Mongolia Mercedes Sprinter Ambulance Charity Rally

This summer as part of the 2011 Mongol Rally, Team ‘Things Can Only Get Bataar’ are driving to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, to raise money for three charities - Cancer Research UK, Christina Noble Children’s Foundation and Help for Heroes. 

Some of the team pictured with the Mercedes Sprinter ambulance

Driving the 10,000 miles from the UK to Mongolia is a challenge within itself, however the team have decided to make things a little bit harder by driving the journey in a Mercedes Sprinter ambulance, which will then be gifted to a Mongolian hospital at the end of the rally. 

In collaboration with LUK, we are supporting this amazing challenge and have donated a number of tools and accessories that will be taken on the rally including pliers, spanners, screwdrivers, wrenches, gloves, goggles and tape to name but a few – all vital items that will be required in the service and maintenance of the ambulance throughout the journey. 

The rally begins on the 23^rd July and will see the team visit a number of countries along the way that include France, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine and Russia before they reach their destination of Mongolia. We will provide updates from the team and keep track of their progress as they embark on an adventure of a lifetime – all in aid of charity. 

If you would like to support the team of youngsters – visit their website: http://www.malvern2mongolia.co.uk/  and see how you can help.

Dr Bob - Problem Solver of a disassembled Honing Set!

Cylinder Honing Set

This week Dr Bob received a query about our Cylinder Honing Set (02800000) and he was quick off the mark to solve the problem. The customer, Bill, had called to say that he had taken the tool apart and was unsure of how to put this back together and in typical Doctor Bob fashion, he was able to delve into his library of all things technical and emailed a photo of the assembly order of the tool to Bill – Job done and one happy customer!

Bill also commented on Doctor Bob’s quick solution on a website called – www.realclassic.co.uk - a site dedicated to classic motorcycles. See the comment that Bill kindly posted on the message board page – under the heading ‘Service Stars’ - June 13th. The site provides an array of information about classic motorcycles and offers friendly expert advice from people who share a passion for old motorcycles - A great biking site for any enthusiastic rider.

SP Pullers head to China

It seems the Chinese desire for buying quality items extends to more than German and Italian cars!

After years of “interesting“ pullers coming to Europe, we have just started exporting our “made in the UK puller range to China. The interest level is increasing each month – so much so that we thought its time we made a visit!

So Paul and Sebastien have headed off to China this week and who knows what will happen!........Watch this space for updates!

Success at Mechanex

We had a busy couple of days at the Mechanex Motor Trade show in Harrogate this week. It was good to see so many people turn up and find out about the latest products to hit the automotive industry.

Our stand at Mechanex

Huge thanks to our friends at LUK / FAG who were demonstrating our new GEN2 VAG Bearing tool (08125500) – This was a popular one with the crowds as the guys at LUK did around 30 demos of this tool in one day!

There were a couple of tools in particular that many visitors to our stand were talking about and these were the Universal Press & Pull Sleeve Set (08780000) and the recently launched TPMS Tool (30661000). It was great to see so many requests for workouts too – our Sales reps are going to be kept busy over the coming weeks visiting these people and promoting some of our latest products.

We were also thrilled at the request from a couple of fellow exhibitors who asked if they could borrow some of our products to display and help raise the image of their stands during the show…….. It’s good to know that the SP name is appreciated by many within the industry!

Thanks to all those people who came to see us on the stand and provided us with some valuable feedback that we can use for future product development. Hope to see you again at one of our future shows!

Competition News!

 

Thanks to all those that entered our competition to win a GearWrench® 12 Piece Combination Ratcheting Wrench Set. We received lots of entries and are pleased to announce that the winner is………………..Mike Smith of RMS Car Repairs in Calshot. RMS Car Repairs are a long established, independent garage, whose services include car repairs, MOT’s, engine diagnostics and car servicing. Well Done Mike – We hope the wrench set comes in handy!

RMS Car Repairs

Tel: 02380 891046

The M9R Engine Conquered! by Professor Rob

Stuck Injector

This week I visited a large Vauxhall dealer in Bolton that had a Vivaro van – as I found it, with one injector not just stuck but broken off as well. Double trouble! A vain attempt to remove this had been made by the guys at the garage using the OEM tool used by Vauxhall, Nissan & Renault but this injector was not budging!

18580000 - Tool in place

So I was set the challenge of pulling the injector out of the engine and with this particular Vauxhall having a joint engine fitted, also common in Renault and Nissan vehicles and renowned in the motor trade as the worst engine to remove injectors from – It is the fabled ‘M9R’ motor! 

Injector successfully removed

People in the know normally allow half a day or more to pull one injector, so you can imagine how impressed the staff were when I managed to pull this tricky injector out……..along with another 4 injectors that were stuck in various Vauxhall M9R engines in little over half a day! Reeesult!

It has to be said that the garage had serious doubts we could provide a tool (18580000 - CLICK HERE to see video) that would actually assist in this tricky problem, yet alone work on this type of engine - but ours did. I have to add that our vibro-impact air hammer tool (90206000) also assisted in this operation and the combination of tools used really did the business!  

Voila!

Mission: Accomplished!

"Shut that door!" – Another top tip from Professor Rob

Shut That Door!

Vehicle diagnostic checking – always remember to shut the doors first or else there is a real chance your diagnostic tester won’t communicate with the car you are connected to.

Many vehicles (particularly Germanic ones) will restrict high level ECU access with the doors open or if the interior lights are on. Basic entry level EOBD readers pick codes from around the ECU core data..…but to go right into an ECU at a higher level using OEM type communication protocols – then many ECU’s only exchange data with the doors shut & interior lights off – so always remember to Shut That Door!