Bad day under the bonnet

[Tinonline]

Having some time and the weather a few degrees warmer I set about changing my fan carrier bracket on the 400. (Year 2000).

I was prepared for some work. But the spanner gods were not with me. I ended up draining the rad as the top hose had to be separated to pull the fan cowl up and away. 

The bracket doesn’t look like it will come out with a lot of the pipe work out of the way. Do I really have to remove the r/h cam cam wheel cover?

To make matters worse the dash lights were flickering and indicators not showing on locking up the car-ah I forgot I disconnected an earth wire under the car to get at a bolt. So I replaced it-and clipped the wiring connector onto to engine front: no difference.

The Gates replacement doesn’t have the studs-any tips on how to transfer them- there are x4. The pulley etc goes over them.

I’ve done a cambelt change...this is as bad.

☹️

[Tinonline]

On to part 2 of the saga.

Resigned myself to stripping down what was required.

That did the trick and I removed the bracket this morning. Try as I might I could not get the studs to shift even using the 2 bolt method and think I need better bolts to try this technique.

Of course the Gates kit should have some with new studs...from Rock Auto...but didn't. The parts box was well and truly damaged inside the shipping box...and it looks like the packet of studs has come out. This is the second time Rock Autos part box has been well mashed up.

Now I'm stuck trying to get the studs swapped over or just get the Lexus part as quickly as possible.

 

 

 

[The-Acre]

35 minutes ago, Tinonline said:

On to part 2 of the saga.

Resigned myself to stripping down what was required.

That did the trick and I removed the bracket this morning. Try as I might I could not get the studs to shift even using the 2 bolt method and think I need better bolts to try this technique.

Of course the Gates kit should have some with new studs...from Rock Auto...but didn't. The parts box was well and truly damaged inside the shipping box...and it looks like the packet of studs has come out. This is the second time Rock Autos part box has been well mashed up.

Now I'm stuck trying to get the studs swapped over or just get the Lexus part as quickly as possible.

 

 

 

This is unfortunately one of the pitfalls of buying from abroad, the packaging gets thrown around so many times.  My order from Rock which arrived last week had a couple of spark plugs completely out of their boxes, thankfully not damaged.

[Tinonline]

2 hours ago, The-Acre said:

This is unfortunately one of the pitfalls of buying from abroad, the packaging gets thrown around so many times.  My order from Rock which arrived last week had a couple of spark plugs completely out of their boxes, thankfully not damaged.

Yup - confirmed that the studs were missing and I've tried to be creative with allen bolts etc. but the tolerances are very precise - it's bad enough getting the nuts on with the original set-up. A small garage around the corner from me is swapping them over. I should have things sorted by Saturday providing the electrics behave when everything is back in it's rightful place.🙄

[Tinonline]

All well that ends well...sort of...

Everything is back together. I had the studs moved from old to my hand for a tenner. I had to work the threads as they were varying in roughness from their extraction. 
 

Avoiding taking things apart cost me time and patience: I elected to drain most of the coolant and pop the hoses off. This makes access much easier. You don’t have to remove the passenger side cam sprocket cover but unscrew it, unplug one part of wiring via connector and unbolt the long front coolant feed pipe and move away...it will wee out a lot of coolant. The cover can be pulled away enough to gain clearance.

If I had to do the job again, now...I’d be very swift indeed. Certainly I was rusty. The fan cowling is shot through age so I used copious amounts of superglue. The fan bracket side bolts took a bit of time to get in and I was worried about stripping them: there are a mix of 12 and 14mm bolts and I tightened and unslackened a few times wondering if the side bolts would go in. My conclusion is do them up but not to final torque/ lubricate those side bolts and push very firmly as you screw them in...they have a leading edge to assist their initial journey and seating. They take a lot of turns which can be alarming...they went home.

Next job 🤭🙄will be rear discs and pads.

 

[The-Acre]

Knuckles all intact?

[Tinonline]

1 hour ago, The-Acre said:

Knuckles all intact?

Err a few scratches 🤭😷😂

By the way the flickering dash lights....battery was flat. No probs before working on the car and I know disconnect before...depends upon what you are doing. If you disconnect earth leads/open door and boot etc the Battery drains very fast. Charged over night and so far all good.