Had a day spent almost all working on cars.
Started with the rear box on the Pluriel.
Struggled like flip to disconnect it from the pipe to the main box. Did all the usual things I have done in the past, even put some heat on it from a propane blowlamp which I have never had to do before. Still the flipping thing wouldn't come off. So it was going to be"attack it with a hacksaw or a cutting disc" or put it back together, and take it to some pros.
So I did the latter, took it to my usual tyre and exhaust place who swopped the new box for the old one. Funnily they told me they couldn't start work on it right away cos it was too hot. WTF???? I'd only driven round the corner. Once the young bloke had done the job he told me about how weird the box was and would I like to come and see it. Now, I was only changing it because it had a noise at about 3k rpm that annoyed W. It was apparent that one of the baffles had come a bit loose and was buzzing, but the blokey showed me how the rear half of the box was cool but the front half was hot, and this was after they had taken it off.
So we thought maybe there was a bit more going on that just a loose baffle. I took it away for later forensic examination. I asked then what the charge would be as the head honcho had said that they shouldn't really do this sort of work, presumably he meant "fit a customer's part", He just looked at me and muttered something non-committal so I handed him a tenner and he grinned and said "Cheers that'll be coffee money for the boys!" So good to know decent peeps.
I drove off wondering if the baffle had really been blocking things up, not really sure how it could have done. Well it certainly drove a bit better, with the 16 valves making themselves a bit more obvious one I got beyond the 3k revs.
I'll cut it open and see what I can find.
So, a bit ashamed of myself I picked up the drop links for the Pluriel and the draglink for the Disco's steering thinking that would do nicely for the rest of the day. The droplinks have two ball joints, one at each end and the nuts are nyloc. I had replaced them only a few years ago so wasn't anticipating any drama. The top one went ok until the nut started turning the ball joint but I was able to get it off putting the six sided torx bit in the lickle hole on the end. but the bottom ball joint wouldn't play ball (!). The torx bit wouldn't hold and nor would anything else. I tried to fix a clamp to it all to hold the ball joint tight in but that was very tricky to fit and basically wasn't ever going to work so i started hacking away woth a hacksaw behidg the nut. It was soon obvious that that would take for ever.
So I did something else I have never done before. I put a cutting disc on my angle grinder and cut the nut and the threaded part of the ball joint off. Then it all came off the car and I was able to put the new one on.
By then it was getting dark and the dogs needed feeding, so I came in having achieved exactly half of what I had set out to do.
One of the most frustrating days I have ever had in the world of mechanicing! At least it stayed dry and reasonably warm!!
Hope you all had good days!