Six Cylinders Motoring Notes

[beko1987]

34 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

I have  been offered a pair of seat belts for the XM that I have agreed to and now I am waiting for the guy to confirm.

I thought the photo on the xm fb group looked familiar, glad you've found one! 

I need rear tyres next year too. Oodles of tread but sidewall cracking... 

[wuvvum]

9 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

I need rear tyres next year too. Oodles of tread but sidewall cracking... 

That's a common thing with nose-heavy FWD cars which encourage a "sensible" driving style.  The rear tyres perish before they run out of tread.

[Six-cylinder]

4 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

That's a common thing with nose-heavy FWD cars which encourage a "sensible" driving style.  The rear tyres perish before they run out of tread.

My father had a GS and the rear tyres lasted 73,000 miles, when tyres didn't crack for years.

[HMC]

1 hour ago, Six-cylinder said:

A pair of new rear Tyres for the 200TE today.

The ones on the car were not quite worn out but we did not like the cracking between the treads.

I can see the rear subframe mounts in that pic. Have you ever prodded them? Unpleasant memories here of not finding much metal above.

[Mrs6C]

16 minutes ago, HMC said:

I can see the rear subframe mounts in that pic. Have you ever prodded them? Unpleasant memories here of not finding much metal above.

Never prod a gift Mercedes in the undercarriage!

[Six-cylinder]

13 minutes ago, HMC said:

I can see the rear subframe mounts in that pic. Have you ever prodded them? Unpleasant memories here of not finding much metal above.

I have never checked myself but June this year it was  MOTed at a Merc specialist who did some welding in the drivers footwell. It has also been to my favourite garage for brakes all round Sep this year  and if they had spotted something I am sure they would have reported it.

[hairnet]

1 hour ago, Mrs6C said:

Never prod a gift Mercedes in the undercarriage!

ooer missus

if yo prod chris how high will he jump

[hairnet]

Just now, hairnet said:

ooer missus

if yo prod chris how high will he jump

 ps shonky mercedededededededs ftw

[RichardK]

From what I remember the subframe mounts were great on this one, the driver's footwell was beginning to get interesting, but the cladding was doing its job elsewhere (good and bad). And it was such a wonderful, calming beast to drive.

[Six-cylinder]

I collected the Maestro with a fresh MOT today.

It needed a small hole in the sill welded , the tracking done and the choke idle reduced.

It runs nicely , but they never added a 5th gear!

[richardmorris]

2 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

I collected the Maestro with a fresh MOT today.

It needed a small hole in the sill welded , the tracking done and the choke idle reduced.

It runs nicely , but they never added a 5th gear!

Four speed in 1989?

[Six-cylinder]

The other job for today was a fitting the JCB tyre.

@Talbotmessaged me this morning to say he was willing to give fitting the tyre he nursed down from the north a go this afternoon. A quick rearrangement of the day and we were at it, yes all right Talbot did the hard work but I gathered the stuff together and held the camera!

It all went well except one problem Talbot could not see where he was going due to the failure of out contracted digger window cleaner @beko1987!

[richardmorris]

How did you break the bead and get the new one on?

[Six-cylinder]

1 minute ago, richardmorris said:

How did you break the bead and get the new one on?

Club hammer to break the bead and then tyre levers and crowbar to get the tyre off.

[richardmorris]

2 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

Club hammer to break the bead and then tyre levers and crowbar to get the tyre off.

Sounds fun! Keeping you warm in the end of November anyway.

[Talbot]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

How did you break the bead and get the new one on?

Tubed tyre.  The tyre was almost a lose fit on the rim and the rim has a reasonable amount of rust on it, meaning it wasn't so much "break the bead" as "push the tyre off".  The worst aspect of the job was the fact that both the old and the replacement tyre are fairly elderly, meaning the rubber is quite hard and hence fights you all the way.

Also not having any brakes on the front axle made levering a little "interesting"  I would have taken the wheel off, but I think that would have taken longer than just doing it in situ... the studs and nuts look fused with rust.

I did exactly the same on my 9X16 FC land-rover tyres a good few years ago, so I knew it was possible.

[Mrs6C]

@Slowsilver Please let MrsSlowsilver know that the 'car creeper cushion' performed an excellent job today, keeping Talbot insulated from the chilly ground and comfortable while he took the tyre off the JCB! 🙂

[adw1977]

19 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Four speed in 1989?

Still four speed in late 1990 if you went for a bottom of the range 1.3:

Full brochure

 

[dollywobbler]

Good stuff. That JCB needs some working wipers! That'd do it.

[loserone]

Crikey, well done @Talbot!

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, adw1977 said:

Still four speed in late 1990 if you went for a bottom of the range 1.3:

Full brochure

 

How depressingly unadvanced.

[Six-cylinder]

24 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

How depressingly unadvanced.

In 1990 I had a brand new Volvo 240 DL company car, 4 speed and carburettor!

[Mrs6C]

4 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

In 1990 I had a brand new Volvo 240 DulL company car, 4 speed and carburettor!

FTFY!

[Six-cylinder]

1 minute ago, Mrs6C said:

FTFY!

I got it to tow my race car!

[hairnet]

need pic of six cyl in racing suit plz

 

[richardmorris]

34 minutes ago, hairnet said:

need pic of six cyl in racing suit plz

 

Pervert.

[Talbot]

2 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

JCB needs some working wipers

I did briefly look at the front 4-bar-chain wiper and wonder if there was any chance of it working.  Then realised it's completely siezed.... so that'll be a "no" then.

First thing it could do with is some working brakes.  Piloting something that big and heavy that can do quite as much damage as it can with no working brakes to speak of is mildly worrying.

[wuvvum]

I had a 1995 Citroën AX which had a 4-speed 'box.

[hairnet]

1 hour ago, Six-cylinder said:

I got it to tow my race car!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jQ_bOP0HfY

*puts nerd away

 

[richardmorris]

3 minutes ago, wuvvum said:I had a 1995 Citroën AX which had a 4-speed 'box.

Even more depressing. I know I have a four speed 2cv,  but it’s not exactly modern. Mind you one of the founder members of the Thames Tortoises 2cv group I run was know as Pam the 3rd as she had her car for 6months before realising it had a 4th gear!