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Brendan The Spit

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  1. Brendan The Spit
    Brendan The Spit joined the community
  2. Brendan The Spit
    I don't have overdrive, and I checked that nothing had been left on. The clincher was borrowing someone's battery tester, it was dead as a dodo, even after trying to charge it. Went to my local purveyor of sundry car-related items, plonked the old battery on his reception desk, said "I want an exact replacement for this" and, 15 minutes or so later, the car was back in action. Strange isn't it how you can go from low to high with cars? More often vice versa, has to be said... Thanks for the helpful suggestions here, as ever.
  3. Brendan The Spit
    Fixed. :)
  4. Brendan The Spit
    Great, ta. Latest is, my local mechanic just lent me his battery tester, explained how to use it, got home, and it looks like the battery's completely died. So, off to Halfords it is then. I'm actually taking the old battery with me so I can say "Can I have a direct replacement for this please..."
  5. Brendan The Spit
    ... in which case my next question would be: can I just get any standard car battery eg from Halfords, or do I have to get something specific? It's for a 1976 Spit 1500. Thanks for the advice btw, I know I'm embarrassingly lacking in knowledge here so all advice very welcome...
  6. Brendan The Spit
    Thanks. You're right about the description, it quite literally is not responding in any way whatsoever when I turn the key. The last time I drove it, about a fortnight ago, it was fine. There isn't a history of charge draining from the battery either. Thing is, I don't have a spare. So, perhaps I should just nip out and get one, and try that?
  7. Brendan The Spit
    Nope, not got either of them I'm afraid. I just noticed that, when I took the negative clip off the battery, leaving the positive attached, the charger indicator glowed weakly. Putting it back on, the indicator turned off. Anyway, I really don't think this is the kind of thing I have the experience or equipment really to sort out. So, do you reckon it's a quick fix, or is this the type of thing that can take ages to diagnose? I ask because my local mechanic is good at basic stuff but I don't really rate him for anything complex. I do have another person I can use but he's pretty expensive and based a few miles away from me, and as I say I'm broke right now and just cannot afford to splash the cash on anything other than absolute necessities. But, as I say, if this is the kind of thing a half-decent mechanic (with experience of cars btw - he actually has his own Spit but I've been less than impressed with his work in the past) should be able to fix in an hour or so, then I might risk getting him to look at it.
  8. Brendan The Spit
    Thanks, checked the fuses and they look ok. Honestly? Don't know how to check for power at the battery or coil. I've replaced the coil in the past but that was just a case of taking out the old and plugging in the new. I can have a go at basic stuff like that but I'm by no means an electrics expert. Given that I'm virtually broke right now, given an eye-wateringly large amount of money I might have to spend on some house repairs, is this the kind of thing you think my local garage mechanic should be able to diagnose quickly?
  9. Brendan The Spit
    I'm in the process of reupholstering the seats. I just got the driver seat done, put it in, turned the ignition, nothing. Absolutely nothing. I've plugged in my battery charger and it's having no effect whatsoever. I had a hunch it could be the seat belt indicator - some systems can disable the car if they're not plugged in, right? And I do have the indicator, but I'm pretty sure that it wasn't even connected on the driver side. There is actually a lead with connector coming out of the passenger seat, plus a lead with connector coming from under the carpet on that side, so I plugged them in. Still nothing. There is a lead with connector coming from the carpet on the driver side too, but no lead in the seat - I just took it apart again to check. This validates what I originally thought ie it was never connected anyway. The car's not been running for a couple of weeks but that shouldn't be the problem. Even when starting after a cold winter spell it gives a bit of a cough, and responds to the battery being charged. And, as far as I can tell, the charger's not showing anything at all, ie I'm sure it should show that there is some charge actually in the battery itself but it's not showing anything. So where do I go from here? Is it possible for a battery actually to completely die? Thanks Brendan
  10. Brendan The Spit
    My copper pipe runs round the back, not all the way around the front. I had probs a while back but I think that was the fuel pump, not evaporation.
  11. Brendan The Spit
    OK I just noticed there was a 'label under the label' kind of thing (a 'turn over' icon bottom right I hadn't seen before). It says Ethylene Glycol. So, not Propylene Glycol. I actually just added some water to the overflow, simply because I have to test this car before I drive it on Sunday. Everything is checking out fine so it looks like I got away with overheating it. I'm popping round to JY Classics this afternoon anyway to get the fuel sender unit replaced, so I'll consult John over this - he actually recommended I just put water in for now. I only had to top up with about two pints of water so there is still coolant in there, it's just a bit more diluted than before. So I'll have a chat with John re coolant, but if I can just drive this thing over the next week and get that holiday I've been planning for months with the current setup, I'll be happy with that, then I'll think about coolant and maybe a complete flush when I'm back. Just to say thanks for all the help chaps. When things go wrong it's really annoying but you always learn a ton of stuff.
  12. Brendan The Spit
    Good grief it's two steps forward one step back! So I rush home and out to the local garage, where they only have one bottle of coolant left. I can't see the colour, I ask the youth behind the counter if it's the pink or blue sort, he looks at me like I just landed on planet earth, I buy it anyway. I open it, and find that it's not pink, and it's not blue either... it's green! It's Mobil ready mixed coolant. So, can I use this? Or should I go to the proper auto place tomorrow if I can find time? Post-edit: this seems to say that blue=green - http://wiki.seloc.org/a/Coolant - and I've found another source that says they change the colour every two years? Sounds a bit bizarre. Also, does it matter what sort I already have in the  radiator, so that match like for like? So many questions!
  13. Brendan The Spit
    Thanks. I'll be taking it for a spin tonight to see what happens, just around the local area in case of difficulties.
  14. Brendan The Spit
    Brilliant, thanks Wimpus and 'other Brendan'! Like I said, this happened about a mile away from home so I must have been driving for only a few minutes. The temp gauge shot up to full but it does look like I was able to stop the car before anything major happened (fingers crossed). Great advice on taking a load of water with me too. I used to have an old Cavalier that I would regularly fill up with water I carried around, so it'll just be like the good old days...
  15. Brendan The Spit
    Me again. So it looks like I topped up the radiator with about two pints of water. The capacity of the coolant system appears to be around 8 pints so hopefully I haven't diluted it too much, especially if I add some more to the overflow. I'm not prepared to flush out the system until I have plenty of time to do so. Next question: do I need to be careful with whatever coolant I get, or does any old stuff work? One more thing: I notice that the water/coolant in the radiator is a bit brown so I guess I need to get that looked at soon. I'm just going to drive around a lot between now and Sunday then decide what to do.
  16. Brendan The Spit
    OK, thanks for this. I'll see what I can do about getting antifreeze in both radiator and overflow. In the meantime I noticed some water around the radiator which surprised me, I thought it would have evaporated by now so I've put some newspaper under it to see if anything drips. I'm going to drive it quite a bit between now and Saturday to test it. I was really hoping it would all be ok for Sunday when I was planning on a trip through Wales so I'm concerned now that I won't have enough time to make sure everything's ok. Darn it.
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