Seems to be garage time again
.
After seeing the internals of the Aero Plus 8 rear from Peter’s postings I had a look at the space under the spare wheel on the +4 to see if it could get dirty – and yes it could
. There is a relatively large hole in each inner rear wheel arch – seemingly only to get the wiring to the rear indicators – why so large? Not sure. Perhaps a minor detail, but dust/grit/debris/spray will find its way into the void below the spare wheel – where the petrol pump etc is located. Best avoided.
To fill this I decided to use some rubber cut from an old car mat. Template made in cardboard and piece cut out to shape but about 2mm larger all the way round and a slot for the wiring.
This was then inserted into the hole and is quite firmly held in place.
Now over-sprayed with Dinitrol 4941 to make it look neat.
Previously I had tightened up a slightly wobbly gear knob (not a euphemism….
). I didn’t want to damage the bottom collar (or buy a new one!
) and found that winding electrical insulating tape several times around the bottom collar, with the last winding a little ruckled, gave more leverage (a slightly greater diameter) but way better grip so that it undid reasonably easily.
To resolve the ‘wobble’ I took the aluminium centre column and plastic insert off (visible in the centre of pic below), wound some insulating tape around the screw thread of the gearstick itself to ensure a tight fit of the plastic centre cap and centre column.
Then replaced the three securing grub screws, did them up tight using Loctite – and replaced the top part of the gear knob and lower collar (again with insulating taps to help grip).
Now all’s tickety boo. Will have to take it out for drive tomorrow – just to make sure (again)
