Practically Classics Forum

In between the showers I had to empty the boot out to get to
the long and heavy duty jump leads. So a few photos taken.

With the boot emptied of most of the stuff, the LPG tank is fully
visible. the top part of the frame over the tank measures 26".
The measurement is so you have an idea on size.

The tank is sitting fully in the spare wheel well, and when I was
using the car I always had a proper wheel as the spare as I throw
out the get me home quick wheel as they nothing but a waste of
space!





I think the tank and frame need a bit of a touch up!
The rust is mainly off the spare wheel and a leaky bottle of screen
wash. As I'm not the 1st and probably not the last person who has
done it, throwing heavy stuff in the boot or forcing stuff in there.
And damaging the speakers as they sit low in the parcel shelf!



That is the less damaged one!
As I was wondering what could be done to prevent it from happening
again. So I started the thread below;

http://forums.neons.org/viewtopic.php?f ... 73ec53ef23

After some discussions of hat was available on the market, I came up
with this as an idea as a type of protective shield from flying heavy
objects!

The towing bypass relay came this morning but not the dual socket plate.
I did buy them off 2 different sellers.
As I read the details of the fitting instructions, one bit sprank out off the
page had me swearing.

"When the trailer/caravan is connected, the buzzer will sound in unison
with the flasher."

Thats when I realised it wasn't in the sellers description, so I will remove it
myself! I don't want a buzzer going off when I'm driving wither I'm
indicating or not!

So I opened what they laughingly call a protective case. It looks as though
they used plastic box trucking used in building and construction that you
could pick up from your local hardware store!





I the photo below to the left is circled the buzzer, which has since been
removed. And the cable shortened and the wires soldered into the plugs
and wires of the towbar electrical loom I have been working on.



If your wondering I relax by sitting watching TV and doing the wiring and
soldering at night when my legs are going nuts, and without any relatives
or the dogs driving me nuts. So after doing that I then post so thats why
I post at odd hours.

Do you realise that some sort of indicator that the trailer indicators are flashing is a legal requirement?
If you remove the buzzer you will need to wire up a light on the dashboard.
Most of these kits use a buzzer because it avoids having to run the wiring to the dash.
Towing wiring is part of the MOT now, so this will need to be addressed.

MW

I also believe now part of the MOT test, that if towbar wiring is fitted it must all work along with the tell tale light/buzzer. I fail to see what the issue is with a small buzzer like that, which is buried in the boot sounding when you have a trailer plugged in and you indicate???

I was so sure that the two members above were correct about this, yet in section 1.9 of the current tester's manual, there's no mention of anything other than that the sockets must be tested for correct connections to all pins and that their mounting to the car, if a sandwich plate, must be secure or, if an o/e built-in socket, must be accessible. So while there's obviously some conflict between C&U and the MOT test requirements, I'd fit the warning in any case, how else would you know if someone stole your trailer other than by not hearing the buzzer?

John this might be an idea for the mag as there is confusion!

Mother cleared off the dining room table, a sheet of plastic was
put down to protect the top. Then a slate tile was used to work
on.

This mornings post was good, no bills but the Sony Tweeters and
the star socket bit I bought off ebay arrived. I had been into an
electronics store for a couple of switches and some solder.

I will be replacing a switch which only currently switches on & off
the power supply to the reverse parking sensors from the reverse
light. The replacement switch will do the same job on one side but
when the parking sensors are switched off the switch will operate
a relay giving power to the towbar electrics.

A small switch with 2 wires attached was put together for fixing an
energiser for an electric fence.(To keep the dogs in the garden)



The one of tweeters has been dismantled.



I got 2 broken speakers/tweeters out of the dash of a MK2 Neon
years ago. I removed the magnets, the damaged cone etc.
The Sony tweeter will sit in the old neon bracket once the hole has
been made wider, as you can seee below it is no where near big
enough.





Well that was done by 3:30pm, depending on arthritis depends on
what will be done tonight.

Although an audio or visual relay is a legal requirement (after a certain year, not sure which), its only the new 13pin sockets that are checked so you could get away with it.

Still an interesting topic possibly for it's own thread?
Any admin or moderator want to set it up?

In between the hail showers I managed to get into the tool shed.
I didn't like what I found there, A hammer had fallen off the top
of one of the toolboxes and into a container on the floor.

The container had car parts in it, including the fog lights for the
front of the car. The fog lights were smashed! So back into the
house with an ample supply of firewood.

While the fire roared in the grate, I went on ebay. After a little
searching I managed to get a replacement set ordered for a total
of £8.38 . They are coming from Bulgaria just as well I'm not in a
hurry for them.



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270819642596? ... 1439.l2649

They are as close as possible to the set I originally put on the car.

I also managed to get a pair of 6" x 9" Sony Speakers,
model XS-F6925 for a total of £21.99 inc postage. Why because
the seller never stated in the item's title that they were Sony and
that they are still in the box and only had them out to check them.

His mistake has been in my favour as I have seen some of
the same type of Sony speakers go for around £50+. So I may as
well make the protector sheilds for the back of them when they
come, as the weather forecast for the next week is more of the
same cold, wet, and strong winds!

Okay I'll say it, I'm bored!

I forgot to mention that I have purchased two of these led lights



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230568403572? ... 1439.l2649

These will be mounted on the inside of the lid of the boot, so that
on a night when the boot is opened, the light shines down on the .
full boot and the bumper giving ample light to see what I'm doing.

These will be secured by the same marine sealent that I used to
secure the parking sensor box of tricks to the inside of the rear
wing. I'm going to get and fit them now as I will have forgotten to
do it by autum, and they are thin so they are less likely to catch on
something.