Just a little. Rusty nuts encapsulated in brittle plastic. Couldn't even get the Dremel in on this side.
Shame really as it was a facelift light with just a splinter hole on the supplimentary main side. Not even an MOT failure.
Could have flogged it on the Bay for a few quid to cover some of the costs of the bits and pieces I've bought recently.
Ah well, if you can't take a joke, don't buy a P38...
I can take a joke to a certain extent but I'm in the same boat. Is this what I can expect when using a dremel?
Dremel, pah! I use one of these on anything that doesn't want to come off.
My daughter gets extremely worried when I reach for the 'big yellow spanner' when working on her car.......
I'd love to have inflicted that degree of destruction with a Dremel, but would probably have to have fired it out of a cannon directly at the headlight!
With the 2 problem rusted nuts on the encapsulated plastic studs, with limited access and the bolt onto the chassis at bottom having a rounded head, I was pretty stuffed. You could try drilling them, but they spin. You could use heat on the studs and hope to melt the encapsulated plastic, or you could say:
"Stuff it, I've spent an hour messing with these and I'm not getting anywhere. I've got a complete new unit to put in anyway and I'll just break the plastic"
Which is what I did. Used a pry bar, paying attention not to inflict any damage to the body metalwork, which survived intact. Shame about the light, but I try to cost my time and the time I was spending was more than I'd have got for the light if I'd repaired the mounts as per the LHS one and sold it.
Had to make a new loom for the replacement light as found those lovely plastic chop blocks hidden under the rubber bulb covers.
If you've got the same problem, you can buy the black plastic mounting brackets intact for around £25. You just have to get the headlight out intact though!
Gilbertd- my mate used one of those "big yellow spanners" to cut a wheel (in bits) off his Mondeo when he rounded off a wheel nut! I wasn't around to advise alternatives, but if I had been, I'd probably just have videoed him doing it and put it on YouTube!
Ferryman wrote:
I can take a joke to a certain extent but I'm in the same boat. Is this what I can expect when using a dremel?
Aha, I see for you it makes sense to hurry up a bit, my time is for free. Priceless or worthless just the way you look at it. My both units have rusted nuts on the vertical part of the lamp, the lower ones are loose. I have a smaller size anglegrinder, when I use that with a almost worn cuttingdisc I must be able to get there. Next challenge, will I be able to free the adjusment mechanism, this is the reason to take out the lamps. The beams are a bit too far to the left (centre-axis of the road over here) so whilst not to high they do dazzle upcoming traffic and I want to correct that before a MoT tester tries to.
Forgot to say: DeWalt are the best Richard, nice gear!
Ferry- a quick fix would be to just insert a bit of packing between the RH side of the headlight unit and its plastic frame. The inherent flexibility of the unit will allow a fair few mm of movement and, with care, will be invisible.
A no-cost, low risk, tiny time fix!
Orangebean wrote:
A no-cost, low risk, tiny time fix!
I like low budget solutions! If all else fails I'll do that, I could use the rockershaft pedestalshims for adjustment ha ha.
Thanks Mark.
Whilst they'd be extremely accurate,as soon as you used them, you'd then find you needed them for a rocker adjustment!
I was thinking rubber or something softer and non absorbent
Ferryman wrote:
I like low budget solutions! If all else fails I'll do that, I could use the rockershaft pedestalshims for adjustment ha ha.
Thanks Mark.
Ah nuts!
Was just about to reinstall headlight when I spotted this crack in the headlight washer pump. Still works, but for how long?:
There goes my last spare. Now I'm pleased I ordered an extra one!
Also discovered, when giving it a last wipe off, that the front bumper has been poorly painted in the past, so bang goes any chance of respraying that in-situ. More stuff to take off. Bet those bolts won't be rusty :)
I bet they will..... I caught the corner of my front bumper on a trailer and cracked it so decided to take it off to repair it. You know that feeling when you are putting lots of grunt onto a bolt and you just know it is twisting rather than coming undone? That's how it felt so I figure that if I ever really have to take it off, it will have to be done with the big yellow spanner at a time when I've got a replacement ready to go on in it's place. Ended up repairing the crack in situ, not perfect but a blind man would be pleased to see it.
Yeah- the thing is, once you know these things are there, they irritate the hell out of you, but the reality is a bit like my favourite domestic DIY argument.
There's no point repainting skirting boards 'cos nobody ever looks at them...
You'll be taking the bumper off anyway if your A/C doesn't work - cos it likely has a big hole in the top corner of the condenser. Decent torx sockets with an impact gun hasn't failed me yet.
I changed my condenser with the bumper in place, a bit fiddly but it can be done. The same goes for the condenser fans. Maybe I've just got small hands......
Nicely done! Did that include changing the drier? Could probably wiggle it up through there, though not sure on how you'd do the top pipe up, and again its too cold to go look from underneath!
I've replaced the condensed and drier without removing the bumper. I think I did the top pipe up from under the bonnet.
Looks like I'm going to be looking at it again soon as my air con has just ran out of gas this week. It lasted nearly two years so it's not that bad.
AFAIK the aircon is fully functioning, although I have a Nano report of a short to earth on the dist motor occasionally :)
Priority today- 20 gallons of red diesel for the space heater. Literally 2 degrees in the workshop and I can barely feel my fingers!
Better be careful with that heater, headlamps sometimes melt...
Only Chris's :-)
RH headlight certainly won't. Now have it working fully and installed with LED bulbs and working wash/ wipe so it's even water cooled!
Sidelight put up a bit of a fight though- I've always thought those bulbs held in with friction and contacted by bent wire were a cr@p idea!
LH Headlight now installed with LED and fully operational with wash wipe water cooling. Same bloody sidelight tussle. Time to get some new bulbs and holders I think.
That's it for the day...
EDIT- cheesus, who'd have thought you can no longer buy new sidelight bulb holders for a P38?!