chodweaver

So glad to hear this is going well for you!

Never seen ones with retainer plates before - interesting. I hope I'm maintaining a healthy respect for the things, but the levering of the strut around in the wheel well to get the top of the strut back into the top mount, while the spring was fully squished, just so i could lean on the bottom strut bolts to get them cracked off, was all done with Hurt Locker levels of PPE, plus a safety squint, for good measure...

I'M ALIVE! Ahem, sorry. This is newsworthy because i have been trying, on and off, for weeks, to compress a front spring on the Chrysler Voyager, after the top mount and the top of the strut parted company (how, I'm not yet sure, as the top is still covered up by scuttle, sound insulation, assorted wires and pipes). Whatever, the strut, top mount and spring have to come out to find out what needs replacing, so the spring, a quite stout item, supporting as it does, over a quarter of the GVW of a (Grand) Voyager, needs to come out. Anyway, everyone who has been aware of this has shaken their head and expressed what widow makers non-hydraulic, non-floor mounted spring compressors are - even the man in the local parts shop who sold me a beefier pair for this job. "I really don't like selling these" he goes. "Everyone i know who has ever used them has been injured. Haven't they Bob?" Bob, the other customer present, replies: "Oh, aye. That young lad at the garage next door, he's been using them years. Still, had one slip on him and now he's got a plate in his head" Etc etc.. So it is with some surprise and not a little jubilation that i have at least completed the first stage of this apparently potentially life threatening or at least life-changing-injury-rich pastime... Wish me luck

Perhaps this should go in the grumpy thread, but hoping to get this message out as wide as possible: Mate's Transit stolen from outside his house in Biddulph, North Staffordshire, in the early hours of this morning CV62KOD, a silver hi top T300 with fairly distinctive amber flashers everywhere and lots of red/yellow reflective chevrons on the back doors. He doesn't particularly want it back once the scrotes have ripped it to bits/stuffed it into a convenience store for the fags and booze, but the hand tools and clothes etc etc that were inside would be nice to get back. BOLO please, as the yank police tv series like to say Thanks

Thanks, I'll have to wait till next year's! - On account of my desk never having enough space for a coffee mug, let alone a calendar...

If there are two of the wall calendars left, can i have them pls?

Absolutely. I like mechanics creepers, have two different ones, but they have cons: 1: they lift you three or four inches off the ground, and on regular axle stands, that can make all the difference between you having enough room to work, or even fit under the bit of car you need to work on, and not. 2: when you're in position and start hefting on the part/bit of rusty chod/tool you need to move, what you don't need is to be on something that rolls easily away from what you're working on. Mats don't do that, yet still allow easier sliding about while getting in position. A mate has a one piece, smooth foam mat, about 4ft by 2ft and about 1.5" thick, that he deploys often. It was standard equipment for Openre*ch engineers etc and is brilliant for the same reasons as the interlocking mats

I put 'guide pin bellows' into google and got a few possibles

They're drop shippers - they look like they hold stock, but they don't - they buy in when they have an order (possibly only when they have enough orders to buy their stock at a wholesale price). If they don't get enough orders along with yours, or their wholesaler has no stock, you'll either get a refund, or a long delay, and then a refund when you chase your order. Annoying, but unfortunately legal, afaik.

I'm 59 and it's a decidedly cooking diesel Focus. Postcode isn't the issue either. Insured for 'the carriage of goods for hire and reward' IS the issue. I've paid over £900 before now for the same cover... ...on a 2001 pez Corsa C badermatic. So, yes, robbing bastards

Glorious noise that 6 pot makes. I yearn to hear mine running again. First really is a crawler gear in an early LT - even with the enormous coachbuilt body on mine, it'll still pull away in 2nd, and the clutch isn't on fire after. Edited to add: we owned a very similar ex school minibus, ex rental LDV Convoy (medium wheelbase) for a bunch of years. Despite all it's rustiness, and the harshness of the neglected suspension and kingpins, we loved it. I actually couldn't bear to be there when the scrap man came for it...

Focus delivery hack insurance is due at the end of the month. No renewal notice from Admiral, because i had it set to not auto renew. Goc0mpare and C0nfused both gave me just one quote, from the same company iirc (and not one I'd heard of) and these were £1,030 and £1,300. I paid £823 last year with Admiral. Went back to the Admiral site and logged on - their renewal quote is now available: £883 That'll do. I might get a quote from them for the Voyager too (already lapsed and on the drive awaiting pre MOT fettling) and see if i get a multi car discount...

Thanks @Talbot! Similarly interested - i like anything that'll save me money, esp if it's complicated!

Would a consolation 'like' help?

I'll check my set this afternoon - i honestly can't remember if they're half and half metric/imperial. I know: 1 it's cheap tat 2 I've only used half the set at most @Rust Collector What part of the country are you in?

If you have to ask, you'll never know. If you know, you only need to ask.

@Rust Collector Got anything that'll chill the stud? Blast of gas? Plumber's freeze it spray? If all the welding is expanding both the stud and the casting, perhaps a blast of something very cold and very localised on the stud to contract it would help break the seal...

Don't start making excuses for them. The cause is ignorance and arrogance.

First shape V70 has a similar handbrake issue - except when the lever can be pulled on more than 4 clicks, it cracks the flimsy, weak-ass plastic trim surround...

'Night of the.... Cavies'???

You jammy, jammy bastards

@robthedonkey I'll take three of the domestic non-travel variety puleeeease

This raises a question i posed myself the other day - what happens to the nyloc if the nut gets hot? As if the nyloc softens or even melts, presumably it ceases to lock the thread as intended...

@Rocket88 That's a bloody good paint match!