Lowrider Dave - 1994 GLS (Archer)

[Lowrider Dave]

I'm glad you said that 'Archer' is a TV reference. I was worried that it was a nod to the condition of the car's rear end!

[Lowrider Dave]

I was browsing Ebay and a Cavalier on a banger racers flatbed caught my eye, he was breaking the car and offering nearly any of it for sale. I contacted him and after some banter and chat about banger racing, I walked away with a deal for full cow related interior and door cards all delivered on a pallet for a pleasing sum of money.


I wasn’t holding out much hope to the quality, given the donor car had clearly been sitting for a while and that removal may be less than carefully done as banger racers aren’t known for the meticulous loving care of second-hand vehicles that are destined to become mashed screaming lumps of metal, spewing liquids across a floodlight stadium floor. The pallet arrived in plastic wrap and all tied securely in place with rope. Like some hungry junkie inspecting a bag of Tesco doughnuts, I cut open the wrapping and inspected the contents and was - to paraphrase the words of God in Matthew 3:17 - “well pleased”.


I lugged them to the garage and returned the following day for a closer inspection. The door cards looked spot on, I can’t see any tears, cracks or lifting. The seat are acceptable, with less cracked skin than the face of Mick Jagger on both. As usual, the drivers bolster had taking the brunt of wear, but it by no means ugly or unserviceable. I gave them a wipe over with a damp cloth and will used some leather cleaner on them later.







A search of the rear pocket on one of the seats revealed this treasure (luckily it was empty)





The throttle housing looked caked in cack, so I took it off and started attacking it with clutch cleaner, a toothbrush and  a bunch of cotton buds. I had shifted a load before realising I hadn’t take any photos. I acquired camera from the house whilst avoiding doglet where I could..







I recalled that on the inside of the rocker cover my 1.8 Cavalier there was a metal gauze in it, these could become blocked with oil. As I was finding oily crap everywhere on this car, I fully expected the gauze to be fubared. This also gave me a prime opportunity/excuse to clean up the cover too and after prising the cover off (employing the gentle ‘hammering on a bit of wood’ technique) I was presented with a gauze that was more oily than a dead seabird by a Shell refinery.






As if shaving Private Ryan…




As if shaving your sister’s legs...



Hardcore filthy action...







Back together with new gasket, oil cap and hex bolts.



She fired up first time but there seems to be a slight hesitation and almost misfire when applying throttle and the smell of eggs, so I am presuming the cat has gone or some fuel problem. I may change the fuel filter to see if that helps, if not then a new cat may be on the books.

[Cavalier342]

That is an amazing deal you got there on the interior mate! Turbo door cards in mint condition, or are they V6/CDX door cards with the kerb light holes cut out?

Good de-greasing work there, I used to love de-gunking my old 8 valvers, easy but fun at the same time.

As it happens, I have a spare cat converter here at home, I removed it from my old auto (C18NZ) after I put a straight through system on it, it's been sitting wrapped up in a bag next to the hot water boiler ever since. It's an aftermarket steel cat converter, but I've only had it on the car for about a year or so. Will fit the 2 liter 8 valvers no problem. Let me know, as you're not far away, maybe a trip down is possible.

[Lowrider Dave]

CDX door cards with kerb lighting. I may well take you up on the offer of the cat, Andrei - cheers. I'll let you know asap, I'm currently focussed on getting the spring plates welded.

[Cavalier342]

Cool, you've got my number, haven't you? Give us a shout anytime mate.

[humbucker]

"less cracked skin than the face of Mick Jagger"

hahahahahaha!

[Lowrider Dave]

Archer has some attention to the rear beam and chassis rails - I wasn't 100% about the rear spring plates, so bought 4 and left her with a local garage. They had a good look round and after plenty of cleaning off surface rust and undercoating, etc they only needed to replace one plate! Good news.

Next on the list is to find out why it stinks like a petrol station...I'm open to suggestions, but I'll change the fuel filter first of all.

[humbucker]

Split fuel pipe?

[colin1]

Split fuel pipe?

This

With the fuel system pressurised try flexing and bending the fuel lines under the bonnet, if they're gone you'll get a fine spray. If they're more gone than that you would have noticed by now.

A problem I had with the XE immediately after purchase was a leak from the fuel filter; strangely this would stop leaking once the car had been running a while so I didn't pick it up straight away, definitely had the petrol smell though. In that instance, about half an inch of fuel line (up to the filter on either side) was perished.

[Lowrider Dave]

I'll have a good look at the pipes. I couldn't see anything in the engine bay but the smell seems more obvious when I have the fan on.

[humbucker]

I had split fuel pipes on Turbo #2 and on my V6 CDX. Rear end, both of them. Stank of fuel and I could see it dripping (pissing in the case of the V6) when the engine was running and the system was pressurised. Easy enough fix - new fuel pipe and fuel pipe clips.

This was the scene at the rear of Turbo #2. Crappy hose, soaked outer, crappy jubilee clips. You can see the fuel settled in the clip screws. All replaced with proper fuel hose and petrol pipe clips. No more leak.

[humbucker]

Hope this helps: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=14720&p=155110#p155110

[James McGrath]

Leakey fuel lines seems to be a problem that's becoming more and more common.
Always good idea to check all the lines once in a while.

There is allot of talk about the E10 petrol at pumps today. Since 2010 all EU countries are obliged to use E10 (10% ethanol).
Ethanol is highly hydrophilic (attracts water) meaning you get moisture in the fuel system. This is normally fine but on some older vehicles it can cause deterioration in fuel filters and fuel lines. I'm not 100% sure whether or not Cavaliers are affected by ethanol. I have a feeling it's only early pre-facelift models that are but it's better to be safe than sorry.

It's not all bad however, and it does have a few benefits; ethanol is more resistant to pre-ignition and is a strong cleaner, so it will keep your fuel system clean.

[humbucker]

I remember posting about this a while back: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=12641&p=129524#p129458

[Lowrider Dave]

Thanks Dan, duly noted. I plan to have it up on the ramps at weekend if I find a moment (got a photo shoot booked) and will check the pipes out.

[Lowrider Dave]

Seriously, who doesn't relax after a hard day with your own pet tiger and a glass of Scotch?


More to the point, what's happening in the garage...the following may be of use in that department...

It’s looking a bit old and crusty - like a meeting of Austin Metro driving OAPs in Eastbourne.


Cracks appear in old rubber, a bit like that condom in your wallet.


These pipes look more solid and sound than Jeremy Hunt’s NHS plans. But both are sh1te and will have to go.


Strange sticky gunky hoses - make your own crass punchline up for that one.


A fuel filter the other day. It refused to comment, but posed for a cheeky photograph.


Behold! New stuffs perloined from the Bay of E. Hose, clamps and copper piping.


Got jiggy with some new hose and plumbed in the new filter, complete with Mikalor spring band clamps. They stop things becoming all leaky.


I’ve ordered a bunch of these from the land of clogs via my local stealership - (Bracket 90222216)

[James McGrath]

Terrific write up as usual!

Glad you managed to source some of those brackets in the end.

[Lowrider Dave]

Cheers James! Only '7 to 10 working days' to wait for the brackets! Plenty of time for me to se the tiger on the neighbours/break something else on the car

[Cavalier342]

Good stuff Dave, it does look nice with new shiny bits underneath.. As usual, loving the in-between witty comments!

[Lowrider Dave]

Cheers Andrei.

[Lowrider Dave]

In the last thrilling installment, regular viewers will remember I wanted some fuel pipe clamps. By a mixture of voodoo, mathematics and interwebbery I invented a part number and paid a visit to my local Stealership. Not awfully keen on them due their lack of diligence when servicing my Omega, but that’s another petrol bomb throwing story…

Man at parts desk informed me that the part is no longer available - well, duh?! Of course dimbo - I forced him to look further than the end of his nose for said part and, wouldn’t you know it, you can get them from Holland. I ordered 15. I’m avant garde, flamboyant and make rash decisions like that.
Four days later I stifled a coughing noise as my back account was made 60 of your English pounds lighter when collecting said items.
There now follows a photograph of what £60 worth of shaped plastic looks like:


Whilst waiting for above parts I took out the washer bottle as I needed to get the wiring for the Sparkrite alarm. Not one to do a half-hearted job and to fulfill one of my prime objectives in life, to wit: Annoy SWMBO - I promptly took it indoors and cluttered up the spare sink. No thanks was given. Only glares. And possibly ground glass in my bangers and mash, but I can’t be sure…
Obligatory before and after shots:




Investigating the spagetti junction of wires that infested the engine bay like mad chaotic mix of coloured wool pulled apart by kittens…I’ll let that visual description sink in…I traced it through the bulk head and into the footwell where there seemed to be some black and red wiring obviously alarm related. These were marked for death.



The door plunger has many wires from it and as I don’t understand wiring diagrams I can’t work out what is factory and what isn’t - The red I think is an alarm related one (so alarm goes off when door opens) but what are the other three? They are all white. I will want to fit CDX doorcards with pavement/door light so will probably need to link up to this switch but the how and whats make me feel giddy.

(Impotent dropping cock of a door plunger)


To alleviate the feeling of confusion that wiring gives me (a bit like a concussed badger with a wooden leg), I set about removing the Sparkrite alarm with all the utter care and professionalism that I couldn’t muster.


Bored of inflicting mindless violence upon innocent pieces of plastic, I return my attention to doing something slightly more useful - like continuing with my plan to replace these rusting cack fuel pipes.


All was going well until I undid one end of a pipe and petrol pee’d out like the tea break at the annual general meeting of incontinent sufferers. After a quick deployment of a handy nearby jar (my lucky miniature anvil would not have been of much help in this situation) I realised that this pipe actually came from the fuel tank and thus would now pee for ever. Well, until I passed out from fumes/no more petrol in the tank/sharks eat custard/people in tracksuits are burnt for being the feckless idiots they are/ etc.

It took about 25 minutes of collecting petrol and draining it into a jerry can before I remembered I have some pipe clamps. I can be such a Joey Deacon sometimes.

Leaving the stinky unleaded unloved, I moved onto fabricating the new pipes. Nothing witty to say here, just I couldn’t find a bender. Pipe bender, I mean. It must be somewhere in the highly organised tip that I call a garage.


Seriously, I label my draws, so how come I can’t find anything. Arse. Well that wraps up the activities for a while as I’m away for a fortnight working. Just to make sure the garage dries nicely whilst I’m gone, I’ve left a candle burning near the bottom of my car, it did look a bit wet on the ground…


Bonus round: Here is the car practicing for the budget version of Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang.

[Cavalier342]

Very good as always Dave. £60 for brackets? That doesn't surprise me to be honest, I rang up our local dealer one time to inquire about an auto selector switch, was told in a rather cheerful manner that it would be some £340 not including Very Aggressive Turd..

Good clean up there, did you remember to pull out the rubber gauze from the winsdcreen washer reservoir when you cleaned it? A lot of muck gets caught up in that, worth giving that one a good scrub.

Loving the "Jeremy Clarkson" hammer approach with regard to fixing electronics there.

[James McGrath]

[Robsey]

but what are the other three? They are all white. I will want to fit CDX doorcards with pavement/door light so will probably need to link up to this switch but how?.

It took about 25 minutes of collecting petrol and draining it into a jerry can before I remembered I have some pipe clamps.

All the grey wires (not white unless you've bleached them clean) do the same function. Ground a circuit via the door plunger switch.

The door lights are fed from the fat red in the door loom - probably to window motors.

The lights are grounded by passing a grey wire through the door connector and linking to the bunch of grey wires on the door plunger switch.

Door opens - door light comes on simples.


Regarding fuel spillage - I plug my fuel hoses with a normal 8mm threaded bolt (if hex head, that is 13 mm spanner fit), when working on the fuel system.

Joey Deakon? - wow that is a blast from the past... 1980's Blue Peter

[Robsey]

Sparkrite alarm eh?

One up from a WASO,
and ten up from a Linwood....
Ooh those were the days..

Still got a very old Scorpion alarm on the father in laws 1983 camper van.