Having just bought a 1991 Townace Royal Lounge I've been avidly scanning the Townie sites and soaking up all the info. My early attempt at payback is that I've taken photos of the Panasonic TV and the mounting (9 off ranging from 100 to 200 KB each) which I'll happily send to any interested parties or lodge on a website somewhere? Also, I obtained fully comp insurance (self, spouse and max NCB) for £324 from Liverpool Victoria with a £100 excess and absolutely no requirement for an immobiliser. Bearing in mind that one of the reasons for going for a Townie was the fun that goes with the 'gimmicks' - just how do the electric curtains work (ie the principle), my rear ones do, side ones don't.
Best wishes to all Townie owners - I love it already!!
John Corfield. - (#2387) John Corfield, 3 Mar 02
John,
Please could you e-mail me some of those photos of the TV & bracket work in your Townie, I have been trying for some weeks to get this info, so some piccys would be great. As regards your enquiry about the curtains, they are little linear motors, and if your not sure what that is? The rails are a row of opposing magnets on one inside edge & on the other inside edge they have two continuous electrical contacts, the 'shuttle' that moves is infact a series of coils (in other words electromagnets) when the current is applied via the switch, the two rows of contacts are energised & the electromagnets in the 'shuttle' are then energised, because they are so close to the row of permanent magnets, they try to repell against the closest magnet, thus moving along the row of magnets until they reach the end, reverse the polarity at the switch & hey presto they go the other way. As regards repairing the faulty ones, DON'T push anything into the rails, as this could damage the contacts. Go to a good electronics shop & buy some switch cleaner, spray copious amounts of the cleaner via the straw provided (you hope) and run the 'shuttle' along several times to try to clean up the contacts, hopefully this should get them working again, it did with all but one of mine. If it doesn't cure the problem & you do actually have power at the curtain rail, then most likely the coils in the 'shuttle' have burnt out, this being the case, you would probably have to buy new from Toyota (££££££), according to the Toyota parts CD, the curtain rails all come as complete assemblies with the 'shuttle' & all the curtain hooks in a kit. Hope this helps you & look forward to receiving the TV photos. Regards Rob. - (#2389) Rob Drinkwater, 3 Mar 02
John,
thanks for the photos, most useful in determining where I will fit the TV in ours, I think that I will go for a 10" or 12" flat screen monitor to put a PS2 & video through. The photo #9 shows a lovely layer of dust on the TV, bet no one has been as brave as you & removed it in 10 years. Incidentally I notice that it says Panasonic MONITOR on it, does this mean that the TV tuner & or video unit are tucked away elsewhere, if so do you know where. Thanks for the info so far. Regards Rob. - (#2404) Rob Drinkwater, 4 Mar 02
any chance of sharing those photos? - (#2405) paul@skippyscage.com, 4 Mar 02
I'll publish some of John Corfield's TV photos on this Ace Answers website in the next day or so. Thanks John. - (#2412) Dave Mason, 5 Mar 02
thanks dave - (#2415) skippy, 5 Mar 02
Rob,
As you say the 'TV' unit is a display unit, and it's connected via a 16pin socket (4 rows of 4 pins) and 16 core cable. This has led me to believe, like you, that there must be another unit somewhere (a decoder type thingy? - technical term that!). I've realised already that it could be hiding anywhere within the Townie but I'm going to remove all the interior trim as part of my initial thorough checking out of the vehicle, so I'll post whatever I find.
Regards,
John. - (#2427) John Corfield, 6 Mar 02