Post by spunkymonkey on Mar 26, 2009 20:30:10 GMT
Well, almost caught up from our little adventure yesterday. Tired really wasn't the word for how we felt by the time we got back!
On the way there, Betty covered the 200 miles in a pretty respectable 5 hours - including a medium-sized diversion for road works that we didn't know about. There's a little more on that at:
www.dafmobile.ournet.org.uk/BettyDoesNotts.html
including a little video footage of the drive for anyone not on a dialup connection (just can't shrink it to dialup size no matter how I try!)
Met up with Onne about 2 o'clock, but not before Betty had made a new friend
They were joined shortly by Isabel, giving the three old ladies a combined age of about 120 years - probably more than all the other cars in the carpark combined!
After an excellent cup of tea from, Onne's best china no less
) , we set off for the drive back.
By now Betty was being a little naughty and wanting to cut out at traffic lights so Sian was resorting to left-foot braking at times. I'll be having words with her later (Sian for the LFB and Betty for the stalling ;D )
Isabel was a little rev-happy - shooting to full revs at the slightest twitch of the throttle. Betty had been the same when we first got her, and adjusting the vacuum valve link had cured her so I tried to made a small adjustment - yes, I'd come prepared with a tachometer and a vacuum gauge!
Problem - the linkage was quite tight and I overdid it and sheared the link rod
Nothing that a little inventiveness with copper wire and masking tape couldn't get round and I'll be making a new link at the weekend.
The lack of front suspension was interesting, to say the least. Speed-bumps and potholes were to be avoided at all costs - every unavoidable one felt like it was going to punch those shocks back out of their new mounts. If you've never driven with suspension that firm you won't realise quite how much road noise "proper" suspension saves you from as well - getting up to 50 or so on the motorway sounded like a freight-train leaving a tunnel. They are definately on the to-do list ;D
That, the time we'd been on the road, and the lack of heater in Isabel, meant we took several stops on the way back, extending the trip to about 7 hours that way. Still not bad for two Dafs, one relatively unknown, on a mix of everything from lanes to motorways.
She'll need new belts soon cos they're at the limit of the adjuster and still have no gap in the rear pulleys - but are just short of squealing having tightened them to there. The only problem is, reverse now has the lever in the seat cusion
Here's Isabel resting this morning. After that extended test-drive, all I can say is "we'll take her" ;D
As a footnote, Betty didn't get a rest today - Sian took the Clarissa (the Colt Diesel) shopping today and, in a moment of tiredness, pumped 10 litres of premium unleaded into her. So Betty was called out to rescue Sian - leaving Clarissa to the nice RAC man and his fold-away trailer
On the way there, Betty covered the 200 miles in a pretty respectable 5 hours - including a medium-sized diversion for road works that we didn't know about. There's a little more on that at:
www.dafmobile.ournet.org.uk/BettyDoesNotts.html
including a little video footage of the drive for anyone not on a dialup connection (just can't shrink it to dialup size no matter how I try!)
Met up with Onne about 2 o'clock, but not before Betty had made a new friend
They were joined shortly by Isabel, giving the three old ladies a combined age of about 120 years - probably more than all the other cars in the carpark combined!
After an excellent cup of tea from, Onne's best china no less
) , we set off for the drive back. By now Betty was being a little naughty and wanting to cut out at traffic lights so Sian was resorting to left-foot braking at times. I'll be having words with her later (Sian for the LFB and Betty for the stalling ;D )
Isabel was a little rev-happy - shooting to full revs at the slightest twitch of the throttle. Betty had been the same when we first got her, and adjusting the vacuum valve link had cured her so I tried to made a small adjustment - yes, I'd come prepared with a tachometer and a vacuum gauge!
Problem - the linkage was quite tight and I overdid it and sheared the link rod
Nothing that a little inventiveness with copper wire and masking tape couldn't get round and I'll be making a new link at the weekend.The lack of front suspension was interesting, to say the least. Speed-bumps and potholes were to be avoided at all costs - every unavoidable one felt like it was going to punch those shocks back out of their new mounts. If you've never driven with suspension that firm you won't realise quite how much road noise "proper" suspension saves you from as well - getting up to 50 or so on the motorway sounded like a freight-train leaving a tunnel. They are definately on the to-do list ;D
That, the time we'd been on the road, and the lack of heater in Isabel, meant we took several stops on the way back, extending the trip to about 7 hours that way. Still not bad for two Dafs, one relatively unknown, on a mix of everything from lanes to motorways.
She'll need new belts soon cos they're at the limit of the adjuster and still have no gap in the rear pulleys - but are just short of squealing having tightened them to there. The only problem is, reverse now has the lever in the seat cusion
Here's Isabel resting this morning. After that extended test-drive, all I can say is "we'll take her" ;D
As a footnote, Betty didn't get a rest today - Sian took the Clarissa (the Colt Diesel) shopping today and, in a moment of tiredness, pumped 10 litres of premium unleaded into her. So Betty was called out to rescue Sian - leaving Clarissa to the nice RAC man and his fold-away trailer
