Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Zelandeth]

Well my garage didn't have the tool needed to do the ball joint so I went and grabbed one, that was dropped off at the garage today and they hope they will have the car sorted tomorrow.

In other news, picked up a clock off eBay a few days back (cheeky £5 bid, surprisingly no other bids), which turned up today. Nicely packed too. The inner layer of which was a Radio Times from 1961. Well that's a decent guess for the age then...

[CitroJim]

Excellent!

What sort of clock was that Zel? I ask as I'm well into old clocks...

That RT from 1961 may be quite collectable too...

[Zelandeth]

Here we go, usual Smith's Sectric movement. No idea is the rest is a factory item or a home build job.

Looks like someone has repaired one of the hands in the past with solder, though a touch of black paint will make it far less obvious.

Will want a new flex as it's not in great shape and has a few nicks in it, but a quick test has shown it runs silently and keeps time, so a good start.

I just saw a big old chunk of brass and decided it had to be worth a punt for a fiver.

[CitroJim]

I like that one Zel

[CitroJim]

Spotted your Xantia out on my early morning run this morning Zel

Parked outside a certain vehicle repairers establishment!

[Zelandeth]

Slight delay in getting it sorted...

...Because I left the wrong immobiliser code with them.

This has now been resolved, so should be back in my driveway soon.

Sadly transposition of digits is something my brain will tend to do if I'm not really paying attention.

[Zelandeth]

New clutch cylinder has turned up for the van!

Roughly the same size as the one for the Skoda, but more than twice the weight. Hopefully shouldn't be too much of a headache to fit. Access is fine at least!

Need to poke the garage tomorrow to see what's holding up getting the Activa sorted, never had time today, but it's still showing as not MOTed, so guessing nothing has been done yet...

[CitroJim]

Need to poke the garage tomorrow to see what's holding up getting the Activa sorted, never had time today, but it's still showing as not MOTed, so guessing nothing has been done yet...

Noticed it was still there this afternoon... You know what Steve's like... So laid-back he's almost horizontal!

[Zelandeth]

I know they're usually booked up to their eyeballs too, so am never in a rush with them to get stuff done. They've had the car for a while now, and I'm feeling that it's time to give them a nudge...even I start to get a bit impatient after a while.

I'd really like to get the Xantia back before the test on the van expires.

[Zelandeth]

Clutch slave cylinder on the van has been changed.

Got to love access like this...

That's essentially looking pretty much straight at the centre of the vehicle from the driver's side front wheel arch. Ground clearance is such that no mucking around with ramps is needed. As usual, good quality fasteners were found so everything came apart without requiring any undue brutality.

Not too happy with how much tension was left on the hose, so will pop it off again to sort that another day when it's not tipping it down outside.

Clutch still feels a little odd, so reckon there's still a little air in the system...see above comment of "will sort once the weather is less wet."

MOT is up tomorrow, so it will probably be taken off the road for a few weeks while I tackle the to do list.

The Xantia still isn't done, though I did have a chat with the garage today. As I suspected might be the case, the ball joint is putting up a fight with regards to coming out so they're going to have to resort to a bit more serious measures to get it out, and haven't had an opportunity to do that yet as there's another vehicle stuck on the ramp which has turned into one of "those" jobs and caused quite a backlog of work.

Does give credence to the theory that I was wise to farm the job out though!

[CitroJim]

Sorry to hear the balljoint is causing so much grief Zel...

I used to take the whole hub out, mount it in my big vice and then use a 4 foot breaker on it... None could resist that!!!

Time is the issue here and a commercial garage just cannot take the time to do such a lot of disassembly/reassembly and still charge a reasonable fee...

Hope Steve soon succeeds and the car is back with you

[Zelandeth]

You've just precisely described what Steve says he plans to do to get it apart, Jim.

Great minds think alike...

I think Steve finds it quite a relief in that I keep reiterating to him that within reason I'm not too worried about the cost within reason, and would always rather a job was done properly than quickly.

[van ordinaire]

Understand the sentiment/rationale - but you could only adopt that approach with a garage/someone you knew & trusted not to exploit the situation. Hope it all works out well, soon - AND not too expensive!

[CitroJim]

Understand the sentiment/rationale - but you could only adopt that approach with a garage/someone you knew & trusted not to exploit the situation. Hope it all works out well, soon - AND not too expensive!

Good point well made Van but both Zel and I know this establishment well... It's the only place I trust to spanner my car...

[van ordinaire]

It's for that very reason I made the observation in the terms I did. [BUT didn't realise you held the place in quite such high esteem - AND, it's not a million miles from me (well, London!) ]