You mean Dobert Runn

reliant niva, it's a an offroad 3wd'er.

An alternate universe where he finished the bus, but his workshop is just a pit, which doesn't have walls or a roof yet.

@@hyperturbotechnomike his geewho broke

@@brendancross2767 my immediate thoughts

I’m in LOS ANGELES, the veritable center of the universe… and I’ll bet dollars to donuts that I have not the slightest chance of finding a spring shop like that. I actually want to give them some business JUST BECAUSE. 👍🏼

@@calvarycustoms6681 the reason the rest of the world hates LA is because everyone in LA thinks LA is the center of the universe (news flash, it isn't)

Probably because they were like, "He has a what? Sell at cost he will be back." LOL

Well, it is a reasonably priced car. Now all we need is a course and some celebrities to drive it round.

Most decent size cities have leaf spring place and they cater 99% for heavy trucks. Much like axle shops, electric motor rebuilders, actual radiator shops that recore/tank radiators, these services have become 100% obsolete for modern cars. What once would have been been 5-6 axle/diff/friction (for example) shops in a city of 300K people it is down to 3 for the entire Metro Chicago area including NWI...but they still exist and they are still "way more reasonable than I would have expected" because much the equipment, tooling, jigs have been in service since the 1950's or before.

Well, it is just piece of steel bent right way.

@@michaelkrenzer3296 Price drum brakes. They usually give them away.

That does exist. Bond Minicar

Tri-bant

The *whole metro area?* Those must be some *gigantic* leaf springs! 😮

Yeah, our local shop (Standen's) has been around since 1924. I think they're even still in the original location.

Robert was referring to their prices being a decade old, not the business.

@@adamengelhart5159 I believe there's a big arch in St Louis

Also since you had a broken spring check the spring hangers didn't get bent

You beat me to it!

I don't think it's that simple, in this case, the car has had allot of bodgery done. Ideally he should have had OEM standard leaf springs shipped from the UK , along with the correct U bolts, he can also bin the odd none standard home made spacers too.

@@x66Hawk66x the aftermarket parts aren't the problem, they're likely better than factory. It just requires adjusting, which can be a major pain in the ass.

@@LazloNQ i believe you meant Dunn Right.

the leaf spring shop saved Robert from shoddy work he did not know about on the other side of his robin professionalism to the rescue😃

To be fair, it would make me happy too to find out that a local shop can replace parts on my unique little vehicle for a fair price.

luckily leaf springs are pretty interchangeable, only thing you have to worry about is size

Some KZfaqrs spend $40,000 to get cars to disassemble for content.

Lol figured you'd be around these parts after a mention in one of your latest vids.

Strange seeing you here. Love the content (Both of you :D)

I feel like this would be standard for most vehicles. I haven't done leaf springs on anything, but when I did front control arms, that was the instruction. Don't torque them to spec until the suspension is under load.

I guess in the robin you better put some weight in the back first.

@@RyanKlapperich that applies to pretty much any part that has rubber bushings, they need to be settled in the load bearing position before being tightened up or they will have permanent tension in them leading to early failure or weird handling.

If you are delivering a batch of birthday balloons the weight on the rear will be the same as when on the lift rack.

That's about what it says in the Haynes book for the Robin too, the difference is you can get under a Land Rover to do it, to tighten everything with a Robin on the ground you need to be built like an eight year old, or own a modified 4 post lift with an extra wheel platform up the centre.

If you still have the truck and need parts in the future check out Studebaker International. I have a 1963 Lark and 1955 and 1953 trucks. They've had everything I needed over the years that I wanted new vs grabbing it from my dad's collection. He ran Early Restorations for thirty years before retiring and still has two twelve car garages full of Studebaker cars and parts going back to 1942.

Isn't it amazing when you find a vendor like this!

Keep these places in business. They are one in a million

@@firefly2k7uk Pretty sure they're in no danger of losing business, apart from copying old stuff there's a lot of people needing completely custom springs for offroad rigs, and of course commercial trucks needing beefier springs etc.

@@Noah_E I was about to ask if that's where he went when he said a local place..... we use them

That would be the Reliant Regal.

@@warmstrong5612 Or a Bond Minicar

At least they are landfill compatible. Bio degradable.

It would probably be faster

So a 2 stroke Robin with front wheel drive AKA a 3X1.

he was just getting ready for thanksgiving🤣🤣🤣

and unfortunately a dying breed. Support your local small business!

I was waiting for him to pull the car off the lift and onto his head.

One of those turkeys is going to get the ultimate trauma in a few days, I bet

He was just basting the fear turkey, as a certain vampire would say

I find Americans often pronounce can't as can anyway, in UK we pronounce it "carnt", which is less ambiguous.

I almost dare not to ask, but how do you know? (and live to tell)

@@BooVeMan Fortunately, I changed mine right as they were about to fail. Those who weren't so lucky documented everything on the owners forum.

yeah and they will always be out there cause leaf spring will always break and need replacement and people need work to pay there bills

The galvanized chassis helped though right? I'm planning on testing my Reliant Rialto in winter this year.

@@mrjed6912 The galvanized chassis was introduced on the Rialto. A few late Robins may have had them. Back in the 70s/80s we treated cars with lashings of Waxoyl before manufacturers started rustproofing cars properly.

@@corringhamdepot4434 Thanks. I'll try to do some skids in it in a safe area. If it even snows

The early mk.1 Robins did have steering boxes issues, Reliant motors did fix the issue in later mk.1 Robins, however the Robins reputation was badly damaged because of this, it was the reason Reliant changed the cars name to Rialto.

@@x66Hawk66x So the Rialto is basically just a MK2 Robin meaning the one from 2000 could be considered a MK4?

He is also demonstrated many times on both of his channels that he likes doing stupid fiddly things because he finds it fun. So seeing is he would enjoy fixing the problem himself and could probably do it faster than taking it back to the spring shop to get the correct part. That was really the only option he was ever going to do. Remember this is the same guy that basically rebuilt his table saw from the ground up just because

Oh my god. I'm an idiot. I was in the process of writing out a comment telling you the jack isn't heavy enough when I realized it's UNDER THE AXLE

Or run the ratchet strap from the frame, under the axle, and back up to the frame.

@@Count_Smackula That was my first thought

​@@agingwheels I think the easier thing to do would be to bolt the front of the spring first (loosely) , Then attach the back of the spring (loosely again,) and then attach the axle(loosely,) and then put the car on the ground and tighten it up. Then you can do the shocks and stuff last.

Yeah, but it wouldn't have been anything like as entertaining as sitting here watching him (try to) stand on it, now, would it? ;-] Love the videos, love the work.

Looking at his setup, it's has allot of bodge work done in the past, A double leaf setup and the spacers are not normal on a Reliant. It appears that something heavy has been put in the car in the past and the owner reinforced the spring by adding a extra leaf to stop them sagging, but also propped the hight of the car to compensate for clearance issues because of the weight added. The original leaf springs have two small locating pins one them centre the axel, on the leaf, however with the added spacers, that would have required longer pins. The original pins were drilled out and new ones fitted, it's hard to say based on the video, but when compared to stock leaf's the pins also appear to be a larger diameter. I think in this case the springs were weakened at that point because of the pin replacement.

@@x66Hawk66x well said

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Working under rusty old cars I have come to appreciate a face shield.

Technically he does have a ratcheting wrench, It's that Milwaukee powered wrench thing. It just doesn't fit in all spaces so he wouldn't use a traditional ratcheting wrench much if at all

@@the_undead That actually is not a ratchet wrench. I am talking about a ratchet wrench/gear wrench. It looks like a typical combination wrench but the box end works like a ratchet. I am not sure if it will let me post a link here here but after this comment I will try. I really like the flex head ones. They work so very well!

@@davebrittain9216 a ratcheting wrench is a wrench that doesn't require you to remove set wrench from the bolt in order to reorient it, that powered thing from Milwaukee can absolutely be used as a manual wrench and is ratcheting when used in this manner. So a ratcheting wrench can be all kinds of things because the definition is vague and not an exact set of dimensions and capabilities

It must have worn thin on the wife.

@@rogersmith7396 was thinking the same lol

Reliant. Built by hand, one at a time?

I don't think it's factory standard. I think it's because people who bought them and fixed them had almost no work experience

@@mrjed6912 The people who bought Robins were usually the type who thought the original Mini was expensive and extravagant.

@@MrDuncl Well the Reliant did offer more. If I'm honest with you, if i were alive at the time I'd buy a Regal over a mini any day. I just love them for what they are.

Same! My brother bought a Rialto not too long ago. Constantly trying to stop him from selling it.

Must have been a while ago - I haven't seen one for years.

@@dingo137 I very occasionally see one, usually with a pensioner driving it. Nowadays, it is probably easier to pass your car test than a full size motorbike test so the days of riding a Triumph Trident and driving a Robin on the same easily obtained licence (which is what a colleague did in the 1980s) are over.

@@dingo137 It was - I lived there in 1983 to go to art college and sadly haven't been back since. I remember my uncle bought my cousin a Fiat 500 for 50 pounds while I was there - I was *so* jealous.

You have to remember that they've been around on horse-drawn vehicles for at least 300 years -there's a reason they're often called "cart springs"....

Not only do leafs act as springs but also as friction shock absorbers and dampers. Coil springs don't.

The biggest advantage that I can tell leaf springs have is their simple to implement and when they do break they're relatively easy to make, as far as I can tell, they've been used for over 300 years which implies that with relatively simple metal working tools you could probably make one yourself. It won't be up to modern standards but you could do it

Beetles do not have leaf springs. They have torsion bars...

Doing it was one thing. Watching it float around over the lift arm while I was editing was a completely different experience 😬

@@agingwheels That's 2 steps of danger ahead of me pulling on my truck before realising I had my jack stand *DIRECTLY ON* the leaf spring. Don't ask me what I was thinking, I only realised my mistake until after there was a horrible shifting noise!

There's people who do it. They just have minimal views

Last one I saw was demonstrating the down side of an open differential and had got itself stuck on a metal manhole (f'nar) cover. Much unleashing of its 850cc, a little smoke and a high pitch squeal that had me laughing. Lots. Also saw one nearly tip over in a car park but that's another story.....

I see them around occasionally. There's one in my home town, one I've seen in Mablethorpe, and I overtook a beige Rialto on the A46 near Lincoln recently. Even more recently I saw a "rat look" Mk 2 Robin in Morrisons car park, which I instantly fell in love with.

Okay, but there was no good place to attach the strap to the frame. Where I did hook it on was a good foot in front of the axle. And no, the springs are not back to front.

Nothing unreliable about the Reliant, as you seem to imply. the failure here is the result of bodge work.

Got it about two months ago. I procrastinated making the video and now it's winter and salty. You'll find out about it eventually!

@@agingwheels neat!! I’ll be waiting!

That is the thing he keeps for the black ice on the road ;) Kid you not, that beast can be driven on it using throttle, brakes, and the handbrake for steering (as it always pulls to one side). Steering wheel is just in the way :)

Clarkson was'nt a fan.

They did shoot one into space.

@@rogersmith7396 He wasn't a fan of the Maserati biturbo either. Too much of a poor mans car for him ?

Fellow Northern Monkey here😉 Surviving former Reliant owners round my way (average age; 91) seem to have transferred their affections to three vehicles. 1) Suzuki Celerio. Almost invariably in white. 2) Hyundai i10. Usually in silver. Hyundai must have done a deal with free metallic paint though - these are not the kind of “fellas” who would pay for fripperies such as metallic paint. 3) Dacia Sandero. But only the Billy Basic “Access” trim level, in Hotpoint white, with black plastic bumpers and no goodies - not even the optional radio. All three vehicles are driven at no more than 47mph (the “safe” cruising speed of a Robin - they’re used to that), and display kerbed front wheels (often to the point of wheel trims having popped off, where applicable - the Dacias don’t have decadent trim like wheel trims; no doubt a combination of being used to a Robin’s single front wheel never hitting kerbs in the past and a shockingly low level of driving ability. More advanced former Robin owners can even skilfully remove all markings from the sidewalls of their near-side front tyres by repeated scuffing along a kerb, resulting in the enigma that is a “mystery brand” tyre on that corner of the car. Their dogged pursuit of automotive misery is something to behold. But only from a safe distance. They’re modern-day Mr Magoos.

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It's also a very basic chassis. I'm sure it would be easy to protect. Especially the front wheel arm

All Reliants from the Rialto onwards have galvanised chassis. They can still rust in certain places though.

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