My HPE....now a rolling recommission

[WestonE]

Hi Nigel

That dum dum sticky stuff and masking tape fixing is factory! You can skip the messy Dum Sum and use Tank Tape leaving the drain channels clear or just put the wires there if you door seals work.

Eric

[Nigel]

I thought so Eric. All a bit scrappy to look at! But it does reduce the bulk I guess.

Apologies if I've asked before: you mentioned somewhere about a short-throw mod
to your gear-lever you'd done. Edit: found your reference, is it 'simply' the distance between the ball
and bolt block that's reduced?

Regards, Nigel

[WestonE]

Hi Nigel

Yes it is and this was a kit developed by Mark Wastnidge I snapped up as I remember the long throw original. Probably best to message Mark and see if he has any hidden away.

Eric

[squiglyzigly]

Hmmmmm. .  Got me thinking and confused.
Are we talking about the bolt block on the bottom of the gear stick?
Surely the distance below the ball pivot needs to be longer to shorten the throw at the gear knob?

[Nigel]

Actually, I think you're correct Ian.  Edit, no, shorter is less throw.

Which would be easier to re-create if Mark doesn't have anything left.

I had the lever out this afternoon, stripped it down, warmed it, and bent it back
around 50mm so that the knob is in a better position. During this I dropped the tiny key
which links the bottom block to the lever [to prevent turning] and it took some 10 mins
to find it!


Nigel

[Nigel]

After the strip out of the interior recently, I found an additional
water leak issue. It's been raining a bit lately, and the car is, unfortunately,
parked outside.
Next to the accelerator pedal, there's a bunch of wiring, specifically a loom that
runs from the dash to the engine bay. This thick loom, which exits below the clutch bell crank and runs
towards and under the lower frame rail, had water dripping from it.
I'm not necessarily concerned of an electrical issue, but more with the water so readily
entering and soaking my new work and carpets.
I wonder if anyone else has ever seen this before, or similar.

Happy Tuesday! Nigel

p.s. I've ordered a car cover.
 

[Nigel]

Hmmmmm. .  Got me thinking and confused.
Are we talking about the bolt block on the bottom of the gear stick?
Surely the distance below the ball pivot needs to be longer to shorten the throw at the gear knob?

Firstly, Ian, you are correct about the gearlever, my brain wasn't engaged properly. Apologies.
On that, I fitted the spacers from Mark and all works well, although I haven't driven it yet.

The floor is finished and ready for carpet refitting. I used a 10mm closed-cell foam that comes
in a roll approx. 100mm wide x 5m long from Jewsons, used between brickwork. Ideal, and being in
strip form, easy to glue down. On top of that I used a self-adhesive foam-backed foil about 5mm thick.
Very lightweight and also easy to cut to shape.

Got to mention this: I ordered a couple of rubber Jack Straps from Midwest Bayless on Monday at around 16.00.
They arrived at 10.00 this morning via Fedex. How good is that?

[WestonE]

Hi Nigel Impressive and inventive economical sourcing. I am glad Mark could help with the Gear Lever bits.

Eric
PS I wish I had time to do something on the car right now!

[Nigel]

An 'upgrade' to the cooling system today.
I been frustrated by the horrible state of the expansion tank so sourced a new one
that looked as if it would fit the space.

I made up a boomerang-shaped bracket that would fix to the original mounts,
and fitted a couple of 6mm studs for mounting the new bottle.

It went together fairly well and now I can see the coolant level.
The cap is rated at 1.4 bar which is just slightly higher that the Haynes figure.

[peteracs]

Hi Nigel

Nice solution to the expansion tank problem.

Also quick question, where did you get the foam backed foil from?

I used adhesive backed  cell foam, but would have also added the foil had I seen your post before I did it as looks a tidy job.

Peter

[Neil-yaj396]

Where did you source the tank Nigel? Is it from a specific car/van?

[Nigel]

Peter,
The foil-backed stuff is here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403223209084
It took 5 packs with zero to spare, so suggest 6 if you go this route. This covered
the extremities of the floor, up the sides etc.

Neil,
Sorry, I forgot that detail! It's here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234030320731 and it's from a Clio.

Regards, Nigel

[Sandro]

Nice work Nigel!
(my expansion tanks a bit of a tired mess too, be nice to freshen it up)

A.

[Nigel]

Good day,

Got the car running again for the first time this year, mainly to test the new expansion tank.
All seems good, but had to fix a weep at the small top connection.

The interior is almost finished reinstalling,just the drivers seat out now, but i'll wait until
i've rummaged around under the dash in search of the intermittent-wiper relay.
On that subject, i've fitted a Citroen C8 [I think] wiper motor to a spare rack I had, and I now want to
wire up,on the bench, the complete wiper system with a spare column switch. I'm finding
the connections challenging to say the least,so sparks may fly first.

Meantime I made a simple dolly for the jack so that moving the car from
one side of my driveway to the other is less of a dodgy affair.

[Nigel]

I'm pleased that at last I have a correct V5C which arrived this
morning.
Colour change, car model now HPE 2000 instead of blank,
and most importantly, the VIN now shows ZLA rather than 2LA.

Thanks to dvla for getting through the year-long backlog, that's
how long it took.

Happy days, Nigel

[Nigel]

No matter how good bonnet cables work,and how much time
is devoted to correct adjustment, there remains the
inevitable possibility that things can go bad.

I used riv nuts in the bonnet holes and a dremel to create the space
for the screws.

[Sandro]

Nice work Nigel!!

Andrew

[mangocrazy]

Nice one, Nigel. That has troubled me for a long time, as my bonnet release mechanism has always been a bit marginal. Excellent idea, and one that I will be following myself. Another fixing that I've used in situations like this are rubber Wellnuts, as used on many motorbike fairing panels. Being rubber they introduce a bit of 'give' and vibration damping. These are they:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401601696294

[SanRemo78]

This might belong in the "Back in the Day" thread....

My last HPE VX lived outside. No choice, it was an everyday car after all. One Winter I couldn't get it started and the bonnet release was solid. Just no give at all. And I'm not one to apply unnecessary force. So, a little investigation revealed a puddle in the scuttle had frozen solid. No wonder it wouldn't move. And that's where unnecessary force was applied judiciously to snap the pins off the bottom of the grill and lift it off in one piece. That allowed a hairdryer or heat gun (memory fails me) to be inserted and 30 minutes later I got the bonnet open, fixed the issue (flat battery) and got to work just a little late.

Now I didn't know about the joys of Rivnuts back then so the solution was to very carefully drill some shallow, narrow holes where the pins had been, heat up a suitably short screw and screw it into place, slightly melting the plastic to form a thread. Took time but it held until the car went.

[WestonE]

I used Mountain Bike Brake Cable kits and Vespa Cable ferrules to completely re-build my bonnet release cables. I now have working releases on both sides of the car so baring ice freezing it solid I hope to avoid trashing my carefully stored bonnet grill with full set of OE fragile plastic pins.

Eric
NB The Mountain bike inner cable ends fit the pull levers very nicely.