I swear my Pug is trying to teach me all of the skills of mechanical work easy cheap stages.
Today, the clutch cable snapped. It was kind and snapped outside the Pug dealer in Lutterworth. The Pug dealer wasn't so kind and didn't have one in stock. Nor did the pug specialist that the recovery driver tried taking us to first.
So I got recovered home...
... to find that I was one of the 50000 homes affected by
As soon as the wife got home I grabbed her car and tried to find a part or something for a temp fix. The part will be arriving tomorrow but I can't take her car to work because it is booked in for an MOT. So I needed a temp fix.
The broken bit is a crappy nylon clip that is now U shaped instead of O shaped that the pedal clips onto. Fairly heavy duty, but still nylon.
I worked my way up through the grades of cable ties, but this is a pretty high tension thing. I tried a concoction of jubilee clips and chain. I was starting to despair when the powercut ended after a mere 9 hours. Slacken and unclip other end. A small hole drilled through the side of the nylon and a round nail inserted and then bent over with a hammer (no, really a hammer and not the side of a spanner). Reclip, replace pedal, clip the cable on and try it out.
I didn't drill the hole too near the end of the U and there's no apparent distortion of the 'pin' so that should see me to work and back tomorrow. I'm actually wondering if it's a better design than the original since there is so much more material supporting it and the wear point is now steel rather than nylon. I'm half tempted to leave that in place, and carry the spanners I need along with the replacement cable for if it does go again..
Warwick