Practically Classics Forum

Dick wrote: Tue Jan 09, 2024 7:56 am My old galaxy had wobbly calipers that would rub the wheels occasionally.. odd that the garage couldn't find anything on your car..
Have you considered a carport to keep some of the fleet dry? I've seen some with solar panels on... they have something similar where my wife works.. helps keep cars cooler in the summer, dry and less frost in the winter.. just a thought

Sadly not an option here as there's specific ordinance in the planning regs which prohibits any structures being built (including car ports) forward of the house, and building something to the side would require major ground works to change the level of the garden and extend the driveway. Given that I've been trying for over two years now to just get someone to just level and turf that area, that's not happening.

So...where were we? Oh yes, I was making a horrendous mess.



It feels like it's been a reasonably productive afternoon at least.

While digging around today I did discover some "quality bodywork repair" on the bulkhead. It's hidden from outside behind the battery but was visible from inside once I'd removed the fuse box from its bracket.



I'll need to pull the battery in due course and get a better look at that from the other side. I don't *think * it's within a prescribed area (N/S steering rack mount would be the biggest worry I'd think), but obviously wants properly fixing either way. I'm assuming there's a hole that's been splodged over with sealant or filler on the other side of that mesh anyway.

Probably the largest single time sink today was spent going over basically every millimetre of the offside indicator wiring that I could access with a microscope (okay, not literally but you get the idea). Shortly after starting to trace that I had to get up close and personal with the wiper motor, especially as the wiring had all come adrift of the clips which should keep it clear of the linkage (so it was a prime suspect area for my short - no dice there sadly as that would have been too easy). This meant that it became really obvious to me why I had miles and miles of play in the wiper linkage and was missing about 1/4 a screen worth of wiper sweep. Take a look at the photo below of where the linkage attaches to the motor and see if you can spot anything amiss.



The 1/4" or so void which clearly should contain a bush of some description seems like a likely candidate...not to mention all of the mounting bolts holding the whole thing to the bulkhead being less than finger tight.

Helpfully the box of random Trabant bits did contain a little bag of assorted bits of wiper mechanism, which very quickly allowed me to find exactly what I appeared to be missing.

Motor arm off the car is on the right, one out of the spares box is on the left.



With that arm fitted, a spring washer to keep things together and the original locking washer (which was precisely as fiddly to refit through that gap in the heater ducting as I expected it to be) there is now a vastly, vastly reduced amount of play in the linkage and it's nearly silent rather than clanking loudly every time the wipers change direction. I'll fine tune the wiper position on the screen somewhere down the road. Apparently I failed to take a photo of the reassembled contraption so you'll just need to take my word for it that it did go back together.

The two mystery wires I was left with yesterday were identified with a bit of meter probing. The one which I thought was a solid brown wire to the left of the steering column on closer inspection actually turned out to be a brown and white wire.



Which as far as I can tell is a wiring colour that was only used for the headlight beam height adjustment warning light. I do now have a wiring diagram for a later car, and that's the only circuit on which brown/white appears.



Which is indeed where we have continuity to. Why it's a far heavier gauge wire than the other one I've no idea. Anyway, it's now just been safely terminated and zip tied well out of the way. The other one was confirmed to actually be a simple ground (I do confess to not being 100% certain to WHAT it is supposed to be a ground as I can't see where the wire goes once it vanishes into the loom), but at least the wiring colours are consistent so it's just been tied to ground using a bolt into the dash support. I suspect it may have been something to do with the economy meter wiring. I may spend a bit of time trying to more thoroughly research that one at a later date as I would like to know where the other end is, but that's a job for when it's not 1C outside.

Picking back up the job of tracking down likely sources for the intermittent short I was seeing on the offside indicator circuit was next up (having initially been sidetracked by the wiper linkage). I spent quite a long time on this. The wiring all looked to be in good condition. I couldn't find any traces of chafing or anything anywhere which would likely result in a short. Inspecting the tail lights was quite a surprise...and I think shows another big difference to Lada etc where the tail light innards are about the cheapest things imaginable and are generally an endless source of frustration by this source of age. The reflectors here could do with a clean and the brake light bulb could probably do with changing as it's a bit blackened, but otherwise this looks absolutely fine. No reason to expect it to cause problems otherwise given how solidly built it is. Aside from the spacers to separate the positive/ground conductors, everything in here is metal.



I basically spent about an hour and a half poking and prodding things with the meter, wiggling wires, connecting and disconnecting things to see if I could pin down where the short was. I never really did find a smoking gun, but after I disconnected the front indicator light assembly the short disappeared and I wasn't able to provoke it into returning. That's the light which I was already suspicious of as it was badly corroded internally. My decision to swap it out was then accelerated by the positive connection breaking off when I attempted to reconnect it. I guess if the tab had bent inwards prior to it actually snapping off that could have been causing a short...hard to say for certain. However with the one spare I have fitted I've not been able to make that problem reappear, nor during a half hour test drive.

Car does look a bit silly with mis-matched indicators...but at least they're working again!



That spare is a bit crusty inside as well so they'll both be swapped out when the new ones arrive.

I did note that while the short had gone that we still had a somewhat erratic flash rate, and definite interaction between the indicator and the headlight circuit. That to me just screamed "dodgy ground" based on prior experience. Sure enough, when I checked the ground point in the middle of this photo, it was floating at nearly 2V when the indicator was lit.



Cleaning up everything and putting it back together did away with that stray voltage, - but am still not a fan of the arrangement. That bolt is also holding down the coil bracket so you can't crank it down massively tightly as you'll crush the coils. I had a hunch this probably was the location of the grounding problem given that that fault according to the previous owner only appeared after the electronic ignition was fitted. As that grounding point is shared between the headlights, indicator and ignition circuits, it had to be prime suspect.

I'm going to drill an additional hole in that plate to mount the grounding lugs to, then run a jumper to the inner wing. Those brown wires aren't long enough to just re-route to somewhere more sensible. I also want to replace that horrible looking taped together mess in the coil feeds, so I'll be revisiting that probably tomorrow.

Now the indicators are exactly as bright as each other, flash at the same rate and don't interact with the headlights any more at least.

The body to battery ground strap is also getting changed tomorrow as I noted when connecting it back up today that there's evidence of it having got quite warm in a couple of places. While I appreciate there's not a huge amount of electrical equipment on this car, it still looks a bit on the thin side to me anyway.



Cheap and easy thing to upgrade anyway and I've already got a suitable one in stock.

The pile of removed wiring as of today amounts to this much.



Which given how basic the electrical system in this car is I find quite an achievement.

I'm not saying for certain that we've fixed the short given the intermittent nature of it making it hard to say for definite without having found an obvious smoking gun, however so far it's looking at least hopeful.

Definitely have deleted a bit of spaghetti in the cabin over the last couple of days.





Not having to push random wiring out of the way when reaching for the choke or fuel shut off will be a nice change.

Tomorrow's tasks:

[] Fit remaining new headlight, replace H4 lamp holders, & adjust them to something vaguely sensible in terms of beam pattern.

[] Replace body to battery earth lead.

[] Improve grounding arrangement to ignition coil bracket.

[] Adjust windscreen wipers.

If I get time anyway! Was quite lucky to get a few hours this afternoon I was able to just claim for car things.

Progress! The car is going to weigh half a ton less when you're finished! Have you considered fitting a new loom? I replaced one on my second mg restoration.. it was such a difference.. not having to trace mysterious faults and other electrical pixies..
Is the Renault anywhere near the road or is it a long term project?

Dick wrote: Tue Jan 09, 2024 9:06 pm Progress! The car is going to weigh half a ton less when you're finished! Have you considered fitting a new loom? I replaced one on my second mg restoration.. it was such a difference.. not having to trace mysterious faults and other electrical pixies..
Is the Renault anywhere near the road or is it a long term project?

You can get a full loom from Trabantwelt for €379 if it comes to it. Though to be honest the actual loom isn't in bad shape, pretty much everything in that bundle had just been tacked on.

The Renault needs three main things doing.

[] Head gasket changing as it's pumping oil into the coolant.
[] Actually fit the new drop links.
[] Weld up a damaged section of chassis outrigger.

...At least that's what I remember!

A package arrived early on this morning containing some more goodies.



The new indicators were the first to go on. Well...new to me, the date stamp on the lenses shows a 1990 production date.



Yes the one nearest me was a little squint there, I've tweaked it a bit since I took the photo.

The older style ones probably do suit the style of the car better, but these are streets ahead in terms of actual visibility to other traffic especially off to the sides, so will be staying. The older ones will be packed away safely with the spares in case someone wants to restore them and use them in the future.

Then I had to run around running a bunch of errands. Probably did 50 miles or so through the day, and am glad to report that *so far* the shorting issue with the offside indicator circuit hasn't reappeared.

Car is still making me smile.





Think we're up to 600 miles give or take now...wonder how much of a portion of the last year or two's motoring that would have accounted for.

Have got 50% of the other main item in that parcel fitted now as well.



Yes...BOTH dials there are cockeyed. I had totally failed to notice that until I took a photo. I'll fix that tomorrow.

Hopefully get the sender fitted tomorrow as well all being well. Gauge itself is wired up and working. I *will* have to pull the face off that though and go after the gauge with some model paint to make the colour of the pointer match the one in the speedometer though...that not matching is just going to bug the hell out of me, and makes it look so obviously aftermarket. At least if the colours matched it wouldn't jump out at you so much.

The illumination is waaaaaaaay over enthusiastic as well, so I think needs the lamp wattage reduced from the 5W that I think is in there to probably a 1W lamp which would be plenty.

Obviously I'll keep the original fuel consumption gauge with the car, but personally given I quite frequently find myself having to jump in the car and do several hours of running around without forward planning the journeys (as with today) it's nice to just be able to see how much fuel I've got!

Nothing really visible to show for today's half hour of car time.



Hard to tell, but both headlights have now been replaced with ones having a proper beam pattern for UK roads. They've been adjusted to look vaguely sensible based on the beam on the fence across the road, when I next have the Rover running I'll shuffle cars around and do a more precise job of the beam adjustment using the garage door. They do actually provide some light on the road now which is an improvement. The amount of light actually output has probably doubled as well given the bowls of the old lights were absolutely wrecked.

Still surprises me that given the car's been in the UK since 1999 that nobody bothered to put RHD headlights on it till now.

Something I need to investigate when I get a chance is whether the bearings in either my alternator or more likely cooling fan are making a racket. It's always hard to tell from video, but there seems to be a lot more mechanical noise from mine than a lot of these cars at idle, and it sounds more like something that's belt driven than internal to the engine. Though as said, it's hard to tell from a video and it seems that there was a pretty big variation from one unit to another in terms of noise anyway even when they were new. Pulling the belt and running the engine (obviously only for a couple of tens of seconds at the most) will at least confirm if it's coming from the engine itself or an external rotating assembly - the fan is probably my favourite based on where it sounds like the noise is coming from. Easy to test at least.

Handful of little things today.

Added a dedicated ground to the plate holding the ignition coils in place as it's also used as a star point for the offside headlight and indicator. I wanted to actually move it to another location on the plate so you could tighten it a bit more, but clearance is an issue so I just left it be. Sure the majority of people have zero problems with it and I'm just doing the usual and creating an overkill solution.

I also did what I could to tidy the coil wiring up a bit, though it's always going to be a bit of a rat's nest I think no matter what you do.



I think part of the issue with the ground is that the original coils were plain metal rather than painted, so made a better contact between the two halves of the bracket helping to act as one big connector rather than these ones being painted.

Had a nose around underneath the dash to see if I could see any direct evidence of where the water is coming in on that side.







Will need to pull the shelf out to investigate that black paint splodge, but my money is on the seam sealer between the various panels having failed (it seems to have gone brittle in a lot of places), so that's most likely to blame. There is a water trap outside right above the wheel arch in the engine bay (I've re-sealed this area now) through which a seam does run.

Suspect some more chipping and re-sealing is in my future.

Closer inspection of the old body ground wire revealed that it had definitely got warm in the past.



It also made crunching noises if you bent it, and measured a solid 10 ohms on the meter, so was definitely stuffed. New lead is way, way too long really but is what was in the garage. I'll swap it with a shorter one at some point.



The new tail light moulding has had it's first couple of coats of paint.



Unfortunately the colour is far too bright a white so I'll need to try another option to find something that's closer. Just shows that the swatches on the cans don't mean a thing as the one on this is very distinctly cream.

I do need to actually look up what colour this is anyway - comparing notes with another owner has led us to believe it's Papyrus, Atlas white being the brighter white.

I also addressed the nearside tail light looking very cloudy compared to the other side - that was simply because the inside of the lens was filthy.



With the exception of one running light bulb in the offside rear cluster all of the lamps I've found in this car so far have been Narva branded, so either original or replacements from someone's stash of Trabant bits most likely.

Found it quite difficult to get all of the ingrained grime out of the grooves but it's a lot better now than it was. It may get stuffed through the "parts washer" in future if I find a spare half hour some day.

Would putting the plastic light parts in the dishwasher clean them as you would like? Asking for a friend

Dick wrote: Sun Jan 14, 2024 1:16 pm Would putting the plastic light parts in the dishwasher clean them as you would like? Asking for a friend

Funny you should mention that...

-- -- --

Ford Ivory White looks to be a far more acceptable match to the actual colour of the car. Not absolutely perfect as it's a touch too yellow if you look closely, but I think more than adequate for this application I think.



The tail light lenses were chucked the the parts washer this afternoon while I was busy elsewhere. Any resemblance to a domestic dishwasher is entirely coincidental...



Predictably they came out looking like new. All of the ingrained grime I'd been fighting to remove by hand is long gone.



Hard to tell in a photo, but they had always looked a little cloudy on the car before due to grime on the inside but that's not the case at all now.




Another point of obvious comparison to the other Eastern Bloc cars I've had. None of the lenses have gone matt/cloudy like the old Skoda ones always did, nor have the orange pigments faded to clear as seems to happen with about 50% of Lada lenses. They also don't appear to have gone horribly brittle.

While those were being washed I was busy dumping a little over half a litre of Vactan over the floors inside the car.





This stuff is a rust converter which also seals a surface and acts as a primer that can be directly over painted.

I probably should have hoovered it out again first as there was still quite a bit of loose crud floating around that I'd dislodged over the last few days, but I'm not too worried about it. The surface finish isn't important to me as it will be under two layers of carpet, and there will be a thick protective layer (probably several) getting painted over this anyway.

Ideally I would have taken the seats out before doing this, but unsurprisingly the bolts aren't even vaguely interested in moving and I was inclined to just declare discretion to be the better part of valor there and leave them be. Either snapping a bolt head or captive nut off the seat base mountings doesn't sound like my idea of fun. Somewhere in its future this car will probably want a new set of floorpans as given the visible pitting on these they must be pretty thin in a few areas, but that's not an immediate problem so long as my MOT tester doesn't actually poke any holes in anything in April. This should be a step towards stopping it dissolving from the inside out as it's clearly slowly been doing for years anyway. Plus the ongoing efforts to try to track down and cure the actual water ingress itself.

I might borrow your idea for the parts washer, only when my better half is at work and the wash will finish before she gets home
Could you spray some stone chip paint on the floor to hide the damage and help with sound proofing?