Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Ray White]

On two occasions now I have saved a Range Rover steering box by replacing the oil seal in the end of the box. when there is a leak from here it is an immediate MOT failure. Most garages would simply condemn the part and advise a replacement box at some horrendous cost....but the seal costs merely pence.!!

The difficult part for the home mechanic is removal of the drop arm which is secured with a large nut. It is extremely tight and unless you have heavy duty air tools, removal poses a real problem.

My large Stilsons and scaffolding tube only worked after a protracted struggle. When the nut does break free it does so with a loud "crack".

I am not one to boast but when I took the car in for its MOT, they were surprised, if not impressed. At the very least it caused some amusement!

[norustplease]

Engine back in now. A bit of a fiddle, but eventually clonked home after a lot of wiggling around. Next puzzle was how to fit the spring on the engine bay lid. Fiddled for ages and then resorted to the computer again. Support for VW restorers and repairers is quite comprehensive on line and I immediately found a couple of videos showing how it is done. Still needs a bit of adjustment to improve the fit, but so far so good. Hopefully finish all of the reconnections etc. over the weekend and have a usable car again.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1973 VW Beetle 1303L
Boring Suzuki SX Hybrid

[Rusty]

[Ray White]

[norustplease]

Torque multiplier makes it a piece of cake.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1973 VW Beetle 1303L
Boring Suzuki SX Hybrid

[alastairq]

[Ray White]

Actually, I picked up a tip long ago that for difficult nuts (not those damned near impossible ones) then two spanners; one as a lever for the other, works a treat. Then one day on Wheeler dealers I saw Ed China doing just that!

[Rusty]

[norustplease]

When changing the Beetle heat exchangers, I was rather worried that the crusty looking mounting nuts were going to prove problematic. I had visions of snapping a stud, with all the complications that entails.
I Googled releasing oil. WD40 isnt a very good releasing oil anyway in my view, and I suspect that Plus Gas isn't what it was. Several surveys came up tops with Rocket TT which is a Tetrosyl product. It was extremely effective and after a couple of sprays, all the nuts came free without any damage whatsoever.
You can get it from Amazon @ ?4.50 a can.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1973 VW Beetle 1303L
Boring Suzuki SX Hybrid

[norustplease]

Why does the website change pound signs into question marks?
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1973 VW Beetle 1303L
Boring Suzuki SX Hybrid

[Ray White]

[ukdave2002]

[bjacko]

The tightest nut I ever came across was removing the main undercarriage from a Lockheed 188 Electra. It's about a 2 inch thread and I was using a quality socket and ratchet but it would not budge, so I got a 4 foot tube on the ratchet handle and bang the socket split open. I nearly went A over T when it broke. The next shift managed to undo it with a new socket with great difficulty.
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1938 Morris 8 Ser II Coupe Utility (Pickup)
1985 Rover SD1 VDP

[Rusty]

[norustplease]

Last few jobs on Beetle hindered by temperatures. The sun shines directly into my garage for much of the morning so, working in 30 plus degrees is a nono for me. I am sure that the Aussies will laugh at this, but why do it if you don't have to?
Anyway, when I took the clamp off the rather stiff and dusty looking fuel pipe, it was clearly shot, so I bought some of the proper CODAN tubing from Volksbolts to replace it. The original VW pipe had a spring type clip, which would not budge so I reluctantly had a bash with a hacksaw, which was ineffective and then resorted to a little cutting disc on a Dremel. The pipe wasn't leaking since the car still had its rear jacked up. I fitted the new pipe with a screw type clip and then lowered the car down and shut the garage up for the night.
Next morning came with a strong smell of petrol and a damp patch underneath. When cutting off the clip I had clearly nicked the steel fuel pipe and it was dripping onto the chassis member (which was now beautifully clean).
The obvious solution was to cut the steel pipe back and reattach the CODAN pipe, but to do that, I either had to jack the rear of the car back up again to raise the pipe above the fuel level in the tank, or drain the tank. The leak was stronger now, so I chose the latter and managed to catch the petrol in a 1 gallon can, with a spare piece of rubber pipe, and decant it into a 4.5 gallon jerry can that I had.
So, now with a nearly empty tank and around five gallons of petrol in a couple of containers, I cut the pipe back and reassembled.
At this point we were due to go away for a few days and so that is the end of the saga for the moment. I need to try and salvage and filter some of the petrol and put it back in, reconnect the battery, adjust the clutch and hopefully that is that.
The only trouble is that I am now wondering, if the rear flexible pipe was in such poor condition what will the front connection to the tank be like. Do I take out the tank and replace it all, postponing getting back on the road once more.......more mission creep.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1973 VW Beetle 1303L
Boring Suzuki SX Hybrid