Misc: Travel, etc. – Page 3

8 June 20228 February 2024

CARS: MX5 Cam-belt & Gasket, Day 4

Today I hardly took any photos of the work I did. Most remiss of me! Maybe it was because today was mainly re-assembly? But frankly I really should’ve taken lots of pics!

The above screen capture was taken to help me work out how much oil I needed to refill the engine with. Most of the helpful videos are American – the call their Mazda MX5s Miatas! – and everything needs to be changed from foot pounds and quarts to NM and litres.

I walked into town – not far! – and had a slice of pepperoni pizza from Dreggs. I also checked out some larger wrenches, in Boyes and what used to be Thing-a-me-bobs. I can’t recall what the latter is called now!?

I wound up buying two 300 mm x 36 mm – one foot long with an inch and a half ‘mouth’ (in old money) – Rolson adjustable spanners. At £6.99 they were a wee bit dearer than the Boyes ones; it’s the latter pictured above. But they looked and felt both bigger and better quality.

Actually, whilst they look decent enough, they’re not great. Are any adjustable spanners any good? The adjustment is always fiddly, and very prone to slipping or working loose!

I left off all three of the cam-belt guard plastic bits, as they were pretty mangled to start with. And removing them had further damaged them. I think this metal plate screwed into one of them. There are two metal bits n this line that are not fixed back in place.

Took two shots of this bit, which now seems poss’ redundant. Ended up removing it altogether. in total there are three plastic cambelt guard sections I’ve left off, and two metal brackets, this larger one, and a much smaller one.

A chunk of today – two hours, poss’ more? – was given over to a trip to Halfords. After buying the two spanners and a bit of pizza, I caught a bus to the big roundabout on Wisbech Road, which is pretty close to Halfords.

I bought a new oil filter. I was expecting it to have a ‘crush ring’. But it didn’t. Rather tragically and annoyingly I failed to install it, as I was unable to remove the damned old one!

I wanted to catch a bus home, but didn’t want to walk to Tesco. I would up walking all the way home, with a rucksack full of heavy tool, engine oil, and even a little ‘dolly’ trolley (the latter in lieu of a larger and more expensive inspection trolley).

I stopped at The Hippodrome en-route, for a refreshing lager shandy, and to rest my poor aching feet! I’m not fit any more. The walk home was horrible!

As I said at the top of this post, I totally failed to document the re-build. I replaced the cam-cover, inc adding sealant gasket gloop where indicated.

One of the only bits of documenting I did arose out of the balls up I made of the radiator re-install. For starters I totally wasted a whole bottle of coolant/antifreeze, by failing tore-attach one of the radiators’ lower pipes.

Pouring the whole litre in, it simply drained right out, via the lower and still disconnected tube. It was a mother to re-connect that particular pipe, as the clip on it, and the end of the pipe itself, we’re not in tip too condition.

Then, when refilling the coolant mix into the re-installed radiator, I discovered further leaks due, once again, to missed connections. This was a thinner pipe-work segment, and it only haemorrhaged coolant when the radiator got pretty full.

But even after connecting all the errant lines, and tightening up all tubing and fastenings, there remained a terrifically annoying leak. This turned out to be the thermostat housing, the gasket inside of which had fallen apart.

I tried to bodge it, with gasket sealant. But I put it back together wrong; a whole 180° out of its proper alignment. So when I’d reversed it, or corrected it, the ‘temporary fix’ suggested by a BOFIracing dude, didn’t come out as planned.

So I wound up ordering a new thermostat housing gasket today, plus four new undertray fasteners, all from MX5parts.co.uk I hope they get to me ASAP!.

What was most g-g-gutting and g-g-galling, was getting everything back together only for the engine to not work, still. I have to be honest. This necessitated a bit of a lie down! I was, frankly, utterly crushed.

After about an hour of rest, I decided to go out and look at the car again. A friendly neighbour then took me to Halfords, for my second visit o’ the day – at 7.50pm, ten minutes before they shut! – where I bought some coolant.

Still from my video that WP won’t upload!

Topping up the coolant revealed several leaks. the easiest to repair was a small hose I’d missed. Next I tweaked a few of the clipped hose connectors. But, alas, coolant continued to leak. And a video under the area revealed that the thermostat gasket bodge hadn’t worked.

I tried to add that video to this post. I had to shorten it to even upload it. And then, once added in WP, the post no longer updates… gaaargh!!! So I’ve taken a still image from said vid’. Not great, but better’n nowt!

Bizarrely, the coolant, which was streaming out initially, but only dripping by the time I got my iPhone camera on it, seems to be dripping not from where the two parts meet, but just behind that. Weird!?

Anyway, that’s that for this post. I guess tomorrow I just keep on keepin’ on…

7 June 20228 February 2024

CARS: MX5 Cam-belt & Gasket, Day 2

How I looked/felt at day’s end, last night.

Last night, after emailing Greg Peters at ‘carpassionchannel’ (thanks, bro’!), and much – mostly fruitless – googling and watching of YouTube, I finally found out what the thing circled in the image below is.

Turns out this is a power steering pressure sensor.

Having established what it is, I was able to find a YouTuber removing it, and thereby learn how to do so myself. I did that late last night, sporting a head-band style torch, as it turned dark.

In the YouTuber’s video, as so often, it looked super easy. In real life, for me, it was very, very, very tricky. I used needle-nosed pliers to simultaneously grab the whole thing whilst depressing a tiny little lever, all the while also pulling upwards.

After lots of worrying (about breaking it whilst manhandling it so roughly!) and a fair bit of swearing, the ficker funally came orff…

The pic at the top of this post is how I looked and felt at day’s end. Note the new mechanic’s style overalls! £20 from the local Boyes.

Yesterday it was raining in the morning. And it remained damp, drizzly, and cloudy all day. But the afternoon was workable. Today the sun is out, the sky is blue. It’s beautiful, and so … wahoo!

6 June 20228 February 2024

CARS: MX5 Cam-belt & Gasket, Day 1

Ok, so I figured I’d better document the MX5 maintenance. In the hope it’d help me put things back together again. So here goes…

This is one of the clips (top left) that keep the radiator in place. 10mm nuts, which seem to be the most common on this engine.

Radiator bracket, right. WD40 helps loosen rusted nuts!

The radiator overflow, disconnected. Main top cap off. Then I drained the coolant, using the plug at the bottom. Did’nae photograph that though.

Disconnecting the main radiator pipe. Turned the radiator clips through 180°.

Ditto the right radiator clip.

Removing the main hose in the front engine area. What’s this one called/for?

Popped this thinner tube out of a plastic clip.

Disconnected the right end of the large tube. Popped it in the passenger seat. This clip was a real mother! I might want to replace it with a different sort, when it comes time to reassemble things.

Popping off another of the simpler smaller tubes.

A lead that runs to the fan clips in place behind said fan. There are one or two plastic doodads that clip into a plate at the front.

And, lastly, removing a larger pipe from the bottom of the radiator, and draining more coolant! This pipe isn’t in the best condition. And the clip holding it in place is even worse. If the car can be brought back to life, these parts are prime candidates for upgrading.

Just a general shot, trying to keep track of engine layout. The bar along the bottom of this shot is called a ‘sway bar’, and keeps the front wheels in proper torsion and alignment. The silvery doodad in the centre is the thermostat housing. Two thin pipes go into this, one to the right, the other directly below.

With the radiator out, and the biggest of the pipes removed, it starts looking a bit more spacious up front. This extra space should be great for working at the the front of the engine. Which I’ll be getting to later, hopefully.

Zooming in a bit. Look at all the electrical leads/cabling (and adaptors/connectors!), and the several sundry pipes. Lots to keep track of!

Clips and leads on the air filter.

I wanted to capture a general view of the engine as seen from below, under the car. Cool! As can be seen, the sway bar will be in the way of loosening the bottom wheel.

Right side of the air filter. Or is that the left side?

Umm… getting confused. Where is this!? Is this the left or right of the air filter, and adjoining wiring.

A broken clip, and a tricky one. The second being the off white one, to the right of the broken black plastic ring. Can’t recall how I got that one out!?

The same as the above, with the tricky clip out, and the broken one more clearly visible.

Numerous electrical connections had these weird sprung clips. They’re tricky to pop out. I used pliers to squeeze them together, which helped.

Some of the hoses and hose clips were pretty stubborn. BTW, the red jack stand, visible under the ‘sway bar’, supports the latter, which I needed to loosen up, so it wouldn’t be in my way.

Thought it’d be easier to remove the above wiring, as pictured, i.e. still attached to the clip.

More photos of parts of the wiring loom.

Removing another chunky coolant pipe. Note that there are markings on the pipe which align with little nodules on the metal piping.

Can’t recall why I photographed this nut? Possibly this is the lower and harder to see/access nut, for the plate that’s on the front of the engine cover, which holds many parts of the wiring loom.

This tubular plastic lead junction has caused me some grief. I can’t work out how to disconnect it. And until I do, it’s not possible to finish getting the wiring loom out of the way.

Her you can see I’ve put the radiator clips inside the engine bay. Just so as not lose them!

And the other one!

So that’s it for tonight. A few other things I did, but didn’t photograph, include numbering all the wired connections in pairs.

Tomorrow I’ll drain the oil out of the engine. And disconnect the negative pole of the car battery. Then there’s more disassembling before doing the gasket and cambelt.

28 January 202222 January 2023

MEDiA: Waterwalker, 1984

Wow! I do love YouTube, for giving us all the chance to stumble across gems such as this. Thanks also to the NFB, or National Film Board of Canada.

Bill Mason, who made this film, and ‘stars’ in it, is Canadian. I have Canadian family and ancestry, on my dad’s side. So these facts set up something of a sympathetic resonance for me.

Then there’s Bill Mason himself, the man: he is, or rather was, an outdoorsman and artist, who made, I’ve subsequently discovered, numerous utterly gorgeous and fascinating films, of which this is one of the best.

The chief charms of this are simple yet kaleidoscopically rich, like the environment in which the film is set, on and around Lake Superior.

One of the things Bill addresses, a vexed issue for me, is spirituality. This was the only note struck in this otherwise perfect reverie of sound and vision, nature and culture, that – if not necessarily jarring – gave me pause for some (Indian!?) reservations.

But I’d like to take this post as an opportunity to consider a few things, and there are many, that this film either touches upon directly, or stirred in me by association.

First there are the ‘renaissance man’ and self-reliance aspects. Bill, who formerly worked as a ‘commercial artist’, was a conservationist, famed canoeist, artist, writer, family man, and all sorts. I love all of that! I have my own aspirations to living a multi-faceted life. Richer, one hopes -not fiscally perhaps, but in other better more important ways – than the monomaniac furrows our society drills us into pursuing.

So, there are many things Bill’s example encourages: to spend more time in, and pay more attention to, nature, and indeed all our environments. Art, get up, and out, and make some. Buy or build a canoe; get out and start messing about in the water!

It was also interesting to learn that Bill’s health wasn’t terrific. A sickly child, he has severe asthma all his life. And yet he didn’t allow this to stop him from adventuring. Maybe his derring-do contributed to his early demise? But then again, maybe not? And at least he lived a rich and inspiring life while he lived.

Some might laugh reading this next bit. And it may indeed sound facile. But I truly couldn’t care less! And that’s the fact that I like his style. And I’ve gone as far as to add elements of it – some were already there, others just a little tweak in already beloved themes – to my own sartorial repertoire.

I already had the neckerchiefs (though mine are too small!), and brown leather walking boots, and many a checked shirt. But the red outdoorsman socks are new! And so too is the very particular red and black check ‘lumberjack’ shirt!

Bill’s particular style of art – he favours palette knives over brushes, and cites J. M. W. Turner as his chief inspiration and influence – is terrific, albeit not entirely to my normal tastes. But that he does it all, is inspiration. It was interesting to see that he, like myself and several artists I’ve known personally, is highly self-critical bout his work, and often destroys what others. Might regard as decent work, because he’s unhappy with it.

Then there’s music. In other Mason films he strums guitar or plays harmonica. It amazingly, one might add. And his family aren’t exactly fulsome in their appreciation (does this remind any of us of our own domestic musical life? Or is it just me!?). But for Waterwalker, the music is supplied by (?) and (?). (?) is a star in his own right. And the music totally suits the subject!

Some of it, such as the actual ‘theme tune’, might induce cringing amongst some listeners. I’d understand why. It has a ‘new agey’ earnestness. But I love it.

Another facet of the whole thing that some might find they react to differently than I do, is the whole tenor of it all. It’s definitely dreamy, romantic, and perhaps even somewhat solipsistic? And it’s no surprise such movies helped created a cult of Bill Mason. But as a ‘fellow traveller’, and sympathetic romantic introvert soul-mate, I love it all. As did critics, numerous of his films, inc’ this one, winning a variety of awards and accolades.

Also interesting to me, is how stuff like this leaches into other areas. For example, I noticed, whilst watching a recent Jack Stratton ‘Holy Trinity’ episode, on YouTube, that he had created a logo and a whole invented Vulf Films thing suspiciously akin to the Canadian NFB (National Film Board) doodad.

Just as Bill Mason’s film is simultaneously about following one’s own individual and sometimes lonely paths, it’s also about connections. Be they to nature, or each other, immediate or indirect. Love it!

27 October 20218 February 2024

DAYS OUT: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

The grand entrance to the Fitz’. Magnificent!

Having gotten up later than planned, after a night plagued by insomnia, I had a good go on the PS4 console brother Sam brought over recently, with the updated Crash Bandicoot trilogy. The graphics are sooo much better. It’s a dream come true for an ol’ fart like me. More on this in another post.

Now, as I type this, we’re at Wetherspoons’ The Hippodrome, for our half-term holiday treat of breakfast out. We did this yesterday as well. Very pleasingly indulgent. And having it as a brunch tides us over till dinner time. Last night that meant a home cooked curry, sat out by a crackling fire in the garden. Ace!

Yesterday we both had trad’ English breakfasts. Today I’m having Eggs Benedict, and Teresa’s having scrambled egg with extra toast and a sausage. Yummy!

Some time later, and we’ve spent about four hours pottering around the Fitzwilliam Museum, taking loads of pics, and frequent rests. I read the first chapter of a book about Wellington’s 1813 victory at Vitoria on one of these stops. First Napoleonic book I’ve read for some time!

A Korean plate, again bearing the crane (long life!) motif.

The Fitz’s permanent collection is fabulous. We also took a look at their temporary exhibition, Gold From The Steppes, which was less interesting to us than most of the temp’ expos they have. I’m more into harvesting inspiration for art/creative projects, or just soaking up aesthetic richness for its rejuvenating effects.

Florid blue and white was a bit of a theme on this visit!

So I’m posting a few pics here typical of the sort of thing that’s doing it for me on visits such as todays. I type this sat in the Park St car park, in town, having relocated from the Grand Arcade car park, to be closer to The Maypole, and Thanh Binh. We’re eating dinner at the latter, before meeting Dan and Amy at the former.

A Stetchworth Craft ale, at The Maypole. Sixteen Strides, I quaffeth!

Yesterday and today have both been quite full and busy. I think Thursday will be a day off, for pure ‘r’n’r’ (or in my case more tidying up in the workshop, I suspect).

The building itself is also very remarkable. The older 19th century part is sublime. The newer additions are very modernist; monumental, but in a fairly brutalist manner. The following two pictures convey the very different modes/aesthetics.

I tried to capture the awesome splendour of the entrance hall in this panoramic photo.

This concrete lattice roof, in the modern wing, is amazing!

10 October 20218 February 2024

DAYS OUT: Nature – Gault Wood, March

Teresa and I went for a walk in a nice old woodland that we discovered locally today. Gault Wood is a little over six hectares of land belonging to the Woodland Trust.

Gently forking paths split around a pond.

Teresa wanted to forage for stuff in the woods. Not edible stuff, mind. But rather materials for her art projects at work, like the annual seasonal murals. So she collected yellowing leaves for the Autumn display.

Teresa collects leaves and takes pics, in the woods.

This rather lovely green space is just a five or ten minute drive from our front door. It was particularly nice today, as the sun was out quite a lot. We had the place mostly to ourselves, save a young family and one or two dog walkers.

There are numerous little ponds. And a good number of benches. After our walk we sat on one of the latter, and had a flask of hot tea and some oaty biscuits, listening to the birds singing and the wind rustling the leaves. Tranquil and beautiful!

Semi-wild; signs of humanity, but unkept and lush.

Nice to find another little nature spot!