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Jul 18, 2014 21:24:42 GMT
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Careful with the spark plugs... These bloody things for some reason don't like the NGK, Champion, etc. I would try to find genuine "Isolator" plugs on the German Ebay instead.. My first ever car was a same color 1968 modell. I've bought polished aluminium wheelcaps with "JSP" on them, that made me very proud of it..
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Jul 19, 2014 11:23:34 GMT
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By the way you have to be careful in the going round corners wet or dry, the ass end slides very well on them if you give it some. Have a pick of my daily. And here's my other mint trabi out in Hungary. Hearing aid beige! She's lovely, how is she as a daily? I'm seriously considering buying another saloon or a Kombi also and running one as a daily… watch this space! Careful with the spark plugs... These bloody things for some reason don't like the NGK, Champion, etc. I would try to find genuine "Isolator" plugs on the German Ebay instead.. My first ever car was a same color 1968 modell. I've bought polished aluminium wheelcaps with "JSP" on them, that made me very proud of it.. Hmmm… I took it as a recommendation from a post on a Trabant forum, but I'll maybe lay off and try and find some Isolator plugs… Don't want to blow anything up! What are the side effects of using "modern" plugs? What does JSP stand for?
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Last Edit: Jul 19, 2014 11:24:16 GMT by RetroScott
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Jul 19, 2014 20:41:34 GMT
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Hahaha, you can not blow anything on a Trabi, as it's simple as a pallett. But when I had Champions in it, they become worn very quickly,and the engine started spluttering. We calld the problem as "spits on the plugs" cos they were oily. One more thong: do not use thicker mixture than 1:50, if possible. Sometimes drive her on open road keeping 60-65 miles/hour, otherwise the unburnt oil makes the exhaust dirty, results are smokey car and lack of power. JSP? Sorry, misspellt. JPS=John Player Special.
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Jul 19, 2014 21:12:02 GMT
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Cracking little Trabbi mate. Hearing Aid Beige, lol
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Jul 19, 2014 21:23:09 GMT
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Trabantsccot My trabi is perfect as a daily runabout as it is mainly a-roads and town driving that I do.
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1955 Austin A30 1981 Jawa Mustang 1990 Trabant 601 (Tommy) 1989 Trabant 601 2009 Jaguar XF 2012 Toyota AYGO 2018 Scomadi TL
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Hahaha, you can not blow anything on a Trabi, as it's simple as a pallett. But when I had Champions in it, they become worn very quickly,and the engine started spluttering. We calld the problem as "spits on the plugs" cos they were oily. One more thong: do not use thicker mixture than 1:50, if possible. Sometimes drive her on open road keeping 60-65 miles/hour, otherwise the unburnt oil makes the exhaust dirty, results are smokey car and lack of power. JSP? Sorry, misspellt. JPS=John Player Special. Ah I see. From what I've been reading and from personal experience of other classics, I think it all comes down to spark plug temperature. These B8HS NGK's that I've bought are a slightly cooler one, so I'll try that first. She will be getting a good long drive at least once a week when i take her to work,s o hopefully it shouldn't pose too much of a problem. If they start to foul with the oil though, I'll go for a slightly hotter plug, maybe a B6 or even a B5. Too hot though and it auto-ignites. It's an exact science finding the perfect spark plug! The old John Player Special look! My father had a Mini Clubman 1275GT back in maybe '78 or '79 that he had resprayed Black with a gold stripe down the side with deep dish gold wheels… a look I've always wanted to recreate! Trabantsccot My trabi is perfect as a daily runabout as it is mainly a-roads and town driving that I do. I'm looking forward to cruising around town in mine… I bet you get a lot of funny looks!! Just wish the DVLA would hurry up!
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Fitted the new plugs yesterday after they FINALLY arrived… She's running a lot nicer now. Once she's warmed up she idles nicely (for a 2 cylinder 2-stroke!) and much better than she previously did. All we're waiting on now is the registration… Hurry up DVLA!!
Here's the start up on the new plugs, leads and coils;
Hopefully on the road soon!
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Aug 10, 2014 21:29:19 GMT
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Last Edit: Aug 10, 2014 21:31:44 GMT by RetroScott
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Aug 10, 2014 22:08:06 GMT
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Fantastic, I've always had a soft spot for trabants, this one looks in really good condition and that exhaust note is fantastic, how do you find it in day to day traffic? How does the 2stroke oil work with a trabants engine? Do you have to premix it? or does it have some sort of auto lube system?
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Aug 10, 2014 22:36:25 GMT
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Fantastic, I've always had a soft spot for trabants, this one looks in really good condition and that exhaust note is fantastic, how do you find it in day to day traffic? How does the 2stroke oil work with a trabants engine? Do you have to premix it? or does it have some sort of auto lube system? It's not too bad day to day… Takes a little getting used to in some respects. It has a free wheel 4th gear so when you come off the throttle it falls back to idle (so the engine doesn't seize with the lack of 2 stroke going in) but when you're in the other gears and come off the throttle the best thing I've found to do is just dip the clutch. Firstly because of the oil but secondly it jerks quite heavily sometimes because 2 strokes fire on the overrun all the time and dipping the clutch is the only really way to solve the issue. She keeps up with traffic not too bad and the 0-40 time is actually quite good, it's just the top end of 4th you really notice the 26hp's inability to accelerate! As for the oil, you premix it when you fill… an auto lube system would be aspiration and not in the spirit of communist motoring!
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Aug 11, 2014 23:03:46 GMT
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I love it, your photos and description make me want one! Premix- well it has it's pros and cons, I can remember mixing premix in my mopeds tank, it was a PITA but it certainly had a novelty factor! In the end, I filled up the tank to the nearest litre and then used a big plastic syringe to draw the right amount of 2 stroke oil out the bottle and put it into the tank, it worked ok, the times when I mixed it wrong the bike ran like a dog!
I love the eastern block utilitarian feel of the trabant and the column shift is brilliant, one of these is definatly on my want list, although I would worry about fitting in one the cabin space doesn't look overly large, and although I'm only 6ft tall I seem to have quite long legs!
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Aug 12, 2014 15:02:35 GMT
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I'm 6'2 and I fit in just fine, it's the getting back out that's the tricky bit.
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1955 Austin A30 1981 Jawa Mustang 1990 Trabant 601 (Tommy) 1989 Trabant 601 2009 Jaguar XF 2012 Toyota AYGO 2018 Scomadi TL
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Aug 13, 2014 14:04:22 GMT
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All the best cars have to climbed in and out of; Lotus Exige, Caterham's, Ferrari F40, McLaren F1, Ford GT40 and, of course, the Trabant!
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cianha
Part of things
aka VDubbin
Posts: 923
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Aug 13, 2014 15:04:14 GMT
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This is true. Leg, Ar$e, Head, Leg. I shall add it to the list of things the Trabi has in common with other supercars. (Sprung like Corvette, cooled like an old Porsche, composite panels like an F40, steering and brake pedal like an Elise, the list goes on…)
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Last Edit: Aug 13, 2014 15:05:02 GMT by cianha
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Aug 14, 2014 15:26:31 GMT
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So I took the little car to work last night. 24 miles of a mixture of town, motorway and country roads. The little car did great! Top speed is a claimed 60MPH but realistically the cruising speed is about 45-50MPH. You can push for more, but the engine starts to scream and the car starts to vibrate and the whole thing becomes a bit uncouth. At 45 though, it's great. Arm on the door, sit back and indulge in some communist motoring! The only real worry is traffic. And hills. Both lead to a hot engine, you can start to smell it… There's no temp gauge so it's hard to tell where you're at in terms of heat. The heating system works off a heat exchanger exhaust and as such doesn't really remove any real heat from the heads. Plus the engine wears a little leather jacket. I think this may come off just now until the colder weather really sets in. It really is motoring at its most basic! On the plus side, though, fuel economy has been rather surprising. I reckon we're in the mid 30's at the moment with MPG, maybe 40 on a motorway! I'll maybe take it to work again tonight if the weather holds! Wish me luck!
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Aug 14, 2014 17:18:38 GMT
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I find that if you push the car past 55mph it starts to smooth out. I did take my trabi up to 84mph down hill once, but the fan belt fell off. To be fair it had seen better days.
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1955 Austin A30 1981 Jawa Mustang 1990 Trabant 601 (Tommy) 1989 Trabant 601 2009 Jaguar XF 2012 Toyota AYGO 2018 Scomadi TL
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Aug 14, 2014 17:39:02 GMT
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Brilliant, great to see it out and about! Is it comfortable onto drive? I was thinking about trabants last night, I know it might be scariladge but I can't help but wonder how a Yamaha 350cc YPVS engine would go in it.... 30-40mpg is pretty good considering it's a 2 stoke, I love the 2 stroke noise and the smoke, it's all part of the character!
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Aug 20, 2014 16:47:12 GMT
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Brilliant, great to see it out and about! Is it comfortable onto drive? I was thinking about trabants last night, I know it might be scariladge but I can't help but wonder how a Yamaha 350cc YPVS engine would go in it.... 30-40mpg is pretty good considering it's a 2 stoke, I love the 2 stroke noise and the smoke, it's all part of the character! Comfortable is a strong word! It's actually not too bad once you get rid of your expectations of refinement, ride quality and power, lol. Put pottering about is certainly a rather… characterful experience. Had my first problem though, maybe this one for the other Trabant owners out there. It started to develop a tinny "rattle" that sounded kind of like the fan blades hitting the casing. However, the fan blades clear the casing easily and the bearing is OK. Sometimes the rattle gets really bad for a split second at which point the car misfires. I haven't had a chance to check properly yet, but I suspect it's maybe the ignition breaker rotator unit at the end of the crankshaft pulley is maybe giving up the ghost. Any Trabant owners have any similar experiences or can shed some light on the subject?
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Aug 20, 2014 17:40:36 GMT
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I had rattle the other week, turns out it was the air filter mount had snapped. Welded it up and the trabi was happy. As yours is a 1990 trabi then it should have electronic Ignition which should not give you any problems at the crank end. I would double check every thing is tight as it could be something silly like the battery moving about. And arking out.
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1955 Austin A30 1981 Jawa Mustang 1990 Trabant 601 (Tommy) 1989 Trabant 601 2009 Jaguar XF 2012 Toyota AYGO 2018 Scomadi TL
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Aug 21, 2014 13:52:29 GMT
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I had rattle the other week, turns out it was the air filter mount had snapped. Welded it up and the trabi was happy. As yours is a 1990 trabi then it should have electronic Ignition which should not give you any problems at the crank end. I would double check every thing is tight as it could be something silly like the battery moving about. And arking out. There is an ignition timing unit mounted to the crankshaft pulley with wiring that runs up to the control board. I'm almost certain it has something to do with that as the ignition stops when the rattle gets bad. it's only for a moment or so, but it think it must be linked somehow. Only problem is I don't know a huge amount about this system. I'm going to try and get a proper look on Saturday where I'll take some photos!
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