s.leah

Just wondered what people do to clean off parts and chassis prior to painting? What works best for you? Any product recommendations? What's prompted the question is that I'm overhauling my Herald front suspension with new shocks, springs, trunions etc etc and I thought it would be nice with all those sparking clean new parts to paint the wishbones and maybe the vertical link. I've got them fairly clean with generous use of superplus unleaded , gunk and a good rinsing. Ineveitably there's always a bit hanging on... I suspect I'm on the money as far as cleaning is concerned, although using unleaded isn't exactly best practice I'd also be interested to know what others do to remove underseal/waxoil? I'd ideally like to get the surfaces nice and smooth, I assume it's just elbow grease and sand paper prior to priming (or hammeriting in my case )? Cheers. Simon

If they are fake, maybe you could contact trading standards?

Thanks for the thoughts. I happy there's no electrical issue as I'm all alternator'd up Interesting point about a 'leccy fan not being effective at speed, I hadn't thought of it like that! I might give it a flush as suggested.

I took my 13/60 on the longest run since I've had it today. 200 mile round trip. I noticed going along dual carridgeways at around 3k~3.5k rpm that after 5 or 6 miles the temperature would get fairly high, still in the white though. Normally tootling around town it never goes above half way, and in the cold winter it can barely get a quarter way doing local runs. I'm assuming this is probably perfectly normal on long runs at modest to high rpm? There's nothing to make me think anything is wrong apart from the fairly high temp. reading When I backed off and cruised under 3k rpm it did start to cool again. Not that easy on a dual carridgeway or m-way with the big trucks thundering past! LOL Is it worth fitting an electric fan for road trips, especially when the weather is hot, as I can see it getting too close to red for comfort? Cheers

Look up "mpg obsession" and you'll find a picture of me... I have a volt meter (and an alternator). You do have to wonder just how useful it really is? If you turn the key and nothing at all happens, either the battery is totaled or it's something like a fuse. The volt meter won't be any help either way. If you turn the key, everything lights but the starter is sluggish and the lights dim then the battery is probably flat. The starter has just told you that, volt meter probably not much help. If you turn the key and the lights are dim and the starter hardly turns if at at all, then as above, volt meter not much help. If you turn the key and lights come on and the starter spins as it should then the battery is obviously OK. Volt meter was no use. If it fails to start but the starter is spinning then it ain't the battery anyway.... In a nutshell - it's pretty bl00dy obvious if the battery is OK or not - the car soon tells you by it's actions. Knowing that the battery was at 9 or 10v instead of 12 or 13v won't make a blind bit of difference. You'll already know if it needs charging or not. A handheld voltmeter is a very useful garage tool of course

In my 1988 Rolls-Royce the carpets are held by press studs and the door kick-plate (just tucked under so no need to unsrew). Where two sections meet, they have velcro on a flap that holds the two pieces together neatly. I can literally remove all the carpets in a minute or two without undoing a single screw, especially as the carpets are designed and cut so they come out in sections with having to remove seats...... A straightforward and simple way of fitting carpets, I don't under stand why all manufacturers don't use the same method rather than this nonsense of having to remove plates, remove seats, cowlings and generaly be a contortionist, only to find part is glued and never goes back just right once unpeeled. It takes much longer to hoover my Rolls carpets than the time taken to both remove and replace them, which is how it should be! Unlike the Herald where it takes five times longer to just remove the things to hoover once out....

If you are earthing to the bonnet, it may be worth checking continuity between the bonnet and the chassis/battery -ve. For a belt'n'braces approach, you could run a hefty earth cable from the earth point on the bonnet back to the central earth point on the car chassis, or even direct to the battery.

Sounds very much like you have a ballast type coil. I recently had the same trouble as you, not quite as bad though. Turns out Rimmers sent me a 1.5ohm coil...... I ended up buying a coil locally (cost a bit more though..) and the car is near perfect now - just by swapping coils! The one Rimmers sent had no markings whatsoever so no way to tell visually. I've read that some 1.5ohm have 12v printed on them which can be misleading. It seems manufacturers are just dumb idiots these days and can clearly afford to have a significant amount of their output scrapped with little or no usage just because they don't bother to label things or even manufacture things correctly in the first place. I also had the issue with wiper blades I bought from the club shop a year ago, completely not fit for purpose, spent 10 mins max on the car before being scrapped. Sorry about the mini-rant!!!

Thanks Richard, I've learned something new tonight A quick check of the 'new' coil and it seems to read about 1~2 ohms I'd love to check part numbers, but there isn't a single marking on this 'new' coil, it's just plain silver with a white cap. So they've either sent me the wrong one, or it's the correct one but faulty. No way of knowing. Either way, I think I'll be contacting Rimmers......

I had the head of my 13/60 a few months ago and whilst at it, I replaced the plugs, cap, rotor, coil, leads and a couple of other bits. I haven't run it much since and hadn't (until this week) set things like gaps and timing properly. Something I noticed was that it was starting to misfire when hot, sometimes just briefly, other times for a few minutes. I decided this week to get it sorted and do all the gaps etc. So plug gaps checked, rocker gaps checked, fitted new points and condenser that I hadn't got around to and set the timing and vacuum according to the Haynes manual. Ran beautifully and went like a good-un until it got hot! Then misfired like crazy and just kept doing it, even after a couple of rests for a few mins. Got on interwebs and one suggestion was swapping the coil if it was old or unkown. I didn't think it could be it, as mine has a brand new coil on from Rimmers! Willing to try anything, I lashed on the old coil and HT lead (old was screw in, new push fit) and balanced it on the bulkhead. Low and behold car ran perfect! So installed old coil properly and went for a good long run and got it properly hot. Didn't miss a beat! Could be a faulty coil from Rimmers? OR! I've seen two types listed on other websites, balasted and non-balasted. No idea how you know the difference? Please could someone enlighten me? Do they look physically the same? Could Rimmers have sent me the wrong one, and could it cause the irrational misfires I was getting?

I've done the job now. I went with the loft insulation, thinned down a bit as it was too thick! I wrpped it in a rubble sack and carpet glued to the underside of the tunnel. I figured it's not going anywhere once in position so nothing stronger needed. The insulation came 'wrapped' in plastic which was just plain old plastic on one side and silvered on the other. I cut the silvered side off and glued that to the gearbox-facing side of the insulation to offer some heat reflection. I just used draught excluder to seal the cover to the body tub and put some new self-tappers in to hold it all down. Looks neat and fits very snuggly. Time will tell how well it has worked! A short 3 mile run to get it to temperature and I wasn't aware of fumes or flames or dry roasted shins, so far so good

Thanks John. Yes the old stuff was stapled in, but as I say stapling isn't an option on the new cover. So it sounds like my spare loft insulation and a rubble sack is the way forward Probably go with Stixall to glue, or copious amounts of Evostick, Mmm..... LOL

What the title says! I've recent received a shiny new gearbox cover from a lovely chap called Nigel via Facebook. Sadly the insulation from my old cover has, like the old cover, expired Any suggestions for replacement? I've got some silverbacked loft insulation on a small roll booting around. I assume that would work for the actual padding, but what would be best to put it in? I'd have though the temperature would be too high to just 'modify' a rubble sack or thick black bin bag? I haven't actually tried to be fair.... Also would carpet glue be OK to attach whatever I use to insulate or would I better with Stixall or equivalent? (Can't staple 'cos it's hard fiberglass) Cheers Simon

I suspect that "In Private" browsing would casue the issue, and a setting to deny cookies would, as would a setting to delete cookies/history upon closing the browser.

Yup, cordless angle grinder I'd say. My guess by looking at the bonnet-off picture is that they simply ground off the bonnet hinges to remove the bonnet.....

If you could get hold of something that can read ODBCII it should help, it will at least give you any fault codes. Connector is under the ashtray. (on a 2005 which is more or less the same..) Is it the 1200 model? I could pop the bonnet on mine tonight and see if I can tell where the leads go.

Slightly OT.... but it's disconcerting how a battery can suddenly just give up. I have a 2005 Renault Clio that has never let me down, battery or otherwise. A couple of years ago I went out in it (to the doctors!) and came back to it half an hour later and had exactly as Webbo described. It had shown no sign at all of wearing out, the car started quickly and easily two hours previously. After it gave up, I couldn't even jump start the car as the battery was so dead, had to abandon the car to go get a new battery. In my case it was an eight year old battery, but still the same end result!

Sadly it seems we are in a world now where within manufacturing, distribution and retail, lying, cheating and deceit are becoming the norm rather than the exception

Now that's interesting! Mine are fitted using the same hole on each side.

Thanks Doug, but mines a Herald 13/60 with a push button with the barrel inside the button, quite different to the one you linked to. I have wondered if there is a circlip or nut that may have come loose.

Interesting! I happen to have two front Recaro seats from a Rover 820 Vitesse Sport and I'm wondering..... hmm...

My lock has started playing silly wotsits Sometimes the entire button will just spin round and not lock or unlock the door. It seems to have come out a mm or so more than it should. I have to put the key in and hold the button just back in slightly for the key to then turn the lock without just spinning the entire button and not engaging with the mechanism. Anyone had similar? Does it sound like an easy fix without replacing the handle? If I need a handle, can the lock barrel be easily changed to keep the same key? "All these questions and more will be answered on next weeks episode........" Cheers Simon

I'd like to recommend / suggest looking at this product from Bilthamber: http://www.bilthamber.com/car-cleaning-and-degreasing/surfex-hd It's a degreaser a bit like Gunk, but it's water based. I've found it pretty much as good as Gunk, but a gentle as using washing up liquid. You don't get the disgusting mess and it is safe with bare hands. I cleaned the Herald engine with it on the drive (block paved) and it didn't leave a mess on the drive and washed away without trace

I've always understood 12am is midnight and 12pm is noon, but it's had me confused before now!

Why not just fit one of these? Battery isolator Simples!