6 February 2018

Car Jobs, Setting up the Turbo Trainer and pump problems

I have used Topeak track pumps for many, many years now. I have always bought the Joe Blow in various models and never had any problems. Since I bought the fat and semi fat bikes I bought a Top Peak Joe Blow Fat pump, the first one lasted one go and the needle stopped at around 10psi and would not go back to zero again. The shop replaced straight away with no problems. Ever since then the replacement one has been spot on. At the back end of last week I used the pump on the fat bike and needle was stuck again at 6psi this time. I was busy at the time and did not have time to look at it. Angus bought a new one in the meantime through his second job for £24.47 instead of the £45 rrp. Yesterday I went to unwrap the new pump and thought I would have a look at  he old one first. I turned it upside down and there is a small black turn cap. I loosed it off and then nipped it back up again. After I turned the pump back up the right way the needle was back at zero again. So I have kept the new one as a spare now and will keep using the old one until it breaks.





I have not used my Turbo Trainer in many years and always get bored so it has been in the loft and never looked at. Due to numerous factors I cannot get out on the bike at the mo so decided to rig the turbo back up again. I found the turbo, riser block, sweat net and turbo tyre. I set away setting the Super X as it is not used at the mo. Once I finished and went to mount it in the clamp the rear drop out fouled the turbo on the mech side so could not clamp it up. ggrrr onto plan b so I dragged out Angus's Supersix and checked that in the turbo clamps and it cleared with no problems so time to get a few miles now!
Whilst tinkering in the man cave I also adjusted the bottom limit screw on the Ultegra Di2 rear mech on the Mason as it was not dropping down onto the 11t cog properly. All good now and I have full range of the rear cassette. Not that I use the 11t very often lol.








Angus's second car Corsa D was recalled by Vauxhall and was in the garage last week and they carried out a health check at the same time. I was not expecting anything on the check as it has just passed it mot three weeks before. Well low and behold the front brake pads are 70% worn and need replacing. How much well they quoted £119. I checked to see how much I can buy a set of four pads - £14! and they will probably be able to get them cheaper than me. So that's £105+ for the lab, not bad going. I have booked Angus's first car in for a 4 year service at the same garage- labour only £115 to do oil and oil filter, air filter, pollen filter, spark plugs & brake fluid. In my eyes it just does not add up. The car only does approx 3,000 miles a year so we will hopefully get another two years out of them!
One job that was needing doing was the hinge pin on the glove box had dropped out and gone missing, when you opened the glove box everything kept dropping out. I was going to put a bolt through but checked the price of the Vaux proper plastic pin first - £15, thank you but no thank you. I googled a replacement and found out that there was common fault on the glove boxes, splitting hinges. I watched a lad who has done a video on YouTube on how to repair the problem with zip ties instead of replacing the whole glove box.
So I set away removing the box - 4no screws and discovered the hinges had also split so took less than 5 mins using the zip tie method of repairing both the hinges and also using the a zip tie to replace the missing pin. Whilst I had the glove box out I also decided to replace the pollen/cabin filter as it is located behind the glove box area. The one that came out was jet lack on both sides! Fitting the new one (£7.87 Eurocarparts or £5.70 from Ebay if you are not in a rush) was fiddly but sorted in the end. Cover back on, heater pipe refitted, glove box back in and jobs a good'un.

















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