Unimog Club UK

Well it looks like after our little chat about cleaning the fuel filters and tank on the mog my theory wasn't quite so good after all. Apparently the drain plug is a pig to remove, but me being me started out all confident and was going to get it sorted... How hard can it be right? Well it turns out quite hard actually - the last owner rounded it off trying so I've just left it! I didn't even try!

I also found that the pre filter wasn't a pre filter, it was actually a little pot of crud with some gauze hidden in the middle of it... So that's now clean. The first felt filter was in a poor state too so that's been scraped off (I kid you not, it looked more like a chocolate brownie than a filter!) and then washed. The second was just very dirty but again all cleaned out and good to go. Both went back to white after quite a lot of effort but were still fluffy and dense so not needing replacing.

I had wondered why she pulled well at low revs but ran out of puff when higher up the range. This pretty much explains it - sucking diesel through a pipe full of mud probably isn't the easiest task! I've bled the system and started her up and I've managed to do the job properly. She didn't die after running for some time so I think it's all good.

Next issue is the brakes. I need to bleed them but can't get the bleed nipples on the master cylinder open. And I need to take the wheel off to access the brake cylinder bleed nipples, but I don't have a jack big enough! Grrr!

I hadn't even thought about taking the plates off... I was really looking for an excuse to buy a decent jack!

I'll go out and have a look now. Thanks. The sooner I can get it sorted the sooner I can find out if she goes any faster now the filters are done!

I've managed to bleed circuit one on all four wheels. The rears were a right pain - access is pretty tight even though there's no plate in the way. In the end I had to slacken it very slightly with a ratchet then use the spanner just to finally free it from any tension, then return it as far as I could with the spanner again before nipping it up with the ratchet.

The brakes feel a lot different now. Very firm. I'm going to take her out for a spin in the morning, although I should probably have a quick go at circuit two on the front wheels before I do that.

They were always a bit spongy but stopped it ok. I put it down to air assist feeling different to a normal brake, but now they've been bled I know that's not the case.

I think it's mainly down to the time they've been in there. That and many people don't lube a bolt like you're supposed to before they put it together.