Timex and friends

[toddao]

love it mate! Mk.1 BX Estate/Break Bruv

[citsncycles]

Thanks Todd

Hi Des - luckily I'm in the hills, so have the double advantage of being sheltered from the wind while also being 300ft above sea level. Mind you, I'm only a few miles from the Severn flood plain, which has been hit hard.

[Des Smith]

Phew. Half my family came from Holland which is perpetually flat and in danger of flooding. The other half came from the Fens - ditto. I guess something genetic makes me prefer hills to flood plains, so I live halfway up Crystal Palace hill.

Good to watch the incremental progress on Timex - it has assumed soap opera status and won a place in everyone's hearts. keep up the good work!

[Caffiend]

I have been kicking myself since the NEC for not thinking sooner that we should have lifted some of Mike's text and numerous photos for a display on the stand - forget soap opera, this is a saga on a grand scale, loving the updates, thanks.

[citsncycles]

I did wonder about getting some mirrors to stick underneath after I've repaired the rear footwells to show the amount of floor replaced.

[Defender110]

/\

[citsncycles]

Nice little run out today - Dursley to Port Talbot, travelling at an indicated 80 on the speedo (70 actual) along the M5 & 4 to pick up a load of bike display stands, then back along the M4 at the same speed to the Bath turning before dropping down to Trowbridge to collect some roof mounted cycle carriers, followed by a stop in Yate to visit Dad on the homeward leg. 220 odd miles on just under 1/2 a tank . The radio is working fine now, but is really showing up how crap the speakers in the Mk2 door cards are. The GS would have been more comfortable, but would have cost a lot more to do the trip in.

[citsncycles]

Been a while since I updated this, mainly because a load of entries along the lines of 'drove to work, drove home again, nothing broke would have been pretty boring!

Well, after my abortive attempt to get to the rolling road day, I changed the cam seal and belt today. Nothing much to report on the job, except the Haynes instructions to slide pulleys off are rubbish - I had to take a pry bar to both the crank and cam pulleys. When you pull the cam pulley, make sure it goes the right way round - there's a chamfer on the inner side of the central hole, and an arrow for direction of rotation on the outer face.

Also, I cannow say with certainty that the engine is not original - I found date stamps on the timing covers and the casting by the crank pulley (among others) that date from late 88 or early 89. So I now have to decide whether to continue with the current plan of fitting an early head, or look for a complete engine. I suspect that availability will have more to do with that answer!

[docchevron]

JayW has a brand new square port head.

[citsncycles]

Quick question for you all - any of you interested in my pulling apart my GS? If so, I'll add it to the Blog!

[mat_fenwick]

Yes! I'd probably see it on Facebook too, but I find things easier to follow on blogs, where you can just scroll down for the story.

[Defender110]

Yes please.

[citsncycles]

Well Timex had another good day out yesterday - the cruise up to the X rally was uneventful apart from a 20 mile detour due to a short stretch of road being closed. Managed to buy some engine bits and pieces from Andy while admiring his lovely Mk1 diesel auto, bought a handful of assorted switches and fasteners from Hilary and a load of LHM from Malcolm Lockwood. I also recieved a banner and a load of brouchure material for Bristol.

I'm glad to say that Timex was really in a minority, and not just because of it's rarity, there seem to be very few truly rough BX's out there, as many owners are now embarking on restoration as well as maintenance - it was great to see all those tidy cars out there that should be on the road for years to come.

On the way hame I had a slight unsheduled stop - I was about 40 miles from home when there were a couple of bangs from the back of the car, followed by a flapping sound. A quick check of the mirrors revealed a loose rear bumper on the passenger side so I pulled onto the hard shoulder to investigate. This investigation turned up a mounting tag on the bumper where it joins the plastic bracket that locates in the bodywork had almost completely torn off, so I grabbed on of the elastic luggage ties out the back to secure it. While attaching this under the car realised something else was missing - namely the back box! I looked back down the motorway just im time to see it being flicked into the grass by a passing vehicle, so I went back and retrieved it. Hopefully it didn't damage any other vehicles during it's bid for freedom, as no one else was pulled over while I was there!

So now I'm after a rear box - the one I aquired last year turns out to be the wrong one (TD one with a different joint), and a quick check on Ebay showed the same on sale, so I'll be stopping off at my local independant exhaust supplier tomorrow. In the meantime it's only a little louder, and seems to have more low end power!

I'll post a couple of pics when I work out how to get them off the camera!

[mat_fenwick]

Is this the one you mean on eBay?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Exhaust-Rear- ... 0792685413" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I wondered whether it was just a generic photo they had for a BX exhaust...certainly I'll be needing one for the white one so had my eye on this. I'll buy your TD box off you if you want too?

[Vanny]

the cruise up to the X rally was uneventful apart from a 20 mile detour due to a short stretch of road being closed.

Did you follow the official diversion then? I just followed some locals and according to Google Nav it was just 2 miles longer!