DIY guides to keeping end of life vehicles running on a shoestring budget. A window onto the world of home mechanic'ing of cars everyone else would have given up on a long time ago
28 Feb 2022 5 minute read 0 comments Lawnmower
Since buying the Daihatsu Sirion Rally 2 last year, I've been working through a snagging list of issues in order of priority. Most of the big work is done, but there are still lots of smaller issues which are outstanding. Today's task was to look ser...
8 Feb 2022 4 minute read 0 comments Lawnmower
While doing some more poking about when the car was still partly disassembled and found that the exhaust blow is probably not from the downpipe-centre exhaust join - where I thought it was - but from the manifold, based on this: That looks to me li...
25 Jan 2022 10 minute read 0 comments Lawnmower
In the last few weeks both my wife and I have noticed occasional stutter/misfire under gentle acceleration. The first time this happened to me I was driving along a 40mph bit of road and had the headlights on, wipers on and radio on. I quickly turned...
17 Jan 2022 2 minute read 0 comments Lawnmower
What an age we live in eh? I ordered the rear ARB from a seller in Malaysia on 1st October, and it arrived here, beautifully packaged on the 7th October for under £120. The best any UK based sellers could do was £180 and a 6 month (!) wait. Top marks...
10 Jan 2022 11 minute read 0 comments Lawnmower
Since I have owned the Sirion, the clutch has been in a bit of a bad way. The bit point is almost at the top of the pedal travel and from cold you have to be careful moving off from standstill or you can provoke some serious clutch judder. I need to...
3 Jan 2022 9 minute read 0 comments Lawnmower
I Spent some time over several evenings recently working to replace the bushes and suspension arms on my diminutive Daihatsu. To get the ball rolling, I set to with penetrating oil and a socket, more in hope than anything, to see if I could get any m...
20 Dec 2021 2 minute read 0 comments Lawnmower
The second half of the welding job went as well as the first, with my friend able to cut out the rot and let in new metal in the rear chassis legs. The larger of the two sections was done in 2 parts, first the lower section, then the inner chassis le...
13 Dec 2021 2 minute read 0 comments Lawnmower
Today, a friend who is something of a master welder and fabricator extraordinaire came over to assist with the dubious metalwork of the Daihatsu. Not only is he a gentleman of distinction, he's also a dab hand with the grinder and MIG welder. While I...
30 Nov 2021 3 minute read 0 comments Lawnmower
An major bugbear with this car was the stubborn refusal to idle below 1800rpm, preventing it from getting an MOT. This issue was what caused the previous owner to give up and sell the car to me in the first place and I have been working very diligent...
2 Nov 2021 4 minute read 0 comments Lawnmower
Today has been a day of mixed fortunes. JASM called to say the alternator was fixed, he'd replaced the pulley, bearings, regulator and brushes and cleaned the shell up. I went and collected the alternator before a work call. Refitting the alternato...
