Andyroo!

This vehicle has now been sold to someone who will be able to continue the restoration.

Given that this Forum prevents email addresses being added, I shall keep an eye on this Forum if anyone leaves a message. My mobile 'phone number IS displayed, so call or text if you wish!

Ladies and Gents, Owing to a drastic increase in the rental charge for my lock-up, and an inability to find another one nearby at an acceptable rental I'm having to consider moving my Skoda Octavia on. I should very much like it to go to a fellow enthusiast, who would appreciate its quirkiness and its odd-ball character. In addition I have a strong aversion to disposing of cars such as these via E-Bay, so that will be a last resort. Although the car has to go, the lock-up rental increase is not for a couple of months, so I do have some breathing space. Should any readers of this Forum be interested in the car I'm happy to supply more information on request. Contact me on email at: *****@*****.tld or call me on (removed) if you have any questions. The car is in Southgate, North London and would need trailering away. Sensible offers accepted!

I spent the afternoon removing the brake cylinder from the off-side front wheel, as I've decided to have them refurbished before going any further with the brakes. It's a matter of safety and I'm not prepared to compromise, as (to quote the workshop manual) "Not only the life of the car, but human lives depend on the sound condition of the brake system." Now I've removed the drum I've examined it in detail and there's no "lip" on the inside, as I've seen on many brake drums in the past. In fact, the opposite's true; the drum's internal rubbing surface, against which the shoes grip when the brakes are applied is slightly smaller than the diameter at the edge of the drum. Onwards and upwards-Removing the brake cylinder from the backplate was not as difficult as I'd envisaged; two 10mm bolts holding it in place and a 17mm open spanner to disconnect the flexible brake hose. There's a firm in Ipswich I've used before to refurbish wheel cylinders and I'll contact them regarding prices and timings. I'll also check the prigos.cz website regarding the cost of new ones. Mine are the earlier ones, with wheels at each end, that are adjusted through the gaps in the drum.

Taking advice from another contributor I've bought a set of "obstruction" spanners; basically spanners that go round corners, I expect they'll help quite a lot!

I've removed the front brake drum using a two armed puller with the arms inserted into the holes in the drum through which the brakes are adjusted. Having removed it I've now fitted the shoes, complete with the three springs (blimey, who thought up that way of doing things?) and the two rather primitive steady posts. That was fairly simple, once I'd realised just how much strength was needed to lever them into place! Now the drum won't go back on! I should add at this stage that as a retired V.W. mechanic I'm familiar with all the usual "tricks" to "persuade" the drum back onto the hub, but this one's having none of it....I've retired to contemplate my next move, over a glass or 12 of something chilled, and will report more soon. The shoes are the ones removed by the previous owner and ARE the front ones, the rear ones having a bar joining the shoes to accept the handbrake connection, so I know they're the front shoes. Referring once again to the Motoring Which report from April 1965, the Skoda's brakes were described as being heavy in normal use and as having "an extremely heavy return spring"; a fact to which I can now attest!

I've successfully fitted a new air filter and housing to the top of the engine, so that's another job done! I'm moving onto the brakes now, and I've removed the off-side front wheel with a view to refitting the brakes. The previous owner had removed the brake shoes and informed me of this, leaving the brakes in the boot. My job is now to re-fit them and I need a little advice before I go in with a heavy hand. Having studied both the workshop manual AND the instruction booklet I'm no clearer how to remove the drum. The instruction booklet explains both how to bleed and adjust the brakes, but not how to access the shoes themselves. Having removed the wheel the brake drum looks like it simply "pops off" with the aid of some judicial lateral tapping to the rear. However, some enthusiastic tapping has not resulted in any movement of the drum. Does the hub nut have to be removed first? I hope not, as that'll involve a great deal more work! Any thoughts?

Yes, I'm aware of the "back-to-front" gearbox arrangement, which was commented upon by "Motoring Which" when they tested the car in 1965. Their testers quickly became used to it, though. The report went on to say that, although the Skoda Octavia Super was over £100 less to buy than a Ford Cortina or B.M.C. 1100, the apparent saving was wiped out by higher fuel costs (the Skoda did 29 M.P.G., compared to the Cortina's 34) MUCH higher servicing costs (The Skoda had 12 greasing points & servicing every 1,000 miles whereas the Cortina had NONE, and servicing intervals of 5,000 miles) and bigger depreciation. All in all, NOT a good buy! The huge positive camber was a problem with the car when it was lightly loaded and caused some handling problems if driven hard. Some reports suggested the suspension setup was designed for the poor roads of eastern Europe and not the smoother ones in the west, and one specific report said that dealers would remove a leaf or two from the rear suspension, to give the car a softer ride and better handling.

I'll post a few more here when I have. chance, although describing the car as "glorious" is overplaying it a bit!

Having been piggy-backing on an Antipodean thread about a 1964 Skoda Octavia until now, I thought it only fair that I should start my own, and so I'll summarise what's happened with the car so far: I acquired the car in December 2020, from a guy in Kent, in whose family it had been since it was new. I bought it "sight unseen" and, while appreciating the risks this might involve, I had long conversations with the owner and felt comfortable with things, not least because the cars are so rare I'd be lucky to ever see another one! The car was delivered by transporter to a lock-up I'd rented in Whetstone, north London, exclusively for storing the car and I quickly realised what a great car I had! The boot was crammed with parts, the engine turned over happily and the bodywork looked pretty good. In addition, the previous owner handed me an ENORMOUS file, including the original bill of sale, numerous M.O.T.s and associated documents-brilliant! The boot contained the car's original number-plates, although the car sported a newer registration. The previous owner had already explained that the car had "slid off the radar" of the D.V.L.A. & so had received a new number. Fortunately I managed to re-register the car with its original number, with the assistance of the the Skoda Owners Club, and sort out another anomaly in the car's details at the same time-result! The entire process took less than a fortnight and, as this was over the Christmas and New Year festivities, I was most impressed with the speed of the service! All the engine needed was a battery & new plugs and I had it running in no time, albeit from a 5 litre can. Later I changed the fuel pump, to assist the fuel delivery, but there was (and still is!) a problem with the fuel line, but that's for another day! The car had no brakes at all, a fact of which I was aware, so progress up and down the road adjacent to the lock-up was, of necessity, limited. The intervention of more stringent Covid restrictions meant very little could be done for several months, and when I did have a chance to work on the car again, the starter motor had failed! To describe the removal of the starter motor from a Skoda Octavia as "difficult" would be an understatement of a magnitude unimaginable! Oddly, there's a trailer for a new series of "Bangers and Cash Restorations" on T.V. at the moment, in which a restoration mechanic says that it's possible to spend 4 hours just undoing one nut........I know how he feels! The starter is held in by two 17mm nuts, one of which it's just possible to get at, with the aid of extreme dexterity. The other one-forget it! The workshop manual says 2 specific spanners are needed and lists the part numbers......some hope! No-one had them, or had even heard of them. But this morning, I "bit the bullet" and e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y I removed it! I suspect the right-hand drive cars had several design problems, not least being the removal of said starter motor. I removed the gearbox link from the steering column, the metal heater pipe linking the front lower hose to the heater matrix, the vacuum pipe from the carburettor to the distributor and this allowed me to get a 17mm spanner onto the inner nut, between the engine block and the starter motor. I "cracked" it and, once cracked, the 17mm socket slowly shifted it & the starter came free..... Removing it from the engine bay meant unscrewing the 4 nuts holding the down pipe to the exhaust manifold, and, once shifted, I extracted the starter motor. By now it was 3pm on a sunny Saturday, so I adjourned to a "local hostelry" for several "cold ones". On Monday I'll take the starter to Unit Exchange in Borehamwood, for a refurbish.

Dear Skoda brains! My Octavia's starter motor has stopped working! My investigations have so far taught me several things, including: 1/ The starter motor is in an almost inaccessible place. 2/ The Skoda workshop manual says you need 2 special spanners in order to remove it. 3/ I don't have these spanners! 4/ I'm not as agile or as young as I once was..... However, all is not lost..... I initially though the problem was merely a flat battery-it wasn't-so I dug further..... The headlights (such as they are; 35 watt bulbs are not that bright....) weren't going dim when the starter wire was pulled, so I deduced no current was reaching the starter. Closer examination revealed the split pin, on which the arm that swings the live feed pivots, had fallen out of the motor, and couldn't be found on the garage floor. At this point I decided to remove the starter motor, and managed to remove the 17mm nut from the off-side of the starter, using a socket and a very long extension, but the one sandwiched between the starter and the engine block has yet to surrender. Has anyone ever tackled this job is there any advice out there as to how I ought to proceed?

In appreciate it's a year later, but at last things are on the move, in both senses of the word! The restoration is continuing, although I now need to remove the starter motor, as it's not functioning properly. However, its removal is not quite as simple as one would imagine. The workshop manual lists 2 special spanners necessary to undo the nuts required to remove it. I have managed to undo the lower one without these special tools, but the top one is proving impossible. The spanners have the part numbers Ac Eca 897 and 896 in the manual, and an internet search for them has proved unhelpful. The problem is that the nut is tucked in tightly next to the engine block and no socket can go over the nut, as the water pipe's in the way. One really has to wonder at the thinking behind designing something as awkward as this!

A belated update on my classic Octavia. The Coronavirus has really slowed things down, and coupled with TWO moves of garage means I've not really had much chance to do much, although it is still able to run (but not yet stop....) under its own steam (well, petrol!) I'm planning to convert it to negative earth, to permit the future fitting of a decent stereo. The dynamo has been converted by a local experienced auto electrical company and I'll reverse the coil's connections. Beyond that I ought to be O.K.... I've discovered that the temperature gauge isn't really a temperature gauge, as there's no electrical connection whatsoever; it's what's called a tele thermometer, which records the engine temperature and displays it remotely on the dashboard, so it should show the temperature regardless of whether the ignition is on or off. The other odd thing is the fuel tank wiring: I can't fathom out why there are two feeds from the gauge to the tank! Every fuel gauge I've ever worked on has a simple feed from the gauge to the tank and the float acts as a variable rheostat, passing less or more current as the level rises and falls. But not the Skoda Octavia...... Has anyone else noticed this? I've attached a wiring diagram, to show what I mean:

Latest update: The ignition key barrel and key have been returned to me, and I've fitted the barrel back into the car's dashboard. Pragos have supplied a new fuel pump, which I've fitted and confirmed that it works properly. I've also disconnected the electric fuel pump that the previous owner had mounted on the engine bay inner wing, although I've yet to remove it. The car now runs happily with petrol being pumped from a 5 litre can, via the new pump, to the carburettor. What's more....I've driven the car, under its own steam, up and down the access road to my lock-up, in first and reverse gear. The fuel line to the tank is not blocked, as I confirmed by using a piece of rubber hose to connect my tyre pump blowing compressed air into the line, removing the tank filler cap and hearing loads of bubbling! I still want to remove the entire contents of the tank, both old and new petrol, muck and associated crud. I'll do this by removing the tank from the boot (it's only held in by a couple of bolts & the hose to the engine bay) and flushing it out in the open air, carefully...... Once done, I'll re-fit and confirm the new pump can draw fuel from the tank correctly. The headlamp re-chroming has been postponed sine die as I've now rebuilt both headlamp units using rubber parts from Pragos and will fit these back onto the car very soon. I still find it incredible that Skoda supplied these cars with pathetic 35/35 watt headlamp bulbs! Continuing on the electrical theme, my shenanigans with the wiring have prompted the windscreen wipers and heater fan back to life! Previously these items were dead, but, perhaps as a result of my tightening of the screw terminals on the back of the ignitions switch, these now work! Another few jobs ticked off the "to do" list.... Onwards and upwards! I hope the originator of this thread doesn't mind my "hijacking" it. If so, I'm happy to start an alternative one!