Progress Today...
Clutch:
- Travelled to Fiat dealer to pick up parts
- Searched for socket to install gearbox OS output shaft oil seal
- Installed DMF
- Installed new gearbox input shaft sleeve/input shaft oil seal holder
also...
MOT:
- Bought windscreen washer tubing
- Ordered pair of front suspension arms
Travelled to Fiat dealer to pick up parts: Namely a new gearbox input shaft sleeve/input shaft oil seal holder, and a gearbox OS output shaft oil seal. The input shaft sleeve came with an oil seal pre-installed which was nice, so I traded in the oil seal I'd previously bought separately. And I returned the wrong OS output shaft oil seal which Fiat had supplied. Only £6-ish extra for the new parts, but it cost me £16 to get to Fiat on the bus!
Searched for socket to install gearbox OS output shaft oil seal: Had a look in Halfords, they had a 36mm and a 38mm, but no 37mm which I think is the right size - sods law! (FYI: Halfords told me they will shortly be doing away with the sale of individual sockets, going for complete socket sets only - bummer! Don't know if this is nationwide or just my local store?) Local partstealers hadn't got a 37mm socket, so on the way home I bought a couple of plastic castor cups from Wilkos to try instead (£1 for two). Being plastic they might shatter as I'm driving home the oil seal (or not) so the cunning plan is to stuff the drive shaft hole with a clean rag to prevent any "shrapnel" getting into the gearbox.
Installed DMF: Well this was a lot harder work than I'd expected. Firstly, the DMF is quite a heavy lump of metal (I know because I dropped the old one on my finger when taking it off. Still, better to damage my finger than an expensive DMF) so I set up my DIY hoist to lift it up into position. "Winching" the DMF up from ground level to the right height seemed like overkill, so I set up a coat hook cable-tied (x3 ties) to the hoist shackle at the correct height for DMF installation, and just manually lifted the DMF onto the coat hook using one of the holes in the front of the DMF.
(Aside: It hadn't escaped my attention that there are two thick copper strips attached to the back of the LUK DMF in seemingly random positions. I didn't know what they were, or whether they were supposed to be there, so I rang LUK UK (phone number in previous post) technical support to enquire. Answer: They are weights used to balance the DMF just like weights used to balance car wheels. It was obvious as soon as he said it)
Note: There is a locating dowel to ensure correct installation of the DMF.
I located the DMF on the locating dowel, and then loosely inserted the 6 DMF bolts. I then tightened all 6 bolts in stages: 50Nm, 70Nm, 90Nm, 110Nm, 120Nm, 130Nm and finally 135Nm/136Nm. Took a lot of grunt from me. My torque wrench goes up to 210Nm but the handle is nowhere near long enough to give the necessary leverage. Also as the LUK bolt heads sit in a recess/hole, as you tighten a bolt the outer mass moves relative the inner mass through which the bolts pass, restricting access to the heads of other bolts. After tightening a bolt you have to reverse the wrench direction to move the DMF and line up the next bolt head with it's access hole - what a pain! In contrast, with the Valeo DMF, all the DMF bolts sit in a big common open circle.
Almost forgot to mention... it rained Today. You may recall that I am servicing the car on a normal street with the NS/gearbox perched over a gutter. I was so absorbed installing the DMF that I didn't notice a small stream running along the gutter and over my back and legs. I was soaking wet through but at least I finished the task.
Installed new gearbox input shaft sleeve/input shaft oil seal holder: Applied black RTV to the base of the oil seal holder, and thread lock to the 2 x 10mm bolts. Smoothed the outer surface of the sleeve with a plastic scouring pad. Applied a little gearbox oil to the seal, slid the sleeve onto the gearbox input shaft, and bolted it on to the bellhousing (10-12Nm). Cleaned off excess RTV and thread lock.
Bought windscreen washer tubing: From Halfords (£2). Background: No washer water getting to windscreen. The washer pump is working, so there must be a blockage or leak between the pump and windscreen. For MOT purposes the plan is to circumvent the existing blockage/leak with new tubing cable-tied in an artistic route TBD round the engine compartment. Or... could the windscreen washer nozzles be blocked? We shall see... FYI: Apparently no windscreen squirty device is an automatic MOT fail.
Ordered pair of front suspension arms: Local partstealer: £55 each, Ebay: £55 per pair!!! Unfortunately I can't wait till next Tuesday for delivery via cyberspace, so another local partstealer quoted me £40 each. SOLD! to the customer with the jacked up Multipla.
Mark