JeffR

Thats what I thought when I married the wife......

could well be, but the threads on the cattle trucked bits showed no galling (cross threading is natures loctite), moisture or corrosion. Bolt heads sheared with a clean clearly defined "crystalline" pattern at the junction between threaded section and unthreaded section. Of course it could just be the bolts were ancient and past their sell by date (like their owner). To top it all I set fire to my beard again

Have a look at the Kielder range, I've been abusing using their 18v rattle gun for a couple of years and am well impressed. Not super cheap, but affordable.

OK, so I've had a bit of a morning. Started swapping out the very leaky power steering box and sheared 3 out of 4 7/16 bolts (not a problem got new ones and a new box) so it got me thinking. Air temp round here is currently -5 C. thats a tad chilly, actually there's a queue of female sorceress' awaiting breast reconstructions, the bolts were put in during the summer and torqued up to 60ft lbs. also sheared the alternator belt tensioner on the family passat, but thats aluminium, so its not really metal..... Anyone know how much the tensile strength is affected by a reduction in temp? I wonder what the change in tension is when a relatively hot bolt (mid 20 C) cools down.

Try acetic acid, white vinegar has worked for me in the past, not always, but most of the time. Dip wire end in a pot for an hour or two then rinse (may need a repeat).

You don't wanna know how it feels when two of the bar stewards get locked together as they attempt to exit ones bladder........

Carry on undoing previously badly done repairs to 200tdi, replace seized A frame bushes, get the bloody thing through an MOT so I can set fire to the family passat and toast marshmallows on the resulting conflagration. passat has an intermittent battery drain, 5 effing days of testing and can't find a problem (no its not the alternator (new genuine part) or the battery (new yuasa) nor any of the earths or broken wire), but best of all I need to fully recover from the 4x3mm spiky kidney stones that decided to migrate from my left kidney to my bladder just before Christmas (morphine/assorted opiates REALLY helped with that, A&E consultant has stolen my description (trying to urinate an angry herd of hedgehogs wearing hobnail boots and crampons...) Did I mention torching the family Passat? selling tickets for that one. I really hate that car, especially after its recent unscheduled alternator disassembly in the middle of bloody nowhere just over the crest of a blind bend (adrenaline is brown and smelly), not to mention the 8.5hour wait for the RAC to arrive. Find a newer family hack

Merry Christmas peeps, may 2024 fulfil all your dreams and hopes.

Been there , done that. Take care, takes longer than you think to fully recover, a lot longer.

Rebuilt a Disco 1 with parts from GDi, no problems whatsoever.

Got mine from my parents, just shortened it a bit cos I'm too lazy to type it all out

My favourite was a set of Stainless brake hoses from Britpart (yes I know, but needed them in a hurry). Two bloody days and a couple of gallons of of brake fluid later and still no functional front brakes. Assaulted hoses with angle grinder to find two out of four hoses were solid nylon rod covered in stainless mesh.... Britpart were about as helpful as a Tax inspection.

I use couriers a great deal in my day job. None of them are trustworthy: Parcel Farce once lost a roof rack for my 110 DHL (Deliberately Horrendous Logistics) lost a bed DPD (Destroying Parcels Daily) delivered an empty box when they lost the contents Yodel took 3 weeks to do an overnight delivery Evri (well if you use their old name, Hermes lost his sandles and not to forget Royal Fail ( 24hrs means 48, 48hrs means 72 and 72 means thats the last you'll see of your parcel in this life time, perhaps they need to feed their carrier pigeons more often).

WE drive Landrovers, being "not normal" is a prerequisite......

We tried that in Northumberland, but it wasn't a lie, the weather is awful...

Thats in better condition than most of the clothes I wear daily.....

As a freshwater biologist, by employment, I have tried just about every repellent available ... I now accept that I will continue feeding the little buggers, although a few years back I ended up covered in old, used EP90, that actually worked in that it kept everything away, animal or vegetable. May well try Smidge though.

Summer in Northumberland can be very interesting, soooooo many LBB's (Little biting bar stewards), really ne something that is hermetically sealed to prevent exsanguination. Useful to know it can put up with high winds too. Cheers Mickey

I suspect you are correct, but needs must... She has put up with quite a bit over the years, a motley collection of scaffold and tarps may be a construction too far. She teaches Judo for a hobby and I'm a coward......Hence something that will look goodish. Also has to be temporary due to neighbours constant whinging.........

Has anyone got/used one of the machine mart pop up garage thingies? If so, are they worth the money. Having just got drenched in a downpour I've had enough of trying to work on the 110 outside exposed to the elements. Guess I'm getting old and soft.

I kind of operate on a semi-controlled chaos principle, stuff is all over the place, but....... I know what is what and where its at, most of the time. If someone re-arranges stuff (like when a mate and my family did whilst I was ill ) my poor little brain explodes. Then I have a frenzy of tidying up, only to spend hours looking for stuff. Chaos is king in my world

Cheers, I thought that may be it, the ones on mine are 8.8........Mind you, the bolts holding the fuel tank in were only finger tight, good job its only been driven in the garden

Anyone know what grade these bolts are?

I've almost got myself convinced that AMR1495G is the way to go, just need confirmation from an adult

So started trying to sort out the electrics on the 110. Background: 200 tdi 110 rewired with ROW bulkhead loom (not currently a problem and it was cheap from Main Stealer) New chassis loom (possibly TD5 or late 300 tdi as has multipin for towing flapping about in the wind.....) Original fuel tank and sender (no effing idea if it had low fuel level light as its been 20 years or so since the old tank became incontinent due to rust). Now I have been reliably (????) informed that the sender unit currently installed will not work with the rest of the chassis/bulkhead/random bits of wiring also currently present. Having a bit of a fiddle (read lying on my back in the nettles that seem to proliferate when fed with EP90 from the leaking diff cover) I found another unused multipin econoseal style plug having a rest on top of the fuel tank, which I'm assuming, based on wire colours, is the main harness link to the sender (its long enough). So has anyone got the foggiest idea which tank sender unit and link lead I need to make it work? I'm assuming a 300 tdi sender, but there appear to be approx 3817 harnesses that join the buggers together...... I HATE ELECTRICKERY