CitroJim's AX, C3 Picasso, Cycling and Running Tales

[MattBLancs]

Wrong grease: I had a good look at the picture before scrolling down to the next block of text, I was just going to remark it didn't look like CV grease then saw you'd come to same conclusion!

Yes definitely worth checking the other end. You'll already be elbow deep in the slimy greasy stuff doing the inner so not a great additional amount of unpleasantness to check the outer.

Worth eyeballing the outer boot and consider changing it too - if the inner was poor quality rubber (and not just pulled by overextension as you think) then outer could be not much cop either

[myglaren]

I was a brilliant weekend Two absolutely lovely parkruns involving the splashing through puddles I could have avoided them easily but where's the fun in that?

Reminds me of when I was a kid, a friend of my mother's was visiting and telling her that she had been looking out of her window when a man was passing on the opposite side of the road. Well dressed, hat, raincoat, gloves, umberlella and briefcase.
He saw a deep puddle in the paved area in front of the house opposite where the garden would usually be, hopped up off the pavement and went for a paddle in the pool.
Amused her no end.

[Skull]

I'm now properly back in my traditional happy places and continuing to feel really good after my little holiday It did me good!

Good to hear Jim

My sAXo gearbox oil had to be replenished after I changed a lower balljoint prior to the last MoT, I had left too much tension supporting the hub to release a stubborn bolt, when it let go of it's grip the tension pinged the driveshaft out of the gearbox .

Skull's driveway

£20 for fresh oil nowadays (I prefer your option Jim to re-use if clean ) and a messy driveway later I kind of wish I'd opted to undo the hubnut ...
Maybe next time

I also discovered a well seized level plug that destroyed my square drive and has kept hold of it
(filled via the breather, which came off easily suggesting it was the prefered option)

Skull's level plug attachment

[CitroJim]

I was a brilliant weekend Two absolutely lovely parkruns involving the splashing through puddles I could have avoided them easily but where's the fun in that?

Reminds me of when I was a kid, a friend of my mother's was visiting and telling her that she had been looking out of her window when a man was passing on the opposite side of the road. Well dressed, hat, raincoat, gloves, umberlella and briefcase.
He saw a deep puddle in the paved area in front of the house opposite where the garden would usually be, hopped up off the pavement and went for a paddle in the pool.
Amused her no end.

Definitely my sort of person Steve! May have been me in a previous life I'll bet under that formal exterior there lived within a person fully of fun and life

The ex-owner of Strawberry has just told me the driveshaft was brand-new at the last MoT I can only think it was damaged whilst fitting or had a manufacturing fault in the boot rubber.

My sAXo gearbox oil had to be replenished after I changed a lower balljoint prior to the last MoT, I had left too much tension supporting the hub to release a stubborn bolt, when it let go of it's grip the tension pinged the driveshaft out of the gearbox ...

...I kind of wish I'd opted to undo the hubnut ...
Maybe next time

Been there and done that so many times Skull

I also discovered a well seized level plug that destroyed my square drive and has kept hold of it
(filled via the breather, which came off easily suggesting it was the prefered option)

So many people use a super-fit gorilla to do up drain and level plugs in my experience No need of it at all...

I've refilled many gearboxes via the breather and via the revering light switch although these days I do AX 'boxes through the level plug using a funnel with a length of clear plastic tube on the end.

I first used this technique when I was rebuilding 4HP20 autoboxes and in fact the (proper traditional) oil jug I use has 'LT71141 ONLY' written on it in bold... I felt a minuscule quantity of ATF in an AX 'box would not hurt...

£20 for fresh oil nowadays (I prefer your option Jim to re-use if clean )

Absolutely... Gearbox oil doesn't really deteriorate or get contaminated like engine oil and if you are spotlessly clean draining and refilling - and the oil looks fine - then no reason not to reuse... I have been doing so for years...

Naturally, if it looked tired, contaminated and clearly past its best it would be changed.

I was pleased to see the magnets had very little swarf on them

On a different topic, I had a chat with the new owners of Sian's erstwhile Pixo about a service and putting it through a MoT for them and they politely declined my offer... They told me the car is strictly no longer my responsibility now and they will do the necessary. They are loving the car and remain delighted with it

[CitroJim]

Much poo has hit the air circulation device this morning

What I thought was a smelly pair of running shoes under the stairs has turned out to be a significant gas leak coming from under the concrete floor.

Gas emergency services currently on their way to make safe. Then the fixing of it is something I'm not looking forward to... I expect it to involve much digging up of floors and the lifting of my new carpets

Bang goes all the good to my mental health the September Shuffle did

Just one word: bollocks

[Stickyfinger]

What a shi##er !.....best of luck with the fix Jim.....

[mickthemaverick]

Thinking logically Jim could the fitting of gripper strips or door strips for those carpets have been the cause of the leak? In which case you may not have to dig up too much floor.

[myglaren]

Just what you didn't need Jim. Hope it is an easy fix as Mick suggests.

[bobins]

'They' may opt for an alternative route for your gas pipe - depending on circumstances, obvs ! Your floor may yet be saved

[RichardW]

That's not good Jim!

If it's in the supply line to the meter, than it will probably be easier just to run in a new supply line - I think you said the meter was under the stairs, so presumably alongside the new carport, and you said you were going to dig up the concrete anyway.... you can see where this is going!!

[MattBLancs]

Oh dear Jim, bad luck. At least discovering the leak by smell is better than coming back from your hols to find a pile of rubble and that new carport is up in orbit! Could have been pretty catastrophic potentially.

Carpet lifts and goes back more satisfactorily than say tiles or similar, got to try and find the silver linings

The bit before the meter will be the utilities company responsibility, guess everything after the meter connection is yours to sort? One for house insurance to take the strain maybe? Just thinking aloud.

[MattBLancs]

I managed to source fully synthetic 75W80 gearbox oil relatively cheaply (in bulk, 20 litres) off eBay.

I'm a fan of changing it, equally I've yet to have some come out of a gearbox (at first change in my ownership) that's looked anything like sensible to reuse!
Usually opaque, grubby dark brown to black, and sometimes much less than required! Last change I think was about a litre came out, should have been double that

[CitroJim]

I've just spent a very difficult and frustrating morning trying to find an engineer who can. I'm now absolutely drained and ill as a result but may have found one...

These kind of things are not healthy for me...

[CitroJim]

And I have it sorted. Full job to be done tomorrow morning. Most offers were to look and quote. or maybe arrange for the boiler to be reinstated on a temporary basis but nothing else. One mob, who I know have an excellent rep. came up and said they could do the whole thing tomorrow morning. A bit of a relief...

Oh dear Jim, bad luck. At least discovering the leak by smell is better than coming back from your hols to find a pile of rubble and that new carport is up in orbit! Could have been pretty catastrophic potentially.

I consider I had a very lucky escape Matt... I did think at one point it may have been gearbox oil I could smell as the gas stenching agent smells very like it... And having recently been in contact with it... That was after excluding my very smelly running shoes... Now banished to the conservatory...

Now if I had got 20l of 75W80 at a good price I'd have swapped Strawberry's gearbox oil without a second thought

Thinking logically Jim could the fitting of gripper strips or door strips for those carpets have been the cause of the leak? In which case you may not have to dig up too much floor.

That's almost certainly the cause Mick... After explaining to the person who'll do the job tomorrow he's confident it'll be an easy enough fix. I have pulled up the carpet and I see a gripper nail - a surprisingly long one - right into the top of the channel cut into the floor slab where the gas pipe runs...

So hopefully there'll be no need to do a new pipe run, fingers crossed.

[CitroJim]

And easy to se where the confusion came in... Stenching agents contain sulphur, as does garbox oil and... See in highlight in the quote below

A stenching agent, also known as an odorant, is a chemical that is added to gases to make them easier to detect and prevent accidents. Some examples of stenching agents include:
Mercaptans
A sulfur-containing compound that is often added to natural gas, propane, and other fuel gases. Mercaptans are known for their strong, unpleasant odor, which has been described as smelling like rotten cabbage or smelly socks.