davidfowler2000

smol car on holiday

FoTU 2022: SCTSHLND RESPRESENT YO @320touring, @jaypee

smol car in the wild

FoD prep

FoD on 17/18th??? Hoe. Lee. Phuq! That's my weekend off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!ONE!!!!!!!!

Ahh yes... summer time. When the weather is actually nice enough to do something to / with the car without being in abject misery. The 205 has had hot start issues for a wee while now. The cure so far has been to put it in 5th, hold the key in the start position and give the car a shove to jog the starter motor off it's dead spot. It's been getting worse and on the way back from Shitefest it completely failed at Gretna services necessitating a push start from TTT Solutions ( @320touring and @jaypee) so I thought it was time to finally do something about it. Refurb or a new one from ECP at £45? I'll take the new one thanks. Tools were required to extricate the old motor from the car so I had to go get them from the lockup in Cumbernauld... It was warm that day. Bear in mind... peely wally Scotsman... 3 x hex head bolts. Easy eh? RONG! Two were get-at-able but the third was too tight for my hex sockets to get to. The hex in the photo is hard against the clutch lever so I can't get the drive socket on to it. This was remedied by the judicious use of @juular's 8mm allen key just enough to crack it off. I have imperial keys and the 5/16" was close enough but I wouldn't have trusted it to start it. New one installificated... VID_20220726_115827.mp4 With that done it was time to do Festival of The Unexceptional. In the 740 of course! I have already done much moaning about work but tl;dr - I finished work at 2345 after handing this cunt's arse to it as much as I could all the way from Largs. 4 mins early arrival. Would have been earlier if I hadn't caught up with the 2345 arrival from Wemyss Bay... Straight down to the car park, got changed, drove out the said car park at 2355 and went direct, non stop to the hotel in Peatboghorror arriving at 0451... Bed for two and a bit hours then up at 0830 to meet @320touring, @jaypee and @blackboilersuitfor breakfast before heading for a day out... We did a touristy. British Museum, Covent Garden, Camden High Street and Regents Canal... Back up the road to Peebo where we were joined by @Skizzerfor dinner in Middleton's Steak House. Fuck. Me. Sideways. Best dinner I've had in years. Then across the main square for a wee night cap... FoTU was the next morning. We were joined by @Kiltox for breakfast and @rml2345 shortly after (who had left at 2300 the previous evening!) for a convoy to the show to be further joined by @juular and WOMAN_juular as well as @captain_70s and WOMAN_70s, @dollywobbler and WOMAN_wobbles and a few other shiters that we bumped in to. I forget everyone who was there. I won't bore yous with my photos. There's plenty YouTube show reports and photos on other threads... We came prepared this year... But a 7 hour day always gets the best of most folk... Time for UP EH ROAD! Convoy with @captain_70s, @rml2345, @blackboilersuit and TTT Solutions. Stopped at Blyth for FUEL_70s (see my services thread... here), Ferrybridge for dinner... ...and Southwaite for a tea. Southwaite of course being WOMAN_70s' FAVOURITE services in the entire world. So that was done. Oh and the following week, Mr @Talbot was in the locale so stopped by to go in to Glasgow city centre for dinner and the obligatory run on the Subway back to my bit... I think that just about covers everything. ---ENDS---

Festival of The Unexceptional done for another year but we have to do some updates... As usual, updates in bold Blyth Location: A1(M) Type: One side for both carriageways. Moto Petrol Station: Esso Hotel: Travelodge Pros: None. Potentially quiet. Cons: Small Comments: As will be the case with a lot of the east coast stuff, I only ever stopped here once on the one day round trip to London to get those hi fi speakers I won on eBay. Looking at maps, Blyth services was at the roundabout where the A1(M) finished and the A1 started so the access was pretty sensisble off the A1 southbound and exit back on to the roundabout. Now the roundabout has been removed and the roads continue in to each other so everything got re-jigged at the services. It's weird. From memory you come in, drive through the truck park, double back on yourself and then in to the parking where you are greeted with what felt like a glorified Portakabin™. It was something daft like 9am on a Sunday morning when I rocked up so it was dead however I was still not impressed. The inside is really close and cramped even with noone in it. God knows what it must be like when it's busy. @captain_70shad a fuel emergency on the way back from FoTU 2022 necessitating a stop here so we nipped in to the petrol station. The access to said fuel stop was unforgetably chronic. Biggest problem is no toilets in the petrol station apart from an utterly heart stoppingly bad porta-squat outside on the forecourt. I managed to brave it but it was horrific. Conclusion: Come in, go for a pee in the main building toilets, get out. 2/10 AVOID Ferrybridge Location: A162, M62 Type: One site for various routes. Moto Petrol Station: BP Hotel: Travelodge Pros: Massive car park. Big amenities building. Cons: Has access to about 47 different motorways, none of which feel close to it. Comments: I'm sure I've tried to get in to Ferrybridge once before and ended up back on the motorway but I finally managed to work out the secret code. It has access to the M62 and A162 but there are signs on the A1(M) to get in and signage back on to it via the M62. Even though it's at a junction like many other services, for some reason I just can't get my head around where it is even following signs. Once you're in it's like a wild goose chase trying to find the car park as the access road takes you right round the amenities building with hardly any signage or road marking. Once you do find the car park, it's huge - from what I gather Ferrybridge was a much more important site when the A1 was just the A1 and the A1(M) and M1 didn't exist. The building is impressive but doesn't give a good impression walking in the door. Going in the front door it feels like another tiny, grotty wee place until you get past M&S and it opens up in to an vastly oversized log cabin feeling food court. It was dead when I visited so maybe that made it feel nicer. More eateries since last time. KFC, bigger Pret a Manger, bigger Costa and a Greggs. Reduces the amount of seating and overall bigly feeling of the seating area but the seating itself has also been upgraded and is much nicer. @jaypee noted pubes in the urinals. Conclusion: Definitely worth a visit. If you can bloody find it. 7/10 Recommended

And now I present my Ted talk on all things Volvo

Unfortunately I'm working both FoD dates again. Much sadness. I hope to get to ONE this year

Aye was pretty good. The 205 doesn't slow down on any motorway hills pulling it. It did drop to 50mph on the big hill on the A55 though and it got hot enough to trip the electric cooling fans just before the top

Quick roundup for the weekend. As usual, Shitefest is always a fucking tremendous activity even if your only activity is sitting about drinking tea. Seeing loads of friendly faces old and new it's always a a fucking hoot. As everyone else says, big thanks to @Sunny Jim for organising it / conversing with Ted the site owner and helping out with the brekkie on the Sunday morning. And bringing a Shitefest doggo! I wanted to convoy for the simple reason that heading around Manchester / Wigan / Warrington / Lymm / Chester at any time after lunch time on a Friday afternoon is grim. Noone else was up for leaving at "Railway time" (I suggested 0630 meet at Cairn Lodge services) so I ended up making my own way. 0620 departure from the parents' house 'cos that's where the trailer lives... A Tebay breakfast was had and the next stop was the British Commercial Motor Museum. It's a cracker wee wander about and it's only about 5 mins off the M6 at J28. Well worth the £8 to get in. There was lots to see from horse drawn stuff to steam stuff to petrol stuff to diesel stuff to modern hybrid stuff. I'll post a miniscule selection... They had a few engines on stands which always catch my attention. This Cummins L10 is a truck variant (you can tell by the way that it is) but it's the same engine my bus had. Mines was 180bhp and this one is either a 180 or 215bhp just by looking at it. The ratings plate was missing. For more power you need an intercooler which would designate it a LTA10. Then there was this. Something quite special. A Gardner straight 8 diesel engine. I'm personally guessing it's an 8LXB although one of the volunteers at the museum said it was donated recently by a random person who had it in their garden and they reckoned it came out of a boat which would more likely make it an 8LW. Thing is, though, 8LWs have individual cylinders and individual priming pumps for each cylinder on the injection pump. This one does not. The other thing that makes me think it's an 8LXB is... ...it's fucking turbocharged! Which would make it an 8LXBT or 8LXCT. Rare enough seeing an 8 banger never mind one with added windy pops. Oh and it's also got a radiator fan and a compressor mounted to it. You don't get those on marine engines. Anyways onwards to Shitefest. I took the wiggly road toward Wrexham then Llangollen then the A5 to Bethesda then the REALLY wiggly road straight over the hill to the site. It was quite nice... And onwards to the festivities. As the first to arrive I was tasked by the other Scotoshiters to set up "Scotch Corner"... @juular and WOMAN_juular were the next diciples of Scotoshite to arrive before being joined by messyrs @320touring, @jaypee, @Supernaut, @cms206, @aldo135 @sdkrc and @captain_70s(very laterer on)... And then the rest of Shitefest happened (Not all the photos I took)... @binhoker668 even had an art gallery installation set up at the bottom of the field... @cms206 turned up a couple of hours later than most of Scotland in what can only be described as a mobile mansion... And in typical, hundred year old buildings, it wasn't 100% structurally sound... Nice view though from the roof Once it was shunted up to Scotch Corner, we rolled out the welcome banner. @Ghosty has been custodian of the banner for a few years now. I've heard through the rumour mill it may have accidentally made it's way to Scotland in the back of said mobile house... @cms206 also bought me a present! Fucking ace! Disappointed though as the 205 has a tape player. Will need to get it on to the computer and in to MP3 format before I can listen to it. Next day a railway and slate museum happened... To be honest, I couldn't be arsed taking any photos in the museum because I was too busy looking at stuff, it was hot and I was tired. So have a gratuitous photo of a dog instead... I think that's everything. Oh aye the 205 shat a fuel leakoff pipe on departure from SF22 on the Sunday morning so it was leaking to outside the car rather than back to the tank and I reckon I lost about a litre. It was replaced with a section of newer hose from between the injectors and the old hose was long enough to be swapped in to that position. Even pissing out as much fuel as it did, I still managed 46.8mpg on the way back to Scotlandland at a steadyish 60mph towing the trailer. We used the A55 rather than the wiggly road this time. On the way south I only* got 41.7mpg. Right, I think that about covers everything.

They ended up dotted all over the bastard place!

Did I fucking sneeze or something when you took that photo or am I just naturally blurred in person?

<Placeholder post for when (if) I bother posting my own big-ish post with pictures> The 205's starter motor doesn't like the heat. I think there's a dead spot on the commutator so when the solenoid engages the ring gear, the motor won't spin because it's on the dead spot. What I've been doing up 'till now is putting it in gear, turning the key and giving it a little push to rotate the motor enough off the dead spot to let it cough. Then I can key off, put it in neutral and start it normally. This time at Gretna it didn't work and needed a full on bump start by messyrs @320touring and @jaypee. Suggestions have been made by @320touringand @Ghostythat it could just be the usual 205 degraded starter wiring which I am willing to accept but why would a wee shove of the car with the starter engaged allow it to then start as normal? It's due an MoT in a couple of weeks so I'll get the guy who's doing other wee bits of work to have a look at it.

Indeed there is