[Jeroen]

At the old Reims Circuit, France!!

We have been touring around different parts of France in our 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider. I will be sharing some more piccies and the full story of our adventures in a few days.

But I have just visited a pretty cool place. We are currently staying in Reims, and have spend the day touring the Champagne area. Absolutely gorgeous. This afternoon I dropped Mrs. D. In Reims for some retail therapy. I made my way to the local car museum.( what else?). Nice little museum. They had some information on the old Reims Circuit. Perhaps one of the most famous F1 street circuits ever. If anything the fastest.

So I drove over to see what’s left of it. Not that much, but they still have the grandstand and the main pits/starting position up.

The provincial road D27 goes right through it!



Feeling like a an old classic F1 driver!

https://youtu.be/ELKB0Fslcn8

Jeroen
(Back at the hotel, sampling some of the area known products! How do you write a piece about being in Champagne without violating the non alcohol rule on TeamBHP?)

[Jeroen]

A week ago, my wife and I set off in our Spider, heading south to Maastricht. We would meet our Spideristi friends Alex and Bianca and spanner mate Peter in our hotel. Have a nice dinner, Friday morning our friends Bart and Marianne would join us. With out four Spider we would drive over to the Bed & Breakfast Le Paradis ( https://leparadis.nl ) owned and run by our (Spideristi) friends Cees and Annelies. We have been doing this trip every year for the last five years, as long as Cees and Annelies have been open for guests.

The next day we met up at a McDonalds near the starting point of our Route. When we arrived, Bart and Marianne were already there. But we noticed another Spider! Big surprise, Cees and Annelies had driven up to Luik the night before. They had spend some time exploring Luik (Liege) and stayed overnight. The next morning they set off early and drove north to surprise us all.



Peter had a little problem with his Spider. Couple of dials and some lights had gone wonky. We checked and a fuse had blown. Simple repair!



We have driven the route to Le Paradis many times. We don’t like to do motorways. This year I had modified the route of two years ago. All rural roads. Five and a half hour driving. About 300 km in all.



We bring a couple of thermos flasks and fill them up at our hotels. So we can pull over whenever we like, have a little leg stretch, drink some coffee etc.



We know from long experience that once we reach France, it will be impossible to find a cafe/restaurant to have lunch. Small villages just don’t have cafe/restaurants any more. So we try to find something before we enter France. This time we found a lovely Italian restaurant in Luxembourg. The owner asked us, and our Spiders, to pose for him. We will be on his website soon!



We made it to Le Paradis without any problems. Nice relaxing evening, catching up with everybody. The next day we went out for a nice long drive. Annelies and Cees had made this route recently, so we decided to give it a try.



As I mentioned, finding just a simple place to have coffee in this part of France is a real problem. So we always bring our coffee, and often we pop into a supermarket for some food.

The driving here is superb, but stopping to eat and drink and talk is just as much fun.

Here we are at one of our many coffee stops



This is the view from where we had stopped:



We stayed here for about 35 minutes. In all that time, we were passed by one car!! It is very very quiet in this part of France.

Another stop, this time for lunch.





Dinner is always at Le Paradis. Annelies is a great cook and she does us a four course dinner every night. Except Saturday night when we all go out and eat in one of the restaurants nearby.

On Sunday Annelies serves a sort of Tapas like dinner, very tasty!



We tend to spend the day touring and visiting nearby places. Sometimes with the whole group, or we break out in smaller groups, depending on who wants to do what.

And of course, we might have to work on one or two Spiders now and then. Peter was having a problem with his fuel gauge. It indicated fine, till half way and then went wonky. So time to pull the level sensor out of the tank.



We took the whole thing apart and opened up the resistor bridge. It’s wire had snapped. Tried to solder it, but would not work.



So we decided to pop it back in. If anything, Peter knows what to order. These level sensors come in at least 4-5 different varieties. This one also has a small fuel pump fitted to it.



One day we decided to visit some of the Brocante Market. It is a very local activity. All these villages are always completely dead and deserted when we drive through. That is, until it is time for the local Brocante Market. All the local come out, there will be food and drinks.





Mrs. D is somewhat of an expert when it comes to Brocante. I am lucky we are in the Spider as it gives me a good excuse to tell her we can’t take anything back with us. Simply don’t have the space.

We also had a look at the Fuel Gauge of Bianca. Her Spider was experiencing similar symptoms as Peter’s Spider.



We were a bit more lucky with her Spider. We found the sensor was missing an mass cable. So we quickly made one, and her fuel gauge works perfect again!!



Then Peter had some problems with his brakes. We put some new pads in. Five minute job on a Spider.



On Monday Peter, Bart and Marianne had to head home. But Bianca, Alex and us were staying an extra night. We decided to drive over to Verdun. Put a nice route into the TomTom, Verdun is a nice little town.



Of course, Verdun is mostly known for the enormous battle in world war 1. The main battle lasted for 300 days, killed some 300.000 soldiers and wounded another 400.000. We visited the Verdun Museum. Hugely impressive!!

We drove back to Le Paradis for our last evening here. Cees had been doing some stuff on his two “pride and joys”. His Spider and his 2CV. Guests can borrow the 2CV, but not the Spider. If you have never driven a 2CV and get the chance, always go for it. These little cars are a hoot to drive. You can not get them to topple over, no matter how hard you try!



The next day, Tuesday, Alex and Bianca set off for the Netherlands. We had booked a hotel for two nights in Reims as we wanted to explore the Champagne area.

Reims, we found, to be a very attractive little French town. Its well known for its immense Cathedral.



And of course, we had some excellent French cuisine, with you guessed it, quite a bit of champagne. Mrs. D loves champagne and for two days refused to drink anything else!!

On Wednesday we drove around the Champange area. I had found a TomTom route on the Internet that would take you past all Champagne houses!



It was a fantastic route, gorgeous country, endless little villages. Also, we were very surprised by the number of Champagne houses. We had sort of thought there were a couple of dozen, maybe 40-50 different one. Turns out there are hundreds and hundreds of Champagne Houses. From very large, almost factory type of operation, to very small, run from a garage. And that is before we started counting the Co-Op Champagne outfits.

In the afternoon Mrs D needed some more Retail therapy and I set off to the local car museum. https://www.musee-automobile-reims-champagne.com

A very nice and interesting museum. Lots of cars, some 220 and hundreds of model cars too.



On Thursday morning we left our hotel at around 09.30. About 400 km drive to get home. We got home by about 14.00. We had two stops along the motorway.

We had been away for a full week, driven just over 1900 km. The Spider used about 600-700 ml of engine oil. Which is better than before. So the valve seal replacement appears to have worked. Still, Peter told me he sees blue smoke when I accelerate and come off the throttle. So I might need a cylinder head revision in the not so distant future.

Tomorrow back to spannering; We are going to replace the AC condensor on my wife’s Ford Fiesta

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Today’s job: Replacing the AC condensor on a 2015 Ford Fiesta.

As I mentioned earlier, just after I finished working on my Jeep’s AC, my wife started complaining about the AC in her little Fiesta. I took it over to my neighbour and car AC specialist Jack and we quickly concluded the condensor was leaking. The AC charge has a special dye in it. When a leak occurs, even the tiniest of leak, it becomes visible under UV light. (For small leaks you need an UV light and some special goggles).

So Jack ordered a new condensor. For various reasons we did not get around to replacing it, till now.

Early this morning I drove our Fiesta over to Jack’s garage. About 500 meters from where we live. We put it on to his lift. Having a lift makes these sort of jobs so much easier!!



The official Ford Procedure requires removing of the front bumper, lots of other stuff and draining and removal of the radiator.

I have a Haynes Manual and it also stipulates the same.



Luckily, Jack had replaced any number of condensors on Fiesta’s and has a much better and quicker procedure. We discussed the draining of the radiator and neither of us are big fans, for the same reason. It’s always messy. In theory you can re-use the old coolant liquid. But in practice you end up replacing it, because it is almost impossible not to get some dirt/oil into it when draining. So no draining of the radiator!!

But the front section of the car needs to come off. No matter what. As the rod that holds the bonnet open is attached to the bit we were about to take off the car, Jack used a strap to hold the bonnet open.



Also, we took the front wheel off as well. You need to undo a couple of fasteners of the inner wheel well lining. Easier with the wheels off. I took the opportunity to take the rear ones off as well and swap them. These Fiesta’s suffer from “cupping” so I try to swap rear to front wheels once/twice a year. A lot easier with the car on the lift, than having to mess with two jacks and axle stands!

Whilst I was working on the wheels, Jack took out the air mass flow meter and the two main front head light assemblies.







Next we undid the whole front body section/bumper. It is held in place with only a few bolts and fasteners.





It looks quite spectacular, as if it has been hit by a truck at this point.



But still more stuff had to come off. We took the whole front structural section off. Essentially this provides all the front rigidity and is the bumper (behind the plastic body shell). It attaches to the main chassis with four small bolts (m13) on each side. Look closely and you can see why we had to support the bonnet with a strap! You can see the rod still attached in the normal locked horizontal position!



With all this stuff out of the way we had good access to the radiator/ condensor.
The condensor is positioned at the front of the radiator.



We could essentially lift/tilt the radiator with condensor attached upwards and forwards. We put an oil drum underneath to support it.



It took us about 30 minutes to get this far!! I was quite surprised!!

Here Jack is checking the new condensor whether it is identical to the old one, as you have seen me do on all my parts many many times.



Jack fiddling with the various AC connections. Being the Pro he had all the correct O-rings and gaskets at the ready.



Next, we put nitrogen into the system. Just to leak check. Jack has some special bubbly soapy water. Much thicker than normal soapy water. So it won’t run down, it stays in place. The smallest of leaks will get you some bubbles.



With the leak test done, the next thing is to hook the system up to the vacuum pump. You can never draw enough vacuum on an AC system prior to refilling.

The vacuum pump is sitting in the bottom of the tool cart.



With the vacuum pump running we started re-assembly. We ran the vacuum pump for almost an hour. By then we had re-assembled everything!! We were just waiting for the vacuum pump to finish its job.

With all air (and possible moisture) extracted, Jack added a little compressor oil into the system. Next he hooked up his bottle and filling manifold.



Filling an AC system goes by weight. The AC of the Fiesta takes a charge of 390 grams. Jack uses an accurate scale to monitor the filling of the system.



Once the system is about 1/2 to 2/3 full the engine is started and the AC compressor switched on to fascinate the last bit of charge to enter the system.

Finally we checked the cold air coming from the various vents. We found a couple of degrees difference between the different vents. Between 8-10oC. With the AC set to re-circulation the temperature dropped a bit more. This is as good as it gets with these modern Acs on these little cars. They are only just sufficient. There is only so much cooling 390 grams of R134A can do!



Two and a half hours after we started we were done. AC working again, all the bits bolted back onto the car, and the tires rotated as well.



I found it very interesting working along side with Jack. You learn an awful lot working along side a real Pro. Experience does show a lot. Jack knew exactly where each and every bolt and fastner was located. I always end up spending considerable amount of time, trying to figure out which bolt holds what parts together.

The other thing; I can get spare parts for my classic cars easily. In theory for modern cars, it should not be any different. However, I have ran into problems before with the Fiesta. About half a year I replaced a broken rear spring. I had to get the parts from Ford themselves eventually. Relatively new cars, are a bit more in the domain of the (main) dealers.

I could have bought the condensor myself, but I would have been at a loss what gaskets and O-rings to get. It just don’t have the documentation. Jack has every gasket/O-ring imaginable in stock. Of course, I also don’t have the knowledge or the tools to leakiest and recharge an AC system.

So Mrs. D is very pleased! She loves her little Fiesta and summer here in the Netherlands is about to start!!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

With our trip to France done, and my wife’s AC fixed, time to spend some more time on the Spider. I need to get prepared to drive about 4-5000km in about 7 days.

Spanner mate Peter and I have been discussing the route at length whilst we were in France. We will need to drive about 1600 km from home to the starting point of our 12in12 Rallye. (https://12in12.mystrikingly.com)

These days Peter lives about an hour and half driving north from us. On Wednesdayevening 15th of June, after he finishes his work, he will drive to our home. He will spend the night with us. We will set off early on Thursday the 16th of June. We aim to do at least 1000-1100 km. It will all be on motorways, this should get us to Basel, Switzerland, maybe a bit further. The biggest unknown tends to be roadworks on the German Autobahns. It can’t be avoided. We would have preferred going via France via more rural roads, but we simply don’t have enough time off work. That means on Friday we will still need to drive some 450-550 km though the Alps. We havent yet quite decided what route we will take.

As usual we don’t book our enroute hotel for Thursday night up front. We will see how far we get and find something locally that will suit us.

We don’t want to be arriving in our hotel on Friday evening. There is a welcome dinner for all the teams. There are some 20teams. Many different nationalities, many different cars, all classic cars! The starting positions are based on the age of our car, weight and horse power.



Saturday morning (18th of June) starting will start at 06.00AM so it is going to be a very early start for everybody. We will drive for 12 hours, 1 hour lunch and the idea is to clock as many miles and as many miles as you can/would like to.

Sunday (19th of June) Peter and I will head home. We will take three days to drive home. So a little bit more relaxed. We might want to go via Mulhouse, visit the gorgeous Schlumpf Car Museum. In which case we are likely to return home via the Grand Ballon in the Vogez. Peter and I did this many years ago and I did it by myself about five years ago.

First thing first. The Spider needed a good cleaning!! All washed, polished and waxed again!



I also ordered a motorway vignet for Switzerland. Stuck it on my Spider. I noticed the previous vignet was from 2006. That must have been the last year Peter and I drove in the Alps and visited the Schlumpf museum with the Dutch Alfa Romeo Spider Registers.



These vignets are mandatory when driving on the Swiss motorways. You can try without one, but you risk a hefty fine. Even so, the vignet is not exactly cheap. We paid about Euro 40 for us, including postage to our home addresses. They are valid for a whole year though.

I don’t think I need to anything else to my Spider. I do need to repack my tools and parts (we will be taking some more parts). But that’s about it.

Had not driven my Jeep for a while, so I took it for a little tour this afternoon.

On one of the many little ferries crossing the river Waal. About 6 kilometers from where we live.



I noticed a few drops of oil underneath the car. I know the front crankshaft seal is leaking. But when I checked I think one of the transmission hoses might be leaking as well. I will clean everything thoroughly and then drive the Jeep some more, see if I can get a more definite idea about what is going on. The transmission hoses are fairly simple. But new ones are very expensive and I havent found anybody that stocks them. Fingers crossed!!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

I wasn’t happy with the possibility of the hoses on the transmission lines leaking. So today I decided to do a little test to determine what is happening.

These two photographs are taken from underneath the sump looking up at the forward end of the engine.

You can see the pulley/torsion dampener. There are visible sign of engine oil leakage. This is known issue with the forward crank seal. That’s why I will be taking the pulley off and replacing the seal soon. But I was concerned with the two hoses. In particular where the hose is attached to the metal tube. These are crimped connections and can not be repaired. Once they start leaking you are done for. Usually you can tell what kind of oil is leaking by smelling, tasting and colour. However, as there is already an engine oil leak, any transmission fluid would be diluted.





I cleaned both connections very thoroughly and wrapped them in a thick layer of workshop paper towel. Then I wrapped plastic around it and taped it all.





Next I took a test drive to my favourite tool shop HBM. About 80-90 km back and forth. So good enough to see if there was any transmission fluid weeping through the connectors.



Absolutely bone dry!!! Big relief. However, I might still have to replace these. I will still have to see if I can get the other end of each hose, which attached to the heat exchange in the radiator, undone without damaging them. But this is one worry less!!

I went to HBM as I need a special pulley/fly wheel puller. Got this nice little set, for Euro 14. To put that in context, Euro 14 will get you three cups of coffee these days.



The challenge with using these pulley pullers is always space. There isn’t an awful lot of room in front of the pulley. So I thought the original bolts were likely to be too long. I had to get some smaller ones. Problem these bolts are not metric. Some weird ass Imperial measure. Luckily, we have a renewed Classic Jaguar restoration shop nearby. I went to see them some time ago. Impressive shop!

https://avelingenrestorations.nl/en/

As they work exclusively on old classic Jaguars, I figured they must have boxes full of unusual and weird threaded bolts and nuts. I wasn’t disappointed. I brought the original bolt, the guy looked at it for 0,1 second; “Ah, looks like a UNC, 3/16”. Sure enough I have now three shorter bolts that fit!!







On the way to HBM I made a little video some of you might find interesting. Sorry, for the crappy quality. You are looking at the cooling liquid temperature indicator on my Jeep Cherokee. Calibrated in Fahrenheit obviously.

I started the engine from cold. Within a couple of minutes I am driving on the motorway at about 90 km/h on the cruise control. Steady speed, flat road.

You will see the needle creeping upwards, as you would expect. The engine is warming up, so is the cooling liquid. The thermostat is still closed. Pay particular attention to the needle from about 28 seconds. You will see the needle continue to indicate higher, but all of a sudden it drops (counterclockwise). This is the moment the thermostat opens! When it opens, it actually opens, initially a bit to much, and thus the temperature drops a bit, but then goes up a bit and remains steady. From here on the thermostat is open and regulating the cooling liquid temperature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xyLKrZVk4s

On most engines you can observe this similar behaviour of the initial opening of the thermostat valve and the dropping of the temperature (only a few degrees) after a steady rise.
Jeroen

[vijay_jambu]

Hello Jeroen,

It’s real fun to read about issues and the fixes you manage to do. It not only gives in-depth information about how complex mechanical parts of the car are, but also shows how passionate you are when it comes to upkeep and moreover the happiness all your vehicles give by driving it in the most scenic parts of the world with friends and family.
Please keep your experiences pouring in, I’m sure there are many people like me who likes to read your write ups.

Thanks,
VJ

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by vijay_jambu

It’s real fun to read about issues and the fixes you manage to do. It not only gives in-depth information about how complex mechanical parts of the car are, but also shows how passionate you are when it comes to upkeep and moreover the happiness all your vehicles give by driving it in the most scenic parts of the world with friends and family.
Please keep your experiences pouring in, I’m sure there are many people like me who likes to read your write ups.

Thanks VJ. Your comments are much appreciated! I do enjoy keeping this thread updated. Much more to come in the next couple of weeks. On the Jeep, my Jaguar, the 12in12 challenge in the Spider in the Alps. I will also be visiting and participating in various other classic car events in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Stay tuned for more!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

The other day I noticed that the third brake light on the Jaguar was a bit wonky. It sagged a bit on one side.

Not quite sure how it was attached to the rear window. Spend a lot of time going through my Jaguar Workshop manual looking for references to third brake light. The Jaguar boffins called this a “high mounted brake light”. So once I figured that out, I found the respective section in the manual quickly.

It is held in place by two plastic clips that are glued to the rear window. And you should be able to slide the whole brake light assembly upwards.



It was very fiddly, because as usual with these plastic clips you had to push in a little thingy before it would unhook. Not much room in the very bottom of the rear window towards the parcel shelve. But I managed to get it off, without any further damage



Sure enough, one of the plastic clips had come undone.

So I cleaned it and filed it down a bit, to make a good smooth surface





I used one of my very special super glues to attached the little clip back onto the rear window.



Slid the brake light assembly back on, and so far it has stayed in place!!

But I have another major problem. Sagging roof liner!!



This is a problem that will eventually hit just about any car as it ages. The roof liner tends to be attached to a kind of soft/felt like material which also helps to sound proof the cabin. Over time the felt just detoriates to the extent where it just starts to pulverise. There is only one solution, the whole head liner needs to come out and be replaced.

It is a quite a bit of work. Also, I am not particularly good at these sort of jobs. It will involve scissors, accurate cutting, trimming and gluing of the lining. Not me kind of thing at all. Man gotta know its limitations. I have already found somebody who was recommended by another Jaguar club member. Did the same job on his car. I will have to make an appointment and go and see him soon.

I also, finally, managed to find a nice picture frame, for one of my favourite posters:



Those of you familiar with this thread will have seen my little white board. I keep a log of all the jobs I need to do, parts and tools I need to get.



This was a very cheap white board, bought it in a toy shop. It is actually just a piece of cardboard with some white plastic stuck to it. It was becoming very difficult to erase anything I had written on it.

So I managed to find a new one yesterday. This time a proper white board.



Last night our good friends Berndt and Loes came round. They had been delivering posters for their Minidrome tour to the various sponsors. Obviously, I had to put one of the posters behind one of our front windows too



Some 60 classic cars and teams have already enrolled. Berndt and Loes still need to finish the complete route. Once they have done that, Berndt and I will drive it one more time for a final check. I will also record it with my GPS TomTom. That will give us a GPX file we can send to all the participants.

I look forward to this tour. It is very local, many different classic cars. Always good fun!

Excuse all the spider webs on our window frame. Happens a lot this time a year. Next week I will be mowing the grass on our dike. That always creates a mess on the front of the house. So I will also need to hose down the whole front of the house with our high pressure hose. As of a few weeks ago, we had a water softener installed. Which also means it should be a lot easier to clean the windows, no stripes and no white spots! Mrs. D will be very happy when I’m done!

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

But I have another major problem. Sagging roof liner!!

This is a problem that will eventually hit just about any car as it ages.

It is very nice to see your chronicles again!

About your roof liner... Didn't you have a skilled upholster who made your car seats like new? But I may be thinking of another thread. If so, would he be able to do this work too. It does look bad. You are a perfectionist and I'm sure you won't be prepared to live with it for very long!

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

About your roof liner... Didn't you have a skilled upholster who made your car seats like new? But I may be thinking of another thread. If so, would he be able to do this work too. It does look bad. You are a perfectionist and I'm sure you won't be prepared to live with it for very long!

Yes correct! You are thinking of Joost. He fixed the leather seats of the Jaguar and also the door card of the Spider. Shown in several earlier posts on this thread. Unfortunate, Joost his business is almost two hours drive from us. His partner used to live close to us and he used to visit her regularly. That’s how he managed to work on my cars. She has now moved to join him, so it’s a bit far. Not sure if he would be willing to tackle a roof liner though. The local guy who did an excellent job reaping my Jeep chair would not touch a roof liner project with a barge pole!

It’s a bit of a specialist job, requiring different materials and skills. Stay tuned for more!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

By sheer chance I came across, what looks like, a hugely interesting oldtimer market in North Germany: https://www.bockhorner-oldtimermarkt.de

It supposedly features 5000 old an yountimers and more than 1000 market stalls with car stuff! Sort of a German equivalent to the Beaulieu Autojumble ( https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/inter...aulieu-uk.html (Outdoor sale of unique cars & parts at the International Autojumble, Beaulieu (UK)))

Its next week, about 350 km from our home. So I decided i will drive up to nearby Wilhelshaven on Thursday. I have never been there, which is good enough reason to go and check it out. But it also has a very interesting German Marine (Navy) museum, it’s a harbour town, so plenty to see. I booked myself into a nice little German hotel. These days I always use Booking.com app. Works very well and very convenient.

I will spend the night at Wilhelms haven and on Friday morning, early, drive down to this Bockhorner event. They have special parking facilities for oldtimers, free of charge. When you go to visit a classic car show in Germany, you need to show up in your classic German car obviously. Ze Germands wouldn’t have it any other way. So yesterday I took my W123 for a little test run. I had not driven it for a while. She runs beautifully!

A quick check under the hood, topped up the oil a bit, checked the oil in the carburator, cooling liquid etc. All is well!!



I am looking forward to my little trip in my W123! It will be mostly motorways/Autobahns. But that is ok. I just enjoy being out by myself and my cars, doing stuff I enjoy, visiting a town/musuems and a classic car show.

Whilst I was in my garage I also decided to check out the third brake light on the Spider. For some reason it was not working.

The third brake light is mounted inside the spoiler.



As you might recall, some years ago, I spend quite a bit of time to fix the light fitting and made a special little cover plate to seal the fitting. (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/diy-d...ml#post4804100)

So I might have to remove it again. But first I decided just to check a few things. This brake light is powered through these special pins.





They tend to pick up dirt and grime over the years. So decided to give them a good cleaning and do a brake test.

As I am just bymyself I use this highly sophisticated special tool to press the brake pedal!



Still not working. But did you spot the problem?? Yes, I pressed the clutch instead of the brake pedal! Duhhh!

But even with the correct pedal pressed the third brake light would not light up. So out comes the multimeter.



Which confirmed I have at least 12V on one of these three pins. Wait, three pins? Why would a brake switch need three? Then I remember, it was not one of my better days, the registration plate lights are also powered through these pins!



Those (3) lights are working fine. So time to remove the brake light fitting. I removed my DIY little cover plate and pulled the whole assembly.



Checked the bulb with the multimeter, even though it looked fine. But the multimeter in resistance mode, also showed the bulb as ok.

Next I had a very good look at the fitting. I found the problem. The center pin is supposed to be spring loaded. So it pushed against the bulb. Somehow the spring is not working anymore.



I messed around a bit with trying to put a spring around the center pin.





Long story short, could not get it to work. I have a feeling these fitting are not available anymore. Getting one second hand is going to be a problem as well. I will phone around a bit on Tuesday. If the worst comes to the worst, I just have to open up the fitting a bit more and fixed it myself. I have some ideas how that can be done. Wait and see

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Long story short, could not get it to work. I have a feeling these fitting are not available anymore. Getting one second hand is going to be a problem as well.

I look forward to your post on making the spring!

I'm sure you don't need any instructions --- but This Old Tony did a video on making springs. It's fun to watch.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I look forward to your post on making the spring!

I am not sure I will go as far as making my own spring. Lets see what I can find.

This weekend is Pentecost here in the Netherlands. Always endless activities all over the country, most people will have a long weekend, as the Monday is an official Sun-/holi-day. Also, lots of classic car shows.

Yesterday, I took the Jeep and drove to two different ones. First in OudHeusden, about 30 minutes from us. Very simple affair. About 40-50 cars present at the local football club. Very nice.







Next I drove to a classic car company just across the border in Belgium. Nice setting inside!











Today I took the Jeep again to go and see the local classic tractor club in action. They were to assemble, after their tour at the river Waal in Varik.

I arrived early, the church you can see in the background was open and you could climb all the way to the top. Which gives you a magnificent view of the Betuwe.



Here you can see the first 30 or so tractors arriving. In total there were over 80. Very windy and it started raining too. Have a look at the tractor at 3:38. This guy has an interesting set up for the safety seat of his little boy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6qXR5VEFpU

A few more piccies:





Always very nice and informal these tractor events. I drove home and filled up the Jeep. Let nobody ever complain about the petrol being expensive anymore.

Look at this: I am paying Euro 2,459 (INR 204) per liter. This is BP Ultimate, which is the most expensive stuff, but it is at the cheapest petrol pump in the Netherlands!!



So 70 liters (the Jeep has a 75 liter tank) it is costing me Euro 175 (INR 14550)

The good news: When I just bought the Jeep the fuel efficiency was barely 1:7. With all the work I have done on it, I have it up to 1:8,6. A lot better, but still mighty thirsty. Its not going to improve from here on I’m afraid.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

I hope you have read this thread about my little trip with my Jeep to a nearby Engine festival/fair

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/inter...therlands.html (Stationaire Engine Show Nuenen, The Netherlands)

I bought two items at this fair.

One of them is this pressure gage. Or better yet, it is a so called Magnehelic® Differential Pressure Gage. Not sure what this one was used for specifically. Seems like a portable unit. I have seen these sort of special gauges being used to measure for instance over pressure in a clean room.



The metal box is a bit rusty, but that adds to the charm. The guy who had it on sale, had no idea what it was and wanted to get rid of it. So I paid Euro 2 for it. Euro 2 doesn’t even get you a cup of coffee these days.

This Magnehelic principle is actually very clever. Has been around for ages and is still being used today. More details on this special measuring principle:

http://blog.dwyer-inst.com/2017/03/0....ynYQMgbZ.dpbs

This one sits in my garage for now:



The other item I bought was also something very simple, but I actually needed one for my machining and model engine building hobby.

This is how it looked when I bought it:



A bit of polishing and it looks as new!



Still checking my Spider and the Mercedes for the big upcoming drives. I realised I forgot to check my tires. Easy job with my compressor and special manometer attachment. Here is a tip, when you check your tire pressure, also check the pressure of your spare tire. Often forgotten. My experience is that tires, always, loose their pressure over time. Somehow, when they dont get used, e.g. like a spare tire, it seems to be worse.



I always add about 10-15% extra pressure in the spare.

And I always check the tire pressure with two manometers. One as already shown, attached to the tire pressure attachment of my compressor and a separate handheld.



The reason is; these manometer do wear over time. As long as two independent manometer give about the same reading, I figure we are ok. If they start deviating by more than 0,1 bar, time to get a new one.

A few years ago, I was caught out with an improper reading of my home manometer. I always prep my cars prior their (bi) annual MOTs. Which includes checking/adjusting tire pressure. When the W123 was checked by the MOT technician he told me the car was fine, but he added about 0,5 bar pressure to all four tires. I asked him to check again, he was even kind enough to get a brand new manometer. But the conclusion was my home manometer had developed quite a serious offset. So be aware. It is not just about checking the tire pressure. It is making sure you are doing so, with an accurate manometer!!

I am doing some preparation on the various jobs still to be done on the Jeep. I wrote earlier about the special bolts for the pulley puller I had to find. Well, I realised the other day, whilst doing some reading up on this little job, I need a separate bolt to pull the pulley back on the crankshaft too. The bolt that holds it in place isn’t long enough. I checked on the Jeepforum.com and sure enough somebody knew exactly what kind of thread this particular bolt is. It is UNF 1/2” x 20. That is even more rare and more difficult to get than the UNC thread I had on the other three bolts. Luckily my guy at the Jaguar restoration shop had a box full of these bolts as well.



When I drove back yesterday, from all my classic car/tractor events, in my Jeep I had a little problem. I was driving on the motorway when I noticed that the cooling liquid temperature had dropped about 20-25oF. So I pulled over. Checked a few things. Checked the cabin heater, which is working fine. No apparent leaks. I messed mourned with the wires of the temperature sensor. When I restarted the engine everything was normal again.

So I had another good look this morning



Took the connector of the temperature sensor off again and cleaned the contacts with contact cleaner spray.



Not much more I can do now. I do need to pop back to my Jeep specialist Martin. He put new wipers on the Jeep as part of the MOT. I can see they are brand spanking new. Proper Bosch ones too. Still, one of them is already coming apart!

But the big job for today was fixing the brake light fitting of the Spider. I phoned around a bit early this morning. Nobody has a new fitting. So time to improvise:

Cut the wires and took it off the Spider.



Two little screws hold it all together



Managed to press out the little centre piece, that hold the spring loaded pin, which is broken in my case



I can’t open up the centre piece. No idea how that internal spring works or broke. I rummaged around to find a new spring that would fit around the pin. I have loads of boxes with springs, but nothing would do. Eventually I found a spring that would do, inside a ballpoint.



I cut off the middle part. It has a few windings close together and then a few windings that will form the actual springy part.

Put it into my vice to hold steady



Added a drop of this very special super duper glue, which also comes with this special filler material. Sets almost instantly.



This looks as if it might work:



Very carefully pressed the complete centre piece, now with spring attached back into the fitting. I used a socket that fitted exactly on the outer rim.



Beginning to look good!!



Before re-fitting it on the Spider I tested it, by holding it against my 12VDC power supply. It’s alive!!!



Put everything back onto the Spider and checked one final time. We have a working third brake light once again!!



Finally, when we were touring in France I noticed that the right window washer nozzle was spraying the screen wash way too high. Even at motorway speeds it would spray most over the top of the windscreen, rather then on it.

So I quick adjustment with a needle and a test spray fixed that too.



Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

I love the odd-leg calipers. I'm delighted that you almost had to make a spring, but employed a pen spring and ingenuity. I once saw advice to never throw away pen springs! But I always forget.

Are you aware that you may well have a super-glue instant-set, space-filling agent in your kitchen? Sodium Bicarbonate. Sets the liquid superglue really quick and sets really hard. Can be used as filler or for making fillets around joins. It is hard and brittle, so anything that needs to flex would need a different solution.

I don't know if it can be used with thicker super-glues: I think it will only work with the water-like one.