Xbolx tat blog, Jan 2016 'FLEET UPDATE'

Been lax in keeping up to date with your thread.

Entertaining as always.

Just to say, I am not sure I have even seen an Uno pickup before.

And of course I do approve.

The Nissan Primeras are totally underrated in my book.

Spent most of my day off yesterday reading the entire thread. I don't regret it for a second. More please!

Well I've got a headache today and am not doing a lot so lets have a couple of updates on the fleet.

ROVER 75

So I put this on the road at the beginning of February and have been bombing about in it. Its very nice to drive and not desperately underpowered although its a bit undergeared, 85mph is 4000 rpm so its not as laid-back on the motorway as you might like it to be. However its still a very nice way to get about. The steering is beautifully fluid, probably the best I have tried yet on sweepy curving A-roads, its a real joy to use and the car is very comfortable. Does about 33mpg average. I have done a few de-snagging jobs:



The heater was cold on the passenger side, much to the anoyance of the current Mrs_nuts who does not own any leg warmers. To fix that I chucked a washing powwder tablet in the cooling suystem then after a couple of weeks flushed and back-flushed the heater matrix. Result: LOVELY WARM HEATER!!! Ace. A very slight knock over rough ground was traced to a track rod end getting tired so that was replaced. Fitted my Sony radio with the correct (and quite expensive) interface to supposedly make the steering wheel controls work (they half worked, you could turn the volume down but not back up!!! Load of cr4p). Basically the car seemed pretty well sorted now and I did about 1200 trouble-free miles over 3 weeks.





Unfortunately the day after I was boasting to my dad about what a great car it was, this happened:



Just lost all drive without warning on the A38 going to work one morning. I was not caning it and there was no big bang or owt, one moment I was blezzing along, the next you could put it ina and out of any gear without the clutch and there was absolutley no drive whatsoever.

I had absolutley no idea what this was all about, I assumed something in the clutch or gearbox had knackered up. Whatever it was, I had a big one right up there so rang up the RAC, joined, and asked to be recovered. After 2 hours some dude in a van turned up and agreed I needed a flatbed lorry as the lard ar5e 75 is too heavy to be dollied beehind his VW van. After another 2.5 hours a lorry turned up:



I asked him to recover me to my garage where at least I could get into the Primera and be mobile again. So:



By the time we arrived at the garage it was half two, SIX AND A HALF FLIPPIN HOURS since I rang the RAC. Obv the day was a write off so I decided to have a look at the problem.

It turned out the driveshaft had come disengaged from the diff!!! WHAT!!!!



The driveshaft is held in by the big bearing on the LHS of that pic. Why would that fail in its duty to retain the driveshaft io wonder?

I took the driveshaft out for a proper look.



The bearing is supposed to be a tight interference fit on the shiny bit of the driveshaft. IN the pic, I had drifted the bearing down the shaft away from its proper spot. I couldnt see anything obviously wrong although the bearing was a bit gritty, not the smoothest. I worked some oil into it which helped a bit but I could not see any obvioius problems. I put the bearing back where is supposed to be, along with some loctite to help hold it, and put it back in. Drove half a mile up the road and back and had a look. It had already worked itself 1/2 inch out the box already. I was flummoxed by this so parked it up, swapped the insurance back onto the Primera and drove home.

After thinking about it I decided tha, although I could not see exactly why, the bearing must be at fault as all it has to do is hold and support the shaft and for some reason it was not doing that. You can't buy a new bearing off Rover or Rimming brothers as it is supplied as part of a complete middle driveshaft assy. But, I had noted a reference number off it and eventually found the orignal bearing manufacturers website which gave me the dimensions of the bearing. Some googling unearthed the fact that a Nissan Murano 4x4 has a same-sized bearing holding its driveshaft in!!! So, I bought an aftermarket Murano bearing from an Estonian company off Amazon for £14:



Yeah check out my pyjama trousers futhamuckaz!

Went back up the garage and took the driveshaft out again:



Heres the old bearing:



You cant get the bearing of cos of this collar on the driveshaft.



I heated that up with the blowtorch which expanded it enough to drift it off without completely mullering it.

Then I drifted off the bearing and had another look at it:



Would you believe it. A big crack in the inner race!!!! Thats the cause of the problem - now of course the bearing is not gripping the driveshaft properly allowing it to work its way out!!!! Get in. Heres the knackered old bearing:





Pressed the new bearing into the housing:



Then I had to fit the bearing back over the driveshaft. This was a bit of a war as it was much tighter to put on (due to not being cracked) than it was to remove. It was too big to fit in the press too so I had to use HAMMERS which was not ideal but I got it on and it was still nice and smooth thankfully.

Heres the complete reassembled shaft:



If I had to do this job again I'd get a tool made up on a lathe to allow the bearing to be drifted onto the shaft via its inner race, you'd need a tube of very specific diameter to fit over the shaft but also fit inside the hole in the bearing housing, and theres not a big gap for that. If you had that tool I reckon you could easily fix this problem to a really high standard for just the cost of the bearing. The only alternative is a complete secondhand replacement shaft, which might well have a tired bearing itself.



Anyway with that done the Rover is BACK IN THE GAME, but now that I've swapped the insurance over, I'm not gonna swap it back so its up for sale to make room for more hopeless old crocks. Anyone wanna give me 650 quid for it? I think its a pretty well-sorted 75 now. got a few scuffs and scratches but drives bob-on and should be free of K-series 'Morphy Richards Syndrome' for a good while yet. Low mileage and 10 months ticket. PM me!!!

VOLVO 760

Havent got this on the road yet, although i have been chivvying away on it.

The main issue with this car was some rust problems underneath. I had a look around



found three bits that needed looking at:


Battery tray was a bit sad-looking


Both footwells had a hole in beside the outrigger, not catatstrophic but reasonably involved to repair properly.

The battery tray was pretty simple so I tackeld that first:


Chopped out the crustacea;


Welded in a new piece;



Slathered on my favourite red gloop!!!! Obv I will underseal that before hitting the road.

Next i had a look at the passenger footwell:


Start by stripping out the interior;


Hmm, Yes, I think I can see the problem here


Bust out the usual suspects


Clean up and chop out the rusty bit of floor; That reveraled a hole in the side of the chassis leg as well


Had to chop out part of the outrigger so that I could patch the side of the chassis leg


Chassis leg fixed and outrigger put back to normal


Floor fixed and painted!

Looks like 5 mins work but it took me all afternoon! Anyway that bit of rot is sorted, let the paint dry then put the interior back together.

The other side was similar but a bit rustier, I ended up drilling out some spot welds and taking the outrigger right off. Took it ow work and cleaned it in the blast cabinet:




Coming together - here I was trial fitting the outrigger


I patched the floor and then drilled it so I could plug-weld onto the outrigger


The sill flange had been butchered by some ham-fisted jacking so the wrinkled bit got chopped out and replaced;


Got it painted up


All seam sealed up!

All that lot still needs undersealing but that os all the rot I can find on this thing. I've replaced the front numberplate, and I think for a MOT I just need a replacement headlamp, but it seems to be taking me a long time to sort one out!!! Also need to do the cambelt and probably tackle the headlining too as its not very good. But, its coming along anyway!


Check out those two SILVER STUNNERZ!!!

More news as it happens

Interesting failure on the R75... one to keep an eye on. Can I linky to the R75 forum for reference plz Mr Bol?

Rimming Brothers... That really made me chuckle.

All this messing around with cars is reasonably interesting XB, but I was more shocked to read this:-




She is clearly far less stylish than your good self.



Keep up the good work.


BTW, didn't you used to have a Masser?

I found the Uno sill I had Boll, let me know if its still required.

Excellent writeup ! Years ago I had a Mk5 Cortina and a Montego estate blow up on the A38, good to see its still doing the business on newer stuff !