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35086

General Discussion Area / Re: V8 conversion?? PAH thats for girls!!!

« on: 17 April 2007, 10:15:46 »

I wonder if the cam cover gaskets leak on them?

... cos there's an awful lot of bolts to undo!

I agree that there's nothing that meakes a better sound than a Merlin but they're best appreciated from the air.

Stood just behind the wing of a 'spit when it was started once. Those flames out of the exhaust stubs are real    Actually, you see a few splats of fuel fly out onto the fuselage and then the whole lot gets torched as it starts. Fortunately the draught from the prop then puts the flames out.

Kevin

35087

General Discussion Area / Re: Are Omegas sort of Police immune?

« on: 12 April 2007, 15:27:14 »

I may get shot down for this but personally I think there'd be less idiots on the road if people driving like that were prosecuted and penalised as they should be, without choice, otherwise they just think they'll get away with it all the time!

If his driving was as bad as you say then I agree but traffic officers able to exercise discretion are a good thing in these days of Talivans handing out summary justice by Royal Mail.

Getting a good old fashioned roadside dressing down by a traffic officer, pointing out the errors and likely consequences of my driving would have a far more positive impact on my future driving technique than an NIP hitting the doormat followed by grudgingly putting a cheque in the post.

"there's never a cop car about when you wanna see some nut get pulled over"!

This is what occurs to me every evening when I leave work. There's always someone pulling out of an office car park, mobile phone clamped under one ear while trying to put seat belt on, etc.. If they're not 100% occupied doing all that they may even look before they pull out into the traffic! It's blatantly obvious that the car isn't under control and should't have moved from their parking space yet.

If this type of thing could be as firmly drilled into people as the "speed kills" message we'd be onto a winner.

Kevin

35088

General Discussion Area / Re: Are Omegas sort of Police immune?

« on: 12 April 2007, 12:49:19 »

I am afraid I am more concerned about the workers than what my exact speed is

This is the problem with all the hysteria over speed limits these days. The average driver can concentrate either on maintaining his speed within +/- 2 MPH or on looking where he is going and reacting to hazards on the road ahead. More often than not these days the former seems to take precedence over the latter.

Kevin

35089

General Discussion Area / Re: New to this what does this arial do

« on: 13 April 2007, 10:51:48 »

The FM radio antenna is built into the heated rear screen. I presume that is a mobile phone antenna.

There is an extra antenna connection behind the driver's kick panel which seems to be routed in that direction.

Kevin

35090

General Discussion Area / Re: Mark 1 escort won't start!

« on: 13 April 2007, 11:38:50 »

Points should not spark.

This is true, and it indicates a faulty condenser if you're getting significant sparks at the points.

Kevin

35091

General Discussion Area / Re: Mark 1 escort won't start!

« on: 13 April 2007, 10:49:38 »

Presume,. could just put a spark plug on the end and earth it...

You could do. Not as much fun though  

I tell you what. Ask Markie what he'd prefer.

Kevin

35092

General Discussion Area / Re: Mark 1 escort won't start!

« on: 13 April 2007, 10:20:31 »

I have replaced condensors before only to find I have put a duff one in!

Check the voltage at the negative LT connection on the coil (the one that goes to the points) with respect to the battery negative terminal. It should be close to 12v when points are open. When the points are closed it will either be close to zero or, if there is a ballast resistor in the circuit, 6 or 8 volts or so. Sometimes the LT lead incorporates a ballast resistance and these can go open circuit.

If the LT side is OK as Laidback66 says, it's got to be a faulty coil (then again, you've replaced that) or a failure in the HT leads / dizzy cap / rotor arm. Pull off the centre HT lead from the dizzy cap (the one that comes from the coil) and see if you can draw a spark from this while cranking. If so, I'd suspect the dizzy cap or rotor arm. If no spark here maybe this HT lead is bad or the coil is bad.

Try measuring the resistance of the HT leads with a digital multimeter. They will typically have quite a high resistance, maybe 5000 - 20,000 ohms if they are suppression leads. Check they are all roughly the same, bearing in mind the longer ones will have higher resistance.

Other than that, there's not much more to go wrong. Have you tried a paper clip test?  

(I.E. Get Markie to hold a paper clip in the coil ht socket and crank. If you have to collect him from the other side of the garage, coil is fine )

Bear in mind that the spark plugs might be a bit damp when you do sort out the spark so crank it over with a wide open throttle or better still, take the plugs out and dry them out in a gas flame (SWMBOs gas hob is good for this, when she's not looking).

Kevin

35093

General Discussion Area / Re: Have a look at this Omega

« on: 13 April 2007, 10:48:05 »

He's been busy with that!

Rack and pinion steering and all sorts..

There's more plumbing around that diff than in my airing cupboard!

Kevin

35094

General Discussion Area / Re: Dreaded MoT Tomorrow

« on: 13 April 2007, 15:30:31 »

Had the MOT on my Westfield yesterday. The last couple of years he has caught me out on something trivial that I really should have noticed - dodgy balljoint, split steering rack gaitor, etc.

I was determined he wouldn't pick up anything this year so gave the car a good going over beforehand.

"Ohh, there's loads of play in this rear suspension", he says. Stuck my head under the car and immediately noticed a loose bolt between lower wishbone and suspension upright. Damn!

Happily he's the sort of guy who'll just nip it up with a spanner and carry on...


Kevin

35095

General Discussion Area / Re: How many miles....

« on: 12 April 2007, 10:57:26 »

Doing a steady 52mph all the way!!

Eeek! Probably spent more on caffeine trying to stay awake I guess!

It was painful enough trying to keep the speed down for 120 miles of towing on tuesday.

Kevin

35096

General Discussion Area / Re: Cheaper V6 Locking Kit..

« on: 12 April 2007, 21:03:22 »

Ahh, OK. Thanks.

I was thinking that the shaft had to be offset at a tangent (not 90 degrees) to the ring IYSWIM.  

Kevin

35097

General Discussion Area / Re: Cheaper V6 Locking Kit..

« on: 12 April 2007, 11:02:56 »

and that is where I went wrong by buying a combination spanner that was only cranked.  cry  

Forgive me for being dumb but but does anyone have a picture of such a spanner. I'm having problems visualising a cranked, offset spanner. This is to adjust the idler pullies while you have an allen key on the locking bolt, I assume?

Kevin

35098

General Discussion Area / Re: Help Me Out Folks in my search...

« on: 12 April 2007, 10:51:22 »

Maximum weight of an unbraked trailer is 750Kg by law, or as specified by vehicle manufacturer if less IIRC. Above that the trailer needs to be braked.

The max weight of a braked trailer depends on the towing vehicle. Hadn't thought of looking to see if it's placarded on the vehicle itself. It's not mentioned in the manual but around 1600 - 1700 Kg for a V6 Omega from what I've gleaned. The max weights seem to track engine power, suggesting the requirement to pull away safely on a gradient is the limiting factor.

My tow bar is here: http://stores.channeladvisor.com/towbar/Items/314266?

Not desperately cheap but a good bit of kit. Very easy to attach and detach the swan neck and it's little more than it would cost to tax an additional tow car for a year let alone MOT, insure, service, etc.

Fitting was straightforward. Rear bumper has to come off (8 screws) then you need to drill 9 holes for the mounting bolts and 1 for the electrical connection. These were already marked out on the boot floor. Remove sound deadening tar like material from part of the boot floor (hot air paint stripper softens this up nicely) and fit bracing member to boot floor, offer up tow bar to rear of car and bolt the two together then there are 2 bolts between front of bracing member and rear crossmember by the diff. I hammerited all the holes before final fitting to stop rust and gave it all a good spray with waxoyl.

Electrics are easy. There's a connector with all required signals behind the panelling at the rear of the boot and I had to install a jumper to bypass the trailer brake light failure sensor socket, which was a pain to find on my facelift.

Fitting instructions can be downloaded above.

Cheers,

Kevin

35099

General Discussion Area / Re: Help Me Out Folks in my search...

« on: 11 April 2007, 23:38:51 »

Is the tow car your MV6 Kevin and is the tow bar detachable? I presume its still nice looking  Wink

Mine is Elite Pete's old one. It's a Westfalia removable bar and you wouldn't know it was there unless you really got underneath and had a look.

It does require a little of the return edge of the rear bumper to be cut away but only right at the back edge so it's not visible from the road. I followed EPs recommendation and just cut what was required to access the towbar rather than chopping out the huge section they indicate in the instructions. The only part that's even slightly visible is the connector for the electrics and TBH that could be relocated with little effort. The rest of the towbar that remains on the car is above the level of the bottom of the bumper so not visible.

You also have to put up with the bracing panel on the boot floor which makes the boot floor a little uneven but not really a big issue.

I fitted the tow bar myself and did it easily in an afternoon. That was really taking my time, hammeriting all the holes, cleaning up the muck behind the bumper, applying Waxoyl, connecting up the electrics, etc.

Cheers,

Kevin

35100

General Discussion Area / Re: Help Me Out Folks in my search...

« on: 11 April 2007, 23:07:27 »

Had my first taste of Omega towing yesterday. What a breeze! Load in question was my glider in its' trailer. Got to be the best part of 30 feet long with a single axle. God knows what it weighs but the bloke who built the trailer didn't intend it to fall apart in a hurry!

Took it from Challock in Kent down M20/M26/M25/A3 to Lasham in Hampshire. I'd previously towed it behind a Mk 1 Laguna and it used to give me the odd "moment" when it didn't feel too stable when lorries were passing and the like, and with only 100 BHP the hills and pulling away were not fun!

With the Omega just set the cruise control to 60 and it purred along at a shade over 2000 RPM in fourth, slipping into third for the hills. Absolutely stable. When pulling away from lights it was easy to forget you were towing. Probably accelerated as well as my Laguna did without a trailer!

Fuel consumption for the run was 25 MPG versus 33 unloaded on the outward journey.

I kept wondering how it would like the hill around Guildford on the A3 - until I realised I was half way up it and hadn't noticed!

You're right. These cars do seem to make mincemeat of towing!

Kevin