FE54 - making her mine. - Page 10

peterzs · 15-12-13, 06:52 PM

sounds a good hide away.

Hope its all sorted for next month.

talkingcars · 23-12-13, 10:33 AM

Tried getting a bit done yesterday afternoon after getting back from Sainsburys but with an hours light left I wasn't that hopeful.

Started by dealing with the wires that I had already soldered to the tails for the heated front screen. I am using some cable left over from laying a heated floor in the conservatory, as I had one length each of blue and brown I soldered each end to the tails from the window. Today the first thing I did today was snip the cables, big mistake as I then loosened the cover over the wiper chamber and discovered the grommet for the wiper electrics is at the drivers side and the near side cables only just reach.

Simples me thinks, shorten the driver side cable and lengthen the passenger side by soldering more wire on - easy 'cept me gas powered soldering iron decided to lose power and now hardly melts butter, let alone solder.

CBA to get out an extension lead and most are on xmas lights anyway. This will just have to wait.

So I go to put it all back together and decide to sort the drivers wiper at the same time as the fitting keeps sliding along the arm and I'm worried that the blade will fall off leading to some metal arm on glass action - it would appear that at some point someone has closed up the loop on the arm so that the fitting slides over it, another simples - open up the loop - just made it worse - now I have a passenger wiper on the drivers side and a trip to the scrappy booked............

petet16 · 23-12-13, 10:44 AM

Not much help now.

talkingcars · 23-12-13, 10:57 AM

Didn't you make a new hole at the passenger end for yours?

petet16 · 23-12-13, 11:10 AM

Yes, just behind the engine bay fuse box.

talkingcars · 03-01-14, 04:59 PM

The trip to the scrappy on the 24th was a fail - direct road closed due to fallen trees, picked up a chip on the windscreen, road to scrappy flooded so had to go a different way, scrappy closed, direct road appeared to be now open so went back that way only to end up helping the chainsaw gangs by removing branches from the road in 3 locations.

However the trip on the 28th went better. Sadly Welshones ZS had gone so no wiper arms from that, a R45 donated instead (£2) along with the seat airbag plugs so I can adapt the ones in GV51 to work with mk2 airbags. I also found a mk2 R25 with chrome vent rings and a TM clock.

Then on new years eve £8.44 for a pair of aero blades from ECP and I now have wipers again.

I wasn't convinced by the chrome rings but Mrs TC liked them so I fitted them yesterday, I even managed to reconnect all the veins, well on three, the forth (well first one I tried) has died a horrible death so tomorrow will see another trip to the scrappy.

Rather than replacing the whole vent I have found a way to remove the rotating part by levering between the open and closed marks.

Finally I think I got to the bottom of the battery to boot problem - the battery was knackered even though it is less than a year old. Last night I charged it for a couple of hours at 2 amps and it went from 8 volts to 14.4 volts in a couple of hours, should take about 8 hours. Also the reading on the charger was changing by about half a volt when it should be steady. A couple of hours after coming off charge it was down to 12.54v and this morning it was at 11.74. By the time I got it to Halfords at 3pm it was down to 8 "amps".

petet16 · 03-01-14, 05:09 PM

It sounds like the battery has expired early.

I like the chrome vents they make the oe Silver ones look cheap and nasty.

talkingcars · 03-01-14, 07:00 PM

Leaving it in GV51 for several months unused for several months didn't help.

Since day one I've planned to spray the O/E rings to match the door inserts, I still may.

talkingcars · 04-01-14, 09:17 PM

I got a vent but not the one I went for, the car that gave up the rings had gone, strange thing was that it was in the middle of a row which was untouched sincce last visit except a few that had gone from the middle ncluding the ZR.

No, I was walking around aimlessly when I noticed two of them sitting under the wheel arch of a Jag, strange.

£2 lighter and I was on the way home.

Maxfly · 04-01-14, 11:35 PM

Nice lucky find then, I prefer the 45 vent rings too, they feel better to operate too IMO.