The grumpy thread

[sierraman]

3 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

A moderately spirited drive over the hills last night has confirmed that the Forester's going to be needing a new clutch rather sooner than later. A little bit of slippage, I can deal with - but juddering on every gearshift is not cool.

Typically, EuroCarPrats is of limited assistance in narrowing down exactly what's needed as the 'fitment detail' tabs are rather sparsely populated - but I can probably fucking guess which is the only version that fits mine...

Don’t fit those Transmech clutches. I’d go for Valeo, LUK or Sachs. 

[clayts450]

After HackerCaperGate yesterday normality has returned although as per, I had to do all the running for Amazon UK.

They didn't cancel the order for the Liverpool-bound camera, so it left their warehouse this morning, FFS. Thankfully I was able to cancel the thing in transit before the Flex guy knocked on the door of the shyster.

What's the betting the thing gets lost in transit on the way back ?

Meanwhile the laptop ordered on eBay did turn up this morning, but the seller got in touch, very understanding and confirmed I should start the return process. Paypal (now also in my shitlist) declined my fraudulent claim advising me it was not an unauthorised payment. Twats. At least it was on a 14 day pay after delivery thing, so no harm done.

I also returned the camera erroneously sent by the shyster to me - dropped round to the local My Hermes Parcel Shop. Yeah, like that'll end well....

Ho hum - good news is no more unusual activity, we are on lockdown (and luckily one credit card escaped the meltdown as its details weren't anywhere online, so at least I have plastic fantastic whilst replacement bank card gets here)

[wuvvum]

That is why I never save my card details on my profile on any websites.  It's a bit of a faff having to type everything in every time, but better than the alternative.

 

Got my front door open after a bit of judicious* jiggling of the key in the lock.  I'm going to leave it unlocked now and just lock the inner door - there's nothing much worth nicking in the porch / shed and I don't exactly live in a high crime area.  I'll pop into Timpsons tomorrow and see if they can rustle me up a key.

[richardmorris]

I’m still waiting for a replacement book from Amazon that was supposedly handed to me in person last Saturday. Happily the original lost delivery turned up on the doorstep on Friday. Despite it being signed for by me on Wednesday ( whilst I was at work).

[anonymous user]

5 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

I’m still waiting for a replacement book from Amazon that was supposedly handed to me in person last Saturday. Happily the original lost delivery turned up on the doorstep on Friday. Despite it being signed for by me on Wednesday ( whilst I was at work).

Unless time travel is involved somewhere I can't work that one out. I blame the lack of drink.

[richardmorris]

7 minutes ago, anonymous user said:

Unless time travel is involved somewhere I can't work that one out. I blame the lack of drink.

First book, didn’t arrive last Wednesday despite tracking saying it was delivered at 2pm to my doorstep.  I complained and they said they would send a replacement.

before the replacement was supposed to arrive on Saturday the original ( i presume anyway), arrived on Friday on my doorstep.

on Saturday I had an email that the replacement had been handed to me at 3pm. It hadn’t.

I’ve had drink and am not sure what’s going on, but I have the book I ordered, even if amazon have allegedly send me two.

[anonymous user]

Thanks, that is a lot clearer

[somewhatfoolish]

Mouthbreathers who list their vehicle wrongly(on trumGee, yaBe etc); to wit, selecting 'electric' as fuel when it patently is not. Consequently browsing what's available is a tedious affair that requires peering at squint potatocam shots of whatever it is to judge if it is even available as an electron-mobile or deciphering title hieroglyphics for clues as to the make, model, etc. For the first offence the perpetrators should be horsewhipped and 2nd offences are punishable with summary seizure and crushing of the vehicle so mislabeled.

 

I was browsing for trailers too, the number of trailers listed as 'trailer' with a single potatocam  shot and no other details was bewildering, is it that much of a bother to run a tape measure around it to give approximate dimensions?

[Stanky]

14 hours ago, sierraman said:

Don’t fit those Transmech clutches. I’d go for Valeo, LUK or Sachs. 

Yeah, basically this. The Exedy one I think is the 'posh' option and are supposed to be good, but not sure what makes twice as expensive as the Valeo one. I think the transmech ones proudly state they used recycled parts and glue new* friction material on or something equally reassuring*

[LightBulbFun]

My hermes has seemingly lost the ThinkPad T43 @beko1987 was kindly gifting me

I was looking forward to making it run all sorts of OSs it was not made to run boo!

(plus if your a computer person you need at least 1 old thinkpad in the collection somewhere )

I dont normally have any issue with my hermes, in fact other people of this household have had some parcels delivered by them a couple days ago, if anymore show up im going to tell the delivery driver to ask his m8s to sort their shit out

mind if someone somewhere saw it was a Laptop on an X Ray machine or something and thought they would help themselves, there going to be in for a nasty surprise

[sierraman]

58 minutes ago, Stanky said:

Yeah, basically this. The Exedy one I think is the 'posh' option and are supposed to be good, but not sure what makes twice as expensive as the Valeo one. I think the transmech ones proudly state they used recycled parts and glue new* friction material on or something equally reassuring*

Clutch is a big job. You don’t want to fit shit parts on a job like that. 

[Saabnut]

Took the Discovery of Doom for a test run to see if I had fixed the noise from the front. Answer no, the bastard thing is back in the shed for more work....

[Datsuncog]

22 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

A moderately spirited drive over the hills last night has confirmed that the Forester's going to be needing a new clutch rather sooner than later. A little bit of slippage, I can deal with - but juddering on every gearshift is not cool.

Typically, EuroCarPrats is of limited assistance in narrowing down exactly what's needed as the 'fitment detail' tabs are rather sparsely populated - but I can probably fucking guess which is the only version that fits mine...

 

19 hours ago, sierraman said:

Don’t fit those Transmech clutches. I’d go for Valeo, LUK or Sachs. 

 

4 hours ago, Stanky said:

Yeah, basically this. The Exedy one I think is the 'posh' option and are supposed to be good, but not sure what makes twice as expensive as the Valeo one. I think the transmech ones proudly state they used recycled parts and glue new* friction material on or something equally reassuring*

Aye, still trying to work out here which bit I actually need - the three clutch kits above aren't just the same part by different manufacturers, but are apparently three completely separate fitments for different versions of the Forester XT.

Some fitments then list a few parts from different manufacturers (and price points) including Sachs - and although I don't much fancy the sound of the Transmech cheapo one, I also had a sharp intake of breath at the Exedy… and, naturally, there's no alternative on the Exedy fitment. Sod's law says this is probably the one that fits mine (won't be getting it from ECP, mind). The Valeo kit, for some reason, omits the thrust bearing...

ECP. unsurprisingly, offers no clue in their fitment guide as to what the actual difference is between them... all three are the same diameter, same weight, same number of fingers... though having grubbed about a few Subaru forums, it seems that some cars were fitted with dual mass flywheels. So that could be one reason. It appears that the manual-box version of the XT is so uncommon that no-one really knows...

Looks like I might just have to let the garage pull out what's there and then try to find a match for it which hopefully isn't arse-splittingly expensive. I knew when I viewed the car last year that the clutch wasn't 100% and have already set aside a few quid for a replacement, though I may have to move a few more pennies out of savings... the last time I swapped a clutch it was on a Viva HC and cost me £30, so you can imagine the pearl-clutching at Casa Datsuncog over this...

And the bugger needs a set of tyres and all. But still - it's a rapid and reliable old bus and I do rather like it, plus it was pretty cheap for what it is, so I'm not gonna bin it off over a clutch.

[MikeR]

is there a way to make a bland looking focus visible to a twonk .......

I have extra lights

I have put bright yellow strips on the bonnet ..

the horn is quite loud ...

does it need to be a rolling ball of flame / thunder / volcanic type happening to be noticed by some thick twats who join the road  at 5mph when you are approaching at 60 !!

 

or do I need to think outside the box ......  and next time get a new car out of a situation like this ????

[MikeR]

20 year life span it declared last year .....

a energy saving LED auto yard light ........

yeah right

just had to replace it ......

went out last night and got the feebly glowing leds of death ....

[LightBulbFun]

59 minutes ago, MikeR said:

20 year life span it declared last year .....

a energy saving LED auto yard light ........

yeah right

just had to replace it ......

went out last night and got the feebly glowing leds of death ....

Yeah those are all just shit, I really would advise against them

what did you fit in its place?  (hopefully some magnetically ballasted, HID or fluorescent lamp based fixture?  )

[MikeR]

a cheapo solar powered auto light !

[beko1987]

6 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

My hermes has seemingly lost the ThinkPad T43 @beko1987 was kindly gifting me

I was looking forward to making it run all sorts of OSs it was not made to run boo!

(plus if your a computer person you need at least 1 old thinkpad in the collection somewhere )

I dont normally have any issue with my hermes, in fact other people of this household have had some parcels delivered by them a couple days ago, if anymore show up im going to tell the delivery driver to ask his m8s to sort their shit out

mind if someone somewhere saw it was a Laptop on an X Ray machine or something and thought they would help themselves, there going to be in for a nasty surprise

Yep, it sucks. First parcel ive ever had lost as a sender through hermes too. It was in a massive box as well, waaaay oversized but all I had lying around. Hopefully whoever stole it was very dissapointed when they found an ancient laptop with a line down the screen throwing 3 error messages on boot due to the dead cmos battery and no charger, if I see it pop up on the thinkpad forums (I have the machine number somewhere) I'll give them hell.

Shame, waste of a good thinkpad, looked a bit tatty but worked utterly fine. Sorry man

[dozeydustman]

On 5/22/2019 at 3:02 PM, dozeydustman said:

Had a lovely couple of days away in Kent doing things I do and visiting my family. Got home about half an hour ago, wife in tears (sent home from work). Mother in law has lung cancer, the type caused by exposure to asbestos. No other info at the moment, how aggressive, how set in etc.

 

What an shit end to a nice couple of days and weekend.

We had the news today that Mother in law has a few months, possibly only a few weeks left. She's still not seen the oncologist as her samples were sent to London for testing with experimental treatments and results will follow, but she has been assigned a lung/breathing nurse, a Macmillan nurse and a care plan for if she returns home is being drafted. I don't think she'll accept palliative chemo, and in her current state of severe weakness it can't be offered anyway.

In a way it's come as some relief as it's closure for my wife and her side of the family that we have a finite amount of time and to make the most of it while we can. Father in law will be totally emotionally lost without her.

Even though I had my suspicions that time was limited it still came as a shock to hear my wife say this.

[Mally]

Been through this with my wife 6 months ago.

You. and everyone else involved have my best wishes.

[dozeydustman]

And now one of the cats has decided the best place to have a crap is on the floor outside of its litter tray. Little wanker. Fresh litter as well. Probably because I changed it and I know she doesn't like me.

[anonymous user]

Just a normal cat thing to do

[twosmoke300]

Yup . Standard cat right there ! 

[artdjones]

7 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

 

 

Aye, still trying to work out here which bit I actually need - the three clutch kits above aren't just the same part by different manufacturers, but are apparently three completely separate fitments for different versions of the Forester XT.

Some fitments then list a few parts from different manufacturers (and price points) including Sachs - and although I don't much fancy the sound of the Transmech cheapo one, I also had a sharp intake of breath at the Exedy… and, naturally, there's no alternative on the Exedy fitment. Sod's law says this is probably the one that fits mine (won't be getting it from ECP, mind). The Valeo kit, for some reason, omits the thrust bearing...

ECP. unsurprisingly, offers no clue in their fitment guide as to what the actual difference is between them... all three are the same diameter, same weight, same number of fingers... though having grubbed about a few Subaru forums, it seems that some cars were fitted with dual mass flywheels. So that could be one reason. It appears that the manual-box version of the XT is so uncommon that no-one really knows...

Looks like I might just have to let the garage pull out what's there and then try to find a match for it which hopefully isn't arse-splittingly expensive. I knew when I viewed the car last year that the clutch wasn't 100% and have already set aside a few quid for a replacement, though I may have to move a few more pennies out of savings... the last time I swapped a clutch it was on a Viva HC and cost me £30, so you can imagine the pearl-clutching at Casa Datsuncog over this...

And the bugger needs a set of tyres and all. But still - it's a rapid and reliable old bus and I do rather like it, plus it was pretty cheap for what it is, so I'm not gonna bin it off over a clutch.

Get the Autodoc app,save the details of the car and then check what's available.Usually each application has details of the differences between parts.

[MikeR]

I took the 20 year life  light apart that failed after a year ....  it will save anyone else the job of wondering what is inside ...

it wont go back together .

 

as you can see the heat sink paste was not well applied

 

 

[Jerzy Woking]

The realisation that "doing a DollyWobbler" myself-European rather than Worldwide for now- means that I'll have to sell a number of my bikes, my Saab and my Vivaro.

Once I get back to UK from Spain in a couple of weeks, I won't have room in my garage for bikes, and either the car or van will have to be taxed and insured as it will have to be parked on the street as only room on my driveway for one.

Quite gutted that the bikes I have are the ones I wanted for years, the Saab has been modified to how I wanted (purchased with most of the mods done) and the Vivaro is a lovely long range hauler of bikes. Unless someone can offer storage in return for having use of them now and again to keep them in good fettle?

One of the problems of retirement and wanting to enjoy life whilst age, finances and health allows me to. A nice grump to have, but a grump all the same.

[iainrcz]

The fun of a wedding today, and guess which cunt has taken 30 minutes to not manage to tie their tie.

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[wuvvum]

Not having a good day today.  At all.  Wasted half the afternoon trying to get the bastard Raleigh to start - it doesn't want to know, despite having fired up first time two weeks ago after 4 months sat in the garage untouched.  I've stripped and cleaned the carb (again), I've even treated the ungrateful bitch to a new spark plug.  Nothing.  Not even a fart.  It's definitely sparking, so it must be fuel related.  Except that the carb was fine two weeks ago.  And it seems fine now.  The float is floating, fuel is getting as far as the main jet, said jet is clear, so there's no reason why it shouldn't start.  So it must be ignition-related.  Except it's sparking fine, the timing was spot on last time and I haven't done anything since which could have altered it.  Except that it won't fire even when I take the carb off and spray Easystart directly into the inlet.  So I've given up on it - it can sit in the back garden going rusty for a bit.

Then I went to stick some fuel in the Lancia to take it out shopping, but some little cunt has sliced through the fuel filler pipe to nick the petrol.  Which will have been disappointing for them as there was only a fiver in there, but that's small consolation to me as the car is now immobile.  It looks like they had a go at the fuel cap but couldn't get it off so sliced the pipe instead.  I've found a replacement on Italian eBay, but it's going to be 50 quid by the time it's delivered to here, which is a lot for a bit of plastic.  And it looks like it's going to be a complete arsehole of a job - the jubilee clip holding the pipe on at the tank end has doubtless been there for 28 years and is therefore not going to come undone, and I can't even see how the poxy thing is held on at the filler end.  As a temporary solution I'm thinking an empty beer can slathered in Tiger Seal, wrapped round the pipe and jubilee clipped in place as tight as I can go without the crappy thin plastic collapsing in on itself.  It probably still won't be completely pez tight but it should at least enable me to get enough into the tank to get the car started and up onto the ramps so I can get at it more easily.

I then came indoors somewhat pissed off and chucked a pizza in the oven, then went on eBay to search for filler pipes.  Forgot about the pizza and it's burnt to a crisp.  I'm now drowning my sorrows with a bottle of Hobgoblin, which will no doubt give way to something stronger later on.

?

[Saabnut]

Check the compression on the raleigh. Spark and fuel at the right place and time but no start usually means the crankcase gasket has failed.

Sorry to ruin a shite evening.

[chodweaver]

Did my shopping in Aldi, came home and knocked the pint of cream off the bench, which naturally exploded all over the kitchen and my best clothes.

The spirit of Dave_numbers lives on...



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