Its the simple things (Usually the simple thing working on the engine)

CohPC · Mar 8, 2023

A little lesson for all of us - before working on car look in mirror and remind yourself your an idiot.

Serviced the engine, new points, new condenser, sparkplugs oil change etc.

Tried to start it - turned over wouldn't start - maybe i should have connected the wires to the contacts properly so they didn't go straight to earth, that would have saved me an hour of scratching my head and swearing.

Once started it ran ok but there was a very annoying slight intermittent misfire, so of course i waste time checking the timing. Then i thought back to when i was a kid in the seventies and what my dad would say to me when helping him service his viva:
"get me another beer from the fridge and tell your mum I'm not taking her shopping today unless we get this bloody thing started" nope that doesn't help
"hit the starter motor harder with that hammer " nope not that either
"you forgot to put the sump plug back, how am i going to get this oil of the drive" a useful reminder but not for todays problem
"HT leads, if everything else is fine its going to be the HT leads or the coil, these modern leads don't last as long as they used to" - that's it I hadn't checked the ht leads, - for some reason one of them was loose and although the rubber was tight on the plug it wasn't actually clipping on the plug, squeeze the end gently with pliers to close the inside a bit and put it back on - no more mis fire!

So before you waste time like me (2-3 hours) take 5 minutes to make sure you've put everything back properly and checked the leads

Colthebrummie · Mar 8, 2023

CohPC said:
A little lesson for all of us - before working on car look in mirror and remind yourself your an idiot.

Serviced the engine, new points, new condenser, sparkplugs oil change etc.

Tried to start it - turned over wouldn't start - maybe i should have connected the wires to the contacts properly so they didn't go straight to earth, that would have saved me an hour of scratching my head and swearing.

Once started it ran ok but there was a very annoying slight intermittent misfire, so of course i waste time checking the timing. Then i thought back to when i was a kid in the seventies and what my dad would say to me when helping him service his viva:
"get me another beer from the fridge and tell your mum I'm not taking her shopping today unless we get this bloody thing started" nope that doesn't help
"hit the starter motor harder with that hammer " nope not that either
"you forgot to put the sump plug back, how am i going to get this oil of the drive" a useful reminder but not for todays problem
"HT leads, if everything else is fine its going to be the HT leads or the coil, these modern leads don't last as long as they used to" - that's it I hadn't checked the ht leads, - for some reason one of them was loose and although the rubber was tight on the plug it wasn't actually clipping on the plug, squeeze the end gently with pliers to close the inside a bit and put it back on - no more mis fire!

So before you waste time like me (2-3 hours) take 5 minutes to make sure you've put everything back properly and checked the leads

My biggest waste of time was not long after I first started driving, about 50 odd years ago. My newish mk1 escort wouldnt start. I changed everything electrical but still nothing. Took the carb off to give it a good clean still nothing, neighbour strolls over to see what I was swearing at, "is there any petrol innit" sez he. Damn and blast, the old bugger was right, my younger brother and his mates had got in it the night before and had the engine running to keep warm.

Col

CohPC · Mar 8, 2023

Colthebrummie said:
My biggest waste of time was not long after I first started driving, about 50 odd years ago. My newish mk1 escort wouldnt start. I changed everything electrical but still nothing. Took the carb off to give it a good clean still nothing, neighbour strolls over to see what I was swearing at, "is there any petrol innit" sez he. Damn and blast, the old bugger was right, my younger brother and his mates had got in it the night before and had the engine running to keep warm.

Col

Of course now the car would be pinging a warning and flashing dashboard lights at you because you've only got enough fuel for another 200 miles, and i think we forget how reliable modern cars are with fuel injection and computer controlled ignition - so when something does go wrong its usually serious so when we now work on our old cars we jump to the worse it could be instead of the most likely (even though most issues with modern cars turn out to be a faulty sensor)

v8250 · Mar 9, 2023

CohPC said:
A little lesson for all of us - before working on car look in mirror and remind yourself your an idiot. So before you waste time like me (2-3 hours) take 5 minutes to make sure you've put everything back properly and checked the leads

@CohPC , that's an excellent tale and one many of us have experienced before...so you're not alone. Years ago I learnt to spray a little WD40 as a lubricant between the HT leads and boots, wipe off excess, fit to HT lead connector to the sparking plug, and then slide the boot to cover. This way there's always total contact between the HT lead and sparking plug, and no "pull..." from the boot.

CohPC · Mar 9, 2023

v8250 said:
@CohPC , that's an excellent tale and one many of us have experienced before...so you're not alone. Years ago I learnt to spray a little WD40 as a lubricant between the HT leads and boots, wipe off excess, fit to HT lead connector to the sparking plug, and then slide the boot to cover. This way there's always total contact between the HT lead and sparking plug, and no "pull..." from the boot.

That is a really good tip, will definitely be doing that

Shedload · Apr 1, 2023

Yep, we all been there. Years ago I borrowed my Dad's VW 411. It wouldn't start so after trying the obvious called the RAC.
He tried most of what I had, then tried a tow start, nothing. He looked at the battery, under the passenger seat, and enquired of a random wire hanging loose ?
Nothing says I, it was from when Dad had a CB. So RAC tows me back to Dad's house, he comes out bemused as to why his trusty steed has failed to proceed.
Have you tried the wire on the battery he asks. The CB one ? No the fuel pump !

cappers · Apr 1, 2023

Collected granddaughter from school, and parked the 90 on a muddy bank next to a dirt track by the school.
Strapped her into the child seat in the front, got in and fired up, put into D (auto) and nothing, lots of revving but no movement. Moved the selector back and forth with no joy and thought to myself did I pop a half shaft mounting the bank? Is the transmission broken? I then noticed the diff lock lever didn't look right......she'd kicked it into neutral getting in!

CohPC · Apr 1, 2023

cappers said:
Collected granddaughter from school, and parked the 90 on a muddy bank next to a dirt track by the school.
Strapped her into the child seat in the front, got in and fired up, put into D (auto) and nothing, lots of revving but no movement. Moved the selector back and forth with no joy and thought to myself did I pop a half shaft mounting the bank? Is the transmission broken? I then noticed the diff lock lever didn't look right......she'd kicked it into neutral getting in!

Could be worse I was putting a new filler hose on, easiest way to get it on is remove the filler pipe, spent half an hour in and out the back of the car to put mole grips on the nuts inside so I could use the screw driver on the outside. When I finished I realised it would have been quicker to roll up the side of the soft top

cappers · Apr 1, 2023

Recently I had the dash binnacle out and wiring disconnected.
Put it back together and all seemed to be working ok except on starting up the the rev counter was dead.
It was illuminated, but it shouldn't have been as the dash lights were off.
Switched on the lights and the rev counter worked!
Silly fool that I am had connected the ignition + feed to the lamp + tab and the light circuit feed to the 12V tab!

Its the simple things (Usually the simple thing working on the engine)

CohPC

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Colthebrummie

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CohPC

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v8250

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CohPC

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Shedload

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cappers

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CohPC

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cappers

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