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What are you doing right now..? (Threads Merged)


Lanzalad

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5 hours ago, Jambo said:

I can remember a time after passing my driving test when each of my ongoing cars were all basically old heaps and needed constant attention just to keep running. When something major went they were just dumped.

I thought nothing of doing my own routine repairs such as changing the plugs; adjusting the points; a new water pump; bleeding the brakes; filling holes in the exhaust etc etc etc.

Now I open up the bonnet of my car and wonder what I am looking at because most of what I see I don't recognise. I check the oil and ocasionally top up the brake fluid and water for the squishers and that is about the lot.

I cannot apparently even change the battery because it needs to be coded or something? Not that the battery needs topping up with distilled water any more. It just works.....................until it doesn't. 🙂

Does it still have plugs?

f**k knows where they are?

 

 

 

Yes, modern vehicles are designed to keep owners' fingers out of because the dealerships make too much money from "servicing" them - this battery thing is a particularly maddening hindrance and IMHO should be illegal, there is no reason whatsoever why an owner should not be able to change his own battery or disconnect it to work on other electrical parts without having to pay the dealer for a code so he can restart the vehicle afterwards!! The vehicle I was working on is a 2007 F150 that I just bought a couple of weeks ago so I am learning as I go but it is still reasonably easy to work on with the help of YouTube videos - although one must choose them carefully; however, I am willing to bet that anything built in the last five years or so will be a different story altogether.

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8 minutes ago, maipenrai said:

Yes, modern vehicles are designed to keep owners' fingers out of because the dealerships make too much money from "servicing" them - this battery thing is a particularly maddening hindrance and IMHO should be illegal, there is no reason whatsoever why an owner should not be able to change his own battery or disconnect it to work on other electrical parts without having to pay the dealer for a code so he can restart the vehicle afterwards!! The vehicle I was working on is a 2007 F150 that I just bought a couple of weeks ago so I am learning as I go but it is still reasonably easy to work on with the help of YouTube videos - although one must choose them carefully; however, I am willing to bet that anything built in the last five years or so will be a different story altogether.

I cant even find the spark plugs on my car. I know it has them, and I know they need changing, but they seem to be buried under so much plastic that, apart from a rough area, i havent got a clue where they are. Plus, if they are where I suspect them to be, there's no way I can contort myself into position to be able to change them. I suspect this might be why they need changing...

As as for changing the air filter..... forget it.

Oh for an A-series again.... 30 years ago I could rebuild them in my sleep. And before the smart arses comment.... yes, they did start the next day!! 🙂

Edited by Painter
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Just happy to find out Kataleya's teacher doesn't post homework on a Wednesday.....really is a pain for her not to be in school.  I am not a teacher and I admit I really don't have the patience or tolerance needed to be one which is odd as both my brother and father were headmasters. 

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9 hours ago, Jambo said:

I can remember a time after passing my driving test when each of my ongoing cars were all basically old heaps and needed constant attention just to keep running. When something major went they were just dumped.

I thought nothing of doing my own routine repairs such as changing the plugs; adjusting the points; a new water pump; bleeding the brakes; filling holes in the exhaust etc etc etc.

Now I open up the bonnet of my car and wonder what I am looking at because most of what I see I don't recognise. I check the oil and ocasionally top up the brake fluid and water for the squishers and that is about the lot.

I cannot apparently even change the battery because it needs to be coded or something? Not that the battery needs topping up with distilled water any more. It just works.....................until it doesn't. 🙂

Does it still have plugs?

f**k knows where they are?

 

 

 

I don't think I have ever opened the hood of the "beast" ... I know I am getting ripped off taking it to the dealer to do everything ... but, you give me any type of tool .. I can guarantee I will f**k it up ....

Even when the sprinkler thing never shoots water on the windshield .. I take it to the dealer .... I am clue-less .....

 

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2 hours ago, code_slayer_bkk said:

I don't think I have ever opened the hood of the "beast" ... I know I am getting ripped off taking it to the dealer to do everything ... but, you give me any type of tool .. I can guarantee I will f**k it up ....

Even when the sprinkler thing never shoots water on the windshield .. I take it to the dealer .... I am clue-less .....

 

In the 1970's I did all of my own maintenance inc. changing two clutches in the street outside my parents home.I also stripped a Norton Commando engine down to the big ends in their coalshed....& it ran OK after rebuild.No Youtube in those days just a Haynes manual.

I still change the oil & filter on my Harley and I changed the front discs & calipers recently but never do anything on my Merc or the wife's Nissan.

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27 minutes ago, coxyhog said:

In the 1970's I did all of my own maintenance inc. changing two clutches in the street outside my parents home.I also stripped a Norton Commando engine down to the big ends in their coalshed....& it ran OK after rebuild.No Youtube in those days just a Haynes manual.

I still change the oil & filter on my Harley and I changed the front discs & calipers recently but never do anything on my Merc or the wife's Nissan.

Bought an Austin Allegro (yes, shoot me please) from an auction many years ago. It was very cheap... but it used as much oil as petrol as I drove home in a cloud of smoke.

Bought an uprated A+ engine from a breakers to replace the original A series. The A+ had been in a front end smash, and the distributor had taken a slight knock. 

No problem, thought me.... I'll use the original distributor.  Nope. One of the upgrades was a new dissie....

So, we stripped the bent one down and straightened it using mum's freezers a surface table.

It worked fine, but we had to remember to set the points on 1 and 3, as 2 was a fraction too big, and 4 was a fraction too small....

As for the Haynes book of lies....

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4 minutes ago, Painter said:

Bought an Austin Allegro (yes, shoot me please) from an auction many years ago. It was very cheap... but it used as much oil as petrol as I drove home in a cloud of smoke.

Bought an uprated A+ engine from a breakers to replace the original A series. The A+ had been in a front end smash, and the distributor had taken a slight knock. 

No problem, thought me.... I'll use the original distributor.  Nope. One of the upgrades was a new dissie....

So, we stripped the bent one down and straightened it using mum's freezers a surface table.

It worked fine, but we had to remember to set the points on 1 and 3, as 2 was a fraction too big, and 4 was a fraction too small....

As for the Haynes book of lies....

Well, we belong to a generation that grew up driving cars and bikes that you could and often had to keep running on your own and I wouldn't have missed it for anything - I am no master mechanic but have owned and worked on everything from minibikes to Kenworths and learned a little from each one. 

As for Haynes manuals, IMHO they are next to useless - they tell you what to do but don't tell you how to do it, which is why you buy the f**king things in the first place, innit? 

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25 minutes ago, maipenrai said:

Well, we belong to a generation that grew up driving cars and bikes that you could and often had to keep running on your own and I wouldn't have missed it for anything - I am no master mechanic but have owned and worked on everything from minibikes to Kenworths and learned a little from each one. 

As for Haynes manuals, IMHO they are next to useless - they tell you what to do but don't tell you how to do it, which is why you buy the f**king things in the first place, innit? 

Yup. It was great fun

These days the nearest I get to tinkering with an engine is when my brother's petrol lawn mower wont start or runs badly....

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5 minutes ago, Painter said:

Yup. It was great fun

These days the nearest I get to tinkering with an engine is when my brother's petrol lawn mower wont start or runs badly....

Haha when we moved here 13 years ago we had a petrol mower but when it packed up(soon afterwards) I bought an electric one,we only have a small lawn/patch of weeds.Petrol one is still in the shed I'll get round to taking it to the skip one day.....

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Just about to watch episodes 3 & 4 of the BBC series "Traces"

I am indebted to "Galey" who mentioned this as I am hooked. Good cast and well acted  and set much in Dundee a Scottish City I visited quite often almost always to watch the Hearts.

As a football City Dundee is, as far as I am aware, unique in so much as Dundee and Dundee United have two stadiums virtually next to one another.

Dundee.jpg

Absolutely crazy!

Edited by Jambo
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14 minutes ago, Nightcrawler said:

Watching the curious life of Hieronymus Bosch, one of my favourite artists. 

Well I didn't know.

I wondered if he made any YouTube videos.

And what do I find?

Hieronymus Bosch Butt Music

Don't ask, don't tell.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Jambo said:

Just about to watch episodes 3 & 4 of the BBC series "Traces"

I am indebted to "Galey" who mentioned this as I am hooked. Good cast and well acted  and set much in Dundee a Scottish City I visited quite often almost always to watch the Hearts.

As a football City Dundee is, as far as I am aware, unique in so much as Dundee and Dundee United have two stadiums virtually next to one another.

Dundee.jpg

Absolutely crazy!

Similar in Nottingham, not only do you have Forest and Notts county by each other and only separated by the river, but you also have Trent bridge cricket ground right next door as well.

C70BF3BD-2E1F-4AA6-88A7-5C038645B2C3.webp

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2 minutes ago, Sangsom said:

Similar in Nottingham, not only do you have Forest and Notts county by each other and only separated by the river, but you also have Trent bridge cricket ground right next door as well.

C70BF3BD-2E1F-4AA6-88A7-5C038645B2C3.webp 89.38 kB · 0 downloads

Sorry pic doing something weird and not uploading, don’t know why. Can view it if you click that link.

733C54D9-7F09-4BA9-AC56-6B61CA80B878.webp

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