Colin Lindsay

Yep; it's rather like the concept of electricity. It's generated elsewhere, so we can all pretend that it's non-polluting, since we can't see it in our locality. Nimby-ism in it's purest form.

Any of the Febi valves for VW are a straight fit; one pipe on each end and a simple push/pull lever to attach the cable. As cheap as £8 new on eBay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FEBI-Heater-Valve-VW-171819809E/333424739258?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3D82b028789ada40069dc1c76179b04633%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dpf%26sd%3D233423198655%26itm%3D333424739258%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

I'm wondering if this is anything to do with the steering column being designed to collapse in the event of an accident; I'm assuming it's designed to telescope in the event of a front-end impact, where to avoid the entire column being driven forward and striking the driver it collapses inwards; however is this anything to do with the driver striking the steering wheel (pre-seatbelt days!) and if the wheel has room to move away from the driver it may lessen the impact? Thinking out loud again, but just wondering why they would say that in the manual. (Incidentally my own WSM may just have cleared that up as it says " the column may be unable to telescope if fitted to it's lowest position".) So, I may be right after all. It needs to telescope top and bottom.

NOW I get the principle and that makes so much more sense to me as to where I can use it, and how many applications it could be suited to. Thanks Mark.

Met a car yesterday going the wrong way on a dual carriageway. He was turning so as to go bonnet-to-bonnet with jump leads for another car a couple of hundred yards away that had conked out. Not sure whether to blame that one on the petrol engine, or the electrics... but the idiots are definitely out there already

I think a 'how-to' video is required... hint hint!

That should suit me at present then. I should imagine holding something in the mouth, like a torch, to free the hands up is also not on...

That would do for me too, but it would be good to be able to point to the codes on the unit and show other members how to identify them, or even just what it all means.

Just what I was about to post - you beat me to it!! It's all quite heavy and because of the restricted space, hard to hold in any kind of balance, and it won't actually all come out as one unit, given the method of fitting the diff to the chassis, which is below and whilst you can drop the diff you can't do it with the rear spring and halfshafts attached - the chassis rails get in the way, and there won't be enough room above to lift the unit over them. I reckon you'll have to dismantle everything and then reassemble on the other chassis.

I know it's a genuinely serious thing, and we're going to need to do something asap, but I just think we're the ones footing all the bills and having all the restrictions and guilt placed on us while China, India, Brazil, and the like continue to belch out pollution and do absolutely nothing about it. Next thing, we'll be paying vast sums of money to those countries to cut down emissions; money we could use on our own infrastructure and welfare. Add Philippino volcanoes and Australian bush fires and my little car exhaust or my wood-burning stove seems to be small fry indeed.

Every time I try to see through totally frozen windows - yes. On warm nights when I can't sleep - no. When I listen to sanctimonious b***** on TV preaching night after night - definitely. That's not mine, just a pic of one fitted. There are two settings: icy cold, and barely-warm breath. You really have to strain to feel any heat in the blast at all.

There's a topic?

The mountings in those look to be the smaller spacing of 12s or 14s - the reason I have the two joined in my photo is to show they have the same mountings, as opposed to the larger 16s - but the fluid chamber looks to be bigger, hence 14. Photos of the codes would confirm.

Maybe the hard-tops were used as additional bracing? Plus - the sills were new so less likely to collapse through rust, but even so I'll agree with you - brace!

I think I have Schroedinger's beer. When I close the fridge door I've no idea if it's in there or not. Yet, when I open the fridge door, a bottle disappears. Strange, that.

In the GT6, yes with O/D but the Heralds, no. It's all to do with the positioning of the hoist, which in my case is static from a girder. Make sure there is plenty of room on at least one side of the car; hoist the engine with ropes or chains around engine only. This puts the centre of gravity quite far forward and so the gearbox will naturally make the entire thing tilt towards the rear. I usually jack the front of the car up on a trolley jack; it needs to have good wheels and a pad that pivots. The engine will rise and you can guide it around the bulkhead until the rear of the gearbox clears the bodywork; you can pull on the chain to move the unit away from vertical so that it clears the bulkhead and now hangs with your support in between the front wheel arches. At this point let it hang back towards the vertical but at the same time rotate it sideways so that it's now transverse. If you let it hang here you can pull the car away from in under it on the trolley jack (which is why you need the room to one side) and then lower it to the ground. If you don't move the car sideways you must raise the entire thing high enough to clear the open bonnet, which can be very scary... I should have taken photos when I took the Estate engine out last month, but in this photo just before removal you can see how much room there is in front once the radiator is removed.

It can. I've done it on GT6, Spitfire and most recently Herald, although I do it with the bonnet on... don't forget to remove the lower engine earth at the steering rack, otherwise it lifts the entire car off the ground before it breaks. Someone to feed the gearbox forward as the engine rises so as not to damage anything inside the car is a bonus, although I usually do it on my own with no problems, and removing the gearlever remote assembly gives a bit more room. It's also much easier to reassemble everything outside the car and then refit as one unit, too.

BTW don't bother buying one of these for supplementary heating in any car, electric or otherwise: You'll get more heat from flatulence. £7 from eBay as a stocking filler to defrost the Freelander more quickly than the diesel engine will. It's total rubbish. Global Warming will heat up more quickly.

Don't think even Schroedinger did that. Wouldn't it mean that if power was running the cat was there, but if not.... ?

This is because we're all so unreasonable here and live in a colder country. Other countries can cope fine, as they probably don't need a heater, but we're just so demanding! Seriously though it's probably an electric element but of course it gives less range when in use. We'll go back to the days of having a large woolen blanket on the back seat for when it gets cold. You'll be able to spot electric car drivers once the cold spell starts.

Hope you never need to take it off again! The bulkhead is probably permanently fixed to the chassis now.

2-pack! One black one white. Might go see what it's like; so long as it's water resistant. Their waterproof car covers aren't.

True; I had shadow blue in a 1200 Estate once but to be honest I wasn't sure if it was just the flash of the camera in Ian's shot that darkened it. The code clears it up.

I've only managed to find two photos of the entire process, one of which may show earlier Standards being ferried around the factory and below to the right you can see a complete engine / gearbox drivetrain sitting ready (sorry it's so small), but this other photo which I've pinched from a site called MotorGraphs shows Spitfire 4 bodies ready to be fitted to complete chassis. This may explain why many of our unrestored cars have a uniformly black chassis whilst the body has been painted in colour. However there are no engine or gearbox assemblies anywhere in sight so it doesn't clear that point any.

Ok so I was close!! Nice to see they're meant to be that colour. I've replaced the seats in my 1200 estate with 13/60 versions; same colour but more padding..