Technical Multipla JTD 1.9 Clutch Replacement (in progress...)

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Technical Multipla JTD 1.9 Clutch Replacement (in progress...)

The clutch plate is clamped hard, and its impossible to prove if it does actually move 1 or 2mm when you are ramming a gearbox in out of frustration and 1 or 2mm is enough to do the job, not sure as I say but its "felt" as if its been enough to to the job in the past for me.(y)
 
Progress Today... What? - did you think I'd given up...?

Clutch
- Mobile mechanic fails to turn up

MOT
- Removed tow bar
- Checked windscreen washer system
- Cleaned out inside of car
- Arranging a place to SORN the car

Mobile mechanic fails to turn up: I had organised a mobile mechanic to come round after his work finished at 17:30 Today to install the gearbox. The job was stalled for the day while I waited for him to come and do the gearbox. At 20:00 he still hadn't turned up, no messages from him, and he wasn't answering his phone. The f**ker.

So I picked up Yellow Pages, rang the nearest mobile mechanic who said he could come round tomorrow afternoon. Bit too late for me given my deadline and a lot of work to do after the gearbox is back on, but he said he had a friend mechanic much closer to me who might do the job. A few calls later and its arranged for him to come round before his work early tomorrow - £50. Sounds good to me - if he turns up...

Because I couldn't progress any further with the clutch job until the gearbox is back on, thought I'd do some MOT prep work...

Removed tow bar: Not having had a tow bar on any of my previous cars, I presume that a tow bar is MOT testable? I don't need it, don't want it to fail, so off it came. 2 tight bolts, the cable snipped and cable-tied out of the way. Job done. Anyone want to buy a Multipla tow bar?

Checked windscreen washer system: Hooked up my new pump with some washer tubing to the windscreen washer jets and the car battery. Driver's side jet a bit feeble, passenger side is better, so swapped the jets. For MOT purposes I intend to bypass the existing blocked? tubing with new tubing. Priced up more tubing £1/m and £2-50 for a Y-splitter. Incidently I think the wiper arms must be welded onto the wiper shafts. Even a puller wouldn't budge them. How the heck do you get them off? I want to get at the washer tubing underneath.
Checked out new washer jets on Ebay - £9 each for a little piece of plastic!! It would be cheaper to strap two people to the bonnet with water pistols...

Cleaned out inside of car: For the first time since I bought it I cleaned out and vacuumed the inside out the car. Looks a lot better. I think having a clean car helps at MOT time. Shows the tester you're not a complete slob. And I'm definitely not a slob at MOT testing time, the rest of the year...? Also I found my old Polo scissor jack under a seat - result!

Arranging a place to SORN the car: Realising it's unlikely I'll get my car back together and to a garage before close of play tomorrow because the mobile mechanic f**ker above didn't show up, I rang a friend to ask if he knew where I could dump the car offroad for a few days. He mentioned somewhere immediately, brilliant. It's the car park of a pub which has closed until the new landlord takes over in a few weeks. My friend will try to get me permission to dump the car there for a few days. He's earned a few pints when the pub reopens... Checked the place out and it's fine and pretty flat, so I could have a go at the front wishbones/suspension which need doing, save a few bob before taking the car to a garage for the MOT prep/MOT.

Mark
 
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Good news, bad news...

Good news: THE GEARBOX IS ON !!!! HOORAY!!!!

Bad news: I'm 50 quid poorer. Boo Hooooooooo

The substitute mobile mechanic and partner called first thing this morning. Didn't take long, he knew what he was doing. I must have aligned the clutch plate correctly after all because he didn't have to adjust it. Either that or he's pushed it through the flywheel...

Now for some grafting. I may be some time...

Bye for now

Mark
 
I'm so pleased for you that the gearbox in, **** points to the disappearing, flaky mobile mechanic, £50 ransom charge from Ace mechanic, but still worth it for great result and saving your back,... and mental health, thought you'd given up....
Really pleased as you didnt have to send it to China to be sent back as a Hyundai (someone pedantic will now reply Hyundais arent made in China...)
I can now sleep safely knowing that we on the Fiat Forum have collectively helped to save another specimen from an endangered species, ummm temporarily...
PS : If your gearchange still crunches when its all put together, dont panic, the clutch is good, linkage is good, we will have the answers...
(y)
 
I can now sleep safely knowing that we on the Fiat Forum have collectively helped to save another specimen from an endangered species
Thanks MultiplaAbarth.

How did you know that I'm an endangered species?! That's uncanny...

ummm temporarily...

Yeah, let's get it back together and see what the MOT throws up...
 
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Great stuff Mark (y)(y)(y) I too thought that you were on the verge of giving up. Did the mechanic do anything that you weren't doing, or was it just extra hands required?

At least you're back in control of things now. It's not great being in the hands of someone else, especially when you don't know them.

How are you going to shift the car to the pub car park you mentioned?
 
Did the mechanic do anything that you weren't doing, or was it just extra hands required?

I don't know widemouthfrog, but it required the experienced magic touch I don't have. That's what you pay the pro's for eh?

How are you going to shift the car to the pub car park you mentioned?

Not sure yet. The car park's only 1/4 mile away... Could get the neighbour to give me a tow?

I do hope to have the car fired up later Today... for the first time in 6 months!

Quick question: I'm sure I read somewhere that diesel 'goes off' if you leave it too long ie. it has a shelf life. Will the 6 month old diesel in my tank be OK or should I syphon it out and put in new diesel before I try to fire up?
 
I think you'll be ok. It may be worth bleeding the bottom of the fuel filter off to rid the collector of any water. That will also give you a quick look at the state of the fuel at the 'engine end'.
 
I think you'll be ok. It may be worth bleeding the bottom of the fuel filter off to rid the collector of any water. That will also give you a quick look at the state of the fuel at the 'engine end'.

Thanks.

Front mount is back on.

Front subframe is back on and torqued up.

Next: torque up bellhousing bolts, starter motor on - dread it, rear mount, driveshafts back in, suspension back together.

Much nicer putting things back together eh?
 
Easier to do the rear mount with a crowbar to hand
Don't do it before refitting the stupidly located starter motor
Also if all bolts on subframe are loose then you'll have a bit of jiggling room for the mount bolts
 
Thanks Ben.

OS driveshaft back in, had problems, will tell fix later.

Starter motor back on - *without* cable bracket - deliberately.

OS suspension back together with new track rod end.

Next:

TEA BREAK!

Then: Rear mount, exhaust, NS driveshaft and suspension. Maybe put the wheels back on and drop car back on road for first time in weeks.

Don't think I'll finish today. Will try and cadge a tow from neighbour to SORN site.

PS. Lower back pain has moved to frozen right shoulder, painful.

Mark
 
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Don't recall being warned about the difficulty reinstalling the rear mount...!

Just finding out now...
 
the stupidly located starter motor

Totally agree. Think I said in a previous post that on my 2 minis, the starter motor was just behind the front bumper. 10 minutes to replace.

Easier to do the rear mount with a crowbar to hand. Also if all bolts on subframe are loose then you'll have a bit of jiggling room for the mount bolts

I didn't need a crowbar or loose subframe bolts. The rear mount looked daunting at first when the holes didn't all line up, one of those "Oh sh*t" moments, but if you do things in a certain order and use the miraculous Fiat Multipla scissor jack, it goes like a dream. I will reveal how I did it later when my sanity has been restored.

With the Multipla jack I love the way you just turn the wheel on it to move things up and down. It's so precise, and feels safer to operate, compared to the crudeness of a trolley jack.

Mark
 
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Fair enough whatever works for you
I always have a 2ft gorilla bar to hand for most things so just use it all the time
I suppose if I had a pry bar I'd use that but I don't
If your weapon of choice is the fiat jack and it does what you want then carry on
It's all part of the fun
 
Rear mount installation: this is what worked for me:

All the following bolts loose-ish at first to allow movement...

1. Rear mount on bottom stud first.

2. Engine bolt.

3. Hidden bolt into gearbox.

4. Top of brace onto top stud.

5. Put jack under central metal arm of mount to support and raise the mount to the point where you can put the brace bottom bolt through the bottom of the brace and into its hole. Note: I struggled a bit to get the brace bottom bolt through the brace hole and into the mount, not much tolerance, but it does go eventually after fiddling around getting the mount to just the right height etc. This is where the fine control you get with the Fiat jack comes into it's own, you just turn the adjustment wheel and the height can be controlled to a fraction of a mm. I think it's great.

6. Tighten up all the above bolts firm but not fully torqued up.

7. Raise the jack further to push the rear support all the way up to the subframe (Note: the jack is still under the solid metal arm of the mount). After fully raising the rear mount, the 13mm bolt holes in the rear support aligned - in my case - perfectly over the holes in the subframe. But, I notice that the 13mm holes in the rear support are much bigger than the bolt diameter, my guess is that this is deliberate to make insertion of the 13mm rear bolts easier/give you some leeway when fitting.

8. Insert and tighten the 2 x 13mm bolts.

9. Torque everything up.

Worked for me! Took me a long time first time round, which is the problem isn't it, when you do anything first time, working out what to do, it takes ages. But once I'd sussed what to do, reckon I/you could do the rear mount fitting in 15 mins next time :).

Note: On rear mount removal, I didn't disassemble the rear support at all, didn't touch the central, vertical bolt, just left the whole rear mount together in one piece when I removed it.
 
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Latest...

The car is back on its own wheels for the first time in weeks, and temporarily located at an offroad site a short distance away. Still got the engine bay stuff to throw back in before MOT prep and MOT next week.

Just looked up the regulations on 'no car tax' and the guff says you have 2 weeks from the tax disc expiring to tax or SORN the car, but without either in the meantime it must be stored offroad. I didn't know that, but I do now.

Mark
 
Progress Today...

Organized a tow to an offroad site: £20 on a transporter, very reasonable.

Replaced NS droplink: Had to hacksaw through the bolts.

Replaced NS track rod end: The tapered pin started spinning as I tightened the nut, found a way to stop it: put a block of wood on top of the joint and whack it with a hammer to drive in the tapered pin.

Reattached NS hub to strut: Used Fiat jack to raise the hub.

Reattached NS driveshaft: Rang Fiat to get torque setting for bolts, think he said 40Nm, or was it 14Nm? no it must be 40Nm.

Reattached front wheels: Had 2 simple ideas: To line up wheel and hub, place the hub locating dowels horizontally; Instead of giving yourself a hernia lifting the wheel onto the hub, stick a block under the wheel to get it to the right height relative to the hub. Only took me 28 years to think of those two.

Refilled engine with oil: Black gold, Texas tea.

Refilled gearbox/diff with gear oil: The owner's manual says gb/diff capacity is 1.98L.

Lowered car carefully to the ground: Using my 2 Fiat jacks either side of car.

Transported car to offroad site: For the weekend.
 
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