Also I suppose his background will give him the experience to know,but when he's being told to do something, then ask a question should he, confuses me,
We were not talking about airplanes, we are talking a defender...apples and oranges.
I am sure Kwakerman will follow the books with regards to his aviation related guidelines. Again a defender is not an airplane, using the same retaining bolt again and doing all the investigative use and its purpose has covered the calculated risks, no falling out of the sky and bailing out with an eject button with the landy.
I measured the conical shape of the bolt where they should wear if at all, all were the same and they all matched the exact hole size they have to fit into the guide, so absolutely nothing was wrong with them.
Parts also costs a fortune here, eg., a clutch kit here for the 110 300tdi costs US$ 600 for the clutch kit alone. So far, for the cost I was given in the UK for an HD 130 clutch kit made by Valeo, 2 flywheel dowels, HD clutch fork kit complete, guide and some other parts were less than US$ 280.00. That order will run me about US$ 1,100 here.
The suppliers do not rip ypou off per se, but the taxes on parts is 80% on the cost of the parts AND the shipping combined. To give you an idea, a flywheel dowel/pin which is like 50 pence will cost me US$ 12 here.
I am not sure how long you have been in the industry, but I speak for myself...in countless repairs some mechanically and electronic replacement part
"recommendations" are clearly deemed to promote sales for the manufacturers. Recommendations have put in inverted commas because in the hundreds and
hundreds of rebuild manuals I have read, manufacturers have used the word "recommended."
I was the owner of a a Euro Performance shop in Canada up to 2013 where we built many race and turbocharged engines. Some of the "recommendations" have been bypassed after consulting with senior BMW techs at the dealerships who are friends of mine, none have failed. Many of them have been techs for their entire career span, some even retired, all of whom has admitted that many of the "recommendations" are for sales generation.
I have friends who are techs at many GM dealerships, they told me they have a "monthly $ quota" to meet buy encouraging customers to change parts when it can last another 5 years, so as the old saying goes.....dont always believe what you read.
Because of my background, I was scratching my head about why this little bolt which has no stress, wear or torque related job must be changed...hence the reason I started this thread. JFYI, I called up the LR spares suppliers locally and they both told me they have only sold about 8 of these bolts collectively within the last 10 years.
Many guys build and race defenders and discoveries for rallying locally. There are many 300TDIs in use as daily drivers and for commercial use too, so its not like there is only a handful of landys here, which is responsible for the practically non existent guide retainer bolts sales locally. I spoke to two guys who rebuild Defender engines and they told me they only replace these bolts if the heads got rounded or if they misplaced any, none ever failed...they do not even strip due to their low torque specs.
I hope this explains why you should not be confused, pertaining to my question here regarding changing of the bolts after reading the overhaul manual. We see no reason, no mechanical nor adverse engineering points negating them to be changed.
I do appreciate your input and reply Geezer, thanks and take care.
Cheers.
