Druidic exploits of a various nature!!

[v8druid]

Well yesterday was a total write off ... RAF day .... did sod all, other than take Clara to nursery for nine, picked her up at three fifteen and some grand dadding 'til half five .... She makes me smile, even when I'm feeling ropey .. sits in her seat in the back of the P38 with a map book on her lap feeding me directions ... as in "yellow road Grand dad, silver next, red one soon " ... God knows what page she's one ?? LOL


Anyway .. better day today .... the adapter got a second coat first thing, while the fog cleared - a bit, 'fore I got the gear out ..


slit this tube first and lopped a bit of 80 x 8 for a spreader fillet/stiffening rib ...





then got a few more bits out .. and set 'em up ...





after i'd extracted the 80 mm pin from the SEC and cleaned its grease off it ..


tacked it all up a bit ...





and added a few more bits ... stiffened them up ... and set about sequentially welding it all up















can always tell when I'm 'at it' by the size of the slag lumps




spent some time de-spattering it and tidying everything away, before de-camping indoors, as it was trying hard to rain, for a coat of shiny tish ...








Firwoods Bitter Choccy Brown .... great paint .. needs no undercoat and dries bloody fast .... matches the 'Drema's brown very well too








managed a second coat before packing in for tea and left it sat on't bench with its mate, the adapter.


see they're forecasting rain tomorrow afternoon ..... with an horrendous day for Sunday ...
see if I can give this one a try out in the a.m., before it persists down 'praps


would've loved to have MIG-ed this up ... but a tad too breezy to trust the gas shield ... with some impossible locations to grind any porosity back out !!

[v8druid]

weather back to normal here today .... can't see further than the end of the lawn ... but at least it's just damp not pissing down .... but means everything you put down or touch is damp too !!


ran the genny up this morning to power the plasma, belt grinder (with a nice new 36 grit belt) and the band saw.
intent on doing something other than grovel under the P38 and that i enjoy ....


this got started before crimbo ...








corners trimmed and then reset it for 'ron' ...





'fraid i forgot to get any plasma pix ...
but basically trimmed this up and some extra bits for attaching to it .....











looks a bit tidier with the sharps off it
then it got boss-ed up





and finally a coat of shiny tish, 'fore heading in for a late tea ... Pam's circuits night on a Wednesday, so always late eating, when she gets home after 'em.








die grinder and a flap wheel shines up the pin holes nicely
Was nice to have the evening so light last night .. drawing out nicely ... pity tonight wasn't the same ... had to lug this inside onto a bench in me box ... heavy enough too


next bit tomorrow .... got plasma-ed this morning ... and ground up on the belt ... assembly time if it doesn't pee down

[v8druid]

Was seriously white here at half seven this morning ...





Vicki had four goes at the drive, getting back out, heading for work, after dropping Clara .Might go rob the salt/grit bin up the road tomorrow if it's the same again tonight !!!


MOT booked first thing ... Passed at 15.00 with flying colours ... test man said i only wanted/needed you to change the rubber boots ... yeh right mate ... he's good as gold TBH ..... think he was pulling me leg ...... 'specially when he asked if they'd been much of a job ...... checked the tracking .... absolutely BANG on .... said he couldn't have done better with the laser gauges ... very happy with that


Sodding great pothole on the A465 on the way home managed to bring an ABS/traction control light on on the dash .... sensor must've moved ... quick look in the a.m., but reset itself with an off/on of the ignition, so can't be a lot


finished me first week of treatment tab.s last night ... onto box/week two this morning .... seems OK 90% of the time, now, aside from an iffy head after the night time ones.









re the potholed road ...... there's bloody miles of it ... been at it years and are circa a year behind, spent millions on a lot of un-necessary BS bits and caused chaos in the process


first time in the last half a dozen trips along there that i actually saw a machine working today


https://gov.wales/a465-gilwern-brynmawr-overview


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-42138747


https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/p...-a465-15373924


almost all of the elevated sections in the right of the video have been in filled/built up !!!!!!! the L/h lane is the original level of what was a 3 lane road

[v8druid]

I too was in need of a good wash and polish, by the time i got locked up and inside ...... I've mentioned this stuff before and thought i'd take a pic, whilst it was out ........ best hand cleaner I have EVER used ... takes yer dannys from black to pink in one easy hit ...


it really is the utter ballaux





anything that shifts carbon black off yer hands after handling oiled steel all day is worthy of praise .... have used it for donkey's years .... after trying/using all sorts of other well known, reputable stuff ... I have yet to beat it and you need so little of it, a tub lasts for ever


someone on a n other forum tells me that they've stopped selling this stuff and I would say BUGGER !! ................ but having had a shufty this afters .... and found three full tubs .... I am pleased to say ..."Im alright jack" ... for the foreseeable anyway




'Nother glorious day ..... with an equally great end to it





been a very productive day





near side ready for the big black round thing .... once i'd got the drag link installed


O/side sensor ...






the tube of sili grease in the first pic - supplied per side - was about 1/5th full ... tight bar stewards .... will get some more and really stuff these full ASAP





off side ready for a wheel



run up, pumped up and ABS lights all out



as can be seen .... was a tad cool this afters, in spite of the sun shine

a run up the drive and parked ready for an appointment booking tomorrow hopefully

followed by a major tidy up, tool cleaning session ... and a well earned coffee


we've had Clara since 7.45 this morning .... nursery finishes at 12 on a Monday, so she's been up with me a lot, on/off this afternoon ..... including under the car LOL ...
think Pam took some pix


Make a mechanic of her yet

[v8druid]

On the ABS subject ... and other's edumacation ..


's what the hole is 'sposed to look like ... not full of twenty+ years of crap .. and sensor ...




this then goes in first ...








copper gripper cage ...





followed by





a stainless steel bodied Hall Effect sensor




all the way in .... an' out t'tother side to sit ultra close to the drive shaft rotor





plenty of 'float' in that and they start life packed in silicon grease in their housings, with a rubber sleeve seal to keep the tish out .... from t'other end at least
this end doesn't fare so well
greasing these will be a service item in future ... regularly !!


was another white start to the day ...





managed to part the swivel carrier off her saturday ....





.....after persuading the damned sensor out and then battling the drive shaft and hub bearing carrier out of the swivel carrier casting/forging ... ball tapers behaved as expected VFT ... and took some thrashing to pop ....
cutting the nylock sections off the nuts first helped a lot ...
....and had clean threads to run them off on

carrier got a bloody good descaling and clean up yesterday morning, before turning my attention to the split collet adjuster, which's had a LOT of WD applied to it the last few days ...... clamped to the bench and some gentle rust cracking tapping first ...... and out the damned thing came .. sweet as !!!





good clean with the thread file and a lot of titivating, it was ready to return to its post


Saturday's 'antics' were fairly fraught ... after the carrier surrendered ...





those joints were not coming out without a serious fight
top first, to get some space to get at the bottom one .....





came out well ... bottom one was a bit more of a battle ... but got there ...







sockets were again in remarkable condition considering the state of everything else around them

on a roll ....... bottom one in first ...... er ... well we tried .... but yon tool was struggling with applying sufficient pressure and 'groaning' ...


took it off having got the joint half way in and had a look at it





don't know if you can see that clearly .. but ... the spindle is M28x3.5mm .... the above is bored to 26.3 mm which is the tapping size for M30 x 3.5 mil. !! so spindle thread is only bearing on a bare 0.75 mil instead of the full 1.75 mm ... it didn't feel right as I was starting to give it some
words will be had with the suppliers ... an Acme would've been nice, but if it'd been machined right, it should still have performed


so .... plan B ..... deploy a MORE substantial (and properly made) clamp to the task





it went in, with some grunt
top one went in with a lot less effort than i would've liked to have had to employ





Hmm ... all measured out at spec. ??? and were pairs ... some googling revealed last night that it's not unheard of .... summat to do with LR's machining skills and their tolerances being some what hap hazard


were it a conventional joint i'd not have been over concerned, but this one floats ... up/down by a good 6mm to facilitate adjusting the lower fixed/conventional joint to align the drive shaft in the centre of the axle tube (as said, before) .... and probably allow for their crap tolerances again ... so it was gonna need some druidising today ... for my peace of mind
........ and it got it ...







chances of me having to do this again are slender ..... but it'll cut out fine, if i have to ... couple of decent stitches and i'm much happier about it .


was all ready to go back together today ...... new oil seal installed in the axle tube, all cleaned, polished, lubed, de-scaled, new track rod and drag link measured and set to previous centres, everything prepped for a re-assembly of the old girl and get her back on her wheels ready for her MOT


Sunday's sunset did not disappoint either ...... had been a glorious day ......





and as a plus point ... whilst I'd spent the most of the day on the bench sorting and prepping it all ... Pam had voluntarily washed, polished and hoovered the old girl
hasn't looked so good in ages ....... even if she is currently missing a few wheels and some vital components

[v8druid]

Breathe deep!

Ideally before the disc touches the sheet

[v8druid]

LOL Wazza has a shed . It is great for storing the sons and daughters crap in. The inlaws love it too .

LMAO

[245dlc]

Yep took a grinder to a roofing sheet a while back .. and eveyone retired about half a mile fecking idiots

Breathe deep!

[ianoz]

LOL Wazza has a shed . It is great for storing the sons and daughters crap in. The inlaws love it too .

[v8druid]

we got the promised sunshine today ... melted the 4 degrees of frost a treat first thing .. then gave us a stunning sky when it disappeared ...


more on the rest of the day's antics tomorrow .. I'm off to me pit

[v8druid]

Yep took a grinder to a roofing sheet a while back .. and eveyone retired about half a mile fecking idiots

done me share of Big Six trimming in me time ..... too long ago to worry about now ... never thought twice back then

[v8druid]

Then watch the H & S boys and building control go into melt down.............................................. ......................................

Oh Yeh

[v8druid]

Build it out of asbestos! Lol

[v8druid]

Was there not some rumblings of same some time back.........................................maybe it burnt down.............................................. ....

pots ... kettles

[v8druid]

Aye ,and I reckon a shed to work in would be nice ........................lol..................