Thread: What did you do on your Landy today?

'Fred' needed a new water pump as the cheapo pump ( paid expensive ) started leaking out of the weep hole.

So a good time to get in and replace a seal that was also weeping, it was inside the timing case, after strip down of the timing belt kit which had done only 25,000 kilometres, I wasn't real happy about the bearings in the idlers they were still serviceable but sounded slightly when spun.

I already had the timing belt off when I realised that I hadn't cracked the bolt on the boss where the cam pulley sits. So next job was to make a tool to hold the boss in place while the bolt was undone. First time the tool was used it worked beautifully and the boss came off.

Inspection of the boss showed up a problem , even though the bolt was locked solid using something like Loctite, the boss had been working back and forwards under the locked bolt head, a guess is it was moving radially about 5 degrees or more. Now looking about for another boss as this one has had it's locating pin slot worn beyond repair, to keep the job from stalling, I borrowed one for the time being from another dismantled motor that I have been working on. The end of the cam shaft hadn't suffered any damage ( thank goodness ) and the replacement fits beautifully .

When I can get back to the job, I will use a battery drill with a hex driver on it to screw a couple of Tex screws into the old seals to remove them.

Had an annoying 'great moment in motor maintenance' yesterday. How hard can to be to change a windscreen wiper? Done it lots of times before.
Anyway, must have bent it a bit too much while removing the old wiper blade as I heard a 'ping' and a small piece of plastic dropped on the bonnet. Turned out to be a pin holding one of the extension arms on the wiper, which also fell out. Damm! Can't use the wipers.
Fiddled around and managed to insert a piece of wire and bend it over to temporarily clamp the piece in place. Then fitted the new wiper blade.
Ran out of light, so will have to have another go and see if maybe I can pop rivet it or something, to avoid having to buy a whole new wiper arm.
Life wasn't meant to be greasy...


The good bit was that on Saturday I got to use 'George' and my new Stihl when I chainsawed a dead tree and cut it up for firewood. Been since I was a kid on the farm since I'd used a chain saw, but it all came back to me (plus I read the manual). Managed to drop the tree on the driveway without taking out the neighbour's fence too. Man - that paperbark might be soft on the outside, but the core was hard. Had to stop a few times as the smoke was coming out of the tree because of the friction of the blade. Used four tanks of fuel and chain oil to cut it up. Taught the grandson the following ditty (apologies to Monty Python):


"I'm a lumberjack, yes I am
I work all day and I snore all night."


He went off to annoy his sister with it!