shall order new.

A replacement AFM (Air Flow Meter) was attached, along with new sparkplug leads and she was fired up.

With her up to temp, she was pulled out of her resting place and given a swift look over. Despite being hoachin, she looked in reasonable condition bar her battery being unserviceable.

We aired up her tyres and ran it up and down before concluding it was worth the risk of slinging her in front an MOT.

a few days later, with the GSA battery (really!) fitted and a few gallons of petrol sloshed in, a return trip was conducted to the MOT station of choice.

It was a fail, but not a bad one –

The battery clamp was my fault as I didn’t refit before taking it for test – I can be dozy early in the day.

We’ll get the work completed and have her back in for a retest soon.

Clio 172 #60

This continues as the defacto daily beater for both the burd and I. After multiple hiccups , it appeared to be behaving..

Out for lunch last week and the good lady said “#60 has a rubbing sound constantly, and a metallic ting occasionally, both from the front right”.

I contained my excitement.

Back home, it was up in the air for investigating.

This piece of plastic arch liner had detached itself and made a happy little home on the bottom arm, where it rubbed off the back of the wheel causing the persistent rubbing sound.

This jubilee clip had escaped from its post as CV boot holderer onnerer, and was merrily swinging away on the ARB.

A new one was procured and fitted.

Clio 172 #54

This one is dragging on – hoping to get it MOT’d soon

2 new tyres have been fitted to the rear.

The brakes were shocking, so a fluid change was instigated.

It seemed like a good choice. Dropping the spanner in the bottle, not so much.

We bled it in time honoured tradition from the furthers to nearest the master cylinder. Bother backs went ok, and we kept the easy to access* reservoir topped up with fresh fluid.

Can you spot it?

Moving onto the front, things didn’t look as grand..

Despite application of “spanner in a can” many bleed nipples died.

Luckily, in a fit of forethought (almost 3 years ago!) I had bought 2 new calipers and stored them away.

Both were fitted and more bleeding occurred. The pedal still feels crap, so we will have to try again.

Additionally, the handbrake cables were removed for new to be fitted.

New handbrake cables were spotted on last night, but there appears to be an issue with the drivers side. It’s a matched pair of cables, but one appears too long, although that may be due to the rear calipers lever.. more investigation required.

Progress where once there was none..

“The beast from the east”, “Snowpocalypse 2018” – call it what you will. But we all know that to which I refer.

I called it”Damned inconvenient”, given that a large volume of snow in a short period of time wreaked havoc with my plans for automotive progress.

We left off the last blog with 3 inconvenient truths:

1. The Toledo needed work for its MOT, and time was running low for the 10 day retest.

2. “It was the wrong driveshaft Gromit” for the good lady’s Clio 172

3. The other Clio 172 needed the rear brakes sorting, should it wish to continue in service.

The obvious place to start was in repaiing the car with no MOT or gearbox oil..

Brutha_touring had managed to source a used driveshaft with sound gaitor for Babette (#54). All that lay between us and success was some snow.

Luckily, it was not yet frozen, so could be shovelled out of the way.

Fitting the new driveshaft was relatively simple, due to multiple practice runs. She was back together in relatively short order.

That done we gingerly moved her out of the space in front of the house, and down to the “waiting projects holding cell”.

It was now dark, and cold. Ideal brake fettling weather!

With #60 moved into position, the carrier was stripped, and the 30mm retaining nut holding the disc removed.

It was not pretty! An obvious failure of the disc across the bell and friction areas that appeared to have been some time in the making.

Time for the new disc

We called it a night at that.

The next day it was time for the passenger rear. All in all, a simple repair.

This done it was test drive time.

Almost immediately, it was obvious that the right rear caliper was sticking on – and it’s likely that was at least partially to blame for the disc failure.

Oh well, time for a strip down and clean.

The dust boot round the piston was poor, and the piston itself was dirty.

We got it wound out (lefty loosey), removed the seal and cleaned everything up with brake cleaner. We replaced the seal with a better spare one and wound the piston back in.

The sliders were not in great shape – they need to be if the floating caliper set up is to work correctly.

Between the ones on the car and spares from a second caliper, we got the best pair sorted and cleaned.

Some reassembly followed by spirited testing revealed a working setup that didn’t constantly drag.

I was now up to one working car!

Aiming for a doubling of working fleet size, it was the Toledo’s turn for fettling.

I’d already sorted the failure for incorrect headlight pattern by fitting the passenger bulb retaining clip correctly. That left 3 things.

“Parking brake lever insecure”

Resolved by tightening the two 13mm bolts holding the lever to the floor.

“Offside front coil spring broken”

Out again with the dugga dugga, and off with the 3 nuts/bolts (21mm top, 19mm strut onto hub).

Aye that’s buggered.

Judicious application of screwdriver and torx drive = deconstructed strut.

Repair and replacement was the reverse of removal.

Lastly, “rear brake load sensing valve siezed”

This is a common failure for there sorts of car – it only really comes into play if the car has heavy loads in the boot – not an everyday occurrence, so they stick.

Some remonstrating fluid and wiggling later, we had a moving load sensing valve.

Shortly thereafter, I was in receipt of a pleasingly clean piece of paper.

It was pressed into use the very next day, but that’s for another post!