Dave's la(te)st buggy build...

Odd day today...

 

The three Stanley FatMax tool bags I'd ordered from eBay finally showed up...

 

Two fit neatly under the passenger seat... so that'll be tools and spares...

 

And one under my driver's seat... unsure yet, butthink that will be hand cleaning, first aid, etc...

 

And a sticker also arrived off eBay too...

 

Kinda relevant I thought?

I had a few hours off this afternoon, so I walked the dogs and then popped my scruffs on, disappeared unther The Boogie and wiggled the solenoid's spade connector on and off several times until it would have got a better connection, and then wiggled the main starter cable around to check it was sound, and not loose...

And then the Boogie fired up... VROOM!

So I pulled it out of the garage and started and stopped it a few times... ran the engine until it was up to temperature with the new coolant components fitted, fixed a small leak on the top radiator hose by tightening the new jubilee clip as it was weaping out of the hose under engine circulation pressure... and then thought it was time for a test drive!

So I went off down the dual-carriageway to Rhuddlan, and then decided to carry on into Rhyl and check out the end of the greenlane / BOAT (Byway Open to All Traffic) between Rhuddlan and Rhyl that I'd mentined in my Project 116 page on the JimnyBuggy Blog...

 

And found the vehicular gate (that I hoped would have made the BOAT driveable) locked... with a chain and padlock?

I had a wander around the end of the 'lane, leaving the Boogie running, and having taken a few more photos returned to the Jimny...

And then, turnng around, the rear locker bit, and I staled the vehicle, and then it wouldn't re-start on the key

I tried and tried re-wiggling the starter cables, but to no avail... and then also noticed -

 

... that the bottom radiator hose to my new shiny metal pipe was also now leaking...

Only one thing for it, call for help... to LNS Recovery who are luckily based at the corner of my road...

 

The lovely Ken was sent out to the rescue... and soon had The Boogie loaded onto his flatbed...

 

And then hoisted aloft for the journey...

 

... Home! Back to the shop / house where he helped me push / guide it back into the garage to await more repairs / finishing off properly

To be continued on Sunday, I'm busy doing something else tomorrow, Wednesday my day off in the week... :ohmy:

Thanks to Ken for the ride home, Leigh the boss (another one I owe him!), Brett & Riccy for helping on WhatsApp, and Brett for the offer of the loan of a starter motor...

Soon be back and ready for yet another Shakedown Trip "soon"...

Ho-hum!

Re the leak on your new bottom hose and pipe.
I replaced my top hose and fitted new stainless steel screw up hose clamps to replace the rusty Suzuki "spring type" hose clamps and it leaked. I refitted several times and it leaked each time. Eventually I refitted the rust "spring type" pipe clamp and it stopped, never to leak again!!
I checked my stainless clamp for sizing and it was correct, I can only assume the size range was too large and distorted the rubber pipe each time I tightened it up. Just in case you can't find a reason, tty the original clamp if you have replaced with jubilee clips.
Good luck fixing it Mike

A change in temperature causing the hose rubber to soften/change diameter might be the problem.

A jubilee clip will keep it's internal diameter constant (except for expansion/contraction), whereas the spring clip will tighten and slacken with changing diameters. It might also respond to vibration.

My pipe had a spring clip shaped indentation in it, I put the [slightly rusty] clip back in the same place, no leaks.

Definately sounds like starter motor/solenoid issues, it can't be battery if it won't start after a decent run. If you have a meter disconnect the solenoid connectors and check that when you turn the key you see some voltage. Also try the spare starter motor.

I don't suppose the leak dripped on either starter motor or solenoid did it?

If it starts, take it round the block, stop it and then try re-starting, repeat until you are sure that the problem is fixed.

SUCCESS today!

Started the day under The Boogie with a piece of sandpaper and some pliers... took the spade connector off the starter motor's solenoid, cleaned the male blade connector on the solenoid with the sandpaper, and gave the female side of the spade connector on the end of the wire a couple of squuezes with the pliers until it refitted snuggly onto the blade and would make a better connection...

Started it, stopped it, started it... repeated a good few times, happy with that... so then I rechecked all the jubilee hose clips and found one slightly loose which had caused the loss of coolant water  on the last shakedown trip...



I then filled the radiator / system back up with water and left The Boogie running on the drive whilst I made a cup of tea, went back out to find it up to temperature with no leaks... so I finished my tea...

And then drove it round the block, over all the speed ramps...

Back into the drive, turned it off, restarted it, repeat, repeat...

Happy with that, I went for a longer test run, and then... back to the drive, check the cooling system, all good, stopped, started, repeat, repeat...

Then I thought I'd go drive some greenlanes...

Ummm, then I thought better of that, and decided to drive to my Mum's just in case! Had a cup of tea there and a good catchup chat, and Mum said my long lost brother was due to come round too, so I waited for them and had more tea and some cake in the garden...

Back out to The Boogie, and VROOM, started first time, and then flew back along the North Wales Expressway...

Feeling brave now, so I'll probably venture out onto a few greenlanes next Sunday...

Sorted! :woohoo:


 

SUCESS... or rather not? ...

Shakedown Trip #5... We sold out of a couple of Cigarette lines over the weekend, which was hardly worth the trip to Booker Cash & Carry...?

 

I'll go! I said, any excuse to take a ride in The Boogie...!

 

A coupl eof cases of Heineken, a couple of bottles of Champagne (Booker sell them as singles, through Londis we'd have to buy a case of six...), the aforementioned cigarettes, and some cases of chocolates behined the passenger seat...

All was going well... I was nearly back home...

When... I thought a loud motorbike was overtaking me? very revvy?... I looked down, ah, no, it's The Boogie, revving it's t*ts off, and running very hot... with the wind noise and a huge smile on my face, zooming along in the outside lane I was oblivious to it... until we started to slow down...

I limped into a layby...

 

No drive at all... the clutch was fried... I just hope the engine survived? :ohmy:

Rang the RAC, I couldn't possibly ring my mates at LNS Recovery again could I?...

 

A nice day to sit in a layby and wait for recovery though?... Many thanks to the Traffic Officer I managed to inadvertently capture in this image! (No, I'm fine, I'm sitting here enjoying the sun, don't bother stopping for a stranded motorist!

An hour later after many humorous posts and replies on facebook,,, I got a message to say the recovery had been passed to a local company... 

Please, no...

 

Ken from LNS Recovery, who picked me up on the same truck last week... Oh the shame! 

We had a good laugh about it, and...

 

... and Ken pulled me onboard... again! 

 

Perhaps one day it might get home under it's own steam?... :lol:

 

Back home once again... no-one locally even flinches, they know all to well how many recovery trucks have dropped me off over the years! :lol:

So, the clutch is fried, and I have a new one on the work bench I bought off a fellow member of this fine forum that had sold his Jimny on before fitting it... So now it's my turn, time to learn how to swap a clutch?! A couple of local mechanic friends have offered to help / step in if I can't do it myself... And at the end of the day, I would like to be able to say I built The Boogie with my own fair hands...

Time will tell... Sigh! 

This is what a shakedown is for. Still sucks though.

Exactly!

Better on my own patch than on the M62 on the way to the BigJimny Meet! :woohoo:

 

Yesterday, Wednesday, my day off in the week...

Started bad, as the previous day, Tuesday, I rang up for an X-Ray appointment, and the local community hospital said 12 noon on the Wednesday, so that ruined my morning... so after the appointment -

 

With the clutch completely knackered, I put four ramps down and unspooled the winch...

 

And used the GeeVee as a ground anchor...

 

Only the winch pulled the GeeVee across the drive before the buggy rose up the ramps... so I fetched some chocks we use outside the shop to stop delivery cages rolling away

 

Sorted!... pulled the Boogie up the ramps, and then fixed the GeeVee... rattling annoying front drop link again!

I then lay under the buggy and contemplated changing the clutch myself...

And then the sh*t hit the fan, BT were upgrading the shop's telecom contract, and I'd been advised that "fibre-based" would be a cheaper faster solution... but during the transfer the broadband went off and we lost the ability to take card payments! An OpenReach engineer turned up and said there was a problem at the exchange... meanwhile I'd connected the shop to my home fibre while they sorted it out...

Anyway... I ended up losing half the afternoon as well... and that then made my mind up...

So I walked 300 yards to my local friendly garage, and booked The Boogie in for the clutch replacement next Thursday, the 6th of May...

So it will be sorted, a few more local test-drives / shakedowns - privately this time, no blogs, etc... But it will be ready for the BigJimny Meet in June July...

Due to some personal issues I need to resolve, I'm signing off for a bit, but I'll see you all there

Dave 

 

All the best to you!,

I'm still lurking...

Sunday was spent just having a tinker...

 

I cut up an old basket from the shop to make some storage in the passenger footwell, and sprayed it matching blue... Somewhere to pop maps, butties, bottles of drink, etc...

 

Removed the lighter and replaced it with a dual USB charging socket (one for the iPad GPS / Memory Map)

 

Sprayed my trusty old camera mount, and welded and repainted the engine battery cut-off switch (I must have ground too much weld off as it wobbled itself into cracking straight through?!)

 

Bolted back in place...

 

Camera mount screwed to top of dash...

Note the quick release lever (something off a bicycle if I remember rightly), so you can grab the camera off the dash and wander round with it on a kind of handle - the top half of the camera bracket... (An old friend Andy Whaley made a few of these for the group members at the time)

Just need the new clutch fitting on Thursday and it's ready for some wandering...

It's good to see you never give up! I found tinkering is a good therapy which makes my weekends feel longer while also keeps me sane. Keep up the good work!