Went to the train station to collect my daughter and she decides that she is hungry and maybe I could drive to the shopping centre. I had to visit the bank so it was a convenient time to do it all at once. So off we go.(Yep the petrolhead and his offspring don’t mind using the train when it is more convenient.)
We parked the car and went off in our different directions. 10 minutes later and we are on the way home but what we did not know was that when Steph jumped into the back seat of the car the button of the door handle had in fact popped out!
Easter Holidays here we come…
The next day I wanted to get the car ready for the trip to Albany and around the south west to Pemberton for a week. I did the usual things, check the oil, water, brake fluid, tyres etc. I then started removing the tools and bits and pieces in the car that we did not need to take with us – I went to the back door and on squeezing the handle found a hole! The hole was the remains of the button popping out the night before! We went back to the carpark but could not find the button anywhere so I knew that the whole handle may need to be replaced.
The spare XW door handle.
I remembered I had some spare handles in the shed in one of my many boxes and also a couple of doors that may still have handles on them. I initially thought I would leave the repair for my return from the south but after realising that we would be jumping in and out of the car most of the time we were travelling a broken handle is really a safety and convenience problem! I was pretty busy that rest of the day so I did not get around to finding a replacement until it was dark. So here I am in the dark shed with a torch trying to read the lids of the boxes to find the right one. I find the box and it has two handles – one left hand and one right hand side. I replace the box and take the left hand handle out to the car and put it in the boot – I will try to fix the car as soon as I get a chance in Albany.
The Repair Procedure.
So here is the process I went through to get the door working again.
Step 1. Remove the internal door skin – this requires the arm rest and internal handles be removed.
Step 2. Find the internal door components behind the external door handle and undo the retaining bolts. I usually check all the connections first and make sure that everything is working ok.
Step 3. Remove the handle and undo the retaining screw that holds a bracket through which the button was triggering the actuator. Do the same for the replacement handle and check for corrosion and replace the button from the spare handle. (You may choose to replace the whole handle but mine was off an XW door so slightly different mechanism.)
Step 4. Replace the handle on the car and then check it actually works – don’t replace the door skin until you have done this!
Nooooo the door is not opening!
Despite my last direction about checking the door before putting the skin back on I am now going to explain how I screwed up the process myself. When I checked the door I did not think to lock the door as well in my checking process. If I had then I would have discovered that the locking of the door caused a problem with the door button.
I now had to remove the internal door skin with the door closed. I had no idea how this would go since I have never needed to do that before. Anyway I removed the handles etc and then carefully tried to get the skin off. Success, well almost perfect success I broke one door clip – I can live with that.
I now proceeded to get the door open. Not as easy as I hoped – nothing was working – so I removed the handle and the connecting rods from the lock mechanism. I then played around with the door mechanism until I could pop the lock and get the door open. I could see nothing obvious as a problem in the door – I removed the whole door latch to check all was working – a bit of CRC and then put it all back.
I checked the door – it worked! What the…
I am really confused now. Ok, check the lock – lock the door and try to open it…. ahhhh this fails to work – so the problem is in the locking mechanism.
The next 10 minutes of experimentation leads me to the new button! The push bar on the button is longer it seems than the old one and the door is actually partially moving the lock mechanism even when the button is seated.
This means that when I put the door lock on the locking mechanism is not resetting when I unlock the door.
I need to shorten the buttons push rod. Well I chop off 3-4mm with a pair of pliers and redo the whole process – still does not work so I know that more must come off! I now file off a little more at a time until I can see the clearance I need on the actuator.
Success at last.
Never underestimate the time a simple job might take – small jobs can sometimes catch you out and become more involved than expected!
HINT:
I would offer this little bit of advice – I like to check the inside of the doors when I do little repairs like this one. You can often catch minor rust or other issues. I usually give the door a squirt of fish oil when I take the door skins off – just don’t get it on the moving parts or the door will possibly fail to open. If, like me, you are away from your home then a squirt of CRC over the door internals can reduce corrosion issues.
We were soon on our way to the hospital and I found myself in casualty.
This was a typical afternoon in a country hospital – 2-3 people in the waiting room, one had a broken arm, another guy had a triangular shaped burn on his arm (his wife ironed him apparently) etc.
It seemed at first I was just going to join the line of injured until the nurse had a look at my throat and took me to a bed to start cleaning me up. It was then that things got a little strange.
Time started to drag and I felt cold and started to shiver and shake.
Shock! Shock was starting to get a hold of me.
The nurse put a blanket over me and then was called away and I was left on my own.
I would be here for the next 30minutes, basically ignored by all!
Half an hour later a fellow patient saw what was going on and called another nurse over and the medical people finally decided that maybe they should do something. (It had been nearly an hour since I first arrived.)
She fetched the doctor who realised that they had better deal with my wounds.
My first stitch….ever
This was going to be my first experience with surgery for one of my accidents (this was not the first bike accident) so I really had no idea what was about to happen next. The doctor appeared over my bed with a syringe in his hand and started injecting me with painkiller.
The first injection was in to the wound on my neck – or at least it felt like it. Then the chin – that felt like it went straight through my chin!
He disappeared for 10 or so minutes and then reappeared with a nurse holding a tray of, well it looked like knives and forks to me. He then threaded up a needle and started to work on my chin.
Can you feel that?
Now this is where it gets very interesting. I had never had stitches before and had only been to the dentist a few times so I really did not know what level of discomfort to expect. The needle seemed to be rather sharp and I was sure I was feeling the thread pull through my skin.
I was feeling quite a bit of pain. “Oh well”, I thought “this is the best they can do.” So I just put up with the pain. Of course my eyes were streaming with tears at this stage and the nurse mentioned something to the doctor and he leaned over me and asked “Are you feeling that?” I sheepishly admitted that I was aware of every stitch so far and there was a bit of pain.
“Shit” he said, and immediately asked the nurse for more painkiller and gave me another shot. After 5 minutes or so he poked my neck and asked if I could feel it. I replied, no, and he set to my stitches once again.
Now I Always Wear a Helmet
Well they finished up, dressed my wounds and sent me home with a very prominent scar that I would wear for the next 15 years.
I ended up with 50+ stitches in the neck and 20+ in my chin. The doctor also informed me that I was within a very small margin of opening my jugular! Death had passed over me that day and I have always worn a helmet on any form of two wheel vehicle ever since.
Get Back on the Horse..
I had the next week off school and then it was school holidays – three weeks before I face my class mates. They had been told that I had an accident and had just avoided killing myself. I was a very big hero for a few weeks after that with every one wanting to see my stitches!
Meanwhile back at home it was the second week since my accident, I was getting bored so decided I would check out my bike. So I snuck outside and fired up the motor. Now I never really intended to go for a ride but my mother was outside in a flash and sharing her concern for my health! In other words get off that bike and get back inside!
I was not going to get back on the horse that day. However, I was riding again within the month.
Scars can fade…
Today the scar is not often noticed by my friends and I no longer have to explain the dotted line across my throat.
So there I am at 30 mph about to impact 3 strands of clean, sharp barbwire!
(I don’t remember braking but when we went back later we found a large brake mark.)
Impact…
One strand went under the bike, snapped and swung out of the way. The second, middle strand hit the wheel straight on (cracking the hub) just slipped over the front mudguard, broke and whipped away to the side. The third upper strand was the dangerous one, this hit the top edge of the handlebars, broke and whipped across my face, cutting my throat (the chin strap prevented deeper cuts), the side of my chin and then whipped away from me as it caught on the side strap of the helmet!
Fortunately for me I was wearing a helmet for it saved my life.
This is the style of helmet that I was wearing at the time. A friend of dad’s gave it to us – I believe it was an ex-police helmet.
I must have passed out at some point in the collision since I have a blank spot in my memory between seeing the fence and opening my eyes. I just remember waking up and standing, looking at my bike lying on the ground. It was actually still running and so I stood it up and switched it off. The handlebars were twisted and so I could not ride and had to push it the last 300 meters or so to the shed.
Hey Dad…
I had not really thought about injury to myself at this stage and just propped the bike against dads ute. My throat felt wet so I wiped it with my shirt – my shirt was now rather red! I got in the ute and used the mirror to look at my face. Crap I thought, there is a lot of blood and a chunk of my chin is sort of hanging off the side!
I realised I better tell the old man and get myself off to hospital.
I went in to the shed, Dad had his back to me and I started explaining to him that I had damaged my bike. He said something about speed, not surprising etc (as responsible father’s do) and then turned to look at me. His face went pale and he went very quiet. Then he expressed his feelings, in a way that I was much more familiar with, “Fu…… hell boy, let’s get you home!”
This is the only photo I have of the little Datsun 1500 ute that we owned at this time.
We got in the ute and dad wrapped a towel he had around my throat, more to keep me warm than stop the bleeding. We then went rather rapidly down the road and up to our house. He went in to the house first to warn my mother and then I sheepishly wandered in behind him.
Hey Mum……
I unwrapped the towel and my mother also faded to pale.
Mum soon got a grip and had me in the bathroom to wash my face and then appeared with a clean shirt to put on.
She found a bandage and wrapped my throat before sending me and dad off out into the car.
“Get off to hospital you two!”
P.s. Just a comment on the photo of the cars – the old dodge had been taken off the road at this point and sadly I had to use it as a bush basher! The Valiant was our “new” car and I often drove that to school in the years to follow. The red Rambler Hornet was my grandfather’s car. He owned a range of unique vehicles in his lifetime and I may discuss this in another blog post. I think that some petrolhead blood flowed in his veins too!
Grandfather died at the age of 83.
Having gone to such trouble to replace the master cylinder I decided that the whole exercise of bleeding the brakes is so involved I should really check the brake pads at the same time and replace if needed!
First off here is the renewed cylinder and its a simple reverse order fitting for a petrolhead like me!
Nice and shiny! Ready to go!
Now we need to bleed the lines and this is usually a two person job but I have a little secret tool!
I don’t know where I got it but you just need an old peanut butter jar and this gizmo!
Add the new brake fluid - Dot 4! - and start pumping the pedal!
Good old Castrol brake fluid - any Dot 4 or better will do!
And here it is!
fill the jar with old or new brake fluid and then screw on the lid with the gizmo!
You now attach the other end of the pipe to the bleeder on the brake and unscrew the brake bleeder.
You then go and pump the pedal a few times watching the reservoirs – you don’t want to empty them otherwise you are sucking air! Check under the car if no bubbles in the clear section of pipe then should be ok.
Tighten the bleeder and re pump brakes – nice and firm I hope!
Repeat for the other wheel!
I used to do this with the girls – they would push the brake pedal to the floor and I would undo the bleeder until they had no pedal height and then close it and they would pump the pedal and we would repeat that until I saw no more bubbles. Took quite a while and did nothing for my back! The girls always thought it was great driving the classic car – even if it was stationary! However, after the third wheel cylinder they were usually starting to complain!
This gizmo is a great tool when you are on your own bleeding brakes!
NOW IT’S TIME TO GET THE BRAKE PADS OFF!
Ok, brakes working so now time to deal with new pads. I remove the wheel and check the thickness of the pads – only about 20% left so time to pop in new ones. I go to the shop to get new ones and they cannot match them we spend 20 minutes searching various parts catalogues to finally get the right ones.
They have to be ordered in – 2 days wait! In fact I don’t get them until after the weekend! No car for the next 4 days!
Monday arrives – I leave work and pick up the pads on the way. I take off the wheels and dismantle the first calliper easy job so far!
Trusty floor jack and stumps and the wheel is off in minutes!
And here they are in all their glory – my RRS Coil over strut with brakes kit upgrade!
I will post the story behind this upgrade another day but I love this system – it brought the old falcon brakes into the 21st century!
RRS Slotted vented twin piston PBR disk system Phase 2
I have not touched these since I fitted them in 2004 – the pads have lasted 5 years and they have never let me down!
Anyway enough drooling – pull this lot apart and get those new pads in – this was the dirtiest job I have done for a while and getting new pads on those discs was hard work I can tell you! It took me over an hour on the first wheel and lot less on the second! I will know the shortcuts next time but man what a job!
These are the old pads - not bad for all those miles!
NOW TO SEAT THE BRAKE PADS!
Now you might think that, that is it! The job is done. Well not really.
These brake pads are metal based not asbestos so they have to be seated in.
What this basically means is I drive the car at 60kph for 300 metres and then brake hard to 5kph – not stopping – and accelerate to 60kph again and cruise for 300-500m before braking again to 5kph – I repeat this for 8-10 times! If you were watching from the road you would think I was nuts!
I usually use a quite road nearby on the coast where there are a lot of round-a-bouts that I can cruise around if a car gets behind me – took me about half an hour this time! Only a dedicated petrolhead can understand the pleasure of getting this job done yourself!
Now for the next 200km I avoid heavy braking and all should be right for another 5 years!
My next job now is to plan the service of the rear drum brakes – a very similar process as the front just a different brake configuration. I’ll get back on that another day!
It is quite strange to think of my father as a petrolhead. There must have been some element of it present since all three children are fond of a good car or machinery in some way. Let’s thinks about it, our political opinions are greatly influenced by parental politics so why not petrolheadism?
In “Love the Beast”, Eric Bana’s father is a rather gentle man yet he has this amazing old car in the garage. A great big T-Bird – now red but a two tone green in the days that Eric remembers cruising around in it as a boy.
My father was of the same vintage as Eric’s dad. Born in the 1940’s to a family of three brothers and a sister, a rather wild bunch. My poor grandmother had 3 son’s in hospital apparently in the same week from various motorbike accidents.This should have been a warning to all and sundry that the love of speed and power was in the blood. Dad’s accident was from a near miss with a truck on his Triumph. I think it was the classic slide under the back of the semi or something – details are vague since I was a young boy when this story was told to me.
American Metal
In the 60’s and 70’s we owned a series of different cars but my favorite memories are of a Rambler 440 and the big white Dodge Phoenix. The latter being very much like Eric’s dads T-Bird. Very long, comfortable and a large classic 318 Hemi V8! The dodge would cruise at 100mph for hours and never showed signs of tiring!
2 Wheel Madness
I had a similar motorbike obsession as my dad from a young boy into my teens. The first bike being a genuine Vespa scooter – 120cc or something and not what you call a speed machine – but a machine with wheels was all that mattered. It worked well for a little while but it was dead within a year. The main problem being electrical, we lost the spark and just could not get it to fire.
I was given a new motorbike for my 15th birthday – an Indian (yep I have seen the Fastest Indian). It was a two stroke, about 72cc and with a powerband that kicked in at about 4-5000 revs. A friend at school had a Honda 75 and we took them to a school camp early in the yearand had fun racing each other around the camp and the bush tracks. (Such a thing would be unheard of today – too many rules and safety issues). The Honda was faster on the hard ground but in sand the two stroke had so much torque it left the Honda for dead!
The Indian was my pride and joy that year and I loved tearing around the farm and out in the bush – especially after a hard day at school!
This all slowed down a bit after my first serious accident. It did some serious damage to the bike and nearly finished me off completely.
Three Strands of Barbwire
We owned one property and leased another some 4-5 kilometers away through the bush. I could ride between them without encountering any roads so I would often travel over to the second farm to help dad after school. The last part of the ride was through the back fields of the leased property and was a winding track up to the shed. I rode this track regulary and it became a little like a personal drag race trying to get there quicker each day!
This was my first mistake – the second was not appreciating that farmers can shift fences and fences can go up quite quickly!
I left home and took off on this particular day and raced through the bush and over to the other farm. Winding through the last kilometer of track I came around a corner and there in front of me was three strands of barbwire fence.
I have just paid for my tickets and two more for this revheads offspring! You won’t believe it though I came home today to get the mail and there is the Shannons annual update on the insurance for the XT – and two for one ticket offer to Love the Beast!
Only 2 hours earlier I could have saved …. anyway never mind a lucky friend is about to get an invite!
SHARE YOUR BEAST
I also went to the website for Love The Beast and entered a competition. All you do is enter details about your Beast! Dozens of petrolheads on one page!
This link should take you to my entries – The Petrolhead on Love the Beast
This post is very different today in that it is about me, the petrolhead turning 50.
Yep, I am now very much middle aged and a baby-boomer to boot.
What is more important of course is the classic Falcon is now 40! From what I have been able to work out she was manufactured in August 1969. This an interesting date since the XW Falcons were released during the following months. I have discovered during modification and customising of the old girl that she actually had XW parts as well as XT. So she was obviously among the last of the XT’s produced that year.
I have a few plans for the celebration of the old girls 40th Birthday and it will have to include some sort of road trip!
Anyway, back to my birthday BBQ. I have a few snaps of the gifts I scored!
Now understanding the background of childhood for my daughters and family you can imagine the type of gifts I might score – they are usually car related!
Last year I received a gift of a ride in a V8 race car –
About the same time as I was playing around with the brake repairs I realised that I had been smelling coolant now and then as I was driving around. Now for a petrolhead the smells of a car engine are music to our noses. You know, the hint of garlic in the exhaust (it’s inthe LPG), the smell of fresh water on the headers when you drive though a puddle, and the wonderful smell of fresh rubber of new tyres. I digress!
I did the obvious checks and found the radiator full and the overflow bottle within the acceptable range. I quickly checked a few hoses and clamps, especially around the gas evaporator unit. No leaks that I could see and no smell today!
Mmmm now that is confusing. Oh well nothing obvious, maybe it is my imagination.
A Tiny Tiny Hole
The next day I have few jobs to do and drive 40-50 miles(no kilometers on my speedo) in the heat of the day and when I get home – damn I sure can smell that coolant now! I flip the bonnet and quickly look around but no obvious leaks. So now I look more closely at the radiator itself – check the cap, the seals on the top and bottom tank and then I see it a slight glisten on the copper fins half way down the radiator – a pin hole! I can see it now. A tiny pinhole that leaks under higher pressures which means higher temperatures for the inexperienced among you.
Ok, off to see my mate Gavin at Lakeside Radiators. Gavin is a magician with coooling problems and I have followed him from one shop to the next and now he has his own business. I check in with the boys and they confirm the problem – “see the stain down there that confirms it mate.” Ok, easy fixed whip out the radiator and a dash of solder and your off!
I take the old girl home and as you know ripped out the radiator as I worked on the brakes.
The Petrolheads guide to radiator removal.
So here is the sequence in pictures:
I always start with getting out the needed tools, which with a classic car is usually the 1/2inch or 9/16inch spanners
2 spanners and a few plastic bags and quick-ties
First step is to remove the fan shroud!
Then loosen the bolts holding the radiator but don’t let them come out!
Now we get the water trap under the radiator ready to remove the coolant.
Remove the clamp on the bottom hose/water pump connection
Remove the top hose from the tank to break the airlock
The coolant should now be rushing out of the radiator and the block and we can now remove the radiator completely once I have undone and tied off the gearbox coolant pipes. (Remember this old classic car is an automatic and I have extra cooling for the gearbox as well as the radiator sub-tank.)
This short video shows these last few steps!
So there you have it – one radiator out the replacement is basically the reverse of what I have shown you above.
This petrolhead is glad that job is done – should be good for another two years using longlife radiator fluid.
I was driving down our street the other day and since it is a slight drop down a hill you have to lightly use the brakes to stop at the end to check for traffic. I had the trailer on with all the lawnmowers and stuff and so a bit of weight on board. I braked at the usual point but noticed a slight hesitation – rather – more of a failure to slow down much! NO BRAKES! Murphy’s Law dictated that today there would be a car coming down the street so stopping was an essential part of the approach! My car ran out about a metre into the intersection and I madly whacked her in reverse to get out of the guys way! Thankfully no cars behind me or ….
Having survived the initial shock of it all I drove up the road a little to the roundabout and tested the brakes by pumping them a little – they now worked – I put the failure down to maybe air in the line so decided I should be able to get to the job site ok and then fixer-up that afternoon!
I drove very carefully for the rest of the day and continually checked the pressure with a few taps as I approached a corner or set of lights.
That afternoon I opened the bonnet and took off the lid to the master cylinder to check the fluid levels – both were fine – BUT – the front reservoir was a funny colour – a horrible yellow/orange – oh no rust!
So the question is is it the wheel cylinders (only 5-6years old) or the master cylinder!?
I guessed it was the master cylinder and the guy at Hitech Brake and Clutch agreed since it would be in need of checking even if we remove the wheel cylinders!
Ok then my plan of action is clear removed master cylinder and then flush the pipes and then check again.
I went straight home and parked up the old girl since I had a flight to Melbourne in two days and it could wait until my return. I had three days at an internet marketing workshop and a chance to catch up with some mates at the same time!
BACK FROM MELBOURNE SO FIX THE BRAKES!
Having had a great time in a very hot Melbourne (47oC!) and witnessing the rising death toll from the horrible wildfires I get home to a cooler Perth. I decide to replace the master cylinder and the radiator today since the car is undriveable with either of them in the repair shop.
The radiator has a pin hole leak but any air in the system leads to rust and has to be repaired quickly. A repair of a small hole is cheaper than a new radiator!
Anyway to the work!
The first step is to get inside the car and remove the connection between the brake pedal and the master cylinder. You have a electrical switch and a locking pin to remove!
Brake switch locked in with the pin to predal shaft
Locking pin for pedal - remove this and don't lose it!
Brake light switch removed
Time to remove the Master Cylinder
I usually loosen the two pipes at this stage so that I have some movement when I am dealing with the studs. Use your best spanners at this stage – you don’t want to bur any of the studs or pipes.
The two retaining studs have to be removed
This is the lower one
I undi the two lines and carefully lift the Master Cylinder out!
Victory at last - it's out - 30 minutes!
You can see the discolouration on the front reservoir very clearly now. I hope the rust is all in the front of the cylinder and not the wheel cylinders!
Off to the brake shop after removing the radiator – but that’s another post!
The Enforcer – BA Falcon
Safely parked in the cabinet
