The Dark Wob

Yep, I've patched the old RT up numerous times in the last four years, but some jobs require a little more downtime and they were piling up, so when this came up cheap, man-logic kicked in thinking a) it gets me out of a hole and b) if anything breaks I can temporarily raid t'other one

Then buy a third to raid for parts to fix the temporarily raided one?

Need to save up first!

I've spent the last year spunking my money away on tolls. Also a lot of Irish sellers have pie-in-the-sky ideas on pricing. Fortunate for me this seller was living in the real world and got his very reasonable asking (a €bag ~ £912). Not much usable at the grand mark in these parts, the only other thing useful for the role would have been a '97 XJ900 Divvy.

Hooli wrote: ↑Sun Sep 20, 2020 5:32 pm Have you ever tried fixing stuff rather than buying another fucked example to keep it company?

Don't knock that strategy, I've been doing it for years.

Back in the olden days* (start of February, Before Covid), I ended up having to look at Tommy's 1992 Mitsubishi Pajero. It had been in the repair garage for aeons. It eventually got a MOT 8th November 2019 and he used it once, before having it recovered due to the gears going MIA. It was supposed to be something with the inhibitor switch (Aisin Warner 03-72L / Mitsubishi V4AW2-3-QGP(L) spec automatic gearbox)

Having done some homework, and studying some pictures sent, it was determined that it had hee-haw to do with that.

The inhibitor/gear position indicator is located on the driver's side of the gearbox
Sometimes the plastic finger inside can break (and the whole switch costs a fortune), but ignoring the missing nut that side, it wasn't the problem. If it does happen, I found some CAD files to 3D print the plastic finger to repair the switch at considerably less expense.

The problem was the on the other side of the transmission, where the arm that holds the selector cable is bolted onto the selector shaft.
As can be seen, there isn't anything to keep the selector arm attached to the shaft. Some consideration was given to various bodges. The first attempt, whilst it was raining as usual, was to get the file out and try to extend the flats on the shaft further in so that the plate could be slid further down the shaft. It didn't quite work as I was working upside down and introduced some slop on the flats, I couldn't get a die onto the end of the shaft to stick a bit more thread on either. At that point it was time for a trip to Machine Mart to get some cheap mole grips.

The arm was slid onto the shaft and the mole grips clamped onto the tip to keep it on. Due to the slop you had to feel what gear you were selecting as it would over-shoot the position you were trying to select.

The battery was flat so it was another trip to MM before closing to get some better jump leads. The jump leads Tommy had were the cheap shit ones with the single-aluminium-strand-thinner-than-a-human-hair in them. £60-odd quid later I had some big bastard ones with a decent amount of conductor in them. Jump-started it then no problem (well once N was found).

Having had a proper butchers under the car with my own eyes, I think it is possible to slide that selector shaft out of the box without removing the whole thing. The body sits high enough on the chassis to afford enough horizontal clearance to get that foot long shaft out. First the sump pan has to come off, then the valve body removed. At that stage you can get to the cover and pin on the selector shaft, knock out the pin and slide the shaft out.
After much delay and task avoidance I agreed to look for the parts. I placed an order with Amayama on 25th August.

After a few days (31st) I got to this stage:
Gah! Everything ordered in EXCEPT the bloody shaft which was on back order.

The order update process is spot-on in that they automatically email status updates. At this point they ask what you want to do and if no response is forthcoming within 72h, they cancel the whole lot. After discussions with Tommy, it was decided to sit tight, wait for outstanding shaft and ship the lot together. Fortunately it didn't end up being 1-2 months, but 17 days, with the shipping taking place that same day. It reached ParcelFarce Glasgow on Sun 25th September and at that point they fire a customs letter out. Tommy was away until Thursday, so I telephoned ParcelFarce to extract the customs reference number out of them so I could get it paid/cleared online and schedule it for Friday delivery - so all in all c. 4 weeks to get the parts from Japan.
Parts: £43.25
Shipping: £16.80 (VAT was calculated on £18.68 which was written on the outside of the box, not the amount I was invoiced, cheeky bastards)
VAT: £12.38
PF ROBBING BASTARDS HANDLING FEE: £12.00

so £86 all in.

Don't know when I'm going to get round to doing the job though.

It's a good job Tommy has lots of spare cars isn't it?

It is. I don't know if he still has his daily L322 Range Rover. He only has one special one that I get to borrow.

Honda Jizz NCT pending

Back in January this year, vehicle testing hit problems due to dodgy lifts.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland ... -1.4174282

Repair/replacement took some time and then the sniffles added further delays, resulting in a four month extension in validity being granted. As the Jizz was due at the end of June, that shifted the due date to the end of this month.

There is currently a 14 week waiting time for an appointment. However, if you keep battering the booking website, you eventually find a cancellation or an extra shift added.
Bingo!

I bagged a 13:55 test slot (There were three). I'd better get my finger out on Friday to check it over...

Drum wrote: ↑Sat Mar 14, 2020 11:45 pmSummer time I think

Eddie Honda wrote: ↑Sat Mar 14, 2020 11:13 pm When's it due? (for comparing notes, post back here when you get it)

Drum wrote: ↑Sat Mar 14, 2020 10:02 pm Not looking forward to my renewal now. Similar policy to yours.

@Drum. Did you stay or did you go?

I saw that Captain_70s defected to Lancaster.

I stayed but it was about £100 dearer than last year.