Ranger Cub Page 5

February 2024

After a reasonably quiet January, mainly due to the weather meant that very little was able to be done.

I know I had fixed the horn when I first got the Cub, but I knew I wanted something a bit louder, so I fitted a set of air horns to it. In the past I have used the more compact type, but the Cub has plenty of space available at the front, so I went with the more traditional type.

Air horns

I decided the first weekend in Febuary was time to get the Cub dusted off and out for a short run for lunch.

Before I went out I fitted a small phone holder to the corner of the dash, and a two cup/can drinks holder to behind the gearstick. This needed to be spaced away from the seat base, and needed a simple bracket to hold it level.

Phone mount

Cup holder

During the run a pull to the left under braking and a slight vibration was noticed, and on jacking the car up, I found a little play in the left-hand wheel, with my hands at the 12 & 6 position. So I check the ball joints for play, a little was found in the top joint, so it was stripped, cleaned and checked for wear, before it was re-shimmed and re-attached.

Chipshop run

Top balljoint

The brake drums where then removed and I found that three of the four cylinders were leaking, so four rebuild kits were ordered. Its possible to replace the seals with the brakes still on the car making it a quick job. This was then followed by bleeding the brakes.

Leaking cylinder

rebuild kits

Late in the month a sunny, if cold, Sunday allowed a test run to Fraserburgh. I called in past various places, including the Kinnaird head lighthouse and winetower. This is home to the Scottish lighthouse museum. Once I had a few snaps I headed to the beach for an ice-cream.

Fraserburgh harbour

The Winetower

Kinnaird Lighthouse

The Cub performed perfectly there and back, the only issue was when leaving the beach carpark, it was obvious that several people and cars didn't notice that I was reversing. The lack of reversing lights not giving them any clues. I decide to plan a trip to the local scrap yard and find a suitable lamp. A new style (BMW) Mini look like what I was looking for, I also picked up the numberplate lights from a Fiat bravo, as to mount the light where I wanted meant moving the existing Land Rover style light, for other purposes a trailer and split charge relay was aquired.
A few days later, a hole for the numberplate light was cut in the horizontal area above the plate and fitted with a single Fiat one, then I filled the old holes on the rear panel.
I tried up the reverse light, the shape was right, but it didn't fit as well as was wanted. I could of built some form of housing, but decided against it. Having a look around the garage a Ring reverse light I had used on my trailer was found. This had a built-in mount that could be angled on the bodywork just how was needed. Again a hole was cut into the body and the lamp bonded in. To finish I fitted the required switch into the gearstick housing and wired it up.