What did you do to your 700 series today ?
 

Thought I'd start a simple thread, I've today lavished a little tlc on my 1986 744GLa - the first proper clean and polish of the year. Next I need to attend to some underbonnet detailing, rather grubby under there so good old petrol and oil first.

Jon

Picked it up from the garage, after a service and MoT. Had to have some welding in the n/s/f footwell, and had a broken front spring, both sides now replaced with new Monroe parts. We roll another year. :)

After a very pleasant trip to Keswick in Cumbria via Alston yesterday covering a total of 166miles round trip, the car was washed, getting rid of all the splattered flies, then cold water rinsed, and finally just made dry with a quality chamois leather.....now ready to go to the steam traction engine rally at Corbridge tomorrow.

Shopping - Stuck in a traffic jam for 20 minutes waiting to cross M3 at J3!! Then off to Aldi in Bracknell (amongst other things bought a new double barrel foot pump at half price £6). Then to Longacres Garden Centre at Bagshot. Finally off to Woking via Chobham for some supplies and petrol at 129.9 per ltr from Morrisons.

Oh, I did pop the bonnet/hood before and after to see what the coolant level looked like after my recent 'problems' ..... all fine. However there might be a problem with the exhaust near the down pipe/cat as it's 'popping' a bit on over run!!

Anybody got an idea what ageing brushes on an alternator sound like? I seem to have a high whizzing/whirring noise in time with revs which doesn't seem to to be a bearing noise? The ammeter is a bit slow to get up to full charge on start up 10v and then up to 12 + volts.

Must also take off the drivers door card soon as I have to use the electric window button at times to make some of the intermittent speakers work!!

Bob :)

Well done (car) on the new MOT.

Yes, I think I have the same problem re-rust in the n/s footwell . All front carpets out sometime shortly.

At least your water is soft up there. Here it's hard and chalky, and leaves marks on the paintwork if not immediately chamoised off. Happy steaming. :)

I hope that was Super Unleaded at that price Bob? :err:

Glad to hear your coolant problems seem to be over, annoying about the exhaust though!

Ageing alternator brushes generally sound the same as new alternator brushes. That said if the slip rings are worn then they will sound as if something is rubbing, a sort of whizzy-whirry noise that rises in pitch with the engine speed.

As a rule of thumb, the voltmeter should hit 14v within seconds of starting and stay there - what's the charge warning light doing when you first switch the ignition on and does it flicker at all with the engine running?

Off topic I know, but I made the mistake of running low on fuel nr the A1 Doncaster the other day - £149.09 a litre.

Cripes !!!

Serves me right at just over 20 mpg.

Jon.

Thanks Dave. Just bog standard unleaded. The car has never been privileged to have anything else :rolleyes:

In that case seems like it may well be a slip ring noise :buttkick:

Yes, the gauge is on a bit past midway (10-16v) once 'up' so that something just over 13.5 v, or so . It only takes say 15 or so seconds to get get there. The volymeter is out of an old Yazaki cluster that I found was an exact fit for the VDO on the car. No flickering from the charge warning light :waffen093:

My local Shell has been at 149.9p/L for Nitro (98 octane) for some time now. It's on the Fiveways roundabout on the A11 so almost "motorway services status" in terms of location and cost.

I thought that was pretty bad until i saw you'd paid £149 a litre! :err: :tounge_smile:


That's very £OUCH Bob especially from Morrisons! Sainsburys round my neck of the woods charged be 132.9p/L for Super Unleaded the other day, i won't run mine on anything other than the high octane stuff as it makes a difference on mine - enough to outweigh the extra cost.

It sounds like the voltmeter is heavily damped, might pay to use a digital multimeter on the battery with the engine running to confirm charging voltage though.
If you notice any charge light flickering or that it doesn't come on for some reason on switching to position 2 of the key (ignition only, not started yet) then it would be a good idea to find a replacement alternator.

Back on to the actual thread subject though :D the postie has just delivered 5 cans of Smoke Grey window tint spray so that's the plan for my 760 today. ;) :D