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Post by flatin5th - Knight of the NC on Nov 30, 2010 9:58:53 GMT
get excited and drive in the snow
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Post by flatin5th - Knight of the NC on Nov 30, 2010 11:27:38 GMT
ok - I have done enough surfing about this morning. Time to do some proper work - new lower suspension arms to put on my car, and some new (ebay bargain) wheels! I might even put on my new track rod ends!
(Coffee first though - time for the heater to warm the garage ManLab before I venture in)
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Post by Mayfayre on Nov 30, 2010 19:57:09 GMT
If there's one thing I'm not it's a lady! How ever much TOH tries to make me into one sometimes... I had the more exciting breakfast because I can get toast ANYWHERE. Like the stuff I've just had with proper Lemon Cheese on it. Yum! ;D My applologies - I won't call you a lady ever again ;D I can have toast anywhere too - but not made by such a facinating machine! If they weren't hundreds of pounds, I would have one of my own! Apology accepted ;D I had no problem with MAKING the toast, just eating it.
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Hops
Filthy Mayhemer
Posts: 902
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Post by Hops on Dec 1, 2010 10:20:09 GMT
So, Man lab inhabitants, let's see if any of you are as handy as James:
My bike got stuck in 2nd gear this morning. It was fine when I took it out of the garage box and cycled to my appointment, but when I headed back the gear change thingy wouldn't move.
Question: Can this have anything to do with the cold? I left the bike outside during the app. What might have happened?
It's really annoying. I think I might have to let my father or FIL look at it, perhaps mr Hops if he's not too cranky tonight (ooops, did I say that out loud?).
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Post by From Afar on Dec 1, 2010 13:01:19 GMT
(Coffee first though - time for the heater to warm the garage ManLab before I venture in) Ooooohhhhhh you have a Man Lab of your own! How lovely ;D happy pottering about Flatin5th!
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Post by flatin5th - Knight of the NC on Dec 1, 2010 20:12:05 GMT
So, Man lab inhabitants, let's see if any of you are as handy as James: My bike got stuck in 2nd gear this morning. It was fine when I took it out of the garage box and cycled to my appointment, but when I headed back the gear change thingy wouldn't move. Question: Can this have anything to do with the cold? I left the bike outside during the app. What might have happened? It's really annoying. I think I might have to let my father or FIL look at it, perhaps mr Hops if he's not too cranky tonight (ooops, did I say that out loud?). yes - very easily, especially in the cold damp weather! It could be that moisture has got into the mechanism at the back, or even into the cable its-self! In this weather the moisture freezes and bungs up the whole job! If you can, put a heater in the box to gently warm up the whole bike. The thing is you then have to get the mechanism and cables dried out or it will jusy freeze up when you turn the heat off! You can spray special bike grease into the rear mechanism, but you really need to take the inner cables out of the outer to grease those too! If you dont have the proper ManLab equipment you can try the spray cooking oil - thats light enough! The changer will need to be recalibrated if you do take the cable off! I hope that helps!
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Hops
Filthy Mayhemer
Posts: 902
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Post by Hops on Dec 1, 2010 21:26:22 GMT
Thanks, flatin5th... That sounds like a lot of work! Hmmm... I think I'll probably start by not taking it all apart and just trying to heat things up in the garage box, for the bike, I mean, obviously. I'll let you know.
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Post by flatin5th - Knight of the NC on Dec 2, 2010 20:58:49 GMT
you could try a hot box first
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Hops
Filthy Mayhemer
Posts: 902
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Post by Hops on Dec 2, 2010 21:06:50 GMT
You know what? I took the bus to work today... ;D Yes, I know, I'm a wimp. But the roads were icy! I'll look at my bike in the weekend.
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Post by flatin5th - Knight of the NC on Dec 2, 2010 21:45:57 GMT
bikes can be lethal insnow and ice. A big crash is always only seconds away
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Post by flatin5th - Knight of the NC on Dec 2, 2010 21:46:34 GMT
Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights - lasts 6 weeks.
Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol! Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This one trick can make badly streaking & squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence & clarity
Ice-proof your windows with vinegar! Frost on it's way? Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water & spritz it on all your windows at night. In the morning, they'll be clear of icy mess. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water---preventing water from freezing!
Prevent car doors from freezing shut with cooking spray! Spritz cooking oil on the rubber seals around car doors & rub it in with a paper towel The cooking spray prevents water from melting into the rubber
Fog-proof your windshield with shaving cream! Spray some shaving cream on the inside of your windshield & wipe if off with paper towels. Shaving cream has many of the same ingredients found in commercial defoggers.
De-ice your lock in seconds with hand sanitizer! Just put some hand sanitizer gel on the key & the lock & the problems solved!
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Post by From Afar on Dec 2, 2010 22:57:34 GMT
Flatin5th are you sure you are not our James in disguise?! What a font of knowledge you are ;D
Pity I live in the desert so can't put any of it to use but was interesting reading anyway
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Post by dit on Dec 2, 2010 23:23:17 GMT
Advice, please!
My GT6, Purdey, lives in the garage (the Cooper S convertible is under the carport).
When I tried to start the GT6 today she wouldn't. Tried twice but didn't want to push it as she was turning over but sluggishly and I don't want to flatten her.
I was talking to a mechanic later by coincidence and he said, "Oh, she'll be fine when the temperature rises a bit." Now, is that true? Or should I go out and buy a battery charger? (Or develop a friend with a set of jump leads?) I try to take her out every two weeks but must admit it's been nearly three because of the weather.
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Post by From Afar on Dec 2, 2010 23:29:47 GMT
Dit you could have a set of my jump leads with pleasure cos I've got two sets (for reasons I forget now) but it might be a bit far to collect them
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Post by Maid of Astolat on Dec 2, 2010 23:34:13 GMT
Thanks flatin5th - got those tips safely stored away for when I dig my car out of the snow!!
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Post by xjsarah on Dec 2, 2010 23:36:25 GMT
Flatin5th are you sure you are not our James in disguise?! What a font of knowledge you are ;D Pity I live in the desert so can't put any of it to use but was interesting reading anywaySometimes it can be useful to have a man around, can't it?! ;D
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Post by From Afar on Dec 2, 2010 23:41:15 GMT
Sometimes it can be useful to have a man around, can't it?! ;D There are the odd few occasions XJS
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Post by Wyvern on Dec 2, 2010 23:57:49 GMT
Advice, please! My GT6, Purdey, lives in the garage (the Cooper S convertible is under the carport). When I tried to start the GT6 today she wouldn't. Tried twice but didn't want to push it as she was turning over but sluggishly and I don't want to flatten her. I was talking to a mechanic later by coincidence and he said, "Oh, she'll be fine when the temperature rises a bit." Now, is that true? Or should I go out and buy a battery charger? (Or develop a friend with a set of jump leads?) I try to take her out every two weeks but must admit it's been nearly three because of the weather. Your mechanic is probably right. Do you remember the sound of a cold morning in the 70s and early 80s? It mostly involved engines choking and spluttering reluctantly into life, or quite often not spluttering into life followed by the sound of people shouting "START, YOU B*****D!" (but that product hadn't been invented then) and the slow trudge to the bus stop, yet again. Some old engines are quite unhappy with cold, and even some more modern ones, take a fair time to warm up. If Purdey is anything at all like Gerald, she'll probably need her battery charging when you're ready to use her again if she's left standing for long, but after that she'll be fine. A tip if you're going to be putting her to bed for the winter though - I was chatting to one of the numerous motoring journos on Twitter about putting cars into hibernation and he suggested that a very good thing to do is to get some silica gel packets and put them in the car to stop the interior from succumbing to damp. I got an assortment of them for pennies on Amazon - beats having to clean hairy mould off the carpets!
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Post by dit on Dec 3, 2010 0:06:33 GMT
Oh, nice one about the silica gel packs. And I think I'll invest in a battery charger anyway. There's an ancient one in the garage, but I don't understand it and at least if I get a new one it'll have an instruction leaflet! (What do I connect to what?)
Edit: Afar, I'd love to come and collect those jump leads - I could do with a bit of sunshine and warmth! Can you find me a Tardis so I can go straight from my living room to yours?
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Post by Wyvern on Dec 3, 2010 12:58:20 GMT
Oh, nice one about the silica gel packs. And I think I'll invest in a battery charger anyway. There's an ancient one in the garage, but I don't understand it and at least if I get a new one it'll have an instruction leaflet! (What do I connect to what?) Oh, did see something potentially useful last night. Don't know if you subscribe to Rimmer Bros product emails, but they talked about the problem of starting cold engines and all the attendant problems (iced/fogged up windows, over-rich mixtures, poor fuel consumption etc., though as they were marketing they're probably exaggerating a bit) and they had a warming kit. Couple of hundred quid and claims to reduce all the problems of starting a cold car. Don't know if you want to use Purdey over the winter, but it might be worth looking into if you are. I'm not using Gerald, he's safely gone to bed, but if I was planning on using him, I'd definitely do a bit of research as it claims to be able to warm an old engine enough to start without choke... and this I'd love to see!
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Post by From Afar on Dec 3, 2010 15:32:26 GMT
Edit: Afar, I'd love to come and collect those jump leads - I could do with a bit of sunshine and warmth! Can you find me a Tardis so I can go straight from my living room to yours? Try the Clone Sanctuary for spare Tardis hee hee....I wish it was that easy Dit.....
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Post by dit on Dec 3, 2010 15:49:04 GMT
Yes, Wy, I do get the Rimmers e-mails, though I'd bypassed the last couple so I could look at them later. I also have serious doubts as to whether it's possible to start an engine like Purdey's without choke. Worth a look, though
I'm hoping to drive her over the winter, but more to turn the engine over than anything else so I'll be choosing my days carefully. Suffice to say I don't think I'll be out in her for a while!
Afar, wouldn't it just change the world if we could all have our own personal Tardises? (Tardi?) It's a pet daydream of mine.
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Post by Mayfayre on Dec 3, 2010 16:16:04 GMT
A battery charger is well worth having around, mine cost under £10 from the local car accessories shop. Excesses of cold and heat are often the last straw for a weak battery, I had a call from a friend last week who's battery had died completely.
Even my Mondeo is more sluggish to start (when the starter motor decides to engage) in the cold. Normally it goes as soon as you turn the key, but now it turns over quite a few times before it catches.
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Post by flatin5th - Knight of the NC on Dec 3, 2010 21:59:48 GMT
cold batteries are a bad thing
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Post by flatin5th - Knight of the NC on Dec 20, 2010 19:43:06 GMT
Mrs Flat has a cunning plan! She says she she wont have to resort to anti-freeze in my chilli, all she will do is hang some pictures at odd spacings and angles and wait for me to have a heart attack! As Mr May once said (or something like it anyway!) - it isnt OCD, or sad! Its called 'Doing it right'. Things need to line up. Things need to be correct distances apart. Shapes need to compliment each other!
Its just doing things right!
So I have put a lot of effort in getting the door handles on my new kitchen JUST right! And the same with the plinth lighting spacing! Now it looks good, not thrown together!
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Post by inky on Dec 20, 2010 19:59:32 GMT
I will definitely give the vinegar thing a try to prevent icing of the windscreen..............once the temperature gets above -13
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Post by From Afar on Dec 20, 2010 20:02:19 GMT
it isnt OCD, or sad! Its called 'Doing it right'. Things need to line up. Things need to be correct distances apart. Shapes need to compliment each other! Its just doing things right! This is what I tell Mr Afar, our Afar children and my friends etc but no one believes me they insist I am OCD Good work on the kitchen Flatin5th, James would be proud! ;D
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Post by eclairscream on Dec 20, 2010 22:54:02 GMT
I will definitely give the vinegar thing a try to prevent icing of the windscreen..............once the temperature gets above -13 Try a silicon based polish to polish your windscreen or there is a couple of products that stop ice from sticking and are great when it rains as well... a product called Rainx which "beads" rain and also stops water and ice sticking to the screen. Vinegar is like alcohol in that it was "dissolve" ice. You could use Methylated spirits to do the same thing or Glycol which is radiator anti freeze. The latter is what they use to De ice wings on aircraft.... Hope this help?!
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Post by devil-may-care on Dec 21, 2010 0:39:06 GMT
I swear by Rainx! Sometimes I don't even need to turn the wipers on! Love it ;D ;D
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Post by flatin5th - Knight of the NC on Dec 23, 2010 8:42:00 GMT
suck, squeeze, bang, blow. The sequence of events in a 4-stroke engine. - Suck = the piston moves down the cylinder and SUCKS in the air/fuel mixture.
- Squeeze - the piston moves up the cylinder and compresses
(SQUEEZE) this mixture
- Bang = At the top of the stroke (oooer) the spark plug sparks, and BANG, the compressed mixture ignites and the explosion forces the piston down the cylinder.POWERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
- Blow = the piston moves up the cylinder and gasses produced by the explosion are BLOWn out through the exhaust system!
and then it starts all over again! and - the more cylinders you have, the more you can balance out the opposing forces as all of this movement happens in your engine and make it nice and smooth.
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