Sundays are fantastic days, they fall just at the right time of the week. After you have worked hard for five days and had one day to mow the lawns and do the washing, you get Sunday to lie around under cars with friends; or at least people who were your friends before you started lying around under cars with them.
The HCOAQ Service Day was another busy day with several jobs to be done and quite a few that we did not get to ..... again. We shall be having another Service Day in three months to finally get those "other" jobs finished, however on this day we did succeed in changing the tie rod ends, front struts, clutch and pressure plate in Shane's Civic Coupe. Oh, what was that? CR-X ?? Sorry Shane, the identification plate clearly states the car is a Civic Coupe! And we don't enjoy reminding you one little bit, do we?? The other major job of the day was Campbell's timing belt. But that is a saga in itself....
We started the day off with a bang, or should that be a slosh, the sound of oil on cement. We all learn from others' mistakes, and have a bloody good laugh while thanking the powers that be it wasn't us who did the silly thing. The lesson was this .... When changing an oil filter be sure that the old rubber gasket comes away from the housing with the old filter, because if it does not, when you screw the new filter in place jets of oil will shoot out from the engine bay as you crank the engine over. As was said, good for a laugh if it isn't your car, your oil or your oil additive.
Which naturally brings us to oil additives. (Did you like that link???) Warren Moir of Pro-Ma was good enough to drop by and give the Association a demonstration of Pro-Ma's range of oil additives, grease additives, fuel additives, and puncture proofing fluid. A very impressive display with the oil additives and puncture proofing materials proving to be particularly effective. One member has added some material to his engine oil and we shall see how it performs in the coming months.
By this stage we had the front end torn from Shane's Civic Coupe and Leon was busily inserting the new struts while Shane and Ed looked on, held things and generally got in the way. In the end Leon saw the only way to get rid of them was to point at the under side of the car and say "Undo these bits." Which they did. And low and behold the gearbox did fall out, right onto Leon's chest, which was lucky 'cause it might have got damaged if it had hit the floor! By the time Nardine had lunch cooked and ready to eat (and for the first time the sausages were edible because Ed had not burnt them to a crisp) Leon had the pressure plate back on and the clutch aligned.
In the act of taking the Coupe apart and putting it back together we found a few items of interest and we were again reminded why we have Service Days. While taking the front engine mount off Leon discovered the drive's side front corner of the front subassembly was fully detached from the body. The two bolts that hold it in place were missing. This had lead to the stress usually carried by these bolts to be carried by the engine mount. The engine was now effectively holding the front corner of the car together and the engine mount had failed and broken. We also found two stripped bolts and one stripped wheel stud. And to top off Shane's day we found the passenger's side inner CV joint he had been supplied was actually an outer. Just the sort of thing you need to find on a Sunday afternoon. Never the less, Shane and Nardine drove home in a fully functional Civic CR-X Coupe ( that is what appears on the ID plate), however Shane does have a detailed shopping list of bits and pieces needed to fully repair the car.
While this was going on Ian pulled the back suspension out of Dixie's City and tidied up some modifications, before giving it and his own City an engine detail. And Campbell was battling with his City.
The seemingly simple task of changing a timing belt is a little different in a Turbo City due to the lack of room under the bonnet in general, and around the front of the engine in particular. Conspiring with this cramped work space is the need to fully reassemble the car before it can be tested, and this is where Ed and Campbell came unstuck. After Campbell and Paul had stripped the front of the engine and managed to remove the old belts and replace them with new ones, Ed and Campbell timed the cam belt and Campbell had the delightful job of refitting everything. Strangely enough Ed found something else to do during this period (sock drawer rearranging ??). When the car was started it ran like a hairy dog.. A very sick and lame hairy dog. Leon asked how the cam belt had been timed ... Ed looked at the floor, Campbell looked at the ceiling and said something about putting it back the way it was found. After Leon had stopped laughing (comments re: watching amateurs work) he directed the culprits to strip the engine again. To cut a long story short Leon timed the thing correctly and put it back together while Ed enjoyed a beer and talked to Campbell (there is really only enough room for one person in the engine bay of a City). We finally finished at 9pm.
Once again the Service Day had turned out to be an all day affair, but for a bunch of rank amateurs we achieved quite a bit. Of course there are always victims in any endeavor and Paul's fuel tank, Leon's rear engine oil seal, and Ed's wash and wax will just have to wait until the next Service Day.
We would like to thank all those who turned up either to help or just look on, Shane, Campbell, John, Paul, David, Judy, Ron, Ed, Nardine, Leon, Ian and Dixie. Thanks to Sarah who organised the lunch and Nardine who set it up and cooked it. Thanks also to Leon without whose guidance we would be still aligning Shane's clutch and timing Campbell's City. Finally, last but not least, thanks to Ian and Dixie, who provided the venue, tools and coffee until late into the night.
See you at the next one!!
