Thursday, took some tourists whale watching - 180km round trip on bad gravel roads; Friday, a 500km round trip to take granny to dentists in the city. Got home, pulled into drive and heard a tinny rattle from RH rear. Sounded straight away like a brake backplate/stone guard. Sure enough, RH rear had sheared off at all 3 of the fixing points even though bolts were tight. Checked the LHS, also on the way out. Removed both the useless tin pieces of s/crap. Seems like they keep more dust in than out anyway.
Also took off wipers and shroud at bottom of windscreen to lube and tighten up wiper linkage - wipers were on for 6 hours yesterday and began to make a slight clonking noise. Found 3 of the four securing nuts under the shroud were just finger tight, making the wipers clonk a bit. Drivers side wiper arm had also partially stripped the splines on the spindle - explains why the previous owner had advised me to "carry a 13mm socket to tighten the wiper arm, it sometimes comes loose".
Re-fitted with loctite, hopefully will hold it. Add to the list of bits to get from the breakers one of these days.
Decided to practice changing the wheel, in case I ever have to do it at the roadside; found the pvc wheel cover impossible to get off because both it and my fingers were ice cold; in the end, because it was brittle with cold I ripped the bugger, so its staying off for good. Probably a happy accident, imagine not being able to change a wheel just because of a stuck wheel cover.... while I was at it I found 3 of the 6 bolts holding the wheel hanger to the door were loose, worth checking.
Also adjusted the rear door catch, hoping to reduce the amount of dust that gets past the seal - not confident of that working though.
Another satisfying couple of hours in the garage - beats housework.
Now back to browsing Landy Forums while listening to England slaughtering the Indians (again) on Test Match Special....
Its hard work, but someones gotta do it...
