MG
The Classic Marque

Isn't there something about the length of a spanner being related to the amount of force you can apply to any particular fastener?

i.e. the smaller the head size of the nut or bolt, the shorter the spanner.

Some years ago my friend very kindly offered to park his car (modern, NMC) on his neighbour's drive whilst they were away, to make it look like the house was occupied. He always thought they had a fairly long drive but reversing sharply on a dark night discovered it wasn't so long after all. He had backed into the wooden garage door, splitting one of the planks.

Somewhat embarrassed, he...

I had forgotten the fun one can have with the centre cam bearing. As this will need to sump to come off I expect your biggest problem will be re-sealing the front and rear crank bearings.
Ian

I have a 1950 MG TD with a Lucas CW windscreen wiper motor. It's not working. I tried to diagnose and repair it but was not successful. Who is doing good work these days on Lucas windscreen motors? Your recommendation would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Milt

Paul, Ian Thanks for your comments.
I have located a devise that is designed to remove the cam bearings with the engine still in the car. The radiator, head, pistons, etc have already been removed in the engine rebuilding process so access is not going to be a problem.

Fascinating diesel info.

My friend reversed into his own car transporter trailer tow hitch at night, putting a dent into the bumper of his recently purchased secondhand modern. This incident happened at the the workshop yard of the firm who had just serviced said transporter and had just asked my friend whether he needed guiding to couple up the trailer to collect it; my friend had d...

I too only tend to use a torque wrench on things like heads and other critical things and I have never used one on wheels of any description.

Mike's comment about ring spanners reminded me of something my uncle told me. He worked on aircraft in the FAA in the 50s and 60s and apparently they were allowed to use rings to undo things but to tighten them they had to use open enders and you wer...

Thanks all, as usual ingenious, informative and interesting responses and some just epic!

That pic of Flip is superb as is Anams very clever testing method torque wrench against torque wrench.

I am also normally of the school of careful hands, torquing up carefully by feel and evenly in stages with as others have said saving the torque wrench for cylinder head nuts and a few othe...

https://tinyurl.com/5ha635ab

Not good news. 'Private equity' is a euphemism for 'load it up with debt that gets immediately paid out as dividends to the new owners, slash costs, sell off any good bits then allow what's left to fail leaving employees without work or pensions'.

I'm with Les on this. In the old days I only used a torque wrench (borrowed) for cylinder head nuts/ bolts. The rest was done by "feel". If you weren't sure you got a more experienced mate to check.

Roll on to moderns with ally wheels - definitely best to use a torque wrench. I confess to having a generic one from somewhere like Screwfix - never had it or its predecessor calibrated. B...