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3 hours ago, Tamworthbay said:

How bad? If I remember correctly that area isn’t that complicated to work on. Well it isn’t once the engine is out but that’s not a big job.

Outer sides and fronts of the box sections are FUBAR, top and inner sides are mostly decent, bottoms are marginal.  O/S has already been plated prior to my ownership, both sides could be patched again without removing the subframe, but would need further (better) repairs down the line. I haven't even looked at the rear mounts, which always rot first, because the only way you're repairing them is by dropping the whole subframe and for now I'm content pretending they don't exist... I shall do a proper write up tomorrow when I can be arsed, I'm still sneezing grinder dust currently...

Given the lack of structure left, I've no doubt a big pothole (of the sort Glasgow is littered with) would probably have bent the chassis leg and caused the subframe to shif. As the car can't be driven in it's current state (engine status irrelevant) as the subframe could make a bid for freedom after a sharp bump and even just tugging it onto a trailer could potentially fuck it further I'm looking into acquiring a not stick welder to plate it up at the side of the road like a complete and utter lunatic.

3 people stopped to chat about the cars while I was tinkering and said they had "admired" them when going past, so at least the public seem to like them...

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10 hours ago, wuvvum said:

That's going to be an interesting one for all businesses to figure out.  Where I work there are rumblings about keeping a significant proportion of the staff WFH most of the time for the foreseeable, and only going into the office one or two days a week, with everyone sat a long way from anyone else.

Thankfully I'm junior enough that I can let other people worry about that kind of thing for me.  :)

At my workplace we have a 6:10 desk ratio - based on the fact that enough staff work from home, or work out and about on the road, or are operational and don't need a desk all the time.

With a 6'6" gap, this goes down to a 3:10 desk ratio. There will certainly need to be some creative thinking about how this is all managed.

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Garage now ready for action. Still need to sort the benches but that shouldn't take too long. Boxster is in urgent need of fettling and taken priority over doing that.

The old shelf unit will be going and the mower possibly live in a shed outside in the future. Mower kinda gets in the way especially.

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Just measuring up working area. Despite being a double garage and a little bit longer than the average standard (5.2m long), the Boxster will be a real tight squeeze in there. About 40cm working area in the front between the bumper and toolchest. Plan to go in at angle to help a bit and once the bumper is off and car jacked up, it should be improved.

I don't intend too much work to be done on the Boxster though and the classics are a good 40-80cm shorter thankfully. Still will be tight if I want to do an engine extraction, unless I poke the backend out.

However this working space is an order of magnitude better than I've ever had before. Plus plenty of room to the sides which is a luxury considering I was pressed against the wall at the old place. Also having a roof over your head is the most massive game changer for working on cars too.

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In a frenzy of fettling activity today I finally fixed the driver's electric window on the P38, followed by all the blown bulbs on the dash (bigish job to do bulbs on the HVAC panel bulbs on these), then topped it off with fixing all interior lights, only to discover it has puddle lights in the front doors. I feel like I have won the Lucas electrics challenge!

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10 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Outer sides and fronts of the box sections are FUBAR, top and inner sides are mostly decent, bottoms are marginal.  O/S has already been plated prior to my ownership, both sides could be patched again without removing the subframe, but would need further (better) repairs down the line. I haven't even looked at the rear mounts, which always rot first, because the only way you're repairing them is by dropping the whole subframe and for now I'm content pretending they don't exist... I shall do a proper write up tomorrow when I can be arsed, I'm still sneezing grinder dust currently...

Given the lack of structure left, I've no doubt a big pothole (of the sort Glasgow is littered with) would probably have bent the chassis leg and caused the subframe to shif. As the car can't be driven in it's current state (engine status irrelevant) as the subframe could make a bid for freedom after a sharp bump and even just tugging it onto a trailer could potentially fuck it further I'm looking into acquiring a not stick welder to plate it up at the side of the road like a complete and utter lunatic.

3 people stopped to chat about the cars while I was tinkering and said they had "admired" them when going past, so at least the public seem to like them...

It sounds bad but that is all doable - even if you haven’t done much like that before. It’s all nice and accessible once the engine is out. One thing which will help no end is a simple metal metal bender. The vice mount types are fairly cheap, in fact I have one in my shed that won’t see much use now my Capri project is nearing the end, if you can get it from Tamworth you are welcome to borrow it for as long as you need it.

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Having swapped batteries on the 900 I took out to get milk and bread as we had nearly run out.

By the bottom end of the village it was running like a sack of shit. 3 cylinders mostly maybe less. It did this once before when I swapped batteries but self healed on a restart.... I persevered to the shop bought the milk, bread and chocolate, but no self healing so  I coaxed it back home again.

Turns out that the battery I fitted is longer than the one I took out (the old one was too small) and it pushed a cooling pipe over so it was fouling the distributor and therefore it wasn’t connecting properly and wasn’t firing.

Quick reroute if the coolant pipe all sorted. Test run down to the village shop to get ripped off for hot dog buns. I wish all fixes were that easy! 

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GSA has sprung a minor LHM leak. It looks like I really need to get under the car to investigate, but has left me realising how perilous it is to rely on a 34-year old hydropneumatic Citroen as my only car. 

So, I'm pondering trying to find an MOT garage and getting the Matiz or 2CV out of storage. Which one to choose? I reckon both stand a fair chance of a pass.

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2 minutes ago, dollywobbler said:

So, I'm pondering trying to find an MOT garage and getting the Matiz or 2CV out of storage. Which one to choose? I reckon both stand a fair chance of a pass.

If it was me, 2CV. Easier and cheaper to fix if it breaks and easier parts support. Also summer is almost upon us. 

Matiz may be 50:50 on an MOT from the lack of airbag light illuminating. Depends on your tester. 

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More garden work...yes we technically broke lockdown to do this as it involved walking five metres round the corner out of the garden gate.  If you think this was taking the piss like the one guy who felt the need to take photos of us, so be it.

To give an idea what was done today, you couldn't see the street light when we started, and it was the same height the full way along.

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The hedge will be going entirely in the future and the fence moved back to just behind the trees.  We wanted to really thin it out though as we've had a lot of trouble with drug users using the space between the hedge and fence as a hiding place in the last year or so, so we've now removed the cover effectively and they'll need to find somewhere else.  Given kids also play in the area it felt necessary.

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52 minutes ago, stuboy said:

Decided to strip and clean the carburetor was very dirty with calcified rubbish.. but runs better if bit smokey...

 

 

I've only helped look after one moped which had an automatic oil injection system.  It regularly seemed to cause issues, especially in hot weather and if the bike wasn't used regularly.

We lost patience with it after about the third or fourth time we wound up having to remove large quantities of oil from the crankcase and switched to running on pre-mix.  While it probably smoked a bit more reliability was greatly improved.

Disclaimer: This was some Chinese thing that was so cheap that nobody even wanted to admit to having made it so there wasn't even a maker's mark on it anywhere...so Peugeot may know better what they're doing.

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Yesterday evening I decided to change the ATF on lady Sills Daily Mazda. 137k and I thought it was about time. 

Never done an auto before do obviously YouTube was my friend.

Filter and gasket ordered from eBay. As was ATF fluid from Westway lubricants, I asked them for an equivalent spec and they came up trumps. Excellent customer service. 

So to work! 

Air filter box out. 1st issue, turning rusted captives!!! Mole grips and ignorance worked a treat. 

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Big hole created to get to little dipstick just behind the pipe on left. 

Under tray off. Last person to have it off thought it would fall off when going back on so bolts were done to F/T.  I know why it last came off but that's a rant for another day. 

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Drained and my god it was grim. 

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Next sump and filter. Amazingly the correct filter and gasket. 

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A bit nervous removing it need a bit of force. Off and it's was pretty grubby. Cleaned and sealant cleaned off. Cleaned thoroughly and refitted. Measured what came out 4 litres and boom all fitted up and done. 3 hours but involved some issues and beer. 

Which is the new fluid? 

And this is sealed for life? 

IMG_20200502_202943.thumb.jpg.044339ef2f7f8c904c0c75324f8dba41.jpgAnd yes it is the Mazda 2.2 diesel that grenades itself!!!!

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18 hours ago, SiC said:

Garage now ready for action. Still need to sort the benches but that shouldn't take too long. Boxster is in urgent need of fettling and taken priority over doing that.

The old shelf unit will be going and the mower possibly live in a shed outside in the future. Mower kinda gets in the way especially.

c2448d9a7fa91ca7169bb994210b4872.jpg

07b058338f056a8fa11cc1bcdb2ce2d1.jpg

Just measuring up working area. Despite being a double garage and a little bit longer than the average standard (5.2m long), the Boxster will be a real tight squeeze in there. About 40cm working area in the front between the bumper and toolchest. Plan to go in at angle to help a bit and once the bumper is off and car jacked up, it should be improved.

I don't intend too much work to be done on the Boxster though and the classics are a good 40-80cm shorter thankfully. Still will be tight if I want to do an engine extraction, unless I poke the backend out.

However this working space is an order of magnitude better than I've ever had before. Plus plenty of room to the sides which is a luxury considering I was pressed against the wall at the old place. Also having a roof over your head is the most massive game changer for working on cars too.

Those removal guys have bent your welder ...workmate...and shelving ?

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On 5/2/2020 at 4:27 PM, barefoot said:

Bollocks. that worked for about ten minutes. I went to fire it up later this afternoon to confirm that all would be well in the morning and it fired up instantly, but simply wouldn't idle. The rev counter has also gone mentally over-enthusiastic and flys about wildly! I'm guessing that something very simple is broken, disconnected etc. I swapped the coil for a spare I have, cleaned under the distributor cap, and polished the end of the rotor arm. As expected, nothing made a sod of difference. Does anyone any idea what to look at next? It's a carb fed 1600 and it's not the end of the world, I'll just have to re-tax the 75 until I can get my man with the spanners out for a look some time in the next couple of months!

Chap across the road came & had a look at the Scarecrow with me, we could see nothing until I fired it up & he spotted the carb moving, creating the world's biggest fucking air-leak! A replacement bolt & some cable ties soon had everything fastened down securely again & the problem is solved but...

In a moment of madness, I taxed the 75 in case the VW wouldn't be fixed. I've not driven it, I've not moved it off the drive, I've not even started it. Is it possible to untax/SORN it again? I understand there's a 3 day hiatus thing when I can do nothing? The payment won't be taken until 19th, any advice will be welcomed. If the worst comes to the worst, it's only 25 quid or thereabouts, and I can use it a couple of times over the month.

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It was raining outside and I was under a roof. Despite that, I still managed to get wet and water everywhere. 
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Rad is pullef out and wasn't too much of a fight. Nothing* else damaged, which means I can just order the radiators.  Guides online said to cut pipes to make it easier but that would have been very unnecessary and those pipes aren't cheap. 

Also partially recorded a video for that YouTube thing. Except the battery ran out halfway. 

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Changed discs and pads on the daily Leon.  Amazingly I managed to get the correct parts from GSF.  

However despite all coming apart and going together easily, I haven’t got much of a brake pedal.  Performance seems a bit weaker than it was as well.  Do discs and pads need a couple of hundred miles to bed in or have I fucked something up?

Internet suggestions seem to think I have got air in the system but I can’t see how.  I pushed the calipers back using a home made tool and didn’t undo any brake nipples or anything like that so struggling to see how air might have got in.  Any thoughts?

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Yeah, pads should be moving fine, sliders have brake grease aplenty and the other sections where pad and calipers meet have copper on.  

It is safe enough, I will give it a few days.  Wonder if maybe the new Bendix pads have some sort of glaze on them?  I did scrub them with brake cleaner but wonder if I should have roughed them up with sandpaper first?

If it doesn’t improve I will whip the calipers off again and have another looksie.  Or I might get them bled as it could probably do with new fluid

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6 minutes ago, Parky said:

Changed discs and pads on the daily Leon.  Amazingly I managed to get the correct parts from GSF.  

However despite all coming apart and going together easily, I haven’t got much of a brake pedal.  Performance seems a bit weaker than it was as well.  Do discs and pads need a couple of hundred miles to bed in or have I fucked something up?

Internet suggestions seem to think I have got air in the system but I can’t see how.  I pushed the calipers back using a home made tool and didn’t undo any brake nipples or anything like that so struggling to see how air might have got in.  Any thoughts?

As in the pedal doesn't go down much? 

The bite will be a bit shit untill they bed in, 

Each brand will have a different bed in process, I tend to do the up to 50 firm brake down to not alot, accelerate again giving the brakes a min or two to recover then repeat.

There's many different ways to go about it but this works for me. 

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Pedal doesn’t go down much, certainly no lower than previous but you are right, there isn’t a lot of bite there.  I did take it up to 50 and then whacked the anchors on and performance was ok, it certainly pulled up straight but didn’t have the instant sharpness it used to have.  Maybe the pads are harder/softer or it just needs bedding in as suggested.

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