Big Car

Well, it’s been a while, no? So here’s what has been happening with Big Car in the 6 months since the last post.

Not much!

No, seriously - Big Car came back from Keith Gott’s in much better shape. She starts first time, everytime. But sadly, with some work still left to be done, she was sat about on a friend’s garden, going unloved.

So we elected to move her out to live with me for a while, in Guernsey. She was trailered to Weymouth ferry port, and then went on the Condor Ferry. Since then, I have insured her, registered her and gotten numberplates!

There’s still some work to do to her - but currently, she’s at least on the road!

Matt

Big Car is back from Keith Gott’s and is running!

She needed a set of new pistons, tappets and push rods, as well as a couple of exhaust valves, lots of gaskets and 16 hours of labour!
Keith Gott have given us a list of jobs that need doing to get Big Car ready for the MOT:

Stop the fuel tank leaking - Alice and I took a look at this today and we can see where it’s leaking from, so we’re going to scrub it clean and keep an eye on it;

Connect the speedo cable - we reconnected this today, but we’re not sure if it’s clipped
on properly ;

Adjust the hand brake - we got this done today;

Investigate the slight play in the off-side swivel joint - hopefully this is not bad enough to fail the MOT;

Replace a missing circlip on the off side front wheel - I’m gonna order one of these this week;

Reattach the front wings - Jono got this done last week;

Fix the wiring to the lights, indicators and windscreen wipers - this was all working before but a connection must have come loose;

Put some seats and a battery cover in - Alice is going to take a look at her local scrappys for these bits;

Reattach the passenger seat belt - Alice got this done today;

Clamp the battery down - we need to work out how’s best to do this.

Alice and I are going to have another go at Big Car on Saturday the 24th of Novemeber, if anybody would like to join us.

Take care, Bob.

After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, Big Car aka Helga has been taken away for a little TLC to Keith Gott’s. Many thanks to everyone who has been in touch with us offering us ideas and hints at what may be wrong - we were able to give them a really insightful list of what we need them to do.

Sadly for us, and moreso Big Car, those people involved in the Big Car restoration project have found it increasingly difficult to find the time to really investigate and diagnose the problems and so we decided that a little professional help was in order. Keith Gott has got an excellent rep, and whilst we might not have them actually do the work, we can at least expect to get a thorough breakdown (pardon the pun) of what’s wrong and what needs doing.

So Big Car was today stretchered away to undergo a good physical.

Exciting times!

I was thinking about Big Car the other day and a thought crossed my mind. The fuel injection pump is driven by the timing belt - that’s how it knows when to squirt the fuel. When we took the fuel injection pump off, the timing belt would have gone slack. The timing would have gotten all messed up when the engine was turned. I figured this could be why the inlet was blowing instead of sucking.

Today, I took the fan, water pump, fan belt, big nut and the timing cover off to get at the timing belt. I set up the timing and put it all back together again. When we turned the engine over we could get it to fire, but not on all cylinders. Also, the inlet was still blowing and there was an ominous knocking noise. I’m thinking that one of the inlet valves may be broken and that the head needs to come off…

Alice, Jono and I got quite a bit done on Big Car yesterday. We refitted the refurbished fuel injectors and fuel injection pump. We put some fresh diesel in and flushed the fuel tank and pipes. We fitted a new fuel filter and we primed the fuel system.

We couldn’t get Big Car to start though. We went to squirt some Easy Start into the inlet and found that it was blowing instead of sucking. It was blowing so much that all of the Easy Start blew away!

I’ve put this message on Landyzone.co.uk asking for ideas. We figured that some of the inlet valves could have become seized open, so taking the rocker cover off may be the next step.

Take care all, Bob.

Last weekend I got Big Car’s fuel injectors out. Luckily, the battery had enough charge to turn the engine, and the compression in the cylinders popped three of the unbolted injectors out. The fourth injector soon submitted to the advances of Draper’s finest claw hammer. I took the injectors down to the Bosch specialists during the week and they tested them. Two of them were fine, but the other two needed new nozzles. Also, Shaun’s suspicion that the injectors weren’t seated properly was confirmed because two of them had carbon deposits where they shouldn’t. I picked the injectors up yesterday and (weather permitting) we can have a go at putting Big Car back together again at the weekend. We also need to drain the tank of the contaminated diesel and flush it and the pipes with some good stuff. We could also do with a new fuel filter. Take care all, Bob.

I picked up the repaired fuel injection pump this morning.

The fella at the injection specialists said he’d test Big Car’s injectors for free. I think we should take him up on that offer because they might also have been ruined when we tried running Big Car on a mixture of diesel and water. We need to get rid of all the contaminated diesel that we have and get some proper stuff. Also, it might be worth flushing out Big Car’s diesel tank.

Take care all, Bob.

Mel has created a group on Facebook for Si. Please feel free to check it out. There is also a Big Car group.

After a lot of hunting around for replacements, we have finally decided on what to do with Big Car’s Big Fuel Pump - have it reconditioned by the Bosch people. The savings made in trying to get a replacement would have been very slim compared with the cost of reconditioning it and this way we are guaranteed to have a working pump with the people who gave the g’tee just down the road should we need it.

Bob is going to drop it down to them soon for them to get underway.

Exciting!

My Dad showed me this brilliant video on how to take a Landy off road. Take a look.

EDIT: Here’s a version of the video which should be quicker to load…