It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

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qwakers
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

the picture i didnt take yesterday...
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brick pattern suited the shape of the plot best, was simplest, least cuts, and to my eye, looks fine. :D
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by warpc0il »

Some patterns, e.g. herringbone, are supposed to be stronger but are a PITA to lay, and can be even worse to repair in future, so I think that's a good call.



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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

i moved the trailer, with weight in it, with a flat tyre. i had no choice, the wheel was touching the wall so i had to drag it out to fill it up. it instantly debeaded so today i popped the tyre off to check it.
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good job it was a old tyre. that tyre is in the skip and a much newer but rather worn continental has gone on to replace it. i cadged it from kwikfit. saves them disposing of it, and its still legal at 2mm.. :D
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

a little before christmas dad picked up a quad-x bucket and quick attach frame for his quad. spent 1/2 hour this morning fitting it. then the rest of the day fabbing up a modified front bracket to get the wobble out of it and mounting the winch to lift and lower the bucket.


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then a couple of hours this evening painting the frame, all the brackets and modified rack.
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by warpc0il »

A friend of a friend rolled his quad, going down hill with bags of animal feed in the bucket.

He broke his collar bone and dislocated his hip, though the guys that found him said he was really lucky as the quad didn't come down on top of him.

Someone else they knew had a rear wheel bounce against a half-burid tree root, lost control and went into the side of a wall, again with a loaded bucket.

The learning from this was that the combination can become unstable, even with not much in the bucket, so take care.

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qwakers (Fri Dec 27, 2024 10:31 pm)
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

quad took 3 days of fab work and repairs to finish all the jobs that needed doing.

front shocks are unobtainable in the uk and silly postage cost from the us... so i ordered a set of 'close enough' shocks from autodoc. when the old ones where removed i found the compression damping working fine, but the valving for rebound was non existent, in effect changing them from a damper to a assisting spring, you could barely push them down and the spring back instantly. no wonder the quad felt way oversprung. the front end is way more compliant now.

the carb was overflowing the float bowl when idling, a quick adjustment to the float height on the new carb lead to removing and refitting it about 10 times before the needle and seat sealed properly and stopped flooding the engine.

adjusting the chain should have been easy but was all seized, leading to taking the entire rear axle apart and using a large hammer to drive it apart. once greased and reassembled it moves fine.

i also changed the gearcase and engine oils. neither have ever been changed in our ownership. the gearcase has always been rather clunky and resistant to change. just assumed it was worn. turns out putting 80w gear oil in instead of the specified 5w-30 engine oil into the gearcase will do that. its 5w-30 for the engine too, so that's convenient.

lastly we needed to install a front winch to raise and lower the bucket. this took ages as i had to modify the front luggage rack to raise it up to clear. i found a good location for the control box behind the headlight and ran the cables back to the battery. i then discovered the cheap chinese winch did not come with a isolator, and dad was most grumpy when i refused to wire it without one. the winch being a very small one just has 2 relays to reverse polarity for direction change. that being the case there is a non zero chance of the contacts welding themselves together under load, so imho it would be unsafe to wire it so there's no mechanical isolation. luckily i had a isolator knocking around from a old landrover winch install where i put a much higher rated isolator in for a 13000 lb winch, so that was a easy fix.

once all the modifications where done, all the brackets and frames came home with me for a spot of 10pm paint
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all in all there was a lot of project creep, but it all works, and its already shoved the muck heap around a bit, which was the main reason for buying it.
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

that all being finished last night, today i went on to the christmas break project that i've been planning for a while.

because mazda are a pita and have a brake master that you can't put a pressure bleeder onto, i've been meaning to make a one man brake bleeding kit in the form of a remote control brake depressor. it's a simple beasty, just a lot of fab work. the steel stock is all old offcuts i have kicking around from other projects, so cost me nothing.
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should work fine as long as the piston has enough stroke to push the pedal all the way down.
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

for closure, works perfectly. more than enough stroke, remote control works perfectly. it just works. press down, wait for the actuator to start to labour, release nipple, wait for it to labour again. hit stop. close nipple. press up. rinse/repeat.
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by bigpete8 »

You'll be branching out into artificial limbs next 😂
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qwakers (Mon Dec 30, 2024 4:55 pm)
Sunlight Silver 231

Pete/Peter him/he/hrh couldn't really care as have 3 siblings and was lucky not to get called by the dogs name.

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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by warpc0il »

I've got a Pauline, for that!

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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

just about finished the block paving.

levelling off the sand
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halfway through the pack
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final endpoint for the block, just the cuts to do.
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and all finished, concreted round the outside and ramp built.
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that was a dawn til after dark graft with absolutely no breaks. its slow, hard work solo. had to get it done though as its the last day for weeks where the forecast is dry. especially overnight for long enough for the concrete to cure. i just need to make my Y style ground anchor and sink it in where ive made a hole and concrete it in. then the removable post for the front edge. then i have to grout the cracks and job jobbed. :D
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

ground anchor made...

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and buried.
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will float it off later.

just gotta fill the gaps, compact it and make and fit the security post.
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

finally floated out. (i never claimed to be good at this...)
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

bar the security post, its finished.
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

last job. post and socket made...
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

quad bike time again. just as we get the last fault fixed, another one appears. this time its electrical. and one bridge too far. so its going away...
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oooooh. hello beautiful :D
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a 2013 can-am outlander 400cc 4x4, with CVT low high selectable auto gearbox, fuel injection and, most importantly, shaft drive, with a proper front differential with a switchable centre diff. none of this silly mag locks for the front hubs.

registered for agricultural use, so no need for a mot and free tax.


oh and it has less than 500 hours on it.

that will do the job very nicely.
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

couple of small jobs (is there any such thing?) to the new quad. first was making the x-quad frame fit the new quad. dead easy, the rear bolts straight up, the front 2 small brackets.
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and second was to weld up the heat shield. its really thin steel, so a bit tricky, but i think it went ok...
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

night before last i stuck the dishwasher on and went to bed. 20 mins later, click. the rcd that has all the downstairs sockets and upstairs lights on tripped. reset it, tripped as soon as the dishwasher started again. bugger.


i metered out the heater element and any terminal to ground showed 1.8 mohm. obviously enough leakage to trip the rcd. ordered a new element from partsmaster.co.uk at 6pm last night. arrived at 4pm today. fitted and working again.

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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by warpc0il »

Been there done that, only it was an oven element, that only tracked to earth once it was hot.

It took a while to recognise the pattern that while one of the RCDs was "randomly" tripping, it only did it when the oven was on, and had been for a while.

New element fixed the issue but, given the state of the wiring to it, which I also reworked, it might not have been the element that was the cause.

These things are sent to try us

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qwakers (Wed Jan 29, 2025 9:50 pm)
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

the race car has had to be evicted again (see next post) so i finished off the security post arrangement.
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that'll work.
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

so i bought a new trailer for moving the quad about. it was a farm auction buy (along with a spare wheel for my lorry) so i took a gamble. it was £35 so not a bad deal, even with its issues.

but its definitely going to need at least one tyre...
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date coded 1991..... got to be the oldest tyre i've ever used. and yes, i towed it home like that. was a bit butt pucker-y.

the trailer is also not quite long enough, not quite wide enough and rusty. very very rusty.

i thought i took before pics, but obviously not.

after needle gunning revealed it wasn't just a couple of pin holes...
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started cutting up...
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quad came in useful for holding the nose steady...
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and after a lot of cutting and welding plate in
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its solid again but the front x-member is unsalvageable. it was full of black nasty water, as it sits nose down and there's nowhere for the water to go.

unfortunately its the weekend and there is nowhere for me to get steel, so its going the be a next week job to put it back together, much to my disgust.
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

the old man using his new quad and the quad-x bucket for the 1st time
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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

another job nearly completed with scraps of steel...

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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

the front of the center two floor beams are finished and all the floor cross braces added, and the tailgate is nearly done...

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Re: It seemed like a good idea at the time MK3... workshop stuff... its the pits!

Post by qwakers »

bulk of the work done. just need to finish the tailgate and a spot of paint.
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