WD40 was developed as a water dispersant but it was found that it also acts as a lubricant amongst other things. Basically it's a Jack of all trades, master of none in a can. Plus Gas is formulated specifically for freeing seized bolts but I must admit, ATF on it's own works pretty well too.

Clive603 wrote:

If you've not got grinding paste in the garage, I guess most folks under 45 haven't

When I was 11 years old my step father was reconditioning the Onan, flat twin, sidevalve engines that used to run the generators in the back of ice cream vans. He got so fed up with me sitting there saying, "what's that?", "what does this do?", "why are you doing that?" so he handed me a cylinder barrel with two valves in it, a tin of grinding paste and a rubber sucker on a stick with the words, "you've watched me do it often enough, get on with it". That was my introduction to taking engines apart and putting them back together and I've still got that same tin of grinding paste, double ended with coarse at one end and fine at the other. That was 52 years ago so it has a pretty good shelf life.....

Small Tupperware under the pipes as you disconnect them and an old towel to mop up the drips. You only lose the contents of the matrix so not that much at all.

It didn't blow it off, it was perished to hell, just like all the other pipes, and had a split in it. She emailed to say the pipe has arrived so will be getting stuck in to it tomorrow.

Binnacle is a five minute job to take out but, yes, Marty has done an LED conversion on his so is the man to speak to. I did O rings on my mates car last weekend in France, took a couple of hours but that did involve drilling the head off the screw and replacing it with an Allen bolt. One tip, in case the screw is tight, before you round it off trying to undo it, put some coarse grinding paste on the end of the screwdriver, it will grip much better with less chance of rounding the end and if you turn it to do it up first, that will often crack it free.

I ran a '93 LSE long wheelbase one for a couple of years. The LWB had a 4.2 litre version of the engine and it actually felt quite sprightly, in fact, when I first got the P38 I thought it pretty gutless in comparison until I realised it had twice the throttle travel so I wasn't giving it as much welly. Rust is the biggest killer, the worst places to repair are the area around the body mounts at the bottom of the bulkhead and the top of the bulkhead.

A mate bought a '95 softdash LSE that had been standing for 8 years. It actually looked pretty good considering and he bunged it in for an MoT to see what it would fail on. Other than a couple of ball joints and rusty brake pipes the only thing that seemed more serious was rust on the bulkhead near to where the brake modulator attached that allowed it to flex when the brake pedal was pressed. Took the scuttle panel off and found that the top of the bulkhead is a channel with drain holes at each end. These were blocked with dead leaves and assorted rubbish so water had sat in the channel and rusted it through along the full width of the car. We ended up going to Holland and getting a complete front bulkhead and getting that welded in place. He ended up doing a complete restoration on it which took over two years.

They are fun and I'd have another but only if I could buy one from somewhere where it wouldn't rust and the problem then is that rust free ones are damned expensive.

Today my car becomes an adult, 21 years old today

and having been a police Motorway patrol car for the first 8 years of it's life and owned by me since November 2010 and regularly been driven all around Europe, I think it's just about run in now......

That works out to 17,694.4 miles per year.

Ouch! That's going to need a fair bit skimming off it......

These https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/pneumatic-straight-tube-to-tube-adaptors/0812106/ are what I've used on P38 air suspension, designed to take up to 20 bar so twice what the system runs at and I've not had one leak yet. 4mm version is https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/pneumatic-straight-tube-to-tube-adaptors/0812099/ and tube is https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/air-hose/8435025/ for 6mm and https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/air-hose/0723927/ for 4mm. Unfortunately they only sell it in a 20m roll but I got some from a local hose specialist who would sell it by the metre.

According to Microcat (or LRcat anyway) there's 3 differnet variations, 94-97MY, 98MY and 99 onwards. Can't tell whether that is the same with diesel and petrol but the 4.6 petrol has the 4HP24 and the 4.0 litre and diesel has the 4HP22, so it looks like there are differences. Ashcrofts want £725 plus VAT for a reconditioned one which will come with a warranty and I suspect you be looking at something over £200 for a secondhand one of unknown condition so for the difference it would be worth spending the extra if you intend keeping the car. You'd still need to pay someone to change it or do it yourself whichever way you go. If it were me I'd go for the recon as I have no intention of ever selling my car and I want it to keep going with the trips I do (later this year I've got a trip to Holland and two trips to Latvia and probably a few to France as well).

Are you in the Norfolk/Suffolk area or am I getting you mixed up with someone else? If you are, East Coast 4x4 near Beccles had about 6 complete gearboxes sitting on pallets last time I was there. They look even bigger when off the car than when on it and are bloody heavy but it could be an option.

Might just be an iffy connection. Try running with the Nano connected and recording the temperature. If it falls nice and smoothly, it'll be the sensor, if it leaps up and down it'll be a connection.

We did 7 or 8 at the last summer camp using the kits from Martrim. The trick seems to be to use lots of the spray on glue.

Mukiwa wrote:

When I say Limoges it depends on the route I take down.

My route is A16 down to Paris, then round to the west and pick up the A10, A71 and A20 until J56. Limoges is about the only civilisation on the route....

If it is the TC, £175 for a new one (https://www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk/miscellaneous/torque-converters/torque-converter.html) so not a bad deal really.

Mukiwa wrote:

Due another run to Limoges again at the end of May so I'd like to fix this.

I drive through Limoges now my mate has moved, went through there on Tuesday. It might be worth giving Ashcroft Transmissions a bell, see if they have come across the problem before and whether it is a simple fix or a sign of impending doom.

I knelt on the slam panel to get to the back and I've suggested she drops the suspension down to the floor and uses steps to get in there. She wouldn't object to me saying this but she is a rather large lady too! She'll be doing it on her own too, her husband is a history Professor and possibly the most unpractical person you could ever meet. It's the pipe from number 1 to the FIP that is pissing it out at the moment, and the bung at number 6 is nice and tight, so she could just do the bit that is easiest to get to. The state of the other hoses suggests they will start leaking in the not too distant though so doing them all would be worthwhile. The car is at her base, she lives about 15 miles west of Paris but now my mate has moved from near Nice to the Dordogne, my route to him passes within about 3 miles of her house so I could finish it off next time I'm passing if she can't get it done. I'm sure I'll get a phone call in the next few days when the kit arrives......

Thanks Dave, just picked up a kit. Length of 3.2mm hose and 2 bungs for the end, £3.99. It'll be in the post to Teri in the next half hour or so,

Got back in the early hours this morning from another trip over the Channel ('twas a bit bumpy too....) and on the way back I called in to see Teri (Mymisteri) just outside Paris to drop off a Hankook battery for her. Got there to find she had a slightly more pressing problem than a battery that wouldn't hold it's charge for more than a couple of days. Her car had started scent marking it's territory in a big way. She though it was a leak from the front diff as that was where the liquid was dripping from but a quick look underneath suggested it was from higher up. She started the engine and diesel was pouring down the side of the engine block. Took the plastic cover over the injectors off and could see a jet of diesel from the split bung on number 6 fuel injector. Replaced that with a bit of washer hose with a 13A fuse jammed in the end and tried again. This time there was another jet of diesel from a small hose running from number 1 injector to a banjo union on a metal pipe. These are what I think are the leak off hoses that leap frog from one injector to the next and all of them were perished and cracked along their length so need replacing. As she is an American female, living in France and driving a P38, she'll no doubt be charged about €100 for a set of pipes and 10 hours labour to replace them if she takes it in anywhere (not to mention having to wait at least a fortnight to get it booked in and done). Having seen the pipes she's pretty confident she can change them herself if she has the hose to do it. My local motor factors do a leak off pipe kit of a length of hose and a bung for the end but I seem to recall from the last (only) time I had anything to do with a diesel, there are different sizes. What size do I need to get so I can pick a kit up and bung it in the post to her? It's a '99, late EDC engine if that has any bearing on it.

Bass speakers rusting so the cones can't move is a pretty common problem. One of mine was seized solid when I took them out to replace them with JBL units. Although there was still sound from that door from the mid range so it wasn't that noticeable until you turned the volume up.