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

[CitroJim]

......and so was invented very very thick underseal. Covers up a multitude of problems

Ain't that the truth

Camera has made it look a bit darker than it is in reality, but do you think you'd leave it there or knock it back one notch on the needle? I ask you as you're the one person I know who has a decent amount of two stroke experience. Currently running on the middle one of the five available options.rs.

Yes, knock it back one notch and then re-read the plugs. After a good bit of thrash, dark brown is what you're after. Two-stroke mixture setting is an art and not much of a science... Where the engine is petroil lubricated, a bit on the rich side allows more engine lubrication and that's not a bad thing. Excess oil though, can make the plug reads a bit harder to interpret and cause fouling. If you find the mixture right but the lube a bit marginal - you're after a nice blue haze under power and load but not a smokescreen - then reduce the petrol:oil ratio a little. Again, it's not a precise science - more an art and feel... And indeed can be influenced by your favourite flavour of two-stroke oil...

Oh, and never be tempted to use Castrol R40, even though it smells delicious. If you do, you'll need to rebuild the engine after every trip to prevent it gumming up!

[myglaren]

Reminds me of my misspent youth, leaning on the railings down the pier and a BSA Gold Flash passed, one of the girls inhaled deeply and said "Aaaaaaah, Castrol R"!
Proper biker girl.

[Zelandeth]

At least I understand the concept of adding too much oil being a really bad thing as you then end up leaning off the fuel mix because of the oil displacing fuel...I do wonder how many people have blown engines up because they thought "Oh a bit extra can't hurt..."

[CitroJim]

Reminds me of my misspent youth, leaning on the railings down the pier and a BSA Gold Flash passed, one of the girls inhaled deeply and said "Aaaaaaah, Castrol R"!
Proper biker girl.

Now she'd be a keeper Steve

I do wonder how many people have blown engines up because they thought "Oh a bit extra can't hurt..."

In my kart racing experience Zel, a good few, sadly... I have a scuffed 100cc kart piston and conrod mounted on a small wooden plinth... We used to present them to our departing kart racers when their tour of duty came to an end.

We were never short of raw material to make them... That perhaps demonstrates very clearly...

[Zelandeth]

Had planned to go tweak the carb on the Trabant today (going to knock it back one notch), but as soon as I went to get the tools out the weather laughed at me.



So I changed tack and went looking for a job I could do at least mostly inside. Of course it then never actually started raining properly. Ended up going for one job which functionally is minor but will be a huge quality of life improvement.

This was my chosen target.



The front window seals are utterly knackered.

This resulted in two issues. One being that the glass could wobble around a bunch and it rattled incessantly. The second was that because it could wobble around so much that while you could open the window just fine while driving, if you tried to close it in motion the glass would do this and jam.



I actually bought a full set of window seals only a week or so after I got the car (this includes windscreen, rear windscreen and boot lid as well) however I've been largely ignoring them.



Have been putting this off as every time I've changed window seals before it's generally been an utter pig of a job.

Let's get into it.



Spot the difference?







Should have known the Trabant would be different.

Time taken: About 30 minutes. Tools required: One flat blade screwdriver (to help push the wiper strip at the bottom of the window into it's channel). Technically you don't even need to take door door card off.

I've only done the outside wiper so far as I want to attack the top of the inside of the door top with some cutting paste to try to remove some of the black grime from there and I know it will end up all over that, so doing it AFTER that cleaning makes more sense. The actual window seal just slides into the channel and can just be pushed from one side to the other.

I did take the door card off as I thought I'd need to (that again only needs one flat blade screwdriver and about 5 minutes work). That gave me a good opportunity to clean and lubricate the winder mech and hoover all the accumulated gunk out of the bottom of the door.

The difference when closing the door is ridiculously obvious, it really shuts with a solid thump now rather than rattling. It's a minor thing but not having the door continually rattling right in my ear will be a big quality of life improvement.

Also noticed that the passenger side wiper arm was closed to making a bid for freedom - the grub screw was loose, so that's been tightened up. Will get the passenger door window done tomorrow.

It will be strange driving the car without the doors rattling so much. The interior itself is actually surprisingly rattle free to be totally honest so it will make a lot of difference. Replacing the broken clip on the ashtray will get shot of the next most obvious one.

[CitroJim]

Excellent work Zel Jobs like that make the car so much more pleasant... You'll love it even more now

[Zelandeth]

Hoping to get the other side done this afternoon.

I do have a new window lifter channel for that side which would make sense to fit while I'm in there. However as is pretty much standard for anything bought more than ten minutes ago it's apparently evaporated. I can't think of any reason it would have been put anywhere other than in the big box of (mostly) Trabant bits in the conservatory...but it's not in there. Unless I'm suffering from a case of very selective blindness again...

One day we will actually get this house in order (or we move somewhere with more space, which really is the biggest issue - this place doesn't have room for four people and four people's worth of hobbies) and I'll have half a chance of ever being able to find anything...

[bobins]

Even if you move to a bigger property, Zel, I'm afraid the Third Law of Shed Dynamics will come into play - 'Stuff' will expand to fill the available space.

[mickthemaverick]

Even if you move to a bigger property, Zel, I'm afraid the Third Law of Shed Dynamics will come into play - 'Stuff' will expand to fill the available space.

Are you sure you have that right bobins? Or maybe I'm thinking of the Third Law of Drawer Dynamics as enacted by my former wife - 'Stuff' will expand to overflow the available space!

[CitroJim]

Even if you move to a bigger property, Zel, I'm afraid the Third Law of Shed Dynamics will come into play - 'Stuff' will expand to fill the available space.

Are you sure you have that right bobins? Or maybe I'm thinking of the Third Law of Drawer Dynamics as enacted by my former wife - 'Stuff' will expand to overflow the available space!

I do not respect that law My bin and my local tip will attest to that

[Zelandeth]

The layout is a lot of the issue. This place has a huge amount of mostly open plan space downstairs. Basically the whole house save for the utility room and one added on second lounge area that got tacked on in the mid 80s.

Bedrooms upstairs though are mostly tiny. So aside from the loft there really isn't any decent storage space really. Said tiny rooms also having to do double duty as offices since 2020 meant quite a bit of stuff that was Tetrised into them had to get kicked out. So whenever I try to tidy up I just end up shuffling piles of things from one place to another rather than actually achieving anything.

All of that actually makes it all the much harder to find space and time to go through what is properly stored away as I'm sure a decent portion of it is just junk that could be chucked!

[mickthemaverick]

Even if you move to a bigger property, Zel, I'm afraid the Third Law of Shed Dynamics will come into play - 'Stuff' will expand to fill the available space.

Are you sure you have that right bobins? Or maybe I'm thinking of the Third Law of Drawer Dynamics as enacted by my former wife - 'Stuff' will expand to overflow the available space!

I do not respect that law My bin and my local tip will attest to that

Nor me Jim, for me its 'A place for everything and everything in its place!' If I want something new I have to create a space for it before I buy it, or it will end up straight in the bin!

[CitroJim]

Are you sure you have that right bobins? Or maybe I'm thinking of the Third Law of Drawer Dynamics as enacted by my former wife - 'Stuff' will expand to overflow the available space!

I do not respect that law My bin and my local tip will attest to that

Nor me Jim, for me its 'A place for everything and everything in its place!' If I want something new I have to create a space for it before I buy it, or it will end up straight in the bin!

Precisely Clutter stresses me terribly, even when it's not mine....

[Zelandeth]

Carb tweaking was first on today's to do list.

Previously I had the needle set here, on the centre notch.



I've now moved it up one to here.



I'll take it for a run tomorrow afternoon then read the plugs again.

It is a good thing that this carb isn't any bigger!





Looks hard to get to but the fastening screw on the fitting boss is actually easily accessible from the right hand side, and the carb sits conveniently on top of the alternator while you remove the lid and mess with the innards. Takes all of about a minute.

Passenger door was attacked like the driver's one yesterday. You can see here how slack the glass was in the old seals.



Just like yesterday everything was pulled apart.



New seals in.



The wiper seals at the base of the window on this side are in good shape so I left them alone.

I also took the opportunity to hoover all the detritus out of the bottom of the door.



Which somewhat surprisingly included three usable trim clips.



There has been a horrible smear of paint or something on the top of the inside of the driver's door since I got the car.



This has defied all efforts to remove it with normal cleaning products, so today I hit it with some cutting paste to see if that would do anything - it finally did but took a fair bit of scrubbing.



Have also replaced the torn wiper seal on that window now. This was far more of a fight than the outside one as there was a window in the way which was now fairly firmly held in place because everything else had been replaced.

Minor details seem to be the order of the day this weekend. Like the holes in the bumpers which originally held additional lights or something like that.



Much tidier.





Same deal up front where I was missing two blanking plugs.





Oh, and finally wiped that oily handprint off the front panel and bonnet.



Final quick job was dealing with a bright red cable tie in the engine bay of the Volvo which has been bugging me for at least the last six months.



The solenoid which controls the vacuum supply to on the engine mounts (yes really) has a broken clip and was zip tied to its bracket. Fair enough but it was squint and had a red zip tie holding it on. Lined it up better and swapped for a black one so it doesn't stick out like such a sore thumb.



Has only taken me six months to sort that...

[CitroJim]

More excellent work Zel Good to see you making good use of the Easter break!