Sh'Eds

Today was so nice it would have been rude not to have the roof off… 

Alas…. What it is not, is fixed. I utilised the manual opening technique to go for a drive with the roof off. Proves that the mechanism folds absolutely fine. The bit in the previous post is the roof storage box sensor, and apparently the actual roof will work fine even if this is goosed. 
Before spending on it I wanted to live with it w couple of weeks to determine a full list.
 In no particular order. 
- Roof inop
- damage to front bumper
- intermittent door lock failure message 
- drivers seatbelt jams 99 times out of 100. 
- suspension is creaky
- Brakes are creaky 
- pads and discs advisory on last MoT so will get these done. 
- missing towing eye cover 
- missing side repeater 
- damaged seat back (drivers) 
- damaged boot lid and boot lid hinge. 
- slight leak into the boot. 
- damaged wing mirror casing
- all dash buttons worn. 
- no idea when it was last serviced. 
- heater blowers don’t work
- main beam works on flash, but not doesn’t stay on.
 So yeah… I bought a cheap one. And surprisingly it needs work. But nothing on that list is too major (hopefully). And I did deliberately buy this one so I had money left over to spend on it. 
Plan is to chuck it at the Saab specialist for the roof and suspension bits. And then work through the other things myself one by one. 

Mrs ODM phoned today with a screw in her tyre on the way home.
Compressor managed to get it home and is booked for a new one and mot tomorrow.
Espace needs a service and wheel bearing and it also gave me this today after too many short tip runs.

if anybody needs me I’ll be out having a regenerative fap.
 

Progress is slow, but we have some progress

Well, the block is on hold until I get the new tooling and spares, so may as well crack on with the head. I've moved my leave at work one day later to Tuesday and Wednesday to work on the block - hopefully everything arrives before then 🤠
Starting with lapping the valves.

This was actually one of the most relaxing jobs I've done on this car. Nice and steady, and taking my time.
Results are promising too.




Should help keep the head a bit more gastight!
After a lot of tweezer action, fangs, and the air gun, I got the majority of the swarf out of the head chambers, I installed the valve stem seals - piece of cake with the insertion tool that came with the removal pliers.

Finally, it was time to re-introduce this haggard lash-up to reassemble the valves!

I was unsure if this was going to work this time around, but thankfully it did!

With the stems lubed and the collets greased, everything came together nicely and all 8 valves were fitted.

After that, the tappets and shims were greased/lubed and fitted, and the camshaft studs fitted. Going to check torque them again with the advice from @red5 (Thanks mate!).
But first, it's breakfast time.

Home.

This car has utterly proven itself this week. Averaged low to mid 30s which is good because it was fully loaded and I wasn't hanging about!

Found a wiring diagram in the HBOL. 

This appears to confirm that ignition signal to the relay only happens if the neutral safety/ transmission range switch is happy and thus that can't be the issue as I have signal at the relay. 
Looking more likely to be a ground issue or a faulty relay. Have ordered two china special relays (£5 vs c. £20+ for one shipped from USA) and will see if that makes a difference.

Quick job this AM.
Front this:

To this:

Finally found some time to do a little more work on the Tahoe today. 
First order of the day was removing Mrs Sh'eds garage door so I could fit it in the garage and not block the alley all day in case any of the neighbours were coming in and out, not that many use their garages regularly. Of course the only person I saw all day was the old boy next door who lives on the exist side of the alley to me so I wouldn't have blocked him anyway. 

With the door removed adequate headroom for the Tahoe was available. 

Though it is a little close at the back and I certainly couldn't go further back and still jack the car up. 

Got it up on jack stands and whipped the wheels off. 

Had a look under the car. It looks reasonably solid, obviously been undercoated in the past. Can see why it weighs 3 tonnes when you see how big the chassis rails are. 

 
First job of the day brake pads - these definitely need replacing. 

Of course the caliper was held on with allen head bolts, but being American these were in 'freedom units' and I had none. I had naively hoped they would be metric, on the corvette it tends only to be engine stuff that is imperial with ancillaries and brakes / suspension being  metric. Had to pop out to the shops and could only get allen keys in imperial sizes rather than a allen socket which would have been preferred. 

The finest chinesium sold by machine mart. Was doubtful that these would be up to the job. Was even more doubtful when I found how tight the bolts holding the brake calipers on where. Gave myself 6 hernias but they finally came loose. 
New brake pads promise a lot. I am slightly concerned that most of the £14 that these cost was spent on the carboard box. 

New versus old: 

Once I got these installed it was time for new track rod ends. I only had outers but it is clear that I will need to replace inners soon too as these were also fairly worn. 
Used the grease zert as a measuring point to try and get a reasonable alignment.

Old track rod end looks nasty. 

Most useful tool of the day, which was very much needed to assist in removal of the track rod ends.

New track rod ends installed. 

Didn't find time to change the sway bar links, they aren't broken so can be left for now. Will need to replace control arm bushings and upper and lower ball joints at some point so will most likely do them then. 
Finished up by putting the new wheels on - these being the original fitment with 245/75 tyres, rather than the aftermarket ones that came on the car which were shod with 275/70 tyres and had a larger centre bore, which had necessitated the use of a spacer ring, which may have been a contributing factor in the death wobble. Hopefully having the correct profile tyres on it now will result in the speedo being at least vaguely accurate. 
Done.

 

A quick fix today. The driver's door handle was inoperative from inside. 
Luckily a new one was in the boot.
As well as the existing handle being broken the connecting rod was bent out of shape.
A quick straighten and swop of handle and I can open the driver's door without winding the window down. 
Only broke 7000 brittle plastic clips.

Music selection for the journey. Appropriate?

Gratuitous petrol station shot. 
Apologies it's not a Pontiac 🤪

Will do when I get a chance - the story of how a spark plug change resulted in a head gasket change (cos I is a ham fisted tw@) and more will be provided soon! 
 
For now have this:
 
 

Quick job this AM.
Front this:

To this:

Quick job this AM.
Front this:

To this:

Wrong question, that is exactly why I asked here 😂
I have nearly finished the Laguna GT that has stood in the rain for 12 years due to a faulty gearbox. Drives nicely. After a lot of Work, it now has a MOT and there seems nothing wrong with the gearbox. Strange... GT means it has the Megane Sport engine
I will start driving and see what happens. I have presented the Car on here before. It is a shared project with a good friend who has just recovered from cancer.
Daniel

Received this in the post yesterday, a taxed, MOT'd and insured vehicle parked legally on the street on which I live but the council have decided it is abandoned and they are threatening to remove it. 
Interestingly no option presented in the letter to dispute this, just to 'discuss removal' or confirm 'no longer require the vehicle'
 
 
 

Received this in the post yesterday, a taxed, MOT'd and insured vehicle parked legally on the street on which I live but the council have decided it is abandoned and they are threatening to remove it. 
Interestingly no option presented in the letter to dispute this, just to 'discuss removal' or confirm 'no longer require the vehicle'
 
 
 

Received this in the post yesterday, a taxed, MOT'd and insured vehicle parked legally on the street on which I live but the council have decided it is abandoned and they are threatening to remove it. 
Interestingly no option presented in the letter to dispute this, just to 'discuss removal' or confirm 'no longer require the vehicle'
 
 
 

To be honest I expect as much as it has been parked in the same spot for a while. Oh well spurred me on to getting it moved round to the garage to do some maintenance as drop links need replacing anyway, just haven't had opportunity/ headspace to deal with car stuff for a while due to miserable weather, lack of time, work and family stuff.
Now we have a bit of light in the evenings I am hoping to regain some enthusiasm.

@Sh'Eds It may well be a form letter sent out based on a nosy neighbour complaint.  Hopefully responding promptly and politely telling them it's not used everyday but fully legal will see the end of the matter. Would still move it around a bit though just in case.

Sound like a visit to the Coventry City Council office's car park is required as I am reliably informed there are a number of vehicles parked abandoned there which need reporting.
PS.     Registration document is not proof of ownership.

Received this in the post yesterday, a taxed, MOT'd and insured vehicle parked legally on the street on which I live but the council have decided it is abandoned and they are threatening to remove it. 
Interestingly no option presented in the letter to dispute this, just to 'discuss removal' or confirm 'no longer require the vehicle'
 
 
 

Received this in the post yesterday, a taxed, MOT'd and insured vehicle parked legally on the street on which I live but the council have decided it is abandoned and they are threatening to remove it. 
Interestingly no option presented in the letter to dispute this, just to 'discuss removal' or confirm 'no longer require the vehicle'