| Motoring Discussion > AA Car Components Guide (1984) | Miscellaneous |
| Thread Author: hawkeye | Replies: 13 |
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New Wed 7 Jul 10 09:16
AA Car Components Guide (1984) - hawkeye
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Helping Mrs H get ready for her French holiday, I came across my ancient (1984) copy of the AA Car Components Guide. It's got line drawings of loads of obscure car components and a translation into 11 languages. There's a cutaway drawing of an original Mini to illustrate the braking system, and extremely dodgy shaded drawing of a Triumph Acclaim to show body parts, and a cutaway drawing of an OHV engine with an SU carb. and its gearbox in the sump that might be a Mini engine. All these drawings have numbers in circles pointing to various oily bits and the reader matches the number to a column of the chosen language and there you have it; the Serbo-Croat for clutch release bearing, or the Italian for thrust washer. The English instructions are a bit daunting, "Could you please have a look at my car and find out what has gone wrong? If any parts, not obtainable locally, are required, could you point out which of these are on the diagrams in this book, so that I can obtain them?" You can imagine the scene of disaster; the engine of your beloved E-type is in bits in pools of gritty oil on the bench of some grubby Spanish tractor mechanic while he drops fag ash in the sump from his roll-up. This is your cue to say, (in Spanish of course), "If new bearings or pistons are required, could you tell me what sizes they should be, and the colour code if applicable?" Priceless. Have any of you dealt with engineering trauma abroad, with or without an AA book to help you? |
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New Wed 7 Jul 10 09:22
AA Car Components Guide (1984) - R.P.
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| Nearest I've come to this scenario was a bike trip in 08, some electrical problems with a friend's bike - bike dealer in the depths of Belgium but infinite patience from both parties combined with the universal motorcyclist's bond got the matter sorted for a reasonable cost.....flip-side was a local dealer who helped out a Dutch couple who'd lost their bike keys free of charge. |
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New Wed 7 Jul 10 09:25
AA Car Components Guide (1984) - -
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Never saw that one H, but i remember having an 'AA book of the car' in the 60/70's?, it was a general purpose workshop manual that gave reasonably detailed explanations and cutaway's and overhaul service procedures of things like brake calipers, clutch's, bearings, carbs, gearboxes, you name it. It was a uselful book and i tried to find something similar for my nephew a few years ago to give him some idea of general mechanics, but no one makes anything like that now or do they? edit, my Sis who's driven trucks abroad for donkeys always found the agricultural type places in France, Spain and Italy well capable of fixing stuff properly after good diagnosis. Last edited by: gordonbennet on Wed 7 Jul 10 at 09:27
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New Wed 7 Jul 10 11:13
AA Car Components Guide (1984) - jc2
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| I can remember someone in the past who had suspension problems on his Corsair in Nice-went into the local Ford dealer to be confronted with a large number of people after parts for an assortment of vehicles-most of which were never sold in France.Yes,they could get the parts but not immediately and he eventually had the car recovered to the UK.Some countries took a most peculiar vehicle offering-for example,Austria at that time took LHD Cortinas rather than the virtually identical Taunus.Other countries took estate cars with no windows in the side and others took vans with windows in the side(both of these were usually for tax reasons). |
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New Wed 7 Jul 10 11:19
AA Car Components Guide (1984) - R.P.
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| Vauxhall (amongst others) used to recommend taking accelerator cables for their cars when "touring" as LHD cables were different to RHD. Anyone want a LHD cable for a 1987 2.0 16v Astra ? |
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New Wed 7 Jul 10 12:06
AA Car Components Guide (1984) - RattleandSmoke
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Thw Panda has a similar oddity. The right hand drive ones all have a hydraulic clutch where as the left hand drive ones use a cable clutch. So if your RHD Panda breaks down in France you probably won't be able to get a spare part for the clutch. |
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New Wed 7 Jul 10 12:41
AA Car Components Guide (1984) - Hard Cheese
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Many years ago I had a speedo cable go on my Metro Turbo while in Denmark, it was an inconvenience at worst though it happened that the local Rover dealer had bought a couple of ex BTCC Metro Turbos to race in Denmark, these were RHD and came with a load of parts including speedo cables, sorted. |
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New Wed 7 Jul 10 13:06
AA Car Components Guide (1984) - bathtub tom
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I had a U/J give problems in Holland. Found a Triumph dealer who said 'no problem' and fixed it quite reasonably. They were gobsmacked as they thought it was a Herald and had never heard of a Vitesse before. 'How do you get that engine in there?' |
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New Wed 7 Jul 10 21:01
AA Car Components Guide (1984) - hawkeye
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Honeymoon to France. The new Mrs H flatly refused to drive my eminently suitable Renault 16TX because of the stiff umbrella handbrake and lovely but baffling column shift. So we are batting down the D25 near Royan in her Triumph Toledo and is that antifreeze tainting the air blasting in through the quarterlights? The temperature needle climbs a bit so I pop the front-hinged bonnet to increase the draught. Bad move; a column of green fluid shoots up the windscreen. The top hose has split and the rusty jubilee clip that I had tightened (OK, I must have overtightened it) a few days ago has vanished. As luck would have it, just behind the hedge where we had stopped was a deserted scrapyard. I did look for the owner but not very hard and I was soon nabbing an enormous hose clip from a rusty Saviem truck. I shortened the top hose and then we topped the Triumph up from something that may have been a cistern, using a plastic shopping bag to hold the oily water. We didn't need the book on that occasion |
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New Wed 7 Jul 10 22:24
AA Car Components Guide (1984) - PhilW
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Couple of instances of " engineering trauma abroad" First (to cut a long story short!) I managed to hit the back of a truck in some remote part of Macedonia on way to Greece in the late '70s which stove in the rear quarter of our Ren 5. A night when the car was "imprisoned" at the local cop shop, wife, me and young baby son were "held" in the worst hotel in the world in a village with only a dirt road through it. Next morning we were released (blameless) after interrogation by Inspector Clouseau (honest - his exact double but with a pistol) and escorted out of the village by a youth (looked about 14) in uniform and with a rifle and told to get out of Yugoslavia without stopping and never to return to Yugoslavia. The next 3-400 miles to our favourite beach were nerve shredding because every bump (there were rather a lot) we went over grated the rear off side tyre against the stove in wheel arch with horrible screeching noise. Pitched tent on beach and I went to the local garage (only one for about 100 miles). Mechanic very busy, I showed him the car and by hand signals said I wanted car mending - he went inside brought out trolley jack and lump hammer and signed for me to take off wheel and hammer the wheel arch out. I tried but failed - went back to him and "explained". He just laughed, went inside, and emerged with the tools for the job - a huge laugh and a huge sledge hammer - and it worked! I rather suspect that his range of hammers solved all mechanical problems! we got home OK! Second (am I going on too long?) Ardennes, ourR18 with caravan on back stops on hairpin bend in cloud of smoke. Local fire engine with accompanying Land Rover stops to help. Fire engine tows car (kids get to ride in fire engine!!), LR tows caravan to local garage. We, 4 firemen and mechanic (garage was just closing as we arrived) consume box of beer from boot of our car for an hour or so while car is fixed. When fixed, ask how much to pay - mechanic says "nothing". Lots of shaking of hands and thanks and we were on our way again! Who needs AA Components guide!! Phil |
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New Thu 8 Jul 10 04:48
AA Car Components Guide (1984) - Pat
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I enjoyed reading that Phil. We all used to 'bodge' lorries and cars to get us home and being inventive was par for the course:) I once developed a very bad air leak on a trailer in Kent late on a Friday afternoon after being away all week and wanting to go home. I found the leak on the long pipe going from front to back and wrapped a whole roll of insulation tape around it. No problem, but VOSA would have a fit now days. Sadly, it seems to be frowned on now to have a little knowledge about everything, and all work has to be done by trained fitters and mechanics. I think that's why we've developed a generation of drivers who have no sympathy with the sound of the engine they're driving. Pat |
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New Thu 8 Jul 10 06:06
AA Car Components Guide (1984) - swiss tony
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>> No problem, but VOSA would have a fit now days. >> >> Sadly, it seems to be frowned on now to have a little knowledge about everything, >> and all work has to be done by trained fitters and mechanics. >> I think that's why we've developed a generation of drivers who have no sympathy with >> the sound of the engine they're driving. Which of course, means vehicles are driven up to the point of breakdown/serious failure (maybe resulting in an accident) that can be more dangerous than a bit of inventive 'tinkering' to create a temporary repair. |
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New Thu 8 Jul 10 18:05
AA Car Components Guide (1984) - Dave_
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My only experience of "engine trauma abroad" The first time I drove myself on the continent was about 7 years ago in a '99T LDV Convoy van (the one with the 2.5Di Transit engine). It had recently had "work" carried out on the engine after overheating and seizing... The job was from Bedford to Cergy-Pontoise on the outskirts of Paris - no prizes for guessing where I was when one of the valves seized, rendering the engine a 3-cylinder unit! Cergy-Pontoise, that's where. And you can imagine my then boss's attitude to the purchase of AA 5-star cover. Luckily, common sense told me to let it cool down and see if it un-seized itself. I did, and it did. Made it back without further incident (well, except having to bum-shuffle across to the furthest passenger seat at the McDrive thru in Boulogne - too shy about my French speaking skills to embarass myself in front of a whole restaurant, too hungry to go without). |
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New Thu 8 Jul 10 21:35
AA Car Components Guide (1984) - Bromptonaut
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Touring with my parents in the mid seventies we used to hire a spares kit from the AA. Was not much use as it did not contain the bonnet, wing & radiator damaged after Dad got confused over which side the Frenchies drive on!! Later, in a Ford Granada, we thought we'd be OK after the alternator stopped charging, after all there were a few Grannys around locally and a Ford dealer. Errr no; the Dagenham version had Lucas (or maybe Smith's) electrics. The local Ford dealers spares were all Bosch!! They managed to cobble it & get us home. Personal one was about 4 years ago in France/Switzerland. Dropping off the Jura towards Divonne les Bains the 'lingo's caution 'bong' sounded, the STOP light on the dash came on accompanied by the brake fault light. Stopped as soon as was safe and checked levels/leaks/function and all seemed OK so proceeded with caution back to campsite. After about 10 mins dash returned to normal. I wore what my daughter calls my worried car face for the rest of the day but could not muster the French to try and explain a transient fault!! It never happened again (though the dealer in the UK replaced something under warranty (as a precaution) when we got home. The incident happened very close to something under a 'golf ball' type cover - probably an ATC radar head. I reckon some form of electromagnetic interference triggered the warning. |
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