My Daf 33

[centuriondaf]

Well the journey was long but uneventful and the hotel in Middleton was wonderful. So the little Daf is now in Hampshire. I have already undertaken some work and she is making good progress although sadly the engine has a tremendous knocking sound. I am pretty sure it will most likely need new bearings and a rebuild.

[Richard DAF Webmeister]

Aah welcome to the world of 33 ownership. A little car that even when you feel like pulling your hair out trying to sort something out that you don't understand or can work out, makes you still love it!

[centuriondaf]

Well I still haven't really driven a Daf however work is progressing with the recommissioning - many thanks to the club for their invaluable help in sourcing some tough parts.

Photos should be visible here...

new link to the pics flic.kr/s/aHskznt4ou

Thanks,

B

[Richard DAF Webmeister]

Exciting times.

Er, the link might not be right - not opening.

Re driving a DAF - well, it's just like any other automatic really but key important tip... Always start the engine with the selector lever in forward or reverse - and have the handbrake on and/or foot poised over the brake pedal, especially when starting with the choke out.

This might seem strange but that's what you have to do. The exception to this is if you are, for example, carrying work out on the engine and you might need to rev it, then you start the car in neutral.

The reason for this is that once the engine is above a few hundred revs, the clutch engages and if you try and engage "gear" when the clutch is spinning, the car and the clutch will not thank you, and it will sound awful!

[andrew]

May 2, 2016 20:55:58 GMT Richard DAF Webmeister said:

Exciting times.

Er, the link might not be right - not opening.

Re driving a DAF - well, it's just like any other automatic really but key important tip... Always start the engine with the selector lever in forward or reverse - and have the handbrake on and/or foot poised over the brake pedal, especially when starting with the choke out.

This might seem strange but that's what you have to do. The exception to this is if you are, for example, carrying work out on the engine and you might need to rev it, then you start the car in neutral.

The reason for this is that once the engine is above a few hundred revs, the clutch engages and if you try and engage "gear" when the clutch is spinning, the car and the clutch will not thank you, and it will sound awful!

As Richard says, Dafs are unique in that they should be started IN GEAR, so do make sure the handbrake is ON first! That said, Daf handbrakes are not the most efficient in the world... With Daf 33s (& all other air-cooled Dafs) the choke can be pushed back in (turned off) almost immediately once the engine has fired, so the likelihood of crunching the gears is minimal.

Driving a Daf has been equated to driving a steam engine (this was some time ago....) in that once the desired speed has been reached the knack is to ease off the throttle, thus putting the Variomatic into the highest ratio possible in the driving circumstances, thus saving fuel & reducing the engine revs. You don't have to do this, but after driving one for a while this becomes almost second nature! The noise of the engine bears very little (=no) relevance to the speed of the car, either; as you slow down the engine revs up, which is particularly noticeable with the air-cooled ones. What fun it is driving a Daf!

[centuriondaf]

Sounds great ;-)

new link to the pics flic.kr/s/aHskznt4ou

[swissdave]

Lovely work you're doing there, nice to see.

[centuriondaf]

Thanks, it will be good in the end. Long way to go still.