Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

[glasgowjim]

Cant believe its only the second post of 2013

Have 3 cars sorn just now cant move for 480's reckon I will need to sell one at least very soon. all 3 are out of MOT so during the 2 weeks holiday at Easter just a couple of weeks away I will put a rear foglight on sons turbo and get it moted. I need to sell the turbo but everything depends on the mot if it passes without significant cost ( I expect it to pass but as in life the mot has its own way and cant be predicted!) If it is going to cost too much then I will break it up but I really dont want to do that. I am swithering whether to just sell her on cheap as a project to some of the performance turbo boys (it has a Robou mod fitted + some other stuff as well) for very little cash . In terms of zoom its got everything apart from the dogs bollocks Look back a page or 2 and you can see its spec. Reckon broken up I can get more than £300 for it but it is in too good a condition to break that would be criminal but its the work involved as well plus the storage although it wont take long to get the main parts shifted. Then onto William the GT and get it moted as well . Fix up williams OSR arch as other than that its in vgc. will also have to put a clutch in daughters car. Really need to get rid of one possibly 2 480's as its getting to the ridiculous stage cant move at the front of the house and its beginning to get to me. Still at least in a few days time the extra work I am doing will finally end at least for a little while and I will get time to get stuff done on the cars and the house and the garden and.... keeping the good lady happy.

[glasgowjim]

Well William failed its mot and it was touch and go whether I would repair or scrap

So priced up parts and it was getting too expensive for me so spent a while on ebay and the cost was a good bit less so its all go now and hope it passes next time around.

Failed on body work 2 bits of welding to do so I will try my hand at that then front brake pads , front brake hose , sticky hand brake at rear caliper , 2 rear drop links 1 front drop link brake fliud to drain and change : exhaust to sort up.
so busy week ahead on top of getting turbo moted if not too costly.

Need to practice my welding now.

[glasgowjim]

Well today was the first day for a while that you could go out and not be chilled to the bone in about 20mins while working on a car. Got the brake pads delivered today the only success of the day basically. The black 480 turbo is being prepared for a mot its only £19.99 up here from a reliable garage (Khan's in Garturk Street) once its moted or failed I will know how much it will cost to get back on road not much TBH . In fact I reckeoned it would pass fairly easily maybe a bit iffy on emisions but you never know till you try. I have already agreed to sell it if its not to dear to fix up for MOT otherwise it will have to be broken up.

this is the car pictured above.
Well if you thought your 480 had evil lecky gremlins figure this out . The car was originally fitted at a cost of £228 with a TOAD alarm shortly after I bought the car it started to misbehave and refuse to start , sorted that out by shorting out the bonnet relay then about 2 months later the starting problems returned with a vengence so checked out the car and then removed the brains of the Toad alarm and some of its wiring ran over a year with this set up no problems whatsoever. 2 nights ago after I had been airing the car and tidying up the interior as I passed the car the passenger door locked all by itself ???? Seriously weird thought nothing of it until today put a freshly charged battery in , car started first time as usual then the funny stuff started the wiper washer motors went on strike the hazard light switch was sticking the hazrd lights all worked but the indicators wouldnt. At this stage the info centre was working ok. So removed dash and started to look at all the usual culprits -the car is started using a button starter but thats ok as I am familiar with this type of mod. fitted fresh components but still no luck then took out the cutters and removed all the extra toad alarm wires only to discover the info panel is now dead so took out the HBOL and looked up the wiring diagram what a load of rubbish this book is its pretty near damn useless for anything electrical and thats being kind so off to the shed to get the intact dashboard wiring loom to compare with what I have in the car....
the shed .....




and thats after pulling this stuff out..

and people wonder why it takes a few days to get back them if I have to search the shed
Now the car looks like this as I attempt to remedy the situation and kill the lecky gremlin



Too dark now to continue but tomorrows a new day

Another of lifes imponderables Photobucket have spent ages trying to make their sight attractive etc but everytime I go to click on the img the icture above it is of a giant female Ars* in well stretched tights , thank goodness I had my tea earlier its a disgusting sight

[glasgowjim]

Oh forgot this photo..

[jamesy12345]

lol good luck with that Jim. I guess 480's are a little sensitive to alarms, even good ones. Your photos would have made M.C. Escher give it all up and reach for the painting-by-numbers book

ps I get that advert of the stretchy tights. Apparantly she lives 'only 3 miles away' from me. Funny, doesn't look like a local girl...the internet has gone cookie mad with adverts tailored to what they imagine your needs are based on IP location etc

[glasgowjim]

This one makes it 2 out of 2 for having to remove malfunctioning alarm systems.

[doingitsideways]

Or browsing history James!!

Pmsl!

Worryingly though, I keep getting ads for "Mature housewifes"

Hmm... :s

[jamesy12345]

i didn't want to mention browsing history as obviously mine is a bit ropey... ....remember Yes Man film: 'Persian wife finder?' Yes! 'Supersize your....' Yes! 'Learn Korean?' Yes!!

That last one might come in handy...



Sorry Jim we are spamming yr thread

[glasgowjim]

Oh and a picture of the damage to my cars rear arch

Both were like this ...

now one side looks like this....


4wd

[glasgowjim]

Yesterday was a long day fitted two rear drop links went to fit the front brakes pads only to discover I had the wrong ones loosened a front drop link ready to replace when I get the part. Faffed about with exhaust and then a had another go at the lecky gremlin.

Raining today!

[glasgowjim]

Well the saga of williams mot rumbles on..

changed front brake pads
1 stretched brake hose
2 rear drop links
1 front drop link
welded rather badly and filled the tragic rear arch.
paid to have a weld on the underside and the exhaust fixed (somethings you just cant do yourself).
then adjust the handbrake + bleed brakes+ faff around with NS rear handbrake
and guess what its failed its remot. booger
now looks like a rear caliper needs replaced but hey ho will pick up tomorow and see what can be done .

oh and still got to find the wire I cut removing the toad alarm from the turbo then I can get that moted and moved on. Leaving only the daughters clutch to be done.

Just another day with a family of 480's
1 wife 2 kids(well 1 really the others flown the nest 2 dogs 4 480's who needs a hobby I just need a rich sugar mammy!

still work is easing up deo gratia (or about to)

How do I know who the wife is you may ask well she is the one who make the dinners. well she better be or else I have been sleeping with the wrong woman for the last 30 years

[glasgowjim]

yes the rear brake caliper is totally goosed so rumaged around in my shed to get a spare and guess what I had one only its the wrong side so off to GSF tomorrow to get a replacement and a new flexihose. its enough to make a strong man

Because of this and having to get the messages in and walk the dogs and my day job I havent been able to get near the black turbo. Damn I need 36 hours in the day.

[jamesy12345]

messages = shopping

[glasgowjim]

thank you for translating for my english readers.

[glasgowjim]

well spent a few hours changing rear brake caliper , bleeding brakes fitting hand brake cable ( a footery job ) adjusting hand brakes and road testing. Bright sunshine so alls well

[glasgowjim]

Well William has just passed his mot

I kept to my promise of keeping him on the road it was just a little more expensive than I reckoned but another 480 lives on
total work done:-
3 welds (1 done by me )
a brake caliper
1 flexihose
1 handbrake cable
3 drop links
1 set of brake pads and bobs your mot

william lives on for another full year.

[glasgowjim]

Lecky gremlins now dead !!!!!!

Woo Hooo!

turned out the all grey wire to the small end plug on to the cem was cut and rerouted through some other residual toad alarm wires so when I removed the wires the cem could not function. I soldered the wire back together and guess what the system still did not work so after a while rechecking the wiring I replaced the cem and bingo all the electrics work. All ln all a very good day
Only have to replace the perished exhaust rubber mounting ( I have a spare )

[glasgowjim]

Damn yesterday was a bad news day will have to scrap the black turbo To cap it all the scrap value is at best £150. enough to make you weep. Going out today to see what parts I can remove without altering the scrap value of car and it has all these upgrades as well.

92k miles
High Flow fuel pump, Walbro 255
FSE Boost Valve Fuel Pressure regulator
Forge Recirc Valve, manual boost valve & replaced actuator.
Cat back twin exit stainless exhaust system.
All vaccum lines replaced.

Engine bay has also been stripped back to bare cleaned and painted.

Recent suspension: Lower arm bushes and ball joints,track rod ends, anti roll bar links all round, shocks and lowering springs 40mm & one wheel bearing.
Discs and pads all round, new handbrake cables. Calipers all stripped and cleaned.
Pretty unique alloys TSWs no longer made. Made in the machine shop at RAF Leuchars, a set of custom Hubcentric wheel spacers , 10mm per wheel, military aircraft grade alloy ( pretty cool ) and swapped to a studs and bolts so much easier getting wheels on and off.


my son has never been lucky with turbos yet.

Oh and it has a Robou mod fitted as well.

[glasgowjim]

Well the black turbo has gone to the great scrap yard in the sky however I managed to retrieve a couple of parts to sell on hopefully.

Now just trying to sort out garage and then tomorrow the shed as it has been so overloaded with spares its sitting well of the plumb and needs to be straightened and reinfocred as the side walls are spreading out as well.

Need a guaranteed good day but unfortunately its overcast today and could rain within a few minutes and it will take me about 20 minutes to empty the shed and longer to fill it again. Once its empty its then a case of crossbracing .

[glasgowjim]

Well I emptied the tardis sorry shed and this is what the back garden looks like ......





took the best part of a day to reload the shed , I had to repair one corner of shed as well . still I discovered some parts I had forgotten about years ago Tossed some stuff out as well.

The garage is next in line for gutting after I have looked some stuff out for Capt Slow.