R1152

Why has everything got to be called a barn find even when it has quite clearly been found in something that is not a barn?

Nothing much today, mainly just got an oil & filter change done on the BX.  No more horrible rusty oil filter.

That wasn't the worst filter to get off I've dealt with, but it wasn't far off.  I had to get the chain wrench and breaker bar involved. 
Pulled just over seven litres of oil, just under six went back in.

The discoloration on the dipstick shows where the level has been sitting for quite a while, a good inch above max.
Getting the oil filler cap off was a task in itself - get the impression it's not been off in a while, and it's just a friction fit.
Being the coolest point of the engine doesn't surprise me we've got quite a bit of condensation here.

If it's still looking like that after an hour's blat up the A5 or M1 then I'll look more closely, but there doesn't seem to be any pressurisation of the coolant, it looks spotlessly clean and she idles smoothly so reckon it is just old fashioned condensation.  Remember this car was last in MOT in 2011...so she's not had a proper run in forever.  TPA had just as much gunk in the filler neck for the same reason when she was first revived.
I did spot a couple of electrical things needing immediate attention while I was waiting for the oil to drain.  Firstly this Scotchlok on one of the alternator lines.

Note the stub of brown wire...which sits exactly as close to this hydraulic line as it looks like.

Yeah... that's getting soldered and covered with heatshrink ASAP.
I originally thought this was a drain line for some reason...

It appears to vanish down through the bulkhead grommet towards the fuse box.  I'll investigate further tomorrow... that's going to be getting removed at the first opportunity.
I can also confirm now that being in the humble RE trim level it doesn't look like this car has an oil level sensor (not sure if the wiring is there, hence if it could be retrofitted easily), unlike the higher trim levels.
Have to admit that while I was kind of scratching my head about whether taking on this car when she first arrived, I'm really, really looking forward to driving it now.
Dammit... I'm already getting attached to it and I've not even driven it yet!
Oh...and the fuel gauge illumination has come back to life again.

It heard me thinking about pulling the panel to investigate that apparently!

Oi! What're you doing in my kitchen?!

Oi! What're you doing in my kitchen?!

The fate of pilot scheme diesel 10800 was to end up at Brush and be used as a test bed for thyristor control, where it was named "Hawk". That was back in the 60s.
I just have visions of that massive rotating contactor thing that English Electric used at this point...

Crikey, that would have been anachronistic even when the things were new, thyristor tech was coming in at that point allowing quite sophisticated solid-state motor controls for efficiency and giving the batteries an easier time. The Lucas Taxicab supposedly used thyristor control.
That's how ww2 subs did coarse speed control; motors parallel and batteries series for highest speed, vice versa for slowest speed/best endurance.

Toolbox bottle openers have been a feature of the Wera tool Advent Calendars for some years now. I picked up one some years ago and the white bits on the handle glow in the dark. So if you've plunged somewhere into darkness by accident, at least you can find the bottle opener to break out a beer and have a liquid "Hamlet moment".

There's something starkly utilitarian about that I love and I can't put my finger on it.

Good to know it's HPI clear.

The AA is a financial institution, funded by venture capital, with a breakdown service loosely attached...

Must've done. Christ, I remember when a few rolls of Anaglypta was all you needed, or woodchip and emulsion if you just wanted to hide crap plaster.

Funding update for March 2021.
December's hosting & backup costs came to £45.98, down again from last month.  We raised £70.00 from the MoneyPool last month so the account is at +£49.74 right now. 
There are no additional costs expected next month, so with a bill under £50 anticipated, we have enough in the kitty to cover this, there is no fundraiser this month.
Thank

It might just be me. Tricky to compare TPA on the flat with TWC on the hills. Let's just say there's some interesting video footage coming tomorrow...

Package arrived this morning for TPA.

Installation was pretty straightforward...Though I still had to fabricate a cable end.  I think I just need to go to Speedy Cables or similar and just order a proper cable.  The issue seems to be that (unsurprisingly) the cable has a standard motorcycle type barrel connector at the handlebar end...but finding off the shelf motorbike throttle cables more than a couple of metres long is tricky - and this needs to be a touch over five metres long because of the routing.  As it is having trimmed away the frayed bit of cable I'm now down to literally millimetres to spare, and it's a bit frilly at the handlebar end so will likely fail again in the not too distant future. 
Nevertheless, it does mean that I've now got matching grips on the handlebars which looks SO much better.

The throttle action is also way better...It always felt very much as though it wasn't attached to anything before, so you were never quite sure how much throttle you were applying - and I'm not 100% certain that I was ever actually getting full throttle as the old twist grip was distorted and binding up at several points in its travel.  New one is all metal so should hopefully fare better.
New grips are a good deal chunkier than the old ones which I think will be a good thing.

Will have to wait for a test drive to be certain, but just sitting in the garage it feels better I think.

The fact that he's being pegged by a banger racing chap makes me feel bad for the banger racer.

+1.

Probably the least intrusive AV nowadays is Windows own one, but on the laptop I don't bother with anything since they all behave pretty much like the malware they allegedly protect you from.
My desktop PC has enough headroom to accommodate an AV program but the laptop gets bogged down so much from all the updating and general nonsense these things do it's just not worth the bother. Stick to reputable websites, don't click on any unknown links in emails and don't have any access to anything financial on the machine and it's all good.

I remember using Norton on my old XP lappy which had a Celeron processor and 512Mb RAM, why does a machine with an  i3 CPU and 4Gb RAM make such a meal of it?

 

Would RealOEM help?

You don't need to download the zoom client; just block downloading the client three times in a row and the client will appear.  The meeting has a password and isn't publicly known so the likelihood of being zoombombed is low.
 
Having been in one of the zoom meetings which was bombed with extreme infant rape porn early in the first lockdown (one of the two which made the news headlines), I am somewhat cautious with what I join, but this is pretty OK and Brownnova is doing the right things with the meeting as far as I can see.

Yeah bud..on reflection its cool. Thanks.Not grumpy now.

And that's without the story of MrsR's medication!  She spoke to a doctor the other day who promised her some better painkillers (which she really needs).  Got to Boots... they've given her Naproxen and Omeprazole.  Nap for the pain, Om to protect her stomach from it.  Except she can't take Naproxen, it reacts with other stuff she has to take.  I gave the whole lot straight back to Boots and now we will have to go through all the rigmarole again.

Not that far from here.

 

"Vectra B" and "Classic"
Oxymoron, right there.

Not that far from here.

 

What. The. Actual. Fuck? 😧