Roxy the '71 Panel - So That's What's Wrong With the Engine

[gvee]

The dodgy starting turned out to be a lose earth cable on the battery! :roll:

My dad's taking it down to the garage for an MOT on Monday and is going to babysit it with them. Anything in particular I should tell him to keep his eye out for? Don't have any time to prep it so my father is doing the necessaries. Only thing I can think of is to top up and pressurise the washer bottle :lol:

 

[gvee]

Massive anticlimax... they couldn't get the thing on the ramp so MOT abandoned :lol:
Booked in for tomorrow afternoon at a place with a pit!

 

[gninnam]

Massive anticlimax... they couldn't get the thing on the ramp so MOT abandoned :lol:
Booked in for tomorrow afternoon at a place with a pit!

:msn4: :roll: :x

 

[gvee]

Obligatory MOT certificate picture -->


















...I forgot to take a photo :msn4:

So yeah, it went to a different garage on Tuesday and sadly failed the test. It only failed on 2 things: headlamp alignment (one wasn't pointing quite right) and a binding brake. My dad, being the wonderful wizard that he is, fixed both these issues and got it retested the following day and it passed!

Had to drop my daily in the garage again last night so used the bus to get to work this morning (I can't wait until I get my weekends back!). First 25 minutes of my commute were lovely. Now my clutch is playing silly buggers [again]. Ground it the remaining couple of miles and nearly dumped it in the disabled parking space when it wouldn't get in to reverse!

Oh, and the oil pump I ordered for the new engine doesn't effing fit either :roll:

Week of mixed emotions, that's for sure.

Looking to change my upholstery inside: is anyone after some Westy, green, plaid material from a continental R&R bed? Not my cup of tea.

Will take more photos soon. Promise :lol:

 

[trebor]

Nice one on the mot, I,m a long way off

 

[gninnam]

MOT - nice one 8)

 

[subheatadey]

:bliss: Nice one George

 

[gninnam]

No updates????????????????

 

[Graham L]

It came to Aircooled 14 on Sat/Sun but not before some issues on Friday but I'll let George explain that

 

[gninnam]

Ah - answers some questions does that :|

 

[gvee]

It came to Aircooled 14 on Sat/Sun but not before some issues on Friday but I'll let George explain that

Yeah...

So we set off to Aircooled '14 mid afternoon on Friday and met up with Adey on the other side from Leeds.
About 3 miles before our meet up location I started to get some loud squeaking from the brakes (especially apparent when going around roundabouts, which there are loads of on the ring road :roll: ).

As soon as we stopped I put a hand on the wheel rim on the passengers side and it was on fire arty0037:
Not literally on fire, but it was too hot to handle.

My brakes had seized on.

Couldn't free the buggers at all so ended up having to call my insurance who got the AA on their way to me.

With his assistance (and his big breaker bar-thing) we freed up both pistons, much to my delight! Being thorough we thought we'd just check the drivers side (which didn't get as hot).

Needless to say...

The usual fun when unloading (this always makes me laugh) :lol: ...

Got home around 9pm and immediately jumped on to the GSF website to reserve bits I would need in the morning. Was just going to get a rebuild kit but as I was already planning a full brake overhaul in a couple of months I decided to buy new disks and calipers. Luckily it was payday!
With my bus being a '71 it has year specific spindles and calipers so an adapter kit was also added to the basket.

Saturday morning, 8am. Phone call from GSF (they didn't open until 8:30 - good service!) to say the adapter kit was out of stock. Bugger! More ringing around of all and any motor factor place within reach and nobody could help. Jumped in the car at 9:15 (had to wait until 9am for some places to open) and got down to GSF anyway.

The guy searched high and low for even a single adapter but no luck. Great customer service by GSF by the way!
Got down to my mates garage about 10:15am and got cracking. The mechanic that was in was a bit of a brakes whizz so I showed him the problem and unphased he told me we could sort something temporary out just to get me on the road and back on my way to Stratford Racecourse

Stripped the first caliper off and offered the new one up. It seemed to fit perfectly? How very strange...

...I had forgotten that I swapped the front-suspension from my old crossover to this bus. Booyah!

We finally arrived at AC14 just before 5pm on Saturday and had a lovely little time there 8)


Big thank you to:

Adey (sorry for making you late on Friday but glad we could at least convoy home!)
My insurers (Peter Best)
The AA (I think the guy was called Lee :? , who was a dubnut and a genuinely cool guy)
My Girlfriend, who has taken to this breaking down lark like a duck to water
Graham and all the crew at Aircooled '14



P.S. now taking bets for how long it will take me to get to DATC in a couple of weeks

 

[gvee]

Only other update, I think, is that we fitted a passenger seat at long last. The job isn't finished yet (still bare metal and needs dressing) but it was in on time for the Mrs to get a good seat. I now have seat envy as the drivers one is falling to pieces :lol:

 

[67westy]

It was good to have a bit of a chat with you over the weekend mate, did you end up getting yourself some screen covers from BAT?

 

[gvee]

Good to see you too, Adam.
I spoke to them but they only had a set of green ones left.
Trying to decide whether I should get them in before DATC or save my pennies until after :lol:

 

[67westy]

I guess your shiny new brakes were an unexpected cost :lol: Really helps with a good night sleep though

 

[Graham L]

Good to see you at the weekend George, glad you finally made it.

If you are taking bets can I have a fiver on it taking you 2 days to get to monmouthshire :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: , what are the odds like??

 

[gvee]

Well I won't be setting off until Friday afternoon, so if that takes two days that means I will miss the whole show :shock:
Sod that

Tell you what... competition time!

Whoever guesses the closest for my journey length from Leeds-Bradford Airport to the site in Monmouthshire I will buy a couple of beers when I [finally] arrive!

Graham, are we putting you down as a "DNF"? :lol:

 

[Graham L]

Edited response, ...............6.5 hours

I can hardly talk as my engine isnt very well at the moment, sticking float in the carb I think

 

[gvee]

OK lets say Saturday Lunctime

See edited post. Number of hours/minutes from start to finish

 

[Graham L]

Edited previous post