I exist.

Alan Hitchcock · Post by **Alan Hitchcock** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:22 pm

Finally got round to sorting out an alternative email to the banned hotmail so I could join this club. I have various older classic cars and for some while used a very high milage TZD turbo Estate as my modern. This was a super car and I only sold it as I needed a Van for work. It is still sort of around having been made one out of two after doing nigh on 300k on an unmodified engine/turbo which finally died.
I now have a TZD turbo Saloon which I picked up from Stroud for £99. It featured an MOT failure including an unspecified fluid leak. This turned out to be water from a blocked sunroof drain collecting in the rear seat well and dripping out. 5 minites with my cat gut cable rod saw that sorted out. A minor LHM leak and a few bulbs and an MOT was gained. On running the car I found it overheated so I had to return from the intial trip out to Wales with the heater flat out at 50 mph max on the M4. Try that in a computer controled modern, it would refuse to go. Pulling the system apart found an incorrect thermostat, not heat rating but design! The fans had worn out so clearly this system had been 'in service' for sometime yet the engine survived the abuse. I cleaned out the system and replaced fan, sensor and stat. It still tended to overheat so out with the rad and in with another. It worked fine and continued to do so for 1000 miles. Then an LHM leak and new LHM. That started a problem. A return from the accumilator blew but I got home. Fixed that but the one next in line on the top of the crossmember went after 30 odd miles, managed to get home on 3 litres of LHM. It would seem the pipe was blocked and I have been unable to cure this as of now. Not the time to devote to it this week.
The plan however is to actually rebuild a TZD turbo Estate I got from eBay last year. I need the capacity it offers to move stuff though it is annoying to loose the sunroof. This means pulling the engine out and getting the pipework sorted out once and for all as this is the BX achiles heel with 20 year old rubber pipes, crap and bodges leading to hydraulic failures. Also I look to replace the engine with one from a bent low milage car. If this comes in at under £1000 it should offer the prospect of cheap reliable transport for at least 5 years, hopefully 10 as my milage is no longer high. A green solution at a cheaper outlay than offered by the state. However if the saloon continues to function at a cost so far of £312 it is hard to out it if I can get it reliable.

Big Al

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 11:09 pm

Wow, welcome to the club - eventually!

An extraordinary collection of cars you have there. Good luck with the BX project(s)... keep us informed, please.

Way2go · Post by **Way2go** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 1:19 am

Welcome, Big Al!

citronut · Post by **citronut** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 7:49 am

welcome Al

if its the plastic trickle leakage pipe under the regulator which kept poping out, now moved to the small three way union on top of the sub frame behind the battery,

this is usualy fixed by fitting a new acumalater sphere, because when the sphere is flat it causes to much fluid presure in this pipe,

there are other causes of this pipe poping being the steering ram presure seal letting to much into the leakage pipe

regards malcolm

Alan Hitchcock · Post by **Alan Hitchcock** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 9:19 am

Ah! That is why I need to be a member of the Club. Niether factiod known. I will look at this. You may tell me I am wrong to have done this, if so to late. I put the air line on the return pipe (pressure turned down!) from the T piece ontop of the crossmember to see if it was blocked. No air was passing through which suggested a blockage in either the link pipe to the octopus or in the octopus itself. That being the case I am uncertain how to clear it. However if a bolt on has malfunctioned life is a bit easier. I found some disintergrated rubber among much crap in the reserve on cleaning it and the filters out. Clearly once the problem is identified I really need to clean the system properly. For me the BX is as modern as I wish to go and the best car of its era so I am prepared to go the extra distance to get the car working properly. To many have been scrapped as the job needed to fix it looks unattractive and the rest overheated it seems. Probobly ought to refer my other questions via the technical section in due course. I assume editing the Technical forum into technical headings or to have a search facility is a lot of work but it is becoming quite a chore to find relivant advice. Still it is a useful resource.

Big Al

Post by **mat_fenwick** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:12 am

Welcome along Alan! We do have a searchfacility, at the top of the page although it doesn't always bring up the most relevant points unless you know the specific words that were previously used...

Oh, and let's have some pictures!

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 1:25 pm

I'd recommend hydraflush once you've emptied out the old lhm, can work wonders on all parts of the system that may be causing or will cause problems in the future. For info on what probs i've had, see my posting in Gallery titled 19TXD (i think thats the right one

)

citronut · Post by **citronut** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 1:29 pm

the small bore capillary tubes/pipes are only leakage returns and not ment to have a flow of or fluid presure in at all, they are just seapage returns, to colect any tinny amounts of citro blood which gets past the presure seals in the hydraulic units,

they usualy only pop off when there is exccessive presure enttering them when a component has failed,

if and when you clean you hydraulic system remove the old LHM clean the tank filters amd fit HYDRAFLUSH and run this for about 1000 miles, them remove that and re/fit LHM,

you can buy HYDRAFLUSH from GSF

regards malcolm

Alan Hitchcock · Post by **Alan Hitchcock** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 8:44 pm

Yes I will use Hydraflush. I need to source a local supply of reasonably priced service items and fluids, if available, as I suspect once I get reasonably up to speed on the BX I will find a few coming in to be rescued for postarity and chums coming round for two handed jobs. It is the case with some of the classic cars I am into. Trouble is some have got expensive and beyond mucking about for a few hundred quid. It takes the fun out of it and you do not want to learn by mistakes. Try a new Messerschmitt dome instalation with an abrasive instrument to gain a perfect fit at £800 a throw. Bangers and cheap cars you can be a bit more caviliar.
I can do pics, I assume you mean the BX cars. They are both scruffy at the moment, like me. Do not do shiny.
Technical question posted on Tech forum. Thanks for the welcome. Hope to bump into some of you at some event OWHY.

Big Al

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:20 pm

I also emptied out the hydraflush, filtered that to get some more crud out of it & then popped it back in to continue its good work. I also fitted an extra small fuel filter onto the brake fluid return pipe before it attaches to the top of the lhm tank, it caught a surprising amount of crud etc....

Since i've put new lhm in, i've continued to use the small fuel filter & just changed it for a new one, to hopefully continue the good work. I know the lhm tank does kinda capture the rubbish thats in the system, but i always thought that it would always be re-circulating some of it, so hoped this extra filter would stop that from happening.

Post by **mat_fenwick** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:50 pm

By photos I wasn't meaning just the BX pics, personally I'm interested in the Tatra and the trials car (Marlin?) as well. And I would love to know what on earth a Goggomobil Darts is!
I'm sure that some of the others would be of general interest too...

Big Al wrote:Do not do shiny.

Fine by me - I'm much more interested in the mechanical condition, although each to their own and all that - there are one or two 'polishers' around here.

RxBX · Post by **RxBX** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 12:17 pm

mat_fenwick wrote:By photos I wasn't meaning just the BX pics, personally I'm interested in the Tatra and the trials car (Marlin?) as well. And I would love to know what on earth a Goggomobil Darts is!
I'm sure that some of the others would be of general interest too...

Hi Mat,
Just do a Google search and you can browse thro' several links !
I thought THIS link was a good one to show off the different angle photo shots for the Goggomobil Dart plus this You Tube LINK I'll let you do the ones for the others

Jaba · Post by **Jaba** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 5:20 pm

Hello again.
Glad you have got another BX. You did mention to me you wanted another BX when I picked up those mats you sold me on ebay a few years back.

Alan Hitchcock · Post by **Alan Hitchcock** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 8:36 am

Hi Jaba, yep, I got them last summer actually but far to much work to do on other stuff I was getting ride of so they remained untouched till this summer. Of course several of the parts I sold on getting rid of the first estate I could have now used but you could see the place was stuffed with tackle at the time. Still to much but no where near as bad and I have the money to reinvest in the new toys.

The Dart situation is I have two but both in bits at the moment. I got them when no one was interested in such things, both are 400cc. I imported them as at the time there was only the Quantas promotion car in Europe and that was with a troop of Clowns in Germany! Turns out there were a couple of others already here and now the collectors have dispersed them round the world from Australia. Stan Brown pretty much designed the bodyshell. He was ex Lotus which explains the Lotus 11 look. I also have a Messerschmitt Tiger - in bits. So I have two of the few Microcar Sportscars. You might also have gathered by now I collect projects and have little fear of a pile of grubby bits. Indeed I love them but the clearout is ongoing as I am never going to live long enough to do them all. Scammell Scarab anybody?

Big Al