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Post by telemachus on Dec 5, 2022 18:00:07 GMT
telemachus is in the firing line for a homemade hair lip š¤¦āāļø For what itās worth the rears are a piece of cake, Iād do them at home, However, the fronts can be an utter bastard. I sent my Octavia to my mates place in Kempston and kindly let him struggle to get the drive shafts out the hubs, VW group profits hinge on leaving the splines dry as a Nuns Crotchet- complete free of any lubricating compound š¤¦āāļø He had a tough time on a ramp, doing it on the drive would have been much less fun Itās worth replacing the top mounts and the drop links while itās all in bits - itās also worth getting VW bits from your local TPS rather than using pattern shite from Euro Car Parts or wherever Garage wanted over Ā£400 so I think I will DIY. Obviously the actual front springs are taken off once the struts are off. I hear what you say about the drive shafts, only consolation is that the same side shocker was replaced in February so it has been off relatively recently. Whether they lubed it is another matter of course! I have a spacious garage so not going to do it outside - this is Scotland in December (nearly!). 200nm is a lot of torque though! The TPS parts are about 50% more expensive and Iām not inclined to lust after OEM springs - after all these springs were OEM and only lasted 80,000 miles. This is the first car Iāve ever owned that has broken springs, all the previous cars (Saabs, Subarus) did way over 100k miles so clearly VW OEM springs are a bit shit, just like their brake discs! Autosave has quoted for Lesjofors front spring - a reasonable make I think - and BRA rear which perhaps is a bit low budget. But if they only last 50k miles that will probably see the car out. Ill have a look at the top mount and drop link bushing but not going to replace them unless they actually need doing (This is Scotland you know). Anyway, if I survive I will let you knowā¦ but Iāll probably wait until next week to do it. Well thatās the rear one done. Complete pain in the arse of course, because everything is corroded and awkward. Spring compressors didnāt fit so I ended up dropping the bottom arm off. Sounds easy but that is a rusted nut and bolt for the damper, a rusted nut and bolt for the wheel hub, a rusted nut and bolt for the drop link and a not-rusted pair of screws for the level sensor (which I replaced last week). But anyway it is done, and done properly. Skoda workshop manual says to bolt up the things with rubber bushing when the suspension is in the āunladenā position, ie with the suspension extended to the same degree as if the car was empty and parked on level ground. So thatās what I did. I somehow doubt whether a garage would have bothered. I need to recover before doing the front strutā¦ tomorrow. |
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Post by GUMPY on Dec 5, 2022 18:10:38 GMT
I thought the car was fairly new, how come its all rusty or is it because of all the gritters up there.
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Post by telemachus on Dec 5, 2022 19:51:48 GMT
I thought the car was fairly new, how come its all rusty or is it because of all the gritters up there. Coming up to 7 years old and 85,000 miles. Cars always fare much worst up here due to salt on the roads for far longer than Englandshire. My ācommuteā to the gliding club is over the Lecht (2000ā+ mountain pass) which has lots of salt and the car is sandblasted by salty grit for 1/2 the year! |
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Post by telemachus on Dec 5, 2022 20:06:13 GMT
Oh and while I think of it, when I took of the wheel I realised that carcass was showing right at the inside edge! Other side is OK so presumably itās due to the broken spring. Rest of the tyres are on about 3 mm so I was going to get new tyres soon, but now it will have to be NOW! 19ā wheels which makes the tyres expensive so Iāve just forked out Ā£778 for 4 Michelin cross-climates from Black Circles, fitting on Thursday.. Car ownership is expensive!
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Post by gazza on Dec 5, 2022 20:07:51 GMT
I thought the car was fairly new, how come its all rusty or is it because of all the gritters up there. Remember what I said about VW and their profit and loss strategyā¦. You still got yer Yeti?! |
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Post by GUMPY on Dec 5, 2022 21:36:32 GMT
I thought the car was fairly new, how come its all rusty or is it because of all the gritters up there. Remember what I said about VW and their profit and loss strategyā¦. You still got yer Yeti?! Yeti (10 plate) is on 166,000 miles and seems OK its going to have a throttle body clean when I get to it. My old Octy (56 plate) is on 242,000 miles still going strong. Although it will need new brakes all round soon as they have been on for about 60,000. You and I know they only need to last until the end of the warranty hence the variable servicing which the Yeti has never been subjected to. |
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Post by peterboat on Dec 6, 2022 17:11:50 GMT
I thought the car was fairly new, how come its all rusty or is it because of all the gritters up there. Its normal now, cars will last 10 years without any protection so thats exactly what they do, I was under my mates 2015 Peugeot last week doing a service everything was going rusty on it so it going next year. The I3 is carbon fiber, plastic and aluminium so has no corrosion underneath but next year on it bi annual service I will spray some waxoil around |
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Post by telemachus on Dec 7, 2022 17:27:05 GMT
Well I tackled the front spring today. The only bit that was easy was getting the carden shaft out! Actually the rest wasnāt too bad. Having got the strut off and feeling pleased about it, I was nearly stymied getting the nut off the damper rod, there is a spline hole in the top to hold it still, whilst you undo / do up the nut with a 21mm cranked ring spanner. Trouble is I donāt have a 21mm cranked ring spanner. So various horrors involving mole grips ensuedš±
All back together and seems fine. The spring was broken quite near the middle, itās amazing that it wasnāt more noticeable.
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Post by JohnV on Dec 12, 2022 8:42:50 GMT
Well finally I am now able to get back properly on finishing off the whispergen installation.
For the last three weeks I have been sidetracked by a totally unexpected and extremely frustrating problem with the main electrical instalation.
For a while it totally foxed me (and the technical manager of the company that supplied the equipment was also at a loss to understnd it)
eventually I tracked down the problem and of course, once something is understood, it is usually possible to either avoid or correct.
Fortunately the company concerned was one I have dealt with many times and have a good attitude to their customers.
Although it wasted time and caused a lot of hair pulling, the company has helped and footed the cost.
At the moment this is awaiting further attention but at least it is solved and a known solution can be applied.
I can ignore it for now and continue with the rest of the installation.
I will probably put a post on the electrickery section about it just in case any are interested in the ins and outs of it.
sufficient to say that it has been yet another PITA after a long series of them throughout the whole of these alterations.
I don't think I have ever had such a chain of problems before in any project I have either been doing or been involved in
... totally unbelievable to quote Mr Meldrew
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andyberg
Very gobby
They say nothing is impossible yet I manage to do nothing most days?
Posts: 214
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Post by andyberg on Dec 16, 2022 16:13:28 GMT
Spent the week packing and moving all my gear onto the āclown classā boat due to a lady friend needing somewhere urgently to live. I offered her the other boat but then thought, with no boating experience, sheāll struggle out on the canal without use of a hairdryer or makeup mirrors, not to mention her having to empty a cassette bog! š¤® So, its the last night for me with all the comforts of the marina, mains, water on tap, butler service for any gas, diesel needs etc, swapping for a life of misery on my basic offside Burscough mooring.š Going for plenty of beer in my local now, then pastures (& hedges) new for the foreseeable future tomorrow! NB Baz hasn't looked this clean for years, could possibly result in an offer heading my way, maybe!š¢      |
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Post by pattyann57 on Dec 16, 2022 16:31:49 GMT
thats a lovely looking boat
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Post by twerpv3 on Dec 16, 2022 17:47:23 GMT
thats a lovely looking boat Agreed. |
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andyberg
Very gobby
They say nothing is impossible yet I manage to do nothing most days?
Posts: 214
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Post by andyberg on Dec 17, 2022 11:51:47 GMT
thats a lovely looking boat Im sure shes gonna be happy on there, although the engineroom could be the dealbreaker, not being a very feminine place. After all, āI could of put a double bedroom there if I moved that dirty engineā according to a very ex of mine! š  |
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andyberg
Very gobby
They say nothing is impossible yet I manage to do nothing most days?
Posts: 214
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Post by andyberg on Dec 28, 2022 11:59:17 GMT
Just back from looking at a job for next week, replace inverter with larger one (cabling it thro a proper switch not connected directly to the landline feed and onto the fusebox as isš) rewire the sockets and immersion with artic flex (done in grey twin / earthš) basically sort it all out plus fit split charger in engineroom. This boat passed its safety test 11 months ago somehow, the joys of working on self fit outs. š   |
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Post by telemachus on Dec 29, 2022 19:47:28 GMT
We have a digital DC distribution system as some will know. When we had the boat built, I selected some fancy pushbutton switches to operate lights etc. (it is push on, push off, push and hold to dim etc.) However it was quite hard to find what I wanted, a group of 6 buttons. So the stuff I chose, whilst looking OK, didn't have a great "action" as I found out after buying them! Inside there are bits of bent brass with no decent plating, and over the years they have become a bit corroded and some now require a good push and wiggle. They are only switching microamps, so really one needs gold plated contacts for that. Cheap shite dressed up for mega bucks! In particular I have never liked the lack of any tactile feedback (click action, if you like). SO... having nothing better to do with my life I thought I would build a new switch panel using nice clicky tactile pushbuttons, very light action with a satisfying click. And they have a built in LED which is good because the system can be configured to provide a "running indicator" ie the pushbutton LED of any of the circuits that are on, will be lit. Quite useful when you are faced with a bank of 6 buttons to control groups of 2 overhead lights in an open plan lounge/dining room/galley. I wanted to keep the original facia because that is quite nice, so I needed to make a new backplate and pcb to mount the pushbuttons on. First stop my friendly chinese PCB maker who made up the boards for Ā£6 for 5 boards - ordered just before Christmas and they are here already! Then I needed a filler-facia to cover up the gaps between the pushbuttons, which are smaller than the originals. And a backplate which would be screwed to the wall and into which the existing facia would clip on. It's all coming together... Here is the pcb loaded with the pushbuttons bottom left, PCB tracks and surface mount LED current limiting resistors are on the rear side. Facia filler is bottom right, I designed it in a 3d CAD programme and then 3d printed it. Original facia is on top. The baseplate is still printing as I needed to slightly adjust the dimensions after v1 didn't quite fit.
But when it is all together it will look something like this, although I will 3d print the facial filler in ABS which allows it to be smoothed using acetone vapour, so the print marks should be invisible and it will be all shiny!
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