The new news 24 thread

[Bear]

1 hour ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

The studs only stick out a few millimeters, but it's a enough to make a difference.

And, crucially, a really cool noise as they scrabble along the road

[Metal Guru]

3 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

The studs only stick out a few millimeters, but it's a enough to make a difference.

I had a week in Iceland a few years ago after they’d had the heaviest one day snowfall for 80 years. The hire car (Volvo XC70) had studded tyres and was brilliant in the snow. I found myself doing about 50 on roads I’d have done more like 15 at  home even on winter tyres.

However it was still a bit scary when a tour bus overtakes you doing 60+.

[dozeydustman]

Back home after our break away. We’ve done ≈850 miles since Thursday morning, returning an average 49.4mpg (indicated - in reality this is about 46-47).

Most stressful bit of the whole journey was stopping at the Tesco round the corner from home for a bottle of milk. Welcome back to the land of the self-entitled knobhead.

[stuboy]

Popped too car pub as had ford meet there...

 

 

 

some nice motors

hope you all like

 

 

[320touring]

Reckon I should change my name?

[vulgalour]

On 19/09/2025 at 21:02, vulgalour said:

PIP telephone assessment stuff

What a godawful experience.  90 minute long 30 minute assessment, everything a binary yes/no question with no room for nuance, and it triggered an ME crash I had to just sort of get through.  The way it's done you're either you're very worst day or you're perfectly fine and there's nothing wrong with you so whatever you say you feel like you're lying.  I now have a 6-8 week wait for a decision, which is on top of the 8 weeks it took to get an assessment, during which time there's apparently no other financial benefit assistance I can claim.

So... if you become disabled to the degree you can't work, you've got to survive 4 months on what exactly?  Who has enough savings put away to survive 4 months of rent?  But no, you go ahead and tell me again how 'disability benefit is easy to get' and 'all people on benefits are scroungers'.  I can well see why people give up, the process is absolute bloody torture and I don't know how I'd get through it without the support of my partner.

As a direct result of this process today I'm having a super bad day, I can barely walk, my chronic pain is almost as bad as it ever gets and I'm angry.  I'm so angry.  What's worse is it's a futile anger.

I know, I know, it's off topic and all that.  Just, if you see someone working on their car who you also know is claiming PIP, don't automatically assume they're a fraud or faking it.  They probably aren't.  Disability isn't a binary thing, it's varying degrees of shit, and some days are just less shit than others.

[comfortablynumb]

I know where you're coming from @vulgalour, having had to deal with the bastards for several years now, and found out that they're also lying bastards, I have every sympathy for you 

[stuboy]

On 22/09/2025 at 21:35, 320touring said:

Reckon I should change my name?

its only right thing to do

[stuboy]

9 hours ago, vulgalour said:

What a godawful experience.  90 minute long 30 minute assessment, everything a binary yes/no question with no room for nuance, and it triggered an ME crash I had to just sort of get through.  The way it's done you're either you're very worst day or you're perfectly fine and there's nothing wrong with you so whatever you say you feel like you're lying.  I now have a 6-8 week wait for a decision, which is on top of the 8 weeks it took to get an assessment, during which time there's apparently no other financial benefit assistance I can claim.

So... if you become disabled to the degree you can't work, you've got to survive 4 months on what exactly?  Who has enough savings put away to survive 4 months of rent?  But no, you go ahead and tell me again how 'disability benefit is easy to get' and 'all people on benefits are scroungers'.  I can well see why people give up, the process is absolute bloody torture and I don't know how I'd get through it without the support of my partner.

As a direct result of this process today I'm having a super bad day, I can barely walk, my chronic pain is almost as bad as it ever gets and I'm angry.  I'm so angry.  What's worse is it's a futile anger.

I know, I know, it's off topic and all that.  Just, if you see someone working on their car who you also know is claiming PIP, don't automatically assume they're a fraud or faking it.  They probably aren't.  Disability isn't a binary thing, it's varying degrees of shit, and some days are just less shit than others.

well done for not slamming the phone down, i spent weekend filling out my renewel, its now in the post

[stuboy]

9 hours ago, vulgalour said:

Just, if you see someone working on their car who you also know is claiming PIP, don't automatically assume they're a fraud or faking it.  They probably aren't. 

i look perfect specimen of the male species... its the chasis and moving components thats fubared

[Zelandeth]

12 hours ago, vulgalour said:

What a godawful experience.  90 minute long 30 minute assessment, everything a binary yes/no question with no room for nuance, and it triggered an ME crash I had to just sort of get through.  The way it's done you're either you're very worst day or you're perfectly fine and there's nothing wrong with you so whatever you say you feel like you're lying.  I now have a 6-8 week wait for a decision, which is on top of the 8 weeks it took to get an assessment, during which time there's apparently no other financial benefit assistance I can claim.

So... if you become disabled to the degree you can't work, you've got to survive 4 months on what exactly?  Who has enough savings put away to survive 4 months of rent?  But no, you go ahead and tell me again how 'disability benefit is easy to get' and 'all people on benefits are scroungers'.  I can well see why people give up, the process is absolute bloody torture and I don't know how I'd get through it without the support of my partner.

As a direct result of this process today I'm having a super bad day, I can barely walk, my chronic pain is almost as bad as it ever gets and I'm angry.  I'm so angry.  What's worse is it's a futile anger.

I know, I know, it's off topic and all that.  Just, if you see someone working on their car who you also know is claiming PIP, don't automatically assume they're a fraud or faking it.  They probably aren't.  Disability isn't a binary thing, it's varying degrees of shit, and some days are just less shit than others.

As a fellow sufferer of ME and chronic pain issues, you have my complete sympathy.  I've just got over my own crash that followed the Very Long and stressful day weekend before last when our dog suddenly fell ill and passed away.  That basically wiped me out for a week.

My father had a brain haemorrhage in the mid 90s, and was left in a state where he could barely walk, couldn't dress himself, had no concept of the passage of time, had basically no short term memory etc.  It took us SEVEN YEARS to get him onto the proper benefits.  The only reason we did was because we stumbled into being friends with a retired care worker who talked us through filling in the paperwork vaguely labelled box by vaguely labelled box.

We went into that situation with him already having been made redundant two years before hand when Fugro bought out the small company he worked for and immediately fired everyone over the age of 40 overnight...so we had zip by way of savings etc when he collapsed.  If our neighbour round the corner wasn't a former paramedic there's no way in hell he'd have still been alive by the time an ambulance made it to us about an hour down the line (we lived in the back end of nowhere).  So we spent most of that period having to make decisions like "we can have electricity, we can buy food, or we can pay to get TO the shop (15 miles away, with literally no public transport options) to buy food - pick any one of these."  However we were labelled by several people, even back then, as benefit scroungers because mum was able bodied, despite being his full time carer (and she couldn't get carers allowance until we got HIS benefits sorted properly).  Nothing has changed.

The benefit system is utterly and completely broken and has been for decades.  The complete lack of nuance has always been one of the biggest problems, if you don't fit into their nice neat little categories you're in for a world of pain.  ME is *always* going to fail to fit into those boxes by the very nature of what it is.

If you need someone to just rant at, you know where I am!  Sometimes just having someone who's been there to vent at can feel helpful.

I'd love to say ME isn't something I'd wish on my worst enemy...but that makes me sound far more virtuous than I really am, and it's EXACTLY the sort of thing I'd wish on my worst enemies!  That's a very small list of people though.

[Yoss]

On 21/09/2025 at 21:23, wesacosa said:

 

As I said its a bloody silly place to have it ,  clearly, as it caught us both out. Id had a good look around the box before I took it out and couldn't see anything else that looked like a drain, coupled with the fact it had a washer 

My Triumph has no gearbox drain plug. The literature of the time says that the gearbox was sealed for life but obviously the design life was not 56 years. The only way to drain it is to take out of the car and tip it on its side. Has no dipstick either, you just fill it until it comes out of the filler hole. 

That's not helpful is it? 

[EyesWeldedShut]

On 22/09/2025 at 20:54, dozeydustman said:

Welcome back to the land of the self-entitled knobhead.

Now you know why some us live over here  Different pace of life (mostly)

[dozeydustman]

6 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Now you know why some us live over here  Different pace of life (mostly)

I would happily move away from the south & south east. Would have to find a job and temporary accommodation before the family moves though!

I just discovered my old council is paying dust drivers more (£38k basic + double time + day off in lieu for every bank holiday + 35 days annual leave) than I get paid as a waste ops supervisor on the south coast 😳(I’m on £37k basic, we operate 6 days a week and I don’t get any bank holiday bonus because I do Tuesday-Saturday). But it’s still in the south east!

[stuboy]

Missus says engine light is on... scanned it with my moulineux code reader..  apparently glow plug.. I cleared it and told her too keep an eye on it.. why fix when u can ignore it...

[grogee]

13 hours ago, Yoss said:

My Triumph has no gearbox drain plug. The literature of the time says that the gearbox was sealed for life but obviously the design life was not 56 years

 

[wesacosa]

On 21/09/2025 at 19:08, Rustybullethole said:

Ha I took that one out too and got nowt. Check round the back of the box the drain looks like the fill. 

Am hoping that red circled bolt does nothing too important and wasn't holding some cogs in place! 

Made it to work today without blowing up so I'm calling it a bullet dodged 

Hows your rebuild coming along 

[Rustybullethole]

14 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

Made it to work today without blowing up so I'm calling it a bullet dodged 

Hows your rebuild coming along 

This is great news my friend. Today is my first free day and after a lazy start i'm just about to go get started. Collected the clutch fork Monday morning before work so should now have everything I need. 

[wesacosa]

Just now, Rustybullethole said:

This is great news my friend. Today is my first free day and after a lazy start i'm just about to go get started. Collected the clutch fork Monday morning before work so should now have everything I need. 

good luck!

[Rustybullethole]

17 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

good luck!

Battle shall commence after a cuppa. 

Edited Thursday at 09:21 by Rustybullethole

[wesacosa]

7 minutes ago, Rustybullethole said:

Battle shall commence after a cuppa. 

im not around today but should be tomorrow and Saturday morning if you need a hand manhandling the box back in

[Rustybullethole]

7 hours ago, wesacosa said:

im not around today but should be tomorrow and Saturday morning if you need a hand manhandling the box back in

Many thanks for the offer and much appreciated though good news... There's no need as its in, on and done.

The combo of smallish lightish gearbox, a couple of dowels, a stud and a handy tie down strap to stop it falling on my face made it easy. 

Most time spent was fishing out a screwdriver I dropped into a cavity near the gearbox mount. Much fuckabout! I did consider chopping said screwdriver with the spinning death wheel though i'm a stubborn fucker so stuck with it. 

Plenty of time wasted susing out which bolts were for the bell housing side of the dog bone mount. Could of made my life a lot easier by not just throwing everything in a bucket together! 

Old clutch was down to the rivets so was nearly as dead as the thrust bearing. 

Few bits spotted to go on the to do list though for now its good to go.

 

[beko1987]

4 minutes ago, Rustybullethole said:

Many thanks for the offer and much appreciated though good news... There's no need as its in, on and done.

The combo of smallish lightish gearbox, a couple of dowels, a stud and a handy tie down strap to stop it falling on my face made it easy. 

Most time spent was fishing out a screwdriver I dropped into a cavity near the gearbox mount. Much fuckabout! I did consider chopping said screwdriver with the spinning death wheel though i'm a stubborn fucker so stuck with it. 

Plenty of time wasted susing out which bolts were for the bell housing side of the dog bone mount. Could of made my life a lot easier by not just throwing everything in a bucket together! 

Old clutch was down to the rivets so was nearly as dead as the thrust bearing. 

Few bits spotted to go on the to do list though for now its good to go.

 

When I did my aux belt at the weekend and got my ratchet wedged on the pulley bolt I spent more time unearthing my big toolbox to find my big screwdriver to un-wedge it then put said big toolbox back again than the entire rest of the job took 😂

Glad it all went well though, a clutch is one of the jobs I've never tackled (yet)

[Rustybullethole]

15 hours ago, beko1987 said:

When I did my aux belt at the weekend and got my ratchet wedged on the pulley bolt I spent more time unearthing my big toolbox to find my big screwdriver to un-wedge it then put said big toolbox back again than the entire rest of the job took 😂

Glad it all went well though, a clutch is one of the jobs I've never tackled (yet)

I find it's often the way. The upside of spending a day unsuccessful searching for berlingo wheel bolts is I got to find where all my other crap is which is nice.

And thanks, is always nice to complete something you've not done before with success. To be honest the Bmw/Ural bike clutch are set up the same and ive done those before. 

Can't quite believe i've got away with not doing a car one until now though.

This is todays war;

Bearings off the hubs and carriers been soaked/beat at intervals yesterday. Last night I introduced some flames which had the seized circlips out. 

Which leaves me here. 

A wee bit stuck. I'm have a plan shall see how it fares...

Stage one complete. New bearings are chilling in the freezer. This shows my intention to have them fitted if nothing else.

Edited 23 hours ago by Rustybullethole

[ruffgeezer]

Spotted an old friend in Lincoln today:-

As won by @Grumblespeed late last year  from me, having been traded in by @comfysofa who may or may not have got it from @motorpunk?

I must say it looked really well and nicely looked after.

[wesacosa]

2 hours ago, ruffgeezer said:

Spotted an old friend in Lincoln today:-

As won by @Grumblespeed late last year  from me, having been traded in by @comfysofa who may or may not have got it from @motorpunk?

I must say it looked really well and nicely looked after.

I love that shade of blue, when I was looking for a Panda that was on my list but I couldn't find any £35 tax ones in that.shade of blue so thinking they must have discontinued it

[Split_Pin]

Some more progress with the 75 from Gingernutzz:

Arch now welded in, filled and sanded, looking good.

OSF wing is next for the attention. A mudguard thing caused all this believe it or not. 

Bonnet almost ready for paint.

Pleased as always, nothings ever a hurdle for this chap!

[Rustybullethole]

Hot of the press*

*BFH

[barefoot]

My old Porsche passed its MOT today with exactly the same advisaries as last year.

And the same milage since the sodding odometer appears to have packed up.

 

[Grumblespeed]

8 hours ago, ruffgeezer said:

Spotted an old friend in Lincoln today:-

As won by @Grumblespeed late last year  from me, having been traded in by @comfysofa who may or may not have got it from @motorpunk?

I must say it looked really well and nicely looked after.

Great little car👍Alternating daily drive duties at the minute, seems to be running better than ever just now. MOT due again next month so we'll see how it's all holding together.