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8 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Well that was one of the least productive weekends I've had in a long time.  I spent most of it failing to fix the Rover's front suspension.  After Saturday's rounding off of the pinch bolt and ball joint retaining bolt and subsequent fruitless search for a means to remove them, today I decided I was going to cut the bottom bit of the spring off to get it clear of the wheel.

I didn't have any cutting discs for the grinder and I didn't really want to attempt to drive the car back to the house anyway, so I broke out the hacksaw.  Initially it cut through the spring quite well, but as I got towards the middle progress slowed almost to a stop.  After an hour and a half of on-and-off sawing I'd chewed through the two hacksaw blades I had, so I headed off to Roys to buy some more, and I picked up some cutting discs while I was there.  Back at the car park I changed the blade on the saw and started hacking away again - after another hour or so I was almost all the way through so I thought I'd tap the end of the spring with a hammer to see if I could get the slot I'd cut to open up a bit.  Not only did it not make any improvement to the slot, it also knocked the last half coil of spring out of the bottom seat, so it now sat a good inch and a half lower, the work I'd spent half the day doing to cut the last bit of spring off was rendered completely useless, and because the end of the spring now sat even lower than before I couldn't get the wheel back on the car at all.

Out of desperation I dug the grinder out of the boot of the Innocenti where it's spent the winter, and plugged it in to the inverter under the bonnet of the Maxus.  To my surprise the inverter actually managed to run it, so with the Maxus parked up behind the Rover with an extension lead running from under the bonnet and one of the shiny new cutting discs fitted to the grinder, it took less than two minutes to slice through the spring at a point that would allow me to refit the wheel without fouling.  This was a moment of mixed emotions - I was pleased that the inverter will run the grinder as that will mean that if a car needs grinder action I'm no longer forced to bring it into the drive, but I was also thoroughly pissed off that my hours of sawing were all pointless - I could have spent all that time doing something more productive, like watching porn on the internet. 

I still haven't been able to get either bolt undone either.  A mate lent me a 3' section of scaffold pole, which shoved on the end of the 2' breaker bar gave me all the leverage I could possibly want - enough leverage in fact to make the bolt remover ping off the pinch bolt (I'm actually impressed that it stayed on as long as it did, it's cut some impressive grooves into the bolt head).  That was my last option for getting the pinch bolt undone, so I'm now going to have to pay £££ to the garage to do it.  Unless I take off the entire strut, wishbone and hub assembly and replace them all, but that would be a bit silly.

I did get a pair of upgraded speakers fitted to the Maxus though, which has made the radio at least listenable if not exactly Bang & Olufsen quality, so that's one good thing.

Cutting anything with a hacksaw is painful I hate to think what it was like trying to cut through sprung steel.

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45 minutes ago, cort16 said:

Cutting anything with a hacksaw is painful I hate to think what it was like trying to cut through sprung steel.

When I was in second year woodwork I got into bother because I broke three hacksaw blades in the space of 15 minutes on a bit of wood. So christ knows what it was like going through steel.

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9 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Well that was one of the least productive weekends I've had in a long time.  I spent most of it failing to fix the Rover's front suspension.  After Saturday's rounding off of the pinch bolt and ball joint retaining bolt and subsequent fruitless search for a means to remove them, today I decided I was going to cut the bottom bit of the spring off to get it clear of the wheel.

I didn't have any cutting discs for the grinder and I didn't really want to attempt to drive the car back to the house anyway, so I broke out the hacksaw.  Initially it cut through the spring quite well, but as I got towards the middle progress slowed almost to a stop.  After an hour and a half of on-and-off sawing I'd chewed through the two hacksaw blades I had, so I headed off to Roys to buy some more, and I picked up some cutting discs while I was there.  Back at the car park I changed the blade on the saw and started hacking away again - after another hour or so I was almost all the way through so I thought I'd tap the end of the spring with a hammer to see if I could get the slot I'd cut to open up a bit.  Not only did it not make any improvement to the slot, it also knocked the last half coil of spring out of the bottom seat, so it now sat a good inch and a half lower, the work I'd spent half the day doing to cut the last bit of spring off was rendered completely useless, and because the end of the spring now sat even lower than before I couldn't get the wheel back on the car at all.

Out of desperation I dug the grinder out of the boot of the Innocenti where it's spent the winter, and plugged it in to the inverter under the bonnet of the Maxus.  To my surprise the inverter actually managed to run it, so with the Maxus parked up behind the Rover with an extension lead running from under the bonnet and one of the shiny new cutting discs fitted to the grinder, it took less than two minutes to slice through the spring at a point that would allow me to refit the wheel without fouling.  This was a moment of mixed emotions - I was pleased that the inverter will run the grinder as that will mean that if a car needs grinder action I'm no longer forced to bring it into the drive, but I was also thoroughly pissed off that my hours of sawing were all pointless - I could have spent all that time doing something more productive, like watching porn on the internet. 

I still haven't been able to get either bolt undone either.  A mate lent me a 3' section of scaffold pole, which shoved on the end of the 2' breaker bar gave me all the leverage I could possibly want - enough leverage in fact to make the bolt remover ping off the pinch bolt (I'm actually impressed that it stayed on as long as it did, it's cut some impressive grooves into the bolt head).  That was my last option for getting the pinch bolt undone, so I'm now going to have to pay £££ to the garage to do it.  Unless I take off the entire strut, wishbone and hub assembly and replace them all, but that would be a bit silly.

I did get a pair of upgraded speakers fitted to the Maxus though, which has made the radio at least listenable if not exactly Bang & Olufsen quality, so that's one good thing.

I feel your pain. Often my spannering seems to go down a pointless rabbit hole like this. Maybe treat it as a (painful) learning experience. 

Re: strut bottom bolt - if the wishbone and strut were off the car, would that give better access to the stuck pinch bolt? Then maybe attack with grinder once on a bench?

Or, last resort - cut through the wishbone and replace? Sounds drastic but on my heaps the cost of a wishbone inc balljoint is buttons eg £30/pair. 

Never come across a stuck pinch bolt like that (don't want to tempt fate either) as they're not really 'doing' much mechanically and don't need to be mega tight. 

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10 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Well that was one of the least productive weekends I've had in a long time.  I spent most of it failing to fix the Rover's front suspension.  After Saturday's rounding off of the pinch bolt and ball joint retaining bolt and subsequent fruitless search for a means to remove them, today I decided I was going to cut the bottom bit of the spring off to get it clear of the wheel.

I didn't have any cutting discs for the grinder and I didn't really want to attempt to drive the car back to the house anyway, so I broke out the hacksaw.  Initially it cut through the spring quite well, but as I got towards the middle progress slowed almost to a stop.  After an hour and a half of on-and-off sawing I'd chewed through the two hacksaw blades I had, so I headed off to Roys to buy some more, and I picked up some cutting discs while I was there.  Back at the car park I changed the blade on the saw and started hacking away again - after another hour or so I was almost all the way through so I thought I'd tap the end of the spring with a hammer to see if I could get the slot I'd cut to open up a bit.  Not only did it not make any improvement to the slot, it also knocked the last half coil of spring out of the bottom seat, so it now sat a good inch and a half lower, the work I'd spent half the day doing to cut the last bit of spring off was rendered completely useless, and because the end of the spring now sat even lower than before I couldn't get the wheel back on the car at all.

Out of desperation I dug the grinder out of the boot of the Innocenti where it's spent the winter, and plugged it in to the inverter under the bonnet of the Maxus.  To my surprise the inverter actually managed to run it, so with the Maxus parked up behind the Rover with an extension lead running from under the bonnet and one of the shiny new cutting discs fitted to the grinder, it took less than two minutes to slice through the spring at a point that would allow me to refit the wheel without fouling.  This was a moment of mixed emotions - I was pleased that the inverter will run the grinder as that will mean that if a car needs grinder action I'm no longer forced to bring it into the drive, but I was also thoroughly pissed off that my hours of sawing were all pointless - I could have spent all that time doing something more productive, like watching porn on the internet. 

I still haven't been able to get either bolt undone either.  A mate lent me a 3' section of scaffold pole, which shoved on the end of the 2' breaker bar gave me all the leverage I could possibly want - enough leverage in fact to make the bolt remover ping off the pinch bolt (I'm actually impressed that it stayed on as long as it did, it's cut some impressive grooves into the bolt head).  That was my last option for getting the pinch bolt undone, so I'm now going to have to pay £££ to the garage to do it.  Unless I take off the entire strut, wishbone and hub assembly and replace them all, but that would be a bit silly.

I did get a pair of upgraded speakers fitted to the Maxus though, which has made the radio at least listenable if not exactly Bang & Olufsen quality, so that's one good thing.

Just unbolt the wishbone/hub/strut etc. and remove as one assembly, no need to struggle with the pinch bolt.  Then you can get the spring compressors on and change the spring.      

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Black betty the Sierra Hearse passed her roadworthyness test today.

Two year test once they reach 30 years old here in Ireland. 

Advisory on the tyres being more than 6 years old. 

Emissions were very low,quite chuffed with that as the engine and box are destined to be fitted to my mk2 Capri(eventually)

Tester was less than impressed with her former occupation 🤣

20220307_130308.thumb.jpg.4f73c27c35c5f4d8d10c68f3b728ef34.jpg

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Parts for the knackered BX started landing today. The cheapest BX mid section on eBay has rocked up and looks like it’ll do the job for £25.65

03B7D286-416B-4D8B-8CF2-BD610EE80698.thumb.jpeg.adba4168e17c4fdc4b0b3cf33bf3a1f6.jpeg
 

Now I just need to wait for the cheapest back box I could find on eBay to turn up, and provided it was £28.03 spent well then I guess I’ll have to start doing something with the car.

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2 hours ago, Ghosty said:

'Citreon'. FFS.

 

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

You took the words out of my mouth.

I completely missed that!

Not surprised though given which rag it was that published it but still amusing none-the-less

At least they didn't even try to spell Xantia

Oh and "metal coloured motor" - just what!? 

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On 3/5/2022 at 6:16 PM, wuvvum said:

Status update: the pinch bolt has now rounded off as well.  I do at least have a bolt remover in that size, which I have hammered on and which is so far gripping very well - I still can't shift the bolt though, even heaving on a 2' breaker bar (it's a shame it's not the offside, I could jump up and down on the bar then).  

I went to Wilco to see if they had any bolt removers in stock, but the only set they had was nearly 30 quid and I was fucked if I was paying that when I only need one size - that's nearly a gallon of diesel at current prices.  The other alternative was a 1/2" socket, to be hammered over the bolt in traditional Autoshite fashion, but they didn't have any of those either.  So I'm no further towards getting the ball joint bolt undone.  I have however managed to find my 12 volt ugga dugga gun which a mate gave me years ago - I've never actually used it so I don't know if it works or not, but I'm going to give it a go tomorrow on the pinch bolt - although I don't actually have any impact sockets big enough to go over the bolt remover so I'm going to have to hope that a normal socket is up to the job.

I've put the spare wheel on for now - it' a 15" wheel with a smaller tyre as well so it just about went on OK with a bit of levering.

The alternative to jumping up and down on the bar on the nearside is to jack the car up, attach the bar and slowly lower the car. 

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One out!

After all the buggering about with issues caused by the fan belt snap, the Elgrand of many (well a few at least) Shiters has finally departed northwards to another shiter tonight! 
76428808-BB52-4987-AD7B-2E7CDC7083D9.jpeg

Only 6 weeks later than planned! 

Thats me back down to single figures car wise…

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On 07/03/2022 at 09:52, richardmorris said:

I've no idea what this is, it's just come off a transporter full or nigel mansell F1 cars.

20220307_093108[1].jpg

 

On 07/03/2022 at 09:58, Liggle said:

Its a Modulo 'reverse trike' 

Based on a BMW bike, can't remember if they are built by BMW or just based on a BMW

 

That's... er, visually challenging.  No Grinnall Scorpion, is it?

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Last drive of the LS400 today for a little while. MoT is due tomorrow and if nothing else I know the exhaust will need some TLC. It can sit quietly in the corner waiting for a time when spending on the new house and general 1:1 life slows down a bit.

Can hopefully start using the Laurel again soon once they ease off on the salt, it's spent the winter under a pile of boxes. Free tax and no MoT to worry about on that one.....

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2 hours ago, doobietoo said:

The alternative to jumping up and down on the bar on the nearside is to jack the car up, attach the bar and slowly lower the car. 

Problem is it's a flexible head bar, so it'd take up all of the trolley jack's travel before it actually started to do anything.  My old breaker bar was rigid, but I broke that trying to get a wheel nut off a Fiat Punto.

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7 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Problem is it's a flexible head bar, so it'd take up all of the trolley jack's travel before it actually started to do anything.  My old breaker bar was rigid, but I broke that trying to get a wheel nut off a Fiat Punto.

The 75 still putting up a fight then!? Induction heater and one of those Irwin bolt grippers? 

Granted an induction heater isn't something you can magic out of thin air but maybe you know someone with one you could borrow? Failing the heat solution a bolt gripper might do on its own. 

(I think) you say you've tried various lengths of scaffold pole, have you been able to grab onto the bolt to no avail or does it slip/round off?

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