Cars and Bearings

Got the new car back to Antibes without incident, thank goodness!

You know when you fly over water, you start hearing noises your engine makes which you never heard before?Well it was like that with the car - all the way dwon on the motorway I could hear whines, clicks, rumbles and the like - all of which spelt imminent breakdown as far as I could see.

Now I've got it here, it's behaving impeccably. Subjective? Nah...

Anyway, now I'm mobile again I got down to the airfield and started on the task of replacing the front steering bearing insert - when I got the plane, the front steering was stupidly stiff.

Of course, not being totally daft myself, I got an experienced triker to fly Elsie for the first time. Enter Daryl Cornelius. He reported the problem with the steering, along with a few other niggles, and just said - line her up straight before you apply power and you should be off the ground before it gets too far off the centreline... which is exactly what hapened for my first flight in her.

Anyway, with the thick fog which was present on my last trip to the field, I decided to renew the bearing.

Hmmm.... got the steering bar off ok and the front wheel/fork assy out of the tube. But then the fun started... somewhat difficult to remove the bearing! Several hours later and some serious torture of the bearing got it out - I don't think it could be used again:

I found a spiky piece of metal protruding into the steering tube - couldn't understand what it was - not a rivet or a grease nipple, because nothing visible outside. I called Graham at P&M and he couldn't elucidate. Out with the file then, and off it came.

Gently tapped the new bearing into the tube - using a wooden block between the bearing and the hammer. Then into the bearing with the forks and finally the steering bar tapped on from inside the pod.

Ah.

I'm 1/4" short. Bugger. Should have checked more thoroughly that the bearing had gone completely home. Getting dark...

Oh well, live to fight another day.

I'll take my camera next time and get a few shots of the field and surroundings - ready for anyone who cares to visit in the Summer.

Cheers for now...

Plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose...

Well what a few weeks I've been having! Weather absolutely rotten. Rain, rain, rain and then lots of wind. Yuk. Result, no flying.

Add to that the deteriorating condition of my hip - I am told a need a re-tread on it - and it sucks. Apparently these days they can just 'resurface' the joint, rather than replace the whole thing - so I'm hoping for that.

Plus, yes I have more to tell, the new car broke down on the way back to France. The rear diff went and imploded. I managed to limp off the motorway and called the RAC (I have European cover). They came out and towed the car to the nearest Jeep dealer - plus they hired me a car to continue my journey! Excellent.

Or so I thought.

The garage wanted €5000+ to fix the car, so I said "don't be so daft - just send it back to the UK and I'll get it fixed there". That's when things started to go a bit pear-shaped. According to the RAC, I had to accept the garage's quote or I'd have to repatriate the car at my own expense. The car would only be repatriated if it were 'impossible' to fix it at a local garage. And, the contribution towards repatriation would be limited to the market value of the car... if I did not want to do that, then I'd have to scrap the car in France, but I'd lose the money I'd paid for it.

Also - and this is a cracker - I had to take the hire car back to where I'd got it! I mean, what's the point of hiring me a car so I can get home - then telling me I have to take it back again!!!!! It's 750km from where I broke down to my flat in France - that would mean a 1500km round trip (see how quick I did the maths there...).

Now, I don't call that "trouble-free motoring" as described in their sales bumph. And it certainly wasn't made clear to me when I paid for the Euopean Breakdown, Recovery and Repatriation service.

Blimey what a take-on! Anyway I started making big noises about the Ombudsman, mis-selling and the like. Suddenly they decided to repatriate my car and to hire me another car which I could leave near my flat in France. I still had to drive all the way back and swap cars, but it was something!

Of course, during all this pallaver, I had to buy another car - believing at the time I would lose my beloved new Cherokee. So here it s:

Look familiar?

Yep, it's another Grand Cherokee.

The daft thing is I now own two of the b*ggers, since the RAC eventually agreed to repatriate my first one, Lol, it never rains when it pours...

Ah well. I'll repair the first one and sell it - know anyone?

Other than the above, nothing much to report. Boring really...