M Plate 1.8LS Saloon

[cavalier1990]

Indeed a VERY productive few hours.

That crack on your screen looks exactly the same as the one that appeared on my screen about 4 years ago.
No obvious cause... it just appeared from nowhere.

Hmm lovely picks of the large X6 connector in the footwell, and the X5 connector up by the battery in the engine bay.
X5 is a nice simple connector with just a few pins in it...
X6 is enough to scare the be-jebus out of almost anyone.

I am not sure what the two connectors are...
The brown / white on the 4-pin connector made me think of a diagnostic wire. but lord knows what the other two wires are for.
And as for the 6-pin connector - not a clue, again a red would be battery live. Plain blue is usually a sensor wire of some sort - if it has a coloured stripe, it would narrow the choice down a bit.

It certainly was Robsey and feel like things are starting to come together now on the rebuild front. I was wondering if I had cracked the screen by pushing on and off the scuttle cover but I'd imagine it would take a bit of pressure to do that, not what I was doing just pushing the cover back on the lip under the screen. Perhaps the combined weakening of the screen and perhaps heat done it.

Next step is to replace the heater matrix which I ordered and due to pick up from my folks house. I thought while I'm in there replace it as I had stripped off the cover under it.

There is also a large long multiplug above those two I pointed out and it has a grey blanking plug over it, that's another what is that for plug!

Very satisying getting the reverse lights going with minimal effort, no chopping wires or anything. I'm wondering though that the white/striped wire I pulled from the x5 aren't used as Earth for anything else I hope!

[Envoy CDX]

Pretty sure the green one is for somethting auto related, the white one makes me think "electric aerial" but I'd timage that loom is already present.

What options are missing?

[cavalier1990]

Pretty sure the green one is for somethting auto related, the white one makes me think "electric aerial" but I'd timage that loom is already present.

What options are missing?

Got electric aeriel, it's ls so pretty basic apart from aerial and front leccy windows, no trip computer, leccy roof/mirrors or anything.

[cavalier1990]

Had a wee bit of rain the last few days and checked out the floor for leaks, there is nothing showing but I would really prefer a good downpour to be honest to test it properly. I am Scottish so it's natural to wish for rain anyway!

I also removed the old heater matrix as I had a new one to replace it with...but on removing the old one it really was still looking fine, it is a copper style matrix and all the fins are fine, the body is fine, I was also not impressed with the so called new matrix I got, it looked flimsy cheap aluminium, badly made and looks like it wouldn't hold out more than a year, so I cleaned out the old one and dunked it in hot water in the sink with some cleaning fluid and drain cleaner in the pipes to loosen off any gunk. Then a good blast through with a water hose.

Note: if you are going to remove heater matrix, you'll likely need to remove the gear selector rod and pull it back into the inside of car. The reason is the gear selector rod goes almost right under where the N/S pipe goes onto matrix and if hose is stuck on, like mine was, you'll not get enough wiggle room to twist the pipe and break the seal. The gear selector is only 4*10mm bolts and the 13 mm pinch bolt in engine bay and it pulls back out the way. When removing pinch bolt leave it in first gear so you have a sort of reference when refitting the gear selector and resetting the gears.

Prepare for a drenching if working underneath the matrix!

The other things needed to finish are:

Build up the interior
Get screen replaced, that will be through insurance and when I get back from my hols
Replace N/S arm and roll bar link
Drain some oil out as I way over-filled it when I changed oil just before I put it off road.
Hope for some more rain!

I am going on holidays a week on Tuesday so will be trying to get some more stuff done before then, perhaps tidy up the inside and build interior back up.

[Robsey]

Not really a surprise to hear that the original GM part is in much better condition than a new pattern part.

Things are not made to last these days.

Interior wise... allow a couple of days if it is completely stripped out like mine was.

A bit longer if you have forgotten where you put half of the small fiddley bits.

You will be needing a holiday after all this hard work.

If you want a heavy downpour, try moving to Manchester... we have had a couple of heavy deluges on Thursday and Friday and we are due another tomorrow. Oh joy.

[cavalier1990]

Been very dry here, i can use a hose but i find rain a much better medium as i've failed to find water leaks before with a hose, but rain always does it for me!

[Robsey]

As said - we could have tested it here..
It has been very hot and humid.
The rain came down that hard that it killed the sky signal for the satelite dish for quite some time this evening.

Could have checked for a leak and jet-washed the bodywork in one fell swoop.

[cavalier1990]

We did get some rain, not much but enough to show up the leak, i decided after all to top that up with a gentle hosing down the screen to simulate natural rainfall and so far so good. Wet floor has been a problem for a number of years, but now with fix and welding of floor it should be good to go.

I've also noticed quite a lot of the bungs are loose so back of floor was damp too. I'll be sealing them up in due course.

[Robsey]

I've also noticed quite a lot of the bungs are loose so back of floor was damp too. I'll be sealing them up in due course.

A good plan.
Don't want water being flicked up from underneath.

[cavalier1990]

I've also noticed quite a lot of the bungs are loose so back of floor was damp too. I'll be sealing them up in due course.

A good plan.
Don't want water being flicked up from underneath.

I did notice there was water dripping out of the them when I first jacked it up, quite a telling sign if ever I seen one!

[Envoy CDX]

excellent.

[cavalier1990]

Back from holibags and have so far fitted heater matrix back in, but not plumbed hoses on yet. Nightmare of a job to get the wee tray screws at back on again!

Next job was swap clutch pedal spring round as cable would fall off if your foot flicked pedal back. I'd put doing this off since I changed box to manual and for good reason,it's a absolute bar steward of a job to get clutch pedal pin out!

I'm now left with a small bit of welding to do on floor under pedal and behind driver side light next to radiator,then start building interior back up. Also need new screen but autoglass can do that.

[Robsey]

Welcome back...
I bet the holiday was over way too soon.

That clutch spring is a pig.
I drove around for 8 or 9 months with the spring displaced. I simply could not get it back in place after fitting a new clutch cable.

After a long break from faffing, I had a second attempt a few months back and the return / retaining spring just popped back in place almost by itself. Virtually a 10 second job.

Still on the original heater matrix in my car. Not looking forward to stripping the dash out again when the time comes.

Good progress dear chap.

[cavalier1990]

Welcome back...
I bet the holiday was over way too soon.

That clutch spring is a pig.
I drove around for 8 or 9 months with the spring displaced. I simply could not get it back in place after fitting a new clutch cable.

After a long break from faffing, I had a second attempt a few months back and the return / retaining spring just popped back in place almost by itself. Virtually a 10 second job.

Still on the original heater matrix in my car. Not looking forward to stripping the dash out again when the time comes.

Good progress dear chap.

The thought of going under there again put me off changing it for a good 7 or 8 years! All done now, don't need to worry about it falling off again.

I've got to a stage now where the welding is all done. I actually poked about about found some small holes in places that I never knew about. It pays to have a good poke about. To be fair they probably wouldn't have been noticed by MOT man but worth fixing to stop them getting worse and also to stop any water getting in.

I did find a small hole in the subframe just under the back of the sump area where the lateral section joins to the longitudinal section on the N/S. As you can see this has been welded from pic below and since that I have buffed down, primered, sealed and painted all the welding.

Here's some update pics:

Subframe had a small hole in it so this was duly fixed


Some of the repairs on the floor here were from a couple of years agao and had rusted again because I had welded in crappy metal that was not the zinc stuff and it started rusting because I hadn't treated it properly, so bufffed it all down, treated it with rust eater, sealed any wee holes up and painted it with zinc primer.


On the join between central tunnel and the floor there was a small hole appearing here so I cleaned the area down, rust treated it, filled it and painted it.


The outrigger was a bit touch and go, I have a full repair panel but wasn't in the mood to strip the whole thing like I did the N/S so have patched it for now. Not perfect but it will do for now.

[Robsey]

I can understand " not being in the mood".
I get that way a lot or simply "cannot be bothered".
Sorry to those who thought that I eat, sleep, drink and $#!t Cavaliers, but it is true - motivation does not run strong in me.

The down side is that the offending off side outrigger will be beckoning you next year.

Still - I congratulate you on the great progress you've made on the rest of the car.
Especially now that the northern half of the UK is returning to cold, wet "Winter Mode" until the end of April 2019 - pah!!

[cavalier1990]

I can understand " not being in the mood".
I get that way a lot or simply "cannot be bothered".
Sorry to those who thought that I eat, sleep, drink and $#!t Cavaliers, but it is true - motivation does not run strong in me.

The down side is that the offending off side outrigger will be beckoning you next year.

Still - I congratulate you on the great progress you've made on the rest of the car.
Especially now that the northern half of the UK is returning to cold, wet "Winter Mode" until the end of April 2019 - pah!!

Yeah I get lazyitis quite a lot, I tend to do some work on it after work during week and if chanced at the weekend, usually me and the missus are up to stuff at wkend, but I got plenty done Saturday morning. The old balancing car work between it and your other half! A fine line has to be drawn!

I'm quite happy that hopefully that outrigger should last a while before needing totally rebuilt. I'll of course keep my eye on it, and will plan on doing it next year anyway just to satisfy myself all is done correctly and won't need attention from the welder for quite some time. I also noticed today that there is a slight leak of water into the boot lid from the vx badge on the back and the little screw(s) holding the back light plate on. I was looking in there at the lock cylinder as I need a new one and the badge is also missing so it's just a plastic round thing stuck on the boot lid with 2 little locating pins jammed into the bootlid.

As we always say the cavys reward our industrious hard work and dedication with more work - the joys!

[cavalier1990]

The 2 bits of remaining metal fuel pipe you can see in pic above are now going to be replaced with plastic ones. I had a wee poke and a prod at the rubber /metal join thinking they looked a bit crusty and loandbehold I ended up with a fine mist of fuel pissing out once I got it started.

The route to getting it started was another story, basically my wiring for the reverse light switch had taken out the feed for the coil so I jiggered the wiring about a bit and put the live pin back in the right place, and it away it went. I've rigged the live for the reverse switch up to the old inhibitor switch (from when it was auto). I had a bridge between the 2 contacts, so basically pulled that out and made a new bridge with the reverse switch feed piggy backed into it. I could swear the inhibitor switch was live when ignition was on, now thinking on it I'm not sure if that would work as it would only be live when the car was turning over. I might be wrong, I aint tested it fully so hopefully I've not bodged it up.

[Robsey]

I suppose you could have piggy-backed an ignition live controlled relay to power the reverse lights.

Use a feed from the same black wire as used for the coil to control a relay.

Connect this ignition live feed to relay Terminal 86.

Run a wire from relay Terminal 85 to ground.

Fit a fused feed from the battery + terminal and run this to relay terminal 30.

Then run a wire from relay terminal 87 to your reverse light switch.

That hopefully avoids any bodging.

Using the same rated fuse as recommended for fuse 22 should make this as safe as if it was an original factory fit.

[cavalier1990]

I ended up putting one of those bridge connector things onto coil feed, and used that for reverse light feed. Bit of a bodge, but a tidy as can be bodge!

Now waiting on new floor bungs and plastic fuel pipe arriving then can build interior back up.

[cavalier1990]

Wee update, decided to fit new power steering pipes, tidy up the remaining bits of body, fit wiper mechanism, tidy wiring up and put glovebox back in.

Looking a lot better with new steering pipes. They were a wee bit of a faf to fit but got them all clipped in to the old holders, although had to slight bend one of the pipes under the radiator to get it to fit into the plastic holder thing.

Old steering pipe rust


New pipes 1


New pipes 2

[Robsey]

Looking good on the pipework.

Much better than my own.
Well the low pressure pipe is fine, but my high pressure pipe is just a long rubber hose with too much internal volume, so the whole system feels heavier.

Looks like you will soon have the wee beastie back on the road in no time.

[cavalier1990]

Got the fuel pipes on (plus the bonus sleeve full of petrol when I took the bung out the existing pipe) and got it started last night, no leaks so far so good progress and no more rusty metal pipes to worry about.

I'd mentioned this in the wits end emission problem that I'd noticed the octane plug was set to 91 not 95 as it should be. Not going to speculate how it got to be set to that as I distinctly remember checking this, however that's one more box ticked.

When I started it the steering pump was making that dry noise for about 5 mins, slowly dissipating as I topped it up and jiggled the steering side to side to get rid of air. It took maybe another 5 mins to completely stop making the noise. Thought it was another cavalier "present" of fix one thing get another problem, but glad it's now quiet!

Latest scunner is I ordered a pile of new rubber floor grommets and they've went missing in the post. I was hoping they would hurry up and and turn up so I could put them in before rebuilding interior but no dice so far. No doubt when I tighten the last seat bolt down the package will pop through the letter box!

[cavalier1990]

Well like Britney Spears woops I did it again, I accidentally caused the seat belt tensioner to fire on the drivers side, last time I done it it was the passenger side, luckily I found a mk3 astra in the scrappy and that fitted.

Lesson to be learned, whenever you are removing seats put the little lock tab into the firing chamber so that it doesn't fire off if you bang the seat on anything. I'm sounding out a guy in the borders for one from an astra - again! Through that way at the weekend so can swing by and get it.

I also got the passenger seat fitted and the back seats. While I was out there I ran the engine up to temp and made sure the fan was kicking in, then had a bit of a nosey with the engine, listening to the injector pattern of tapping sounds it makes. While the engine seems to be running better I could hear a slight surge of ticks from the injector, so had a look around, sprayed wd on all the carb joins and inlet manifold, couldn't really hear a difference then I seen a vert small bubble next to the idle control stepper motor, which I'd replaced last year. Got a torx out and the top bolt on it was loose. Tightened that and seems to have backed off the slight surging I could detect.

Just had a good going over of the engine area for any leaks, loose connections or stray pipes etc. Now to get the seat belt tensioner, get the seat in, get the new screen fitted, wheels on, get it off the ramp, fit new suspension arm and drop link and i Think...I think the job is a good un!

[Robsey]

No idea how you managed to fire off a tensioner.

I tried setting off a tensioner from an old spare seat. Hit it with a hammer, threw it on the floor - nothing happened.


Sounding like lots of progress.
Soon be time to get it on the road and take the old girl for a wee spin.

Waiting for the whoop whoop sounds of a job well done.

[cavalier1990]

No idea how you managed to fire off a tensioner.

I tried setting off a tensioner from an old spare seat. Hit it with a hammer, threw it on the floor - nothing happened.


Sounding like lots of progress.
Soon be time to get it on the road and take the old girl for a wee spin.

Waiting for the whoop whoop sounds of a job well done.

Done it on both seats, not at the same time of course. All I done was hit the back of it with palm of hand as I was trying to move the slider forward to line up for fitting into car. Next thing all you hear is a very "rat trap" type thunk and I knew what had happened. Bar steward.