davidfowler2000

4/5th June for me please. 13/14/15th May is myself and @Inspector Morose's return to Dufftown, Eurovision and Club GLF at Crail

Afraid of camping? This is the very type of event I bought my trailer for!

The saga continues. I was able to drop the car off on Tuesday seeing I got away early from work. I got the bus back to Kilmarnock town centre and asked for a return seeing I'd be back the next day. Only when I got off the bus did I notice the driver issued me an all-day ticket. FUCK. SAKES! So back down on the Wednesday and I decided seeing as the train gets in to Killie with a 40 min wait for the bus, I'd just hoof it as it's about a 40 min walk. Got to the workshop, car's ready to go. Starts it up, floors it in drive with my foot on the brake and it climbs well over 2500rpm. MUCH BETTER. Just a shame it took so long. Then it was round to @davehedgehog31's to pickup and give a lift back to Glasgow for dinner and refreshments with @jaypee. Running is much better. Power is smooth and progressive. Low down torque is good - you drive these engines mostly at about 50% throttle 'cos pushing harder and going on to the kickdown usually just makes more noise than anything. Fuck Stagecoach. Fuck everything about Kilmarnock, the absolute midden of fuck it is. Next task is to get it smartened up for Festival of The Unexceptional.

BUMP! Only a month or so away now.

Can I change my mind on the poll. Option 3 for dates rather than option 2 as I forgot it's my own organised meeting at Crail. Idiot.

Also Google maps has the wrong location. It's actually on Rivergate next to the Asda

Only embuggerance is £10 per 24 hours of parking in the adjacent car park.

I'm looking at the Premier Inn Peebo City Centre because it's about half the price of the Grantham one we used last year and it's within sight of the train station for another wee day trip to That There London.

As mentioned I cannot easter because work. Sads. I only get every 3rd weekend off.

That's looking fuggin' ace @GingerNuttz. Cannae wait to see this wee honey back on the road.

Myself and @blackboilersuithave committed to this now by buying tickets. Accommodation to be arranged but looking like Peatboghorror this year instead of Grantham.

End of April was mooted originally but it was somewhat shot down as quite soon and early enough in the year that it would be cold and miserable. Later in the year with better weather certainly gets my vote. Provided I'm not working of course

I would very much like to make use of my new trailer for a visit to the museum again

And @garycoxturned up in Aberdeenshire, from Brighton.

I used to be able to get Retro FM Skåne on my Sonos until they stopped streaming to Tunein. No more Retro FM on the hi-fi. Sads. Today I found they stream to the radio.net service which Sonos also supports. Happies.

So took it back to Killie today. "So ye reckon the timing belt is a tooth out?" I'll show you the video "Aw aye ah can see that. Right leave it with us and we'll get it sorted" When will you get round to it? "Well that van will come out either tail of tomorrow or first thing Wednesday so should have it back by Thursday at the latest" Well I can't (won't) leave it here. It's the best part of two hours on public transport from here to get home and I'm not doing that again. I'm off Wed/Thurs next week and I'll be sticking around while it's done. *much fumbling* "Right bring it back first thing on Wednesday morning next week and we'll get it in." Much annoyance. Took it a drive to Dundee and back to get the mileage up for it's 500 mile post build checkup so I've only got about 60 miles left to do by next week. I'm sitting here waiting for dinner to be ready and I'm getting angrier as time goes on. The reason I went to Kilmarnock was because The Engine Room in Motherwell said on the phone "We really only do fleet stuff now, not a lot of private stuff. We wouldn't be able to get to it until March... try Kilmarnock".

Minor sitrep: 27.4mpg on mostly motorway. Plugs are fouled. Exhaust looks like it's connected to a very tired XUD.

The man apparently did a test drive and complimented it on how well it drives for such "an old car". Clearly he's never driven another one but surely he must have noticed how utterly dead the throttle response was. @juular notice it pulling out of the first junction at the unit today. I'll be phoning on Monday and taking it back as soon as possible.

Yes rented from the council and a weird voltage so that folk don't wire their own 240v sockets to the light circuit.

It should be better when it's timed correctly. At cold the Warm Up Control on the K-Jet enriches the mixture. @320touring drove cold and he said it felt like it was massively over fuelling and couldn't burn it until the revs picked up and it was able to get more air. Plugs and exhaust are sooty so it's clearly well rich. With one tooth out it's currently running valves retarded so by advancing it one tooth should give it more air and take away the really flat throttle response and hopefully fix all it's woes. A very schoolboy error from an engine rebuild shop.

Seeing as I picked it up when it was warmed up, I had not driven it from a cold start. Fuck. Me. Sideways... VID_20220401_192505.mp4 So today I met up with Mr @juular at the unit of TTT Solutions feat @320touringand @jaypee for some poking and/or prodding... VID_20220402_124750.mp4 Back to Killie on Monday then

Right now that I am home and have had dinner... full story. Got a phonecall on Tuesday from Kilmarnock Engine Services that the 740 was ready for pickup. I finished work today at 1230 for 5 days. I had hoped to get in early enough from Ardrossan to get the 1227 Kilmarnock train. Would have arrived in Killie at about 1320 so maybe manage get the 1330 number 10 bus (The first bus route I ever drove in service solo) for Troon as far as Moorfield Industrial Estate. Bit of tight connection with the walk from the train station to bus station. Got in about 1223 from the harbour but by the time I put my stuff in my locker, the 1227 was already away. Three options remained - 1 - Wait for the 1327 train and aim to get the 1430 number 10. Again, a tight connection. 2 - Find a X76 / X77 motorway express and MAYBE still get the 1330 No10. Nope. Next X76 would get me in for the 1430 with a big wait. 3 - Walk down the street and get the No4. Arrive Killie 1348 so 40 mins to wait for the No10. Option 3 won out. Again, the No4 - one of my old stomping grounds during my short tenure at Kilmarnock depot. Best route out of that depot. £6.50 is quite reasonable for a ~25 mile journey. The pictures never do justice just how much of a shit hole this place is. I quite like coming here and reveling at the fact I don't have to work here any more. Not a single type of bus in this photo was in service with Stagecoach when I was a KK driver. Plaxton Panorama / Volvo B11R foreground. ADL Enviro 300 / Scania K230 on stance 10. ADL Enviro 200EV / BYD behind. ADL Enviro 400 last with just the slightest view of the charging pantograph of a Volvo 7900 EV away at the furthest end. ...and a Van Hool TDX27 Astromega parked up with a hint of another E400 behind that. Back in my days here it was all Volvo B10Ms, MAN 18.220s, Dennis Tridents and Mercedes 709s. Anyways went a wander round the shit hole town centre and got the 1430 No10 and asked for Moorfield. Driver issued a ticket for Mount Avenue so 50p cheaper. Win. Swapping an E300 Scania on the No4 for a Mercedes powered Optare Solo SR with Voith gearbox was a major downgrade. Got to the workshop... Blocked in by a van doing a full regen cycle so had to wait. Got talking with the man... The engine got a full strip down and rebuild. The bores had worn 12thou oversize so it got over bored even more with new correct fitting pistons. Cylinder head was fully reconditioned. I had mentioned the previous head gasket about 5 years ago had the head being skimmed. He noted the previous skim was rough but this latest skim has an almost polished finish. Valve stem seals / guide were noted to be hard so was all replaced. Crankshaft was in good condition but got a polish anyways. Bearings showed no significant problems so oil supply was good which is a good thing 'cos he couldn't get a new oil pump. While it was apart it got new big end bearings and new crank main bearings. Full seal and gasket kit over the whole engine. New timing belt and water pump. Bill £2940 How is it running? Beautifully. Smooth as a fish but however absolutely does not pull like a great. It's stupidly low on power. At full throttle it couldn't climb over the floor hump of the two post lift without a short run up. 70mph on the motorway back to Glasgow was a chore - fu' shoe most of the way with kickdown necessary to maintain 70mph on some parts of the M77. it's very VERY not right there. Consensus in the Scotoshite Whatsapp chat is either severely retarded timing or the timing belt a tooth out. Possibly fuel starvation from being off the road for 6 months but I doubt it. Tinkering is due to happen this coming Saturday and the car is to go back after 500 miles anyways to make sure everything is ok. I'll be driving those 500 miles with MUCH VERY GUSTO just in case the K-Jet system is maybe a little bit gummed up. But anyways. For now, at least,... home...

My CPC ran out so I can't drive a bus in revenue earning service. And I don't know the Kilmarnock line for the trains. I could have travelled passenger to Killie but the connection time from the train to the number 10 bus was tight and I didn't fancy waiting an hour for the next one if I did miss it. An hour in Killie *shudders*

FURTHER