Jonny-Jimbo

I think I have a pair of square bulbs, but couldn't say if they are sealed beam or not. I know I have a pair of front square grilles...

Interesting talk this - people often write about bits being original to the car etc, but it can be hard to tell any real difference between 5, 10, 20 or 50 years of grime under a car. Last summer I was replacing the diff seals for a customer's 13/60, which looked mostly untouched, but when I tried to replace the circlips etc I found that it in fact had the smaller diameter quarter shafts in it. For all we know, it may well have left the factory like it and they just built a batch of cars with whatever was lying around the factory!

So, a friend of mine was driving her Stag up to Scotland at the weekend. She got a long way, from near Coventry to Penrith, when she encountered a few issues. Without wavering on the throttle pedal, the revs would rise up, then just drop off until the car cut out, and then it wouldn't restart. They got recovered to a car parts shop and changed the coil. The car then restarted straight away and ran well... only to do the same thing again about 50 miles later... and then again once more before making it home. The car is pretty much standard, and is well looked after. Only major change from stock is electronic ignition. Having suffered hard to diagnose faults of my own on my 2500TC engined Mk1 which turned out to be electronic ignition failure, I've suggested that could be the cause. However, I'm not that well versed on Stags, so just wondered if anyone had any ideas?

isn't that where all the dentists etc are?

Hi Richard, good to know the 2000 is a bit more fun now it's not so automatic! Yeah, the 700 series was the last chassis to be RWD I think (The 900 series came later, but is the same chassis... the S80 might have been RWD too actually)... in any case, yes, it's RWD. As you suggest, it doesn't have the best turning circle, but it's not terrible. Main issue is the steering rack is slower ratio than one may expect, so you have occasional moments of panic when arriving at a corner and finding you need to make more of an input than anticipated. Being a very old turbo motor it also takes a long time to spool up to full boost, so going round traffic islands and long corners sometimes results in a 'boost induced handling imbalance'... ie, sudden wheel spin and oversteer! Oh, it also has a side mounted exhaust, so it's really loud and sometimes spits flame on the overrun :D My neighbours must love it :D

I'd love to do these sorts of events too, but don't have a suitable car really... However I would be happy to co-drive/nav, and I'm pretty good at swinging spanners too!

AJ and I are going to try to make it next year too - not sure what car we'll be in; maybe the MX5, maybe a Triumph... Maybe the Volvo or one of the BMWs...

One issue I've seen in the past with this join is that the old manifolds can fracture quite badly, particularly if they are over-tightened. This can lead to the exhaust blowing through the cracks, and people think it's the join but it's not. As a result they slather the join in exhaust paste etc, but still miss the cracks. As has been pointed out too, sometimes the mating faces just aren't cleaned enough. Brass is used to stop the nuts seizing on, and you can get extra thick brass nuts, giving more thread contact, so you can tighten them up more.

Sorry I couldn't make it in the end for the Autosolo, I was looking forward to it, and so was AJ. If the organisers didn't mention non-attendees, I found out that my AX had a very bad fuel leak on my way home from work on Friday when I filled it up with £45 of finest Shell Optimax... only to find that most of that then spread itself over a 10 mile stretch of tarmac. I was at a family event on Saturday, so had no time to fix it before the event. I was using it at my daily driver, so really needed to get it fixed. Turned out the filler neck flexi had perished. If I'd have time to do a bit of a service I would have brought the Volvo, but it may also have been a bit too big for threading the needle. Excellent at shredding tyres though with a 2.3L Turbo engine...    

I need to get an entry in for the other half in her MX5, but I can't as the button has also gone for me, possibly because I have already entered. On that note, I am not going to be taking the 540. It's been laid up for the best part of a year missing it's front end (Badgers hurt 5 series quite badly it turns out!)... so I am now entering in the less powerful and distinctly FWD Citroen AX GT... I'm not even sure it runs to be honest. Might be a few nights on the midnight oil!

I think I have a few friends who are keep to take part too, so hopefully we will have enough people on board!

Just entered the Autosolo, but as the entry form doesn't allow free form fill my entry is a bit skewed. It says I'll be taking my Mk1 2000 with a 3995cc engine... This is because I will actually be entering in my BMW 5 Series again. Having driven my 2000 for the last two weeks, it needs a lot of work that I don't think I'll have done in time for the Autosolo... And the 540i will go very sideways and make lots of smoke... If I'm not fast I'll just have to be spectacular! I'm looking forward to this event, hopefully we get enough entries to run it.

Lots has been done since I last posted - I was having trouble with the new forum, think I've almost sorted it, but for some reason my log in has reverted to a very old version from about 10 years ago! Chassis back from blasters;   New bolt in cross brace made - this is to brace the rear wishbone pickups.   Reinforcing tubes added to the sides to add a bit of crash protection and help reduce flex along the length of the chassis.     Adding new wishbone pivots - these were then braced to the chassis too.   Dimple-died plate added to brace a folded section without adding excessive weight. I used to be able to brace the old part by hand, but now it's very, very stiff!   That's it stitched in. Same type of bracing added to the rear end above the damper mounts. I also added lots of braces and pieces in in weak points of the chassis. Now painted black and ready to reassemble!  

That's a shame Richard, I know too well how upsetting it is to cancel an event that has been worked hard on. I wish I knew how to get more people into the rallies, at least in the midlands, as it seems most of the active rallyists are London and North Essex based.

Order service bits from this guy - they're more expensive than the tat off ebay (unless you can find genuine original bits, which aren't tat), but his products are good. http://www.distributordoctor.com/ I hope you asked them to make sure the dizzy is in good condition before sending too? I had my original one rebuilt by http://www.h-h-ignitionsolutions.co.uk/ Which was pretty good service.