Felly Fav and Trum. *Wanna see a fupped gearbox?*

[Yoss]

49 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

Starter motor season? 

 

so, preemptively, how does one change the starter motor on a Routemaster?  

I never did the starter motor on one but I did have to change the alternator on RM 2213. It is just like a car but bigger, obviously. You do it from underneath but you don't need to jack it up, just take the grille off and lie underneath.

Interesting* fun fact: the interior illuminated advert panel at the front downstairs runs directly off the alternator. If that stops working it's a sure sign the alternator is bolloxed. Most vehicles just have a small ignition light on the dashboard. Routemasters have a big fluorescent advert panel.

[LightBulbFun]

15 minutes ago, Yoss said:

I never did the starter motor on one but I did have to change the alternator on RM 2213. It is just like a car but bigger, obviously. You do it from underneath but you don't need to jack it up, just take the grille off and lie underneath.

Interesting* fun fact: the interior illuminated advert panel at the front downstairs runs directly off the alternator. If that stops working it's a sure sign the alternator is bolloxed. Most vehicles just have a small ignition light on the dashboard. Routemasters have a big fluorescent advert panel.

hah very cool I wonder how that works exactly, is it part of the exciter circuit like how charging light dash bulb is in a normal car? does that mean if the tube fails or fails to strike for whatever reason, you dont get any charging? (or is a Routemaster alternator able to self excite?)

or is it some other setup?

[Yoss]

That I can't tell you. I know what happens but I don't know how or why. 

[Yoss]

So Mrs Yoss got in green Favorit one day last week and noticed a note tucked under the windscreen wiper. When she got back out to retrieve it she also noticed a piece of plastic. It was part of the door handle. Somehow she had managed to get in without noticing it was missing.

The note was very apologetic and well written explaining that this womans granddaughter had run ahead and somehow broken it off. I don't know why her granddaughter was going round trying door handles but as I say it was a very nicely written note and she seemed genuinely sorry and left her phone number offering to pay for a new handle. I thought this seemed decent of her so I texted to say not to worry, these things happen with children and I have some spare handles in the garage.

And in the meantime it was still perfectly usable, like I say Mrs Yoss got in without even noticing. So off I go to dig out a spare handle and all I can find are mk1s. I know I have a mk2 one because I found some cheap on eBay a couple of years back and when they turned up one of them was a mk2 despite the picture being a MK1. I emailed the seller and he apologised, gave me a refund and told me to keep it. It's a fair mistake, most people don't even know there are mk1 and mk2 Favorits let alone what the differences actually are. 

But I'll be buggered if I can find it now. So I've bunged a mk1 on for now, they are interchangeable, it's just the outer cover that is different. You can't really see it from this far back anyway.

But you can closer up.

The early ones are actually the same as an Estelle, at least on the outside, and look and feel much nicer. They are just more tactile with the ribbed section. The mk2 are completely smooth and just look cheaper. Now I want to change the other three rather than find another MK2 for the drivers door.

You can see here where the clips have broken and where they slot in over the metal bit.

It might be possible to glue it back on with the right glue, it's not like they ever have to be removed anyway so I shall still keep it.

And just for the hell of it, the two together.

It's not often they get to park side by side. They have to park line astern in the drive but occasionally I have to swap them round and drive them up to top of our Close to do so. Then the sun came out while I was doing it so I couldn't resist a picture.