CAR/DiY: Replacing an MX5 Front Wheel Bearing

Wheel off, the real work is about to start.

Today I had my current fullest teaching day. Which I’m currently doing remotely, using Teams. I’m not mad keen on remote lessons, to be honest. But more about that elsewhere!

During my teaching some stuff arrived from Amazon, for a job I’ve meaning to do for ages. A breaker bar, and some larger sized nut attachments for various tools. I only ordered them yesterday. They arrived today. Amazon Prime is pretty cool.

This breaker bar (and attachments) arrived today.

Four Paw Racing, who replaced both stolen CATs, on my old and new Mazdas, gave a me a long list of other recommended jobs/faults, etc. One of those was replacing the driver’s side front wheel bearing. Which they said was damaged, and very noisy.

Until I successfully replaced said wheel-bearing, I wasn’t sure exactly how much noise it was causing. Turns out it was indeed really making a racket!

This length o’ pipe added mucho leverage.
Woah! Getting this old nut off was really hard!

With the new wheel-bearing in place, it’s abundantly clear the old one was very, very, very noisy. It’s soooo much better now. The car is still a bit noisy (some exhaust blow and rattle, etc.). But it is quieter. Much quieter. And, very importantly, it feels a heck of a lot safer to drive.

Prior to this I wasn’t really too happy going over 45 mph. The noise was outrageous. I had to wear ear plugs! And the car just felt awful. Dangerous, even. Now she’s much quieter and smoother. And feels fine, and safe, all the way to 70 mph plus.

This was my ‘go to’ reference for this job.

The job of changing the wheel-bearing was nowhere near as easy as some YouTube videos I watched made it appear. For starters I needed some new tools; hence the breaker-bar and large socket set.

Sadly I broke my smaller torque wrench, undoing the bolts that hold the front calliper in place. Bummer! I was actually really worried I’d break the new breaker-bar, trying to remove the large 29mm nut that holds the wheel bearing assembly in place.

The old removed, the new in place.

I had to cadge a length of scaffolding type pipe, from a neighbour (which I must return!), slather the nut in WD40, and let that soak in. And just persist in working on it. And, lo and behold, after many attempts (and a short spell of despondency, during which I figured I was doomed to fail), the nut moved a micron.

Once it had moved at all, I knew I was onto a winner. But getting that nut off was a real mother, no mistake! Going back a bit, so was removing the cap that allows one to get to the nut. As also was removing the calliper bolts. Almost nothing, esp’ on the dis-assembly side, was easy!

Torquing the big nut to approx 200 NM!

So, finally, I was down to the wheel bearing assembly itself. And that was stuck fast as well. So, a copious application of WD40, half an hour to let that do it’s work, and lots of gentle hammering, to unseat it. And once again, persistence bore fruit.

So, long before day’s end, I’d not only done a full days teaching. I’d also successfully replaced the faulty wheel-bearing. And boy does the car sound and feel sooo much better. Very gratifying.

Shiny! Banged in a ‘divet’ to key the new wheel bearing in situ.

Putting everything back together was a lot easier than taking it apart. And was achieved relatively quickly and smoothly. I now have another area of newly acquired car maintenance skills, and a few useful tools. Not to mention a better running motor.

Teresa snapped me cynching up the wheel nuts at job’s end.
Last one, tightened up good n’ solid.

I took her – the car, that is – out for a ten mile or so test drive. And baby, she was singin’! Very satisfying.

DAYS iN: A Sporty Night

The ball was… ? In, by 1 mm!

Feeling utterly washed out. Which is a bit of a bummer. Decided that lots of TV sports might be the tonic.

First up, The French Open. A dramatic and engaging end to Garcia vs. Blinkova, with the latter ending the home favourites’ run.

Tenacious!

Then watched a bit of men’s tennis, with Masetti vs Shevchenko. Both new names to me. Ageing, eh!?

And at eight o’clock, switched over to watch the UEFA European final, Sevilla vs. Roma. I hope it’s a good match. I need some visceral brainless fun!

The match is in Budapest, a place I’d love to visit.

Hmm? Decided to bail out of the footy, at half time. 1-0 to Roma, but not very exciting. Went back to the French Open, and have opted to stick with Djokovic vs Fucsovics.

Novak I know, of course. His Hungarian opponent, however, is less well-known to me. I think I’ve seen him before. But he’s not as familiar.

Novak in action a Paris.

I came to this match just as they completed an epic hour and a half long first set, including an amazing 33 shot rally. Sadly, the next set was looking very one sided, Novak crushing the Hungarian.

So I’ve gone back to the football, where it’s now 1-1 (both goals scored by Roma!). Which is still dull! Back to Roland Garros… and Novak eventually wins in straight (as opposed to gay?) sets.

Dybala’s goal.

So… back to Budapest. And it’s looking very much like it’ll go to penalties. Hey ho. I’m going to stick with it to’t end! A sporty evening, to chill and still my still somewhat troubled mind. And it’s doing the job.

But, wait… what’s this? The BT Sport coverage of the match has just stopped. Before the match is even over. Que pasa?

Mancini’s own goal.

DAYS OUT: Tesco, Wimpole, & a Freecycle TV

Today is my youngest sister’s birthday. We were invited, but it was too far away and at an awkward time for us. so in the end we couldn’t make it. Sorry Abbie!

Instead we did a ‘big shop’, at Tesco’s (goddammit food prices have gone mad!), then took a picnic to Wimpole Hall, and after that picked up a free TV from a Cambridge FreeCycler.

The day started cloudy, and less than warm. It as it went on it warmed up. We were going to have a BBQ this evening. But we’re too tired, and have already eaten enough.

After our Tesco shop, I augmented Teresa’s chicken n’ mushrump pasta with some fried pork n’ onions. Teresa steamed some kale, so we had a bit of green. ‘Twas lovely!

MUSiC: Jazzbois

YouTube has thrown up another new groop for me to enthuse over, Jazzbois. I love their stripped down mellow funky grooves.

Rhodes, drenched in tremolo, very fluid basslines, and stone grooves from a very minimalist drum set up. Poifeck!

Taking the essence of seventies cosmick grooves, with a ‘dope’ bit of head noddin’ towards the kind of laid back hip-hop that sampled so much Blue Note, and the like.

It’s a cosmic brew I really dig.

MUSiC: Thumpasaurus, Struttin’, etc.

I discovered this group, Thumpasaurus, after watching a few videos of Scots hi-energy funksters, High Fade. A trip to the latter’s website revealed that they were touring in support of a band called Thumpasaurus.

So I googled Thumpasaurus, and found these guys. This Californian group take their name (albeit spelled slightly differently) from the crazy musical universe of George Clinton’s Parliament:

Strangely, a musician friend, Dan Antopolski, who’s gone on to be a professional comedian, once had a group called The Thumpasaurus People, which might(?) have also featured Tom Finley, now of Groove Armada!

This American Thumpasaurus crew met at music school, and have opened for Knower and Vulfpeck. They have a very confident and charismatic frontman, and are clearly very good musicians.

Despite all of this, they aren’t entirely my bag. They talk quite a bit about funk, but I find most of their stuff more poppy. Plus the whole persona and antics of frontman and singer Lucas Tamaren are very theatrical.

Still, an interesting new group to have become aware of, with a few tracks, such as Struttin’, that I can really dig. And plenty of fun videos that are worth watching and enjoying.

MUSiC: Sisotowbell Lane, 1968

One of my all time favourite tracks from one of my all time favourite albums. This live rendition was filmed in New York, 1968, at a benefit tribute for Martin Luther King.

MUSiC: Temporal Analogues of Paradise

I can’t recall right now how I got here… I think it started with a funky jam band called High Fade, a track from whom came up in my FB feed?

Anyway, many hours later, long after that, having gone down a bit of an online musical wormhole – taking in all sorts, from Joni Mitchell’s Sisotowbell Lane (a longtime fave which I must learn!) to new music (Thumpasaurus’ Struttin’ is fun!) – I wound up checking out Shawn Lane.

Lane’s entry to the world stage was, as far as I can tell, joining BOA, when they’d shortened their name to Black Oak. The music is kind of pedestrian ‘70s hi-NRG rawk. But Lane’s shredding, aged around 16 (he joined the band at 14!) is insane.

Anyway, I have an empathic connection with Lane, because he ultimately died from a pair of diseases that I share with him: psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Anyway, that’s a story for another time/another post, I reckon.

This post is dedicated to the much more positive side of Lane’s life story: the virtuosity and artistry that he attained. And on the two videos I’m sharing here, he’s in the company of two other virtuosos, bassist Jonas Hellborg, and drummer Jeff Sipe.

This kind of ultra-chops-fest isn’t usually my bag. I mean, I do dig a lot of technically accomplished music. But I tend to favour mellow grooviness over face-melting blood-boiling insanity!

Anyway, whatever, as folk says these days. I think the music here, albeit instrumental, speaks – no, make that sings – for itself. What do you think?

HOME: Dans Le Jardin

It’s been great to enjoy being out in our long narrow back garden, with this recent bout of warm sunny weather.

I took this series of snaps today, during a break from my regular wednesday drum teaching (which I’m currently doing remotely, from our home).

During this same break I also attached the central – and third and final – of the roofing trellis panels for our ‘green room’

It felt good to nip out from the dark indoor space of the drum room/office, and get some sunlight. And doubly so to do something practical building wise.

I also cleared some of the less attractive looking stuff from this view down the garden. Very verdant!

The above is the ‘cottage garden section of the garden. And it’s supposed to be full of hollyhocks, foxgloves and poppies, etc. But it’s mostly been taken over by very tall grass.

One of the right or so foxgloves that have come back. This is the only one (of many that we’ve planted) to have survived on the southern side. The other seven or so are all on the northern side, which, in our garden, gets much more sunlight.

The above, and the next two pics look very like some of the earlier ones. They are the same view, looking back to the house. But if you look very carefully you’ll see I’ve moved a few things.

The next step is to paint the new trelli (plural of trellis!?), and touch up some of the old peeling paintwork.

It ought to be very nice once the wisteria has climbed over the roof, giving dappled shade beneath. That was the plan. we might add some more side panels as well, to make it more of a ‘room’.

And we have two cast-iron bench ends, which need some new wooden slats, to make a nice little neck to go inside.

MUSiC: Jeff Buckley, Last Goodbye

What a package: the looks, the voice, the musical talent. Taken far too young. Imagine all the music he might’ve made! Still, at least we have something to remember him by.

I adore this song. And indeed the whole Grace album. just listened to Lover, You Should’ve Come Over, and this track. They still blow me away.

MEDiA/BOOK REVIEW: W. Allen, Taschen Movie Icons

I think Woody Allen has to be my favourite film maker. He’s the only one for whom I basically want to see/own all his work.

He’s quoted in here as saying, in 2005 ‘I’ve had carte blanche for 35 years and I’ve never made a great film. It’s just not in me to make a great film; I don’t have the depth of vision to do it.’ I’d have to beg to differ! I think he’s made lots of great films.

At the time my particular edition of this entry in the Taschen Movie Icons series was published, in 2009, Match Point (2005) was Allen’s most financially – and poss’ also critically? – successful film. Also due to that print date, this book only goes up to 2008’s Vicky Christina Barcelona.

Play It Again, Sam, 1972.

Since then Allen has made more than ten more movies, including Midnight In Paris, which now often tops lists of his most fiscally lucrative films. But, as Allen himself says in this little tome, ‘I do all my films for my own personal reasons … I don’t make them for approval.’

In a very low key example of what Jung termed synchronicity, I was saying in another post earlier today that the very best poetry is, or ought be, concise. Only to find this Allen quote, about the art and craft of comedy writing, herein:

‘For example, “it’s not that I’m afraid of dying, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” … if you use one word more or less, it’s not as good.’

A Midsummer Nights Sex Comedy, 1982.

Unsurprisingly the theme of serious versus comedy rears it’s head, in this very light and easy read of a book. At one point in his career it was clear he felt very adept at and confident in his comedy skills. And later on he reaches a similar point with his ‘serious’ stuff.

I get this dichotomy. And it is very apparent – especially at the outset – that first, he has got better over time, and second, that this tension between serious and comic was an issue both for Allen himself and audiences, and critics, etc.

But for me, personally, despite how real and obvious an issue it is for the world at large, inc. Allen, it’s a false dichotomy. Ultimately Allen is an artist. His mediums are writing and film-making. And he’s done such a lot of it that it’d be surprising if he’d not gotten very good at it.

Allen and Keaton on the Radio Days set, 1987.

But he was good from very early on, starting out as a precocious gag writer (and going pro’ aged just 17!). Add to this his own unique character – his wit and wisdom, his very particular aesthetic sensibilities, and so on – and multiply that by his prolific yet diverse auteur style output, and you have a very impressive body of work.

This book is, like a lot of Taschen publishing, primarily visual. But there is a brief and surprisingly good little essay at the beginning, by Glenn Hopp (who he?). In this piece, entitled Woody Allen: The Poetry of The Joke, reference is made to ‘This higher comedy … [which] enriches emotion and fosters seriousness.’

That little sentence captures for me the essence of Allen: sometimes funny, sometimes philosophical. And often both at once. This book is a nice little thing to peruse, if you’re a Woodyphile, like me. It’s nice to see the numerous images, some stills from the movies themselves, others on set, or posters, etc.

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, 2001.

It’s also rather nice for a fairly seasoned Allen buff like me to discover one or two things Allen’s done that I’d not heard of before. There’s reference to many films and other projects (theatre, books, etc.), most of which I already knew about, from The Front via Antz to Wildman Blues). But I’d not heard of Picking Up The Pieces before. Must check that out!

What little text there is is given thrice: in English, German, and French! There’s the very short Hopp intro/essay, a ‘visual filmography’ (the main bulk of the book), an extremely brief and incomplete ‘chronology’, a somewhat more complete filmography (albeit only up to 2008), and a short bibliography.

Not in-depth or exhaustive, by a long way. But a fun little title for a fan like me. Hence four stars.

There are many more titles in this series!