My 2000TC 'Minstrel' needs a lot of TLC..

I am so pissed off as when I looked for details to book a place, I found it was fully subscribed. So we never went. As well As that my mrs wasn't feeling too good anyway to blessing in disguise?? Can anyone tell me how it went, please?
 
Have you done a compression check?
Hi Harvey. I don't a compression test yesterday which proved satisfactory. Having a real problem getting Minstrel running right.We got her running well yesterday (although not completely to my satisfaction yet), When I got in her a started her up this morning the revs had really gone low (<500). When we left her last night she was running at about 750-800 although still erratic. I am going to remove the carb and give it a good service. I will reset it as the manual says and go from there. It is really starting to get me down as I don't think the running is very far out from right.
 
I am so pissed off as when I looked for details to book a place, I found it was fully subscribed. So we never went. As well As that my mrs wasn't feeling too good anyway to blessing in disguise?? Can anyone tell me how it went, please?

Well I got there in the end, saw a guy walking away from a white P6, so I said Hi are you Stephen ? he said no, are you Dave ? I said no......... turned out to be the highlight of the visit !
 
GRRRRRR!!! What a weekend! Apart from it being my wife's 60th on Friday which was one of the highlights of the weekend. Our daughter and her partner took us out for a lovely meal on Friday night. It was a fantastic night. That basically ended the good weekend. On the way home from town on Saturday we called into ASDA to put some fuel in my wife's 1.9 Dci Scenic. Watching the dial get up to about £40 I then got a shock as I had come to realise I put PETROL in!! To say I was pissed is and understatement! To say the mrs wasn't to pleased.......I'll leave that to your imagination! So today I spent taking the fuel pump off and draining the tank. I then put some diesel in the tank and started her up. She was a bit chuggy and misfiring a bit on start up, but as it got cleaner fuel through sahe ran perfectly fine. Looks like I may have dodged a bullet! Then to top this weekend off.....the clutch on Minstrel has given up the ghost. I knew for some days it was on the way out as she was getting harder to put into gear. So just looked at a couple on eBay. one at just under £40 inc pp and one at £45 including pp. I didn't realise that the Moskvich used the same clutch plate!!?? So the list is getting longer with the clutch plate, speedo cable, windscreen washer bottle/pump plus a couple of other small bit that are not overly important. Hazards of owning a classic I suppose. I still love her to bits....Minstrel I mean although I do still love the Mrs. Lol.
 
Tried that. I have fixed the wife's car now. And I bought Minstrel a new set of HT leads today. Just got to buy her a new clutch.:cool::):):rolleyes:
 
That's a good point. I will have to check that. I know the system on her is not brilliant. When we bought and had a good look around her she had a bleed kit still attached to the clutch system!! I will have a check later. Thanks for that. It never crossed my mind about the fluid. Will let you in. Many thanks again.
 
Good morning, guys. Update on the clutch problem. Good job I took SuffolkPete's advice first. It was to do with fluid and not the plate. Tried to bleed it but wouldn't bleed at all. So took off and changed the pipe from master to slave cylinder. The unions were realy shitted up with rust, dirt and grease. Took the bleed nipple off the slave cylinder and found out why it wouldn't bleed. The hole was totally blocked with greasey crap. Blew it out with my compressor, put it back on and bled the clutch. Still didn't feel right so I tried pulling the slave piston that goes from the slave to the gears and found the slave cylinder was full of air. Removed the nipple/pipe to the master cylinder and shot the air out by rocking the slave piston in and out with the bleed nipple open. Closes the nipple and put the pipe back and bled some more fluid into the system. Topped the master up and tried the clutch. Works great now!! Gonna check.it out tomorrow after I finish work. Have also put a new set of HT Leads on today too. She does run a lot better. Still not perfect but very close. The timing is still causing me a headache as cannot find where the problem I. It surely he to be electrical as the firing is intermittent on No4 lead. I put new dizzy cap, new points, new condenser, new coil and new plugs and now new leads on and she still not right. Any advice anyone, please? Thanks guys.
 
Thanks for the advice. I have ordered as new condenser. Should be here in a couple of days. Will update later. Thanks again. :)
 
The distributor I sent you a while back had a magnatronic module fitted, easy to swap over and you dont have to worry about condensers. Should also compensate for shaft wear.
 
The distributor I sent you a while back had a magnatronic module fitted, easy to swap over and you dont have to worry about condensers. Should also compensate for shaft wear.
Hi. Thanks for the message. I was actually looking at that yesterday when I was sorting my workshop out. I was thinking about changing the dizzy to the one you sent me. Had loads of problems today with her. I had a problem starting her today and when eventually she did start she coughed, choked and backfired like hell! I had put some petrol in from a container I have in my workshop. I think the petrol must have been tainted. Anyway I ended up draining the tank (only about 3 gallons in the tank) by taking the filler pipe rifht off and putting a hose down the nozzle and syphoning the tank that way. Now my fuel pump is leaking from the gasket so that's a job for tomorrow. Lol. I also had to change the clutch master cylinder. I put a replacement on yesterday but the problem I have is that the plastic piping is a dodgy fit on the top and bottom nipple and so it's sucking air when I try to bleed the clutch. I have put some different pipe on and will test it tomorrow. I put a new Speedo cable on this morning. That was a real load of fun! Dead easy to remove the cable, not so easy trying to put the bolt back in the bottom over the clamp. With only a 2" x 1 3/4" hole to get your fingers in, it's not something I want to do too often. Lol. Minstrel must know I need to put her off my drive as I need to put my son's 1991 Mitzi GTO on there as the MOT and Tax are out. Oh well....these things are sent to try us. Lol. Many thanks again for your message about the dizzy. Will let you know how I get on. All the best.
 
That was a real load of fun! Dead easy to remove the cable, not so easy trying to put the bolt back in the bottom over the clamp. With only a 2" x 1 3/4" hole to get your fingers in, it's not something I want to do too often.

That's because it should be a stud and a nut, not a bolt. With the stud and nut you don't have to remove the nut, just wind it up the threads enough to slide the clamp out of the way.
 
That's because it should be a stud and a nut, not a bolt. With the stud and nut you don't have to remove the nut, just wind it up the threads enough to slide the clamp out of the way.
Hi. Yes it was a stud and nut. I has removed it before I realised what it was. I'll know next time. Lol. Thanks for your advice though.
 
Evening all. Still having clutch problems with trying to bleed the clutch. I know part of the problem was badly fitting piping. Have cured that problem but still not bleeding properly. I am following the manual but without much success. I have just been watching a video on YouTube about reverse bleeding a clutch slave cylinder. Watching that has made me think. If I reverse bleed it I should be able to force all the air out from the Slave right up to the Master cylinder. Hopefully that should solve the problem. Can't do much till next weekend. I will update next week and let you guys know whats happening. Another problem I had this weekend was major misfiring and backfire problems. We checked the timing which was ok. I had put new HT leads on during the week, so I mentally eliminated that problem. I changed the condenser for a new one. Noticed I was getting a weak spark on the points. Cleaned the points and the rotor arm and got a better spark. The engine started and again misfired and backfired like hell. So I thought I would clean the carb out thinking there maybe some bad petrol still in the carb. Put it all back together and ended up with the same result! A friend suggested I test the spark plugs as like me. he thought it was a firing problem. Using a Sealey plug Tester I tried each HT lead/spark plug. Only 1 out of 4 was actually sparking properly. So I decided to test each plug with the old ht lead. Each one sparked correctly with it's original lead. I have since been in touch with the seller that his leads are faulty and I require a full refund. The car is running fine now! Just got to sort the clutch problem and we should be back on the road.

On another note. With this new MOT law on Classic Cars, does my Minstrel have to have an MOT. It has just expired and I am uncertain as to how I stand. I know I can Google it, but then Google gives you so many different answers, I don't think it will be of any help to me.
Many thanks in advance. I always look forward to and totally appreciate all the help you guys have given me over the last 3 years or so.
 
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