Mine does that too. Sometimes wrapping a rag round the tube when holding with one hand gives enough grip to remove the cap. Otherwise I use one of those Boa Constrictor rubber strap wrench thingies to hold it. Works fine.

Those Boa Constrictors are expensive for what they are but occasionally the only thing that will get you out of trouble without unacceptable marking or other damage to whatever you are holding. I've got three, full size, baby and an even smaller unbranded beast, probably out of Poundland / Poundshop or similar, intended for bottle and jar opening. Funnily enough the unbranded one has teeth on the back of the belt which logically ought to give a stronger pull whilst the Boas are just a plain band.

Rag underneath trick for extra friction helps if something is really stubborn. Tried too hard once and broke the strap on Baby Boa. Which got fixed as tightwad 'ere wasn't splashing out that much on a new one!

Clive

Might be prudent to have a look at the other tyres too in case Mr Bubba Oik Fitter has inflicted similar damage without actually causing a slow leak.

I reckon it didn't seat properly when first fitted despite maximum compressor output and Mr B.O.F didn't get the bead breaker in square when getting a thoroughly jammed tyre off before trying again.

The man who showed me how to use a tyre machine insisted that best practice was to verify that the tyre was going on sufficiently close to square with minimal pressure rather than relying on lubrication and full compressor output to straighten it out. I've seen similar cuts, albeit without exposing the cords, when Watling Tyres used to change the skinny front tyres on my old Yamaha GTS. Knew in advance that it would happen because their bead breakers were known not to work properly on that particular tyre and wheel combination.

Clive

Does the garage on the corner know about the standard bushes being oversize for the hole so a tapered compressing tool is needed to get them in properly?

Just ordered up all the bushes and stuff for my front end. Gonna get me another set of front suspension arms and do the bush fit at my leisure so the on car job becomes a straight swop. I find it hard to believe that the dimensions of the compressing taper aren't out on the internet. Heaps of "how I bodged it" and "poly bushes are easier" stuff tho'. Concluded a log time ago that when there is a special tool there is usually good reason for it so the job goes much better if you have said tool or a reasonable facsimile thereof. (Probably after taking a couple or 3 hours to put a Velocette clutch together the Haynes way. Factory way takes about 5 minutes and a minute to adjust!)

So I guess I gotta go figure out the compressing taper from first principles. Shouldn't be hard. Compressing preloads the rubber in compression which greatly improves performance under roll loads so an ordinary same size bush won't do as well.

Clive

Warning Tech-Nerd Post

Given what I used to do to earn an honest (!!?) crust somewhat overdeveloped Rikki-Tikki-Tavi tendencies are probably inevitable. This rubbishy LED headlight bulb thing has annoyed me so much that I just had to "run and find out".

Basically its another thing we can blame the Americans for.

The American (SAE) standard for dipped beams doesn’t have a cut off. Dip beam pattern is very similar to main beam but directed sideways and upwards to reduce glare for oncoming traffic. Lower power too. Doesn’t seem to work wonderfully well as the American maximum legal headlight output power is lower than ours.

Getting the necessary difference in beam shapes with simple unshielded filaments is a difficult trick needing precise positioning. Several different styles of bulbs are used with various filament arrangements viz :- 9004, 9007, H13 and HB2 / 9003 suggesting that none are terribly satisfactory. The last one HB2 / 9003 is what causes all the trouble as it’s essentially the same as the our H4 but, allegedly, with tighter control on the filament position to give the SAE beam shape. Far as I can see the shield doesn’t actually do much in a SAE standard headlight except to confine dipped beam light to more or less one half of the reflector.

The common form of white LED emitter is a relatively large flat plate with an emission angle of around 120°. In optical terms its totally different to any filament. As such LED emitters are always mounted on an opaque plate with the dip source on one side only part of the reflector can used so a bit of twisting around should produce some sort of approximation to the SAE dip pattern almost regardless of the number, size and style of emitters. Might go a fraction better with reflectors intended for HB2 / 9003 bulbs as those are only supposed to use part of the reflector anyway. Nooging around American market LED bulb offerings it appears that pretty much every style of emitter can be found on every style of bulb base. Given that the SAE beam pattern is such a wishy washy thing they probably all work to varying degrees of near enough.

But in UK and European headlamps the shield, filament position and filament shape are vital if a proper dip beam cut-off and well behaved main beam are to be produced. So simply saying H4 = HB2 = 9003 and trying to sell the same mixture that suits the American market as H4 replacements isn't going to work. Simple large area emitters spray light everywhere it isn’t wanted as well as where it is, overwhelming the real beam with extraneous light. Narrow emitters giving a reasonable approximation to filament output patterns and properly positioned shield are essential to get anything like the proper beam pattern.

I'm tempted to put my money where my mouth is and give E-Bay 282700261635 a try.

The wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlamp is actually quite good although the optics pictures are very over simplified.

Dunno what shape our reflectors are but they won't be parabolic. Probably a smoothed out homo-focal set-up, which is a right bastard curve. Nearest you will find to true parabolic curves on rectangular H4 headlight reflectors are the old almost letterbox style ones with whacking great flats top and bottom.

Clive

Took a quick look at E-Bay offerings. Total minefield. Many haven't a hope in hell of delivering any sort of controlled beam shape. Just a mess of chips shoving light everywhere.

You need something with a shielded dip beam source and LEDs both sides to be reasonably sure it will work as designed. This style looks as if it might have a chance E-Bay 282700261635. At least the dip beam source is shielded, although you need to turn the bulb unit through about 45° to get it in the right place, and the emitter is reasonably narrow so the light ought to come out through the right part of the lens to give a half decent cut off. The twist means the main beam emitters aren't really ideally aimed to make best use of the reflector so main beam pattern will suffer but it ought not to be too bad. Assuming the emitters are in the right place front to back.

If the pictures are right this one E-Bay 172804798178 is a decent illustration of what happens when the dip beam LED is both too wide and unshielded. Cut off? What cut-off. Probably in a more sophisticated headlight than ours too without the flat sections at top and bottom. The designers clearly considered that putting the LED pointing straight up meant its backing plate made an adequate shield.

Pictures on this one E-Bay 332400013805 give you some idea of how the shielded LED compares with a normal bulb. Only sort of similar. Wouldn't touch that one as its expensive and lacks a second main beam emitter on the backside. Which we need. Forget anything that pretty much implies motorcycle only. Different headlight pointing angle means you can get away with much more.

Clive

(Who many years ago suggested that non imaging collectors might be cheaper than a proper lens and scanner in a very low cost IR homing head. Promptly got told to go and spend a month or two figuring things out. For all practical purposes a headlamp running backwards with the detector in place of the bulb. Painful and hard to forget experience!)

That bad beam pattern has nothing to do with left hand / right hand dip but everything to do with flat out rip-off inattention to optical design.

The COB LED used has completely the wrong aspect ration. Far too wide so light is going in all the wrong places.

The only way to get a satisfactory beam pattern with our relatively old design rectangular headlamps is with long narrow sources. Either multiple small square LEDs like the ones Powerful UK were selling or suitably short and narrow filament style LEDs. Headlight reflector and lens combination design is quite sophisticated even on our older vehicles. However the fairly flat top and bottom of our reflectors does make for a relatively inefficient light distribution, especially on dip, with normal bulbs. It also constrains the source dimension and size if light isn't going to go shooting all over the shop. The H4 bulbs were, after all, optimised for use with fairly large circular reflectors.

Our lights were designed way before effective computer simulations and the simplifying assumptions needed constrained the designer to using either a line source or multiple points. What happened to light from outside the assumed sources being pretty much in the lap of the gods and invariably bad. Even older design simple circular lights would make a better fist of coping with the wrong shape source. I imagine the smoothing functions used in modern computer analysed designs for headlamp systems to ensure you get results in something approaching reasonable time would also make them quite tolerant of wrong shaped sources. But thats pure guesswork as my professional involvement in real optics and lens design ended before folk got a handle on how to tackle such complex problems.

Clive

Gawd there's 'undreds of varieties. And I thought all the the motorcycle show stand ones were bad enough back in the day!

This one is more my speed. E-Bay 263083504263

"Never Underestimate an Old Man with a Range Rover".

Clive

(Couple of BloodRunners ones in the "don't you dare wear that" drawer. And a Stella Alpina one)

According to the Grip-Tite website B&Q actually are the UK distributors for them. So the ones you saw could have been genuine. Something to look for next time I'm in Tunbridge Wells. I have an unused set of Irwins but "cam to grab" sounds a better way of doing things than "sharp to dig in".

Don't appear on B&Q website tho'.

Clive

I used wood blocks under my axle stands to get them high enough to support each end of the car wheels free using suitable points on the chassis.
Really should get some bigger ones. I guess the 6 tonne, 600 mm / 2 ft max height ones at £30 odd a pair off t'bay would do.

Clive

No 2 on the aspirator fan. Had similar with a SAAB 9000. Monster dust bunny in fan housing.

Clive

Real men use pine needles, not wipes. Gotta be Green y'know.

Clive

No "might" about buying the pins. Just buy and be done with it. Hard enough to get nice new lightly lubricated ones in, especially at the back. Old, crappy, dirty ones make life that much too much harder.

If your not experienced at this do the front ones first with the arch liner removed. Room to move and you can see whats going on. Not a bad idea to get a few of the liner fitting thingies too in case some break. I think I got five or six spares when I did mine and used them.

Allow time to sort out or make a tool for pulling the top pins out at the back. I'm surprised there isn't a "my really effective pulling tool" design floating around on-line. I rooted around and found something in the collection, dammed if I can remember what I used tho'. (40" Snap-On with middle section, but no top, and side cabinet all full with a 4 drawer filing cabinets worth of overspill equals plenty of scope for rooting.)

Forget the "Took me 10 minutes to change a bag stuck on a rock halfway up a mountain with a leatherman multitool" gloat liers. That one comes from the same list as Mr Haynes oft printed "simply remove .... " which must surely be high up on the most effective ever swearword generator phase list. I made the mistake of doing the back ones first. Took a leisurely summer afternoon to do that pair. Everything was stuck tight but it all came apart once I'd figured the right method of persuasion. Under two hours from pulling the bonnet release to do the fronts. Thoughtful amble usually gets me finished faster than the rush headed guys who have to take time out to fix the bits they broke due to hurrying!

Clive

Thanks Morat. That one looks to be pretty much what I need. Nice to know there is something known to be decent out there if I don't want to make something.

Agree with Sloth that rivets / nutserts are bastard things but are what you need. Biggest problem is that there are many varieties with different holding powers and tool insertion pull requirements. Most of the inexpensive kits with pliers type inserters are really for electronics chassis, thin metal boxes et al jobs and don't hold particularly well. My kit is from RS components so a better one of the breed but I'd not put a bolt in it. Screws only. Screw jack out or screw ramp type puller inserters are much better and let you use a better type of insert with much more grip in the hole.

This guy seems to have the right sort of insert :- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Range-Rover-P38-Dog-guard-Bracket-Bolts-To-Fit-STC8924-/282381608141?_trksid=p2349526.m2548.l4275.

As for insertion tools

This :- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M6-Rivnut-insertion-setting-tool-rivet-nut-nutsert-threaded-gun-blind-rivet-new/282162933560?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D46150%26meid%3D8861a8a85bb94428943049411b8503b1%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26mehot%3Dag%26sd%3D122697572513&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851
or
This :- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M3-to-M10-Engineers-Heavy-Duty-High-Tensile-Rivnut-Insert-Setting-Tool-Nutsert/122721967342?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D46150%26meid%3Dfb25c615c45c48b4a15be56dbadc6a3f%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D282162933560&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

are far better than the pliers type. Outrageously expensive for a high tensile bolt, nut and spacer tho'. I figure about thruppence three farthing to knock up a spacer with spanner flats if you bring your own bolt. Or a ha'penny less to just drill a bit of hex bar and turn a round relief on the ends so it doesn't catch up on things.

Helps if you have pre-punched holes in the car.

Clive

Brothers guide dog is retiring around the turn of the year so I get to inherit 56 lb (ish) of 11 year old Yellow Labrador / Golden Retriever cross dedicated to covering folk with yellow hair. Presumably 'cos blondes have more fun. Although healthily svelte she isn't genetically the most athletic of hounds and doesn't like being picked up so I'm figuring to get some sort of folding ramp or steps to help her into the car.

I don't approve of home alone for long periods and re-bonding will involve a good deal of riding around with me as well as regular walks over Ashdown Forest et al so whatever I get needs to be up to considerable use. Seems to be a wide range of sizes, styles and prices or ramp out there. Mostly mail order so see, let alone try, before you buy is hardly an option.

Does anyone have any experience with such ramps and how to tell the good from the bad?

Thanks

Clive

Time to put some thought into how many more miles you are going to put on the car and what it's worth to keep it healthy.

My view is that once past the 100,000 mile and / or 10 years old anniversary you are onto a hiding to nothing chasing individual potentially serious "could be ... or maybe ... " type faults on any car without obvious evidence of what's gone wrong. Like shrapnel or pass the earplugs luv. Better to isolate the sub system and take the nuclear option of doing the lot in one hit. Generally P38 service and garage level replacement parts aren't silly expensive so if you plan any reasonable future mileage its financially viable. At least then you know where you stand and you've not wasted a ton of time removing and refitting bits several times as you dig deeper.

Putting my money where my mouth is this months play fund is going on full set of suspension bushes etc and 4 UJ's to be done over the winter. (Gonna cost a lot less than the washing machine that ate up last months play fund!). CVs and steering ball joints next in line.

Got so annoyed with the LRcat site during parts picking that I made a Word file of the whole Suspension section and printed it out. Another ring binder on the shelf next to the 8 holding my RAVE printout. If anyone wants it I can easily send the Word file or a PDF over by FTP.

Clive

Nah. Just me being anal! Got reputation for overdoing overdoing to keep up y'know.

Seriously I do wonder where these things fit from the pressure vessel regulations point of view. Normally a cylinder of this size and pressure rating would require permanent serial numbers and pressure ratings applied. Like the welded on label on an ordinary Calor gas cylinder.

Clive

Maybe a set of these is what you need :- https://priorart.ip.com/IPCOM/000251024 . Take look at the preview. Sounds good in theory but practice might be different. Dunno if anyone makes them, if its a patent or if its something that has been made and publicised without patenting. Looks fairly trivial to make if you want a bunch. PIA for one or two tho'.

Its been alleged in certain quarters that (repeatably?) lifting a P38 wheels free may slightly unseat the airbags and older airbags lack the squidgyness to go back to fully sealed. Not happened to mine yet.

Clive

All in order on Mac Safari 11.0

Clive

The O ring seals are lifed components and only last so long before flexibility drops off allowing them to leak. Used similar pipe and seals on the floating optical tables in the lab back at RARDE / DERA / DRA / QuinetiQ and these were only reckoned to be good for 5 to 10 years even in a benign air conditioned environment. Rather lower pressures tho' so inherently more leak prone. Having the compressor cut in half way through certain experiments could ruin your whole day! Do-overs on tricky 11 hour test runs I could definitely do without. No overtime for salaried staff. Unavoidable requirement for 3 + hours unpaid slavery not being calculated to improve the bunny happiness quotient at the best of times.

Clive

So I picked up another suspension air tank a couple of weeks back. OK condition but the red stuff was on the march so the sensible thing to do was to re-decorate given Mr MoT Mans views on advisories. Still had the yellow label. Careful application of a heat gun got it off in one piece. Took the air tank back to bare metal and treated all the once rusty areas with rust killer. Unfortunately the tank was just too big to handle easily in my blast cabinet so it wasn't possible to do a perfect back to metal job. Close but not perfect. That said I always hit even apparently completely de-rusted steel the the rust killer. Its surprising how much purples up indicating that there was still some rust in the surface.

Two coats of Blackfriars anti rust metal primer and two coats of grey topcoat later the tank was looking pretty good. Can't be bothered to set-up to spray things like this and the Blackfriars brushes on well with decent coverage. Been using it since it was QD90. Vapormatic tractor paint might be a little better but my tins of that are reserved for the P&W. Why grey. Its what I always do. If nowt else it makes it quite clear what I've painted myself. Brightens up the underside bit too.

Was going to put the label back on but it looked far too secondhand against the smart tank. So I scanned it into the computer. Copied it and fired up the CAD program. Put the JEPG picture on the bottom layer of the drawing file and copy on the upper layer. Couldn't quite match the print fonts and doing the diagram bits was um "interesting". But I did find out a few handy wrinkles buried in the Vectorworks menus that I wish I'd discovered 15 years back. Faithful Laserwriter 4M+ printed it out on thin card stock, nearly the right yellow too. Finally ran it though the laminator to protect it. All I have to do now is to decide which glue to use.

PDF file of the label available if anyone else here is mad enough to want one.

Clive.