Oh, the joy of owning an old Murena ;-)

[Oetker]

The fuse panel and connectors are the worst parts in our Murena's and after that the wiring loom in the engine compartment.
It is not completely finished yet, but already some strange faults disappeared.
The wiring for the engine can be made more simple.
I dump the testconnector, and then you need very little wiring for the engine.
The testconnector is of no use.
No garage has the equipment to do something with it.
Yes, this kept me busy for a while, but I like this to be reliable.

[Jon Weywadt]

All my problems disapeared since I did this.

A great job Oetker. 

The only thing is that it retains the old style fuses and they are unreliable in my oppinion. But you sure reduced the problems.

Jesper, Jan and I have chosen a more difficult method, but it does provide for new fuses. I just started a topic on that.

Regards.
Jon.

[Oetker]

When I started this job I was prepared to change the fuseholders to, but they gave me no problem so far.
I found that some Peugeots have similair fuseboards with better fuseholders.




The print is not totaly the same, but the fuseholders are stronger.
I was planning to swap them on the original panel, but my panel was in pretty good shape, so I didn't.
Maybe in a later stadium.

[michaltalbot]

The testconnector is of no use.
No garage has the equipment to do something with it.

This connector is good for, for example, to have plus pole when setting pre-ignition.
It's the same as at old Renault 21 or 25, some garages still have the diagnostic for this connector. I checked it with my SX Tagora.

[Oetker]

Yep, but you can dump much wires if you get rid of it.
In the past 2 years it was of no use for me.
The only wires that have to cross the engine are.
Startwire
+L and +  to the alternator
Carbvalve 1 wire

The rest of the wiring is around module and coil and is located around the right side of the enginebay.
I like to bring coil and and module higher in the bay to make it easy access.

[suffolkpete]

Quote from Bart_Maztra on 11 January 2010

It seems that older toyota fan should fit without mods. And that's japanese quality.

Do you happen to have more details, Bart?  Such as year and model of Toyota?  My fan motor has just burnt out and I think I need a replacement.

[Jon Weywadt]

It seems that older toyota fan should fit without mods. And that's japanese quality.

I have done it: i.e. installed a Toyota Starlet fan in the Murena.  Result: More air through the system, the fan is silent, more powerful, more reliable.

Hans
[/quote]

My heater blower repair is turning out to be short lived.
The problem is that the blower wheel does not want to stay in place and I hessitate to glue it onto the motor shaft, because I would not be able to perform further repairs on the motor.

So Hans, what year Toyota Starlet did you get a fan from? Rather than continuing to repair the old fan (much fun as it is ) I would like to get a new, reliable fan.

[Matra_Hans]

Hi
Searching at Wikipedia I think it must be a 60 Series Starlet which was  in production from  1978 to October 1984. So such a donor car migth be hard to find today.
I changed the fan more than 10 years ago most likely in 1996 or 1997 at that time old Starlets were easy to find.

Hans

[Jon Weywadt]

The joy never stops.

Today I drove to my friend Jan and on the way there I thought the gear shift lever seemed loose. I thought it might be the teflon wrapping I put around the ball that had worn out.

Alas, it turned out to be the sleve above the slot for the reverse lock-out pin, that had broken off. While ivestigating it closer, the spring pushed the lever completely out of the remaining piece.

I removed the spring and tried to drive it, being careful not to use great force. But after a few shifts the pieces on either side of the slot, spread out and the shifter could not be used.

I used a pair of pliers to squeze them back in place and placed a hose clamp around it, so it could not spread out again and to hold the lever in place.

I made it home and removed the gear shift lever. the photos show the piece that broke off.

After cleaning the pieces, I applied flux and brazed the pieces back together with silver. First I had wrapped the nylon ball im aluminium tape, because I knew it wouuld melt, no matter how careful I was.

When cooled off I removed the aluminium tape and found that the nylon ball was mostly intact, though not completely round. So a bit of filing and sanding (the aluminium tape stuck in the nylon of course) I wrapped it in a new sheet of Teflon, applied grease to the pieces and assembled it all again.

It now works "like new", well almost.

[roy4matra]

The joy never stops.

Today I drove to my friend Jan and on the way there I thought the gear shift lever seemed loose...

Alas, it turned out to be the sleve above the slot for the reverse lock-out pin, that had broken off. While investigating it closer, the spring pushed the lever completely out of the remaining piece...

Jon (and others) this split gear lever on early models has always been fragile and prone to breaking and it is not necessary.  Simply remove the detent plate at the bottom that requires the gear lever to be pushed down to get reverse and weld the lever up solid.  Then the system will be like the later models and more reliable.  The gearbox itself has no requirement for this detent selection.


Regarding your comment on another thread, about the wiring and the current through the ignition switch, the window motor currents do not go through the ignition switch.  The ignition switch powers up the fourth relay on the board and the motors are powered from the relay.  (other three relays are: 1 for dip, 1 for main, and 1 for aux. driving lights)

Roy

[Jon Weywadt]

Jon (and others) this split gear lever on early models has always been fragile and prone to breaking and it is not necessary.  ---  The gearbox itself has no requirement for this detent selection.


Regarding your comment on another thread, about the wiring and the current through the ignition switch, the window motor currents do not go through the ignition switch.  The ignition switch powers up the fourth relay on the board and the motors are powered from the relay.  (other three relays are: 1 for dip, 1 for main, and 1 for aux. driving lights)

Roy

I was wondering about that when I replaced the second gear synchro this summer. It seemed that there was a reverse gear detent in the box, that should prevent you from going from 5th. straight to to reverse. However, I did not investigate it closely as I was busy looking for the pin and spring. They were not easy to hold in place during assembly and popped out 3 times before I got it.

About the ignition switch. I am relieved to hear that. Jan and I had measured the power consumed by the windows and the blower. We missed that the windows go through relays. However, the blower does not, and if I remember right, we measured it to appx 15 amps on step 3. As I wrote in another post it nearly caught on fire last sunday, so it will also go through relays as fast as I can make the mod.

/Jon

[Jon Weywadt]

Well one more for the joy of these old cars.

Last year I bought a new speeder pedal from Simons as the other one broke at the hinge. The new one broke yesterday. 

Today I then fabricated a hinge out of a 0.8mm piece of stainless steel and popriveted last years speeder pedal to the hinge.

I found a suitable hinge pin (plug from an old tent) and curved the plate around the pin, using a hammer, a steel block and the bench vice. Once each plate had been folded around the pin, I cut the notches to lock them into a hinge. The pin was bent so it was locked in place by the end of the hinge. The hinge was then popriveted to the old speeder pedal with washers on the back side. Back in the car it now works perfectly. 

Not sure how long pop rivets will hold up. So one future project is to make the whole pedal out of metal and integrate the hinge into the design.

Below are some photos of this afternoons project.

[Oetker]

Exelent solution for the problem.
If the pedals are so weak, I find myself something as a spare.