Damn I only carry 2 spare coils 
[}]
glad you enjoyed your holiday [8D]
Commer Dandy by Dandy Caravans
The Colonel Mustard
[}]glad you enjoyed your holiday [8D]
Commer Dandy by Dandy Caravans
The Colonel Mustard
My Ride Needing A Makeover
- Thread starter Hazel
- Start date
Hazel
0
Thanks for reply -and your good wishes prior to holiday-Clarabel did look after me! and summer was definateley there in Jersey although the sun was often obscured by those from the darkside who were everywhere on hire from a biased classic car co with a one tracked mind - they were everywhere! - I think MM should sell them a few of ours to balance things up a bit. Mike
Hazel
0
ps - I think I could now change a coil blindfolded - and I even remembered how to turn the engine over by holding the fan belt against the fan pulley ( the second recovery had no idea) -Although I had to remove 2 plugs not one as compression was better than I remember -or I'm getting older than I was !
Hazel
0
Just off down the pit to aim a bit of grease at Clarabel. MOT this PM at 2.00. Doesn't seem like a year from the last one! Mileage now 48104 - 2352 miles over the year. The garage is the same one in the village to MOT Clarabel from 1985- 1999 - Things have improved a lot since then -so fingers crossed! Hazels Dad
I am sure you will pass but good luck has bee lovely reading your new found miles [8D]
Commer Dandy by Dandy Caravans
The Colonel Mustard
Commer Dandy by Dandy Caravans
The Colonel Mustard
Hazel
0
Clarabel passed- Good result-thanks for the good wishes. All set for another year now-It was good to get down the pit again but now have a ladder and an armchair! Another co-incidence- met a spares man at the village garage who reported that his auto-jumble was hijacked by a commer enthusiast at the Bronte village gathering who bought numerous goodies including a large number of rare front grill corner clips all in their original boxes!- any guesses?? I bet he didn't tell the person concerned that he also had an original lower back fluted corner panel hiding back in his garage. Thought I'd better join in and offered him £10 to drop it off. Im going on a visit later in the month as he also thinks he may have a box of original dizzy caps and points lying around somewhere. I also mentioned trunnion bushes which he may also have - I understand we are down to our last pair in the UK? Aparently he has offered spares to the Hilman club as well who were unwilling to visit to view?? I will see if any are useful to us. Hazels Dad
hi congrats on the mot always great when they pass. if your spares contact happens to have more rootes stuff for other models id be very interested as im always after bits and pieces for the other 20+ members of the fleet.
steve
steve
Fearns beat me to the grille clips :I Glad Clarabel passed 1st time
http://www.commervanspares.co.uk/
http://www.yorkshireclassiccampers.co.uk/
http://www.commervanspares.co.uk/
http://www.yorkshireclassiccampers.co.uk/
quote:
Originally posted by martin maltas
Fearns beat me to the grille clips :I Glad Clarabel passed 1st time
http://www.commervanspares.co.uk/
http://www.yorkshireclassiccampers.co.uk/
Ohhh We brought Duke from Fearns you know i wonder if i email him he will let me buy said clips for Pia's Grille?[8D]
Naku penda PIA Naku taka PIA Mpenziwe!!!
Originally posted by martin maltas
Fearns beat me to the grille clips :I Glad Clarabel passed 1st time
http://www.commervanspares.co.uk/
http://www.yorkshireclassiccampers.co.uk/
Ohhh
We brought Duke from Fearns you know i wonder if i email him he will let me buy said clips for Pia's Grille?[8D]
Naku penda PIA Naku taka PIA Mpenziwe!!!
quote:
Originally posted by Comm-Up-Ear
quote:
Originally posted by martin maltas
Fearns beat me to the grille clips :I Glad Clarabel passed 1st time
http://www.commervanspares.co.uk/
http://www.yorkshireclassiccampers.co.uk/
Ohhh We brought Duke from Fearns you know i wonder if i email him he will let me buy said clips for Pia's Grille?[8D]
He wouldn't sell me any [V]
http://www.commervanspares.co.uk/
http://www.yorkshireclassiccampers.co.uk/
Originally posted by Comm-Up-Ear
quote:
Originally posted by martin maltas
Fearns beat me to the grille clips :I Glad Clarabel passed 1st time
http://www.commervanspares.co.uk/
http://www.yorkshireclassiccampers.co.uk/
Ohhh
We brought Duke from Fearns you know i wonder if i email him he will let me buy said clips for Pia's Grille?[8D]He wouldn't sell me any [V]
http://www.commervanspares.co.uk/
http://www.yorkshireclassiccampers.co.uk/
Hazel
0
Thanks for the congrats- I was sure it was Martin who grabbed the clips! There were lots of them! Hope they go to good homes. It sounds as though the 'spares man' has a whole garage load of spares -he is also looking for a clear out so will keep my eyes open. Let me know what sort of things to look for from other areas ( post them on here and I will print them off to shown him) - The man himself seems very knowledgable so probably only need to give him an idea of what we are after. He has already mentioned a workshop manual and 'lots of rear light clusters'! Hazels Dad
quote:
Originally posted by martin maltas
quote:
Originally posted by Comm-Up-Ear
quote:
Originally posted by martin maltas
Fearns beat me to the grille clips :I Glad Clarabel passed 1st time
http://www.commervanspares.co.uk/
http://www.yorkshireclassiccampers.co.uk/
Ohhh We brought Duke from Fearns you know i wonder if i email him he will let me buy said clips for Pia's Grille?[8D]
He wouldn't sell me any [V]
http://www.commervanspares.co.uk/
http://www.yorkshireclassiccampers.co.uk/
How many Grille's does he need then???
Naku penda PIA Naku taka PIA Mpenziwe!!!
Originally posted by martin maltas
quote:
Originally posted by Comm-Up-Ear
quote:
Originally posted by martin maltas
Fearns beat me to the grille clips :I Glad Clarabel passed 1st time
http://www.commervanspares.co.uk/
http://www.yorkshireclassiccampers.co.uk/
Ohhh
We brought Duke from Fearns you know i wonder if i email him he will let me buy said clips for Pia's Grille?[8D]He wouldn't sell me any [V]
http://www.commervanspares.co.uk/
http://www.yorkshireclassiccampers.co.uk/
How many Grille's does he need then???
Naku penda PIA Naku taka PIA Mpenziwe!!!
Moley
0
quote:
Originally posted by Hazel
A TALE OF TEN COILS Jersey was amazing and Clarabel was eventually better than I ever remember with all her mod cons, roofrack and awning. We were however very lucky to get there:
Chapter 1 (prior to holiday)- Coil 1 was water damaged, arked, disintegrated and damaged electric ignition. Coil 2 was a Polish equivalent to the electronic ignition coil (no one up here knew it should have been a different spec!)-this literally blew within 15 secs when connected to the old dizzy. Coil 3 found in the cellar of the village garage worked for 3 secs then stopped. Coil 4 was a Unipart GCL 333 Made in E.C! This worked on test and survived a test run by the Auto-electricians - who decided not to fiddle with the timing as it 'appeared to be ok' . My test run back from the garage proved otherwise as it did not run well up hills and still ran hot. Time had run out and there was a ferry to catch so as my pre - journey message indicated , I crossed my fingers and set off! (luckily with another GCL 333 in the cupboard).
Chapter 2: 12 Miles later Clarabel stopped suddenly in Cowling on the way to the M65. I told the AA they needed to send someone of a certain age who knew what a distributer and coil was - the call centre were not optimistic! Ten minutes later AA man A174170: Derek Kay arrived-He is definetly the best AA man in the country having served his apprenticeship in a Commer garage! (amazing) he found the graphite core in the dizzy cap broken in two (thanks for the spare Martin) -fitted the new coil (No 5) no 4 had blown - no internal resistance. Then in a scene from the past he found his old dwell meter - remembered all of the settings and completely retimed the system - not being totally at ease with the result we followed him home to find his old strobe in his garage. Clarabel left Colne for the M65 running better than she had in years, he even contacted Unipart in Weymouth to source another spare coil! 3 hours work totally beyond the call of duty -like Britain used to be. We were then spotted on the M6 looking good just south of Preston -nipped down the M56- A49 and purred down to Hereford in one go.
Chapter 3: 10PM ish Clarabel just stopped. AA too busy with storms so sent local recovery-towed us to Premier Inn after establishing what I knew already -that the coil had blown. In bed by 1AM -Collected Clarabel at 7.30AM -sourced the only coil for 100 miles Number 6! and we were on our way by 11.30. Mechanic and his boss had read the manual and researched the Internet and came up with the theory that the Fridge was drawing too much current from the leisure circuit and blowing coils (in the same way that starter motors on load can). We switched off the fridge- set the leisure circit to '0' . We were then spoted on the A350 heading for Weymouth.
Chapter 4: Arived in Weymouth after a trouble free journey to watch the ferry sailing out of the harbour-up at 4AM to join the standby queue. Arrived in Jersey just half a day late to find a lovely campsite near to a picture postcard harbour- all good things come to those who wait.
Chapter 5: Coil number 7 was still at Unipart in Wemouth so just to be on the safe side for the return journey I asked them to get another three! Which we collected on the way back. Arived back last night after a completely trouble free journey up the A350 429 417 A40 A49 M6 M56 M6 M65. (773 miles round trip) The moral in this is if you want a trouble free journey carry four spare coils! Clarabel cruised at 50-56 on the flat and downhill in the white -moving up to the red on hills or prolonged motorway high speed. Now need to see what the Guru comes up with to cure the current surge problem on the Leisure Circuit ?? - A few diodes perhaps? - Any other ideas?? At least we now know what is doing the damage! Hazels Dad -Now stress free after an amazing holiday.
Oh god, we have just fitted a new fridge and leisure battery and are now on coil 3 in less that a week, thanks for all this info will now be disconnecting fridge and battery charger to save more problems this week whilst away, (Dave says probably fitting zener diode on feed to coil to prevent over voltage to coil circuit may cure this, but can't understand why if we are getting surges it is not blowing dash lamps etc)
Moley and Brian the Snail
1965 Series IIA Bluebird Highwayman
Originally posted by Hazel
A TALE OF TEN COILS Jersey was amazing and Clarabel was eventually better than I ever remember with all her mod cons, roofrack and awning. We were however very lucky to get there:
Chapter 1 (prior to holiday)- Coil 1 was water damaged, arked, disintegrated and damaged electric ignition. Coil 2 was a Polish equivalent to the electronic ignition coil (no one up here knew it should have been a different spec!)-this literally blew within 15 secs when connected to the old dizzy. Coil 3 found in the cellar of the village garage worked for 3 secs then stopped. Coil 4 was a Unipart GCL 333 Made in E.C! This worked on test and survived a test run by the Auto-electricians - who decided not to fiddle with the timing as it 'appeared to be ok' . My test run back from the garage proved otherwise as it did not run well up hills and still ran hot. Time had run out and there was a ferry to catch so as my pre - journey message indicated , I crossed my fingers and set off! (luckily with another GCL 333 in the cupboard).
Chapter 2: 12 Miles later Clarabel stopped suddenly in Cowling on the way to the M65. I told the AA they needed to send someone of a certain age who knew what a distributer and coil was - the call centre were not optimistic! Ten minutes later AA man A174170: Derek Kay arrived-He is definetly the best AA man in the country having served his apprenticeship in a Commer garage! (amazing) he found the graphite core in the dizzy cap broken in two (thanks for the spare Martin) -fitted the new coil (No 5) no 4 had blown - no internal resistance. Then in a scene from the past he found his old dwell meter - remembered all of the settings and completely retimed the system - not being totally at ease with the result we followed him home to find his old strobe in his garage. Clarabel left Colne for the M65 running better than she had in years, he even contacted Unipart in Weymouth to source another spare coil! 3 hours work totally beyond the call of duty -like Britain used to be. We were then spotted on the M6 looking good just south of Preston -nipped down the M56- A49 and purred down to Hereford in one go.
Chapter 3: 10PM ish Clarabel just stopped. AA too busy with storms so sent local recovery-towed us to Premier Inn after establishing what I knew already -that the coil had blown. In bed by 1AM -Collected Clarabel at 7.30AM -sourced the only coil for 100 miles Number 6! and we were on our way by 11.30. Mechanic and his boss had read the manual and researched the Internet and came up with the theory that the Fridge was drawing too much current from the leisure circuit and blowing coils (in the same way that starter motors on load can). We switched off the fridge- set the leisure circit to '0' . We were then spoted on the A350 heading for Weymouth.
Chapter 4: Arived in Weymouth after a trouble free journey to watch the ferry sailing out of the harbour-up at 4AM to join the standby queue. Arrived in Jersey just half a day late to find a lovely campsite near to a picture postcard harbour- all good things come to those who wait.
Chapter 5: Coil number 7 was still at Unipart in Wemouth so just to be on the safe side for the return journey I asked them to get another three! Which we collected on the way back. Arived back last night after a completely trouble free journey up the A350 429 417 A40 A49 M6 M56 M6 M65. (773 miles round trip) The moral in this is if you want a trouble free journey carry four spare coils! Clarabel cruised at 50-56 on the flat and downhill in the white -moving up to the red on hills or prolonged motorway high speed. Now need to see what the Guru comes up with to cure the current surge problem on the Leisure Circuit ?? - A few diodes perhaps? - Any other ideas?? At least we now know what is doing the damage! Hazels Dad -Now stress free after an amazing holiday.
Oh god, we have just fitted a new fridge and leisure battery and are now on coil 3 in less that a week, thanks for all this info will now be disconnecting fridge and battery charger to save more problems this week whilst away, (Dave says probably fitting zener diode on feed to coil to prevent over voltage to coil circuit may cure this, but can't understand why if we are getting surges it is not blowing dash lamps etc)
Moley and Brian the Snail
1965 Series IIA Bluebird Highwayman
Hazel
0
My first reaction when narrowing down the problem was that diodes might be the answer. The right value zener diode (if it was heavy duty) could do the trick. As luck would have it my local garage has a visiting Auto-electrician who is also a caravan specialist -ie he fits fridges and tow bar extensions etc. I hope to meet him soon with Clarabel. I think the problem is that these modern fridges are very efficient but pull alot of current- there must be an answer to this or it makes the 12v dc obsolete. Anyway-glad the 'tale of ten coils' helped you to isolate quicky! You should find this works ok. -To be safe make sure you are in neutral mode - ie not charging the leisure battery. My next brave move with Clarabel (Not this weekend !!) will be to switch the charging circuit back on but leave the fridge off. Good Luck -Hazels Dad -Looking forward to Blackpool.