What I was doing yesterday

[normspanners]

What I was doing yesterday, on my own, fitting a clutch, the gear box is 4ft long and the front torsion bars have to come off, fun eh, makes me feel alive! I started outside so it had to be finished outside! Have a look at my handy gearbox lifting crane with a Dipper arm!That I made out of acouple of patient lifts, I need it now, as not as strong as I used to be,having a broken right wrist.

 

[rtbcomp]

I think I'd have gone out and bought a new car!

 

[mike 109444]

Norm think yer nuts Any hoo think you neen to get yor camera loked at cos pics are coming out with white specs all over the images You could take it to Jessops..... Opps Maybe not then. Think I would have just poped down to Blockbusters and grabed a dvd...Opps

 

[zzr1200]

Ya Mad...No...Fecking Mad.......

 

[zx9]

Mad, no wonder you were having fun with your snow questions yesterday

How did you support the gear box, with a strop through the transmission tunnel?

 

[armalites]

Awesome, those jobs are all the more rewarding in adverse conditions. Doing a clutch on something like that isn't isn't best fun at any time.

I twigged the crane and was already typing a question when I noticed you had already answered it.

I totally agree with the whole makes you feel alive thing, it so easy to leave things because it's raining or cold

 

[Fazerruss]

I thought I was daft replacing a head gasket on a fiat punto years ago outside on a cold dark frosty night but you win!
Ive now builf myself a decent workshop with a 2 post lift. AND a HEATER. No more frozen snot stuck to my face and wondering if it was the torque wrench that clicked or my frozen fingers.

 

[Wallace]

A fan heater?

 

[gordon stephenson]

My hat is off to you sir, I know what it's like on a slightly smaller scale. Fitted a new clutch in a Ford Zephyr Zodiac in 6" of snow, Car was fine. I spent the next 4 weeks laid up, twisted my lower back muscles and with the cold they went into a spasm,Retired now and the thought of doing anything like you have just done would not even get off the drawing board. You must have the heart of a lion!!

 

[gavuk]

you are certifiable .....I like the crane,do you need the extra ballast to stop it tipping at full reach...?

 

[normspanners]

I like the crane,do you need the extra ballast to stop it tipping at full reach...?

YEh the pile of snow is ontop of the 'ballast' and yeah I run a chain round the box and through the gear lever hole, but with the dipper on it is so handy for getting into and over seats etc. and under bonnets for doing frontwheel drives , I can whip off the dipper for heavy things but with the extra extension you havnt got the wheels where 'you' need to be.

A fan heater?

had to use the heater coz the bolts and worse the nuts were frozen to the floor but the nuts were worse coz they where full of ice and wouldn't start on the threads . any way the leky shocks keep ya awake! I tried my propane heater but that gave up I think the reg. froze. I started it when there was no snow. but he needed it today.
I did g/box twice one on one day, and one the next, on the RAC rally at the side of the road on a mitzy4x4 galant in 18" snow in 45 mins, that was fun, was doing chase in a 2 wheel drive galant and wondered why I was struggling looked at the tyres and they where slicks! said to the boss I think i had better get some snows on it, the tyre men put a few studs in for me and i got everywhere coz it had a limmy slip! Ah the good ol days i think we got highest priviteer that year . I think I will stop workin in the snow when I get to 60 ------coz that'll be in may ---not sure bout next winter though ! HA

 

[chris-law]

Fair play to you , nothing worse than laying on a cold floor , worst I've done is having to do a job in the poring rain lying under the car when the water is running down the crack of your back.
I had to have a new clutch in my rx7 after fitting a big single turbo , I went around a few garages one said it would take him 2 days and the others would only fit a clutch they supplied .
I thought dam it , put it on 4 axel stands and dropped the box on my chest only to find out there was not enough room to crawl out from uner the car in this position ,
I had to hold it on my chest while turning on my side and keeping the box in the trams tunnel , putting it back in was worse lol , even so it took a total of 4.5 hours on my own from start to finish .
Not as hard as the vivaro box on my own though .

 

[pidgeon chit welder]

My cold weather working in 1975 got me frost bite in both feet and cold injury to nerves in my knees & hands .. I changed a rear axle on a 7 tonne truck in a foot of snow at minus 11oC on a windswept hill top . You can keep your freezer box games , give me plus 40 oC anyday

 

[stuvy]

I did a galaxy clutch only to realise those 6speed manual box's are super heavy i thought my muscles had given up on me

whats the motor you were working on norm, a mitzi outlander?

 

[normspanners]

Nissan navara they are clutch eaters, My mate bought a new one, I advised agaist coz of the clutch probs, they had. He ended up having 3 clutches in 30000ish mls, two in warranty, the third one nissan wanted HIM to pay he said 'no way' they said but its done 30000 he said yes but that is only 10000 per clutch, they said but you tow a trailer !!!!! He yes 'thats what I bought it for, so your telling me I can't tow a trailer with it, (nissan) "well-----", he replied---- 'well I want my money back !!' the sales literature shows a 2horse box behind it!!He has his own business running 30 wheel chair mini busses, and driven commercially all his working life and I have fitted only 2clutches to his vehicles. So I reacon he knows how to drive!------- So the Nissan went back !!

 

[Wallace]

I know an old boy who put 270,000 miles on a MkIII Cortina estate without changing the clutch, he only used it for pulling away and did all the other changes clutchless!

 

[rhubarb7]

Norm you are mad! I did an exhaust on a Punto in the snow yesterday for a customer, and that was enough for me.

 

[nickk]

I know an old boy who put 270,000 miles on a MkIII Cortina estate without changing the clutch, he only used it for pulling away and did all the other changes clutchless!

my old audi coupe is still on the original clutch @ 259,000.

 

[Wallace]

my old audi coupe is still on the original clutch @ 259,000.

Looks like you know how to treat it properly too, the Cortina rotted away otherwise I think he would still be using it.

 

[eil]

Norm your as mad as a hatter, didn't you have any tarp or anything as shelter, but as Marion Morrison once said, a man`s gotta a do what a man`s gotta do.