A tale of ratchets, oil and starter motors.
Matt owns a Renault Clio and it recently failed an MOT test on a number of points. On getting a quote for the work required he figured it would be cheaper and easier to do a lot of the repairs himself. Knowing I had had some experience working on cars, well Land Rovers, he gave me a call to see if I would give him a hand doing some of the more complicated work such as brakes etc. I agreed.
It has been a few years since I had last worked on a Land Rover, I had sold mine in February 2005, Steve’s has been off the road up in Bulmer for a couple of years now and Jon’s hasn’t had that much work done to it since either. I had helped Jon do a bit of breaking on his spare LWB job, but that’s not exactly mechanic’s work. I was realy looking forward to getting back into the swing of things, the excitement of taking something that doesn’t work and making it run again. I couldn’t wait.
Monday saw me take my first look at what we had to do. The list of work seemed fairly small on fist appraisal, but on closer inspection we realised it would be quite a task.
Work required:
Remove failed starter motor.
Fit new starter motor and test.
Remove defective brake discs and pads.
Fit replacement discs and pads.
Remove defective brake drums and shoes.
Fit replacemetn drums and shoes.
Untwist brake hoses.
Locate and fix electrical problem in front indicater.
Visual inspection of vehicle for MOT.
Armed with a fairly decent tool kit, the trusty Hayne’s manual and a glorious afternoon we set about the task. Now, as any amateur mechanic will know nothing ever goes to plan so by 10.30pm we had removed the atrter motor and semi-replaced it with the new one. We had removed one of the front wheels and removed the brake pads and that was about it. We had had to run out in the middle of the job to get a new socket for the front brake caliper retaining bolts and a tub of high temperature copper grease for the rear drums. Matt and I had also ended up covered in oil from head to toe and both wearing filthy clothes.
I have never had so much fun!
I like Clio’s they pretty. Well, the newer ones are .. hmm .. perhaps I shud think about one of those rather than my Mondeo I want so badly, yet cant afford to insure ..
Nahh!
But, urgh! Grease and oil is mingy, I like to keep nice and clean. Dont u people wear gloves and overalls?
Eesh.
Saying that, I dunno how I can hate grease and oil when I work with shit and piss all day long
But I digress .. glad u had fun! Tho its not my cuppa cha
Perhaps you can fix my car when I get it, god knows it’ll need it.
Now all I need to do is learn to drive .. hmmmm …
Well we were wearing old clothes. I’m not a fan of overalls, I never feel that I have enough freedom in them. Gloves can be worn and I have been known to use them for some of the nastier jobs like oil changes etc, but I like to be able to feel what I am doing – touch is a very important sense for mechanics.
You will have to get a fairly old car for me to be able to do much with it, modern cars are not designed for the amateur mechanic!
LoL! Dont worry, it’ll be an old car
I’ll never be able to afford anything decent 
But Im deffo NOT getting a fiesta! I f****** HATE them!! Well, the old ones anyways!
Anyways, miss u muchly!
XxxX