Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Dormouse]

Partial to a bit of Red Hot Chilli Pipers myself so I agree wholeheartedly about Drums and Roses - very entertaining group.

I remember trying to put together a workshop and outdoor presentation at 48 hr notice - it was horrendous, but I learned a lot, very quickly, about how to go about it for the future.

Well done

[Dormouse]

Can I suggest plastic storage bins with hinged lids - the kind Furniture Removers use, not the flimsy ones. Stackable ( full or empty ) and can be used to make presentation tables if need be as well as secure storage and handling.

[Dormouse]

PS we were going to the Camping and Caravan Show and, maybe Celtic Connections, anyway, but my Gout put that out of the walking window. Looks like Scotiacon is going from strength to strength

[Zelandeth]

After a busy but very fun weekend away at Scotiacon and a little over 725 miles of driving we're now safely home.

Caddy as I have come to expect didn't miss a beat, and exactly as with the trip north seemed to compress the six hour (almost to the minute) drive in its usually efficient way. Forced myself to take a really brief break both ways around the halfway point as it seemed responsible, but it really didn't feel necessary.

Will be interesting to find out what the economy figures for the run were. Know we had a pretty strong head wind on the way north so I'm expecting that to be down a bit.

Poor thing really needs a wash now!







I really do need to sample a Berlingo properly one day as it would be kind of nice to have something in a similar package with four seats I could actually use for more than short trips. Plus my continued biggest gripe with the Caddy is that the ride (especially when empty) is horribly...well...like a modern German car. With the load of cargo we had in for this trip it was merely "quite firm" rather than "Ow, dear god my spine..."

Was quite satisfied that we started loading up this morning just as this was happening.



Then managed to be home and fully unloaded before the sun had set. Did mean I spent a significant chunk of the afternoon - especially as we got near to Birmingham - wishing we were heading a bit more south than southeast so the sun would stay out of the gap between the right hand end of the sun visor and the windscreen pillar!

So, points worthy of note from the weekend.

First up...we have basically filled this hotel.



Which I'm sure has the organisers crying and running around in panic.

The views from up there are quite impressive. Especially at night.



We made the charity representatives cry. Twice apparently. Final figures aren't in yet, but I've heard figures of around £30K being floated around. Which to little wildlife rescue organizations is a fair old chunk of cash. Even though that is also going to cause some headaches...most of the folks who actually run this event are based down not all that far away from us here. Ever tried to pay in a large volume of cash into a bank recently? It's a massive pain. Oh, and this will be in Scottish notes just to make things even more interesting. I'll relay the final figure once it's public.

Likewise attendance figures haven't yet been published, but I'd be astonished if we weren't floating around the 1000 mark purely based on my observations.

Other numbers which haven't been published yet is how far the sound system managed to cause the main stage to migrate over the course of the weekend, it was apparently nearly a foot last year.

It's nice that this has started to feel more like "our hotel" this year. Main lobby/restaurant pictured here during a rare moment of relative calm.



Having exclusivity obviously helped a bit there, but it feels like while there are still a few that are a bit standoffish, the staff on the whole seemed to be a bit more at ease with us this year, and quite a few of them were getting into the spirit of things a bit. I get it... they're a four star hotel who are used to doing four star hotel things, catering for people in fancy suits that probably cost more than any car I've ever bought. We're emphatically not what they're used to! However I think they've by and large figured out by now that we're mostly harmless. The utter personification of chaos? Absolutely. But mostly harmless chaos. Unless you happen to be a lift anyway, apparently we had three engineers on site over pretty much the whole weekend trying to keep them all running.

It's never going to be quite like it was back at the Livingston Mercure though. They basically just handed us the keys on a silver platter on Thursday evening and gave us free reign to do anything we wanted whenever we wanted. See also the Saturday dance running until something like 4am one year more or less at the request of the night security staff who were initially expected to be walking in asking for things to be wound up for the night. Fact is though it's a very different venue and in some ways a very different event.

There were peaceful moments.



Very much NOT peaceful moments.



Plus plenty of utterly silly moments.





My housemate is the one having decided the random box was a very fine hat, my husband is the one on the right looking on in mock exasperation at the antics. I was half expecting someone to steal the box and then trigger a comedy chase which I would have had to have the Benny Hill theme playing in my head while watching. That is *exactly* the sort of thing which would be considered completely normal in settings like this.

One thing there is in abundance over the whole weekend though is colour.



Normally I'd find a noisy, somewhat crowded hotel lobby to be quite a stressful place to be. Somehow it's just different when it's "us lot" responsible for that noise. I was more than happy to just find a seat somewhere out of the way and sit for an hour here and there and just watch the antics unfold. Oh, and listen to the guy who spent most of the weekend playing the piano - to the extent that the hotel actually switched off the background music in there.

I think that's something which has always stuck with me right from the first time I properly attended a convention back in 2015. There's something very special that happens when you shove a bunch of a few hundred people who have a vaguely aligned common interest, but a simple desire to enjoy themselves and celebrate life itself and give them a safe space to do that. It's astonishing how grey and depressing the world seems when you walk back into the real world after one of these events. Especially if the weather is dreary on the drive home - at least the sun was out today which helped ease that transition a bit. Plus seeing how many of us we could spot during the drive back south was a good game.

The summary I quoted in closing back in 2015 was "We're all adults now, and that means that we get to decide what that means."

Next one for me will be in May over in Birmingham. For which I need to make a decision: Which car to take. They hold a little car show there, to which I took TPA last year. I need to decide whether to have her make another appearance or whether to take the Renault instead. I have a feeling that's a decision I'll keep flip flopping on pretty much up till the point I set out. Was quite fun to get out in TPA for a bit of a longer run than just local bumbling though.

Anyhow, this has already turned into a ridiculously long off topic ramble so I'll close it off here I think.

I do actually have a few car related tasks I'm hoping to get to this week so should be back to having something vaguely on topic to post - and the Renault is the main target so it's likely to even be actually *properly* on topic for a change.

First order of business for now though is to sleep for about a week!

[CitroJim]

Awesome

[Dormouse]

Just a week!
When you start to look at mini MPVs can I suggest you try to find the LWB Maxi versions. No loss of dynamics or fuel economy really but a lot more useable space.

[Michel]

Berlingo is so much better than a Caddy it's hard to explain! 2.0HDi Desire Multispace, WITH AIRCON. Good ones are a bit rare with AC, but they're simple, hold a huge amount of stuff, roll like a French car should, and with a remap will make extremely good time while returning 47mpg..

[CitroJim]

Berlingo is so much better than a Caddy it's hard to explain!

You are not alone in that Mike. There's currently a lot of love being shown for the first generation ones and they're being seen as a potential classic. I see it as a worthy candidate...

A well-known Practical Classics staffer is dotty about them and has done much to enthuse all and sundry, even members of the Citroen Car Club...

I've been tempted with one a few times but in all honesty, they're just a bit big for me and my current needs...

[Michel]

A well-known Practical Classics staffer is dotty about them and has done much to enthuse all and sundry, even members of the Citroen Car Club...

I've been tempted with one a few times but in all honesty, they're just a bit big for me and my current needs...

They'd be right up your street Jim - ideal for throwing dirty bikes in the back without dismantling them. Handy if it's raining! Also, pretty much "wipe clean" in the back. I wish I'd kept Bertie. Rob did offer to let me buy him back, and I would have done if I'd had the cash at the time, about six months ago!

[CitroJim]

One really would be perfect Mike but the problem is, whilst I have a perfectly serviceable Saxo I just can't quite justify one.

Now, if my Saxo should suffer a terminal failure at any time in the future it'll be a whole new ballgame...

I've no qualms about chucking a muddy bike in the back of my Saxo and I only have to pop out the front wheel to do so...

[Zelandeth]

Today I decided to take on something pretty simple as I'm still feeling quite beat down energy wise from the weekend. Target: Horrible crusty looking battery terminal connections on the Renault. I want to discount these as a cause of the sluggish cranking before I condemn the battery.

The terminals have obviously been replaced at some point with the type which have two screws holding the lead in like a giant terminal strip. I've never been a fan of these as it's difficult to get the things tight enough without stripping the threads out of the brass. Sure enough both screws on both terminals were finger tight.

The body to battery ground lead was pretty much dead. It's never a good sign when a piece of electrical flex makes crunching noises when moved.



After wiggling it back and forth a couple of times the wire came away from the flex entirely. Must have been hanging on by a handful of bits of copper.

New earth strap installed.





I took the positive side apart as well and cleaned everything up. A new set of battery terminals and crimp connectors are on order so I can redo this in a more permanent fashion.

Given the body to battery terminal was about ready to fail I figure the engine to body one is probably in a similar condition (not honestly sure where it lives), so I added a new one between a couple of convenient bolts on the head and cross member.



I will probably shorten that a bit once I've got more terminals on hand. Likewise I might look around for something a bit further away from the exhaust.

The engine definitely seems to spin over a lot quicker now - at least it did the two times I've started it today. So we might have a quick win there.

There was an utterly unexpected bonus prize to this activity though...



The central multi function display has started working again - and by extension so has the stereo returned to a fully functioning state.

As I understand it this display is entirely driven by the stereo, and my guess is that at some point when the battery has gone flat it's crashed. My disconnecting and reconnecting the battery has allowed it to restart in a more graceful manner.

The stereo now works, as does the upper control panel and steering column control stalk. Even the external temperature display seems to be showing vaguely sensible numbers - it was showing mid 40s while out driving which ties in with the weather forecast for our area today. If there's a way to switch the temperature display to centigrade I'd prefer that, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Doesn't seem to be any mention of it in the handbook. Though there's barely any mention of this display, it advising you to consult the accompanying Renault Audio handbook for the stereo, which sadly I don't have and haven't yet been able to track down a copy of.

Having access to the controls and an FM source has meant I can properly try out the stereo...and it sounds really excellent. Especially now I'm not listening through a tape deck that is kinda sorta working but really needs a service. Haven't actually tried that today - it may too be doing better now, I'm not entirely sure the amplifier was correctly switching sources before. I just can't believe how rich it sounds for a stock automotive system from 34 years ago.

Equally importantly though, I have a working clock again. Not having a clock on the dash is something I find exceptionally irritating.

Even if you're not a car person (and/or a child of the 80s), it's hard not to have your eye drawn to the big digital display in the middle of the dash, so having it displaying sane information rather than gobbledygook is a definite improvement. This thing does very much shout "look at me!"



For reference, this is what it was showing before.



Other than the colon for the clock flashing it showed zero other signs of life.

Additionally to the upper control panel keypad itself not working, the illumination was also dead, which left a really conspicuously huge void up here at night.



Those two yellow status LEDs to the left were stuck on solid whenever the ignition was on as well which wasn't right.

Now however it looks far more healthy in the dark.



That whole central stack looks far healthier now, and does help to reinforce the feeling that you're sitting behind the helm of something about to launch into space rather than trundle down to the shops.





A whole new dash at night image will follow tomorrow, realised after taking the photos that I'd forgotten to unplug the connector to put out the washer fluid level warning, so will come back to that tomorrow. Having two bright orange warning lights in the middle of things spoils the effect a bit!

If time, energy and weather permit I'll hopefully get the valve clearances set tomorrow. These engines always seem to be a bit rattly from the top end - though I'm tending to think that's because nobody ever sets the clearances rather than because "they're like that." At least it actually has proper adjustable tappets rather than having to faff about with shims or nonsense like that (hello Saab).

[CitroJim]

Wow! That's a great set of results there Zel!

Magic

[MattBLancs]

Good work on the earth leads, I think they tend to be overlooked unless (look) absolutely knackered - but on your case they actually were, just hiding it well.

Will add that to list of things that shouldn't crunch: sills and earth leads for definite!

Like the complementary bonus fixes too! Rather than the opposite (I've fixed X which has now shown me that Y and Z are also broken!) - Up N Down is having that experience on the red BX

[CitroJim]

Will add that to list of things that shouldn't crunch: sills and earth leads for definite!

[Zelandeth]

First order of business for today was setting the valve clearances on the Renault.

This is about as simple as it gets for an OHC setup in this area I think.



All nice and easily accessible and easy to see what's going on.

It's a bit grubby in a few places there but nothing alarming. Unlike on a certain Mercedes when I went to do this and found the entire top end to be coated in about 1/16" of tar and the camshaft merrily grinding its way down through the head.

It's worth noting that the "rule of nine" does NOT apply to this engine.

With exhaust valve 'n' fully open, adjust...(I is inlet, E is exhaust, and note that number 1 is at the FLYWHEEL end of the engine by Renault's numbering convention).

1. 3I, 4E.

3. 4I, 2E.

4. 2I, 1E.

2. 1I, 3E.

Or just look carefully - the camshaft to rocker interface isn't that hard to see, so you can see which rocker is right in the heel of the cam lobe with a bit of patience.

Clearances should be set cold, and call for 0.1mm on the inlet side and 0.25mm on the exhaust side. They definitely needed a tweak on this engine, especially a couple of the inlet valves which were quite loose.

It's still a bit tappy but is definitely better. It's also more consistent though, it was really obvious before that one or two were far further out of whack than the rest.

It's worth noting that getting a proper look at the timing gear has allowed me to confirm that this does use a flat tappet lifter arrangement, so WILL want a zinc additive to be added to the oil unless a classic-specific oil is being used.

After a good test run it was time (finally) for an oil and filter change.

Doesn't it look better having that manky, rusty old oil filter out of there?



Immediately makes the engine bay look about 75% less neglected.

I did note however while wrestling with the biblically tight sump plug that I think I'd be best to start looking for a new radiator.



While it's not leaking, there's a good 1/4" of the fins at the bottom of this which are just missing. I imagine the fins largely consisting of aluminium oxide for a significant portion won't be doing the heat rejection properties any favours. Having that replaced will be good for peace of mind.

The oil which came out wasn't horrible but did seem thinner than I'd expect for the book rating (10W 40). No glittery residue left in the drain pan at least. Speaking of that...my drain pan is JUST big enough for this...it takes 5.75 litres of oil for a change (I've left it just above half on the dipstick as I'll need to chuck some zinc additive in there once I've got hold of some).

Once it was dark I went out, unplugged the washer pump harness to put out the washer fluid warning and service warning lights and retook the general night time photos.









I also tried to get some better photos of the central cluster of warning lights on the dash as they're of a style I've not seen all that many places.

Looks pretty traditional for an 80s car, albeit a little stylised with the indicator symbols when unlit.



When lit though the legends are actually the part which provides the main illumination, but also with the field lit more dimly.

It is an absolute pig of an effect to photograph properly!





No matter what I do, the parking brake light's legend always washes out a bit. I'd spent about ten minutes fighting with exposure settings by that point so decided to call it done! You'll just have to trust me, it's a deep red just like the background, just brighter.

As someone who has always found the different approaches to instrumentation designs between different manufacturers of interest, it has always been a something that drew my eyes and just looks very smart. Remember my 11 used a similar arrangement, albeit with more normally shaped lights. Think in the mid 80s this must have really helped with the futuristic vibe of the whole dash.

Next job will be replacement of both the alternator and PAS drive belts as they are both loose and badly perished.

I did get a look at the timing belt while standing on my head getting the sump plug off, and I can't see any signs of perishing - though I do still intend to get it changed sooner than later just because it's been on there since 2017 - even if it's barely seen 1500 actual miles of use.