Eddie Honda's 306 cab - MOT TIME!

[Eddie Honda]

Couldn't ride the bike to get the boat. Bought a plane ticket this morning and drove to Dublin Airport. Mrs H took car home.

Boarding this:



For Glasgow.

[Eddie Honda]

Well sitting on a Cobus 3000 waiting to take us to the terminal (was on a 2700 in Dub). Glorious sunshine here too.

 

[Eddie Honda]

[Captain Furious]

Good news on making it, I don't like small planes with propellers, I worry who they're going to get to play me in the air crash investigation reconstruction.

[Eddie Honda]

I've been on a 32 seated once from London City to Glasgow. Tyres were car-sized. That was a hairy landing.

 

Not too sure about these RBS poly fivers...

 

 

Now off to get the bus into town in a minute, I've got some train tickets to collect next.

[Eddie Honda]

USB sockets? On a bus? On every seat? This is space-age! (I'm so out of touch with buses.)

 

 

Now a bit of back story. This is a sort of collection because the actual collectioning has already been done. It's also not a collection in the sense of picking something up and bringing it back. It does involve vee-hic-ular action though which should happen at around 7pm. All is good with the MID. All is good with the Doovla.

 

Need some more drugs for this bloody knee and perhaps some pastry-based scran.

 

(This bus makes such a farty noise on overrun, (weird retarder?))

[Eddie Honda]

Tickets got.

 

 

 

£18.90 a return, when it's £19.50 for a single. Bought today. I think as well as picking insurance premiums out of thin air, Johnny Ball has devised the pricing systems for all the TOCs.

 

[Eddie Honda]

 

Steakbakes bought and consumed. Drugs taken. The train would be good if it were like this:

 

 

Instead, I have to take the Trans-Pennine Express. Virgin tickets not valid. Take that beardy entrepreneur!

 

All running to time. No replacement bus.

 

[That's one of the reasons I bit the bullet and planed it. Backup plan was SailRail from Dublin, but getting across North Wales would be slow because engineering works/replacement bus service of doom resulting in running out of connections and potentially having to kip on Crewe.]

[Eddie Honda]

Arrived at Carlisle bang on time and got a lift back to the house. Battery flat, but I brought my jump pack with me. Light fading, so went the long way round to Asda. Haven't tried the hood yet and no pez station shot as it still has half a tank.

 

 

[Guest Breadvan72]

Good news on making it, I don't like small planes with propellers, I worry who they're going to get to play me in the air crash investigation reconstruction.

 

I don't get this.  A small aeroplane is no more or less dangerous than a large one, and propeller driven aircraft are no more or less dangerous than jets.  A small aircraft sometimes has a safety advantage because it can land in places where a larger aircraft can't.

[Captain Furious]

Nobody said there had to be any logic involved, it's just a perception thing based on how many episodes of ACI I remember a plane starring in. I'm sure the ATR 72 has been the subject of at least 3.

 

To be fair it's not just small planes, the DC-10, for example, had an excellent safety record once they stopped cargo doors and engines falling off, My perception is still that it's a large flying coffin and i'm glad it's finally been scrapped so I never have to step onto one of these absolute death traps.

[strangeangel]

An excellent purchase - well worth waiting for

 

You didn't buy the Regal as well, did you??

[Eddie Honda]

I bought the Regal back in November 1991. Had it last MOT'd Jan 1992. Last on road June 1992 when OMGHGF struck and it has been on/off resto since then...

[cms206]

Nobody said there had to be any logic involved, it's just a perception thing based on how many episodes of ACI I remember a plane starring in. I'm sure the ATR 72 has been the subject of at least 3.

 

To be fair it's not just small planes, the DC-10, for example, had an excellent safety record once they stopped cargo doors and engines falling off, My perception is still that it's a large flying coffin and i'm glad it's finally been scrapped so I never have to step onto one of these absolute death traps.

I used to do load control for a living; over six years I averaged something like 1600 flight departures per year, anything from Beech 1900s to Tupolev Tu-154s to 747-400s and most things in between; my first was a Jersey European Dash-8, the last an RAF Super VC10. There were eighteen of us, all averaging 1600 departures a year. Between us we did 6 ATRs and odd ATPs 364 days a year.

 

The only incidents we had dealings with?

 

A 738 slid off the runway in Spain which one of our seniors had dispatched, an Airbus one of our loaders tried to drive a set of stairs through and a Twin Otter that got blown into the terminal building 'cos the engineers hadn't tied it down.

 

Back on topic, ATRs could be arsey to trim. I did EuroManx ATRs (G-RHUM and G-IONA from memory) on a daily basis at one point, they had forward rather than aft baggage holds which could complicate matters somewhat.

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Eddie Honda]

MOT booked for 4pm.

[oldcars]

Arrived at Carlisle bang on time and got a lift back to the house. Battery flat, but I brought my jump pack with me. Light fading, so went the long way round to Asda. Haven't tried the hood yet and no pez station shot as it still has half a tank.

 

IMG_20170325_185425.jpg

 

IMG_20170325_190930.jpg

Yes, you have bought a Regal! Result.

[Eddie Honda]

 

Exhaust leaking in two places front and rear is all between me and a MOT...

[Eddie Honda]

Scraped the old MOT windscreen sticker off which wasn't encroaching anything like 40mm into the swept area and replaced the mid and rear exhaust sections.

 

 

These arrived on Friday morning and where Regal Exhausts brand. Made in UK apparently by people that have never tried fitting their own product. Middle seemed okay, but backbox sat too high and about and inch too far back. Had to take a rubber mallet to the top of the round silencer to flatten it and bend some hanger wires up and back. Had the fucker off about 5 times to get it to acceptably hang. It was the right part sent.

 

 

In my joy at receiving the parcel at 10.30am, I booked a retest, which I got for first thing this morning. Then I removed the exhaust to find the bottom half of the flare to be fucked on the front/cat section. Tried phoning 4 or 5 local factors to get one but no can do, so ended up down Halfords for some bodge tape. I did have some Firegum round the joint but it was spitting out after 2 minutes. Cock.

 

 

I've ordered a front pipe which will probably arrive after I leave on Tuesday, so that'll get done on my return as will the rear pads and clutch cable (its heavy, but not unbearably so...yet)

 

There's nearly enough shit been cleared out of the garage to get it in, so at least there will be somewhere dry to do the job next time.

[Eddie Honda]

After a nailbiting wait as I had a different tester who cam e across as a bit grumpy, a decision has been made on my temporary exhaust bodgery on the front joint.

 

 

 

Mucho relief!

[Eddie Honda]

All in the wrong order I know, but I only filled this car once while I was over and it was busy at the pay-at-pump Asda, so no pez station shot (yet)

 

Despite the gammy knee, later in the week I was there, I did just about manage a Woollarding.

 

[Guest Breadvan72]

Sir, you deliver a quality Woollard-related product.  19/10, very good, carry on.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Slight PHAIL for absence of two-colour stripes on sleeves of  rally jacket.  That cost you the twentieth point.  Still, highly commendable all round. 

[BorniteIdentity]

Is this the £100 one from the other month?

 

If so this is representing excellent value.  Well done!  I'm disappointed in just how little I've driven mine since I got it a couple of months ago.  Looking forward to summer though (both days LOL !!1!)

[ruffgeezer]

Hood should be fine, I replaced both 5he problem pipes when I bought it for braided ones from HCL.

 

That was a bargain, I'd done a full cambelt kit, water pump, front springs, arm bushes and a service whilst it was in my ownership. Doesn't feel that long ago, I certainly didn't have the Jumbuck I had afterwards a year!

[Eddie Honda]

Slight update:

 

Having SORN'd it on the 30th April, I unexpectedly found I needed to use it again in May, so it was re-taxed for the second time so I could get around.

 

Nothing much happened in that month, battery reconnected, petrol was added, no work done really. Well I did clean the roof a bit to find out it wasn't dark green but dark blue.

 

Went back on SORN on 31st May.

 

Was over earlier this month, so retaxed for August (handy this online taxing lark) and was used for a trip over to Diggerland. On the way there we stopped at Tesco to munchies and I made the mistake of buying Car Mechanics. On return from Diggerland the passenger window went nearly all the way up, after which holding the button up made it go down and scrunching noises where heard emanating from the door. Oh bollocks. Time to strip the door down.

 

 

There are a few ways of tackling the job:

 

"The Peugeot Way" = complete regulator/motor assembly in the £250 league.

 

"The Aftermarket Way" = complete regulator/motor assembly for around £50.

 

"The Scrapyard Way" = as above, but for less again.

 

"The cable way" = £23 and wait for the postie to turn up the next day with a cable set.

 

"The generic way" = involves cable off the roll and fannying around with crimpers £too much hassle.

 

This is the kit I got via Ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401342746895 from okzam-uk (note the "curse" of Car Mechanics!)

 

 

Having looked at the various regulators used on Pugs, the cheaper ones are for smoll pieces of glass and use a single lifter. The longer/heavier pieces of glass use two lifters and much longer (and more dosh) cable.

 

The first pain in the hole is that the motor mounting plate is riveted to the inside of the door shell. So not only will these need drilling out, I'll need to get some flanged-head rivets (box of them obtained from Screwfix round the corner http://www.screwfix.com/p/flange-head-rivets-4-8-x-16mm-250-pack/76744# )

 

After drilling that lot out and unbolting the rest:

 

 

Laid out on the dining room table:

 

 

I put in place the lifter bobbins (or whatever they're called) in each lifter and thread the cable round everything:

 

 

Then battle with the ends:

 

 

 

Will the bastard fit? No it won't! It's too fucking tight - so study the problem closely.

 

New cable drum:

 

Old cable drum:

 

Conclusion. Although I have only a broken cable to compare with, old and new cables are the same (or thereabouts) length. Cables are not handed, only the directions of the scrolls on the cable drums are probably mirrored. New drum has one cable end holder 180 degrees different to the older drum. They're both 90 degrees apart, but one is 90 and the other 270 if you get what I mean.

 

Anyway, decide to use the new drum. Only way cable with fit is if I make it longer, can't make the inner longer, but can make the outer shorter, so start with about 10mm carefully cut:

 

 

Then have to nibble away at that outer in half-turn cuts to get it removed from the cable (as it won't slide off the end because ferrule.)

 

With that slight lengthing, I manage to get the bastard cable drum to back in its place. Rather than remove any more outer, I call it a day at that.

 

 

It's supposed to be as easy as this (cheatin' bastard has extra hands available):

 

 

So I wound a turn on one side and put all the remaining turns on the other side of the cable drum and then somehow pulled it over the drum pivot.

 

I found a side-by-side pic of the drum difference:

 

 

Then I have to put all the crap back in the door while Honda Jr 1 is fannying around with my phone.

 

 

Rivet the wotsit back:

 

 

And were back in business again.

 

Just throw some lube around too and check everything is its guide.

 

 

Took it up to Glasgow for the weekend and it performed flawlessly. Will probably have to do the rear ones soon if the kids don't stop insisting that the have them up/down.

[The Moog]

Looking at yours and that video I didn't get the tension correct, it was still a bit floppy.

 

Will try to get it stiffer next time.

[320touring]

Looking at yours and that video I didn't get the tension correct, it was still a bit floppy.

 

Will try to get it stiffer next time.

"Oooh err matron"

[Eddie Honda]

A mate has been keeping an eye on this and took it for a MOT today...

 

 

Can't argue with that.

 

 

In other related news, Glasgow pot-holes had a hand in the demise of one of the tyres and wear on another. Renewed the insurance with Flux (yeah I know), The renewal was £149 (compared with last year's £182), but after declaring now having a paddy licence / and 4pts / up mileage from 3k to 5k, I got bummed about 110 quid more. 4k price was same as 5k. Majority of bumming was due to licence / SP30.

 

However when I declared licence exchange / SP30 to FJ, their quote for my older chod remained the same. Johnny Ball strikes again.