On 03/03/2020 21:26, Steve Walker wrote:
On 03/03/2020 18:47, Andrew wrote:
On 03/03/2020 15:51, Chris J Dixon wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Mini wasn't that simple a car to work on. Compared to say a Morris
Minor.


Anybody remember checking the spark plugs on a 1500 Beetle? ISTR
adapting the tubular spanner by drilling an extra hole so the
tommy-bar would fit in at 45 degrees to the axis.

Chris


VW Type 3 Fastback was even worse. Getting at the innermost
pair of plugs was so difficult, they were frequently
cross threaded.

My uncle had one of those. Just about the worst car he ever had. He used
to joke that he did more miles with it tied to the back of my father's
car than he ever did driving it. It was significantly improved when he
and my father drilled out and re-tapped the holes and replaced the
cylinder head studs with bigger, stronger ones made by the apprentices
where my father worked.

For an encore, it burst into flames on the drive one evening.

SteveW

Mine literally backfired one late foggy autumn evening as I tried
to start it at the local station after coming home from London.

Enormous bang and huge cloud of sooty smoke with my headlights
peering through. All the local dogs started barking in unison.
It literally blew the main silencer and one of the heat
exchangers to bits.

I drove through the village and up the 15% incline to where I live
sounding like one of those drag-racing things :-)