Another year and another MOT for my old Fiesta. As usual, it failed and this time the problem was the front offside top mount which was apparently badly worn. I also got an advisory for the other three together with both front springs. With the weather being cold I decided to buy the parts for both sides of the front suspension but only fit the failed offside for now. Since I would have to remove the springs in order to
Author: Dad
Blasted Golf door lock
It is often assumed, by those who don’t engage in car maintenance, that fixing the engine must be the most difficult task. However, in my experience the areas which give the greatest difficulty are either parts of the suspension which – being exposed to the road – become badly rusted or, worse of all, doors! The people who design engines organise for the thing to be held together with a sensible sequence of bolts which can be clearly seen and
Replacing the timing belts on the Golf
I couldn’t put it off any longer. The timing belt on my MkV Gold just had to be replaced. As it happens, this was nothing like as bad as I feared and certainly easier than on my Fiesta. The first task – and the most demanding – was to remove the crankshaft pulley in order to get the timing belt cover off. Of course, as usual this is tightened to a ridiculous torque. Surely there must be a better way
How I made a simple job much more difficult!
This is a tale of woe about a job in the Golf which should have been easy but for a variety of reasons (mostly my stupidity) turned out to be a complete nightmare! It all started with the approach of the MOT. I knew that there was a problem with the near side CV boot which would not get through the test so I bought a new one and set about replacing it. Various on-line videos show this task and
Quiz Test
Bigbury Day 6
Our last day in Bigbury-on-Sea. Due to “additional Covid cleaning measures” we were required to leave early on Saturday so instead we chose to pack up and leave after lunch today. With just the morning available and the weather remaining poor we chose to stay local and just go and have a look round Burgh Island. The tide was out so we didn’t need to use the sea tractor. The weather as we walked along the beach was grim with
Bigbury Day 5
We started the day with another windy walk along the beach, this time heading up-river. As usual, the rocks sea heavy seas had dug large depressions around the rocks. It was interesting to observe how much these differed from one day to the next. As we walked upstream there was more seaweed, presumably because the rocks are better protected from the heavy seas and this allowed some interesting rock pools to exist. We turned over a few rocks and found
Bigbury Day 4
A quieter day to rest in the middle of the holiday. In the morning Mum and I had a walk along the beach as far as Burgh Island. It was still wet and windy and on the way back the heavens opened and we got rather wet. In the afternoon and wearing dry clothes we took a short trip over to have a look at the village of Aveton Giffard. It was pleasant enough, but we didn’t venture too far
Bigbury Day 3 PM
Some background: Very many years ago someone bought me a copy of Paul Karau’s excellent “Great Western Branch Line Termini – Volume 2” (I never had volume 1). Reading this inspired me to the idea of one day modelling Princetown station in Devon. With retirement now not that many years away, I have started to embark on this project and am currently in the “historical research” stage. A key task for the holiday was to visit the site of Princetown
Bigbury Day 3 AM
I started the day with a bracing walk along the beach to Burgh Island and back. The cliffs are well worth a closer look with a wide variety of different rock formations and several small caves. After a short break we all set off for a walk over Folly Hill and down to the Avon on the far side. The views from the top across the mouth of the river were well worth the climb although the route down the