The things you do for your neighbours

[jx2mad]

I had a neighbour from hell! Not that he caused huge difficulties but if he came down and said "Jim, are you free for a while?" you knew you were in trouble. This happened twice over the years. First time was when his Jag's starter motor was playing up. Silly me said I would pull it out for him. You know... Disconnect battery, disconnect lead from starter, Remove two mounting bolts and pull starter out...OH WELL, THAT IS THE THEORY. Here are the steps needed to remove starter motor.
1. Disconnect battery.
2 Remove both front bucket seats.
3. Remove centre consul including radio etc
WHY
4. Climb in under steering wheel, pull up carpet and undo inspection cover over small hole in floor.
5. Insert tool and undo top mounting bolt for starter (through firewall)
6. Climb under vehicle and undo cable
7. Undo bottom bolt and try to get starter out. (it is shoehorned in)
8.Remove starter and give to neighbour who takes to local auto elec who nearly fainted seeing unit removed from car.

NOW WITH STARTER FIXED, do I use the reverse procedure to replace it?
NO, there is one extra step.
Can't get the darn thing the way it came out so had to remove the engine mount and jack up the motor, Then use reverse procedure.

Four hours to get out. four and a half hours to refit.

Does this sort of thing ring any bells for anyone? Jim

[debruiser]

sounds a bit like changing an alternator in a ford focus... gotta unbolt the engine mount and slide the engine forward to get it out from behind the engine! crazy stuff.... Lucky it was my car cause I think it took me 4 hours to figure that out... then another 4 to put it back, then another 8 hrs to do it all again when the new alternator turned up. (yes I drove it without an alternator for a while cause I had no other car. Ok well yea it was in there but not connected.... was only there to hold the stupid belt tight.)

[redrovertdi]

was the jag a v12?

[Hall]

Our neighbour tries occasionally to get me to have a look at his vehicles. Usually simple enough things but of course it would be free bee. He might see me working on the Landy. But that is a necessity. So I gently fob him of with a excuse about how I only work on vehicles that are fairly simple. They have not long ago got a fairly decent vehicle so have not been asked for a while. On the topic of mongrel vehicles to work on. Try a Volvo 265. To remove the rocker cover on the V6 you had to lift the engine up. I kid you not. I removed the auto transmission once. Needed removal some time after. Took it to a transmission place. Was typical of a car that had a motor that did fit but the engine bay was not suited to the motor as it originaly was fitted with a straight six.
Cheers Hall

[Homestar]

Yeah, I hear ya. Thankfully the neighbours where I live now all have newish cars they take to a mechanic. I had one at an old place where I ended up doing 90% of a V8 conversion on his crappy falcon.

He did keep cold beer up to me the whole time, over many weeks after work and on the weekends though...

[Chucaro]

That was one of the reasons why I used to love the Triumph Herald
It was so easy to work on it

[Bigbjorn]

One English car highly regarded by sporting car snobs had a small water hose connecting an engine pipe to the heater circuit. To replace this one removed the front panels, undid everything and jacked up the engine, or, cut a piece out of the frame and weld it back in afterwards. Same car required removing engine and trans assembly to change a clutch.

[newhue]

Jimbo, you have racked up some good karma there. Painful but well done.

[Davo]

Pffft! I reckon you're well ahead of me. Help neighbour over several years with various things, get not much back, neighbour decides to start playing loud music starting at midnight every fornight, magically doesn't get messages and calls asking to turn it down, it goes to dispute and mediation, now doesn't talk to us and tells various mugs in area how awful we are. But at least she doesn't own a Jag!