My car has been jacked up since Tuesday morning, with a simple exhaust reconnection waiting until I could get at it with the car supported on something a bit more reliable than its own jack balanced on a bit of flagstone and an old brick. I used to have two pairs of axle stands but they have vanished. Nothing but an axle stand would do though, owing to the small space in the wheel arch it had to be fed through. Oak logs were out. So today I went and got some. The factor only had 2.5 ton jobs for lorries and such, 44 quid, nearly had a heart attack then and there.
The actual job took about 15 minutes and the car seems all right, tailpipe in more or less the right place, nothing dragging along the ground, no untoward knocks from the twisty bits woven through the back suspension, Bob's your uncle. Uncorroded pipes went back together like Lego. But did I get the clamp crooked or not quite over the cuts in the outer pipe? Oo-er. The job was a total doddle, but the thing at my age is getting down and wriggling under there, something one did rapidly and without effort in years gone by. Almost everyone I know of my age says they hate crouching, bending or stooping because it makes them feel faint. I am no different.
But three days of faffing over a ten-minute job? Do me a favour. Raaasclaat!
The upside is that owing to the kind and trusting nature of people here I have done a few miles in a sweet little Citroen Saxo, refined engine, brisk and very simple, and a much newer Kia Rio diesel, which has a narrow torque band but drives roughly below it and isn't silent above it, although the owners say it's fine at motorway speeds. I didn't like the low driver's seat even after I had lowered the steering wheel from its ridiculous praying-mantis highest position. Had to move the seat back three notches too but left the seatback upright out of respect for the owner's back problems. Nice to have the jalopy back. But I owe many drinks... which is nice.
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. Almost everyone I know of my age says they hate crouching, bending or stooping because it makes them feel faint. I am no different
You have my sympathise.
I took up yoga some 12 years ago because of just the above and do two exercises every day to loosen my back and prevent backache and loosen my hamstrings (to prevent running injuries). makes an awful difference.
I can recommend yoga for the elderly : it is extremely beneficial. My instructor says I am the fittest 80 year old he has ever taught...:-))
Last edited by: madf on Thu 22 Nov 12 at 17:42
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>> instructor says I am the fittest 80 year old he has ever taught...:-))
I quail from the thought of earning an accolade like that madf, but thanks for the advice. My sister, a forceful doctor, recommends a form of meditation, sit up straight, empty mind, close eyes, breathe steadily through nose, 20 minutes a day, good for stress.
I may give it a try if I can spare 20 minutes a day from my busy schedule of drinking, smoking and timewasting (here for example) with a bit of underpaid but challenging work thrown in.
:o}
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Ageing does have it's advantages though; Rather than waste a small fortune on hallucinogenic drugs one only has to stand up quickly to get an intense high that lasts about fifteen minutes.
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Admirable effort though AC. I'd have to admit that I'd have "got a man" to do that. I have an unfortunate lifelong habit of lashing practical things up myself first and then having to get someone to repair my efforts before they go on to fix the original problem. So "getting a man" is almost always the cheapest option in the first place in my case !
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Can't beat that smug satisfaction of doing it yersen, enjoy the glow.
Its coming up to winter, my barometric knees have started to ache already.
Not for the first time i hear admiration, nay enjoyment of the little Saxo/106...a smashing little car and a pity they don't still make them, my only real criticism being the tiny ofset pedals not really suited to my plates shod in Sargeants Dundee's.
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>> only real criticism being the tiny ofset pedals not really suited to my plates shod in Sargeants Dundee's.
Yes gb... I couldn''t find them at first despite my size 8 stylish on their last legs but more elegant than ever two-year-old white nipple-soled Portobello Road slip-ons, but on the move miraculously ceased to be a problem.... Last time I looked leather-upper tennis shoes without silly phallic zigzags and such on the side had gone up from 20 quid to 40 even in the cheapest shops, and really nice ones up to 90... God how I hate these government cuts. But perhaps things will be more competitive if I manage to pass by on a Saturday.
Big boots suit old Land Rovers, trucks and similar.
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>> Admirable effort though
You flatter me Humph. I do get the useful chap - competent, pleasant, professional, well-equipped, obliging, doesn't talk crap, doesn't overcharge - to do most things. Just not up to it out of doors any more, and the Chrysler isn't all that diy-friendly. I think I am going to have to go to a main dealer for the engine stabilizers/rubber grommets/whatever. Then it will be a quandary about whether to let them do the work or save money (perhaps) by getting the parts and letting the useful chap do the work. Time was I might have tried to grapple with it myself. Wouldn't consider it now except in a life or death situation.
I'm pleased though. I hate being car-less. As bad as a computer crash, worse really because more fundamental. Walking, even running, predate what one could call reason.
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I've been jacked up a few times myself Sire but, you must be a tad down on your uppers to crawl under a jamjar
"at your age" AND in November - what on earth would Lud say I wonder!
Neighb in Tenerife had a Saxo, which is basically a Pug 106, as gord says, I hated the thing.
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I seem to breed axle stands, the ' axle stand ' corner of the garage contains about nine now, plus a pair of long-term owned ramps. If anyone in striking distance of The Towers wants a couple of stands just EMail me.
I draw the line at wrapping them in Christmassy paper and posting them, though.
I need to get down to the garage and underneath the Jowett to connect all it's entrails up for a start-up in the New Year but I look through the kitchen window down the drive and revert to putting the cafetiere back on, reading the paper again and watching daytime telly.
I had a ' magic mushroom ' old age moment the other day. Just recovering from 3 weeks of Manflu, serious enough for antibiotics, I had a coughing fit, nearly passed out, ended up with me eyes looking in two directions, doubled up on the floor. Strangely, all went quiet and I realised my tinnitus had gone......soon came back though !
Ted
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Fart, Pardon, I 'eard that.
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Antibios wont have any effect on a flu virus Teddy and, it's not the cough that carries you off ...
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>> I seem to breed axle stands, the ' axle stand ' corner of the garage contains about nine now
Hmmmm... wondered where they'd all gone...
Garage? Luxury! When I were a nipper we used to rebuild a traction engine with our bare hands and flint tools in the middle of a landslide before breakfast, and then.... oh, never mind.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Thu 22 Nov 12 at 22:46
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Antibios wont have any effect on a flu virus...
They won't, but Staphylococcus aureus and its cousins are notorious opportunists and like nothing better than jumping in while the immune system has its hands full.
Hope you're back to full fitness soon, Ted.
Last edited by: WillDeBeest on Fri 23 Nov 12 at 07:05
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I know what you mean. I used to do everything myself, and that included clutch and gearbox swaps, engine out for rebore and crank grinding, I several times dismantled gearboxes and replaced parts, and once I dismantled and set up a rear axle differential.
But no more. I drew the line at a clutch replacement recently on the Triumph - very heavy engine, heavy gearbox, and I just couldn't face lying on my back underneath trying to lift a hundredweight and jiggle into alignment. It was a wise move - the expert encountered snags, had to take the box off again, do some machining to the release sleeve, offer it back into position again. He had a hydraulic lift and all the gear.
My usual technique for gaining clearance underneath is to jack up one wheel as high as it will go on the ordinary jack and then put a stack of sleeper offcuts under the wheel and lower the car until the wood is taking most of the weight. That way nothing can slip collapse.
I don't like axle stands. In my experience they are unstable once you move jacking position, because a jack doesn't lift absolutely vertically, so it puts a sideways movement on the stand which can suddenly flip it over.
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>> I don't like axle stands. In my experience they are unstable once you move jacking
>> position, because a jack doesn't lift absolutely vertically, so it puts a sideways movement on the stand which can suddenly flip it over.
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Happened to me once, fortunately before I'd actually got under the car. On the rare occasions I now need the car raised I do the same as you.
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But no more. I drew the line at a clutch replacement recently on the Triumph - very heavy engine, heavy gearbox, and I just couldn't face lying on my back underneath trying to lift a hundredweight and jiggle into alignment. It was a wise move - the expert encountered snags, had to take the box off again, do some machining to the release sleeve, offer it back into position again. He had a hydraulic lift and all the gear.
I remember changing the gearbox on a Triumph 2.5PI with overdrive (so even more weight!) exactly as you describe...singlehanded.
That was 30 years ago. Could I do it again? Well I did the job on a Saxo 1.0 5 years ago for youngest son but that taught me the days of heavy lifting are long gone...
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Heaviest clutch job recently was my lads Scooby, heavy old lump with the transfer box included, needed both of us underneath.
Though as you would expect simple tried and tested Japanese design meant the car wasn't just made to be manafactured and damn the poor blighter who has to fix it later...which is how many modern cars are made.
I used to do all the necessary jobs on my own at one time, funds permitted no other way, plus made ends meet by doing kerbside cowboy work for others for a number of years, hasn't helped me back mind spending hours bent over bonnets and scrabbling round underneath.
Fortunately i can now afford to get someone i trust to do the heavy and involved work and content meself with straightforward servicing, still maintain my own and some of my family's brakes because i take more care and time to ensure long life by using the correct lubricants to avoid corrosion seizure, the biggest problem with modern systems IMO.
edit...i found it easier on Triumph 2000's to take the engine and box out in one lump using a suitable engine hoist.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Fri 23 Nov 12 at 12:45
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I am relieved to see that I am not alone in having backed off from heavy complex mechanical work out of doors. It still makes me feel a bit wimpish remembering changing, for example, a Lada clutch in the gutter round the corner from our old gaff in London... found a place where the kerb was high and the gutter deep, two wheels on the pavement... gearbox out onto chest, not too heavy, and able to line up the new clutch plate without a locating device, just by eye with my head in the gearbox recess. As for the Skoda Estelles, they were like meccano to me after a while.
Axle stands are perfectly safe if you are cautious and don't rush. In fact these heavy duty lorry ones are wider based than car ones and taller too. Perhaps I exaggerated in describing the ground as 'dodgy': muddy, not entirely horizontal, but firm and stony underfoot.
I used to use bits of sleeper like MD, or good slices of oak tree. But this particular job made that impossible, the jacking point being too close to the support point.
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>> Axle stands are perfectly safe if you are cautious and don't rush.
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I agree. I have noticed the "jack creep" problem, but as I always made a point of watching carefully when jacking alternate sides it was never a problem. Once the whole arrangement's in the air and stationary they never move.
On some vehicles it's possible to jack under the centre of one end, shove a stand in on each side and then drop the thing onto the stands. Quicker and avoids the problem completely.
If you don't need to take the wheels off, you can't beat a set of ramps for both speed and the copious access provided.
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>> used to use bits of sleeper like MD,
Sorry, should have put CP. Duh....
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Car still going then AC? Flingelwidget still connected to the downdraft isolation scarfier top tube?
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>> Flingelwidget still connected to the downdraft isolation scarfier top tube?
Tsk. You're just envious because I used to know what a steering wheel was... thing you hang onto when the car goes round corners to prevent you from falling out.
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>> Sorry, should have put CP. Duh....
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Corrected attribution accepted.
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All I do now is keep the car clean and no more working outside in the cold A.C.
The Beetles where easy to work on simple mechanics.
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Though as you would expect simple tried and tested Japanese design meant the car wasn't just made to be manufactured and damn the poor blighter who has to fix it later...which is how many modern cars are made.
Well err yes BUT..
I remember seeing a clutch change on a Toyota Celicia 4wd turbo charged 2 litre lump with c 240bhp
A pro garage used to working on Jap cars: cars on ramps, engine suspended on chain hoists, more hoists everywhere to hold gearbox .. Bits of turbo piping and driveshafts everywhere.. They reckonned it would cost the owwner the best part of £1k - and this was 10-12 years ago..
Looked a really horrible job with very tight access.
Maybe that's why you see very few 4wd Celicias left...:-)
Last edited by: madf on Fri 23 Nov 12 at 18:28
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Thats interesting Madf, noted thankyou, i and the lad have a soft spot for the GT4 and one of us might well be daft enough.
I wonder if the difference is because the Subaru was designed from scratch for 4WD where the Toyo was a special conversion on a quite simple standard coupe.
To be fair we did have a fair bit of dismantling, drive to both ends obviously.
edit, just reminded me i had to get a gearbox overhauled for a regular customer on a Supra, the top bell housing bolt was 14mm but inbuilt washer on the bolt head meant very small purchase, impossible to get at from above, ended up with tilted back engine and box and 4 ft of extensions over the top of gearbox working from underneath with a Snap On 6 sided socket, nothing else would grip.
Fantastic car though, looked beautiful in its day and drove wonderfully.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Fri 23 Nov 12 at 18:42
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>> I remember seeing a clutch change on a Toyota Celicia 4wd turbo charged 2 litre
>> lump with c 240bhp
>> Looked a really horrible job with very tight access.
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>> Maybe that's why you see very few 4wd Celicias left...:-)
And the gearbox can be weak - neighbour opposite lost fifth gear on his, fortunately a mechanic knew a trick or two and managed to replace it by going through the wheel arch. MR2 turbo gearboxes (same engine as GT4) are stronger. They make a lovely sound for a four cylinder engine, designed by Yamaha.
I like the GT4's but obviously you have to go over them with a fine tooth comb now they're getting older.
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Making heavy weather of nothing much - madf
