WHAT YOU DID TO YOUR TRUCK TODAY!

electronics you shake an thump an say arrr

well not to the truck but to the girlfriends Escort.
easy job (should have been). The car was fine under power but as soon as you lifted off the throtle, it pulled drastically to the right and was oversteering violently to the left, so a new set of lower control arms was needed. £40 for the 2 QH complete arms n bushes

my mate came to give me some moral support and extra pair of hands so while i was sorting tools n stuff out, he jacked the car up and put it on axle stands. Got the old arms off, new ones on, both sides, 1 hour, ball joints fell apart

i told him to jack it up again to remove the stands, as i remove the stands there is an almighty crack and the car drops. I can see fluid coming from the jack and thing oh poo, the hydraulics have failed on the jack. Then i can see the reaaaly bad news. He had jacked it on the oil sump and the jack had gone straight through the sump, emptying the engine on the drive :oh yer:

rang motor factors for a new sump and gasket.....dealer part only....rand FORD £287 :shock:

as it is the GTI with the cast ally sump i wasnt holding much hope of finding one in a scrappy but came up trumps at Wally Temples in Hertford.

Has anyone ever changed the sump on an escort GTI?????? what a b@st@rd!!!! took 8 hours of sweating swearing and knuckle killing but got it done in the end.

NEVER USE THE SUMP TO JACK FROM

Not really "today", but hope it still counts...

Having pulled off the bull bars last week, mounted the freshly faricated removeable front tow bars (photos in towing forum later) and toddled up to the Firth of Forth for a weekend's paddling in the sea. My god what a difference being able to see the whole boat on the slipway makes in terms of the ease of maneouvring it! Don't know why I didn't do this sooner!

Oh, and then set off a tad after 5 on sunday with a 9pm deadline to get the boat into the lockup. Had my foot pretty much flat down all the way home, to which the HOS responded by drinking 200mls of oil, 60 litres of diesel (18mpg rather than the usual 24) and 2 litres ( :shock:

) of water. Made it into the lockup with 10 mins to spare, though the electronic gate locked me and my mate in which really P*SSED off the miserable cow who runs it when she had to let us out. Oooops!

Did you have words with your "X mate" Ian????????

:rotfl:

I couldnt really, there wasnt really anywhere else to jack from that was obvious as the scissor jack was fubar

Should have used a length of timber under there Ian :wink:

I pumped up my tyres with my new T Max pump :dance:

yeah, luckily the only other damage it did was a little dink in the oil lift pipe but nothing serious

I'm wondering if I might have discovered just why the N/S hub at the front has been making noises of late...
I've not put the car into or out of 4WD for a while (somebody helpfully did it for me at the picnic) but I did today, and noticed the big socket caps holding the AVM hub on were loose :shock:

Never a question of the hub coming off entirely, as the little jobs that hold the hub together were still tight, so the others couldn't unscrew enough to drop off. Either way though, there was a little crud inside the hub, and I'm also thinking perhaps water has got into the bearings that way too??

Thankfully the hub still works fine, as I jacked the front up, locked both hubs and then watched one wheel revolve in one direction while I turned the other one the opposite way. Strip down and rebuild of front hubs would appear to be in order then, glad I got that pot of Castrol grease the other day. Oh, and a box of anal inspection gloves too :roll:

replaced the rear uj on the prop today as the old one was a little worn :oops:

I think its a max 1cm play in the rear prop to the diff :wink:

Bill or Ben are selling a rear axle, not sure of the ratio though.

Refitted the bull bars, and the front part of the bash plate.

Fitted the extra sockets for the fag lighter, so I can charge more items on the go.

And filled her to the brim with fuel, ready for a nice, leasurly drive in the welsh countryside this weekend! Knowing my luck, tomorrow fuel will be 30p a litre cheaper!

Changed the back light of the clock to 2 blue leds with an inline resister.

Took me 3-4 hours too and had to re-shape the entire bulb holder and re-wire the PCB

Started off just changing the engine oil ready for Bala then thought id have a look at the rear brakes as they were'nt up to much. Found they needed new shoes and now iv'e got to replace the hand brake cables aswell. So bought new shoes new pads and orderd the cables the lot for the princley sum of £80. Have changed the brakes just waiting for the cables tomorow morning. Oh the joys of owning a Fronty, but i would'nt swop him for anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time for a rest!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mrgreen:

Don't hate me... but I hoovered mine today :shock:

Well i deep cleaned mine in side and out and gave it two coats of high gloss polish,now i just got to sort out camping gear now for Bala:lol:

are you sure they are M8? mine are M10 fine