My Black AVA Turbo (ex-Ron)

Document your Sixer project here.

Moderators: GRNSHRK, ron, bfons

Post Reply
Pod
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4492
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:32 pm
Location: usually in the barn, Kent, England.

My Black AVA Turbo (ex-Ron)

Post by Pod »

I guess I really should continue with the story of this car since I picked it up from Ron back in the Summer...........

Sadly, there has been an ongoing train of problems which have stopped me from using the vehicle to date. I'm getting there (slowly), but as soon as I deal with one hassle, another seems to crop up! I've come to the conclusion that this could have been the reason why it was laid up for many years before Ron acquired it.

So, here is a chronological list of what I has occurred.

Whilst driving home from Ron's, I found that there was a severe wheel wobble at about 70mph. In fact, this proved to be useful as the dash lights were not working and I could pretty accurately gauge my speed by this. Otherwise I could have easily got a speeding ticket on the M25! Fitting another light switch resolved this problem the next day.

I decided to take the car to a fairly local tyre centre for balancing. This entailed a run down the A21 which confirmed that the wobble hadn't gone away........

The first problem was that the wheel centres, holding BMW roundel badges were araldited into the alloys (after-market "Alpina" copies). I had to smash them out before the tyre fitter could get them onto his machine. He ran the first one up and commented that the wheel was well out of balance. He removed the stick on weights and re-balanced it. The other three wheels were the same. I was really pleased that it had been such a simple fix.........

On the way home, the imbalance was far worse than it had been on the journey from Ron's, so I turned around to go back to get them balanced again. A senior fitter took over and re-did the whole job. He checked the tracking which was out, but the sleeves were rusted and he said he didn't wish to maybe break one of them. So it still needs adjusting.

On the second trip home that day, the wobble was a little better, but still far from fixed. As I was driving along at about 50, I absent-mindedly jiggled the cruise control switch to see if it would free off. (It had felt stuck on the drive back from Ron's and hadn't worked). All of a sudden, the car took off like a scalded cat and I was thrown back into the seat. Obviously the CC still retained its previous setting (maybe from many, many years ago!) and had decided to work. It took me a second or two to realise what had happened and regain control. Lucky the road was dry and there was no other traffic immediately in front of me - or maybe it would have been a less pleasant ending!

That evening, I mulled over what had happened, and talked to a few people. Obviously the wheels or tyres were knackered. If it was the tyres, I reasoned that they had obviously been standing for a long time and had hardened and needed replacing. This was an expense I had not envisaged, but had to be borne. I decided to swap a good set from a 628CSi I have been restoring to get the Turbo on the road for the time being. Also to nick the cruise control stalk from that car to replace the "broken" one on the Turbo. I had only sold my complete spare cruise control set-up to "Guido" a couple of weeks before #-o .

The next day I got out the trolley jacks to swap the wheels over. Hang on a minute, the 628 has spigot rings.................I wonder................Anyway, to cut a long story short, I moved the 'rings from the 628 to the Turbo, kept the same wheels on it and went for a drive........................ No wobble. No vibration. De nada. Anybody who says you don't need spigot rings is talking out of their ****!

(as a matter of fact, I had discussed the balancing problems with Ron, one of my friends who is a "properly" trained mechanic, another friend who used to build Hot Rods for 1/4 mile racing and, of course, the three guys at the tyre centre - and it had occurred to none of us that all was needed were four small plastic rings fitted onto the hubs..............)

Anyway, I was going away on holiday a few days later, so the Turbo could wait for a couple of weeks. To be continued.........................
Pod
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4492
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:32 pm
Location: usually in the barn, Kent, England.

Re: My Black AVA Turbo (ex-Ron)

Post by Pod »

Episode 2

After returning from holiday, I was surprised to find that the battery had gone flat. Ron had fitted a new one, so I assumed there was a "vampire" drain somewhere. I removed the -ve battery terminal and found there indeed was a drain indicated on my meter. Went through the fuses and found it to be #21 (interior lights, OBC etc)................or so I thought! Now I knew that there is usually a small drain here, but I did not have the time to go through everything to see what was causing the problem. I knew Ron had already disconnected the boot light, so I disconnected the glove box light and made sure the interior roof lights were switched off (centre position of switch). I left the battery on charge for 24 hours, reconnected it, hey presto! the car started fine. Problem sorted, thought I :D

Three days later, battery flat again (well, showing about 9.6v, but nowhere enough to even spin the motor). Still a vampie drain, but it couldn't have been on the 21 fuse circuit, surely :-k

Anyway, got it recharged again and got out the meter again. With fuse #21 removed, still a drain. Removing all other fuses one at a time made no difference. Eventually, by a process of elimination, I found that if I removed the main relay, the drain disappeared! So it was obviously something on the "permanently live" circuit. I then spent something like two weeks gradually replacing every bloody component I could think of with "known good" items. I had pretty much all of the dash removed (it still is as I write), the car would still start with the MR plugged in, but there was this drain which I could NOT identify. Somehow or other I maintained my composure and didn't attack the car (I kicked a Triumph 2.5PI's front wing in once many years ago :oops: ).

I even replaced the MR with another identical one I had in my spares box, but it made no difference. I had to think my way out of this situation, but WTF more could I do???

Eventually, I decided to get my trusty test meter out again and run similar tests on a 1986 635CSi to see what readings matched/were similar. There was a tiny drain on fuse #21, but that was it. I was thinking of installing every component from the Turbo into the "ordinary" car, when, for some reason, I chose to swap its MR into the Turbo. No drain, nothing :shock:

It couldn't be the MR as I'd already swapped it for a good one, hadn't I? I looked at the terminal numbers cast into the bases of the two MRs. They were different! I checked a wiring schematic. The Turbo's MR was different. Some ****ing idiot had fitted an incorrect relay, maybe 10 or 15 years ago and nobody had realised it until now. I'm no trained auto electrician, but now realise that the different wiring of the "MR" allowed the car to start and run as normal, but somewhere that current was getting grounded which was draining the battery.

I replaced the now knackered battery, and everything's been fine ever since. Well, fine as far as a battery drain is concerned, but there is more to recount.............but that's in the next episode :wink:
Pod
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4492
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:32 pm
Location: usually in the barn, Kent, England.

Re: My Black AVA Turbo (ex-Ron)

Post by Pod »

Episode 3

Well, its been snowing and I can't get out to work on the cars - so why not update this thread!

A few months have passed and I've done a fair amount of work on the car. In no particular order, I'll outline progress to date.....

The OBC was not working, so I replaced it with a good one. Everything was fine for a few days until the car alarm went off in the middle of the night, so I had to disconnect the battery pronto! Thereafter, every time I reconnected the battery, the alarm went off. I managed to stop this by unplugging the OBC relay box. I've come to the conclusion that the retro-fitted Toad alarm may be the culprit. Since undoing the installation will be a very time-consuming operation, I have decided to replace the alarm module in the (vain?) hope that this may fix the problem. The replacement unit has arrived and I shall be fitting it soon.

I have sorted out the non-working sunroof and reglued the head lining where it was drooping and falling off around the aperture. The two clips which hold the front headliner panel have totally failed. After unsuccessfully attempting to repair them, I have given up and put in a couple of black-headed self tapping screws which do the job well and hardly look out of place at all. At the same time I removed the "A" post trims to enable me to take out the roof aerial. For the time being I have installed a rubber grommet which doesn't look too obvious as it matches the paintwork colour-wise. I'll have to address the hole when I get around to repainting the car.

Whilst I had the panel and trims off, I took the opportunity to install the wiring for a dash camera which should unobtrusively sit in front of the rear view mirror.

I had been concerned by what appeared to be a vacuum pipe hanging down above the passenger's kick panel. Upon further examination I deduced that it had been connected to a box which I believe is part of the electrical system for the turbo set-up (if its not that, then I have absolutely no idea what it is!). Anyway, I could see that a right-angled rubber connector had split in two, each half being connected to the "box" and the end of the vacuum pipe. I hunted through ebay for a suitable replacement, which came in the form of an elbow connector for the vacuum advance/retard of a Mini distributor. I have now fitted it and am looking forward to seeing what difference it makes (if any) on a road test.

I have rebuilt the water heater valve which has resulted in a great blast of hot air from the heater. I still have to deal with the fan control transistor which is currently broken - the blower only works on full power.

The day before yesterday I treated the car to a good wash and polish (at least the polish didn't dry too quickly and it was easy to get it off). I also "Gummi Pflegg-ed" the window rubbers, but I'm not sure if the side window whiskers are beyond saving :-k

I was also very pleased to find that the battery had held its charge, some eight weeks since I had fitted it, with the car not being run in the interim. The engine started on the button which was gratifying. The vampire drain is well and truly sorted!!!
ron
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: Sat Jul 10, 2004 11:35 am
Location: South Wales U.K.

Re: My Black AVA Turbo (ex-Ron)

Post by ron »

Found this magazine on E-bay last week. It could well be the same car.

Image[/UR

[URL=http://s141.photobucket.com/user/ron635 ... a.jpg.html]Image


Image
They are ALWAYS rustier than you thought!!!!!!
'85 M #228
'87 M #367
'88 High line.
'10 X5
‘84 Alfasud 1.5 ti
wattsmonkey
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 1649
Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:58 pm
Location: Cheltenham, U.K.

Re: My Black AVA Turbo (ex-Ron)

Post by wattsmonkey »

Great article Ron,

I love the AVA badge on this!

Rob
"Most of it necessary; all of it enjoyable." LJKS
'84 635CSi, dogleg...itbs and supercharger????? Eaton Mess
guido
Posts: 301
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2015 4:49 am
Location: UK

Re: My Black AVA Turbo (ex-Ron)

Post by guido »

Pod wrote:Also to nick the cruise control stalk from that car to replace the "broken" one on the Turbo. I had only sold my complete spare cruise control set-up to "Guido" a couple of weeks before #-o .
:oops: sorry Pod
Pod
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4492
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:32 pm
Location: usually in the barn, Kent, England.

Re: My Black AVA Turbo (ex-Ron)

Post by Pod »

guido wrote:
Pod wrote:Also to nick the cruise control stalk from that car to replace the "broken" one on the Turbo. I had only sold my complete spare cruise control set-up to "Guido" a couple of weeks before #-o .
:oops: sorry Pod
No worries, I'm happy to have been able to help with the missing components - its all part of being a classic car owner :D . Its far worse when you weigh in an engine only to have someone want to buy it very soon afterwards :wink:
Pod
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4492
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:32 pm
Location: usually in the barn, Kent, England.

Re: My Black AVA Turbo (ex-Ron)

Post by Pod »

Episode 4

Since the weather is getting better now, I recently got back to fettling the car. Having re-connected the battery, I was absolutely amazed that the engine started on the button. It was nearly four months since it last ran, six months since the battery was installed. So its held charge over the entire winter. Result!

I've been on a major learning curve with respect to turbo-charged engines. I've owned a couple before (Carlos Sainz limited edition Toyota GT-Four Celica & Colt Starion), but never had to do any work on them. Now, all that's changed. I'm attempting to put the car back into its original configuration. There are still some parts which I cannot identify and one particular vacuum line which appears to go nowhere - but I'm getting there slowly. Ron kindly provided me with the contact details of AVA, which is still in business (just) with only the owner, Alan, and his partner now actually working on cars. I have had a couple of long telephone conversations with him which has been very enlightening. I now know much more about the car - and also the White Turbo, but that's for another thread, another day :wink:.

So, as to tasks completed......I have replaced the distributor cap and rotor arm. If you think that's a difficult job on an "ordinary" E24, just try doing it on this one! The turbo is placed to ensure access is very nearly impossible and the viscous fan cannot be removed due to its proximity to the rad. Next time, I'll be removing the radiator etc etc. as I'm sure it'll be easier, although on the face of it, a much longer operation!

Valve clearances checked and adjusted where necessary. Banjo bolts tightened. Throttle body removed and thoroughly cleaned. Inlet tract between TB and AFM replaced and lengthened. Ignition wiring tube replaced and relocated further away from the turbocharger (the existing one had started to melt!). Vacuum lines and breather tubes re-routed as necessary.

The next job is to cut out holes in the bonnet and fit some louvres to improve cooling. Watch this space..............
User avatar
MrE
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 1794
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:37 pm
Location: Capital City, Australia

Re: My Black AVA Turbo (ex-Ron)

Post by MrE »

Wow. Great project Pod. Impressive the amount of engineering and problem solving this car is putting you through, but that troublefree engine start must have been an encouraging moment!

And awesome that you found that magazine article. Pretty cool that its also got the GT-Four article in it for you too!

-Ellis
Image
Post Reply