John McM

I have a manic work travel schedule so won’t be in the same country as the cars until early November. I still manage to pick up parts though and this is my latest addition, a seat leather refurb kit made up by a New Zealand Company (no use to anyone outside NZ as these chemicals can’t be air freighted)

The idea is that I remove most of the leather dye on the seat faces then resurface them with the dye and sealer in this kit. The dye is colour matched to my seats. It seems easy enough. Famous last words.

John McM

It's been a Pigeon/Statue couple of days and I've been the Pigeon.

First up was another torn front inner CV boot. As much as I tried to keep the joint together I couldn't and ended up with another jigsaw puzzle. It was just as messy and time consuming as the last one.

Super90

God bless you John !

I hate doing CV's so I just had the shop do mine while they were out of the car.

John McM

They are the pits Robert. The mess is unbelievable and putting the joint back together is like one of those Christmas puzzles you try to put together after a few many drinks. I got there in the end but I don’t want to do it again for a long time. The problem with having two C4s is that I have 16 boots in play.

John McM

The CVs were only the start of my problems. I wanted to change the front diff fluid. In theory it’s easy enough; undo the fill plug, undo the drain plug then drain the fluid and replace. What could go wrong?

The plugs came off easily enough and I measured the fluid that came out at 1 litre.

I read a thread on how to refill it and thought I could do something smarter. I filled a 1 litre squeeze bottle with fluid, attached a plastic hose to it, got under the car, lifted the bottle higher than the inlet and started to squeeze. It was getting harder and harder to squeeze so I gave it a really good go.....boom. The plastic hose came off and all of the fluid in it squirted over my T shirt. Meanwhile I was still squeezing the bottle and the nozzle sprayed fluid over my face and shoulder. I was a mess, had lost count of how much fluid had actually gone in, so had to do smaller amounts until it overflowed.

What I had forgotten is that the bottle needed air coming into replace the fluid going out. A basic error. Next time i’ll work out how to allow air into the bottle before I risk another golden shower.

John McM

With the diff fluid changed I decided to replace the rubber diff mount. Again it was relatively simple in theory. Three bolts and bit of man handling. The part came out easily and I compared old and new. The old one was clearly in great shape so I refitted it.

The two outer screws went in easily but the large middle one was way off. It took me 45 minutes to work out that the diff had moved because the torque tube was floating free with no transmission tied to it. I went to the back of the car, pushed the torque tube forward, then did up the bolt. Then I realised that I will likely have to adjust it again when I install the engine as I’ve now changed the diff position which changes the torque tube position. I should have stayed in bed.

Spokes

I hear you John!

John McM

One thing that really bugs me with older cars is the likelihood that a gorilla has been there before me. You know their work when you see it; the impossibly tight fasteners, rounded off bolt heads, incorrect parts etc.

My first engine drop had me swearing as I hacksawed heads off rounded out driveshaft Allen hex heads. While I now have a Dremel to deal with those the best policy is prevention so I've always been careful with the driveshaft bolts, but never had the perfect tool, until now.

One of the issues with the driveshaft bolts is that the CV boot rubber encroaching on access to the bolt head means the tool has to be thin, but it also needs to be usable with a torque wrench which has limited room to move as well.

Ricardo D designed this tool for the job and today I manufactured it. It's so simple. A 6mm Allen key cut down to the exact right length, which fits in a 6mm socket. Brilliant. Torque to 30ft/lbs and rest easy knowing you’re unlikely to have rounded out the heads.

John McM

It seems typical pre road/track trip to find car issues. I knew my cooling fan had a ‘ting’ noise but it was worse than I thought.
A mark on the shroud, and it was clear that both alternator and fan bearings were gone. If you’re a take it in to the mechanic type of person you could be up for more than $$$$ with labour fitting a new fan and alternator, but assuming it’s just bearings the DIY cost is more like $$. While I have the bearings in my stash I don’t have the time before the trip to fit them so I broke my rule and swiped the one out of the White C4. This is a slippery slope.

John McM

I transferred the Fuchs from the White C4 to the Silver C4 so I can finish the tyres off on the upcoming trip. I’m liking the look.

Peteinjp

That there is the definition of "Win win." The silver on silver just sings imo.

Pete

John McM

I had ‘fun’ getting the correct tension on the belts so reverted to the manual to make sure I had the right number of shims. There were four of the fan shims and four of the alternator shims on the car, which matched picture in the catalogue but the parts list has 6 of each shim. Which is correct?

John McM

These are the instructions in the workshop manual

Super90

John,

My car has four shims in each set. In order to get proper tension with new belts, I have all four in between the pulley halves in each case.

Hope this helps,

R.

John McM

Thanks for that Robert. It appears that the workshop manual diagram is correct. One of my belts slipped, making the pulley hot. I got there in the end, finding that the Krikit tool reading was at 20kg when the belt stopped slipping. As per the manual.