The Vusky. Clutch , Bumped up the buttock

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

The arches

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

All going in

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Time wise it took nearly 2 years to find the blue carpet in the thin flexi stuff

What is "thin flexi type" carpet?

From the the pics, it looks like it might be like fibre bond carpet?

Not overly sure what it is TBH , It feels like felt on the back and you can almost tie it in a knot its that bendy .

[ImpManiac]

The Vusky looks wonderful, Dave, as always.

IM

[Teddie2003]

Very nice Dave, that all looks great.

Is that available in other colours?

Cheers
Col

Id only seen it in black until i spotted the this blue at the car show this weekend so id say different colours are hard to find

Hi Dave,

what thickness is the carpet as pretty sure that's what I'd call f/bond carpet and depending on manufacturer there are various thicknesses available and most of them do a reasonable range of colours.

The H/D stuff is usually used for office corridors is up to 6mm thick and either 2 or sometimes 4m wide, but that's not that as flexible as your pic and there used to be some thinner versions as well, so I might be able to find out if there are any other colours out there.

Steve

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

[

what thickness is the carpet as pretty sure that's what I'd call f/bond carpet and depending on manufacturer there are various thicknesses available and most of them do a reasonable range of colours.

3mm at most , 1mm of what looks like felt for the back and 2mm of carpet , not plush but real easy to use as it doent fray at all , tough and easy to vacuum.
Early factory carpets are made exactly how ive redone this . ie the thick backing with thin carpet stuck to it , it just peels / rips off the backing so you can re-carpet it.
I didnt have the arch backing with this set so made my own using some proper 60s soundproofing stuff

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

As I had some offcuts of soundproofing and carpet left over ive done the upright under the seat which on a van normally has nothing.
Came out really nice and looks good , daft when you cant really see it , might make it 1/2 a decibel quieter though

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Final piece of the Vuskys carpet done.
Having finally tracked down the rivets Rootes used Ive refitted the original rear seat leg pads although ive put them where my seats touch not the original position as my seats are different

[Lotus-e-Clan]

Great attention to detail as ever.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Well after 12 years of continual use the throttle spindles on the Vuskys twin SUs are showing distinct signs of wear .
Its still running fine , in fact its running great but tickover is very slightly erratic and having just checked the carbs over theres a lot of wear in both spindles .
So ive ordered a rebuild kit and will do this next week or so before they get any worst and upset the running .
Pleased with 12 years use though i must say , il do a few pics when im doing the job if anyones interested

[The Nun]

Do the spindles run in replaceable bushes in the carb body on SUs? Or will you sleeve them if needed yourself?

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Removed and partially stripped the Vuskys twin SUs this morning to see just how worn they are and wether or not the body needs line boring and bushing .
TBH I dont think they will going by what the Singers was like and that not needing it but I wont know for certain until the new spindles arrive .
Still for 12 years use its actually all rather good

[yoeddynz]

The later type SU HIF carb I had fitted to the turbo on my rotary engined Viva had little lip seals. It was the same carb as used in the metro turbos. They ran a blow through turbo setup so for my application the seals are turned around. What was neat is that the spindles can be a bit worn but no air can get sucked through at idle. I wonder if there was a possibility that you could put a recess into earlier SU carb bodies to accept such seals?

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Bits arrived , no wear in the bodies at all and new spindles feel smooth with no play . not fitted back on yet though , i used loctite 248 on the throttle valve screws but im not sure if its fuel proof , its blue so will come apart again using hand tools plus the screws are split so do bend to prevent them coming out.

[617sqn]

£7.50 is a bit expensive for four drops ! I had my carbs originally rebuilt by a well known professional company when I first got them. They hadn't used either method to secure the carb screws. Rough running after a few weeks revealed that one screw had vanished. Fortunately, no obvious damage occurred - lucky I guess

Andy G

[The Nun]

I had a screw loose and got sucked into the engine , when it happened, at idle actually, a tapping sound sudden began, it sounds what I thought might have been a cracked tappet, but removing the cover found it wasnt that and turning the engine by hand I noticed at TDC it felt like a small stiff point before it went over, I then removed the head and found the throttle disc screw embedded in the top of one piston and that protruded enough to hit the head when you turned it over. Had I been going fast enough the screw might have gone right through and out the exhaust or thumped itself further into the piston so you didnt know, since then Ive always checked the screw thread is staked so theres no chance of them coming out on their own. Like Andy says I checked a pair of pro built carbs and they didnt appear to have anything holding the screws secure other than tightness?

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Starts instantly hot or cold , pulls much better and revs like a mad thing , probably some fine tuning to do when they settle in but its all looking promising
Almost clean underneath but probably not for long

[Lotus-e-Clan]

Fantastic Job Dave.

A proper 'history car'.

Weird seeing Lars' comments mind, such a GOOD bloke, some of us (like me) can only walk in his shadow (as a good human being). I miss his input.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Its real sad Lars passed , he used to email me once a month or so for advise or a chat

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Sorted the reversing light issue on the Vusky whereby it sometimes came on in second .
Adjustment error is almost non existent , talk about a fine line between working / not working / working in second and reverse or just reverse . what a faff about - and thats with a perfect lever ball and perfect stainless selector shaft

[The Nun]

Andy Gill I believe does his with a proximity switch inside the car detecting the base of the lever, a better solution maybe, especially for setting and access?

[Lotus-e-Clan]

The Clan has a purpose-made lever clamped to the selector rod toward the transaxle end (flexi-end)

There is a micro switch bolted to the central tunnel next to the lever on the selector rod.

You could easily use a random DIY lever clamped to the selector rod by a jubilee clip to operate the micro switch.

Dead easy to set-up and adjust to trigger reverse gear only. Micro switch just sinks the negative side of the circuit to ground... so no live stuff in the tunnel -unless in reverse!

[617sqn]

Mine is done with a magnetic proximity (Reed, I reckon) switch, as said all run inside the car and operating a relay, although they are small LEDs anyway.

Andy G

[RoyBlunt]

Way back in the early 70's I fitted a reversing light switch to Suzy using a roller microswitch (fixed to the inside of the 'gear change tunnel' using an aluminium bracket) acting on a small strip of aluminium epoxied onto the gear change control rod (i.e. the long rod between the gear change lever and the flexible coupling to the transaxle). It's still working today - 1 transaxle and something like 100,000 miles later. Nice, easy, and worthwhile mod in my opinion. Mind you - fitting an automatic reversing light switch does mean that you can't give tail gaiters the fright of their lives by flicking the reversing lights on - not, of course, that I would ever have done anything like that!
Roy

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Fitted the Mike Dent ( AKA Moose ) ignition system on here as I did on the Singer . Only had to change one wire and that was the white / purple fuel pump supply , it reached but was a little tight for my liking so replaced all of it . rest have been clipped into place . I was going to loom tape some of it but dont see the point .
Now to fine tune the ignition system and then the rebuilt carbs over a few trips out

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Testing testing -
As the carbs were overhauled and the New ignition system ala Moose were all done within 2 weeks its now time to get it set up perfectly . first off loads of short stop start runs ( mostly doing shopping ) Behaved perfectly doing this , tickover smooth and even , pulls away clean etc etc = Pass .
Then a few blasts on main roads .
Certainly has better acceleration in 1st to 3rd and its also very good at low revs in second and third , will pull clean in second from almost stationary .
Top end hasnt changed at all so its no quicker however its a much more relaxed and easy drive , smooth and generally a nicer place to be .
starting is instant no matter what the situation .
Malcolm Andersons box is feckin superb now its bedded in and the box is as it was in 91 when fitted - ie. the best ive ever known plus the clutch from Moose is also smooth and judder free .
So thanks to The Moose , Malcolm Anderson and of course ME for sorting this thing out

[617sqn]

Took an image or two of my reversing light switch arrangement. The switch proper is mounted on an aluminium bracket using pop-rivets, and made from a short length of angle. The magnet is adhered to the gearstick with JB-weld or similar while positioned with a small pop-rivet. It is set up to allow for the rubber cover over the ball to pass between magnet and switch. Has worked unfailingly for many a year. The actual illumination is provided by 4 bright LEDs spaced around Stan's square rear numberplate.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Took an image or two of my reversing light switch arrangement.

Certainly easier to sort than my factory one

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

72 miles hard driving done yesterday , mixture is bang on with the rebuilt carbs and the moose ignition system is bang on as it is in the Singer

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Well after a few months break i though id give the forum another go.
Vuskys been worked on a fair bit mainly to get the throttle response the same as the Singers ie. sharper and quicker as having got the Singers how i like it the Vuskys seemed a tad slow even though it felt fine before i did said Singers - weird how something is fine until you make it even better ,
I altered the Solex quadrant this set up uses and made it 6mm shorter at the ball end . This seemed the easiest way to do this although i could of altered the linkage bar length in just the same way .I also altered the return springs so the pedals softer - again just as the Singers is .
Its now so much better . Its strange how just 6mm in length makes so much difference

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Just a short update on this .
Well a few weeks has passed since i did the throttle response and spring alteration and after a few hundred miles i can say it feels so much better in every respect , really light but also very responsive . Engines pulling superbly and the clutch and box also feel great .
Only done one show this year in it thus far and that was last weekend at Shepton Mallet . Needs a polish and a wash but that can wait for a bit as ive house repairs to do first

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Interesting to read on tweaks to fine-tune the driveability.

Thanks
In other news after much ado I managed to change the corroded and wobbly lidded lock cover badge with the better non corroded non wobbly lidded one I took off the Singer last week ( having picked up the mint NOS one for the Singer at Shepton - see nods news )

Obviously the Chammy badge had to come out which wasnt too bad , Removing my home made Commer one required destroying the old lid as I remember using some seriously strong glue at the time . Anyway eventually I got it sorted

[johnh875]

Yes there is something to be said about not attaching things too well... My uncle used to street-park his BMW in inner Melbourne and occasionally had the bonnet badge stolen. When asking if it could be attached more firmly to avoid that, the parts department said yes, but then instead of a $50 badge it will cost $500 to respray the bonnet when they damage it trying to get the badge off!

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Seeing as i was given the CO meter a few weeks back and tooned up the Singer with it with great success i thought id check the Vuskys today . a bit rich at 5% on tickover so I lowered it a tad , its now set at 4% ( 4.4% on this meter ) , balance was spot on as was the plug colours . Advanced the timing a tad as well.

Its all good

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Sorted out the radio wiring on this at long last

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Fitted a red LED floor light in here like i did on the Singer - only one though as vans are supposed to be poverty spec

[617sqn]

Those seats don't look poverty spec !

You want to be careful driving about with a red light in the Vusky. Somebody might think you're touting for "business".

Andy G

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Well ive not posted much as theres nothing really to report .
Basically ive just been using it , no ripping it to bits , no fixing stuff ( nout to fix ) , no altering stuff .
Just using it and having fun doing so.
End of update - back if theres anything worth posting

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

UMM - Lookin a tad suspect , so out wiv the grinder and welder it is then.

Welders no happy after years of inactivity but it got there in the end

Not as bad as it could of been and at least its solid again , i was tempted to just fill it with filler but just couldnt bring myself to bodge the job

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

The heap gets a bit more attention .

Bit of surface rust on the front half of the N/S Sill so ive sanded it all right back and etch primed it .

Whats baffling is that its an original factory fitted sill , never been welded or patched up , give the state of the rest of it im a tad stunned if im honest

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

bother

[617sqn]

Ah. Welder out then, Dave ?

Andy G

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Welding done on the heap , camera went flat so sadly no pics of the process .

Also pressure washed decades of crap off the rear trailing arms and inner arches , this blew a brake pipe retaining clip to bits so i replaced these with 3/16 plastic P clips .

Inner arch has been stone chipped to death so for now ive just brushed waxoil all over it until i can do the job properly

[617sqn]

Well done. All tidied up and Bristol fashion. Looks good, mate. 400,000 miles ? Really ? Blige... Well I reckon if that is so, it's doing pretty well on it.

Andy G

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Passenger sill painted as well - finally

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

No way is it getting a full respray / restoration , i love its usability , its no show car and never will be - as LeC said keep it real

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Sense of humour required in these trying times so i figured on some silliness

[bazzateer]

Noice!

[The Nun]

What's the drip tray for?

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

I mentioned a while back that Wingard did a dipping mirror for a Scimitar in black and also in grey for Lotus Cortinas .

Anyway I got my grubbies on one and guess what---

Fits straight on the Imps mirror stem , its bigger , its dipping - whats not to like ( Monkey not included )