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Post by Sigmund Fraud on Feb 3, 2014 10:20:41 GMT
Indeed. Unemployed, single men must have a huge amount of time to spend on their cars ! Anyway... I forgot to mention that last weekend I drove to deepest, darkest Dorset to collect a load of 66 bits : I was mostly attracted by the B110 engine, which I intend to strip down and inspect in the future.
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Post by Sigmund Fraud on Feb 9, 2014 18:39:13 GMT
Mini-Update !
As you may have realised from earlier posts, the pre-MoT recommissioning of 'Ena' was a race against time. One of the consequences of this was that I hadn't had time to inspect the variomatic system ! Quite an important thing to omit, I suppose, so I drove her onto the ramps today and took the variomatic cover off to see what horrors lay underneath.
I was very pleased to see that the cones were nice and shiny, with only a couple of pin-head size rust spots on one of the secondaries. The belts seemed OK as well, though it as clear that they have been there for quite a while !
I took the opportunity to change the gear oil of both primary and secondary units, using some generic 75W90. I doubt that this will offer any better protection than the factory 80W, but at least I know that the variomatic is full of oil and not at risk of seizing !
I put everything back together and took her for a long drive. She still needs a good 30MPH before she would change up, but I am starting to think that I should stop looking for faults that are not there and just adapt my driving style to the variomatic !
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Post by Sigmund Fraud on Feb 16, 2014 19:59:21 GMT
Update ! The weather was amazing today, so I decided it was time to get on with the wheel refurb ! Ena was changed over to my spare 14"s, the tyres on which seem fairly borked : Then work began on the 13"s. The balancing weights were taken off and a couple of dents were repaired with my BFH. Then the wheels were rinsed, degreased, wire brushed, wiped down and painted with some Hammerite spray : The result won't be winning any concours competitions, but they still look a hundred times better than before. The important thing is that now I can go ahead and replace the old, dangerous tyres with some newer, less dangerous ones. Which in turn will allow me to begin using Ena for occasional commuting !
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Post by macplaxton on Feb 16, 2014 20:34:58 GMT
Make those wheels a thousand times better with some fake 'oles! Go on, you know you want to!
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Post by Sigmund Fraud on Feb 22, 2014 19:34:29 GMT
As of this morning, the shiny(ish) 13" wheels and new(ish) tyres are finally on ! Unfortunately, they'll need to come off again next weekend, so the local garage who 'forgot' to change the valves (but remembered to charge me for them) can do the job again, this time properly. Cheeky buggers.
Still... One more job off the list, mechanical shakedown to continue and I'll be starting work on the interior in the following weeks.
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Post by Sigmund Fraud on Feb 26, 2014 16:57:07 GMT
Took advantage of the lovely weather to drive Ena to work this morning. My commute is 30ish miles each way, initially on the motorway and then through dense city centre traffic. I had been using Ena for short trips to the shops etc. but had yet to drive her that far, or on the motorway. I therefore set off a bit earlier than usual and made sure that my hi-viz vest was underneath the passenger seat and that my mobile was fully charged, in case I needed to call the road assistance. "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?", I hear you say. Well, I needn't have been as she made it here without issue ! Here she is, hidden amongst all the obese euroboxes at the car park : Cruising speed on the motorway was 55-65MPH, depending on the gradient, and I even managed to overtake a couple of trucks at 70MPH in the long downhill sections of the M3 ! City driving was all about maintaining momentum, as acceleration at anything less than full throttle is somewhat leisurely. I also learnt that even with decent tyres Ena has the tension of assuming some rather incongruous and fairly embarrassing "DRIFT KING" poses if you try to carry too much speed through a bend. Nothing dangerous, but it did make me wonder how the swing axle models would handle by comparison...
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Post by 33grinder on Feb 26, 2014 19:24:01 GMT
Well done that man and lovely to see Ena being put to good use!
It's most likely the old brittle ZX tyres giving you a bit of Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift action (what a naff film, stumbled across it last weekend). 66s with the De Dion axle are about as good as DAF handling ever got and in test reports was often higher acclaimed than their contemporaries. The swing arm models by comparison didn't have so much power so you had to be on a mission to get drift action. That is except for the 55 which had swing arms and Renner power, a heady concoction. You really do need to be careful putting the power down in those, especially in the wet. I've been in a 55 in those conditions and it's like a Capri...to the factor of two!
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Post by ozzie on Feb 26, 2014 22:58:06 GMT
Wow lovely to see I am looking forward to that day in Isabel but I feel it's a way off now. Any way well done now. Can you come and mend Isabel please.
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Post by Sigmund Fraud on Feb 27, 2014 12:29:02 GMT
Pete, there are no ancient cross-plies here, I swapped some decent part-worns onto the marathon wheels recently. Which is why the sideways action surprised me. 55 handling sounds intriguing/frightening.
Ozzie, I'd love to give you a hand with Isabel, but I am in a similar too much work / too little time situation with Ena and Lazy !
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Post by Sigmund Fraud on Mar 3, 2014 10:39:54 GMT
Last Saturday, I took Ena to the local tyre place, so they could replace the tyre valves that they had most kindly charged me for but not replaced when my part worns were swapped over to the marathon wheels.
To my great surprise, they announced that they couldn't replace one of the valves, as there was a tube in that wheel !
Further inspection revealed that the valve hole on that wheel was the size of a 1p coin, probably due to corrosion, and a tube had been bodged in to make the wheel useable.
I have no idea how I hadn't spotted this before, especially as I spent a fair bit of time Wire brushing and painting the wheels. I suspect I am overdue a visit to the opticians !
So I now need to find at least one 13" wheel for Ena. Two would be even better, as the current spare is a 14" one.
Pete and Matt, do you have any decent ones in Aladdin's cave ? If so, I suspect I will be arranging a visit to sunny Essex soon...
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