1988 Rialto SE hatch aka Duck

Hi everyone,

I've decided to create this thread to replace the original one that was lost (and hope it will be a more concise version of it).

The day I saw and bought Duck (8th April 2014):-





I decided to buy it there and then as I needed a reliable car to replace my old VW 1600i (mexican) Beetle. Dave (Azzy's dad) drove it to me (and Azzy was driving Pheonix along with Dawn, his mum) and this is Duck after it arrived home (9th April 2014):-

12th April 2014

Removed Duck's tatty seat covers and window stickers:-

13th April 2014

Pics of Duck's engine bay and removed Duck's twin air horns. They were replaced with a loud single horn:-









Rusty zinc plated no. 10 self tappers replaced with stainless ones (radiator grille):-

17th April 2014

Replaced Duck's cigarette lighter socket as it was too close to the windscreen wiper motor and tidied up it's wiring:-

25th April 2014

Fuel tank leak.     Thankfully, this turned out to be an insecure fuel gauge sender. I managed to bend one of the fuel tank's locking tabs over to stop the fuel tank leak:-

9th May 2014

I decided to buy a pair of 10" steel wheels from James at the Notts Rally (4th May 2014) and have painted them silver. These wheels are now fitted to Duck:-

11th May 2014

Replaced Duck's radio/cassette with an SD card/radio head half depth unit:-

16th May 2014

Duck's volt meter replaced (I can't remember what day I replaced it) and it's LED (near the oil pressure gauge) replaced with a much nicer one. Blue "bug" LED (part of Duck's alarm system) removed and now connected to the red LED in the dash:-




The old red LED wasn't connected to anything:-




8mm hole that was drilled into the dash. Thankfully I didn't have to do drill anything as the hole was already the correct diameter:-




Neater LED and LED clip installed into the dash:-

17th May 2014

Duck's alloy wheels replaced with standard steel wheels (I sold the alloys at the National Rally):-

28th May 2014

Replaced the hazard lights switch (with a new one), lower radiator hose, heater hoses (as the one from the water pump to the cylinder head was partially collapsed) and decided to fit a heater matrix that has got the heater valve. I also decided to replace the bolt, nut and 2 repair washers with a heater cable:-





https://2img.net/h/i106.photobucket.com/albums/m263/phade1971/1988%20Rialto%20SE%20aka%20Duck/IMG_0398.jpg

30th June 2014

Removed Duck's redundant second alarm siren and second horn from behind the radiator grille (front O/S), it's wiring and wired up Duck's tilt switch to it's main alarm system:-

8th July 2014

I also replaced Duck's thermostat with another 82˚C one (I can't remember when I replaced it), but this time that thermostat has got a brass jiggle pin. The new thermostat also opens wider than the other one did.

I got the new thermostat from here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RANGE-ROV...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item19ef38ee09 (actually I got the thermostat fitted to post 1973 models, but the Reliant gasket is required anyway).

12th July 2014

Flushed out cooling system (again!) and replaced it's coolant drain plug

Hi everyone, I finally found out the cause of Duck's high temperature/air locks problems within it's cooling system - it was blocked up again with sediment/rust. I decided to flush out the cooling system and replace it's drain plug as I thought the old one could soon be on it's way out due to corrosion.

Anyway, I'll let the pics do the talking....

Core plug looks ok and hasn't leaked:-




Old drain plug and surrounding area (and possible coolant leak via the old drain plug whilst the cooling system is under pressure):-










Old drain plug (quite badly corroded):-




New 1/8" BSP drain plug fitted. It hasn't leaking any coolant after I have warmed up the engine (to remove any possible air locks from it's cooling system):-

13th July 2014

Replaced Duck's breather hoses

Hi everyone,

I decided to replace Duck's breather hoses after I found out why it suddenly decided not to run properly (uneven engine speed).

Old breather hoses that were secured with tiewraps. The hoses themselves became loose and one of the hoses became slightly ovalled at the carburetter's breather port end. The hoses' inner and outer diameters were too large (8mm ID and 16mm OD):-






Breather hose at the carburetter's breather port slightly ovalled:-






The breather hose at the oil filler cap's end just slipped off with hardly any effort (it was initially quite tight when I first bought it):-






I then found some 7mm ID, 13mm OD Cohline fuel/brake fluid hose (eg. that stuff is also fitted to my VW 1300 Beetle - brake fluid reservoir to brake pipe from memory) and decided to use that stuff as Duck's replacement breather hoses:-






I then drove Duck today and it seems to be ok (in terms of engine temp and running).

Hi everyone,

I decided to remove the R3W website address from Duck's tailgate (I don't really like too many stickers on cars anyway) as it's now completely pointless.




It took me a while to get rid of the remains of the www.r3w.co.uk sticker with label remover and yellow Colorfast. Oh well, I may have to polish the rest of the car with yellow Colourfast tomorrow as it really needs it.

Polished Duck as best as I could with yellow T-Cut Colorfast

Hi everyone,

I managed to make Duck's paintwork look better than it did after nearly 2 rolls of polishing rags and about 1/2 bottles of T-Cut Colorfast:-






It's far from perfect but at least nearly all of it is in the same shade of yellow.

Hi everyone,

I've now waxed Duck to prevent the sun from fading the paint (or at least for now) and made it's rear bumper look better than it was:-

Hi everyone,

I decided to replace Duck's alternator with an approx 500 miles from new Lucas LRA100 alternator as Duck's battery was constantly going flat.

The Lucas A127 alternator that was fitted to Duck wasn't charging up the battery despite replacing it's voltage regulator/brush pack. When I had a further look at the A127 alternator, I also felt a lot of end float within the alternator's bearings.

When I had initially fitted the nearly brand new alternator, it too wasn't charging up the battery and it's charge warning light wasn't working. I eventually found that the centre brush was broken where the wire was connected to it. I quickly got a new brush from Charge and Start in Welling (they were excellent) and they fitted it into the LRA100's brush box. I then re-assembled Duck's LRA100 alternator and it's charging system now works properly

Hi everyone,

I've just spotted a leak on Duck's fuel tank on it's central support bracket where it is welded onto the tank itself.






Thankfully, I've got a spare second hand fuel tank in the garage (which I'll fit as soon as I have used up most of Duck's petrol) for the time being and plan to get 3 stainless fuel tanks made using Duck's current tank as a pattern. I may also consider changing it's fuel gauge sender fixing design where it would be secured by a stainless tabbed locking ring (to secure the fuel gauge sender) and 6 set screws (if anyone could fabricate stainless tanks with M6 threads).

Does anyone know where I can get stainless fuel tanks fabricated (I'll do a Google search as well...).

Thank you everyone in advance.

A quick update on Duck. I decided to replace it's fuel tank with a good second hand one as Duck's tank was still leaking, despite the fuel level being below where I thought it was leaking.

I also made the mistake of not checking the second hand fuel tank's fuel gauge sender before I fitted it and spent about 3 hours removing the knackered fuel gauge sender and fitted the fuel gauge sender from Duck's original fuel tank.

Anyway, I'll let the pictures do the talking:-

Duck's rusty and leaking fuel tank:-














Replacement (good condition) second hand fuel tank:-










Fuel filler removed. The fuel tank overflow hose was rock hard to say the least (and I replaced it after the pic was taken):-




New fuel filter and second hand fuel tank fitted:-






I plan to get 3 new stainless fuel tanks fabricated at some point using Duck's old fuel tank as a pattern.


I also cleaned out the overflow bowl as one of it's breather holes was blocked and the overflow bowl itself contained specs of rust.

Ignition coil and air filter replaced


Hi everyone,

I decided to replace Duck's ignition coil and air filter after it's engine decided to try and cut out whilst warming up (for at least 10 minutes). After it had warmed up, it generally ran ok. I also decided to make sure that the carburetter's breather wasn't blocked by blasting it with compressed air.

Anyway, I'll let the pics do the talking.

Old ignition coil:-




Rusted ignition coil mounting nuts and bolts (I threw those away after I had removed them):-




Old black ignition coil and the new Lucas DLB110 ignition coils side by side:-






New Lucas DLB110 ignition coil fitted:-






Duck's old air filter (the paper air filter element was quite dirty as well):-








Duck's replacement air filter fitted (the air filter element within that air filter is in far better condition than Duck's old air filter element):-

Second attempt at sorting Duck's running problems during warmup


Hi everyone,

I've now decided to replace Duck's rotor arm and condenser hoping to sort out Duck's electrical cutting out problems (under load) during warm up. Duck runs fine after it has been running for about 10 to 15 minutes.

I also found out from Jono's post that pointing the air filter's inlet towards the radiator's fan does help with Duck's warm/hot starting problems. I've decided to do the same to my Rialto 2 and hopefully that will also make it easier to start when warm/hot.

Anyway, I'll let the pics do the talking.


Duck's new rotor arm (blue) and old rotor arm (red) side by side:-




Duck's distributor (I'll have to see if I can get the distributor shaft's felt pad from somewhere at some point as it's missing !):-




Duck's old condenser. About half of the cores within the black wire at the points' crimp terminal end have snapped off:-








Duck's replacement NOS condenser (I haven't taken a pic of the new parts fitted to duck nor the condenser its self):-




If that doesn't cure it then I may need to bypass the resistive wire, change the ignition coil to my spare Lucas gold DLB105 12V sports coil and fit a Velleman ignition amplifier to it (as I did to my 1985 Rialto 2 estate).

Test drive


Hi everyone,

I test drove Duck (on Wednesday) and it appears that what I replaced on Sunday had cured it's electrical faults.

Still trying to get Duck to run properly

Hi everyone,

Duck's ignition system decided to be intermittent again, so I decided to clean out the carburetter's float bowl to rule it out. After I cleaned it out, I drove it for a short bit and Duck did try to cut out once (as it did before).

I then decided to replace the corroded spade terminal and hope that will cure it's intermittent cutting out fault.

Old corroded spade terminal:-






Old spade terminal insulator. I decided to save the insulator as it's big enough to fit two wires within it:-




New brass spade terminal (and old insulator) fitted. I sprayed the ignition coil's terminals (as well as the wires' spade terminals) with Aquastop, which should protect them from corrosion:-






I'll test drive it again tomorrow morning and hope that Duck's intermittent cutting out problems (whilst warming up) will stop.

I test drove Duck today and it appears that it's intermittent cutting out problem has now stopped.