Chris Wilson

I well recall an old friend who was visibly disturbed watching me hacksaw off a piece of sheet steel in the vice. I just knew he was about to say something but was biting his tongue so I asked hom if I was doing it wrong. He told me I was forcing the cut and should allow the blade to do the work and be less aggressive, that's why the cut was wandering off. I finished and held a piece of metal with a far from 90 degree cut in my hand looking forelorn. He took the hacksaw and first straightened up my remaining piece of steel the proceeded to cut a perfect off cut that looked like it had been done in a shear. Humbled I let him show me how to file the piece properly. He taught me a lot. But one day he was telling me he had to take his dog to the vet to have its nails trimmed at it was savage when it saw the clippers and wouldn't let him or his wife near him then. He complained how much it cost every time and how the vet asked him to leave the consulting room as the dog was less agitated then. He wondered what went on behind closed doors but said the dog couldn't be heard barking or whining. I thought it's time to reciprocate and show him how something should be done... So he brought his dog around, a collie that was indeed a bit hyper. I got an old bath towel, tied the dog to a post, got the towel wrapped firmly over its head, got him to hold the dog on the ground, and did all four feet in about 2 minutes with no issues. He later went on to do the same himself with his wife assisting and saved a load of hassle and dosh. We all have our little talents or know how to address what to others might be a problem

Tools Explained. DRILL PRESS : A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it. WIRE WHEEL : Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, 'Oh sh*t' DROP SAW : A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short. PLIERS : Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters. BELT SANDER : An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs. HACKSAW : One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle... It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes. MOLE-GRIPS : Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand. OXYACETYLENE TORCH : Used almost entirely for lighting on fire various flammable objects in your shop. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.. TABLE SAW : A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity. HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK : Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper. BAND SAW : A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge. TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST : A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect. PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER : Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads. STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER : A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms. PRY BAR : A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50p part. HOSE CUTTER : A tool used to make hoses too short. HAMMER : Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit. UTILITY KNIFE : Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use

I can supply with grease, kindly fire me an e-mail to [email protected] and I'll get the current price tomorrow for you. I have fronts and rears in stock.

The AEM logs should, or at least i would hope, show the voltage from the coolant sensor during the warm up phase. as to static fuel pressure, engine not running, it could be pretty well anything within quite a range, depends how it was set and then mapped. but about 35 to 50 PSI I would imagine. The mapper should have that info.

Changing wheel size to give a desired ground clearance is very how you dooin', that is a really horrible way to go about it. Is the increase in ride height needed for ground clearance reasons or wheel arch to tyre fouling issues? Post some photos before you create a ditch finder mongrel.

Check battery voltage when idling at whatever RPM it musters, with headlamps, heater blower and heated screen on. Should be at least 13.8 V If not (lower) suspect alternator or its wiring.Maybe check the crank damper is not slipping too, do the "Tipex" test.

You need a means of monitoring fuel pressure on key on after a long period of being switched off. The system should hold some rail pressure with key off for hours, and on key on immediately rise to working pressure. An electronic or mechanical gauge will work, does the rail have an external fuel pressure connection valve? If not you need to get some appropriate adaptors to measure pressure after the fuel filter and before the return valve. Monitoring the mixture immediately after a cold start is tricky as a wide band sensor needs to heat up before giving correct readings. You should also measure the voltage from the ECU water temp sensor at start up, in real time or by looking at the logs to see if it's a temp sensor issue. A bit of well thought out measuring should show the issue without throwing parts at it. A crude test is to hard wire the pump to run just before trying to start it and see if it helps, but be careful you don't back feed anything you shouldn't!

raceparts.co.uk mechanical gauge and some rubber hose, sounds like the electronic gauge or sender, (assuming it IS electronic, I have never seen a mechanical one only read vacuum...), is kaput. Even cheap mechanical gauges are far more reliable unless you spend a LOT of dosh on a good electronic one

Good man, glad it was something fairly trivial! Dropping the CR by one or so won't lose 25% power, and it can be made up with more boost although off boost performance will be a tad less sparkling.

The gauge is doing this almost certainly because you are making no boost for whatever reason. It must be plumbed on the engine valve side of the throttle body to see vacuum, which is correct and normal for a vac / pressure gauge, and on wide open throttle it just sees near atmospheric pressure as there's no boost... Unless the gauge is buggered of course...

First you need to see if the clutch uses the stock dual mass flywheel, and is till a pull type clutch. Or if has been converted to a push type and all the (very dear) pul type stuff has gone missing. All this can be seen through the bellhousing on a ramp with the little side vent covers removed (4 off 12mm hex bolts) This info is needed to make a sensible decision where to go next,

Is the stock NA head gasket only 0.6mm? I rather doubt it. Fitting a 1.3mm gasket is not going to kill power by 25% even if it is 0.6mm. You have other issues, for sure. Start by buying a cheap mechanical boost gauge (Raceparts UK do good ones that are far from expensive) and some suitable hose (rubber NOT silicone) to run from the MAP sensor area to inside the car through a side window. go take a drive and report the boost... Stock up on petrol and tinned food whilst out, before fuel and food rationing start...

To slightly excuse this maniac I believe he was thrusting towards Ms. Abbott's Hackney polling station with a matching pair of shoes for our potential next Home Secretary. Maybe she needs to nick the "No Alcohol" sticker and place it on the mirror in her dressing room? Or maybe two none matching left shoes is some sort of lucky voting token, or just perhaps an indication she's adopted the Catholic faith?

OK thanks for checking. Still looking!!

OK, great, thanks. Justin now replied to.

Available still, one just went to a second buyer in the US very recently, I will reply personally tomorrow, thanks.

Cut it out and refabricate. Many race cars in higher end formulae have to have various parts crack tested regularly. These bits are often very expensive and hard to source, or require jigs making to recreate them. Catching stuff before it fails altogether can save a lot of money.Repairing them or making a jig or accurately measuring from a cracked but otherwise intact part is far easier than looking to recreate a now mangled bit of metal, sometimes crack testing even saves lives. Having said that the FIA have an ongoing issue with late formula cars that use carbon fibre parts whch can fail catastrophically with no warning, with nothing showing amiss on an X-ray. An elderly X-Ray machine is also very useful for reverse engineering potted electrical stuff. In any case, anything dangerous running on 50kV plus is just cool to have

Yes, race car driveshafts and wishbones, gears, gear shafts, flywheels, those sort of things. Not as my mate suggested to check drugs were adequately packed to avoid airport interception....

I have an optical medical one, but it's fragile and the power supply (two big halogen bulbs and a hefty transformer in a steel case) weighs a ton and if it's knocked when on a bulb often goes. But it will focus and has a 45 degree head so I can see piston tops or valves and seats, and it will focus over a fair range. I would imagine some of the better digital ones are much easier to use and tougher these days. What I *DO* want is an X-Ray machine and my pal who is a vet is getting rid of their old one that's in storage. He's a bit worried about the `elf n safety issues so it may have to be sold as parts (with a fag packet re-assembly manual) I know it still works as he's X-Rayed me a couple of times when queuing at accident and emergency didn't appeal!

I ask because they have a TT propshaft in with worn out middle sliding splines and fixing this would entail making virtually a complete new shaft with an available sliding spline arrangement usable with the stock centre support arrangement. They are not sure if it's even economically viable to do this. Thanks.

There you go, spend a fiver to spend 2K on fixing stuff you would have been better ignorant of

With endoscopes now so cheap even for half competent ones you can cause yourself much angst for little money by peering into box sections through grommet holes.

My mappers both use electronic stethoscopes bolted near the top of the block, inlet side to verify actual det and compare to the graph from the sensor(s). They then map according to the sensors once they know they work and when they work. You need to force it to knock (carefully) to know things are seeing real knock. That needs care and experience. MOTEC have videos of knock sensor usage. Nice work there good luck!

You need to undo the two 12mm hex nuts on the studs to remove the sensor. You really need a scope to make sense of the O2 sensors or on a VVTi a scan tool that will read the early OBD2 data. I use a Carman Scan, not many will read them. To be honest once you wrestled the thing off you might as well just renew it. Forget all the soak in vinegar crap...

Taste the water, if it tastes very sweet it's engine coolant and the matrix is dead. Don't let a dog in the car they will lap it up and it's a killer, maybe to a cat, too. The air con can only produce water externally when in use and the water from the heat exchanger defrosts, a drain should take ot outside the car. the air con uses no water INTERNALLY. Often the water valve is sticking check everything it's not a job to tackle twice....