O/T Victory over the wife's 306

[charlie_pank]

I am so pleased with myself I wanted to share it with fellow car-geeks.

 

After having it hanging over me for months I finally got around to figuring out what the horrible lurching creak was from the rear of Helen's Pug 306. I replaced the rear rear axle mounting bushes (can be done with axle in-situ) and took it for a test, only to discover it had made little or no difference. So on the way home from the test, I went past the motor factors where they were holding the front rear axle bushes for me in case I needed them.

 

Took them home and spent the next 10 hrs removing the whole rear subframe in order to put the new bushes on. I was particularly amused by the "point of no return" where the last bolt comes out and the axle drops with a "clunk" onto the waiting trolley jack and you think - "well, I'm going to HAVE to learn how to put it back now!"

 

When I finally got it all back together, brake unions re-attached and system bled etc... I took it for another (victorious) test drive to find the horrible creaking gone, and the handling a lot more sure-footed in the corners.

 

No point really except to say that I am still pleased with myself for having managed this alone, when I don't have any prior experience of any sort of suspension adjustment or dismantling.

 

Charlie'n'Kermit

The plan is: There is no plan

S5EVN

[Pelico]

 

I have started doing the normal small jobs on the seven many on tech talk take for granted, but I still feel dead proud. I always look at the "removed engine and rewhittled the cotter pins with a length of welding rod" posts with awe.

 

😬

 

 

[Sheds Moderator]

Quote"I always look at the "removed engine and rewhittled the cotter pins with a length of welding rod" posts with awe."

😬 Fantastic.

 

I changed the head gasket on mine and it's a bit intimidating cutting off the RACMSA seals, knowing that Minister will charge you a cool 4 grand to sort out a dead motor. Pretty damn good though when it's back together and you've turned it over with a spanner 35 times, then on the starter for 2 minutes with the ign off, then (if I smoked this is the point where I would go outside and smoke about 3 fags in succession) you take a deep breath, flick the toggle switch, press the button and

 

"ninit........ WWWWOOOOOOM!"

 

From here it's a small step to fitting vernier cam sprockets and reaming your own lefthanded squibknockets. Welcome to the TechTalk geek club.

[Big Brother]

I have started doing the normal small jobs on the seven many on tech talk take for granted

 

THAT'S HOW IT STARTS ❗ ❗ ❗

 

I went into the garage a couple of years ago to change the spark plugs - I've just finished!

Only problem is the spark plugs are now the only original part of the car left.

 

 

Its a slippery slope

Don't say you haven't been warned 😬

 

Steve

Se7en-Up!

 

It'S NOT Green!, its the colour of an unripe MANGO

[thinfourth]

For some reason i am always nervious doing work on my own car. I am a trained engineer some of the practises in garages make me wince i have proved that i know more about engines and engineering them some mechanics. I work with diesels from 15bhp to 75,000bhp and still i take the bmw into a garage for its service. Every time i do a job on the car i find it fiddly but basically simple but still it worries me. I should really start to do more myself it really isn't that difficult.

 

As to removing th rear subframe good going i have rebuilt a peugeot diesel on the kitchen table and i think i know the right screws to give it a bit more go

 

Sod the heater wheres my shades

 

Edited by - thinfourth on 19 Oct 2004 18:05:53

[Normans_Ghost]

Well done Charlie, It's not that difficult is it. Just common sense. It amuses me sometimes how some with no training and experience say it must be left to the professionals.

 

The training and experience come in handy when it's not straight forward or something needs diagnosis. I've had the formal training but 40 years ago and experiebce is on older vehicles. I try not to get involved in modern fuel injection and engine management systems not because i don't understand them but because I've no experience.

 

Congrats again, you know you'll always get help here if your stuck.

 

Norman Verona, 1989 BDR 220bhp, Mem No 2166, the full story here

[Normans_Ghost]

Thinforth, todays "mechanics" aren't, they're "fitters" and probably couldn't rebuild an engine, gearbox or diff. They can fit replacement units. The manufacturers call it "de-skilling the job". I call it a cheap way to train people, or to use the modern jargon "fasttrack".

 

Norman Verona, 1989 BDR 220bhp, Mem No 2166, the full story here

[Bricol]

so now is probably not the time to mention that a good squirt of washing up liquid in the direction of the rubber bits would more than likely shut the squeak up for a considerable time?

 

But it is good to do something successfully - gives you more confidence to do something else.

 

First thing I did was change brake discs on a French mobile when I was 17 with no previous full size experience - discovered you needed torx drives to undo the retaining screws - and of course I didn't have any. Local garage owner lent me a set for nowt . . . which I thought was pretty damn good - so 17 years later he still gets any work I haven't got the tackle for, or more likely now, the time or the inclination for .

 

 

Bri

[thinfourth]

i wouldn't call a modern mechanic a "fitter" i have worked and sailed with fitters and their skills leave me behind let alone you local grease monkey down the ford garage. To me a fitter is some who when you don't have the right bit he makes it which i can do to a limited level i can make my own bushes, wear rings, shafts, bearing housings etc, not to great accuracy but i can get myself out a hole. A modern garage mechanic just keep changing bits till it works so i don't think they anywhere close to fitters. I take my BMW to a nearby speacilist and he is brilliant the first time i went there he had trouble with a car not starting so he traced it back to a dodgey ECU so he then removed the ECU and then opened it and found a dry joint and then replaced it and the car worked perfectly.

 

If anyone up north has a beamer and wants a decent garage i can reccomend him very highly

 

Sod the heater wheres my shades

[Normans_Ghost]

Thinforth, we're saying the same thing but have the names transposed. In dealer terms a mechanic is the one who makes parts he can't get and a fitter is the one that fits new bits only, hence fitter. I served an apprenticeship and was called a mechanic. The people I employed 10 years later wouldn' have known how to repair anything, only fit exchange or new units. If I told them that "in the old days" we had to melt and run white metal crankshaft bearings and then scrape them to size they thought I was pulling their leg. As for setting up a crown wheel and pinion, well forget it, they didn't even know waht a cwp was, thought it was called a diff.

 

Norman Verona, 1989 BDR 220bhp, Mem No 2166, the full story here

[charlie_pank]

Bricol - you may be right, and I'll try it in another 80,000 miles when they start to squeak again, but they do look pretty corroded and perished. Also, having done it once now, I know I can do it again and I know what the bits look like and exactly where they are, which will help me to aim the fairy liquid in future!

[neil.cavanagh]

thinforth..

how far norf is your beemer guy?

My 540 (1998) is due for a service, and I'm based in middlesbrough most of the time durign the week at the moment.

I've love a PROPER old fashioned mechanic to have a look. I think some suspension bushes could be a bit worn from noises, and i'd a little worried about the occasional bang from the rear axle area. I'm sure if I took it to the local 'offical' Beemer dealer they would come back saying replace everything I asked them to look at! Last time they tried to sell me a towbar for 'about a grand' (very precise!!) and couldn't tell me the brand of tyre they were trying to charge me £150 each for. Muppets.

[Gordon]

"removed engine and rewhittled the cotter pins with a length of welding rod"

 

😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 *thumbup* 😬

 

Gordy

 

[charlie_pank]

Neil, Paul (Thinfourth) comes South to Knockhill when we meet up there. I don't think Middlesbrough is Norf enuff!

[Shaun_E]

Charlie,

I know what you mean about the point of no return. This weekend I take the remaining bits off my Caterham before the chassis goes to Arch for re-powdercoating. Every time I go out into the garage and look at the piles of bits and bags of bolts, I think "oh my god - what have I done". I suspect the rebuild is not going to be quite as quick and easy as the taking apart ❗

Shaun

 

Yellow SL #32

[I.Mupferit]

It does give you an enormous amount of satisfaction having the ability to repair things, it's a shame more people don't have a go at it sometimes. You can learn a great deal about how things work by taking them to pieces.

 

I can repair most things at home when they stop working and it still gives me a thrill. Years ago I did it out of necessity, due to having no money, but I still do it now just for the kick. Only last night I had our gas boiler apart, as it stopped working, and discovered a seized fan. I took it apart, cleaned, lubricated and rebuilt it. Works fine now.

 

Best bit is the brownie points you gain with the wife though. She even brings my beer to me as I'm 'slaving away' to repair one of the household appliances. 😬

 

Brent

 

Waiting for my Duratec SV 😬

[stevefoster]

Agree on the satisfaction.

 

I've always been at the point where I service all our cars as long as it does not need main dealer setup to do something.

So far in all these years the only thing I have not been able to do was reprogramme the immobiliser. Brake-Discs, hub bearings, bushes, fluids, cambelts etc all done.

The more you do the more you have confidence in yourself.

I have done a lot more on the 7 since it is a hobby / upgrading cheaply necessitates and you learn a lot along the way. The 7 is much nice to work on compared with a tinny too. Open and accessible, nothing rusted up etc etc.

Take the ZX to replace dash lights all but one had blown = worn out. It took me about 1.5 hours to strip the dash the first time. I got out all manner of tools I did not need and messed about. I missed one bulb out of 15 or so bulbs and being a stickler I took it apart again the next weekend. I used 4 tools (got the exact right ones out for the job) and it took 25 minutes to strip and replace. How much do Citroen want for that little job??!!

 

I even do all my own plumbing and Central Heating work...

 

The more tools of the right type you have the easier it is. A lathe a compressor and a MIG are great for the odd fabrication.

 

Hants (North) and Berkshire Area club site here

My racing info site

here

 

 

 

 

Edited by - stevefoster on 20 Oct 2004 13:54:35

[Glenn Wheeler]

I started tinkering with cars from the age of 14, do everything myself except diesel timing. I am loathe to spend even 50 pence at a garage, you get charged £30 - 40 an hour for some spotty 18 yr old who purports to be a mechanic who is then payed £5 an hour by his bosses, it an absolute disgrace and daylight robbery.

 

I still do make mistakes though, spent hrs dismantling my fiesta heater, bulkhead and dashboard to try and find why the blower had ceased to work, everything was checked by elimination, turned out to be a £1 relay which i could have changed in seconds ! Doh !!