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Father Ted

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Parking sensors have been playing up  on the Focus for a few weeks, and it's been doing my head in, as it shuts down all the sensors, self parking etc, and gives a warning on every start, so decided to fix it tonight. Forscan said left rear outer sensor. Swapped it with another and still the same..

Took the back bumper off, removed the loom which is also the BLIS loom. Stripped all the tape off and found s tiny nick in 1 wire, and green copper inside. Replaced the bad section   and taped it all up again. Sorted 😀

Blood everywhere though. Seems every time I go near a car just now I cut myself, and my nose was running like a tap.. and I got shit in my eye.

Parking sensors. Blood, snot and tears 😕

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+1 for Firefox being a dick, I was trying to search content on a page with it yesterday and it wouldn't search for shit. 

Fired up chrome, spent 10 minutes navigating our system back to where I was and boom 2 seconds done

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What a fun day I've had. Busy doing the exhaust on the Lupo and remember I need a clamp. Just getting tidied up and postie turns up with a new memory card for my dashcam (old one has gone phut). In between dashing in and out of the house to open the package and fit it in the camera, I realise I've locked myself out. No-one else is in, don't have a number for the Mrs's sister in law who has a spare key and Mrs is in another county. Shit. 

Climbed over the outhouse via the bins, nothing else unlocked. Find a large stick in the back garden to put through the letterbox. Climb over outhouse again - letterbox is too small to get my hands through. I need a bit of stiff plastic to slide around the door frame but the plastic recycling went yesterday. Tried flattening a section from a drink can and manage to get it around the door but just can't get it to push the catch in. Bugger.

Noticed a forlorn shower gel bottle in the kerb that the binmen have dropped, used the lid off a cat food can as a knife and cut a flat section out of it. Got it around the frame, bit of jiggery pokery and SUCCESS! I'm in. Only cut myself once...  

image.png.0c5fa2d50f66451ae65d4184bf4ee9e3.png

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MrsREB left to return to America yesterday evening,  so now I'm back to being alone with fuck all to do.

I have some 205 parts coming in the next few days so I suppose tidying the unit so I have somewhere to put them is a good idea. The weather is putting me off though, even though I'll be under cover out of most of it, the unit isn't perfectly wind and watertight. I think a year indoors has made me go soft!

I also need to clear out my council lockup so the C2 will fit in it, I think I might have more luck selling it if it's actually roadworthy but I just have too many other things to do right now. Or it sits there long enough to become a barn find. Both work!

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I looked at my A4 Avant the other day and thought it wasn't sitting quite right, however it was parked on uneven ground and didn't think any more of it - until this morning.

I emptied some work gear out of the back and set off to collect the BX seats from DavidB, only for a clunking noise to be evident. Managed to get a look underneath and I have not one, but two broken rear springs. The annoyance is that I fitted a pair of genuine new rear springs in November 2018 after the LH side let go in Wales, this time I will go with a known good aftermarket brand such as Bilstein (£60 cheaper per side). I will also take the opportunity to replace the upper damper mounts and dust covers.

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Well I don't feel ashamed any more about not tackling the timing belt on the Cav myself.

Dropped it off at the garage this morning to have it done and it won't be ready today as it took them 2 hours just to get one of the 4 crank pulley bolts off. Its off now but won't be ready until tomorrow.

This car is continuing to fight anyone who goes near it with good intentions.

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1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

What a fun day I've had. Busy doing the exhaust on the Lupo and remember I need a clamp. Just getting tidied up and postie turns up with a new memory card for my dashcam (old one has gone phut). In between dashing in and out of the house to open the package and fit it in the camera, I realise I've locked myself out. No-one else is in, don't have a number for the Mrs's sister in law who has a spare key and Mrs is in another county. Shit. 

Climbed over the outhouse via the bins, nothing else unlocked. Find a large stick in the back garden to put through the letterbox. Climb over outhouse again - letterbox is too small to get my hands through. I need a bit of stiff plastic to slide around the door frame but the plastic recycling went yesterday. Tried flattening a section from a drink can and manage to get it around the door but just can't get it to push the catch in. Bugger.

Notice a forlorn shower jel bottle in the kerb that the binmen have dropped, used the lid off a cat food can as a knife and cut a flat section out of it. Got it around the frame, bit of jiggery pokery and SUCCESS! I'm in. Only cut myself once...  

image.png.0c5fa2d50f66451ae65d4184bf4ee9e3.png

I helped a friend break into his house in similar circumstances, his dad with the spare was away and the missus out for the night. 

I did ask if he had his wallet in him to explain to any passing constable wondered wtf 2 scruffy looking blokes were doing with their arm in a letterbox of a random house... I kept the bit of wood we carved to pop the latch with a hammer and screwdriver in the shed incase we need it in the future 

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Siemens technician came along today and condemned the washing machine with both failed bearings and a borked motor. Handily explains the nuicance RCD tripping we had recently. The bearings I knew about, but the machine still worked so what the hey. For being used nearly every day for 11 years straight, I'd say it's done well. I doubt the secondhand machine or the insurer's replacement machine will last 2/3 of tht time in the same conditions.

Depending on what happens when the new machine arrives, one of the cars may have to transport a big heavy white box in the back to the local tip.

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Just now, SRi05 said:

I wish I lived in London purely to vote for Binface

Believe me, he's the only fresh thing on the menu here. All the others are beyond the pale, especially the Green and the Animal Rights candidates.

Shaun Bailey tries hard, but presents like one of those charismatic Christian preachers - y'know, the ones that elicit considerable donations from their congregations and then live in the lap of luxury....

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1 hour ago, Fumbler said:

Depending on what happens when the new machine arrives, one of the cars may have to transport a big heavy white box in the back to the local tip.

is it a universal Brushed Motor?

if so would be rude not to hook power up directly to the Brushes via a variac and send it out in flaming glory with commutator bars flying everywhere

Photonicinduction/Aussie50 Style :) 

 

(have never done it myself but I want to at some point, just need a suitable motor to sacrifice LOL )

 

you could also before blowing the motor up, go full Aussie50 if you have the space to do so and remove the counter weights, and chuck crap into the drum to send into a full "real life physics engine malfunction" :)

 

ahh memories

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, LightBulbFun said:

is it a universal Brushed Motor?

if so would be rude not to hook power up directly to the Brushes via a variac and send it out in flaming glory with commutator bars flying everywhere

Yeh it's a universal motor alright. I'd be tempted to run it as a suicide motor but there's a short to earth and I don't have the equipment to trace where that is. The machine itself is incredibly heavy for what it is. The insurers will probably also want it as a complete unit as well, not a mangled shell with a binbag full of plastic and circuit boards.

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2 hours ago, Fumbler said:

Siemens technician came along today and condemned the washing machine with both failed bearings and a borked motor. Handily explains the nuicance RCD tripping we had recently. The bearings I knew about, but the machine still worked so what the hey. For being used nearly every day for 11 years straight, I'd say it's done well. I doubt the secondhand machine or the insurer's replacement machine will last 2/3 of tht time in the same conditions.

Depending on what happens when the new machine arrives, one of the cars may have to transport a big heavy white box in the back to the local tip.

Buy one from John Lewis and they will take the old one away ( for a fee though ).

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5 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Buy one from John Lewis and they will take the old one away ( for a fee though ).

As the machine was insured by my grandparents, we thought it prudent to go the insurance route. They send a teccie from the manufacturer, teccie pronounces the machine dead or repairable and reports to the insurers. Insurers replace and take away for free.

We bought a (very affordable) second hand 2013 AEG for the interim because we could be looking at several weeks before a new machine appears on our doorstep. Doubles as my first appliance too!

We did have a look at John Lewis but they didn't have what we wanted. In addition to that, the markup on some models was insane.

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8 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Buy one from John Lewis and they will take the old one away ( for a fee though ).

the last dead washing machine we had got dragged out in to the back alley.

within no time at all, a couple of hours, tops, it had disappeared, as if by magic.

and even better, no money changed hands!

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