DIY Car Maintenance with function over finesse!!

[mickthemaverick]

Had a minor issue yesterday with the stong winds overnight. The cover on the MX3 was lifted off from the back and blown over and onto the road but the front clips held on and stopped me losing it altogether. On examination I found the two rear clip loops had failed by ripping out the stitching and in one case ripping the actual cover:

Failed stitching

The ripped cover

The attacments are supposed to look like this:

The undamaged front link

As you can see from that, the manufacture involved stitching the holding loop into the edge of the cover. Since that resulted in one of the loops pulling right out and another ripping the cover it seemed to me far more logical to attach those loops robustly to the draw cord which goes round the entire cover and is pulled tight holding the cover underneath both bumpers. So I came up with this method:

Split ring around cord

So these rings will then be linked to the ties which each wrap round a spoke of the wheel,

The easy fit and release links

thus holding the draw cord to the wheels without putting any stress on the stitching or even the material as it had been:

The original connection

Now the drawcord will take the strain at all four points as well as being drawn tight around the car. Hopefully that will cope with any future gales that come our way!!

[John Pankhurst]

I'm a bit of a fiddler and one of the jobs I've been puzzling about is the lack of reversing lights on Ted my Morris Minor traveller. I've done the same to both my Commer campers which was an easy job as there is a spare place on the gearbox for a switch ( same g. box used on the Rootes saloons) but no such luck on a Minor box.
So I had a thunk and didn't want to simply wire in a toggle switch on the dash so dug out my spare box to investigate. There is a detent ball and spring on the reverse gate which is easy to remove by way of an external plug, so I started searching for a suitable switch to replace the ball, spring and plug. After a few false starts (couldn't find the correct thread switch) I came across Reliant stop light one that fitted perfectly.

The first attempt worked perfectly but as I had to re-cut the thread the the result was too shallow and tightening almost stripped it completely.

The second attempt was worse and the switch snapped in half but then I found the Reliant one

I'm waiting for a couple of round white LED units to arrive and will mount them with the same surrounds as the other traveller tail lights and will put up some pictures to show the final result.

Bench test proved the concept

Thanks for reading
John

[John Pankhurst]

After a bit of a bursitis induced lay off Ted the traveller has working reversing lights

Made from a couple of screw top plastic containers painted black and LED units fitted to Morris traveller rear reflector mounts.

Nice and bright so other traffic should be able to see what I'm doing

[mickthemaverick]

Further Mazda flat battery issue today. It has been a fair while since the MX3 had a run, and on that occasion it needed a jump start to get home, so I charged the battery off the car refitted it and have left it for the last few weeks. Stupidly I forgot to check the alternator which had been OK the last time i had trouble. This time though it is not OK and hence a new one is now winging its way to Hertford. Hopefully I'll get it fitted over the next few days and all will be well!!

[mickthemaverick]

In view of my deterioration in health nothing further has happend to the MX3 until yesterday. I decided that having bought all the parts for the outstanding work on both cars I should bite the bullet and ask my mate and former business partner to come and do the work for me as a paid job.

The parts I had assembled were:

MX3 all new parts:

Alternator
Water pump
Timing belt kit with tensioners
Air filter
Oil filter
Fuel filter
Coolant
Engine oil

Subaru

Oil filter
Engine oil

(I had completed the rest of its service before I got sick)

So yesterday my mate arrived at 09.00 and after a quick coffee we set about jump starting the MX3 and getting it onto the ramps on the drive. That meant SWMBO had to get her car out and she accepted that it may not be back in on the same day!!

As it is now with o/s front wheel and ramp in temp place for extra safety while waiting. Car actually supported on the axle stands.

Well it hasn't gone back yet due to three seperate problems that arose during the work, firstly the alternator charging stud is 13mm where the original had been 10mm so the spade terminal on the charging lead will not fit. Of course sods law dictated that I had 7 different sizes in stock but no 13mm - one order to Amazon for delivery today.

The new alternator

The spade that was too small

The new spade to be crimped onto the lead

Secondly the timing belt kit I had turned out to be wrong, which we hadn't opened until the strip down was complete! I had triple checked the compatibility on the website before ordering so when it arrived back in April I simply put it on the shelf to use when I recovered. On looking at the kit it had Gates part number K015273XS where as the correct one is part number K015274XS so I assume it was a picking error on their side!! I spent an hour trying to track down the correct one to collect and use yesterday but to no avail. The best I could do was one for me to collect today, which I have now done.

Wrong part number

Wrong kit

Correct part no

Correct kit

Thirdly having had to stop work on the timing Dave set about the rest of the service work, replacing the filters, oil change and install new water pump, which is where it all went wrong again!! The metal water bypass pipe connecting the heater return back to the water pump had corroded to the point of not being resealable with the push fit O ring seal as designed. I am currently looking for a complete replacement pipe but so far I have only found a similar one from the MX5 which we may be able to fabricate a replacement end for my pipe from. Watch this space!!

Water pump

The wrecked joint (now bodged until proper fix available)

So at that point we realised it wasn't our day and shut the bonnet and the garage door to hide the state of it as in the picture below, note the chair which is where I had to spend 85% of the time only getting up to find something for Dave or make a loo trip!!

Hopefully we will get the job finished on Monday or Tuesday weather permitting but the pipe will be an outstanding job methinks.

The garage as we have now left it

[CitroJim]

Oh dear Mick, not the kind of automotive 'adventures' you want to be having right now Here's hoping all will soon be nicely resolved...