simonr

Don't know about these, but the Halfords ones are brilliant (and cheap). The only one I've managed to break was an 8mm spanner - and I was using a long pipe as an extender! As john says, you have to be careful you don't get it stuck - but it is exactly what I use in this application. Si

I like the Blog idea! Si

Who got a tube bender for Christmas?! Impressive articulation! You can see he has replaced the hockey sticks with 'V's to stop the axle moving side to side and thus there is pretty much no restriction on the front axle. Not exactly standard axles either! Si

What happened to the steel chassis, 4 wheel drive & trik suspension we were talking about on Saturday? Si

That's what lockers are REALLY for! Si

Agree with Jim! My 110 behaved similarly - but it turned out to be water & muck in connectors in the wiring loom causing a discharge by electrolysis. Ruinated the connectors in the process. I found it by pulling fuses with a meter in series with the battery until the current drain dropped. Found the circuit it was in, started unplugging things in that circuit until I had narrowed it down to a single connector. Took a fair bit of finding - but worth it! Prior to that, I just fitted an isolator switch and completly disconnected the battery overnight. The radio was wired directly to the battery so it didn't forget. Lazy but effective. Si

OK - an unusually low-tech solution (for me that is!) Not tried this myself - but seen it in action. Whan your engine is next sat in water - and still running, open the bonnet. You will see a huge fountain of water being dragged up by the fan belt. Normally this hits the bonnet and covers everything! This is why the water does not need to be all that deep to stop a V8. The solution was one of the hairy plastic draught excluders sold for letter-boxes. This was fitted with the fan belt passing through the brushes. Although it did not stop all the water - it reduced the volume to a trickle! This was on a vehicle where the water was lapping the exhaust manifolds (lots of steam!) but it was still running! Si

I'm not totally convinced that standard 24 spline shafts are any stronger than standard 10 spline. My 90, when I got it had 24 spline all round - and I broke just as many of them as when I stuck a rangey rear axle on it (for disk brakes) with 10 spline. The advantage of 10 spline is they are more common second hand! When I came to upgrade the front axle, I went for 10 spline GKN twisty shafts - and have failed to break one of those. They now do similar rear 10 spline - so when my wallet feels a bit fuller - I'll fit those and stay 10 spline!

I think chris may have been referring to a bright idea I had some years ago! I had made a number of brass bolts which would shear before the shaft broke (carefully calculated). We spent most of a trip to france drilling and extracting studs of broken bolts and ended up (having used all my brass bolts) borrowing bolts from other peoples drive flanges to get home! I do however have an idea similar to the GKN hubs - just need Nas90 to buy a water jet cutting machine to implement them! Si

It was a good event - I enjoyed it - particularly having some of our forum buddies along this time! Next year - we (everyone from these parts) should arrange to meet up for a beer during the weekend. Si

OK - figured it out now. Cheque will be in the post as soon as my cheque book reveals itself to me ;-) Cheers, Si

What type of steel are you making the spades from Nigel? Si

It will lift over 10kg according to the magnet manufacturer. It has not failed me yet - and god knows, I break some shafts! Good for retrieving your keys from down a drain too ;-) Anyway, it's not so much the field strength that's important in this case - it's the depth. These magnets are designed to grip irregular or rough surfaces (like broken drive shaft ends!). If it will not move, 'wiggle' it in & out a bit and it will move! On the original subject, one of our esteemed members used to machine grooves in shafts and found that the increased shock when it broke was trashing ARB's. If you look at a broken shaft, you can see that the metal at the surface tears whilst that in the middle generally shears. It is this tearing that reduces the shock loading and stops it breaking stuff. I read on a Jeep site that the way to do it is to mill (or grind) a slot length-ways. That way it weakens the shaft, but still allows it to tear slowly. Personally, 1 ARB buys a LOT of shafts and I'd rather not risk it! Si

Just need to know where to send the cheque! On the site it asks me to enter the cheque number. Is this intended to be before or after I've sent it? Still there is no mention of where to send or who it should be payable to? Si

There were a couple of people on the International forum who built bloody good extended cabs. Can't remember who - but it would be worth asking over there. Si

The site is pretty good - ideal for a challenge event - but..... Have you stayed at the hall??? We have and I swear I will never set foot in it again! The place mostly seems to cater for stag/hen weekends and you get (I felt) treated like you are at school. When we arrived we were shown to a dormatory (I thought I'd booked a room) with bunk beds just about big enough for midgets - and about 20 in a room. As one or two of you know, I'm no midget and could not even curl up in it. It took a bit of 'outdoor voice' to get us moved to proper beds. The eating arrangements were just like school dinners. Big hall full of chairs & tables with a line of dinner ladies dishing out hairy chicken bits and some slop - no choice. We ate in the bar instead. If you fancy a back-to-school fetish weekend, I dare say it's pretty cool, but not to everyones taste! Dave, I've resistered on the Jeep site and have mailed angela.royston@j33p.org. to find out where to send the cheque - so I'm in! Si

The idea is that the nut with the middle drilled out performs the same job as the socket above - just a tube you can grip to stop it rotating. You hold the nut stationary and do up the bolt. Because there is no thread in the nut, the bolt pulls the riv-nut in. The advantage of mine is you don't need three hands! Just one to hold one spanner still while you turn the bolt with the other. Using the design above, you need one to hold the grips, one to hold the nut and the other for the bolt. I guess you could use a small spark-plug socket in place of the nut as they usually have a hex on the outside which you could hold with a spanner. Si

Cheers Geoff! Si

Oops! Meant to post this in the international forum! Sorry!

I dare say most of you have come across Riv-Nuts? They are the most fantastic way of securing something with a bolt to something else where you cannot get at the other side to hold the nut still. A good example is bolting stuff to the engine side of the bulkhead of a 90/110. They are essentially a pop-rivet with a thread down the middle rather than the bit that the rivet tool pulls out. I think the long rod in the middle of this photo is some kind of insertion tool? Photo stolen from someone elses site! I was wanting to supply a thing which needs to bolt on in this way where access to the back is a right PITA. Riv-Nut tools are expensive and I needed to be able to supply one for free! What I've come up with by a bit of trial & error is the following. I'm using M8, but it will work equally well for any size. 1. Drill the thread out of an M8 nut. 2. Thread on to M8 bolt 3. Screw all the way in to riv-nut 4. Insert assembly in to pre-drilled hole 11.5 or 12mm for M8 5. Turn bolt whilst holding drilled nut still using two 13mm spanners. 6. Continue untill it becomes harder to turn (you can feel a change when the riv-nut is fully in) Works a treat! Now you can use riv-nuts and not have to shell out £50 (or a lot more) on a riv-nut tool! Si

Sorry about that! The server had tired itself out after all the visitors over the weekend and needed a nap. Today I asked it nicely to pay attention. Si

We just need to persuade Chris to fit a winch - even just for that weekend - so we can all do XX. Chris, I promise we won't spend the whole weekend winching for the sake of it. Si

Did we all have a good time? Any of you got photo's? I had a fab time - still feel a bit hung-over though! Wasn't the show on Sat Night bizare? Never before have I felt vertigo on behalf of someone else! Si

Can of proofer? Sadly I used the whole of 2 cans on my tent! None left! We'll be going to a supermarket so can maybe buy some there? Si

Better to find someone who has bought one. I doubt they will say they are no good if they are trying to flog 'em? Si