catsinthewelder

From the world bollard association twitter page.

Surprise surprise! The postman came with the el cheapo thread file. (eBay £8.90 inc 24hr delivery)

Yesterday I exclaimed ‘how hard can it be’! The answer is VERY, but not in a tricky or technical way, just gruelling, knuckle bashing and tedious. It needs enormous pressure applying to cut any material, light filing just skates over the top achieving nothing. I spent the best part of 2hrs attacking the thread but finally I can thread the hub nut all the way on by hand. Hopefully there’s enough good threads to achieve the required torque, I’m hopeful.



I should be able to refit the handbrake cables and reassemble the drums tomorrow if the car cooperates.
-Steve-
 

Lotus/Marina door handle story, which I may have told before, but worth repeating.
I rebuilt a JPS Esprit with the said handles.  The passenger door would not lock.  Pulled it to bits, nothing wrong with the lock assembly or the handles, and it looked as though nobody had been inside the door before.   Experts will know that the inner handle is connected to the lock by a piece of stiff wire, bent to form hooks at the ends.   I came to the conclusion that the wire was about 1/2" too long.  I shortened and reshaped it, and all was well.  It must have been like that from the factory, the lock had not worked properly since day one, and that was a 30 year old car.  

Poor man's 911 already existed long before the TT.

I don't mind average speed cameras.
Gone past the first one in a 50 limit at 60?  Never mind, just drive through the rest of it at about 47.  Much better than normal ones on every gantry on smart motorways that encourage people to do 85 between them then slam the brakes on to pass the camera at 50.

Today, the gold one:
Pulled the radiator off it’s mounts to make access to the fan shroud. The rad fan was seized solid. Wd40 and gentle persuasion got it to turn a little bit but it was really really tight, this motor requires surgery.
 
Getting fan and shroud unit out requires the slam panel to be detached, which means taking the grill off. Got two of the three fragile plastic grill screws out intact, one broke. Grill removed along with a headlight lense that fell off when disturbed. Gave up removing the slam panel when the first two captive nuts mangled the captive clip thingys. With the access so far I could get onto the three bolts holding the motor to the shroud. First one sheared the end of it’s stud off, the other two came out ok. Couldn’t for all my might undo the inline electrical connector. Gave up and pulled as much slack wire through as I could so I could work on the motor.

Dismantled the motor and found the metal casing was heavily rusted and pushing the magnets inwards and jamming it up. Removed each magnet in turn and cleaned the rust off before reassembling and fixing it back into its shroud.




Warmed the car up again and still no fan, disappointing. Bodged a direct battery feed to the motor with some mains cable and bingo the fan runs great.

Put it back to normal and bridged the temperature switch, still nothing. Reinstated the bodge but only the positive wire this time, fan still runs, so it’s a live feed issue. Traced the live wire and found an inline fuse that I don’t think was standard and it was blown. New fuse and we might be in action! Ran engine up to temp and the fan kicked in and cooled it back down nicely. Probably spent too much time on this arguably optional fix, it takes about 5-10min to get too hot so I could have shunted it about without the fan really.
So can I get brakes too? Brake fluid header was nearly totally dry. Picked up some dot 4 (1 litre £7.25 at Halfords) and glugged it in, still no pedal, that would be too easy! Didn’t fancy trying the calliper bleed nipples today. Called it a day at that.
-Steve-

I don't mind average speed cameras.
Gone past the first one in a 50 limit at 60?  Never mind, just drive through the rest of it at about 47.  Much better than normal ones on every gantry on smart motorways that encourage people to do 85 between them then slam the brakes on to pass the camera at 50.

As its mostly pensioners on our street I like to go first and put the wrong bin out so they all copy me, then swap it round about midnight when they're all in bed - I'm going to hell aren't I?🤣

@Talbot happy to do hookup for lights/chargers.  Less keen if its a heater.
Which reminds me to sort out some fire wood and charcoal for the fire pits.   I'll buy some nearer the time unless anyone has a particularly good source.
There's a screen in the woods if we'd like to watch a film?  I wondered if anyone fancied swiping 70s car chase videos from YouTube and making something we could put (quietly) on a loop.
Miss Cats is from Bridgnorth so I've asked her to sort out a list of the best takeaways.

I can't see the bike being an issue on the track up to the field so long as its not being noisy for too long or late (there is a next door neighbour).
I've been thinking about Saturday activities.  I imagine a few folk will want to go to Cosford RAF museum which is about 40 minutes away and only charges for parking so it'll make sense to car share.
@Scruffy Bodger is kindly trying to arrange a blacksmithing demonstration in the next village, parking there is a bit limited so again, car sharing would make sense.
Train fans have a bit of a choice, the SVR runs from Bridgnorth and there's a cliff railway too.  Alternatively Telford Steam Railway is a bit more Autoshite, likely to be cheaper and I could have a word about doing a group thing as I used to volunteer there years ago.
For the active types the campsite is at the bottom of the biggest hill in Shropshire if you want to walk/run/cycle up.  There's a bit of industrial heritage up there but including the pub would make it a long walk.
Or.....There are canoe/kayak hire companies that put you in a boat in Bridgnorth and fish you out downstream and hand you a ticket to get back on the SVR.  I did it last year with work and really enjoyed it despite falling in.  This needs booking a week or two beforehand.
Obviously you can also just chill on site and wait for the hangover to subside or find something else to do.

Rightio, the nagging has paid off and I've got it booked.  Location is my mates field/woods/campsite near Bridgnorth in Shropshire.  Should be quite reasonably priced so long as we tidy up afterwards.






https://www.powkesmoreholding.co.uk/

Edit #1
Lets make the location easy to find.
What3 words to the entrance.  ///bungalows.next.windmills
Which looks like this

The open one on the left.
From above.

Access is from Ashfield Road, the track marked on Google heading South East doesn't exist as far as I know.
Further out.

I don't mind average speed cameras.
Gone past the first one in a 50 limit at 60?  Never mind, just drive through the rest of it at about 47.  Much better than normal ones on every gantry on smart motorways that encourage people to do 85 between them then slam the brakes on to pass the camera at 50.

I don't mind average speed cameras.
Gone past the first one in a 50 limit at 60?  Never mind, just drive through the rest of it at about 47.  Much better than normal ones on every gantry on smart motorways that encourage people to do 85 between them then slam the brakes on to pass the camera at 50.

Adaptive cruise control is crap is part of the reason for congestion on motorways.
It stops people anticipating what's ahead. 
Rather than notice a problem coming up and slowing down a little to keep smooth flow of traffic, the adaptive cruise will carry right on and then slam on the anchors, with every car behind doing the same until the traffic stops.

I'd imagine that the money raised from selling a 2004 Focus with no MOT, 3 bald tyres and a few empty Stella cans in the back isn't going to make much of a dent in their costs. Many things need fixing in this country, spending £48,000 a year on each and every pissed up driver surely wouldn't feature high on many peoples lists.
For the record, a first time offender blowing 90-119 milligrams can expect 23-28 months ban, have to face a DVLA medical and the average fine is £300.  On top of that there's a chance the person would lose their job so have no income, and by your rules would then either cost the tax payer the above amount in prison costs, or be propped up by the social at the tax payers expense, too.  Obviously no income increases the risk of some sort of offending/re-offending going on too, so there's no happy ending. Except for the average Daily Mail reader, I expect.
 
Drink drivers are almost certainly 99.9% lazy, selfish bastards and should be punished. Sending all of them down for a year and banning them for life is ridiculous though.

That's quite a popular view to be fair

Who said it was fun?
I take it you will happily pay the estimated £48, 409 per year it'll cost to keep them there, though?

That looks well useful and is gently comical, "they've never been packed the same way twice" Gives a bit of insight to the work practices 🤣
How old is it actually? 

 Engine and gearbox stamped with the same number, but that's Quite a big number, so maybe not that old? But... 

Frame plate. Bottom field stamped 61(gap)1 and It's a 6 volt with only a kick start. That makes me think it might be 61 as claimed. 

It's still a handsome beast in my opinion 

It will get a declutter and wire and cable tidy. Less is more with this one. 
Someone has cared for it, tidy lock wiring on the tank mountings 

Stainless fixings here and there 

Recentish Date written on battery 

The tail light is unutterably gorgeous 

And the air cleaner seems to be, deliberately and as intended, full of horse hair? 

All in all a pleasing nose about. Then had a good fiddle and prod. And then.. 

MOV_0059_000.mp4  
It only bloody worked. 😁 Brum Brum. 
 
I had to put it away then as I had no helmet and insurance and it was taking all my self control to not go out for a ride. 😁 
 
 
 
 

Don't be daft, we'd love you to come.  Direct trains to Shrewsbury from Birmingham airport too.

I remember you letting my son drive it round the field at Chumley with the BX on a trailer hitched up behind.
Driving it myself at Shitefest Cymru with you encouraging me to give it the beans up the hill climb.
You traipsing all the way down to Ludlow in it to fetch that Austin 1100. 
Passing the buck to you when AP broke the Skoda at SF last year. 
Rest in pieces wonderful car, hope the eventual replacement is equally epic.

Don't be daft, we'd love you to come.  Direct trains to Shrewsbury from Birmingham airport too.

Don't be daft, we'd love you to come.  Direct trains to Shrewsbury from Birmingham airport too.

I'M ALIVE!
Ahem, sorry. This is newsworthy because i have been trying, on and off, for weeks, to compress a front spring on the Chrysler Voyager, after the top mount and the top of the strut parted company (how, I'm not yet sure, as the top is still covered up by scuttle, sound insulation, assorted wires and pipes).
Whatever, the strut, top mount and spring have to come out to find out what needs replacing, so the spring, a quite stout item, supporting as it does, over a quarter of the GVW of a (Grand) Voyager, needs to come out. 
Anyway, everyone who has been aware of this has shaken their head and expressed what widow makers non-hydraulic, non-floor mounted spring compressors are - even the man in the local parts shop who sold me a beefier pair for this job. "I really don't like selling these" he goes. "Everyone i know who has ever used them has been injured. Haven't they Bob?"
Bob, the other customer present, replies:
"Oh, aye. That young lad at the garage next door, he's been using them years. Still, had one slip on him and now he's got a plate in his head"
Etc etc..
So it is with some surprise and not a little jubilation that i have at least completed the first stage of this apparently potentially life threatening or at least life-changing-injury-rich pastime...
Wish me luck

Don't be daft, we'd love you to come.  Direct trains to Shrewsbury from Birmingham airport too.

If he flew to Birmingham or East Midlands, I could very easily drive him to Shitefest