Wood you believe it

 My Fiat Panda had done 80,000 miles when I discovered the timing belt should be changed at 40,000 miles and if it snapped the consequences would be very expensive!

The manual suggested breaking off the ceramic of an old spark plug and feeding a piece of dowel through it to check if no 1 piston was at TDC. I had a piece of dowel just a bit smaller than the plug hole so cut off a length and inserted it. To make sure it was TDC I turned the crankshaft pulley a little each way.

It jammed. When I got the dowel out it was an inch shorter than when inserted! Horrified, I had visions of taking the head off. Peering through the plug hole with a torch I was able to see the wood. Over the next three days, with tweezers, a quarter-inch wood chisel, a long, thin screwdriver with sticky tape on the end and a lot of patience, I was able to break-up the wood and fish it out bit by bit.

The timing belt? That’s another story, but the Panda is going fine now. Best advice is, don’t ask me to help if you need to change a timing belt on your car.