The modern bog is square.

[cros]

Here am I broke down in the pissing rain again, this time just outside Peterborough. And the culprit, Halfords very expensive battery. 4 years? The cunt has only managed 2 months, bought as a get me home measure when the almost new alternator failed in Surrey in early Feb. That time the RAC were too busy to even answer their phone, this time they say they'll be 45 minutes.
The most unreliable bits on a 60 year old car are modern.

[vulgalour]

Small comfort at the side of a very damp road, but at least it has the four year guarantee so you can get it replaced.  Still monumentally shit though.  Very handsome car, have you posted about it before?

[cros]

It looks better in the photo than in the flesh, another example of my artistry with the spraygun. Here's the RAC.

[Junkman]

 

The modern world is SHIT

 

Literally.

 

I saw this the other day at B&Q:

 

http://www.diy.com/departments/cooke-lewis-carapelle-close-coupled-toilet-with-soft-close-seat/887345_BQ.prd

 

 

Since when exactly does the human race have square arses? Or is this supposed to be Spongebob's bog?

 

This.

Modern.

World.

Is.

Fucked.

Up!

[Angrydicky]

I feel your pain. The cheap Chinese Ebay distributor on my Somerset when I bought it caused a silly amount of breakdowns before I replaced it with a proper old Lucas item.

[Junkman]

Same with condensers. If you don't find any NOS stuff at the jumbles, you're d00mt.

[cobblers]

Most new cheap electronic stuff like voltage regulators, ignition components etc etc is crap, but I've honestly never known a battery fail on it's own accord without being provoked severely. They're just lead plates in a bucket of acid, there's nowt to go wrong!

 

You'll probably get halfords to swap it but definitely check the rest of the charging system out. 

[cros]

RAC man jump started the Sunbeam and voltmeter showed no charge despite generator failure light going out, so the replacement recon alternator has bitten the dust.

[lisbon_road]

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, when you wake up tomorrow the modern world will still be shit but you'll still have the most amazing car and be the envy of your friends.  Well us lot anyway.  

 

On the subject of shit, and the modern world, and going off topic, that bog.  We have one similarish though not square.  I can't see how to tighten up the loo seat without demolishing the sodding thing or the wall behind it.  Now that's shit.

[Station]

Had four Halfords batteries fail within a year! They're shite!

[doobietoo]

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, when you wake up tomorrow the modern world will still be shit but you'll still have the most amazing car and be the envy of your friends.  Well us lot anyway.  

 

On the subject of shit, and the modern world, and going off topic, that bog.  We have one similarish though not square.  I can't see how to tighten up the loo seat without demolishing the sodding thing or the wall behind it.  Now that's shit.

 

If its like the seats I fit at work you lift the seat and there is a chrome tube or button on each side inside the hinge these push in or slide off to the centre to allow the seat to be lifted off then remove the two round chrome discs to reveal a big phillips screw ... tighten that up and put it all back together /...simples

[forddeliveryboy]

RAC man jump started the Sunbeam and voltmeter showed no charge despite generator failure light going out, so the replacement recon alternator has bitten the dust.

 

Didn't he look for anything obvious while under there, like a poor connection or similar?

 

If it is the alternator, at least it won't be totally hidden from view and driven by a half-mile long belt which wends its way round 63 pulleys and tensioners.

[panhard65]

When I had my Hotchkiss it let me down twice. Once when the brand new 100 miles old stainless exhaust fell off. The second time was the new solid state fuel pump that burnt out and siezed. Luckily it didn't catch fire, the car was over 60 years old and the bits that fail were the newest parts on the car.

[sierraman]

Can't agree with you on the Halfords batteries. I've had 4 of them, all performed faultless, one of them even lasting 7 years +. Is the battery correctly specified to the car?

[cros]

I'm perplexed as to why the battery started the car when I left home yet it failed completely 12 miles later. However the RAC man was in accord with Mr Cobblers on this so I will probably have to put my hand up to a misdiagnosis. A spare regulator and one of those colour changing LEDs to give a warning of battery condition look like a good idea. Just thought, even the indicators were working fine until the engine started misfiring- the old type of non transistorised ones would have started getting sluggish and been a warning. Anyway, I collected someone from Peterborough and got home again without further drama.

[cros]

Didn't he look for anything obvious while under there, like a poor connection or similar?

 

 

 

If it is the alternator, at least it won't be totally hidden from view and driven by a half-mile long belt which wends its way round 63 pulleys and tensioners.

The Sunbeams wiring was my own effort and he did look at it. Very simple and after pulling out the alternator plug type connector his meter showed all was well.

[cros]

Can't agree with you on the Halfords batteries. I've had 4 of them, all performed faultless, one of them even lasting 7 years +. Is the battery correctly specified to the car?

Its well over specified for the car, the size commonly fitted to Di transits, early Discos. The Sunbeams compression ratio is only about 7:1. However when charged up I'll put it onto the landrover before I go bleating to Halfords.

[SiC]

I reckon some Halfords batteries, especially the less common sized ones, have been sitting on the shelf for quite a while.

 

I've never been in a Halfords store and seen them charging any of their stock back up. Self-discharge on lead-acid is high and not keeping starter batteries fully charged is a sure way of degrading their life.

 

I reckon some of them are discharged a fair bit, thrown in a car, have a huge load from starting the car while being discharged and then the current shoved back into them at a fair old rate by the alternator. This won't lend to a long life - especially like this early in their life!

 

Probably cheaper to have people claim on the warranty (they'll get money back for refurbishing/recycling them too), than the cost of insurance/risk of liability of their staff charging them regularly.

[cros]

I reckon some Halfords batteries, especially the less common sized ones, have been sitting on the shelf for quite a while.

 

I've never been in a Halfords store and seen them charging any of their stock back up. Self-discharge on lead-acid is high and not keeping starter batteries fully charged is a sure way of degrading their life.

 

 

I'm pretty careful with batteries - as I've got a few old vehicles it could start getting very expensive if I kept leaving them to go flat. The longest I'd leave one on a diesel between start-ups without charging first is about 6 weeks- thats without any wasteful constant drain electronics like what they fit these days. Squandering current just to remember the frequency of Radio 2 must be the biggest waste of energy in the the universe.

  I also find myself wondering how long those Halfords batteries have been sitting there- they dont seem to have a charge-by date on them. Now we're talking batteries, I remember buying them with the acid supplied separately so that you could pour it in to 'make it work'. I also had a vehicle with nice alkaline cells packaged in wooden crates which you 'overhauled' by changing the electrolyte after so many years. I did it too, but I am very old and there was fuck all on TV back then.

[SiC]

I think motorbike batteries still come that way. Also noticed batteries like that in the French supermarkets.

 

Probably don't do it here as people can't be trusted with bottles of acid like that ...

Or that most people would struggle installing a battery nowadays, let alone filling one with acid safely!

[Des]

I've picked up the odd Halfords battery from the side of the road that have been fucked and only a couple of years old, but in fairness Halfords have replaced them, and I've recently encountered healthy a 9 year old one in a campervan that has spent most of that time idle.

The square toilet interests me, when I'm naughty and eat tasty rich foods that I know I shouldn't, I gets the shits and audacious flatulence, that pneumatic blunderbuss applied pebbledash might just squeegee off.  

[Junkman]

I feel your pain.

 

Wait for the pain you feel once you sat on a square thunder box to do half an hour's worth of a beer shit.

[HH-R]

...then try to flush it away with a paltry 6 litre flush from a close coupled cistern.

[vulgalour]

Be sure to use a square loo that's just a bit too high to sit comfortable so pooping is a strain on all the wrong parts of your anatomy.

[Bren]

Square toilet? For people with square arses - eating too many chips.

[the judge]

Got a fucking square shitter here! With a small water hole and a slopey shit shelf.

 

You end up laying logs on a porcelain shelf and stewing in your own juices. Kids hate going after me wooohaha

[TataBobu]

The only square bog I approve of is this one (it's not modern, over here it's called a "turkish toilet"):

 

[castros_bro]

I'm perplexed as to why the battery started the car when I left home yet it failed completely 12 miles later. However the RAC man was in accord with Mr Cobblers on this so I will probably have to put my hand up to a misdiagnosis. A spare regulator and one of those colour changing LEDs to give a warning of battery condition look like a good idea. Just thought, even the indicators were working fine until the engine started misfiring- the old type of non transistorised ones would have started getting sluggish and been a warning. Anyway, I collected someone from Peterborough and got home again without further drama.

 

Are you sure it has an alternator and not a dynamo, most cars of that era were dynamos ?  In which case just remove the two wires and join the two terminals on the dynamo together and put a voltmeter on them, run the engine and the voltage should track the engine speed if the dynamo is good. Usually the problem is the external Lucas electro mechanical regulator (like an RB106). For years I have used a Morris Minor 12v dynamo with the terminals joined run directly from a Suffolk Punch engine for 24v DC MMA 1.6/2mm stick welding and it easily stands the abuse. If you want to keep some old motor ready for action then purchase one of these modern shit type technical crappy solar energy total eclipse whingeomatics of the which sit top of the dash keeping the battery happy.

 

[wuvvum]

I may have mentioned this before, but I fugging love those Sunbeam Talbots.  I'll definitely have one one day.

[anonymous user]

I may have mentioned this before, but I fugging love those Sunbeam Talbots.  I'll definitely have one one day.

Now's your chance

http://autoshite.com/topic/24155-put-a-sunbeam-90-into-your-life-if-its-not-already-shit-enough/