The new news 24 thread

[Yoss]

As electric vans still seem a distant dream for us poor posties, at least at our office, I've been cultivating my own moss gardens in the scuttle of our Pug Partner to reduce our carbon footprint. 

So imagine my delight yesterday when I noticed we have a tiny mushroom in there too. 

So not only do we offset the carbon from all the diesel we use but we now have our own food supply. I'm hoping the two separate gardens in each corner will spread to become one big one right across the scuttle. Should be able to grow enough to be self sufficient then. 

[brownnova]

Had another brief crack at the Yugo today with my (surprisingly) willing assistant. Still no catch on the first couple of go’s, and on investigation turns out we have no spark at the plugs. Which we must have done at some point on Monday as we did have spluttering. King lead is giving spark, so I’m going to guess distributor cap or rotor arm are at fault here. Plugs do look a bit black too, so time to get ordering and get a whole a set of new ignition bits.

I have a feeling this Yugo 45 will be suprisingly capable when it starts. Look forward to returning it to the road… momentum and mojo are  returned! 

The boy has said he’s really enjoyed helping getting the cars started and is disappointed we can’t get the bits tomorrow to see if we can get it going. 

[High Jetter]

32 minutes ago, Yoss said:

As electric vans still seem a distant dream for us poor posties, at least at our office, I've been cultivating my own moss gardens in the scuttle of our Pug Partner to reduce our carbon footprint. 

So imagine my delight yesterday when I noticed we have a tiny mushroom in there too. 

So not only do we offset the carbon from all the diesel we use but we now have our own food supply. I'm hoping the two separate gardens in each corner will spread to become one big one right across the scuttle. Should be able to grow enough to be self sufficient then. 

Is that why we haven't had any post since NYE? 

[wesacosa]

4 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Had another brief crack at the Yugo today with my (surprisingly) willing assistant. Still no catch on the first couple of go’s, and on investigation turns out we have no spark at the plugs. Which we must have done at some point on Monday as we did have spluttering. King lead is giving spark, so I’m going to guess distributor cap or rotor arm are at fault here. Plugs do look a bit black too, so time to get ordering and get a whole a set of new ignition bits.

The boy has said he’s really enjoyed helping getting the cars started and is disappointed we can’t get the bits tomorrow to see if we can get it going. 

Hope you make some progress, I am a sucker for a Yugo, would be great to see it running

[reb]

I'm having a look through my tattoo flash books and found this that I quite like:

It's a shame I don't have the money to get it done professionally.

Fuck it, here we go again.

[brownnova]

1 minute ago, wesacosa said:

Hope you make some progress, I am a sucker for a Yugo, would be great to see it running

I’m pretty determined having failed to do much with it so far due to lack of time. I know it does go, I’ve had it running, just need to work methodically through it to re-ignite it. 

[wesacosa]

2 minutes ago, brownnova said:

I’m pretty determined having failed to do much with it so far due to lack of time. I know it does go, I’ve had it running, just need to work methodically through it to re-ignite it. 

hopefully it cant be anything too bad. I do recall your thread from a few years ago but can't remember what you tried, but surely would be unlucky if it wasn't something ignition components and/or a carb clean wouldn't fix

[stuboy]

16 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Had another brief crack at the Yugo today

love these wee beasties

[brownnova]

6 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

hopefully it cant be anything too bad. I do recall your thread from a few years ago but can't remember what you tried, but surely would be unlucky if it wasn't something ignition components and/or a carb clean wouldn't fix

Last time it was that the mechanical fuel pump needed priming and once I’d got fuel pumping it started first time with a few weeks between starts. But I got busy and left it doing nothing for a year, and now it won’t go. With parts and proper time I’ll get it running. 
 

Then brakes, new tyres, a little welding probably and a general going through and tidying up. 

[wesacosa]

3 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Last time it was that the mechanical fuel pump needed priming and once I’d got fuel pumping it started first time with a few weeks between starts. But I got busy and left it doing nothing for a year, and now it won’t go. With parts and proper time I’ll get it running. 
 

Then brakes, new tyres, a little welding probably and a general going through and tidying up. 

Sounds similar to the Panda, when I leave it even for a few days it takes a fair bit of cranking to prime the pump, much more than any other mechanical pump cars I've had

[Asimo]

54 minutes ago, Yoss said:

As electric vans still seem a distant dream for us poor posties, at least at our office, I've been cultivating my own moss gardens in the scuttle of our Pug Partner to reduce our carbon footprint. 

So imagine my delight yesterday when I noticed we have a tiny mushroom in there too. 

So not only do we offset the carbon from all the diesel we use but we now have our own food supply. I'm hoping the two separate gardens in each corner will spread to become one big one right across the scuttle. Should be able to grow enough to be self sufficient then. 

What happened to cleaning the vehicle at the end of the shift? If the scuttle is that neglected, how is the sump?

 

[reb]

I chickened out of using the machine, so @stereotypeis doing it by hand. Slower, but they're really good at it so it's far more accurate than my cackhanded attempts with a machine.

[reb]

And done!

[wuvvum]

I nipped to Wilco on Tuesday to pick up an 11mm square drain plug key, and I went out to the Volvo earlier to see if I could get the in-tank fuel filter out.  It took some doing - I had to get the breaker bar on it and I honestly thought the socket in the drain plug was going to round out at one point - perhaps unsurprising given that it had probably not been touched for almost 50 years.  It came undone in the end though - the filter was rather manky but it also has a split up the seam of the mesh screen so it won't actually be filtering very much, although I'm not sure whether the split was there already or whether it happened when I was wiggling the filter out of the tank, it's a little bit fragile which is allowable at that age.  Brookhouse Volvo list a new filter for £12.95 plus the dreaded and delivery, so about 19 quid all in - a lot for a little mesh cylinder but not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, so I splurged. 

That does mean I'll have to wait until it arrives before I can put everything back together and refill the fuel tank, but if I do need to move the car in the meantime I can always run it off a jerry can under the bonnet.  I might try doing that anyway, to see if the engine runs any better - that would prove that it was definitely the in-tank filter and / or the line from the tank which was causing the fuel starvation issues.  If the new filter doesn't cure it I'll need to get an airline to blow through the fuel pipes, but that'll mean bringing the car onto the drive which will mean moving the Innocenti, so that will probably have to wait a while.

[catsinthewelder]

Had a fairly good car day yesterday, started off in a borrowed van as the car had a sticky brake.  This was an arse to park at the motor factors but I did see a good sign on the notice board by the door.

Wanted 

Discovery, Old type 

I thought brilliant until I read the next line;

Not rotten 🤬

So I went in, got all the service bits I needed along with a new caliper for my Focus.

Found the workshop empty at work, they were contemplating changing the oil on a newish A4 but were glad of an excuse not to so I set to work.

First the caliper, it was completely seized onto the hose but I'd already bought one of them when trying to fix it before Xmas.  Fortunately the hose wasn't seized onto the steel brake pipe. 

Seeing a problem ahead I unpacked the caliper and hose and screwed them together to save time dripping brake fluid, if doing it again, I could have saved more time by unseizing the steel clip that holds the hose to the bracket.  Fortunately it only dripped slowly so the increased fannying about didn't have too much effect on the size of the puddle.  Amazingly the rest all went together nicely, I reused the pads as I only bought them last month (hoping it would solve the sticky brake problem for longer than a fortnight).  The boss helped bleed them and we had a good pedal in 5 minutes which is better than I've ever managed with an eezibleed.

A quick service followed which was fine apart from snapping an intake pipe clip while trying to get to the oil filter.  It's running loads better now but the pipes popped off so I need to engineer a cable tie based solution today.

 

 

 

[JJ0063]

Decided to take the rest of the week as holiday from work so I’m thinking of popping to my local scrap yard to get a couple of bits for ambers Bini

If I go I’ll take a load of pics, it’s a proper AS scrappy where you take bits yourself and much of their stuff is proper chod. They don’t have much newer than mid 00s in there.

[Rod/b]

Got back from a few weeks in the UK to find the truck without sufficient electrons in the box to even unlock the doors on the button. Jumped it up using the Kia Mumbus and took it for a spin to see if i could persuade some electricity back into the battery.

Parked up and came back a while later to this:

Upon closer inspection this quick connect elbow on the bottom of the header tank has given up the ghost.

 

Also the battery was flat again so i boosted it and took it down to my tame mechanic as I haven’t got time for dicking about with cars at the moment.

On the way there the tyre light came on, and by the time i arrived the left front was flat. So that’s brilliant too.

The battery is testing is bad, oh and it needs a front wheel bearing.   Always happens right after christmas doesn’t it?

EDIT:

Update - the header tank needs replacing too. Quite excellently Ford have combined the air box and header tank in one unit and therefore it costs £200, which is more than the replacement 4x4 locking hub and bearing unit costs.

Here’s one of the pictures the garage keeps whatsapping to me.

[JJ0063]

I got to the scrappy at 12:36, they close for lunch at 12:30.. typical. I managed to run in and check but only r50 Minis in stock so nothing for me. Didn’t have time to have a full wander round for photos but heres a couple from the row I was on:

The other end is much better - AX, ZX, E36, old vans etc some proper early 90s chod there. 

 

[chadders]

Where is that please?

[JJ0063]

2 minutes ago, chadders said:

Where is that please?

Just outside Dereham, Norfolk

its called Warmers Car Spares 👍

[junkyarddog]

18 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

Just outside Dereham, Norfolk

its called Warmers Car Spares 👍

Was there once,very tidy yard.

[SiC]

"New" car has just been delivered. Bought in the wet and delivered in the wet. Never actually seen it in the dry, so hopefully it's ok! Its the most I've ever spent on a car and much rather not have spent this much. But with the crazy market and needing a car, needs must.
Our dead A4 is due to be taken away on Thursday all being well.

[Rod/b]

1 hour ago, Rod/b said:

Got back from a few weeks in the UK to find the truck without sufficient electrons in the box to even unlock the doors on the button. Jumped it up using the Kia Mumbus and took it for a spin to see if i could persuade some electricity back into the battery.

Parked up and came back a while later to this:

Upon closer inspection this quick connect elbow on the bottom of the header tank has given up the ghost.

 

Also the battery was flat again so i boosted it and took it down to my tame mechanic as I haven’t got time for dicking about with cars at the moment.

On the way there the tyre light came on, and by the time i arrived the left front was flat. So that’s brilliant too.

The battery is testing is bad, oh and it needs a front wheel bearing.   Always happens right after christmas doesn’t it?

EDIT:

Update - the header tank needs replacing too. Quite excellently Ford have combined the air box and header tank in one unit and therefore it costs £200, which is more than the replacement 4x4 locking hub and bearing unit costs.

Here’s one of the pictures the garage keeps whatsapping to me.

See? Pic updates whatsapped all the way.

 

[JJ0063]

20 minutes ago, junkyarddog said:

Was there once,very tidy yard.

Yeah they’re nice down there too. I went to college many years ago with one of them. 
 

It’s my local yard, they never seem to rotate stock much annoyingly but it’s nice to just have a wander and look at the chod to be honest. 

I did many years ago get a 205 GTI steering wheel for £10 out of a 106 which I used for a few months then sold for £120 on eBay.

[dozeydustman]

That looks like a great yard to walk around.

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, Rod/b said:

See? Pic updates whatsapped all the way.

 

Sounds like heaven compared to trying to get updates out of most garages!

[Yoss]

17 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Is that why we haven't had any post since NYE? 

Only new years eve, you're doing well! The week before Christmas we lost over 40 staff to covid. That's in an office of around 130, so almost a third of our staff. Most of those are back now but more are off as it spreads. I was lucky* enough to catch it in November so I was immune to this wave but it has been both chaotic and eerily calm at the same time as parts of the office are practically empty. The bosses have given up, there's not a lot they can do really. We work in pairs from each van but every time one of us has a day off we don't have any cover so it'll just be me covering both duties. What tends to happen is I concentrate on the packets and leave the mail behind as its the packets people want and they take up more volume. Then the next day we'll have two days mail to clear. Then it will be my partners day off and we're back to square one. But our customers are the lucky ones, they only miss out one day. The duties where both posties in the pair have gone off are a lot more hit and miss and it is just pot luck. We do our best. Most of us anyway. 

17 hours ago, Asimo said:

What happened to cleaning the vehicle at the end of the shift? If the scuttle is that neglected, how is the sump?

 

Ha ha, I've never washed it and it's ten years old. There are no facilities at our office to wash them even if I wanted to. But there is no time in the duties anyway, I'm usually at least half an hour late getting back. 

When I started we only kept the vans for three years. You always used to see old Royal Mail Sherpas knocking about in private hands. I think they were auctioned off and probably a good buy as they were generally well looked after. Not any more, my Pug is ten years old this year. You never really see them in private hands now because we keep them until they utterly fucked. I guess it makes sense from a private companies point of view but it doesn't do much for the public image. 

It does get serviced twice a year and obviously MOT'd but the garage never wash them either. I even have lichen growing on mine and that takes decades to grow. 

[grogee]

3 hours ago, Rod/b said:

Got back from a few weeks in the UK to find the truck without sufficient electrons in the box to even unlock the doors on the button. Jumped it up using the Kia Mumbus and took it for a spin to see if i could persuade some electricity back into the battery.

Parked up and came back a while later to this:

Upon closer inspection this quick connect elbow on the bottom of the header tank has given up the ghost.

 

Also the battery was flat again so i boosted it and took it down to my tame mechanic as I haven’t got time for dicking about with cars at the moment.

On the way there the tyre light came on, and by the time i arrived the left front was flat. So that’s brilliant too.

The battery is testing is bad, oh and it needs a front wheel bearing.   Always happens right after christmas doesn’t it?

EDIT:

Update - the header tank needs replacing too. Quite excellently Ford have combined the air box and header tank in one unit and therefore it costs £200, which is more than the replacement 4x4 locking hub and bearing unit costs.

Here’s one of the pictures the garage keeps whatsapping to me.

Sorry for your January automotive expense. 

On a related note, I take pics and videos of work I do for 'customers' (don't tell tax man). I can't believe most UK garages haven't caught onto this. It's easy and free, plus you often need pics as reference anyway. And it's reassuring for the customer. 

[grogee]

8 minutes ago, Yoss said:

Only new years eve, you're doing well! The week before Christmas we lost over 40 staff to covid. That's in an office of around 130, so almost a third of our staff. Most of those are back now but more are off as it spreads. I was lucky* enough to catch it in November so I was immune to this wave but it has been both chaotic and eerily calm at the same time as parts of the office are practically empty. The bosses have given up, there's not a lot they can do really. We work in pairs from each van but every time one of us has a day off we don't have any cover so it'll just be me covering both duties. What tends to happen is I concentrate on the packets and leave the mail behind as its the packets people want and they take up more volume. Then the next day we'll have two days mail to clear. Then it will be my partners day off and we're back to square one. But our customers are the lucky ones, they only miss out one day. The duties where both posties in the pair have gone off are a lot more hit and miss and it is just pot luck. We do our best. Most of us anyway. 

Ha ha, I've never washed it and it's ten years old. There are no facilities at our office to wash them even if I wanted to. But there is no time in the duties anyway, I'm usually at least half an hour late getting back. 

When I started we only kept the vans for three years. You always used to see old Royal Mail Sherpas knocking about in private hands. I think they were auctioned off and probably a good buy as they were generally well looked after. Not any more, my Pug is ten years old this year. You never really see them in private hands now because we keep them until they utterly fucked. I guess it makes sense from a private companies point of view but it doesn't do much for the public image. 

It does get serviced twice a year and obviously MOT'd but the garage never wash them either. I even have lichen growing on mine and that takes decades to grow. 

Thanks for your postie efforts in these challenging times. It can't be easy. We are blessed with a lovely post lady who is very friendly and helpful. She got a bottle of wine for Xmas from us but now I feel bad that no-one in the depot got anything!

[Lankytim]

I spied these poorly advertised Cobra slot wheels on eBay, as they were local I stuck on a very low bid and won. After getting over my immediate buyers remorse I arranged with the seller to collect and picked them up today. 

The seller hadn't advertised the size or the PCD but it turns out they're 14x6  with a PCD of 130mm, meaning they were probably fitted to a classic Beetle, although I think they'll fit some Skodas too. Not much use for me, unfortunately. 

I'm going to remove the scrap tyres, clean them up and stick them on eBay again, except this time I'll give them a proper description.