PAG 15, page 2
Thursday the 9th:
Nothing doing today on the car, I went to see Mr Wadsworth the osteopath in Driffield, he wrenched me about slightly, in consequence Pat has forbidden me to work on the car for at least today, she said; and I quote: - "You are not wasting the £27 we spent on your back". However she does have a point whenever I have a good 'session' like today's, I always feel like doing all the things I haven't done for such a long time; such as going for a long walk, (and not being able to walk back) lifting things or carrying things which I haven't had the ability to do for so long a time, (and putting all Mr Wadsworth's good effort on my back, back to where it was before, i.e. me flat on my back for the rest of the day at least). Oh, one thing I did do this morning was to take the list of things I require doing to the front and rear suspension axles, around to Rookies garage along with my Haynes book.
Friday the 10th: Nothing doing today on the car, the reason is the same as yesterday's, "I'm not allowed".
Saturday the 11th:
I was able to get onto the chassis and tried to remove the right hand side's spring packs this morning. Nothing doing I just cannot shift the nuts. I left all the work until 11:30 as I thought that everyone would be out shopping buy then. Later in the afternoon we did some shopping, while Pat was wandering about by herself, (I'll go by myself you slow me down), I 'phoned Phil G from our mobile, he suggested splitting the nuts with a chisel; isn't it funny how you forget things when you haven't done them for years. We would always have used a nut splitter or a hammer and chisel to remove stubborn nuts or bolts.
Came home and I set too on the spring pack. I managed to 'expand' the front nut by using the chisel on either side if each of the nut's corners to make the nut bigger. The front one came off quite easily, the nut was ruined, but that doesn't matter. YIPPEE! The bleep, bleep thing is off!
I now find that whatever I do I can't shift the rear nut much, so I have followed Phil's advice and cut through the nut with a chisel from both sides, it came away quite easily really. Now the tube inside the tube thingy with a slot in it to allow the spring actuator rode come out. Wouldn't move, so in desperation I decided to hacksaw through the spring pack's casing to give myself a little movement. This wasn't too hard, but still not enough movement, so I cut through it again, once again but not enough movement, so I cut through it yet again. Then I used a small crow bar to 'persuade' one of the cut edges to a different shape. Now, things were moving, with a large amount of persuasion I managed to get the two 'floating bits' to pass each other and one of them came off. Job nearly done, I removed the ends of each of the spring rods, and with a little fiddling the whole lot came out. One of the rubber bump stops came off easily, oddly enough the front one, the one I couldn't get the tube off. The back one is still rusted firmly in place, so I may try another type of persuasion on it later as tapping it off only bent it out of shape. I started on the left hand side spring pack and managed to remove the rear nut of the rear spring set by making the nut 'bigger'. The front nut at the front of the vehicle also came off using the same principle. However the rear nut of the front set will not go back very far. I was cutting it off when I was called in for tea, as it was six o'clock, and getting too late for hammering, must be fair to the neighbors, they have been nice to us with all the noise I have been making.
Sunday the 12th:
Another day when nothing has been done on the car, we went to Pat's mother's in Lancashire, so spent a good 51/2 hours traveling, really ready for bed when we arrived home. We had a drink, I ate a little of the Kentucky fried chicken we had left over from tea at the Mother-in-law's. Went to bed to and found I couldn't sleep so I had a read of Merlin Sport's catalogue (sad or what), I must have fallen asleep as Pat woke me up when she came to bed.
Would you believe it I couldn't get to sleep after that and there she is snoring her head of quite contentedly beside me. So I went back to reading Merlin's catalogue.
Monday the 13th: Rain stops play!
Tuesday the 14th:
Sunshine first thing, then it started to rain I thought that it was in for the day again, however it fined up and I was able to get lots done. I removed the two springs from the left hand side I had to cut the spring pack open in two places and remove the springs that way. I then removed the fuel pipe and all the clips for it and the brake pipe. Then back came the rain so I had to come indoors, got changed to pick up Pat, took the dog out for his walk first then collected her from school; took her to Hazel's, and returned home by which time it had stopped raining and after changing I started to remove the roof, I think that if I save all the roof's mechanical bits I may be able to devise something to make the wet weather gear fit onto the Grasshopper. I also took off all the roof rubbers and the other halves of the press-studs. I have also taken a quick drawing of the rear light cluster holes in the rear of the car so that I can use the lamps on the Pembleton.
I also removed the wiring harness from behind both of the headlamps and found a spare key there. That should come in handy, as I have removed the tail door's lock and locking clamp for possible use behind the rear seat to keep the boot locked.
That's all to report for now sorry that I haven't let you know day by day.
Continued in the next Issue of 'Pembletons Are Go'
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