The new news 24 thread

[barefoot]

14 hours ago, richardmorris said:

55 years ago.

Are there recent photographs of the bottom part of the LEM that was left on the moon?

[dome]

1 hour ago, barefoot said:

Are there recent photographs of the bottom part of the LEM that was left on the moon?

NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter picked these up but that was over 10 years ago.

https://www.space.com/14874-apollo-11-landing-site-moon-photo.html

Loads more images here too

https://www.lroc.asu.edu/images/?tag=Apollo

[Ghosty]

7 hours ago, IronStar said:

As usual, it’s probably stupidest, cheapest, but most annoying thing, ie CV joint.

Nope.

[Zelandeth]

9 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

Nope.

Clutch friction plate disintegrated?

[Ghosty]

Just now, Zelandeth said:

Clutch friction plate disintegrated?

Yep, exactly that. Brand new clutch

My thinking is the master cylinder wasn't working properly, has jammed the brakes on and burned it out.

Discs and pads are cooked too, so it's all gonna be replaced.

Clutch job is basically engine out on these as three of the four engine mounts are on the gearbox. I'll be farming it out.

[Zelandeth]

3 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

Yep, exactly that. Brand new clutch

My thinking is the master cylinder wasn't working properly, has jammed the brakes on and burned it out.

Discs and pads are cooked too, so it's all gonna be replaced.

Clutch job is basically engine out on these as three of the four engine mounts are on the gearbox. I'll be farming it out.

That is some fscking rotten luck right there.  Really hope it doesn't fight you too much getting it sorted.

You got alternative transport in the meantime?  

[Ghosty]

5 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

That is some fscking rotten luck right there.  Really hope it doesn't fight you too much getting it sorted.

You got alternative transport in the meantime?  

Yep, the Golf and a Civic Coupe I acquired on commission (soon to be replaced with a pink Jazz I need to sell!).

[Zelandeth]

Just now, Ghosty said:

Yep, the Golf and a Civic Coupe I acquired on commission (soon to be replaced with a pink Jazz I need to sell!).

Good good.  Was going to offer up a FoC loan of the Partner if you were stuck and we could figure out how to get it up there to you, but you've clearly got things covered.

[IronStar]

2 hours ago, Ghosty said:

Nope.

Ah, fuck.

You still got this, it’s not a catastrophic engine failure. Shit happens. Try not to get too stressed over it, it will be back on the road in no time. 

[wuvvum]

Didn't make a lot of progress on the fleet this weekend, although I did spend a fair bit of time buggering about with cars - some of it planned, some not so much.

Yesterday the weather was rather nice (until late afternoon at least) so I decided to take the "old" cars out for a spin as they hadn't really moved much recently.  I took the Volvo for a drive up the coast road - it ran as well as ever and overtook several dawdlers, sometimes two at a time.  It may accelerate like a modern car but it doesn't handle like one - I'd forgotten how much one has to slow down for tight corners in that car, although it's definitely less understeery now it has nearly new Dunlops on the front rather than 30-year-old Michelin ZXs.

I'd had to jump start it before I went out as the battery was completely dead.  When I got back I switched it off then went to start it again to see if the battery had taken a charge.   Except that nothing happened when I turned the key.  There was power in the battery but it didn't even click.  I spent some time fruitlessly playing with wires and fuses to make sure it wasn't just a dodgy contact somewhere.  Eventually got the multimeter out and found that with the ignition key turned to the start position, the exciter wire to the solenoid is putting out 1.7v.  Which isn't enough to excite anything.  Just to make sure that was the issue I ran a test wire straight from the battery live to the exciter terminal on the solenoid and it turned over straight away.  

So I'm not sure what's happened there.  Could be the ignition switch is on its way out, could be a partially broken wire somewhere in the loom, could even be a dodgy gearbox inhibitor switch (although I would have expected that to stop any current at all getting to the solenoid rather than just reducing the voltage).  I've left the "test" wire in place so I can start the car if I need to move it - if I can be arsed I will investigate further at some point, but I can see the test wire being rerouted via a push button switch in the cabin, at least as a temporary* solution.

I took the Innocenti for a drive as well, and was pleased to note that the vibration over 60mph has gone since I had a new tyre fitted on the front for the MOT.  I had to use my phone to tell me when I got to 60 though - the speedo has stopped working.  I pulled the clocks out and found that the plastic clip assembly that fits into the speedo end of the cable outer had snapped off - possibly caused by me being hamfisted when changing the warning light bulbs for the test - and whilst the cable was still firmly inserted into the back of the speedo, the fact that it could now be pulled out of its sheath meant that it had come away from the drive gubbins at the gearbox end.  I've effected a superglue repair to the clip which will hopefully hold - I'll try putting it all back together tomorrow, although access is a bit tight so it's not a job I'm particularly looking forward to.

I pulled the Merc onto the drive to do some work on that.  First job was to change the expansion tank - the original had had a bodge repair done to the return pipe inlet at the top, and I wasn't convinced that it was entirely watertight as the coolant level seemed to be dropping slowly.  This should have been a 10-minute job but ended up taking an hour and a half as all the pipes were held on by those bastard fucking spring clips which should have been banned by the Geneva convention.  They weren't even the "good" kind with nicely accessible tabs to grab with pliers - on these the tabs were folded almost flat so getting anything to grip them was nigh on impossible.

The new tank is fitted now though, so that's one job done at least.  The other scheduled task was to have a more detailed look at exactly how much of a twat it's going to be to change the auxiliary belt.  I got the car up on the ramps and took the undertray off - this gave me a better look at exactly what goes where, but it hasn't changed my preliminary analysis of "this is going to be an utter c*nt of a job".  I can't even get to the belt tensioner until the intercooler pipework has been removed, and even then the belt is going to be almost impossible to get off with the radiator in situ - so that's going to have to come out, which is going to be a pain in itself as everything is so rammed in in the engine bay.  I did have another listen to the bearing noise, now that I've been able to look from underneath and actually work out which bits are where, and I think it's the tensioner pulley rather than the alternator - so that's going to be another thing to replace.  I'm probably going to do the alternator pulley anyway while I'm in there just to be on the safe side - it's not flashed up the alternator fault message again but I'd rather not have to dismantle the entire front end of the car more than once if I can help it.

[wuvvum]

TL;DR: I have too many cars.  Some of them are broken.

[ruffgeezer]

Lifted the carpet offcut in the foot well of the Sellafield special yesterday, really  wish I hadn't.

It's all a bit Archbishop of Canterbury under there.

[Ged]

I did a trackday at Knockhill in a relatively standard turbo diesel Peugeot 305 estate, it actually handled quite well for having inappropriate tyres.

 

[loserone]

Fucking legend 

[grogee]

3 minutes ago, Ged said:

I did a trackday at Knockhill in a relatively standard turbo diesel Peugeot 305 estate, it actually handled quite well for having inappropriate tyres.

 

What broke first? 

That's impressive stuff for a 40 year old estate. 

[Ged]

4 minutes ago, grogee said:

What broke first? 

That's impressive stuff for a 40 year old estate. 

Everything was fine I have left the boost standard on this one to be a reliable daily driver, but should hopefully be back there in my tweaked XUD 305 saloon with a GT2052 to throw some rods.

[Joey spud]

This scruffy glass fibre Moggy had been living in my back yard for years and when I moved home last year her in doors who isn't a cat person put him in the skip but I pulled him back out without her knowing and brought him to our new abode.

So today after a wash down and a coat of Morris Minor Clarendon grey from a rattle can he now lives outside my workshop door (her indoors hasn't noticed yet).

[wuvvum]

A moggy in a Moggy colour.  Appropriate.

[wesacosa]

Facebook just reminded me its 5 years since I completed my 2000 mile trip to Monaco and back in the Favorit and celebrated with a drink in my eBay find Favorit branded Czechoslovakian crystal wine glasses 

In more modern Favorit news the heater now gets up to temperature and the coolant level is stable when running with the cap on and the coolant level stays constant. Just need to get brave now and take it for a good spin out somewhere to check how it goes 

[Yoss]

41 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

Facebook just reminded me its 5 years since I completed my 2000 mile trip to Monaco and back in the Favorit and celebrated with a drink in my eBay find Favorit branded Czechoslovakian crystal wine glasses 

In more modern Favorit news the heater now gets up to temperature and the coolant level is stable when running with the cap on and the coolant level stays constant. Just need to get brave now and take it for a good spin out somewhere to check how it goes 

We need to see the glasses! Or at least I do, not sure if anybody else is fussed. 

[wesacosa]

8 minutes ago, Yoss said:

We need to see the glasses! Or at least I do, not sure if anybody else is fussed. 

 

[IronStar]

3 hours ago, wesacosa said:

Facebook just reminded me its 5 years since I completed my 2000 mile trip to Monaco and back in the Favorit and celebrated with a drink in my eBay find Favorit branded Czechoslovakian crystal wine glasses 

In more modern Favorit news the heater now gets up to temperature and the coolant level is stable when running with the cap on and the coolant level stays constant. Just need to get brave now and take it for a good spin out somewhere to check how it goes 

I was wondering what happened to Favorit, but I was too scared to ask as I was worried the answer was head gasket, ran out of arsed and scrapped. 
Amazing news!

[wesacosa]

Just now, IronStar said:

I was wondering what happened to Favorit, but I was too scared to ask as I was worried the answer was head gasket, ran out of arsed and scrapped. 
Amazing news!

well fingers crossed its ok but I only tested it at idle so far. It needs a proper drive now but because of the low emissions zone here its £12.50 every time I drive it so was waiting until I had time for a longer drive to get my monies worth! 

[Saabnut]

Today I joined the 21st century at home. Those who attended SF18 or have visited since will know that my place is a little* remote and my internet speed has ranged from 9600kb on dial up to a heady 1 Mb download via copper for the last many years. A few weeks ago, they dug a trench for 3/4 mile just to my house to lay a fibre cable. Unbelievable. Today they connected me up and for the first time ever I have fast internet, Currently 480Mb download and 140Mb upload. For less than I was paying before. Its great!

Tomorrow I will have to order a new internet, I will have read this one!

[Datsuncog]

6 hours ago, wesacosa said:

 

Skoda always did have a spectacular range of giffer-oriented accessories.

I wonder how many whisky decanters they sold, at £141?

[Ghosty]

*eye twitches*

[reb]

2 hours ago, Saabnut said:

Today I joined the 21st century at home. Those who attended SF18 or have visited since will know that my place is a little* remote and my internet speed has ranged from 9600kb on dial up to a heady 1 Mb download via copper for the last many years. A few weeks ago, they dug a trench for 3/4 mile just to my house to lay a fibre cable. Unbelievable. Today they connected me up and for the first time ever I have fast internet, Currently 480Mb download and 140Mb upload. For less than I was paying before. Its great!

Tomorrow I will have to order a new internet, I will have read this one!

In terms of percentage improvement you've got my fibre upgrade beaten! It'll make a huge difference to daily browsing. Perhaps you'll be able to partake in the newfangled art of "hd video streaming" too!

[RobT]

8 hours ago, wesacosa said:

 

 

That numerical font is fabulous, and yes I'm odd for liking it that much.  It's the nines that do it.

[Wibble]

Apparently I’m a very important customer to Skoda:

They’re going to be hugely disappointed by my absence I’m sure😆

[cort16]

Other people have pictures of their family and friends as memories on facebook.