Sad

[DWM]

Originally Posted by tt82

Needs today's newspaper on the engine, otherwise thats a photo you posted a few years ago.

The pics are legit. A few years ago I wouldn't have known how to take the plastic cover off the throttle.

[tt82]

In that case you need a hardy slap on the back. If me and Dogbook had come round to help, you would probably be re-doing by it now.

[Grumpywurzel]

Tidy work there shipmate!!!

[DWM]

I'm overjoyed. Quite incredible.

I certainly don't know how to thank everyone adequately.

Gatos, obviously, for extracting the replacement head and for advice on top. But so many other people were vitally important to my actually getting the job done: notably familiar old forum friends like 960kg, mikealder, Baffler, Dog_Book, tt82, Anadinolin, and stephend for constant monitoring and advice (and offers of help that literally brought me to the verge of tears); but also newer (to me) people like malteser, Doug2942, xentor, cornishv40, EastbourneChris, Grumpywurzel, liberate, and volvoid, who provided constant uplifting encouragement. And everyone else who contributed (sorry if I have forgotten anyone).

As is obvious, I have been distinctly out of my depth with this job for several weeks now; when you are at low ebb after fighting something that should be easy for hours on end, even just a 'thanks' on a thread update is a genuinely important psychological boost. So, sincerely, thank you to everyone, named or not, who contributed in even the smallest way.

(And thank God Keith (960kg) warned me about the clouds of smoke or I'd have needed a change of underwear before I even got to put the coolant in.)

She sounds crap on the video because I chickened out of sorting the exhaust myself. I drove noisily three miles down the road and paid £15 to Southcombe Garage to make Genevieve sound lovely again. I expect she will need a bit of a run to settle down and re-learn her parameters...

Oh and when the clutch or something else expensive fails within the next 1000 miles, I'll be sending the bill to stephend for blackmailing me into mending her (post #7) .

And now I'll have to give Phoenix a present or he'll start sulking about special treatment...

[stephend]

Originally Posted by DWM

Oh and when the clutch or something else expensive fails within the next 1000 miles, I'll be sending the bill to stephend for blackmailing me into mending her (post #7) .

That's all right: we'll practice on yours, then do the job properly on mine.

Originally Posted by DWM

And now I'll have to give Phoenix a present or he'll start sulking about special treatment...

Too right!

[DWM]

Who needs practice?!
We'll do it right on mine. Then go down the pub, and see whether yours looks so very urgent after all.

[DWM]

In my excitement I forgot to post the pic of Genevieve with the life-saving Blackwell's Companion to the Philosophy of Language... without which I should never have got the aux belt either on or off.

[gatos]

Well, what can I say??? Well done David. It is amazing what you have learned in the last 4 years in this forum, considering what you knew then and what you have achieved the last couple of weeks.

I am glad I helped a little bit (taking things apart is much much easier than putting them back together) to save Genevieve and I wish she lasts a long time now.

Next challenge for you.................... Front anti roll bar bushes........

[DWM]

LOL.

I'm not doing ANY jobs for a bit now - apart from anything else I need a couple of weeks for my knuckles to recover - but yes.... It IS amazing.

Three and a half years ago, when I signed up here, I had only the vaguest notion of how engines worked. Changing the oil by myself was a giant step forward. And now look...

This is a truly fantastic forum, and no f***ing argument.

[stephend]

Originally Posted by DWM

This is a truly fantastic forum, and no f***ing argument.

Is that the sort of philosophical language one learns from Blackwell's Companion?