Val

So having been made redundant a year ago need to scrape together the pennies. How much is a mint condition Mk1 Saracen worth? Since I've been on, we've replaced all the hosing, the batts, the generator is working, the accumulators have been serviced, new seals and gaitors, and the engine has had a service. Infact everything is done expect the internal comms and a respray. It's been ages since I've been on. How is everyone?

Heya all, Is anyone free and can come and charge up the accumulators on an Mk1 Saracen in London? I have a small compressor which'll do the necessary pre compresson for an intensifier. Will bung you £50 for your troubles. Needed asap.

We took Fred for a leak today and after 15 odd minutes to get all the water out. Has it been raining that much??? Anyways, all seems fine now, panic over Another question though, on the video clip, just after we start the engine there is a deep vrooooom noise that sounds like it's a starter motor or something, that doesn't sound right does it?

It's not mist, it's huge amount of oily water. I thought that about the hull water but then thought against it as I thought it'd be unlikely that there'd be that much water on level ground or that the water could get to the coupling. I'll take him for a leak when I have the accumulators charged. Thanks Richard.

It's never left in gear, learnt that from the days before I had working brakes, trying to stop a rolling saracen isn't easy lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyRxjPBe0Xk It's oily water. Went to work on the Saracen today, needed to replace the hydraulic brake lines and fill up with ISO10. We started it and water started spilling out from the seams of the plates, when you revved the engine it'd come out more. We unbolted the small panel in front of the driver seat over the fluid coupling? and water started gushing out. What is it? Have we burst something? On another note, gonna have to charge the ruddy accumulators again. Bane of my life they are.

I have a friend in Manchester who has 50litres of petrol/diesel mix (equal measures) he is trying to get rid of it and asked if it would be any good for the Saracen, but it's not. Is it of any use to any of you multi-fuel boys and girls (are there any girls?)?

While I was at the Saracen today draining all of the fluid, I wondered round to the shops for a Mars bar and noticed a huge building with a hydraulics sign 2 minutes away, so I popped in, they're now making me replicas of all six hoses and fixings and 25litres of ISO10 for £150. Very friendly too

Right, tanks and pipes are completely drained Thanks for your helps guys

I was only a couple of miles away in the Saracen, I did think about joining them but sadly no brakes or steering.

You should be safe in replacing with any type of battery, I replaced the 60amp ones in the Saracen with deep cycle 125ah ones. 25amps might seem like a lot, but it really isn't. Any power you consume during driving is going straight from the generator and backed up by the batteries rather than the other way around if that makes sense? Before I replaced my batteries, I had a pair of wheelchair batteries in there 20ah each! They did the job but bless them they could only manage a few cranks before needing a charge up. Very low CCA.

Thanks Richard, I buy the EMERs as I need them and am waiting for the latest to turn up, having dropped MV an email.

How much is the Morris stuff? How do I flush the SAE30 from the system?

Will this fluid do as a replacement? http://www.lubetechshop.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=25_40&products_id=81

How do I flush it out? Can someone state all the types of fluid I will need and where for? I guess the first one is Hydraulics = ISO-10 or 12.

The Clarks stuff is an awful lot thinner than any engine oil I've seen, bugger though. How do I get it all out? The SAE30 stuff has been in there for a year and working fine up until I topped it up the other day

What do you think I have done?

The SAE 30 is going in the engine bay, left hand side from the front, where it is marked OM13, the manual diagram seems to say this is the right place. Have I broked it?

A good charger like a CTEK 7000+ should be able to rejuvenate a dead battery, they have a mode where they pulse the plates breaking off the sulphur. They aren't cheap but I use one on my other batteries which get completely drained every month in one evening and then charged up a couple of days time. Same run time Same batts for the last 1.5 years. Ask around and see if one your friends have one, if you have a rich friend, they used to come with the Astons, Bentleys etc a few years ago.

At the moment, I'm using Clarkes SAE30 oil designed for compressors and garden engines. I read it was a decent replacement for OM13 on some website a while back. But is it any good? What is the best stuff to use? Castrol 15/30w part synthetic? I've read through the various threads here and to be honest I got even more confused lol. Anyways, I'm going to clean out the system and fill it up so would rather use the best stuff.

Cheers guys, I will call both. I'm guessing the accumulators will need charging again too?

Damn, are they expensive? I dread to think of how many hoses there are in a Saracen.

Yesterday as I was doing laps around the local roads in the Saracen Mk1 to give it a once over, I slammed on the brakes to test the stopping power and the sound of loud leaking air and splatters filled the air as I lost brakes and steering and eventually rolled to a stop, thankfully in my good sense I was testing on an industrial estate with big wide roads and no traffic on sundays. I got out and saw basically all the oil from the system leaking from near the rear right hand side wheel, on closer inspection the steel coiled pipe had a cracked along it. Brakes have always been perfect since I had the accumulators, the only difference today was that I noticed the oil tank was running low so I topped it up with mineral oil equivalent to OM13. I was only about half a mile from the parking lot so did a temporary fix, I wrapped in countless layers of duct tape and then a couple of wide jubilee/hoser clips, put some oil in and drove it back, it just about worked. So two questions really, could this have happened because I put too much oil in? And where can I get a replacement pipe? I've been through the manuals and tech repairs, but I can't find my parts list so I was wondering if anyone knew the part number? It is the steel hydraulic cable that goes to the rear right hand side wheel brake. Thanks guys. I think I should have brought a Nissan Bluebird over a Saracen, much more reliable lol.

Shows, hmmm, I dunno, when I recover, unfortunately I am very ill at the moment but even if I wasn't, have you seen the price of fuel lately? The B80 was quite thirsty 40 odd years ago, now it's an alcoholic. I can barely afford to drive it down the road for a test lol. There are still a few niggles that I want to sort out, the handbrake doesn't engage as solidly as I feel it should, internal comms and I'm not sure if the generator is working.

If you manage to source a hand-crank or equivalent, please let me know!