No one can accuse me of being a mechanical genius. I tend to break things whenever i try. I have only managed one mechanical job on my Morgan and that was to change the battery. Unfortunately while doing this i dropped the metal clamp that holds the battery across the battery terminals. This resulted in the clamp melting and the back of the car on fire. If there is one thing you don't want to do with a wooden car its set it on fire!
Throwing caution to the wind i decided to do a oil change and air filter change. Some may wonder at the sanity of such an action after my previous foray into fixing the car but no one ever accused me of being a quitter.
The first task was to warm up the engine this of course required a short run. Of course as soon as i started it started to rain. On the bright side this would hopefully dampen any fires i started today.
You tube is a wonderful invention. The first thing i needed to do was put the handbrake on which i did and then i stuck a couple of large pieces of wood behind the backwheels. The next challenge was how on earth do you jack up the car. A quick check on TalkMorgen found a post on where to set the jack so in short order the car was up
Things where going well, Nothing was on fire, i hadn't yet broken anything, the car was jacked up on axel stands and stable. Time to open the new tool set and get to work. The oil cap on the engine was removed to avoid a vacumn (you tube to the rescue again). I grabbed my trusty new oil can and disappeared under the car.
First thing i noticed is there was very little room. I found the plug where i thought the oil was meant to exit got my trusty spanner and tryed to open it. It wouldn't budge but nothing a hammer cannot fix! In short order the plug was off and the oil was flowing nicely into the oil can. As celebration i pulled myself out from under the car and went to get some paper to wipe off my hands. When i returned i checked on progress and found id placed the can in the wrong place and now had oil all over the floor. BUGGER!
Oh well not to worry i could always clean it up later. Now for the oil filter. Back under the car and try to remove the oil filter, would it budge not a chance. A quick trip to the local auto store and i picked up a oil filter remover and some funnels for later use. In short order the oil filter was replaced and the oil plug re-fitted. Unfortunately i had not realized removal of the oil filter would also release a deluge of oil so the little puddle of oil on the floor was now approaching epic proportions. I figured it could be worse at least nothing was on fire.
I jacked the car down and filled up the engine with 4.5 litres of castrol 5W-40 and checked the oil level. All looked good so replaced the cap and i had successfully completed my first oil change.
The next job was replacement of the air filter. 3 of the clips for the air filter housing are easy to detach the one underneath is basically impossible. After wrestling with it for 5 minutes i finally got the casing open and the old filter out. This was replaced with a new filter and i replaced the casing. The bottom clip had to remain open as there was literally no way i could find to actually close this.
The job was finished. The bonnet was closed and with some trepidation i started the car. Success the car started and the oil pressure read 4 bar. I checked for any leaks and couldn't see any so took it for a short trip. Upon returning i checked for leaks again and couldn't see any but was a bit concerned oil pressure had dropped to a bit over 3 bar. A check of the manual assured me anything between 3 bar and 5 bar was fine but may need a small top up at a later date. Before driving back into the garage i went to clear up the oil puddle only to find an extra part
CRAP CRAP CRAP im guessing this is the gasket that is meant to be on the oil plug. Oh well you live and learn and next year ill put it back in. Since there are no oil leaks i'm not to concerned.
Generally for a first oil and filter change there were some unexpected difficulties but i'm pleased with the learning experience and i'm sure next time the whole process with be faster cleaner and with no spare parts at the end. The pot of coffee is now finished as is this blog post !