Whats Mr B been up to today.....

Dave Bamber · Unread post by **Dave Bamber** » 27 Feb 2005, 01:41

It's been a busy afternoon. Due to the BX having various engine and clutch related problems, I decided to pull the engine and gearbox. Here's work in progress, drive shafts, rad, fan and LHM gear all removed or moved ready for the lift. Took 2 hours to get this far.

40 minutes later, out and swinging!

Picked up a passenger along the way[:o)]

Mered[:(!] Taking the head off a poxy head bolt snapped! Luckily it left 2 inches sticking out of the block, so with the thermal spanner, mole grips and a big hammer it came out. PHEW!

It's 5pm, Mrs B shouted tea was ready and I'd had enough. Another day tomorrow.

DLM · Unread post by **DLM** » 27 Feb 2005, 01:46

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Picked up a passenger along the way, very apt!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
E's cargo! And probably well done too if he's been there a while.
(this post is not intended to demean, diminish, or understate the importance of the female snail, and their vital role in society vis-a-vis the molluscan condition)

Dave Bamber · Unread post by **Dave Bamber** » 27 Feb 2005, 01:52

Very well done, it was a bit dead[xx(][xx(]

DLM · Unread post by **DLM** » 27 Feb 2005, 02:18

Hope the rest of what you removed was in better shape - those are nice pics of work in progress. Did I spot another XUD lump in the garage?

Kered · Unread post by **Kered** » 27 Feb 2005, 02:19

Todays off subject discussion is snails.
Sorry DLM there are no female snails! There are no male snails either!! They are BOTH.
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1050037
This link will reveal all.
Derek

Dave Bamber · Unread post by **Dave Bamber** » 27 Feb 2005, 02:54

Yes you did DLM! It's the original 17D lump from the 205, the timing belt jumped due to the tensioner coming loose. Some numptie (not me) left the tensioner bolt slack and it snapped the cam in three pieces. I bought the car with a spare engine and swapped it over.
The BX unit is good, hardly a ridge at the top of the bores and no scoring. The head is off as it has a water leak at the front of the head from the HG. The clutch bearing is noisy and it needs a timing belt, water pump, cam and crank seals, so I decided to pull the lot and do all the repairs on the bench. I'm also going to do the octopus pipe and the steering coupling with everything out of the way. Keep me quite for a bit!

Unread post by **alan s** » 27 Feb 2005, 03:48

Oh Dave; like a kid in a lolly shop. All those things to play with while it's out.
Height correctors, wiring connections fixing the corroded earths, rust proofing all the stuff that's usually too hard to get to.....if you let your head go, I'm sure you'll find enough things to do to keep you going until Christmas......2007.
Alan S[:D][:D]

Dave Bamber · Unread post by **Dave Bamber** » 27 Feb 2005, 04:03

Alan you are soooo right! Not forgetting the welding on the inner wings and the bloody great hole in the front cross member[V]
Head came off ok, even with the snapped bolt, even the snapped bit came out without a fight. I think I was very lucky getting the busted bit out. I had visions of a large machine shop bill and even a urgent plea for a good 19D block. The cup was half empty for a while!
And I sold a fully loaded Berlingo Multispace for this[:0] Marty, I'll take you up on that offer of the jacket with the funny sleeves and the rubber wall paper[:o)]

Unread post by **alan s** » 27 Feb 2005, 04:41

I suppose I really should almost put this in the common tips and tricks, but I have these kinds of problems working on the old CXs. Have had instances where the allen headed cheese heads that hold the hinges in place have been so solid they've rounded off internally and in another case, I was removing the side plate with the electro valve fitted to it when I had one snap off in the housing of the c-matic transmission. (C-matic problems = $Mega usually) but in each case, I MIG welded firstly the allen key into the cheese head and when it cooled just screwed it out, after which I made it a policy to buy el cheapo allen keys, one for each screw and just gave them a splat with the welder, pulled 'em out and tapped the weld off when refitted. With the C-matic bolt, I welded the broken bit back onto the seized in bit and when it cooled; it screwed off by hand. Basically used the same principle that's used for removing rear arm bearings where we weld a washer to the outer cone internal surface and just tap it out.

'mazing stuff heat when working around motor cars.
Alan S

Dave Bamber · Unread post by **Dave Bamber** » 27 Feb 2005, 05:11

You can see from pic 4, I only used a blow lamp and I think the heat soak from the bolt to block would have been huge, so I do wonder if it did any good anyways! Once the head bolt has snapped, the tension has gone so the only thing keeping it tight is the small amount of rust at the point where the bolt enters the block, maybe 1/2 threads depth. I considered using the MIG and welding a big nut on the end but I never got that far luckily.

oilyspanner · Unread post by **oilyspanner** » 27 Feb 2005, 06:06

Thermal shock, you cant beat it, I have welded wheelnuts onto broken headbolts i am sure its the heat that does it, now wheres the list of things to look at when its out........
Stewart

vanny · Unread post by **vanny** » 27 Feb 2005, 07:26

I was taught in my early days of trying to get the bloody gear box mount out that its not that heating that does the trick but the cooling!
Thermal coefficients of cooling and rubbish like that but the basics are alloys cool faster than steel (materials science modules have shown me why!), so the alloy shinks round the steel, but only so far. When the stell then shrinks it leaves a gap between alloy and steel, or at least thats the theory. Then add to that the biggest change in heat comes from the rust its self! I've seen somethign similar to what Alan shows being done and a sound akin to a rifle going off as the rust has simply given up and craked, freeing the ring that needed removing!
Yeah so i know most of us here will know/have figured this out, but to those worried that fire and cars dont mix (alan you probably know a lot about that!), well, simply they do go together really really well!

Unread post by **martyhopkirk** » 27 Feb 2005, 13:52

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Dave Bamber

And I sold a fully loaded Berlingo Multispace for this[:0] Marty, I'll take you up on that offer of the jacket with the funny sleeves and the rubber wall paper[:o)]<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Any particular colour, sir?[:D] 6 rolls of rubber wallpaper in the boot of the AX to go!
Remeber if your desparate for a lift giz a ring.

Dave Bamber · Unread post by **Dave Bamber** » 27 Feb 2005, 16:36

The purple one is very fetching[:o)]
I may give you a shout when it's to go back in[:D]

DLM · Unread post by **DLM** » 27 Feb 2005, 17:32

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">The BX unit is good, hardly a ridge at the top of the bores and no scoring. The head is off as it has a water leak at the front of the head from the HG. The clutch bearing is noisy and it needs a timing belt, water pump, cam and crank seals, so I decided to pull the lot and do all the repairs on the bench. I'm also going to do the octopus pipe and the steering coupling with everything out of the way. Keep me quite for a bit!<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
It will keep you going for plenty of time, Dave, but it'll keep the BX going for a lot longer, as you well know! Good on you. If the principle of "do as much as possible in one hit" was applied to more BXs - and more of us had the space/time/inclination/funds to do it - then there would be even more BXs around than the already quite respectable headcount.
And there'd be a lot more smiling faces on the roads......and more threads covering mechanical repairs, snails and their gender, benign and malign effects of heat, straitjackets and sundry other topics along the way.