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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AA Car Components Guide (1984) new
AA Car Components Guide (1984) new