Fun weekend with the Syncro

Post by **Syncro G** » 24 Oct 2007, 21:51

Last weekend an old mate from Uni had a flat warming party in his new place near Brighton. Its a small place so I thought taking the van would have a number of advantages...

Use less fuel than the series 1.
Get there slightly faster and with less noise.
If the place is too packed I can sleep in it.

The run down went very well, and after filling up for the return jeurney it seems to have achived nearly 40mpg on the run down - not bad at all! Slightly beaten by the return trip though, I recon about 384mpg on the way back

Think its about time I did the front CV's, they didn't actually fail but it started sounding like a brick in a washing machine when going in a straight line and the steering was shaking about as much. Squidgeing the grease around inside the boots didn't seem to help much eather. It was fine up until then, only clicking sometimes on tight corners (temp cured with a squidge of the boots). Now it does it on idle in G in a straight line. The most traumatic part of the expereance however was the RAC gave me an 07 cors[e]a to go home in as there wasn't enough tacho hours for the remaining 220 miles of recovery that night. That was Sunday, van arrived this afternoon. Can't complain with the service though, maybe i should have taken the CV clicking more seriously - at least the rears are nice and shiny.

Post by **toomanytoys** » 25 Oct 2007, 05:53

Oh.... mine started clicking only off road and under load... so I dropped it, cleaned and inspected... naff all wear, so reassembled... still does it.... hope it doesnt do the "falling to bits" thing next week....

Post by **v-lux** » 25 Oct 2007, 10:01

Mine started clicking offroad alot,
Then they started clicking on tight corners,
Then when offroad in the middle of nowhere, both the inner and outer joint decided to fail catastrophically, so much so i was able to remove the drive shaft without unboling anything

I would suggest you pull them to bits and inspect VERY thoroughly, make sure there's no cracks in the cage that holds the bearings aswell as checking the running surfaces.

Post by **Syncro G** » 31 Oct 2007, 13:31

Well I've finally got round to taking it to bits, so here's the thorough inspection...

Nice CV boot, not held on that well, lets see if it comes off without any tools...

Humm, that wasn't hard! But what lies beneath?

I think that inspection is detailed enough! Oh dear!

Looks like my idea of getting it trailered home was a rather wise one

Post by **v-lux** » 31 Oct 2007, 14:06

Eeeek, yup thats the kind of destruction i was talking about.

Theyre not all that cheap those outer joints either.....

Try Baxter, i think i remember seeing that he had reasonabley priced outer joint kits on his new webshop.

Website · Post by **syncrosimon** » 31 Oct 2007, 19:05

When I was skint, and suffered from CV problems, I bought an old fashioned pump oil can. I then took off the shaft clip on the CV boot, and squirted oil into the knackered Cv joint by forcing the tube down inside the boot. This instantly stopped that dreaded knocking and clicking, and would last for several hundred miles before another suirt would be required. When I finaly got around to replacing the CV's and inspecting the old ones, they were completely shot, but worked fine with enough oil in them.

Just a thought for anyone who would like to fix there Cv's for a fiver and in 10 minutes.

simon,

Post by **Ye Olde Syncrospares** » 31 Oct 2007, 20:23

ive genuine new syncro front outer cv joints in stock and good used joints if needed cj.

Website · Post by **syncrosimon** » 01 Nov 2007, 08:43

This is what happened when a CV joint broke on my first syncro in 1992, see even a five year old syncro can still have problems. Ended up spending £800 on my dads credit card ( I was only young and poor having just bought the thing ) and Sutherlands of Skye removed all eight, replaced four and repacked the others. Me and the future wife were free camping at the time, and the garage very kindly ( not really considering the price) picked us up and took us back on the above flat bed whilst the repairs were on going, to our free camping spot. Those CV's though did a further 80,000 miles without incident, so you pays your money...

After this problem I notced that every now and then the temp gauge would shoot up real fast to maximum and the coolant light flash. We checked all hoses and water levels and all was well. A few days later though when off roading on a long 5 mile track between Nethy Bridge and Bridge of Brown the cause became aparant. A firework display started under the drivers seat with loud poppings and bangings, We quickly decamped as sparks were shooting out from the battery box under the drivers seat. From a safe distance I realised that the battery was shorting and unless I stopped it she was gonna burn. Grabbing a ten mm spanner and my motorcyle jacket to protect against exploding batteries I was able to undo the earth clamp and avoid disaster. The positive terminal had soldered itself onto the battery tray lid. We got another garage out (RAC) who met us at the coin box at the Bridge of Brown (no Mobiles then) and drove off road to where the syncro was. After chiselling off the terminal it was clear that a too tall battery had been fitted and was touching the lid. The temp gauge malfunction was due to the short out. She ran fine after that and a new battery was installed. Happy days.

Post by **Macflai** » 01 Nov 2007, 15:19

syncrosimon wrote:The temp gauge malfunction was due to the short out. She ran fine after that and a new battery was installed. Happy days.

WHAT? OMG

Temp gauge on my Syncro van is not working now... I was asking myself why, but no answer... I checked the connection n the engine bay, it's connected to the cyl head (looking forward), looks ok, then checked all the fuses but they are all ok, I was checking also the connections behind the temp gauge, but seems ok... I also have a battery under the co-driver's seat, it is a bit tall, but I can close the cover (also the cover is made from metal but it has something like a carpet to isolate it)... so I don't know...

I had a problem installing a new CD-Player, it seems something was touching earth or wathever and a fuse was blown, I checked all the wires, but ok... Now the fuse doesn't blew...

Any relation cd-player > temp gauge?

Is that about the temp gauge a common failure?

Post by **HarryMann** » 04 Nov 2007, 00:26

The outer CV boots are glued onto the CV Joints as well as clamped on, to prevent this type of failure..

There are also neoprene V-ring seals at the inner end to protect the wheel bearings from water ingress, which are now n/a but Aidan can supply..