Friday was one for me.
The indicator switch on my '68 Land Rover ute was buggered and the RHS indicator was jammed on.....yup, you could turn the LHS on but the RHS just kept going.
Next time you whinge about how hard Split parts are to find spare a thought for Land Rover owners.
Anyhow, I couldn't very well roam the streets in that as eventually the cops pull you up for driving with your hazard lights on.
Then our Split, which is the family car and the missus drives every day, blows the starter motor.
So 2 cars not working.
A friend very kindly lent us their Nissan Maxima; it's a nice car and we really needed one to get around but I felt like a class traitor driving it.
Now, I've successfully replaced a starter on a 2.0l Bay before so I thought it couldn't be that hard.
I should point about now that tools and me have an uneasy truce - I don't touch them and things don't get broken and I don't get hurt.
As such this sort of attempt is for me akin to juggling chainsaws naked.
Nevertheless I managed to pick up a replacement starter on Saturday afternoon and started to try and remove the busted one until the light failed.
That proved to be more difficult than I remembered.
Then I also remembered that on the Bay there was a hatch by which to access the engine bolt which passes through the bell housing.
After some phone calls and tips on how to get it out I had another crack at it this afternoon when I got home from some other commitments.
There is so little room I needed to get the take the air cleaner off to get at it.
After much grunting and cursing under my breath I managed to get the busted unit out from under the car and then carefully assessed exactly which way to get the replacement in.
The lower nut is easy; it attaches to a stud in the bell housing, but the engine bolt is as difficult to put back in as it is to get out.
First I tried to get my eldest son Bryn, who is 4 1/2 to hold the bolt in while I snaked my hand behind the fan housing.
The little guy did his best and he had been a tremendous help with spanners (thank goodness he can count to 17!) but his arms just aren't long enough.
Plus being under there was freaking him out a little - although not so much he didn't want to climb under there again later on.
So I had to call in the heavy artillery.....the missus.
I wasn't real keen on that.
If it falls on me, well, no great loss - I suck at changing nappies and my life insurance is ok.
But hell, we'd miss her and more people would turn up to her funeral so the caterers would charge more.
However like most things she does she was happy enough to have a go and did it well.
In fact she was so good that when it came to tighten up the engine bolt and I couldn't locate the nut properly because my forearm was rubbed raw from the doghouse cooler she stuck her hand over and tightened it up for me.
And I mean tight......I could only move it about an inch when I gave it a final check.
So then it was just a case of crawling back under it, hooking up the wires, putting the heater hose on and then getting back out and putting the air cleaner back on the RHS carb and connecting up the battery.
The result? She fired up first time no probs!!
And yes, the missus did take that last shot with a coin in mind.......
Anyhow, the moral to the story is that a family who fixes VWs together stays together.
BTW, thanks to Warb, Luke and Muller for some tips on how to get the starter in and out.
Now all I need is a Land Rover wiper switch!
P.S. Stayed tuned for the next family project....pulling an old 36HP out of SUPER rusty Country Buggy.
