:: Diary - December 2006 ::

:: Saturday, December 2, 2006 ::

TVR Car club meeting. The weather has been rubbish recently, it's been bucketing rain and howling gales, interspersed with showers and strong winds. Nevertheless, three different weather forecasts say it's going to be dry today, so I decide to take the TVR for a run.

Cept when I go to start it, the battery's flat. I can't get the Saab into the garage so I have to push the TVR out. Past the motor bikes etc. It turns out to be relatively easy - only 3 shuffles forwards and backwards required. What was I worried about eh?

It's very obvious now that the garage roof is leaking in a line along one truss: the dust cover has a line of water stains along the length of the car.

I get the car jump-started and set off for the meeting. Halfway there, the heavens open so I dive into a petrol station to put the roof on. I realise that this is the first time I have driven the car with the roof on since September last year. I also discover that the heater now seems to produce heat, enough to demist the windows and keep me warm even in bucketing rain. This may sound minor, the kind of thing you take for granted in any other car, but in a TVR it's a breakthrough!

The fact that the exhaust has been repaired means that there is not the same booming noise inside (it's a nice engine noise now!) so for the first time, inside the car with the roof on is a nice place to be! Driving on wet roads is also a lot of fun (as long as you are reasonably careful!)

When I get back I get the car parked no problem - again a couple of shuffles past the motorbike trailer but relatively easy. I tell the man about the leaky roof, not as a complaint but on the "stitch in time" basis that an early repair might save the roof from further damage in all this wind.

:: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 ::

Yes I'm still alive but haven't been near the TVR for weeks!

Life is just too busy with the lead-up to Christmas involving a lot of non-TVR activities. Work has also been really busy, I feel as though every minute I can spend awake (and quite a few that I can't) has been spent working. At last though, only 2 days left to go until a fortnight off, and hopefully, some TVR-time.

The weather hasn't helped either - today is the first day for seven weeks (according to the papers) that it hasn't rained. It's been pissing down. The forecast looks better so that should help.

I have never needed a holiday as much as I need this one.

:: Sunday December 24, 2006 ::

Nip along to collect the car, so that I can potter with it over the holidays. Again, it doesn't start because the battery is as dead as a dodo's grandad.

It's a bit foggy so I have to drive home with the lights on, so the battery doesn't get a chance to recharge.

:: Monday December 25, 2006 ::

No, even I am not sad enough to work on my car on Christmas Day!

I do attempt to start it again. As I anticipated, flat as a pancake.

:: Tuesday December 26, 2006 ::

Nothing else for it - the car needs a good run to recharge the battery.

3 hours and 100 miles later, I have completed thus undesirable chore by driving about with the roof off.

A voltage test shows 13.8V with the engine running, 12.6V when I stop the engine. Another test an hour later shows 12.5V. Seems to be charging ok.

I also give the car a wash and jetwash the underside, chassis & suspension etc.

The wheels are starting to corrode slightly again. I'll have think of a more permanent fix.

:: Wednesday December 27, 2006 ::

Battery still shows 12.5V. Looks like the battery might survive, but I'm not overly bothered because I thought the battery was goosed when I bought the car, and it's lasted 4 years since then!

I did intend to properly clean the cylinder heads so that I can paint them, but didn't get round to it. Then the rain came on so that's the end of that idea.

I'm going to take the car back along to the garage tomorrow (seeing as the forecast is for more pishing rain for the foreseeable future) to start the various wee jobs I had planned.

Aye that'll be right! I'm suffering from extreme laziness at the moment so I suspect nothing is going to get done!

:: Thursday December 28, 2006 ::

Contrary to the weather forecast, it didn't rain today when they said it would (just to make up for the fact that it rained yesterday when they said it wouldn't.

After a lengthy period of preliminary procrastination, I set out to change the front suspension balljoint. There is no perceptible play but I noticed in September, while I was doing the exhausts, that the boot is split. At £11 it's easier to change the joint than the boot.

First step - the car starts on the button, having been sat still for 2 days. I suspect lack of use is the problem.

Jack up and support chassis, remove wheel and leave suspension hanging - the top wishbone is not under spring tension anyway. Then remove the bolt on the end of the taper - it's deeply recessed up inside the hub casting so I need a long socket and ratchet.

Ignore this paragraph if you only want to read about how to do it right! Then I decide to remove the clamp bolt behind the taper. To get a socket onto the taper, I have to remove the brake caliper and pads. The pinch bolt is as tight as a wossname, but I get it loosened.

Then the fun starts, getting the joint out of the taper, and I can't find my balljoint separator doodah. After an hour of hammering, hitting, levering, hypnotising and kicking, I decide to give up and go and buy another separator, at a grand outlay of £4.99.

This involves a quick trip to the local Halfords, where I walk in the door, straight to the right shelf, pick up the separator and am back at the till within a minute of when I walked in the door. I notice at this point that Halfords are obviously taking their staff training seriously - this girl has her face fitted with a variety of hooks, chains and rings for hanging her tools on when fitting headlamp bulbs or whatever it is they charge several quid for. She looks like she's been subjected to some mediaeval torture and was rescued just before they attached the wild horses to pull her face in different directions.

Best (or worst) of all though is a ruby-coloured lip piercing that makes her look from a distance (and even close up) as if she has some form of rampant oral haemorrhoids. It's not just silly, it's bleeding horrible. Halfords obviously have a more liberated employment policy for customer-facing staff than I do.

Anyway, with images of the stapled-together bride of frankenstein fresh in mind, I return to the car with the balljoint separator. This time, getting the joint apart takes about 10 seconds.

When I get the taper out, I realise that loosening the pinch bolt (and taking off the caliper to do it) was a waste of time - it holds two bits of the hub together but doesn't pinch the balljoint at all. Great.

Then loosen and remove the two bolts holding the joint into the top wishbone. The joint fits into elongated holes, which allow the wheel camber to be adjusted, and is packed into the wishbone with shims which adjust wheel castor. The new joint has to go back in exactly the same place as the old one, and with the same shims in the same place. Because I painted the wishbone and bolts, the correct position is easy to see. I manage to keep the shims separate (although they turn out to be the same each side anyway). as I lever the old joint out.

Then it's a fairly simple matter of putting it all together again, first setting the joint into the wishbone with the right shims in the right places. I'm also careful to put the same bolts and washers in exactly the same places as they came from. Then I refit the taper with a new bolt and washer. A jack under the bottom wishbone lifts the taper into place so that I can tighten the bolt.

Refit the pinch bolt and the brake caliper, put the wheel back on and the job's a good un!

Here's the split rubber boot that led to all that hassle. I'm glad that's a job done.

Most of the suspension needs repainted, especially around the joints and bushes where crap gathers. That's next on the list (after the steering column bearing!)