What did you do today?

[Split_Pin]

Yeah I had a look about and examples are available with long MOTs for less.

Don't get me wrong, the driving experience knocked spots off the 75 (although it's not very quick) but these Jaguars still rusted badly even by 2004. In comparison, the thickness and quality of metal used in my 75 is exponentially superior and apart from the usual localised rust around the jacking points, rust isn't really an issue on these.

[PhilA]

The work I was planning on doing today is now in evacuation exclusion zone.

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Naptha fire at the Marathon refinery in Garyville, LA.

[xtriple]

I still have my Gunsens Gastester, sat in a box where I can see it. Used to work really well though very slow to get a steady reading, by which time everything had coked up so it was wrong...

Having polished the Merc, it rained... Sahara sand rain! Fuck it, looks worse than if I'd done nothing.

[Hooli]

The work I was planning on doing today is now in evacuation exclusion zone.
tmp_ab5b2866-0b35-41bf-9fe7-6fd7862c73b4.png
tmp_bece034d-8997-4532-b43b-55c7ad7e1f4f.png
Naptha fire at the Marathon refinery in Garyville, LA.

That's a huge site to make marathons. Still better than snickers though.

[Drum]

The oil in the DB996 was thin and water contaminated. Don't think it's coming from the coolant as it hasn't lost a drop. It lives outside so don't know if it can get through from the gearbox side

Anyway, I'm worried it's fucked. After the initial ftp, the following day it ran for a minute then seemed to tighten up again. I say that because it would only turn over slowly and puff what is either white smoke or vapour out of the breather. Took the sump off this morning. Oil strainer on the pump had some small metal shavings on it so going to clean everything up, fresh oil and filter and see what happens. Maybe I should change the shells while I'm at it but if they're wrecked I'd probably need to get the crank reground anyway. No oil pressure light and I never got round to fitting an oil gauge
Still not ruling out HGF. Water above a piston bent a rod? I should take the head off shouldn't I.

Thoughts from those with knowledge? Unlike me.

[I am not Diesel]

The Defender is due MoT so inevitably that means it'll need some work beside swapping the far superior led headlight bulbs for halogen shit. Go figure huh! Had it over the pit at work a couple of weeks ago and the nearside radius arms bushes were goosed. Changed those no probs but the shock absorber bush cups on the rear axle were rotten and had disintegrated. Found some replacements on the interweb and they arrived last week. Got onto it yesterday afternoon. Chiselled the remains of the old ones off, cleaned the area up as best I could with a grinder and nearly knocked myself out on the vehicle lift, went home and got drunk. This morning I drilled holes in the new cups to allow them to be spot welded on and sacrificed a 2.5mm & 3.0mm drill bit in the process. I refitted the shocks with the new cups, positioned them and tack welded on the outside which worked better when I turned the gas on. Removed the shocks again, filled my little holes with weld and then gave the whole area a generous dose of underseal. As my free supply of Dinitrol has dried up I'm thinking about giving Lanoguard a try. Any good?

[LynehamHerc]

There's a thread about it on the beige, in the Questions section, if you still go there.
If you don't I'll try and do a precis, let me know if you do.

I use Ramsoil which is similar but use Bilt Hamber for internal coverage as I don't have a suitable sprayer for it.

[PhilA]

The work I was planning on doing today is now in evacuation exclusion zone.
tmp_ab5b2866-0b35-41bf-9fe7-6fd7862c73b4.png
tmp_bece034d-8997-4532-b43b-55c7ad7e1f4f.png
Naptha fire at the Marathon refinery in Garyville, LA.

That's a huge site to make marathons. Still better than snickers though.

No, they don't make them there. They refine them.

That's where the fun size ones come from.

[Hooli]

They're all funsize these days

[SiC]

Mate gave me a hedge trimmer that came with his house. He'd been having a lot of trouble getting it to run properly and basically gave up after he realised how much better modern battery powered units are now.


Having a look through, the first obvious issue was that the fuel line had simply crumbled to pieces. I had a spare that I fitted from my box of bits


Next was replacing this manky old fuel. This has gone into the mower and it seems quite happy on it.


While trying to get it to run, I noticed the carb extremely loose.


With that all done, I set off to cut my hedge.
I got part of the way through to find it cutting out at high revs.


Having a poke around, thinking maybe mixture related, I discovered the needle was fixed and not adjustable. It's a genuine Walbro carb but they glue the needle in so it simply cannot be moved. I pulled the carb apart some more to check the rotary cylinder valve was clean and sealing. Couldn't find anything obvious and I didn't want to pull the bulb side apart as that risked buggering the gaskets.

I was convinced it was fueling related as it idled really happily for about 10mins. But high speed dropped it out. Decided maybe to look at the pressure port. The hole on the carb uses crankcase pressure to pressurise the fuel tank. This allows the fuel to be forced in and alleviates the need for a fuel pump.

The carb looked fine but I only wanted to tear in at the last resort. So I thought I'd check the carb mount to see if it was blocked.

Looking at it, the problem became obvious.


It should be this way around. The original way simply had that port blocked off. Whereas it needed to go to that hole into the bottom of the cylinder/crankcase.

I think the only way it was running before was from the fact the mount was loose and probably letting some pressure in. Not sure whether someone pulled this apart and didn't put it back together properly, or it was incorrectly assembled out the factory.


Putting it all back together, it fired right up. Finished cutting the hedge in double quick time compared to my mains powered unit!

I did buy a replacement cheapy carb from Amazon for £16. Same day delivery as I bought it in the morning before I had a chance to look at the trimmer. However this original carb seems fine and being a genuine (older) Walbro (afaik), it will likely be better quality than the Amazon unit.

Debating whether to send it back or simply leave it on the shelf. A bit like that fuel pipe that I used at the start. Came with a kit of other bits and I didn't end up using it. Sometimes being a hoarder has its uses...

Anyway not bad for a free Hedge Trimmer! I mean I did spend a good few hours this afternoon fixing it and you have to debate whether that's a good use of time. I can see why people throw stuff like this out rather than having a fiddle. It's all cheap enough that it isn't worth spending time fixing it if you value your time. But I do get satisfaction on fixing this sort of stuff.