Crank, no start....

[myglaren]

Here's one you might like.

[bobins]

Wrong colour, Steve, and I think it might blow away in the wind

[myglaren]

There's always Dylon. And superglue.

[bobins]

Abracadabra - it's back !

Bonnet back - own work

I finally plucked up the courage to send the bonnet off to the painters. Bit of a PITA to get it there as it's the size of a small playing field and won't fit in the back of my pick-up truck, so I had to break out the trailer and sit it on that on top of some old sofa cushions to get it there and back. Success though, and happy with the results

[mickthemaverick]

Excellent job bobins, I'll look forward to seeing that in the flesh, or should I say the car park!

[CitroJim]

I did wonder what had become of it... Good work sir!

[bobins]

Boredom and ebay - always a bad combination.....

A different 'crank, no start', this one.

Whilst browsing the Bay of Plenty I came across a relatively local generator 'for parts, not working'. Worth a punt so I got bidding. £55 later and it's mine - a roughly 6kw Hyundai that all seems to be there. Key start (but no key) and all relatively sound.

A non working genny - ebay

First up was to bypass the key start, so off came the control panel to get to the ignition switch and remove the wafers from the lock so it could be operated by a screwdriver !

Control panel innards - own work

With the engine now able to be pulled over with the electrics on, some cursory checks showed a poor spark, and without even looking I knew the carb would need a quick overhaul as well.

Ill coil - own work

Sure enough, the coil measured 'sub-optimal' and, as these engines are based on the venerable old Honda GX series, rather than order a Hyundai part I got a coil of finest Chineseum quality for a GX340 engine
Off came the carb for a quick clean and check - not surprisingly, the 'petrol' in the float bowl was the colour of Irn Bru, so a flush through with fresh petrol and clean out of the emulsion tube sorted that.
A quick check of the valve clearances showed them to be a tiny bit tight, but it also showed an impressively clean valve train.... I don't think this engine has done many miles

Clean rockers - own work

Put everything back together, connect up a battery, give it a sniff of 'start yer bastard', crank it over and..... off she goes with a light cloud of blue smoke which quickly cleared. Success
Once running the display panel came to life, this shows Volts, Hz, run time on this occasion, and total run time. She's only done 19 hours in total

Now the big question is..... what do I do with another generator in my collection ?

[MattBLancs]

I thought you'd had the hard top lifting system attached incorrectly!
But spangley repainted bonnet looking good.

What's the going rate for an actually functional generator - yours having the USP of "not broken" should be an easy sell.
Given the condition of it and such low hours, maybe it's your other(s) that should be sold off?

[bobins]

Theoretically, a used genny like that and of that rating should be north of £500, but no one wants to buy one like that !
I have a similar spec Honda one that was bought dead and easily revived about 7 years ago - a gummed up carb (and removal of the propane kit) and not much else wrong with that one at the time. That sits in the garage 'just in case'. I have my old faithful Honda 2kw one that needs resurrecting, and I have an early 80s Briggs based one I think is around 3kw that I use at work on the log splitter.... it burns fuel worryingly quickly, but can sit unused for 6-8 months and then start first or second pull every time

[bobins]

It's been a long winter, but finally I get to take her out in the sun
Taxed and MOT'd for a new year. Only one minor fault has shown up - and that was very easily cleared. The central locking refused to lock, and being as it's all vacuum operated that can be a ball-ache to chase down..... unless it transpires that the vacuum pump wasn't running at all and that it can be made to run again by unplugging the two plugs for it and plugging them back in again - dirty contacts Not quite 'turn it off and turn it back on again', but not far off

SL in the sun - own work

[CitroJim]

Excellent

[bobins]

An item of latent usefulness.........

There being nowhere sensible to put a phone in Helga so you can view the satnav whilst driving, I thought it high time I bodged something together. I didn't want to drill any of the interior, and I don't think there was anywhere suitable to use adhesive pads, so I resorted to a bit of interior deconstruction to see what I could use

I determined that I could attach one end of a bracket to a hidden screw that's used to affix the passenger knee bolster to the dash, and as an upper mount I could hook my engineering miracle of a phone holder through the gap between the vent and the dash and secure it to a hidden edge of the dash - thus providing an upper and lower fixing point

A bit of Cardboard Aided Design, followed by a bit of snippety-snip with the tin shears provided a proof of concept work of art. Possibly

Phone holder trial run - own work

There then followed some fettling and careful work with my metal guillotine and a bit of folding to come up with the awkward shaped mounting piece made out of brass. As for the actual holder that the phone rests on, well...... the aforementioned item of latent usefulness

It's the crumb tray from a recently deceased toaster A little bit of fettling to bend the bottom round, attach some magnets (they had their own ideas of where they wanted to stick ! ) stick it all together and viola

Phone holder v1.0 - own work

View from the driver's seat - own work

Not the slickest of designs, but better than any of the universal designed ones I looked at. It had to be fairly long as my phone is a bit heavy - a simple magnet stuck on the end of something doesn't work as the phone just wants to swivel 'round or fall off.

In other news, I changed the antifreeze in her this weekend as well. Two drain points - one on the bottom of the rad, one on the side of the engine block - both undid OK, but the block one was a pig to get anything on to undo it. Refill with straight deionised water, run it up to temp with the heater going full blast, let it cool, drain and refill with the correct antifreeze. Thankfully the engine is a self-burping one so no dramas with airlocks

[CitroJim]

That's the best use of a deceased toaster I've seen Good work on that and the antifreeze

[bobins]

That begs the question - Jim - how many other uses of dead toasters have you seen in order to be able to compare ?

[CitroJim]

That begs the question - Jim - how many other uses of dead toasters have you seen in order to be able to compare ?

Long ago, they were a good source of resistance wire to make or refurbish workshop cigarette lighters using a transformer and a push switch. Push the button, wait for the coil of resistance wire to glow and light your fag... Job's a good 'un

The mica was also useful for making ad-hoc insulators...

And finally, the thermostat could be used to make lights flash...