What's your most satisfying mechanical repair (bike or anything else)?

[Panscrank]

Pretty much all the repairs I have done on my 2001 BMW 325 Ti Compact.

1. Replaced power steering pump, reservoir and all the hoses
2. Deleted the auxiliary radiator as well as the one with a manual fan clutch and installed an electric one
3. Replaced all other cooling components and hoses including the water pump, reservoir etc
4. Replaced the rocker cover gasket
5. Replaced all pulley wheels and tensioners as well as the 2 fan belts
6. Fitted a 'new' front bumper
7. Replaced the MAF/DISA valve
8. Cleaned the throttle body and replaced all the hoses to solve a vacuum leak
9. Changed the oil, air filter, pollen filter, oil filter

All helped in no small part by a brilliant amateur BMW mechanic called The 50s Kid on Youtube

 

[Ian H]

Some 25 years ago our oldest press was getting less reliable, and hardly worth calling the engineers out (several nights' hotel bills and £££ hourly rate). So I ordered the parts and did a complete top-end rebuild. It took me about a week. I was really cautious starting it up afterwards - any mistiming would have been expensive. It worked perfectly.

Pretty much like this one, but without the foil head (the first bit after the pale green UV dryer).

 

[Mark Grant]

1985 I was a mechanic in the Army on my first posting, somewhere in a field in Germany on exercise Lionheart, a big NATO exercise.
A bedford MK came into camp the driver complaining about excesive smoke and lack of power. I was given the job so checked it all over and made sure the diesel pump was timed correctly to the engine. Off it went but returned a day or two later with the same problem. Once again I re checked the timing but it didn't really make much difference. I went to see my boss, the AQMS and told him of my theory that the timing mark on the diesel pump may be out and can I remove the pump and bench time it. It was a CAV 6 cylinder inline pump. He agreed so I removed the pump, got a new injector pipe from stores to make a 'swan neck' ( a tool used to set the timing) and bench timed it. The factory mark was quite a bit out so I showed the boss and asked if I could put a new timing mark on and file the old one off. He agreed, I put it all back together and it was fine.
Pump was omething like this.

 

[rogerzilla]

I once took the tape from a broken VHS cassette and transferred it to another cassette. It was a very valuable recording.

 

[richardfm]

Most satisfying is rebuilding carburetors after a clean, to find the machine purrs like a new one. I must say of the 5 or 6 I've done in the last 2 years, only one has been my own machine

My first car was a MKII Cortina. It was difficult to start and temperamental until warmed up.
I spent one weekend setting up the carb and the timing. It now started first time and ran really well.
That was at home in north Herts. I drove it back down to London where I was at college on the Sunday evening.
It was stolen the next morning. I always said, if it been stolen the previous week they wouldn't have got past the end of the road.

 

[richardfm]

Me too, it was a new skill that I taught myself, really enjoyed it and very satisfying.

Same here.

 

[rogerzilla]

I used to like setting the timing on my first car. Fitted new points and rotated the distributor to make the timing quite advanced. Then found a local hill the car would just climb at 30mph in 3rd. Car would pink under load, so I'd back off timing a bit and try the hill again until the pinking was gone. That was always the best setting. I had a timing light but the factory spec gave less good results, as the car was designed to run on 90 RON petrol and had a high mileage.

All this stuff has gone, like horseshoes in the army!

 

[Fastpedaller]

I used to like setting the timing on my first car. Fitted new points and rotated the distributor to make the timing quite advanced. Then found a local hill the car would just climb at 30mph in 3rd. Car would pink under load, so I'd back off timing a bit and try the hill again until the pinking was gone. That was always the best setting. I had a timing light but the factory spec gave less good results, as the car was designed to run on 90 RON petrol and had a high mileage.

All this stuff has gone, like horseshoes in the army!

When I worked in the car industry 30 years ago, the systems had changed away from manual, although that didn't stop the supervisor from asking a question when he interviewed candidates for a job....... "how would you go about setting the ignition timing and points on a Ford Escort ?" .
"That'll sort out those who claim they know about engines" was his reckoning, and he was correct IMHO

 

[rogerzilla]

When I worked in the car industry 30 years ago, the systems had changed away from manual, although that didn't stop the supervisor from asking a question when he interviewed candidates for a job....... "how would you go about setting the ignition timing and points on a Ford Escort ?" .
"That'll sort out those who claim they know about engines" was his reckoning, and he was correct IMHO

A multimeter that does dwell angle is a lot better than just setting the points gap with a feeler gauge, I remember. The old Micra had a curious timing setting of 2 degrees after TDC; tiny hemispherical combustion chambers and very fast flame front. Virtually every other petrol car on the market fires the spark before TDC. I imagine the NOx was terrible.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Keeping my second hand, old and VERY battered, 1967 Hasselblad 500c going for as long as it did! ☺️😆

 

[Alex321]

Pretty trivial, but I replaced the main heating element in my cooker the other day.

When it went, I thought I was going to need an electrician and a fair expense, until my daughter suggested I look it up on Youtube.

Element cost £24 including postage, and it was one of those 10-minute jobs that actually did only take 10 minutes (at most).