Le Petite Van Gris Part 6

 

Le Petite Van Gris Part 6

 

It has been two months since I have posted anything but life still goes on as soon as lockdown relaxed I was out on the Kawasaki to get the cobwebs blown away. I feel rusty, jaded by being at home since before Christmas. Stir crazy comes to mind. The less you do the less you are able to do. The fear of going somewhere stops you from going until just going anywhere is a challenge. It is a mindset that has to be conquered to move on. The ride out on the Kawasaki was the first step the second step was with Gita on the back the next day. I have met the first challenges to escape confinement and Covid to build confidence to explore a new year in our changed world. Some things have not changed I still have trouble getting grease off my hands as I have used  a couple of 400grm tubes of to pack bearings of suspension arms and track rod ends during assembly. Covid has sucked all the disposable gloves out of the system and those that are available are far too expensive offset against the extra soap used. There is a bit of a tale to tell during these last couple of months. This begins with the moving of the van and the repositioning of the chassis making room to work on it.

 With the chassis in its new position I could start to assemble the suspension. First was to fit the outer part of the taper bearings into the suspension arms in the first stage in the assembly. After fitting the eight outers into the four arms it was enough for one day. The next was to fit the cross members to attach the suspension arms to. This is where I hit a problem. I uncovered the chassis for the first time in months and found below the plastic sheet the galvanised floor had some corrosion on it. It had got wet and dried the corrosion was a lovely white powder so I bushed it away with my leather work gloves. Cleaned up, I progressed to fitting the suspension cross members. These are located on lugs so a tight accurate fit. These are special to the Barbour chassis as they are strengthened and have an extra chassis bolt at each mounting. During the day I fitted one of the rear suspension arms. 

To do this I fitted the outer seals and the remaining taper bearings to the cross member tightened up with the massive castellated nut. I called it a day at that point. I didn’t know then how toxic the innocuous white powder was. Cleaned up and showered I was ready for some Saturday relaxation. A nice meal and some wine before an early night. I was quite tired. My last conversation did not make any sense. Words didn’t sound right to me or anyone listening. It was put down to tiredness and I went to bed.  Next day I wasn’t any better I had trouble saying certain words and voice had no power. Had I had a stroke? I didn’t think so, just poisoned! Monday had the other suspension arms fitted and used all my stock of grease. I ordered more grease and more steering parts from ECAS. I would not be able to do much more on the suspension for a few days until the parts arrived. In between time I fitted the front engine cowl and the rubber bib that covers the ignition unit and the damper mounting bolts to the chassis and the track rods. The delivery contained new track rod ends so I assembled them with new shields and again plenty of grease. I fitted the track rod end assemblies to the hubs approximately set the tracking using the Burton special adjusters. They are nice to fit and use. It is quite easy to make fine adjustments with them.

In between all this I am still having trouble saying sentences that make sense. The words don’t sound right or have the correct pronunciation but it is improving. I have odd feelings in the skin on my face. A transient numbness that goes away as quickly as it arrives staying long enough to be noticed. There are some things on the internet about zinc but they are for those who take it as a supplement orally and not as an inhaler. The concentrations are a little different and so are the effects.I have grease. I can now assemble the drive shafts. This becomes a six day struggle to fit the constant velocity joint and drive shaft gaiters. The heavy duty neoprene ones are tough to fit. I fitted the constant velocity joint ones first. Removing the grease nipple to make it a bit easier and also a plastic cone to force the gaiter onto the shaft more easily. When I got to the middle gaiter there was no way that could be coaxed over the splines of the outer driveshaft. It took a couple of days to come up with a solution. Finally it came to me. Plenty of WD40 and using my socket set I managed it. Using the log extension clamped in the vice I pushed through a 13/16 socket followed by a 22mm one and then a15/16. When the 15/16 was in place I pushed that one out of the way with the splined end of the driveshaft and then pushed it over the length of the spline. It was much easier to fit it to the larger end that goes on the larger inner driveshaft end. All the gaiters were secured the original type of clamping strap to finish off not to mention everything was packed full of grease on the way. 

The last bit to get really up date all the family said I needed to get checked out to make sure I did not have a stroke so I contacted my GP who referred to hospital straight away. Knowing my situation I went the next day prepared for a long stay. I checked in and triaged, blood was taken for testing and then referred to the real A&E side to be looked at again. It was decided that I would have a CT scan and was put in the line for processing. Five and a half  hours later I was released with a clean bill of health and a promise I would get better, if albeit slowly. It only confirmed my own self diagnosis of zinc poisoning. I’ll not do that again.