Clever clogs Peter or - being Yorkshire - clever Cloggie
Well, I got it all done. I did use a socket and extension and it did the trick. I made life hard for myself by using a 6pt socket, as Dandy is quite right about the danger of burring bolt heads with a 12pt if they are tight. Trouble is, you are then limited by the number of positions you can get started with etc. Also, my metric socket set is limited and they are long sockets, which proved awkward. But Murphy's law prevailed and in the end, the bolts turned out not to be excessively tight. I also undid the dipstick tube bracket, which improved access to the more difficult of the two bolts. Part of it too was that - after many years of not working on vehicles - I tend to look at the job and think 'Thats impossible'. But by some miracle, it all works out. I used one of my Imperial 12pt sockets (which are shorter) to undo the bolts once the 6pt had done the initial loosening. And of course, putting them back on turned out to be no trouble after that. What else did I learn that might help the next poor bugger:
1) Couldnt get the bung out of the bleed tube. So, after squeezing the clip with pliers and moving it back, I carefully insinuated a watchmakers screwdriver down between the bung and the tube and then used a blowtorch to warm (but being very careful not to fry) the bleed tube. Whipped the screwdriver out and started twisting the bung while the rubber was soft and temporarily stretched. Had to repeat this a couple of times to extract the bung, but it worked a treat.
2) Thermostat - the workshop manual made me think I needed to separate the radiator pipe from the rigid pipe section that forms part of the lower thermostat housing. To remove this spring clip was nigh on impossible, let alone think how I would get the rubber pipe off in that confined space. So I didn't, and it didn't need removing! The housing could be manoeuvred fine with the rubber pipe attached. However, by this time I had managed using a g-clamp and a lot of patience, to slide the clip back. I then had to use a load more time and patience to get it back in place. A lot of wasted time, which you - dear reader - can avoid!!
3) The workshop manual mentions removing the lower cover, but doesn't explain what that is. The likely candidate seemed like the air scoop for the oil cooler and I started to take it off even though it didn't seem necessary in order to access the bottom hose (for feeling its temp. later on during the bleed process). It looked like it might be a nuisance to do, and time was against me, so I didn't do it. I still don't know why the manual says it is necessary.
4) The manual says something about removing a bung from a hose and draining old coolant from it. As time was short and the old coolant looked v clean, I didn't bother. Does it matter - anyone able to advise? Personally I doubt it is life threatening
5) I found the bleeding process (not being rude) quite scary. I found the workshop manual a little vague (for a beginner) on the precise sequence of leaving rad and header caps loosened etc. and - looking back - made the mistake of tightening the header tank cap after I had first filled it which was - I think - wrong. The next thing what confused me was that a pretty steady stream of coolant started to come out of the bleed tube once warm. This caused the level in the header tank to drop v quickly and I was worried I would reintroduce air into the system if it fell too far before I spotted it and could top it up. In the end - and despite concern over scalding myself - I hoiked the bleed tube aloft so coolant stopped running out and stuffed the bung in quickly, managing to avoid getting scalded. I'm sure this is not how it should be done though. By this time I had loosened the header tank cap and I let stuff gurgle back up into it for a while (it took a while) before I tightened the cap on it. The level still seemd to rise and fall a bit but eventually stabilised. I noticed earlier on that a little steam was coming from the radiator cap, which concerned me slightly. But the temp gauge never showed any sign of moving past 11.00 o'clock, and as the system settled down through what seemed and endless cycle of 5 mins at 2500rpm followed by 3 mins at idle, no more steam issued from the cap. So I think it is all settled in, and as I'll be doing short runs to work all week, there is plenty of opportunity to gauge watch and make sure all is well.
The above may seem long winded. But BF experts may be able to give advice that is useful to others (and me!) after reading the above, cos the coolant system really is like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - very mysterious. Karen (Broxburn) has I think just done hers - how did your experience compare with the above Karen?
Anyway, its done and I'm sitting here drinking a cold beer and feeling mighty pleased with myself. The jobs to do list is getting shorter
Pete
