The Dark Wob

I don't know the reason behind it being clear as the original is black. Knowing Bentley it is a really odd size and unable to just get a normal rubber one. It will soon go black one the joints is full of cv grease. Once I strip it down I can probably find a part number for normal black rubber. The biggest problems with these is parts that could be easy to obtain tend to be hidden as no one does a cross reference list as it would stop the specialists getting their exorbitant prices. With my old shadow I found ball joint rubbers in a mixed bag that cost 10 quid for the bag full where one was 18 quid from Rolls Royce. Door micro switches were 2 quid from Maplin rather than a couple of hundred for a new lock.

The last Unipart KIS system was excellent for cross-referencing.

Surely those universal CV joint boots would work?

Quite likely they will certainly replace the one on the replacement but I am not sure the originals have a flange to put that type of boot on. I will find out when I finally get around to removing the driveshaft.

Tell me more about what its like working on these things. The chain for the window mechanisms fascinated me. I've driven them, but never actually believed the hype that they were genuinely over-engineered.

Well the welding has been started on the N/S and hopefully he will finish it next week. There is a fair bit of wob hidden in the arches but it should be solid where it matters after this. Yesterday I put new seals in the front pump so hopefully that will stop the leak. I suspect the brakes will need a bleed through but the pressure light goes off and it doesn't seem to leak. Then the driveshaft gaiter which was really simple. There is some play where the shaft bolts to the hub but this appears to be normal as the flange is held by a circlip.

The welding was finished on friday and I was going to take it for mot today except when road testing it yesterday there was a bit of a brake issue. I had a look today and it was pads stuck in the frame and one of them half the friction material had fallen off. So it's looking like pads all round, maybe discs and maybe a rear shock. I have a spare mot slot tomorrow morning so I shall chuck it in and see how it goes.

Do keep the consumables in stock? I thought they may be a pain to obtain.

On the contrary. These cars are very well provided for with spares. It's just the cost. Mate had a job done on his exhaust manifold and there was some washer or nut or something on the studs needing replacement, the genuine parts were something like £16 apiece but they were replaced with proprietary articles at a fraction of the cost. I think there is a lot of this with these cars - the genuine parts are expensive but a bit of lateral thinking and you can save money by fitting other parts which are just as good. They don't seem to be particularly complex.

Yeap parts are easy enough when you know where to look. I have fitted front pads to a few now and have the part number from Ferrodo so the 110 quid pads from the specialists can be had for 54. I will have to order fitting kits and rear pads which are 80 odd but that includes the fittings so just about worth getting from Introcar who are actually cheaper than flying spares now I can get trade discount from them. The rear shock is about 300 from flying spares (it's about 500 on the Introcar website but I suspect they will match flying spares price) so fingers crossed I can bring it in on budget