kevin the chicken

Hi,

I am still struggling with my electrics although I have had some invaluable help and tuition from megadodo at the weekend, as they say a little bit of help is worth a lot of sympathy. I will certainly be able to tidy up some of the tangle of wires and improve some of the joins when my solder gun arrives but we were unable to make much progress with the switches on the dash because megadodo thinks that they may well have been wired incorrectly from the outset. Does anybody else have these switches in their car? They are made by Apem and have silver push buttons, with blue backlighting. I did take some photos but they didn't turn out very well but if you think they sound familiar then do you have a wiring diagram for them?There is a mass of small yellow and white wires connected to them which I am presuming (probably incorrectly) are for the backlighting. At the time we couldn't even see how they came out of the dash but I think I may have sussed that one out, with the block with the connectors pulling away from the rest once the plastic ring behind the dash has been loosened. I think kitspares sell something very similar or the same. As usual any help gratefully received!

Kevin

I am originally from Cambridge but I still don't understand a word you say! I have found what I think is the fuse box, looks like an ice cream tub so I shall be careful how I open it in case its full of choc chip. There are other little fuse blocks dotted about and an inline one like the type you would use for a stereo. There is no column switch, all the switches are mounted on the dash including the indicator which I assume is the three position rocker switch. There's another two position rocker near it but I have no idea what this is for. There is a small bare bulb stuck on the underside of the dash with some sort of mastic, very pretty but it doesn't seem to do anything. I nearly forgot the wire on the diff, what the heck could that be, a random earth? It could and will be a nice car I think but you can see what I am up against no knowing much about electrics.

Hi,

Yes I am about this weekend, in fact I am not back to work until next wednesday. The car is undercover in my nearly completed garage and is on dollies so that it can be shoved around easily amongst my other projects. Let me know what suits you and we'll exchange contact details somehow. Meanwhile I'll try and get something simple like the horn to work!

Regards

Kevin

Hi everybody,

I have gradually been working my way through the jobs on my spares or repair e-bay purchase and believe me they described it accurately! It does now run of a fashion ( still needs someone to sort out the twin 45s properly) but I am now at the stage where the electrics need sorting out so I can get it booked in for the MOT. This is the job I have been putting off because I don't really understand stuff I cant see! Is there anybody nearby who likes/understands it enough to want to give me a hand?

The wiring is a mess with odd bits of wire poking out of the loom, joins crimped in with different coloured wires joined together and some of it in the engine bay looks fried (have wrapped the manifold now, excuse me while I have a scratch). Not to mention the random earth wires screwed to anything and everything. It looks as if the original loom from the donor car has been used (a sierra) but now it is running a vauxhall red top so now doubt this has resulted in a few more dodgy crimps. I guess all these joins should be soldered and covered with heat shrink really

I may be that I have to go for a complete rewire when funds permit but at the moment I just want to get it roadworthy and the recent good weather has added an urgency to my desire to get out there.

If anybody can give me a hand then let me know, the kettle is always on and there is a plentiful supply of eggs and bacon.

Kevin

_Hi,

_{I had the same problem with my car as it had been standing for some years. I managed to free one side off by pushing it in and out using a vice and the brake pedal so that it stayed free but then the other side seized on so I thought blow this and purchased a pair of seal kits for a fiver a side hoping to get away with just these but both pistons had corrosion on them so I had to replace them too at about twenty quid each.Once the chrome has corroded then they are scrap really as they will eventually damage the seals which may cause a leak. The seal kits came from GBS and the pistons from a company called big red, both advertise online. I hadn't really done brakes much before but it was easy and done in a morning. I let all the brake fluid run out too as I had no idea how long it had been in there. I was going to use my pressure bleeding kit but one of the fittings was missing so I used the kit from the house that normally looks after the chidren and does the shopping and cooking. She doesn't mind as it was a job that can be done sitting comfortably!}

_Kevin

Hi,

In answer to your original question, you can differentiate between rings and valve seals on a compression test by noting the compression and then putting a small amount of engine oil down the bore before retesting. If its valve seals it will make little or no difference but if its rings then it will raise the compression by a substantial amount. I once found a noisy (broken) ring in a V8 landrover like this. Also had a 3 cylinder ford tractor that was worn out that was started by putting oil down the bore to raise compression. This is assuming that the engine is in fairly good order in the first place but it will certainly show up a cylinder that is different to the others. I do agree that it is most likely the valve seals though as they do go hard if left unused. Also old petrol won't help with smoking, maybe a good run would help to clear it before you start tearing the engine down.

Kevin

Hi,

Thanks for all your input but my neighbour came to my rescue yet again. He arrived this morning with a selection of punches and chisels and after a couple of taps had a better idea. He cut a couple of pieces out of an old cold chisel so that it was a snug fit in the head of the nut, put an 18" adjustable on it and turned them out. They all came out first go without even any damage to the nuts although they will be going in the bin anyway.

Kevin

Hi,

I realise that this subject has already been covered but I am hoping that someone has had a new idea. My car has sticking brakes and to sort this out for the MOT I need to remove the wheels. Guess what? Yes thats right, no locking wheel nut key. These nuts have an indentation in the middle into which a strange shape key fits, sort of like a three leaved clover. The holes are shaped so that there is no edge into which you could whack a chisel in the right direction to turn the nuts and there is so little room between the nut and the alloy that I doubt that a removal socket would fit, certainly the ones that I looked at in Halfords have walls that are too thick to fit.

I thought I would contact the maker to see if they could supply a new key, nope no longer trading. I have a week off work in which I thought I could ready the car for the MOT but now I am going to be cursing these blasted nuts! My last hope is to see if the local scrappy has any old keys unless somebody out there has any ideas.

Regards

Kevin

Hi,

A couple of simple questions for all you clever people out there. Tried to start my new toy at the weekend but without success as fuel started to pour out of one of the 45's. On investigation carb seemed to be half full of porridge like sludge and water, probably not surprising as the car has stood for some time so I guess the float or the needle valve was the cause of the problem. Next step was to clean out all the muck so an overhaul kit was purchased for each carb.

Although I have used most of the pieces in the kit there are two small rubber o rings left that I can't find a home for (two slightly bigger ones were used on the main jets) Any ideas?

The second thing is should the washers on the banjo bolts be copper? There are two fibre ones that are the correct size included in the kit. I know it is a low pressure system but I have always used copper in the past.

My next job is to clean out the lines and the petrol tank, any good suggestions here would be helpful too!

Kevin

It has independant suspension, presumably sierra. Should know really as I've been lying underneath it all morning. Been trying to tidy up the wiring and replace the fuel pipes so that it is farther away from the manifold. It has a really nasty piece of rusty steel over the manifold I guess to protect the bonnet from heat which gets in the way all the time. I need to replace this with something more pleasing to the eye or wrap the manifold if this is effective enough. If yours is chassis 665 and mine is 666 does this mean they are both S7 or does it not work that way?

Thats a 1975 coleman aircraft tug. Six tons in weight with a Dodge 5.2 V8. Four wheel drive, four wheel steer, was used for towing F-111's. My toys are many and various.

Ok then here goes!!!!!

Have taken some photo's of my latest toy but haven't worked out how to post them yet. Can anybody give me some guidance on that before they identify the car. I'm much better with a set of spanners!

Got any photo's?

Hi,

Been looking at kit cars for a while now so when I saw this one at I good price I snapped it up. All I knew was that it was a Robin Hood! The body/Chassis seems to be all stainless steel and the donor seems to be sierra as the build manual was included along with about 10 grands worth of garage bills! Vauxhall Red Top was a good selling point too.Not on the road currently due to sticking brakes and fuel issues along with a few other things. I itend to run it for a while tidying as I go and then get it repainted but I would like to know what it model it is. If it helps it was first registered in 1996 and bears the chassis number RHE 666. Anybody got any ideas?

Kevin