Robsey's Thread of Random Ramblings.

[Robsey]

On a similar vein to James' Megathread...
I thought that I should probably do a separate thread, rather than plastering my obscurities all over other peoples' threads.

I can go way off on a tangent when my head goes off on one.
(My brain constantly jumps between "senile old git" and "mad professor" - usually the former ).

So with all that said...

At the moment, the Cavalier is still wallowing in self pity, behind my house.
It hasn't moved since mid-March (2020).
Not due to lock down / covid, but simply to keep down running costs.

In all honesty, I have worked through the whole spring and summer, and the missus is disabled, so I cannot blame Covid for my limited funds. There are tens of thousands of people who have not been so lucky.

In the mean time, momentum has built up on resurrecting the camper van, and I still have to keep the Vectra going.
Strangely, both belong to the wife - not to me.

Without the financial burden of the van, I could probably afford to run the Cavalier... but hey ho.
And my trip to Florida last year, really floored my finances.
But then the wife is only 21 once.

But do not worry...
No plans to sell the Cavalier 'yet'.

So onward to my car related ramblings.

[Robsey]

Transferred from the ebay watch list thread.
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=16921&p=172363#p172363


My current watch list is somewhat random.

I am looking at a 1983 Digi-Dash from an MG Maestro....
To put in my 1983 VW Campervan.

The Talking "Check Control" and clock unit.


The Digi-Dash Speedo Cluster.


I would have looked for a Vanden Plas dash, as the grid-lines are blue,
Whereas the MG grid-lines are red.
But the Vanden Plas dashes are all but non-existant.



Probably another silly idea that will not materialise.

Why a blue dash?
Because our van is blue - lol

[Robsey]

I had a Maestro 1300 LS between 91 and 95.
This is not mine, but it is identical to it.


It was a very comfortable car, and quite nippy, despite the poor power to weight ratio..
In the end, I traded it in for the Cavalier mk3.

Towards the end of production, the Maestro 2.0 Turbo had become quite a match for the Golf, Sierra and Cavalier for performance, but the fuddy-duddy designers did not wish to carry the design forward.
And Leyland / Austin Rover had developed a very bad reputation by then.
Not quite as bad as driving a Lada Riva or a Skoda Estelle, but not far off.

If I remember correctly, BMW stripped out a lot of the better 'thought-of' models as James suggests,
(BMW were reported to have been jealous of the P2, P5 and P6 in the day, launching the 2002 as a rival...)
but it was Tata cars of China who bought the patterns and parts for all the other models.
They were still making the Maestro in China a few years ago.

However - bear in mind that the current MG badged cars (3 and 6) are made by Tata.
So the "Rover" lives on in a Chinese costume... sort of.

Anyway - as for the dash... not quite as funky as the GTE dash, but in it's day very state of the art.
The late Montego 2.0 EFi dash was much nicer, but relied heavily on the engine ECU to convert the inputs.
Apparently a total pig to retro-fit, even to a Maestro or Montego.

All dashes had the same shape back then, so physical fit should be possible.
Wiring wise - get past all the spaghetti, it is mostly simple enough. The complication being the fitting of an obsolete speed transducer,

and a very unreliable fuel flow transducer if I want the fuel computer to work.

For those who want to know, the voice is from a female actress from New Zeeland, back in the day.

[Robsey]

I attempted to modify a dash late last year, but there turned out to be far too much water damage.





So apologies for the deja vue situation.

I have just searched my posts, but I must have deleted that thread.

Anyway...
Should I wish to accept this mission, it will mean throwing money at a dash, a speed sensor and a basic ECU that I do not need.
At approx £170 all in, it is still a lot cheaper than a typical T25 van cluster.

And waaay cheaper than a VW digi-fiz.
Currently between £700 and £900 without the loom, which is another £250, and £25 for the installation manual.

I am sounding like the wife, who is good at pointing out how much I would save..
Even though not buying and walking away costs nothing at all - lol

[iangsi]

I once drove a mate's MG Maestro 2.0 ltr a very quick motor

[Robsey]

Yep - the late Honda derived O series 2.0 EFIs were rapid for their time.
--------------------------------
Unsurprisingly, I have worked out the wiring for the dash and speech module.

I cannot see why the punters on the Maestro and Montego Owners Club struggled with the conversion from analogue to digital.

I reckon about an hour or so, to convert the VW dash wiring to suit the digi dash.

19 wires on the cluster.
5 on the speech synthesis unit.
6 on the engine ecu.
-------------------------
Again the cheap option would be to convert my early dash cluster to suit the later dash wiring loom - complete with buzzer of doom.

But where is the fun and originality in that?

[btcctroy]

your making yourself sound like a loon!

[Robsey]

If the cap fits - lol

[Robsey]

I know Troy likes to pull my leg, but even he wasn't going to put me off one last attempt at fixing that Maestro dash.

Lo and behold, a fully working dash... apart from a couple of bulbs.

Even my old speedo transducer works, but I have no idea how far out it would be on a van.



And a very slap dash comparison for size says that the dash would fit the van cowling.

I would just need to cut out the current dial mounts to fit it.



So no need to splash more cash...
And I do not need the talking bit either.

[Cavalier342]

I really like that instrument cluster, definitely has that 80's electronic feel to it like an old AKAI tape deck amplifier. Feels like it would be perfect in a DMC-12 or something. I could definitely have one of those in my room all wired up to a battery and just have all the lights on display, it's awesome. I've got an early spec Cavalier cluster with LEDs in all the relevant bulb holes, rig it to a battery and everything lights up, it's pretty cool.

[Robsey]

Thanks Andrei,
I do like the look myself, although it has been a bit like Marmite.
I have had a lot more negative responses than positive.

For me, it is the challenge of doing something different, or
something that is said not to be possible.

The way you describe it, it could fit in nicely in an American diner.

[Cavalier342]

What's negative about it? I'm guessing the negative crap came from 15 year olds who don't know anything that was made before last week.

[Robsey]

I know what you are saying.
But I do not worry either way.

It all depends upon what happens on the day, as to what dash I may fit.
And that is years away yet.

[iangsi]

Looks good to me, I bet the negativity came from the VW people.

[Robsey]

Not really.
The most outspoken was a 26 yr old Audi driver.
He didn't like the original dash, nor the digital dash.

There are those who like originality.
But there are plenty of VW owners who do more fantastic upgrades than a digi dash.

[Cavalier342]

If you don't mind me jumping in here Robsey, this is my cluster all lit up.

[Robsey]

I do not mind at all.
You always were well known for your LED projects.

It is a rambling thread afterall.

[Cavalier342]

I guess I was a little LED crazy back in the day.

[Robsey]

A lot of members gained a level of notoriety in a specific field...

Sriguy / btcctroy for his replica car and his welding prowess,

PlanetC for his biscuits

James McGrath for his huge fleet and amazing historical knowledge / academia.

TurboDan for his Z20LET and other electrical adaptations - some of which I have updated and built upon.

Gaz for lowering his car so far that it scraped his driveway.

Humbucker for his fleet of Cavalier Turbos and V6 Omegas - with an apparently bottomless bank account.

And your good self for your interesting sureal conversations... and of course your UFO LED project.

At least you cannot say that we are boring lot - lol

[James McGrath]

I really like the look of the Maestro cluster.
Should look like it's meant to be there in a T25.

Jolly well done on getting it working too.

One of these days I'll have to send you my broken Tech1. If you can fix it, you can keep it!

[btcctroy]

Rob can fix anything electrical!

i love the meastro cluster, im astonished leyland knew how to even make one

[James McGrath]

I'm astonished that they could afford to make one!

[Robsey]

Rob can fix anything electrical!

i love the meastro cluster, im astonished leyland knew how to even make one

That is a very bold sweeping statement.
My electronics knowledge ain't that good.
But replacing damaged tracks or buggered components can be achieved if you can see where the damage is, or what the component markings say.

My first attempt in November 2019 ended with lots of smoke and a 1/4 watt resistor glowing red hot... yikes!!

I would say better luck than judgement.

Sometimes walking away from the faulty item, and returning a few months later can bring the odd pleasant surprise.

---------------------------------
Leyland / BL / Austin Rover were really rubbish at designing cars that did not look fuddy duddy.
But like every company, they had the odd geek who could think a bit more modern.

We are talking the era of the first space invaders, astro wars and other amazing techni-coloured computer games.

Very simple and basic by modern standards, but funky and quirky compared to analogue dials.

[Robsey]

I'm astonished that they could afford to make one!

With BL, it wasn't so much the price, but instead always being in a rush to launch the LM10, The factory code for the Maestro.
Now referred to as the "Maestro (XC)".

[James McGrath]

Well they never had any development money.
Plenty of plans and ideas but no money to put them in motion.

It was the lack of money which led to models being produced far longer than they should have without replacement.

They came up with good ideas but by the time they got into production they were half a generation behind the competition.

The maestro was a very competitive package at launch in 1980 but fell behind the likes of the Peugeot 205 and the VW polo which launched just a few years later.