The new news 24 thread

[ruffgeezer]

Van finding waters have been sullied by at offer of a Peugeot Partner with highish miles for £450 ono, which pretty much nails the coffin shut on the "cheap" C15 I went to see yesterday, rotten around the back door hinge on the body, exhaust broken at the catch and patchwork sills... Even at £150, by the time I've had it transported, mot'd and back to fine fettle, it'll still be knocking on the door of £300.

 

I just hope the red one in Lincoln comes down in price a little bit so I can afford it and not worry about any others, failing that a dull but capable partner it is.

[phil_lihp]

Fixed the bike! Took out the spark plug and it was black and soaked in petrol, cleaned it off and eventually got a little spark off it, reassembled and it fired back into life. Tightened up the screws on the float bowl and that seemed to stop the leak.

 

Took it for a 20 minute Italian tune up and now it's idling better and sends to have a little more power since soaking the carb in carb cleaner. Just the knackered cosh drives to sort now.

[Jazoli]

 

 

Just the knackered cosh drives to sort now.

Bits of bicycle inner tube cut up into little squares to pack out the knackered cush rubbers is an established bodge/fix

[Timewaster]

Which one was it?

Cambridge MG in Harston. Formerly Buckingham and Stanley.

[Cavcraft]

The Honda 650 has now decided not to have any power to the electrics. Suspect the main fuse has blown, so will have to try and get another one, then I'm going to offload it because I just don't like it.

[twosmoke300]

 

Bits of bicycle inner tube cut up into little squares to pack out the knackered cush rubbers is an established bodge/fix

Not your first rodeo is it ? 😃

[Luckythirteen]

A mate of Pa's (who is a notorious tightwad) keeps his used cush drive bits. To pack out the new ones when they wear out. It's not like they're expensive...

[cobblers]

I'm trying to relive my youth with this 106 GTi so since the exhaust is a total crock of shit I kept my eyes peeled for a magnex like what I had on my saxo VTR ten years ago. I have no idea how I managed to scrape together £2k for the car and then another £400 for an exhaust when I was only two payments into my hilarious student debt which I'm quite proud to finally be paying off, I reckon I've done pretty well for a Sheffield Hallam graduate.

 

So this popped up on ebay:

Practically brand new (the lad bought it years ago but wrote the car off days after fitting it) and presented on a fantastic bit of cloth. He wouldn't give me the cloth but I genuinely did ask for it as our lass wanted it to make a dress out of.

[phil_lihp]

The Honda 650 has now decided not to have any power to the electrics. Suspect the main fuse has blown, so will have to try and get another one, then I'm going to offload it because I just don't like it.

 

Hmm.  I'll need something like that for my Direct Access course.  Interesting.

[phil_lihp]

Jazoli, on 10 Aug 2014 - 5:59 PM, said:

Bits of bicycle inner tube cut up into little squares to pack out the knackered cush rubbers is an established bodge/fix

 

A mate of Pa's (who is a notorious tightwad) keeps his used cush drive bits. To pack out the new ones when they wear out. It's not like they're expensive...

 

Waay ahead of you, I have a roll of black electrical tape standing by, just need my new circlip pliers to arrive in the post so I can get the sprocket off.

 

A set of 4 new ones is £15 including P&P but I'll see how knackered the originals are first.  Probably quite knackered, the sprocket's securely bolted down but flopping about alarmingly.  Doesn't make for a very smooth ride and won't be doing the drivetrain and gearbox much good.

[Bucketeer]

So far I've found three dead mice in my new* 200 Euro Golf.

At least I now know it wasn't me that was making it smell so bad inside.

[twosmoke300]

If the sprocket is held on by a big circlip then they all seem like a cock in a bucket.

If you want a bike for direct access my missus is selling her prilla pegaso factory 660

[phil_lihp]

Yes, they're expected to wobble a bit but this is more than a bit, hopefully some bodgery will do.

 

In all honesty I'm not going to have the money to do my DA any time soon so I'm being a bit premature looking for a bike, thanks though and if it's still for sale in a few months I might be interested!

[vulgalour]

Today has been exhausting but the beige Princess is back up North again.  The red Princess is still in Derbyshire and the new owner is doing battle with it.

 

Annoyingly, something quite literally went "pop", by literally I do mean that, it was exactly the same noise as you'd expect a pop to be.  The passenger side is now lower than the driver's side but weirdly there's no puddle of hydragas fluid or obvious leak so I'm not sure if it's the replacement sphere, a union, a pipe or something else entirely that's amiss.  I do know I'm not happy about it.

[Richard]

I'm not 100% sure how these things work but I'd guess the bladder inside the displacer has burst.

[vulgalour]

It does seem very likely.  If there's no puddle underneath I can only assume the gas chamber is now full of fluid.  That means sourcing yet another rear displacer as they're handed and that's going to be expensive and/or difficult.  Bigger problems to solve first, like the bodywork, but I could really have done without it happening.

[wuvvum]

This morning I got caught in what was probably the worst rain I've ever experience from behind the wheel of a car.  Fortunately I was in something with quite rapid wipers (if I'd been in the Volvo I'd have been screwed), but even so I was crawling along at 35 (on a NSL A-road) as I simply couldn't see well enough to go any faster.  Also, there was flash flooding at various points along the road, and I didn't want to go hooning into a bloody great puddle and drown the engine. 

 

Things had cleared up enough by later on in the afternoon to enable me to take the new bike for a test ride.  It's predictably rubbish.  Although it has a 125cc engine and 4-speed 'box, it's really no quicker than a C90.  It's not dissimilar to ride - the engine is quite torquey at low revs,  it has a similar fart from the engine and whine from the transmission, and the brakes are rubbish - but the engine is less keen to rev than a C90 and the bike starts to run out of puff at about 50.  It vibrates more than a C90 too, and the riding position is a bit odd.  It does manage without the Honda's daft leading link forks though, and it has a (small) under-seat luggage compartment too, as well as a fuel gauge.

 

One positive thing though - I was looking around it to see if I could see what it'd need doing for an MOT, then it suddenly dawned on me that it's too new to need one.  So I'll tax it tomorrow and I might even try riding it to work if it's not raining - don't really fancy the Chinese tyres on a greasy road.

[DVee8]

Did anyone watch James May's Cars of the people on Beeb2 at 9 last night?

Started quite well but had to finish Top Gear style.

[EssDeeWon]

Did anyone watch James May's Cars of the people on Beeb2 at 9 last night?

Started quite well but had to finish Top Gear style.

 

Yeah, thought it was a really good / interesting programme until they had to drop that Riva, why?? I bet that was a good little car until they got their hands on it. (after saying how rare they now are) fckin plebs!

 

I never watch Top Gear but thought i'd give this a go, as you say Vee8, a good programme but ended with some stupid Top Gear laugh a minute stunt.

[derskine]

I liked it minus the Lada getting smashed up too.

[HMC]

Yeah I liked it, especially as it avoided just playing to the masses by having a decent chunk of air time to the 124. Fair play. As May strolled away from the lada on the airstrip I could see it was sitting high on its springs having been prepared for some air time. AKA they simply couldn't resist a whole episode without TG antics. Que helicopter. I liked the prog though, very watchable and with enough new info to my ears to keep me interested all the way through.

[morris_ital_lover]

I really liked the show, it was pretty informative and funny... As for the Riva, it was a bit of a shame but its not like Russia is short of late model LHD Rivas.

[holbeck]

I really liked the show, it was pretty informative and funny... As for the Riva, it was a bit of a shame but its not like Russia is short of late model LHD Rivas.

 

Yeah, but the one they dropped was an RHD car with Russian plates tacked on. Also looked suspiciously like the Top Gear airfield where it was done as well!

[Felly Magic]

Lada was a right hand drive UK car on false plates, and was filmed here in the UK, I used to like may, but it seems he's yet another puppet of the BBC, doing the same shit gags as Clarkson. Perhaps they should drop one of his own cars from 500 ft?

[mat_the_cat]

It would be interesting to hear what input James May has on such stunts, and how much is the producers seeing the TG ratings and wanting to emulate that. I don't know the answer, but I guess as a presenter you have to do what the money says to some extent...

[morris_ital_lover]

Ah right, that is fair enough and a shame to lose a RHD one, I thought it had been the Russian car. I doubt May had much of an impact on the stunt at all.. Just a token bit of childish antics thrown in at the end.

[EssDeeWon]

I dont watch Top Gear but how many nice old motors have the BBC comissioned to wreck now?

 

Austin Princess (now very rare and looked in good nick)

Triumph Dolimite (A nice Sprint)

Rover SD1 (Series 1 V8)

Lada Riva (cant be many left on the UK roads?)

[Shep Shepherd]

The Wentworth's speedometer has stopped working, yet its odometer and trip meter are still fully functional. I suspect that there is something going on with the speedometer unit itself than with the transducer thing on the rear axle, but I have no time to investigate at the moment. I'm really glad that decent free GPS speedometer smartphone apps are available...

[Bobthebeard]

I really liked the show, it was pretty informative and funny... As for the Riva, it was a bit of a shame but its not like Russia is short of late model LHD Rivas.

Mauritius wasn't short of Dodos until the 17th Century. Bet one of Clarksons ancesters used to drop them out of hot air balloons or something...... "Haha .... Plenty left... The public love* me doing this kind of stuff...Hahaha"

Bet the dinosaurs went the same way. Top Gear killed 'em all for a laugh*

[vulgalour]

Sounds like Phil is having fun* with his latest purchase.  I hope you're all following his twitter of @PMozzy, it's actually pretty horrifying/entertaining.