trip down memory lane

[novalew]

hi all, hope monday has treated you all well?

While bored at work today i was reminiscing about my old GSI (RIP NORRIS) and more particularly all the funny breakdowns i have had, the funniest was while changing a head gasket i broke the alternator bracket so i made one. The next day i had to go to Wales, so down the M4 the batt light come on (at 80ish) So obviously i thought Poo!! so i pulled over turned the engine off and had a gander (to then be reminded how driving fast made under the bonnet extremely HOT!! Couldn't see anything directly wrong so tried to turn the engine over and you guessed it .... nothing...

Thats when i realised that my makeshift job the previous day resulted in the same way as most things i make an epic fail. The way i did the bracket meant that it wasnt holding the alternator straight and it needed something to be wedged inbetween the engine and the alternator to keep it tensioned. so i had to climb the embankment to try and find something to use after a few minutes i found a bit off a broken fence so i wedged it in. Now all that was left was to start the car, did i mention i was alone... so there i am pushing my my car down the hard shoulder alone, (thank god it was a nova) and then did something out of a movie jumping in quick enough to pop it in second to jump it. 3rd attempt it worked and my car got me back home, did i mention that it was in the summer and the motorway was tailbacked yet noone offered a little bit of assistance.

I have since put a tool kit in every car i have and have breakdown cover.

anyone else had any nova adventures?

[Lee]

Motorway fences have all kind of uses.

I was coming out of a 50mph average speedcheck on the M4 in my old astravan, so naturally downgeared it, and the linkage broke. So pulled off to find the pin that holds the selector onto the gearbox had somehow lost its circlip, and had vanished.

Hopped up the embankment, and spent ten minutes yanking a nail out of a fence post with my bare hands lol. reattached the linkage with it, and then bent it over 90 degrees to stop it falling out. It stayed on the van till I got rid of it 6 months later lol


My first Nova SR was by far the best though. Started the car in a petrol station, only to find the engine making a terrible racket. Got it towed home by a mate to find that one of the three bolts that hold the KnN on had vanished. I took the head off, and found it lying in cylinder number 3, and the piston had mushroomed over beautifully. The valve had nommed it on its way through as well, which was nice.

I stuck the head back on (original headgasket lol) and fired it up. It ran smooth as silk over 3k revs, and a tad lumpy on idle. Carried on driving it for another year like that with no issues lol

[Jack]

The t-piece on the water outlet at the front/bottom of the expansion tank, er, melted into a curly thing and spat a load of water out. Just as we were showing up a Saxo, damnit lol

And the Frankenspring, which sheared in half and nearly took craigy's head off during an MOT lol

[mowgli]

throttle cable snapped, so i took the choke cable off, and used a thin pop rivet to hold the choke in position, then used a crimp terminal to connect my choke cable to the remnants of the throttle cable, and then carried on down the m40 with my new cruise control...... changing gear was a hoot though, as i'd never had much to do with motorbikes at that point.....

rh engine mount snapped, lump of wood & bungee cord...

rh wiper linkage fell off on autobahn at 100+mph in a sudden downpour... missus had to sacrifice her hair scrunchy for that one..

[Lee]

The t-piece on the water outlet at the front/bottom of the expansion tank, er, melted into a curly thing and spat a load of water out. Just as we were showing up a Saxo, damnit lol

And the Frankenspring, which sheared in half and nearly took craigy's head off during an MOT lol


Ah yes, the first time Ive ever been glad to see a traffic womble equipped with a bottle of water lol

[Spudly]

I used to deliver pizzas in my old nova and my clutch cable snapped turning round down a side street, so i crash boxed it all the way back to the shop, swiped my bosses van so i could drive home and remove the cable from the 'spare' nova that i had (£30 for a fully running moar door hatch with no tax or mot, those were the days) and i was back out in time for the next delivery after returning to the shop and fitting new cable:thumb:

[General Baxter]

I stuck the head back on (original headgasket lol) and fired it up. It ran smooth as silk over 3k revs, and a tad lumpy on idle. Carried on driving it for another year like that with no issues lol

i remember you telling me that, you sold it as 'cammed' lol

[Lee]

i remember you telling me that, you sold it as 'cammed' lol

Yup lol lol

[mowgli]

we had a worker jump a canal bridge when changing down to second in a 1.7d astra.... stripped the cambelt & snapped half the followers.. i dropped the coolant, undid the headbolts, took the cam box off & filed the rough bits off the cam lobes, stuck some followers from a spare old engine, fitted the spare cambelt & bolted it back together... with the intention of sticking it through measham auction. it drove so well on the way to measham that we brought it back & kept it for a couple more years.

[Bubba]

pulling onto a vauxhall forecourt to fill up at the garage, put in 40quid, pulled away and bang, transfer box imploded and locked up. VTS locked box too. The came out, confirmed it was broken then asked if i wanted to book it in to be repaired lmfao.

[Spudly]

Errr bubba, novas dont have tx boxes:p

[blue_peg_16v]

i had to call green flag out twice on a trip to dave marshals for some bits the exhaust fell off the loon and i had a blow out.

but my worst and best memory was the fast show with pvg at santa pod managerd to sheer both outer cvs in the hubs and i was only runing a standard diff lol got phil to tow me out and down the road and called the rac when asked if id been racing i replied no and the truck driver started laughing.

had a few engine explosions the fly wheel on my 1.2 became some how detached and smashed the gearbox into 3 pieces dont know how that happened had nothing to do with there being 3 weeks to billing and my x wouldnt let me xe it, my excuse when it blew up i have a spare xe and shafts in the garage so it wont cost owt, were as a new engine is gonna cost a fortune she fell for it lol

[Bubba]

Errr bubba, novas dont have tx boxes:p
bah i saw the words 1.7d astra...therefore assuming i could relive tales with myself that make me smile

my first nova self-lowered itself on the back

[NOV4_SPORT]

I broke down at the services about twenty mins from billing aqua drome, the electronic fuel pump had stopped working.

Thankfully i was traviling with ade in his then sr and me in the sport, ade being ade stayed with me till i got it fixed, luckly there was an aa van attending to a broken down fiesta lol so i asked to borrow his volt meter so i could check the conections were getting power and nothing, put the fuel pump back on and reconected it, swore a lot, then tryed one last turn of the key, and it worked, ah good old novas they just seem to fix themselfs lol.

Good times lying on your side with petrol running down your arms in the backing sun lol

iain

[Lee]

i had to call green flag out twice on a trip to dave marshals for some bits the exhaust fell off the loon

Ahhh that reminds me of hooning along the M4 one summers evening, when there was an almighty bang and a loud scraping noise where the exhaust parted from the backbox.

On the hard shoulder, i removed the backbox, and bent the rest of the pipe back and fourth till it snapped off at the downpipe. To my surprise the bloody thing was just as quiet with no exhaust, so i ran it for the rest of the year without one lol

[novalew]

You just couldn't have the same fun in new cars. Bring back cars that can be fixed by what's lying around.

Has anyone ever lost 1st 2nd and reverse now that made a 10 mile trip home. Especially the traffic lighted motorway on a bank holiday that took me two green lights to get through.

[shed-on-wheels]

i remember when i first passed i went out and bought a gte i thought wow its really fast and all my mates had corsa gsi' saaxo vtr's ect and they all used to say its only a nova so one day wee all went on a random drive to liverpool and on the way there we had some lovly lanes and then the motor way well i changed from 4th to 5th looked down was doing 120 then 125 130 and bang clunk clunk clunk stoped and noticed i put i hole through the block and snaped a rod so towed it all the way home from liverpool with a k10 micra lol

[General Baxter]

so 100 then lol

[Dave.]

Ive only had one real breakdown since i started driving, when ym fuel gauge was broken i ran out of petrol on the M56 i think doing 70, managed to roll into the first lane, down a shallow hill for about 2 miles, then off onto a sliproad (still downhill) straight onto a roundabout without stopping (was about 4am so no traffic) onto a service station slip road and literally jsut about roll into the petrol station forcourt, had to push it about 10 foot to get to the pumps lol, but still, good old Nova :thumb:

[brownbear]

In the wifes five door when it was my daily.

hammered the heck out of it to his parents. Was parking it and it cut out (I thought i'd stalled it) wouldn't re-start, cam belt had snapped. was mighty chuffed it waited till I got there. Threw on one we had in the garage, started first turn of the key.

Driving down the M56 and suddenly my feet got hot VERY HOT heater matrix had blown. drove it for a further 30 miles to his rents again. Popped to the scrappy got another matrix. Started first turn of the key no issues and ran till the MOT ran out and we broke it for spares... :( R.I.P 801