[Jeroen]

So last night after work, another quick dash to my garage to see if I could finish the replacement of the Coolant Pump.

I managed to pick up the Grommets.



The grommets are the rubbery bits. Each has a steel bush. The grommet fits into the base plate of the pump.

This is what it is supposed to look like:



When I tried to mount the pump the other day, the steel bush had dropped out. I did not notice and when tightening the bolts, the bolt instead of hitting the rim of the steel bush just pressed on the grommet.

First you need to get the grommet in the base plate, no small feat!





These grommets are quite sturdy and difficult to compress. So I boil some water, put it in a cup and put the grommet in! Becomes very flexible, but you do need to work quickly as it will cool down in no time



Here you see the new grommet fitted and the steel bush is half inserted



With the new grommet in place and the steel bushes and continuously checking that everything stayed in place I managed to mount the pump back into its position against the chassis.

Next, putting the power supply wire back on. Seems easy enough, but I had to get underneath the car. The wire clips to a connector that is deep, deep underneath a part of the chassis. So up on the jack goes the Jaguar.



This image is taken from underneath the car shooting upward. You can just about see two connectors, a white one and a black one. The black one is the power supply to the pump. It had to be attached to a small clip that holds both connectors in place and was almost impossible to get to.



Managed to get both connectors in place and attached. Next the fan and the shroud go back in. It took me a long time. Very often something that is seemingly simple and straightforward isn’t. This thing is held in place by two bolts at the top and slots into two groves in the bottom. For some reason it would not fit properly and I had to cut some rubbers to make it fit. Again, had to get underneath the Jaguar, this time on the other side.



Last thing was to purge the whole coolant system. That is where I needed the 19mm Allen key for.



The official Jaguar purge procedure was very confusing and did not make much sense. But only a tiny bit of coolant was lost when I replaced the pump. Replenished it.

Put the ignition on, but don’t start the engine. This keeps the Supercharger Coolant Pump running. Checked the level in the header tank and purge point. Everything was fine, pump was running beautifully with no noises at all!

Drove the car, put the heater on full to make sure air gets displaced everywhere. All is well!

I did open up the old pump. Not much to see, it’s a fully sealed motor on top of the actual pump with a magnetic coupling. I could feel that the bearing(s) of the electric motor were completely gone. Hence the noise.





So the original Jaguar pump comes from Hella. What is interesting that the Hella pump retails for around $125, similar to the Bosch. But if you order you (Hella) pump through Jaguar or Barrrat SNG they charge you about $450!! I’m in the wrong business!

Anyway, the Jaguar is fully operational once again!!

Jeroen

[shibujp]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

So last night after work, another quick dash to my garage to see if I could finish the replacement of the Coolant Pump.

First you need to get the grommet in the base plate, no small feat!

These grommets are quite sturdy and difficult to compress. So I boil some water, put it in a cup and put the grommet in! Becomes very flexible, but you do need to work quickly as it will cool down in no time
Anyway, the Jaguar is fully operational once again!!

Jeroen

Thanks for the writeup and a few helpful tips on the way that help out on DIY jobs. Especially that piece on getting the grommets in.

About the margin on spares it does not surprise me. A study in India on the price markup on spares by auto companies and found that it ranged from a couple of hundred to a thousand percent.

Drive on,
Shibu

[Jeroen]

This morning I took the Spider for a blast. Only had it out once this year, for a short drive. One of the things I absolutely love about our new home is the location. At our old home I might have to drive at least an hour to get to some nice interesting roads and scenery. Our new home is right smack on the dike of one of the prettiest rivers in the Netherlands. Some of the other main rivers of the Netherlands are nearby and I can get there on little rural roads only.

So I took the Spider to the river Waal, one of the busiest rivers in the Western Europe. I sett off at about 0700 on a Sunday morning. Glorious day, no traffic on the roads, lots of river barges on the river! Drove all the way to Nijmegen, stopped for coffee and drove back home on the other bank. Almost three and half hours touring.

I wanted to check out the Spider as we are leaving for a trip to France in less then a fortnight so it needs to be in perfect running order. Once thing I noticed is the brakes. I heard a bit of brake noise. Sounded as if one of the brakes was a bit sticky. When I pulled over and felt all four wheels the left front one was noticeable warmer, so something was definitely not in order.

So back home, I immediately broke out my tools and tore into the brake system of the Spider. Remember this car has been sitting idle for well over three months!

So up on the jack/axle stand. Got my pneumatic tools out.



Wheel off, pins out, time to get the pads out. Now there are all sorts of tools out there to help you push back the pads/piston. I have yet to come across a calliper where a big adjustable plier doesn’t get the job done! Especially on these sort of very simple brakes



Next to try and get the piston out as much as you can, but making sure they don’t pop out all the way. So stick something in considerable less thick as the brake pad.



Sprayed the whole assembly with Brake cleaner. Cleaned it. Rotated the pistons a bit for good measure. Time to push them back in. I use a hammer!



Pads back in (put some copper slip on the sides), Wheel back on, and tighten the wheel nuts with a proper torque wrench to appropriate value!



Test drive! No more sounds, no more heat building up!

Now this was just a bit of a sticky brake. Just cleaning and fiddling with the piston usually does the trick. If not the whole damn thing has to come off. Which means disconnecting the hydraulic line and ultimately having to purge the system.

I also received my new Mercedes part to replace the damaged chrome/rubber strip I tried to fix earlier. I just did not like the way it looked so I got a new part



Here my usual routine checking the old and the new part next to one another. I had to line up these little nylon bits that hold the strip in place.



Carefully put the new strip on the boot. Tightened up the various bolts and voila!
Looks absolutely straight again!



The dent in the bumper becomes much more noticeable now!



So I took off the rear bumper. Must have been the easiest job ever. Two bolts and that’s it! And they were very loose to start with!



Here you can see the back of my W123 and that is one of the two bolts that holds the bumper in place.



After some very careful hammering I am very pleased with the end result. The dent is just about completely gone!!



I noticed a few rusty bits, so I’m taking care of those before refitting the bumper.

All in all, two simple jobs on one Sunday late afternoon!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Finalised the bumper. I'm pretty pleased with the end result. Almost as good as new!

[Jeroen]

More work on the W123. This is of course what happens when you are busy with your car doing odd jobs. You spot the next odd job. I spotted a bit of rust just above the rubber gaskets that are mounted on the door sills against the chassis.

I have already taken the right side off, but here is what it looks like on the left side:

The door itself has a rubber gasket at the bottom and it seals against the rubber on the chassis/door sill





I knew that these rubber gaskets were not in a particular good state. They were perishing, but that occurred from the underneath. So unless you know where to look, it really did not show. With the doors closed they are more or less completely hidden anyway.

But rust is always something that gets my immediate attention. Especially on these W123 rust is a big problem. My car has been rust proofed many years ago and that has kept rust more or less away. But I have had the occasional rust here and there. Whenever I see it, I immediately take care of it as it spreads very quickly.

Here is the right hand side sill with the rubber gasket removed. You can see the rust. Actually with the rubber gasket removed it is not to bad. I need to take the fastener out and check, but it looks (hopefully) just a bit of surface rust.



Here you see a larger part of the rear door entry. You can see most fastener are still in the chassis, which is good. A couple of them broke.



Here is the rubber on my workbench and you can see, that irrespective of the problem with the rust, this rubber gasketwas not in a good state. But as I said. This side was facing towards the ground, so visually not a problem





Here one of the broken fasteners still attached to the rail that holds the rubber gasket. In all three of the ten fasteners broke off.



The rubber gasket itself is not manufactured by Mercedes anymore. Luckily I find somebody in Germany via Ebay who had a complete set for sale. It is just the rubber part. So I need to strip the old rubber of the steel frame and glue the new rubber back on. I’m also waiting for a guy to call me back on the fasteners. I think I might have found 9 of them, which should be enough I hope.

Whilst I wait for the parts to arrive I will start cleaning the sill and inspect that rust. If not to bad I just grind it down, primer and I will get a spray can of the appropriate colour. I have already found a paint shop nearby who can make any colour paint. You either provide them with the manufacturer paint code, or bring a part and they will measure the colour.

I have also been tidying up the engine bay a bit. It will never be concour state, but I enjoy these jobs.





Not sure how much work I will get done. On Thursday evening I will be prepping the Spider for a four day drive into France. Four couples, four Spiders visiting a fifth couple who also own an Alfa Spider and run a very nice rural Bed & Breakfast in France.

The route has been planned. We will meet along the motorway about one and a half hour driving from where we live. From there it is about 340 km driving to the B&B.



All of us have been to see our friends in France multiple times. Every year we try to take a slightly different route. This year’s route looks very nice with lots of rural/provincial roads once we are well into Belgium.

We will stop on the way for the occasional leg stretcher, coffee, lunch, snacks or for whatever other reason. No hurry. All of our friends have been long standing members of the Dutch Alfa Romeo Spider Register and all of us have served on the board and various committees for many years. But now and then we just like to organise our own little mini evenent, rather than having 30-40 Spiders around.

So, my wife and me are looking forward to our little four day trip!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Ready for our trip to France! Car is washed, waxed, fixed, checked. It looks like the weather is going to be gorgeous. Half the boot full with tools and parts, 1/4 boot for my photography kit and the rest for our clothes and stuff

f

[Jeroen]

Houston we have a problem! We all met at a petrol station close to the Belgium border. Bianca's beautiful Cods Tronca had a problem. No 3rd or 4th gear! The gearbox has just been overhauled. She test drove it earlier this week with no problems. Nothing we can do. Off it goes on the flat bed. We never leave anybody behind. So the luggage has been redistributed on three of the other Spiders. The fourth Spider is driving home as the owner also has a modern Spider 916. So within a few hours we will still be heading south in four Spiders!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Last stop before our destination. Gorgeous weather, great driving!



Made it. All Spider lined up. Ready for some relaxation, food and beverages!



Two days of Brocante markets if the ladies are to believed!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

We arrived back home on Monday evening. Great driving all over France. I’m trying to put some YouTubes together.



When we arrived home several packages had arrived. All for the Mercedes, new Clips and the rubber seal.











I have also managed to get the right paint, so I have everything ready to fix this problem on the Mercedes in the weeks to come. Just need to check for glue. The old rubber is glued to a metal strip, I have to take it off and glue the new rubber seal back on.



Also, found some very cheap tools at one of the Brocante Markets. Two plastic pliers and one small scissor.

[Jeroen]

The Spider was due for its bi-annual MOT or APK as it is called in Dutch. Since our move I live really to far from my old trusted mechanic Rolf. Luckily several specialised Alfa Workshops within a 20 minute drive. Very pleasant rural drive including a river crossing on a little ferry





My new Alfa mechanic did not disappoint. Nice workshop and he also deals in parts.





The Dutch MOT is a serious affair where they check the safety and emission compliance. Here my Spider on the brake test bench. They have a remote to operate it whilst sitting in the car. Read out on a big display up in the workshop







Up on the lift, checking suspension and steering for play





We did find a problem with some of the bushes of the steering arm. Not an immediate problem, but I want them replaced prior to my next big drive.

Also there is oil leaking out the rear end main seal. That is an gearbox out repair. I will get Goof, my new mechanic to do both jobs. They require the car to be on a lift and require a very special tool to undo the front coils to get at the bushings that need replacing.

Finally the emission test. Excellent result for a 32 year old car.



I also bought an air inlet filter, oil filter, spark plugs and a fuel filter. I will be doing a regular service in a few weeks as well.

Attachment 1759401

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

I will need to respray some small parts of the door sill on the Mercedes. So I had to found myself a proper car paint supply shop that could match the colour. Found a nice shop not too far from my office. Family owned and operated. Initially I went there knowing the colour code of my Mercedes, 881 thistle Green.



But when they checked their computers it appeared there are three variants. So they advised me to bring the car, or a part of the car so they can measure the colour. So I took the fuel lid with me.



They measure it and then the computer figures out what exact colour it is. The big grey box just under the key board is the sensor.



According to the computer the nearest match was a Nissan colour. I will not have a Nissan colour on my Mercedes I will have you know! So we decided on n original Mercedes colour which is close enough.

Takes mixing 9 different colours in precise quantities, that get measured by weight on a digital scale



Here you see this huge storage rack for all the different colours needed for mixing. The paint is kept in special sealed containers and when in the storage rack gets stirred automatically.





Finally with the help of a special machine the mixed paint gets inserted into a spray can and pressurised.



I also needed a bit of red paint for a few touch ups on the Spider. The Spider had a complete respray when I bought it some 20 years ago. Real professional outfit as they had left a sticker with the correct Alfa paint codes on the inside of the boot lid.



This is just for some small chips on the paint. So I don't need a spray can, just a small quantity touch up paint. Comes supplied in these nifty little tubes, with a steel ball inside to stir the paint. Just more measuring and mixing. To get to Alfa red takes 8 different colours of paint! Here the lady is hammering the top into the tube!



Attachment 1759413

[Jeroen]

Today was a bit of a rainy Sunday. So a perfect day to work on my cars, the Mercedes W123 in particular.

As shown in the previous posts, I had taken the little fuel lid of the car to take with me to the paint shop. When I got back I had a good look at it all and decided all the bits needed a proper cleaning and polish. I must admit, not very often I polish behind the fuel lid or polish the fuel cap. Still, I must admit I do like the end result!





Time to clean and polish:





When everything is clean and shiny, time to re-install the fuel lid. Bit of a fiddle to ensure it looks properly alined.



Next, to get the old rubber of the rubber strip. Which means a stanley knife and a lot of elbow grease!







Second phase of the rubber stripping. With my pneumatic tool and an abrasive bit.



Safety first of course!



After about an hours work, the metal strip looked like this:





Got myself some special glue that will glue rubber to metal. Also, this is Gel type glue, which I like which makes it a little easier to handle. It took me some hour and a half to glue to rubber seal to the metal strip. Very busy and no time for taking picture. So you have to take my word for it, it was a real PITA.



As I showed before there was a bit of rust. After properly cleaning the sills it appeared as only light surface rust. Still, needs treating. So sanded it down, masked it and sprayed it. Now, let me be honest, I am not particularly good when it comes to paint. The only reason I attempted it here was that it would be more or less completely covered by the new rubber seal, once installed.

With these spray cans, the trick is multiple very thin layers. I usually do three layers, each sprayed within 10-12 minutes of each other.



I also bought clear coat. This goes on 30 minutes after the last paint layer. Again, three layers, 10 minutes apart. Very thin.



The result was actually quite good, so I’m pleased with myself!





Waiting in between spraying the layers gives me time to clean up some of my tools, sweep the floor of the garage, or just listen to the radio. My home WiFi radiates into my garage. So with my iPad and my Bose Speaker I can listen to my favourite radio stations and stream whatever I like. Very relaxing.





After the paint had dried, it was time to re-insert the clips that hold the rubber seal.

Here you see one old one and two new one. The new ones you just push into the hole and then you push in the little pin in the middle. Actually, you need to take a small hammer to these little pins.



Getting the old ones off, is simple too. Some broke, some stuck in the rail and came off with the rail and some stayed attached to the chassis. I just hammered the little pins right through. That means it falls inside the sill. But that sill is full of Dinitrol oil. It won’t go anywhere.





The moment of truth, re-attaching the new rubber seal on the metal strip. I messed up initially and had to undo a couple of the clips. Wouldn’t align properly and I could not get the metal strip to click onto the clips.





Next I opened up the four jacking points. These are notorious rust traps on every W123. When I bought my W123 the car was in very good condition except for the jacking points. I had them cut out and new ones welded in place. There is an endless debate about whether you should leave the jacking points open or put these plastic caps on as I have. I’m not sure what is best. The rear ones seem quite ok, but I have quite a bit of rust on the front ones. So 50/50 chance I’d say!
But I like the look of the caps on the sills.

So grind down the rust:



Blow out the rust:



A lot of Tectyl:



I used some other rust proofing stuff underneath as well. Hopefully that will keep the rust to a minimum for the next couple of years at least.

Started on the rubber seal on the driver side too. Took it off, stripped off the rubber from the metal strip and did the respray thing:





I need to order some more of the clips. I should have ordered extra of course, but I ordered only twenty. As I buggered several of them on my first attempt, now I’m stuck. Still have to glue to the new rubber on the metal strip as well.

In three weeks time I have a long drive ahead of me. All the way to Bremen in Germany to participate in a Guinness World Record attempt to put the most W123s on the road. Obviously, I want my W123 to look as good as possible.

More to come

Jeroen

[Leoshashi]

Great work, loved reading every single post.

I had a query since many days. What can be done to rectify the doorcards which are made of plywood type material and aren't plastic moulded??

Eventually they start loosing shape and start bending/warping. Any fix for them??

Attaching link to an image of the doorcard(not directly uploading the file here as I don't wish to spoil such a nice thread with sad looking doorcards ) : http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kci6VGghlp...or-repair2.jpg

Regards,
Shashi

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

What can be done to rectify the doorcards which are made of plywood type material and aren't plastic moulded??

Eventually they start loosing shape and start bending/warping. Any fix for them??

As per your link you can try to glue something against the back of it, be it wood or some simple polyester. Other than that, just replacing them is a good option. On most cars, door cards are not that expensive and it makes a big difference in appearances.

On a different note; I read a little tip the other day in one of my Dutch Classic Car magazines. I thought it was a great idea, so I made one up for one of other jobs I will need to do soon on both the Spider and the W123.

Can anybody take a guess what this is and what it is for?



Jeroen

[Jeroen]

This thread is not just about working on my cars, it is about fiddling with my cars. Which means everything associated with my cars, fixing them, visiting car events, etc. and of course driving them. If I do big tours I am likely to post it as a separate thread, but short drives/tours I often mention here.

About two weeks ago we spend four days in France with several other couples, all driving Alfa Romeo Spiders. We have known each other for many years and all of us at some point in time have been very active in our club, the Dutch Alfa Romeo Spider Club. We have all been board members, or members of various committees. (E.g. Technical committee, event/tour committee). These days none of us do much with the Spider Register, but we still like to take a yearly tour together.

As you saw in an earlier post we were off to a poor start. On day one, we were all supposed to meet at a Petrol Station near Maastricht, close to the Belgium border. From there we would drive to our Spider friends who own and run a Bed & Breakfast in France, near Nancy/Metz.

One of the Spiders developed a problem with the gear box on the way to the meeting point. This is a beautiful Coda Tronca Spider, pride and joy of Bianca. She just had the gearbox overhauled as it was having some problems with the synchromesh of the second gear. This is a known problem that older Spider may suffer from. So she had it fixed and picked up her Spider a few days earlier. Everything worked fine. However, that day when she was driving on the motorway she all of a sudden could not switch into 3rd or 4th gear! Going into France with only 1st, 2nd, 5th and reverse is really not a good idea.

Nothing we could do. On the Spider there is no linkage between the gear stick and the gear box. The gear stick in your hand goes straight into the gearbox, no linkage, no cables. So I was pretty sure it was something inside the gear box.

We called the workshop that had done the overhaul. They confirmed they had replace the synchromesh ring and some bearings. Which meant they had to take the whole gearbox apart. Something must have gone wrong. This is a very reputable workshop, but these things sometimes happen.

Luckily, Niek who owns and drives the metallic blue Serie III Spider also has a Spider 916. So he and Bianca’s husband set off to get it, whilst the rest of us were waiting for the recovery truck to come and pick up Bianca's Spider.

We finally set off after a four hour delay, waiting at the Petrol Station for Niek and Alex to return with both Spiders. We have a rule and that is we never leave anybody behind. We fix it on the spot, or find alternative solutions, but we stay together, help out together.

Other than this mishap we had a great time. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and this is a very pretty part of France. My wife used my iPhone to take some video’s of our driving. I have been battling it out with iMovie to try and edit it into one movie. Done it many times before, but something is going wrong when I upload it to YouTube. In the end I decided to upload the four individual video’s directly from my iPhone to YouTube so I can at least share.

I hope it gives a bit of an impression on how it is to drive these old cars on rural French road, so here goes:

Out in the open, lots and I mean lots of this yellow stuff about:

The maximum speed on all these rural roads is 90 km/h. Although it might look we are driving very fast, we rarely get up to 90 km/h. We always slow down when we get to the villages. There might be different speed limits, 30/45/50 km/h.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97V84wWp8Jg

Whilst on a drive we encountered a French Classic Car club coming from the other directions. Unfortunately we missed nearly all cars. Which is a real shame, they had some 7-8 Renaults Alpines in their convoy. Rare to see one, I have never seen so many together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d7AN12gUHk

A few hairpins, listen to the engine noise! On these sort of roads I keep the revs between 3500 - 5000 RPM be it in 2nd or 3rd gear.
We also hit the ground going through a pothole. You can hear the noise and my wife commenting in a not too lady like fashion. Happens now and then (hitting the ground). All our Spiders are equipped with sump guards for this specific purpose. Many years ago on a tour in Italy, another member with a beautiful Duetto hit the curb doing no more than 2/3 km/h. He did not have a sump guard fitted. Broke the sump and 7.5L of hot oil poured into the Italian streets. We managed to find an Alfa Romeo Workshop, towed the Spider there and had it replaced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGRF39-13qI

Some more rural roads and roaring Spiders. By and large the roads in France, even the rural ones, are pretty well maintained. Nearly all tarmac. Makes for very enjoyable driving. You will also have noticed there is very little traffic on the road. In these parts of France, no matter what day of the week, or time of the day there never is!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLdGXjvg-nU&t=38s

Enjoy, Jeroen