Archive
Door lock fixed
I’ve had a problem with one of the doors in the Falcon not locking. For the last few weeks the rear driver’s side door didn’t lock; the central locking mechanism in the door lock had failed.
This has happened before; this is actually the third door that has failed this way. I suspect it’s a design fault.
Anyway, instead of paying $195 for the lock like I did the last time it failed I actually bought the little plastic worm drive gear shaft that is the cause of the failure. It took a bit of stuffing around, but I took the locking mechanism out, took it apart, replaced the gear (which sure enough had snapped) and it’s all good as new.
If you have an AU/BA/BF Falcon or Territory and have the same thing happen, don’t fall for the dealer’s story about having to replace the whole lock and wanting to charge you $195 plus labour. For $29 you can buy the gear and do it yourself. It’s still a heck of a lot for a stupid little 5 cent bit of plastic, but it’s a lot better than the $240 you’ll give the dealer to have them fix it for you.
Oh, and how do you know if the lock has failed? You’ll just hear a short half second grinding noise from the door when you lock or unlock it, and nothing actually happens. That’s the gear spinning while the shaft stays put. They snap just on the worm side of the collar you can see in the above picture.
Fatal collision at Moonlight
From the Victoria Police website:
Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding a fatal collision on the Pyrenees Highway. The accident occurred around 11.15am near the Chadwick Track intersection. Investigators have been told that a 76-year-old Maryborough man was riding [sic] his 98 Ford ute west along the highway. For a reason yet to be determined he lost control of the ute and collided with a tree. The man died at the scene and a report will be prepared for the Coroner.
We got the call around 11:18 and were on scene at 11:27. The driver was already deceased.
Chevy V8 racing in the Middle East
The interior of this car looks remarkably like Lisa’s Commodore. Hey, the outside of the other cars look like Commodore sedans too!
Falcon
My trusty Ford Falcon AUII Wagon clicked over 250,000km on the way to work today. It has a few issues that need fixing – the most urgent of which is that something isn’t right in the front end. It tracks and drives beautifully, but hit a slight incline (like the driveway in and out of one of the local supermarkets) and the wrong angle and the very edge of the tyre just kisses the guard slightly. I know the dampers are pretty much shot, and when I get a chance I’ll drop into the suspension shop that did them last time (~130,000km) and get them to take a look. Other than that it’s as nice to drive as when I first got it. I’ve got no plans to change it at the moment. As much as Lisa’s SS Sportwagon is a beautiful car I still really like my Falcon. Fits like a glove.
Stupid car battery
Today’s throw-away society is increasingly annoying. Nothing you buy these days last for any length of time at all.
Case in point: we went to start the Mazda for the first time in several months and the battery was completely flat. I jump started it off the Falcon and did 20km to put some charge back into it, but it’s stuffed. I turned the car off and straight back on and all that happens is that the starter solenoid clicks. Doesn’t even turn the motor over. The battery is well and truly stuffed.
It’s an absolute disgrace that this car battery is only 8 years old.
Keep on truckin’
As mentioned a week or two back I spent this weekend on a truck driving course held on behalf of the SES. I was part of a team of 10 people that learnt how to drive a medium rigid truck. That’s a vehicle with two axles and weight of 8 tonnes or more (with a trailer of up to 9 tonnes).
Tomorrow I need to go into VicRoads and swap my current Victorian licence for a national licence with medium rigid endorsement.
From now on I’ll be replacing every utterance of “ok” with “10-4, Big Buddy”.
The Stig, revealed
This name has been thrown around for a while. It appears everyone was right.
Fuel price
According to The Age petrol dropped as low as $1.06 last night and could dip below $1.05 next week. Liars! I filled at $1.03 this morning without a docket. Would have paid 99 cents if I had one with me. Dang.
Jaguar
I visited my friend Andrew today to see why the Falcon was overheating since we did the water pump and ancilliary belt a few weeks back. Seems we forgot to reconnect the fan power connector. That would do it.
We also tweaked the brakes. I was unhappy with the pedal feel because there was a little bit of slack at the top of the pedal. It turns out there’s a way you can dial that out with an adjustable pin between the power booster and the master cylinder. We wound that out to take up the slack and it feels much, much better.
We also identified the fact that the front pads have only got 2mm of material left and that the discs are pretty stuffed. Par for the course with the AU series of Falcons, especially since I’ve done 223K on this set of discs. Andrew will order a new pair and we’ll fit new discs and pads in the next week or two.
Oh, and this Jag Daimler photo? He was working on it for a customer. I don’t know what model it is, but it’s pretty sweet. It’s a Daimler 250 with a little 2.6L 2.5L V8 that sounds terrific. All leather interior; smells like a saddlery inside. Beautiful little car.
Who said what?