[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

According to many, many audiophiles, it is far from bygone. I'm sure you are aware that "tube" amps, even for headphones, a de rigueur to many, and solid state is thought of as inferior.

Not a bandwagon I ever climbed on. Tubes were the stuff of my childhood, when the TV took an age to warm up, and the Radiogram was so often out of order because a replacement "valve" (in UK) was awaited.

Yes. I admit that many audiophiles still consider the valve amplifiers as the best. The low noise and broad frequency response obtained in the top line valve amplifiers added substance to their claim until the silicon low noise chips came around. Valve amplifiers like ECC83 and the output valve EL84 produced low harmonic distortion figures almost comparable with modern silicon electronics.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

. Tubes were the stuff of my childhood, when the TV took an age to warm up, and the Radiogram was so often out of order because a replacement "valve" (in UK) was awaited.

Same here. My parents got their first black and white telly in the mid 60s. We were one of the first families in our street to have one. Only one channel. And it broke down a lot. I recall a man coming around with two large suitcases, one full of tools and one full of tubes! When I moved to the UK in 1982 to start living with the future Mrs. D we did not have a telly. Friends of ours gave us their old B&W. In those days just about everybody did have a proper colour TV. But most people also had an old B&W up in the loft. So whenever it broke down, we just borrowed somebody else’s! Did that for years, even when we moved to the Netherlands in 1986. I think I bought our very first own colour TV in the mid nineties. By then we had used up all the friends and family old B&W ones!

Took the Spider to Goos and his mechanic Ed a few days ago. Gorgeous weather here, so I made it into a nice little tour.

Waiting for the ferry at the river Waal:



The river Waal is the busiest river in Europe. Always lots of barges and yachts.



On the ferry



Spider on the lift:



We looked at two problems. The peculiar resonance and the steering play.

First thing we noticed was the sump guard was touching the actual sump. It does take a pounding. So we thought that might be the problem, if anything it needs fixing. Problem is, this guard is fitted with four bolts. But due to endless hits it is deformed and once you take it off, it is impossible to put it back on. So we just undid the two rear bolts one by one and added a few metal washers, just to create a bit of room between the guard and sump.



Took it for a new test drive, but no difference. Goos and Ed had recently worked on a Spider with the exact some resonance problem. They replaced just about everything, but never managed to get a proper fix. Sometimes these problems can be very difficult to trouble shoot. Without any tell tales, something being worn, misaligned, not properly fastened, it is very difficult and you might end up just swapping parts and see what happens. I decided to leave it for now. If it gets worse, we might be able to find something more easily.

We left the washers on the guard bolts for now. I will be removing the guard myself and try to bend it back into shape. Spanner mate Peter is coming next week to give me a hand with the Jeep and we might tackle this job too. Peter and I managed to fix a Spider sump guard before. Many years ago, during one of the Dutch Alfa Romeo Spider Register tours in the Ardennes, one of our members hit a curb so hard the sump guard actually pushed the engine upwards. Amazingly, nothing else was damaged, just the sump guard.

On the steering play the news isn’t good either. It took Goos, Ed and myself to diagnose the problems. Ed held one of the steering joints in place with large pliers, I wiggled the wheel and Goos looked for the play. One of the ball joints on the pitman arm has some play, but also the steering box itself. I had adjusted it not too long ago. But it will need overhauling now. Taking the steering box out of a Spider is huge job. So I agreed with Goos I will take it out myself during the winter and bring it to him for proper overhauling. Most likely we will replace the complete housing. Over the years, they do wear and there is not much you can do about that. Fortunately, recently they started producing complete new housings. So you start with a new housing and that in itself is likely to make a difference already. But all bearings and seals will be replaced too. I do hope both the horizontal and vertical gears are still ok. Because repairing those is a very specialised skill, requiring welding and grinding to a very high precision. The good news, I can still drive my Spider safely, so I will be enjoying it a few more months.

Took a nice detour back home, about an hour and a half touring along nice little country roads. All of a sudden I noticed a yellow helicopter flying very low nearby. It is one of the many so called “trauma helicopters” we have here in the Netherlands. I noticed it landing in a field and drove over. By the time I got there, they had already managed to get the patient onto the stretcher and secured into the chopper. Watching a helicopter take off is always interesting, more so if it landed in the middle of a field.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEklqpAE2vo

These trauma chopper pilots are extremely skilled. This is a pretty straight forward landing place. But I have seen them land in between buildings with less than 1-2 meters room for their rotor.

Not sure what happened, but somebody told me, one of the bin man (There was a big bin truck parked on the nearby farm) had an accident.

This coming Thursday spanner mate Peter and I are going to start on the Jeep, plus perhaps a few other odd jobs on the other cars.

Tomorrow we are visiting the Concour d’elegance at the palace Soestdijk.
I visited this a few years ago: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/beyon...therlands.html (2019 Concours d'Elégance Paleis Soestdijk, The Netherlands)

I will probably take the W123 to drive up their. I will be meeting up with Peter at a nearby restaurant where we will park one of our cars. As a professional classic car valuer Peter always has free tickets to these kind of events and we have one VIP Parking pass. So we should be good to go!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Yesterday spanner mate Peter came over for a day of fiddling with our cars.

First job was the piston slap on the Jeep. We had been debating this over the phone for some time now. I had also talked to a number of knowledgeable people here in the Netherlands. I made various posts on Jeep forums and Jeep FB group. My main question is about whether we should go ahead an have a closer look.

Just to reiterate, here is what I had observed so far
- piston slap on cold engine
- when warmed up virtually unnoticeable, or at least a whole lot less
- engine does not use oil, or very little
- engine pulls strong
- engine meets emission requirements (during its last MOT)
- It appears it is cylinder 6, by listening with my stethoscope.

Everybody gave me the same advice; don’t do anything yet. Only when the noise becomes louder, especially with the engine warmed up is early enough to start fixing it.

I had been looking at various Youtube video’s and instruction manual to figure out how to take the piston out and replace it. Appeared to be fairly straightforward. Just take the head off (underlying cam, so no challenges with camshaft, distribution chains etc). Take the sump off, undo the two piston rod nuts and pull out the piston with piston rod attached. I did find out, that the wrist pin is crimped onto the piston rod. Not a DIY job to undo and redo, so I would have to find a machine shop to replace the actual cilinder on the piston rod.

We sort of had decided to leave it like it was. Still, we thought we might just take the sump off and have at least a look see. I had thought it was very simple, but it wasn’t!

Peter and I spend some time going over some YouTube video’s and diagram on how to remove the sump. Now here is the issue; many Jeep owners have equipped their Jeeps with a lift, so the chassis sits higher. Sometime just an inch, sometime 4-6 inches. Appears that when stock, such as mine, getting the sump off is not that straightforward. It will get stuck between the bell house and the axle and inside on the oil pump and the oil pickup tube. It means dropping the axle, the starter motor, the exhaust, the shocks and or the stabiliser rod, possible removing a steering link, the oil pump an the oil pickup tube. Some guys appear to taking all this lot of, others seem to be doing a bit better. But regardless, it is a major job!

We spend some times, on our backs, under my Jeep. I had already bought a new sump gasket. In the end we decided not to go ahead. Next week our son is getting married and we have some 8-10 people staying with us during the week. So I need my Jeep to be in running order. For now we decided to just leave it and maybe try again during the winter.

So next job was the sump guard on the Spider.

Without having a lift as Goos and Ed do, it is really a two man job. Spider on axle stands and us beneath it.



It is held in place with only four bolts. But not easy to get at and because the guard is warped, it puts a lot of tension on the bolts as well.



We managed to get it off and bend and hammered it back into its proper shape.



Putting it back on went smoothly until we could not fasten the last nut. Somehow the thread had become damaged. Could not fasten it, could not loosen it! Oh, what a joy, spannering. Of course, we did manage to loosen it and replace it eventually, but it took almost 45 minutes!!

By then it was lunch time. So we had a nice, very typical Dutch lunch. Some nice bread rolls with all kinds of thinly sliced meats, cheese and lots of coffee.

After lunch we had a go at Peter’s Jaguar. He bought this a few months ago, second hand. It is a 2006 Diesel Jaguar 358. Very nice car, pneumatic suspension, drives extremely smooth. Peter easily does 70-80L kilometers per year for his classic car valuations all over the Netherlands and sometime even beyond. His previous Jaguar (same model) did almost 500K kilometers virtually problem free.

The only problem on this one was the folding mirror action. It sorts of gets stuck half way. Need to give it a little jolt to fold/unfold completely.

Like me, Peter has the official workshop manuals of all of his cars. The manual of my Jaguar X308 is close to 3000 pages. The manual for this Jaguar 358 is almost 6600 pages! That is a lot of technology.

Folding mirrors are simple in design, but not so much in taking them apart. Although the manual makes you believe it is simple.



This car is not that old yet, still you don’t want to be breaking the mirror glass or any of the plastic bits. So back to YouTube to find some video’s of guys showing us how to remove it!



We did manage to extract the mirror glass.



So we hade some access to the inside. However, the actual swivel mechanism is still hidden. We could see that the aluminium pivot mechanism was badly corroded though.





We decided to apply, very liberally, lots and lots of WD40 on all moving parts whilst folding and unfolding the mirror. Did the trick. Working fine again.

We still had some time left, so we took the Jeep for a little tour, Peter driving it. We stopped at a nearby cafe at the banks of our river Linge for some drinks and “bitterballen”. Very pleasant afternoon.

Peter and I found out, by chance, we are both going to visit the UK for various reason. We have booked the same Ferry! What are the odds of that? So we will meet up with our Jaguars in about two weeks at the Stenaline terminal in Hook of Holland. Peter is taking his son to the Goodwood festival and we are touring and visiting some of our English friends.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

I just spend almost a whole day fiddling with my cars! Over the weekend our eldest son got married. We had a lot of oversea family and friends staying with us. So the Jaguar, the Mercedes and the Jeep did a lot of trips back and forwards to Amsterdam airport and Central Station. Also, my Jaguar was used as the wedding car on the day itself. On Saturday my wife and I threw an afterparty for some close friends and families. A lot of them have small children. And they love to come to our house. Because we have lots of great kiddy foods, a sandpit, a trampoline, all sorts of games for playing on the grass, they can ran wild. But most of all, they all want to sit in all of my cars! So these cars apart from having done a lot of mileage, also were full of sticky finger marks!

So all cars got washed, vacuumed, vacuumed etc.



It was a good day for it, about 220C, partly cloudy, but the sun is mostly blocked by trees so ideal for washing cars. I enjoy washing and cleaning my cars. When it comes to detailing I will admit I am not particular good at it. E.g. I have never ever used the two bucket method for my sponges. Even so, my way of doing it works well for me and my cars.

I do take my cars through the carwash as well. But doing it yourself gives a much better result. Also, very important to me, you get to look at your car in detail, so you will notice a lot of things.

The Mercedes W123 is very prone to rust, despite it having had a very special anti rust Dinitrol treatment.

These are the corners at the front and you can see a bit of rust on both.





One of the door sills:



Wheel arch



None of this is very serious yet, easily fixed in the next couple of weeks.

But then I opened the boot, after I had washed it and noticed some water had seeped in!!



This is not good, most likely the rubber rear window seal is the culprit.



This is a well known weak area of the W123. When I bought my W123, I had some very bad leakage on both window corners. Took the window out, had the rusted bits cut our, new bits welded in, treated and put the window back in with a new rubber seal.

So I will need to investigate and I will need to do this fairly urgently before it gets worse.

Also, bummer, I came across two small scratches in the paint, both on the right doors. No idea how that happened. They are tiny, hardly noticeable, but still very irritating to me. So that will require some touching up and polishing too.



Spanner mate Peter stopped by for lunch. He was on his way to appraise some cars nearby. So we had a little chat. Peter had also brought a couple of items for me.

The first was the distributor cap from our Italian adventure. You can read about that adventure here: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ml#post5342697 (Alfa Romeo: Mega-drive through Europe to participate in unique 12in12 event in Italy)

Short story on the distributor cap: Peter’s Spider developed some problems which we managed to trace to faulty centre pin in the distributor cap. Although we had a huge supply of brand new parts with us, for some reason we forgot to bring a distributor cap. Luckily, stashed away deep down in the boot of my Spider I did carry a comply ignition set which did include the distributor cap as well. But when we had a good look at it, it had badly cracked from top to bottom. But it had a working centre pin, so I wrapped some gorilla tape around it and Peter drove almost 2000 km with it like that. Recently he put a proper new cap on and gave me back my old one.

Here you see the crack:





He also brought his starter motor. His Spider had been having starting problem since our trip last year. We had done various repairs already and eventually a new starter motor was installed. But during our Italian trip that started playing up as well. Almost every time, especially when the engine was warm, it needed a very light tap on the bendix to engage. In the end we concluded that although brand new, it was simply broken somehow. So Peter contacted the supplier, who eventually agreed to overhaul the old one. That one is back on the Spider and working properly.

But they left the wonky new one with Peter who brought it to me



I would like to see if I can figure out what is wrong with it. Its peculiar that at the time Peter had this problem with his brand new starter motor, I had a problem with my brand new alternator on my Jeep. Just because the parts are brand new, doesn’t mean they work properly unfortunately.

Soon my wife and I will be off for a weeks holiday in the UK. Just the other day, by sheer chance, Peter and I found out we are both on the same ferry to Harwich. Peter is taking his son and his Spider to the Goodwood festival and we are just touring the south of England mostly.

Looking forward to our little trip on the ferry and touring in the UK. Obviously, we are taking the Jaguar when we doing some major driving in the UK! The Jaguar returns home so to speak!

[Jeroen]

Yesterday I worked on the rear passenger door of the Jaguar. it could not be opened from the inside.

When something like this happens, before taking anything apart there are usually a couple of things you can do to check what might be the cause. First of all, do you feel any resistance at all when pulling the handle? double check the child lock is in the off position. Also, check if the door is properly unlocked. Especially, if you have actuated door latches, make sure the little pin indication open/close door is in the fully open position. Does the outside handle still work

In my case it was very clear that there was zero resistance when pulling the door handle on the inside. Everything else worked fine.



Which suggests a problem with either the linkage between the handle and the lock mechanism or the lock mechanism itself. Either way, it means the door card has to come off.

First thing is to position the Jaguar in such a way I can open the door fully without it bumping into anything.



Secondly, disconnect the battery. I have this handy device fitted, just undo the big green screw and the battery is disconnected. The reason to disconnect the battery for this job is that there are multiple electrical wires and other electrical stuff inside the door. E.g. door lock activation, window motor, puddle lightening.



I seem to recall I had this doorcard out before to replace the lens of the puddle light. It is in one of the earlier posts. Getting the doorcard of the Jaguar is a pretty straightforward process. Still, I always check the workshop manual. I dont do this on a regular basis, so I forget. With an old car, many of the plastic and trim bits will have become brittle. So you don’t want to force anything in case anything snaps!

First the wooden trim needs to come off. One bolts hold the plastic bit underneath the door handle.



Next, carefully pry off the end of the veneer trim with a plastic screwdriver. It is held onto the door with two clips, and then slide it rearwards.



This is a very tricky job, you dont want to crack this bit of trim. Apart from difficult to find spare, it is also ridiculously expensive. So easy does!! Notice, there is also a little speaker in the doorhandle fixture, a tweeter.



To get the doorcard off, loosen one large bolt underneath the arm rest. The whole card is held in place with 7 clips. I always use my special card removal tools. Works a treat every time!!



Pry off the protective cover at the rear for access to the lock mechanism. Notice the various electrical connection I undid earlier. Always tricky to get them off without bits breaking!



With everything removed I could have a look inside the door. The door mechanism is sort of hidden. I used my special mirror to see inside. It became clear to me that the cable running from the door handle to the lock mechanism appeared to be intact, but had become loose. I also checked the door handle base for cracks. Many years ago, when we were still in the USA, I had the same problem on the drivers door. I recall having taken out the lock mechanism, (which is a royal PITA) to find out the problem was actually with the handle base. It had cracked. When in its normal position nothing was shown, but with the door handle pulled, stress is applied to the base and I noticed it was just cracked and moved about.

Getting the lock mechanism out, looks simple enough in the workshop manual. Another case where theory and practice don’t match. The lock is held in place with three large bolts, easy to undo. But there are a couple of linkages that need undoing as well as the window guide rail needs to be undone. Even then it is a very snug fit.

The connecting rod for the door open/close pin indicator is easy. Good access and easy to pry out.



The big struggle was with the connecting rod for the outer door handle. You can not see it. All by touch and feel but impossible to get your fingers on it. Also, the little ball on it seemed rusty.

I used my little scope to get a better understanding on how it all fitted together.



I used various tools to try and get a grip on the connector of this rod. It should just snap off. But that requires being able to pull at it a right angle or get something underneath. In the end I managed with a very long nose plier.

It took me some 2,5 hours of fiddling before I had the lock mechanism out. I am holding it by the electro-mechanical actuator for the lock.





This is the end of the cable linkage between the internal door handle and the lock mechanism. As you can see the cable itself looks fine, but the little rubber sleeve is almost gone.



I took the lock to my vise to test it properly.



It is a pretty complicated contraption!!



Here you can see how I managed to get that blasted connecting rod off, by slipping the ends of long nose plier under it, whilst it was still in the door.



Made sure to clean and polish it properly. Put some silicone grease on it too.



I checked all the functions of the lock mechanism and everything worked fine. In the end I concluded that probably the cable has managed to become loose. Partly due to that broken rubber sleeve and probably also because over the years, some general play and bending has taken place in these parts.

This black plastic lever is the child lock.



Here you can see how the cable is supposed to be fitted to the lock.



I experimented with various O-rings and other rubber pieces to get it to fit more snugly. In the end a piece of heat shrink tube did the trick.



I also tried to push/pull everything back into its original shape.



Finally, attached some more protective material on the lock edges as some of the old stuff had been pulled off when I removed the lock.



Did a bit more testing and all was fine, so put all the bits back onto the Jaguar. Everything works again. All in all, this relative supposedly easy job took the better part of a whole day. I am sure a Jaguar trained technician would have done it much quicker. But he might also have replaced the lock and the cable. And they are very, very expensive. So I am very happy with my own DIY solution.

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Another superbly illustrated DIY post! I detest jobs like that, especially when parts appear to be easy to separate but it turns into a long job. I would have given up or broken something <BLUSH>

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I always use my special card removal tools.

Can you please post a picture of the assembled tools? Did you buy as a kit, or assemble tools that you found worked for the job?

The long, flat plastic tool with which you are removing the wooden trim looks fantastic. So perfect for the job!

I recently added some of the stuff that is sold for opening up mobile-phone cases, etc, to my toolkit. I have no idea when it will be used for real. Previously, I had sharpened a corner of an expired bank card. They seem to be made from a hard plastic that holds that edge quite well.

[Freespirit27]

Amazing as usual! I always end up breaking something (and then the repair costing more), or more so often, realising my tool limitations and resigning to a replacement part at the service centre.
All said getting such things done is a huge satisfaction and motivation for guys like me, keep going! Love the posts.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Can you please post a picture of the assembled tools? Did you buy as a kit, or assemble tools that you found worked for the job?

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Yesterday I worked on the rear passenger door of the Jaguar. it could not be opened from the inside.
Jeroen

This is what a Master's class is made of. Every word, every photo shows meticulously what needs to done and how it has to be done. Thank you.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Another superbly illustrated DIY post!

Originally Posted by Freespirit27

Amazing as usual! I always end up breaking something (and then the repair costing more), or more so often, realising my tool limitations and resigning to a replacement part at the service centre.
All said getting such things done is a huge satisfaction and motivation for guys like me, keep going! Love the posts.

Originally Posted by Prowler

This is what a Master's class is made of. Every word, every photo shows meticulously what needs to done and how it has to be done. Thank you.

Thanks very much, your comments are much appreciated!

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Can you please post a picture of the assembled tools? Did you buy as a kit, or assemble tools that you found worked for the job?

Here we go:

I have bought these tools over the years/decades, most likely across the world too.

This is one of the best tools I have to pry out the typical clips holding door cards, or other trim in place. It is essentially sort of a plier. You push it in between the door card and the chassis/door, making sure the clip/pin sits in the centre and carefully squeeze the two handles. It makes a very neat job of extracting the clips/pins. Even to the extend they can be re-used again.



This is a similar tool, but a more simple version. Just slides in between and then you wiggle it.



I also have a variety of plastic/nylon tools. Very handy. These come in sets by colour. I use them for a variety of different jobs, not just trim. That’s why some of them are pretty dirty. Always clean your tools before working on the trim bits. Especially if your trim is, like my Jaguar, cream leather!



Lastly, I bought this little set of tools recently. It has all the bits to open up devices, such as phones and more importantly my TomTom GPS device so I could replace the battery (see one of my earlier posts)



Yesterday I did some more work on the piston slap of the Jeep. My old neighbour Toon came to help. He has asked me to come along and look at a second hand car he was interested in. Really neat car. We are picking it up tomorrow, I will take some images. Toon used to have a Mercedes W123 coupe. We used to work on his and mine together. Toon has sold his W123, but is still very interested in cars and working on cars. He is very knowledgeable too, having worked his whole life in automotive related fields (Engine design Redcar/Volvo, Technical University Delft)

I wanted to get a feel for the state of the Jeep’s engine. We know it has piston slap, but is there anything else? I would not think so, because when the engine is warm it runs very well, uses hardly any oil. The other day I registered a fuel efficiency of 1;9 which is pretty good. But even so. Also, I wanted to see if we could get a better look at the cilinder without removing the head or the sump.

So we just took all the spark plugs out and shoved my little scope into the cilinder through the spark plug hole.



Together with Peter we had determined the noise was coming from cilinder 6. This is similar to what I read on the Internet and YouTube. Also Toon confirmed, the last, most rearward cilinder is the one which tends to develop problems due to mainly cooling being a little less than on all other cylinders.

Here you see two images of the piston and the cilinderwall.





We turned the piston all the way down and then positioned the camera near this very position. Then rocked the crankshaft a tiny bit back and forth. sufficient to see the piston move up and down. We wanted to see if we could see it wobble, which should be clearly visible by observing the gap between piston and cilinder wall. We did not see anything move unduly. So I was pleased.

As we had all spark plugs out (if not it will be difficult to turn the crankshaft) we did a simple compression test as well.

Unfortunately, the connectors that came with this compression tester were to small. I need longer ones on this engine. I will make one on my lathe later. So we decided to just use this plastic cones. You just press them in place whilst cranking the engine. Not ideal, but we not so interested in the absolute values as well the relative values of the pressure in the 6 cylinders.



Normally for a compression test you warm the engine up. We did not do that either. I did take out the ASD (Automatic Stop Device) and the Fuel pump relais. Which ensures that whilst cranking the engine, no fuel is injected. Even better or rather easier would have been to have a separate hand starter. I need to look for one.

With Toon cranking the engine and me pressing the compressing tester on each cilinder as hard as I could, we got six readings. All were about 9 bar. Again, not interested in the absolute value, this test set up is not good enough. But we felt it was good enough for relative comparison.

So it looks all cylinders have good compression, no undue leaks across the piston (rings) and or valves. Which for an engine with 310.000 km on the clock is not bad at all.

Very straightforward job, not many tools required. Just remove the spark plugs, the relais and find the right socket to attach to the nut on the front pulley so we could turn the crank by hand.



We did lable the spark leads, just to avoid confusion. Before taking the spark plugs out or putting them back in I always blow some compressed air to clean the whole area and thread. Clean the thread of the spark plug as well.

Put them back in and torque to 25Nm.



Once everything was back in place we started the engine, it caught immediately. Then we had another good listen to the piston slap with my mechanical stethoscope. This time it appeared the piston slap comes from cylinder 5!Bugger!

So we will have to do the inspection with the scope again. Not a big job, but I wish we had looked at all 6 cylinders when we had the chance. I was so convinced it was cylinder 6. It could still be, sometimes these noises are difficult to pinpoint.

Oh well, means another morning fiddling!!

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Super, Jeroen. Nice collection of tools: thank you for the photographs.

If you blow the thread and area before replacing the spark plugs, doesn't that risk blowing stuff into the cylinder?

Question is purely academic interest. Yes, I've removed and replaced plugs, checked gaps, etc, but it was a long time ago. These days I'll leave that stuff to the mechanic!

I'm happy to watch you doing it, of course!

(There's an old joke: I love hard work. I can watch it all day! )

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

If you blow the thread and area before replacing the spark plugs, doesn't that risk blowing stuff into the cylinder?

In theory yes. But as I mentioned I also blow the area around the spark plug before I remove them. So any debris, bits are gone already. Blowing it one last time before inserting the spark plug will just make sure the seating area for the spark plug is nice and clean. I did not mention, but I always shine a torch in before I start blowing, no matter what. You never know what you will find!

Jeroen

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I have bought these tools over the years/decades, most likely across the world too.

Amazing collection of tools. I have never seen anyone so passionate in anything they do - like you Sir. It is really an honor to be here with you.

I have never seen a l-o-n-g nose plier this long. It is another advantage of being a passionate globe trotter. From the looks of it, your collection of tools and diagnostic instruments will put a professional company workshop to shame.

A long time ago I used to dabble in motorcycles - Royal Enfield. I built an electronic Stethoscope to hear the engine and compare it with another engine. I hooked up a cassette recorder so that I can compare the waveform in an oscilloscope at leisure. But these days, even a small job like changing a horn relay seems daunting.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

[Jeroen]

Today I had a look at the starter motor from spanner mate Peter’s Spider. As you might recall it had been giving us lots of problems during our trip to Italy.

See https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ent-italy.html (Alfa Romeo: Mega-drive through Europe to participate in unique 12in12 event in Italy)

The starter motor was brand new, but still would not work properly. Especially with the engine warm it would not engage. It would require a very light tap on the bendix. A really, really very very light tap only. So I suspected something wrong with the bendix drive.

First thing is to put it in the vice:



If you wonder how a starter motor works and what a Bendix is, have a look at this little video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CZo8wIhVQ4

And or have a look at this little animation:

https://gifer.com/en/PKcd

I took the coil of the bendix apart, only three little bolts hold it in place.





It is not so visible on these images, but I noticed quite a bit of rust and pitting on the cilinder and plunger. So out comes the Dremel with a wire brush.



Everything looks very clean and polished now!!





Just for good measure I applied a little lubricant as well.



Initially I tried testing the starter motor with a large 12V transformer. But it was not powerful enough to engage the bendix.

So I just hooked it up, with starter cables to the battery of my Mercedes. When you do a test like this, make sure to fix the starter motor somehow. Because if you don’t it will jump around when you engage it!!!

Have a look.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aauJlHMldek

When testing a starter it is usually sufficient to connect a plus and minus wire directly to the starter ground and plus on the bendix coil. Next you just short the plus with the terminal on the bendix that activates the bendix relais.

It looks like this rust might have caused the bendix to get stuck. A little tap was sufficient to break it free.

What is interesting is that this was a brand new starter. Just like the brand new alternator I bought for my Jeep, it was “broken out of the box”!!

I also went along with my friend Toon to pick up his new car. He has bought a 2006 Smart ForFour Brabus. Almost 200K on the clock.









The Smart ForFour Brabus is a pretty rare car. Only about a dozen or so, are left in the Netherlands. They were all built here by NedCar at the time. (Toon used to work there before they built this cars)

We had a very good test drive and had it up on a lift as well to inspect the underneath. Other than the rear discs, which were a little worn, we could not find any faults with it. Virtually rust free. Mind you, every white panel on this car is plastic!

Toon is looking at what kind of jobs he wants to do himself and or maybe get somebody else to do. One thing it needs a new camshaft belt and that is quite a job. I helped him finding a couple of original Workshop Manuals.

So it is likely that we might see the Smart in my garage in the not so distant future

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Today I visited the Metavak in nearby Gorinchem. It is a trade show for companies providing products and service in metal working.

Very interesting and good fun. Just a few images to give some impressions. Everything out here is aimed at professionals. So my little collection of hobby tools simply doesn’t stack up to anything on this event. Still, always interested to learn more about state of the art tooling!!

Compare my mini mill with something like this!



Or my tiny Sieg lathe with this one:



This was the smallest Lathe I could find! Still considerably larger and heavier than mine. This is actually a company that restores these old lathes!



Metal work in a production company is all about speed and efficiency, so endless robots!







CNC is the minimum. I must admit I have no knowledge on how to operate these computer controlled machines. Would love to learn though.

Surprisingly I came across only one company dealing in 3D printing:



Had a long chat with the guys. Their simplest 3D printer costs Euro 500. Their most expensive 3D printer, which can print metals, is around Euro 200000!

Some of the things they had printed:






This was an interesting demo to. Laser engraving. A machine like this will set you back approx Euro 12500



They gave me a little demo by engraving my name in one of their give away ball points!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y05k0L4PEo

There were also various Virtual Reality welding machines. So you don’t learn to weld on real metal anymore. It is much more effective apparently. You will still need to do some real welding too. But it gets new welders up to speed very quickly and very consistently.





Some smaller bits and pieces on display too.





There are a couple of items in this display cabinet I actually own and use as well.



These robots, whatever they do are mesmerising to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdYBB-w5wAQ

I can spend an entire evening watching CNC machines at work on Youtube videos. Absolutely fascinating stuff.

Final image, another big fancy lathe!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Wonderful stuff, Jeroen. I'm not so sure that I even dream of learning machining any longer! But if I went to an expo like that it might get re-awakened

Small stuff. I sorted my small files into two drawers last week. It is not bad for a modest collection! But I don't use them very often. I have a couple of bigger ones elsewhere, one of which I have had for nearly fifty years! Hmmm, my older small files, bought for jewellery, dat back to '80s.

I don't know why there is paint brush and a scribe in there. But every sort out is preparation for another sort out! The emery sticks seemed to go logically with files.




I put all my pliers in their own draw too.

I have never used that blue thing, which is a handle for needle files, but it seemed like a good idea when I bought it. Like so many things!