The grumpy thread

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Remember me moaning about my bad day on Tuesday , with the Volvo failing its Council test and the Volvo Independant Specialist*** not fixing it?

 

Well today I just got it retested and it's passed!

 

Why the grump?

 

£561.00 , that's why the the fucking grump! All it needed was a new caliper , but because Specialist * said he'd tried 2 and it wouldn't reset they spent 4 hours looking for a problem that wasn't there. They only charged me for 2 hours though, because they obviously didn't want a grown man crying in the showroom.

 

On the plus side, I did get a complimentary tin of Volvo travel sweets! That's Mrs N's Christmas taken care of.

[richardmorris]

How do you calibrate a brake caliper? All mine are fit as is.

[twosmoke300]

Epb I'm guessing

[purplebargeken]

Just feel myself getting more irritable and wound up generally. 

 

Work is shit, neighbours are shit, my back hurts, where I live is shit and I can't even sell any bloody cars.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

How do you calibrate a brake caliper? All mine are fit as is.

Two words that never should be combined; Handbrake and Electric.

An idea so preposterous and of such pointless over-complexity, that both Paul Mages and Alec Issigonis are looking down from automotive heaven with horror but a just a tiny bit of jealousy.

[cort16]

I recently bulk bought a load of switches and sockets off screwfix so I could gradually replace all the sockets and switches in the house.

 

NO PROBLEM SO FAR. I as I was off today I'd change the light switch and sockets in the kitchen that look particularly shite after it was just re-tiled.

I took the old light switch out first and it fell to bits. Never a good sign.

 

I wired the new switch up and go to screw it into the wall.  Hold on though the screw holes on the old switch are in the middle of the fucking switch. Like right next to the button and not out on the edge like every other socket made in the world.  As a result there's no way to attach the new socket to the wall.

On further inspection the box bit in the wall is a circle and obviously left over from then the house had round bakelite switches.

 

I go to the local electrical factors to try to find one of these oddball switches who inspire confidence by not saying "oh aye I remember those they stopped making them years ago" but instead said "no mate never seen on of those in my life".

 

I buy a square mounting box having resigned myself to the fact I'm going to have to chisel out a bigger squarer hole in the wall. I go home and start hacking away but can't get the old circular box out the wall. I finally realise that it isn't going to happen as it seems it's permanently connected to the trunking buried deep, deep in the wall.

WHY ME?

 

I hatched a plan and went down to my lockup and cut the new box in half so it was only a a couple of cm deep, cut a large hole in the back and a sliced out the top so it can go around the trunking. I then drilled holes in either side and tapped them out so I could screw the switch mounting screws in them.

I now drilled 2 holes into the brick and put raw plugs in them and put my mangled mounting box in with the back facing out. I screwed it into the raw plugs then screwed the switch into the two holes I tapped in the metal.

 

4 hours elapsed. Only about 20 left to do.

 

I fucking hate DIY

[DodgeRover]

Surface mount shallow boxes over the top. How old is the cabling though? Is it multi strand or solid? What type of insulation?

I know exactly what you mean though, I've seen installations like that.

[cort16]

It's solid with plastic insulation. I think the house was re-wired about 20 years ago and they just used the original boxes and trunking to avoid having to rip the walls to bits.

[beko1987]

Uh oh

 

 

Luckily he has a spare engine (which is probably much better...). He's just got the interior sorted too

[richardmorris]

Why is he dressed in drag?

[Cavcraft]

So people don't recognise him driving a Xantia?

[beko1987]

If I still owned the xantia tonight, I'd be crying and phoning the scrappy

 

 

Another engine is being found by cyanide_steve and fitted forthwith. Wonder what made a bid for freedom?

[dollywobbler]

Eesh. There was a spate of XUDTs putting rods through the block, but I thought that was cars built around 1998.

[beko1987]

Eesh. There was a spate of XUDTs putting rods through the block, but I thought that was cars built around 1998.

I think it's fettled history, and even me limping it off the main road when the cambelt slipped possibly played a part. All fully disclosed upon handover of course... Knowing Steve it'll be fixed by monday*

[scaryoldcortina]

If I still owned the xantia tonight, I'd be crying and phoning the scrappy

 

Screenshot_20170922-221607.png

 

Another engine is being found by cyanide_steve and fitted forthwith. Wonder what made a bid for freedom?

 

Looks like no4 conrod...

[hairnet]

I am now officially in my late 30s.

lucky bastard

[Split_Pin]

Non shite related and decidedly 'first world' is the fact that today on the first day of my family holiday in Gran Canaria, which by the way I have worked my c**t off to pay for, my brand new IPhone was stolen between 9am and 11am from the kitchen table of our apartment. We already had a safe, but when I realised that I had left my phone by the kettle, it had gone. My suspicion is that when we told the cleaner who was about to clean our apartment that there was no need as we had just arrived, they thought that we would not yet have had paid the deposit to use our safe. Funny thing was that we had been prompt with that matter but I had stupidly left my phone behind b accident. Nobody wants to know either, hotel, rep or insurance company.

 

What I don't understand is that at the time there was a brand new pair of Nike Air Max under the sofa right at the door which would have been a much easier thing to steal and sell on.

 

I'm not going to let it spoil my holiday though.

[cort16]

I had a look online last night and can't find any similiar switches. Is it possible the council had these commissioned when the refurbed the house so they could re-use the old trunking and boxes?

 

 

 

[oldcars]

Non shite related and decidedly 'first world' is the fact that today on the first day of my family holiday in Gran Canaria, which by the way I have worked my c**t off to pay for, my brand new IPhone was stolen between 9am and 11am from the kitchen table of our apartment. We already had a safe, but when I realised that I had left my phone by the kettle, it had gone. My suspicion is that when we told the cleaner who was about to clean our apartment that there was no need as we had just arrived, they thought that we would not yet have had paid the deposit to use our safe. Funny thing was that we had been prompt with that matter but I had stupidly left my phone behind b accident. Nobody wants to know either, hotel, rep or insurance company.

 

What I don't understand is that at the time there was a brand new pair of Nike Air Max under the sofa right at the door which would have been a much easier thing to steal and sell on.

 

I'm not going to let it spoil my holiday though.

Nightmare. Get the network to block the sim and handset if you can, save any £££ bills. What tour operator are you with?

[anonymous user]

I wouldn't trust that one, his eyes are too close together

[3VOM]

I had a look online last night and can't find any similiar switches. Is it possible the council had these commissioned when the refurbed the house so they could re-use the old trunking and boxes?

 

 

 

IMG_2427.JPG

I would suspect such things existed in the 50s and 60s(?) for exactly such purpose but disappeared with the introduction of standard dimensioned back boxes. I presume it is a complete nightmare to remove the end unit on the conduit and replace it with a back box?

[bub2006]

Eesh. There was a spate of XUDTs putting rods through the block, but I thought that was cars built around 1998.

If its my/chompy/moog/foad/beko then it is a 1998. Im led to believe it had an hard life with the tuning done to it.

[dollywobbler]

A friend had a 1998 306 DTurbo with no mods at all, and that hurled a rod through the block. Not sure what the problem was, but it was a weakness of the engines for a time. So much for bulletproof...

[beko1987]

If its my/chompy/moog/foad/beko then it is a 1998. Im led to believe it had an hard life with the tuning done to it.

The very same. Can't say it's a huge surprise given its history, but he got 6 months out of it and has a few spare engines. Plus the clutch clip went again 2 weeks ago so he was pondering a new clutch, ideal time!

[DodgeRover]

I had a look online last night and can't find any similiar switches. Is it possible the council had these commissioned when the refurbed the house so they could re-use the old trunking and boxes?

 

 

 

IMG_2427.JPG

Just a thought you do have an earth wire on the lighting circuit don't you?

[cort16]

Yes there's an earth wire screwed to the back of the old round box. The wiring itself looks modernish although I found a horror behind one of the plug sockets I'm going to get a spark to look at as it doesn't look too safe to me.

 

To put a square back box in I'd need to rip all the trunking out the wall. Don't fancy that much.

[JeeExEll]

^^ I'm a sparky and you've landed with a real bastard of a situation there. At least it could be if you absolutely must have faceplates flush with the wall. Don't try to alter the steel conduit, far more trouble than it's worth, and butchered plastic back-boxes behind the fittings throughout the house is definitely a no-no.

 

Easiest solution is to fit "extra shallow" 1-gang square surface-mount boxes which screw onto the face of the wall over the existing round box and hole. Very easy to do but you do need to have (or extend) a bit of spare cable to reach the switch terminals. Extra shallow boxes are only 16mm deep rather than standard ones which I think are about 30mm.

 

Metal faceplates on white plastic back boxes might look a bit unusual to some but lots of people couldn't give a fk about it. I'd prefer white plastic faceplates but your choice. Often only a sparky would notice it. But ffs do mount the surface-mount boxes level or it will look mega shit.

If you do fit metal faceplates you MUST earth the faceplate, leave the existing earth wire connected to the conduit as it's earthing the conduit in case the conduit is broken somewhere further back and take a new earth wire from the conduit to the faceplate.

 

You can do it, don't panic! Check with your sparky if he's coming round anyway.

[Snipes]

Yes there's an earth wire screwed to the back of the old round box. The wiring itself looks modernish although I found a horror behind one of the plug sockets I'm going to get a spark to look at as it doesn't look too safe to me.

 

To put a square back box in I'd need to rip all the trunking out the wall. Don't fancy that much.

What's the horror?

[Bren]

500000 signatures in support of uber. This country is definately 60 million people racing to the bottom. I hope all those that signed because black cabs are more expensive all end up working for the gig economy.

 

They'll get no sympathy from me.

[Eddie Honda]

What's the horror?

 

The horror is the poison sockets are full of poison.