The new news 24 thread

[richardmorris]

13 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

Looks like it would be ideal for shuttling cars about the FoD, especially with it on tracks  

I agree. See if @Six-cylinder agrees.  I suspect he prefers manual slave labour. Give me a minute and I’ll google the maker.

 

 

https://www.trackedmachines.com/towtracken/

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SiC]

55 minutes ago, MJK 24 said:

I don’t think you’ll need a tacho in a Corsa?

 

Presumably the RR broke down while towing the Corsa?

[stuboy]

Highlight of my day was changing indicator bulb on a Renault master...had intermittent double flash on left turn.. changed front.. no difference and so changed the rear from what look like a new bulb to a 'new' bulb this cured the faulty flash

[N19]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

I agree. See if @Six-cylinder agrees.  I suspect he prefers manual slave labour. Give me a minute and I’ll google the maker.

 

 

https://www.trackedmachines.com/towtracken/

 

 

 

 

 

 

What sort of uses is this for? I thought that automatics could be towed for a short distance if in neutral (e.g. to get them to a safe place to load onto the back of a recovery lorry)?

[richardmorris]

11 minutes ago, N19 said:

What sort of uses is this for? I thought that automatics could be towed for a short distance if in neutral (e.g. to get them to a safe place to load onto the back of a recovery lorry)?

I suspect it’s for vehicles with dead gearboxes. The lambo had a front end crash and the h van my friend worked on had a seized manual box. I was actually busy today ( despite taking photos )so couldn’t go out to ask. Plus mr7ft jack reacher was a bit scary.

[NorthernMonkey]

They’re used primarily for recovering dead vehicles from multi story and underground car parks where you can’t get a normal slide bed. They’re also handy for recoveries from down tight lanes, driveways and other tricky locations.

They can be transported to scene on a flatbed, deployed to pick up the vehicle then loaded back onto the truck whilst still with the recovered car on board.

There’s actually quite a few in use…I know at least three local recovery companies that have them and the company I work for have financed quite a lot of them.

[Yoss]

6 hours ago, lesapandre said:

That's actually two people- one operates the head and arms -another the legs.

 

2 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Three children in a raincoat and trilby.

 

[High Jetter]

43 minutes ago, N19 said:

What sort of uses is this for? I thought that automatics could be towed for a short distance if in neutral (e.g. to get them to a safe place to load onto the back of a recovery lorry)?

Dead EV's, which lock 4 wheels. Madness.

[N19]

29 minutes ago, NorthernMonkey said:

They’re used primarily for recovering dead vehicles from multi story and underground car parks where you can’t get a normal slide bed. They’re also handy for recoveries from down tight lanes, driveways and other tricky locations.

They can be transported to scene on a flatbed, deployed to pick up the vehicle then loaded back onto the truck whilst still with the recovered car on board.

There’s actually quite a few in use…I know at least three local recovery companies that have them and the company I work for have financed quite a lot of them.

Interesting. I wonder how much more time and money that adds to the recovery rather than simply towing a manual vehicle in neutral a short way?!

19 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Dead EV's, which lock 4 wheels. Madness.

It really does show that modern vehicles are marching towards a "you shall be dependent upon us" culture. More madness than a set of baggy trousers dirty shirt pulling hair and eating dirt.

[NorthernMonkey]

8 minutes ago, N19 said:

Interesting. I wonder how much more time and money that adds to the recovery rather than simply towing a manual vehicle in neutral a short way?!

It really does show that modern vehicles are marching towards a "you shall be dependent upon us" culture. More madness than a set of baggy trousers dirty shirt pulling hair and eating dirt.

Poor access jobs can indeed be flat towed by a colleague attending with the hilux etc but when said vehicle is also locked in park or the electric handbrake won’t release along with the aforementioned marooned EVs, these come into their own.

[High Jetter]

56 minutes ago, N19 said:

Interesting. I wonder how much more time and money that adds to the recovery rather than simply towing a manual vehicle in neutral a short way?!

It really does show that modern vehicles are marching towards a "you shall be dependent upon us" culture. More madness than a set of baggy trousers dirty shirt pulling hair and eating dirt.

Yea, so why the confused react?

[somewhatfoolish]

The majority of EVs are 2 wheel drive and can be recovered by a spec lift just like any other.

[Marshall2810]

Well that's nice 🙂 

 

 

[Momentary Lapse Of Reason]

19 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Bloody hell, that thing must have some serious ballast in the yellow bit...

That is where the 7' bloke is kept.

[barefoot]

On 18/10/2024 at 13:00, barefoot said:

^ pah

Here's a better looking car 

And some new, news!

And there's more - I took this to a different garage for MOT back in June & forgot all about it!

I'd better nip down & collect it on Monday.

[Lord Sterling]

Vectra was treated to a new tyre and picked up some bits for it that it might need at some point:

Got this haul for £40, dropped it off at my garage in Telford.

[ruffgeezer]

Said goodbye, at last, to the Berkley BNFL Berlingo.

It had stayed a bit longer than originally intended, but was a lovely little van.  It's gone off to my Wife's sister who is going to use it as a covert camper.  Makes the extra work worthwhile, knowing thst it isn't going to be ragged mercilessly on the evri round.

In also is a Volvo XC60 that looked a bargain at £2000 for a 2009 with only 98k, some new ABS sensors and a service later and Katy my wife, has claimed it as her own to replace 'Olaf' the ex- @straightSix Alfa Giulietta which although she loves the styling of, just hasnt gelled with.

The XC60 almost immediately blotted it's copybook after the MOT by gaining a misfire/ diesel knock all through the rev range and accompanying black smoke. FUCK!  I'm glad it was me it misbehaved for. Oddly it had stored no codes during this misbehaviour, so it was a good look at the injector looms, one of which wanted a new gland on the plug but were otherwise OK.

Then a suspect bit of wiring to one of the two fuel rail pressure sensors - you know when the insulation just doesn't look right. 

Well inside that bundle was a particularly poor soldered joint, but the cause of the drama was a split in the insulation right up almost as far as the multiplug for the rail sensor. I had the engine running as I manipulated the loom and could make the engine stutter at will.  I cut out the damaged wire and solded in a fresh bit, re-wrapped it and it's been fine since. Thank fuck.

This means the Giulietta will soon be looking for a new home, but not before the private plate comes off and it has a wash.

Lastly I've adopted a very scruffy endangered species locally, it goes for an MOT on Monday after a light fettle ready to be re-homed later this month, fingers crossed. 

 

[stuboy]

Doing few bits on the galaxy and the bloody screws that hold the top of the air box down decided to be not philips fitment to pointy round bits... really need to find some replacements but decided car park modified was quicker... out comes the battery cutter.. chop chop and now kinda flathead fitment 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

[Stinkwheel]

30 minutes ago, stuboy said:

Doing few bits on the galaxy and the bloody screws that hold the top of the air box down decided to be not philips fitment to pointy round bits... really need to find some replacements but decided car park modified was quicker... out comes the battery cutter.. chop chop and now kinda flathead fitment 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

Sometimes, you just gotta do what you gotta do 👍

[EightMegs]

Car park at work last week was very choddy.

[Popsicle]

6 hours ago, stuboy said:

Doing few bits on the galaxy and the bloody screws that hold the top of the air box down decided to be not philips fitment to pointy round bits... really need to find some replacements but decided car park modified was quicker... out comes the battery cutter.. chop chop and now kinda flathead fitment 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

Thanks for the timely reminder, most of my vans air filter box screws are chewed up and rusty and I need a selection of 4 different tools to remove them, so 10, yes 10 new ones just ordered for under a fiver.

[Lord Sterling]

Spotted this on Facebook, apparently someone has imported a Triumph Acclaim to America, it's wearing Washington plates.

Richard Truett of Sterling Fixer fame has imported and now registered a Rover 75 2.5 V6 Connoisseur into America after storing it in Canada for a bit until the 75 became eligible to import and register in the US.

[JJ0063]

Don’t mind me tending* to the herb garden by head torch a few mins ago. 
 

*ripping all the fennel out as it kept blowing in the wind and setting the motion detector off on the doorbell.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, JJ0063 said:

Don’t mind me tending* to the herb garden by head torch a few mins ago. 
 

*ripping all the fennel out as it kept blowing in the wind and setting the motion detector off on the doorbell.

Alright Bob, don't make a song out of it 😀

[wuvvum]

Not exactly ideal weather for fettling this weekend, but I did get the new NSF ABS sensor fitted to the Z4 during a lull in the rain yesterday - actually turned out to be a 10-minute job, a lot easier than the rear one I replaced earlier in the year.  Probably helped by the fact that there was no bolt holding it in, it was just shoved in the hole - I found a suitably sized M6 bolt to hold the replacement in.  Backed out of the drive and headed down the road and after about 20 yards it beeped and all the warning lights went out, so I'm calling that a fix.

I'd run the Merc to the jet wash on Friday to give the underside and the inner arches a good blast in preparation for rustproofing to happen, but I only got as far as doing the brake pipes before the weather went tae shite again.  So I decided to take the stereo out and try fitting the DVD drive from the original head unit (which won't power up at all) to see if that restored the unit's ability to read DVDs.  It didn't - in fact when I plugged the head unit back into the car it nommed the DVD and refused to eject it.  So that was a waste of time.  It's probably going to end up getting a modern Android radio, but that's not a priority at the moment, especially given that the shite kitty is completely empty until I manage to sell something.

[alcyonecorporation]

I recently flattened the battery in the SVX by leaving a door ajar (cue Bill Hicks joke). 
The smart charger wouldn't bring it back; I revived it by boosting from the Leon for 20 minutes. That did enough to get an initial charge into the plates, and for a spare CTEK I had to take the matter seriously. 
Ally Koyorad still looks smart, as it should for the bloody wedge it stung me for (and it was bloody second hand!)

I never really went into the minor nightmare than erupted over the battery - it's a a recent Yuasa that has the posts on the correct side of the battery, as opposed to the old dogshit Lion that was about the right size and CCA but had the posts on the other side, meaning that the cables were stretched to hell and straining on the clamp.
It didn't help that *so many* parts books have the wrong battery listed for an SVX (see also: rear brake discs); to make doubly sure, I checked with a Japanese Yuasa catalogue, cross referenced the number it gave, and ordered the correct unit from Tayna. It wasn't even that expensive. People online were still telling me that it was wrong, and wouldn't accept that their database was at fault. 

My Impreza also needs another wash - after two months of Fenland dust coated it (again). 
JDM bonnet prop (pictured) on the SVX also doubles as a start stick. Both parts are on order, though I'm up to my 6th wrong starter: recon places keep sending me starters for either 1.8 Imprezas or 2.2 Legacys. 
It did a racism the other night: I ordered a Chinese meal with @TheXUDfiles and it refused to start ahead of collection. The start stick persuaded it, however. 

It got through another test, too, though there's a growing list of parts I need, some of which are having to come from Australia. A couple of US SVX NATION members are also, shall we say, taking the piss with certain NOS parts and their supply. UK stock is all over the place, particularly where gaskets are concerned. I did a bulk buy for future use. 



Bonus pic from when I went to the tip. I don't even live in Northamptonshire, lol. It's since had a slightly less fucked steering wheel fitted. 
I lost a load of images recently when my phone finally died. I'll have to take it to my usual place when I'm back up north to retrieve the numbers, recordings and photos I took. 

[sdkrc]

My trampoline made it through the storm last night, holy fuck there were some tense moments. I slapped everything including my trolley jack and iron ramps on it to keep it pinned. 

[richardmorris]

[Split_Pin]

3 hours ago, sdkrc said:

My trampoline made it through the storm last night, holy fuck there were some tense moments. I slapped everything including my trolley jack and iron ramps on it to keep it pinned. 

My back garden looked like a branch of Kwik Fit yesterday, such was the abundance of tyres and car batteries weighing everything down. It worked though!

[vulgalour]

Got my blood test results.  Everything is fine.

I've still got a few more days until my GP appointment to discuss what other things it might be.  My current diagnosis is Stress, and yeah that's a fair assessment of my life in general and usually I just cope with it and the fact that life is permanent stress.  I want them to find something more tangible wrong with me to explain all this bullshit I've been through the past couple of months.  Stress doesn't feel like enough to explain it, as a diagnosis it feels glib, especially since the mental health side of the support decided they couldn't help me as it was determined to be a physical issue.

I guess I'm just frustrated now.  I've got the clarity of mind to have the drive to return to work now and whenever I try to do anything I just end up physically exhausted and frail like I've aged fifty years in half an hour.  That in turn is definitely making me stressed because, on the face of things, I feel like the medical community are telling me there's nothing wrong with me (I know, they said I have Stress, but you get the sentiment here) when there very clearly is.  Just want to get back to work and back to my version of normal.