Thursday 30 July 2009

Exhausting Repairs


General principal for running a series seems to be - carry spares and tools equal in weight to the fuel you propose to use on a given journey. Forthcoming trip to Inverness (and, hopefully, back again) is 1000 miles. At 15 mpg-ish that should take around 65 gallons or 482 lbs of fuel. Uncannily, my estimated stash of gear required (prop shaft, one road spring, several UJs, water pump, wheel bearings, hub, brake drum, assorted hub and pinion seals, steering idler, couple of shocks, equal quantities of EP90 and 10-50, large tool kit etc etc) could easily run to 4 or 5 cwt as the formula suggests. Perfect ! Is this why the military classification for the 88 inch series is "1/4 Ton Truck" ?
Failed exhaust system has been getting worse with use and I have succumbed to a complete new outfit (£30.00 from Paddock). Needless to say the three studs in the bottom of the manifold have been only two for some time and the old outfit was blowing here as well as in the pipe. An obvious opportunity here to fix this problem at the same time. To affect a satisfactory repair there is really no shortcut and the manifold needs to be removed. Once on the bench, a steady hand on the centre punch and 1/4" drill will see the old stud removed, hole reamed to 17/64 and tapped to 5/16 unf ready to take a new stud.
As you can see I very rashly splashed out a couple of quid for a new manifold gasket ! All's well that's finished etc etc. Start to finish about 4 hours work, couple of Izmir smokes, many cups of Yorkshire Gold and a huge amount of swearing - oh, stopped off for a couple of pints of Topaz on the way home. MORE PADDOCK SPARES !

1 comment:

Peter Ashley said...

Oh it's so good to come back from the hols and see all this going on.