Rusted old wrecks

B

Burnerman

Joined
7 Feb 2008
Messages
25,104
Reaction score
5,295
Location
Northumberland
Country
United Kingdom
Mursal's comment about the wrecks that we used to earn a crumb fixing got me thinking.....
Ah the joy of early Mini front ball joints (greasable, but still had play after 1000 miles)
Rear radius arm bushes on the same vehicle - clonking after a similar mileage
The Mk 2 Escort - holes in the bottom of the doors after 2 years :eek:
Leyland FWD's jumping out of gear.....
Hillman Imps overheating
Joy!
Anyone like to continue?
John :)
 
Sponsored Links
...Austin A40's and the like, new front dampers every year, E39 Fords no 2nd gear about once a year and I remember the Ford 10cwt van where I first worked needed a new engine after 25k which was the norm for them, £25.00 I believe it was. :D

Peter
 
Most frequent job for me has to be mk3/4 cortina camshaft/followers/spray bar cyl head had to come off due to camshaft bearing arrangment, cam came out backwards! Did have a couple of ex police cars that had a hole drilled in bulkhead-iirc the total for the job was £85 that included all new ford parts!
 
kilovolt said:
Did have a couple of ex police cars that had a hole drilled in bulkhead-iirc the total for the job was £85 that included all new ford parts!
Click to expand...

Classic
That was going through my mind as I read the beginning of your post.

I cant add to this post until I see my therapist.
Its taken me this long to forget "the good old days".

Morris Marina/Ital, Nissan 100/120, Nissan Vanette, Toyota Hiace/Starlet Vauxhall Nova/Chevette.

Ahh........... the memories
 
Sponsored Links
Remember the Mk2 Escort Popular Plus model.....my dad had one and there was a ticket around the steering column that said 'not fit for export' :rolleyes:
Quality control could have been better too - it had a matt black bumper on the front and a chrome one on the back, likewise the 1.1 badge on the side. The drivers foot well filled up with water too.
As this was the economy model, the accellerator pump linkage on the carb had been disconnected :p
John :)
 
There was a Bedford CF van which had its engine canted over, and could be accessed through a hatch inside the cab (Victor engine maybe)?
Impossible to set the valve clearances (tapered screw) and they leaked oil like the Torrey Canyon :D
John :)
 
Had to laugh at the one about the bumpers...I thought it was just down south...How about the vivas with lockheed on one end,Girling on the other, one or the other was on strike, so vauxhalls ran out of brakes
 
They were crap, sure, but you only needed a hammer and an adjustable spanner to fix almost anything!
 
Burnerman said:
There was a Bedford CF van which had its engine canted over, and could be accessed through a hatch inside the cab (Victor engine maybe)?
Impossible to set the valve clearances (tapered screw) and they leaked oil like the Torrey Canyon :D
John :)
Click to expand...

I remember when I was about 13, my mother panicking when she smelled burning oil in our CF horsebox during county show day, and us pulled over waiting 3 hours for the RAC man who listened patiently to the worried explanation and the fears it was going to burst into flames and him simply saying, "Yeah, oil leaks onto the exhaust manifold sometimes. They all do that. It's fine."

Sold it shortly after for an incredibly slow TK (the 4 cylinder one, crawler gear up any sniff of a hill, and a fuel excess button for cold starts), which I was told to drive when I was 17 and promptly reversed it up onto the bonnet of a Montego owned by a very nice but slightly surprised pair of pensioners down on holiday.

Nice trip down memory lane, thanks! I still a definite fondness for 70's fords, be they MK 1 or 2 Escorts, Capris or Mk IV or V Cortinas. Modern cars have no soul, but it is quite nice to have more than a 50% chance of them starting on a cold morning.
 
Yes John, the 4/108 1760cc but they did do a version with a 4/152 engine, used a Bedford TK gearbox, that was nice, very noisy though.

Peter
 
Burnerman said:
Was that the 4 cyl Perkins,
Click to expand...

Also used in early Transits. Although the Tranny I had was fitted with the first of the York engines. No glowplugs. Only a reservoir of diesel oil which when a button on the dash was pressed, diesel trickled onto a heater element in the air intake. When the oil was burning nicely, the starter switch was turned and sometimes the engine coughed into life.

Eventually I fitted a later model cylinder head - one tapped for glowplugs.
 
That Perkins engine was the 108D. We used to get the ice cream vans in with that engine and, it always seemed to be me that got lumbered with them. They were always good for a can of Coke out from the back though :D
And, the CF with the petrol engine that lay at 45degrees. If I remember rightly the tappet sttings were;
Inlet between 7 & 10 thou but we were happy with 6 to 10.
Exhaust was 15 to 18 thou abd we sttled for 14 to 18.
Each turn of the screw was 3 thou so you couldn't get them bang on.
I still have the flexible Allen key for doing them (what a saddo)
And, if you fitted a genuine Vauhall rocker gasket, they didn't leak.
 
They used the Perkins 4/99 and 108 in quite a few vehicles including cars. I bought a brand new 4/99 engine in 1959 and fitted it in a Vauxhall Velox, they made a whole range of conversion kits to fit all popular cars of the time., the 4/108 was the sucessor, same engine bigger bore.

Between then and the '80s I did my own conversions with 4/108's ex mostly bedford vans, some CA and some CF as the bellhousing would take a Vauxhall overdrive gearbox into which I fitted the gears from the commercial box which gave nice wide gear ratios which could be filled in with the overdrive.

Then a bought a Citroen CX which had the first really refined diesel engine, never did another conversion after that.

Peter
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Sponsored Links
Back
Top