Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[MikeT]

Sian got caught out in a similar way Zel. She was fuming and refused to pay...

After a number of threatening letters her mum finally settled it for she was worried about the escalating threat nature of these letters...

Chances are Sian would have succeeded imo, Jim. They use false representations (the force of law) to intimidate people into paying. As MSE says, most charges are not enforceable in law - I wonder why that is?

[CitroJim]

Sian got caught out in a similar way Zel. She was fuming and refused to pay...

After a number of threatening letters her mum finally settled it for she was worried about the escalating threat nature of these letters...

Chances are Sian would have succeeded imo, Jim. They use false representations (the force of law) to intimidate people into paying. As MSE says, most charges are not enforceable in law - I wonder why that is?

Yes, both Sain and I thought so Mike but her mum got cold feet... There was another reason too but had that reason not existed we'd have carried on..

I found that a polite request to reconsider with a few mitigating circumstances got my penalty dropped.

Fat chance of that working with our crowd of cretinous creatures Eric.. The ability read is likely beyond them... They're the only workers who get plasters issued to them to protect their knuckles as they drag along the ground...

Oh, and we mustn't forget their special banana allowance - that's what the parking fines pay for

[Hell Razor5543]

Get the local farms to employ them, Jim. With a bit of training they would be able to plough the fields by holding a plough shear in each hand and just walk in a straight line, remembering to turn around at each end, move across a couple of body widths, and then head back the other way. That way they can EARN those bananas!

[CitroJim]

Get the local farms to employ them, Jim. With a bit of training they would be able to plough the fields by holding a plough shear in each hand and just walk in a straight line, remembering to turn around at each end, move across a couple of body widths, and then head back the other way. That way they can EARN those bananas!

James, what a brilliant idea! Inspired

[myglaren]

Zel, have a check for signage in that area and in particular the route you took to access the car park.
Someone on autoshite recently had a similar experience - it was unclear that the two car parks were not one.
With a reasonable and polite explanation the charges were waived.

[Zelandeth]

Given that this particular premesis is one unit out of two - and the other unit is empty, I reckon it's a case of a handful of spaces that they have decided by some arbitrary basis "belong" to Carphone Warehouse.

They make it quite clear that all queries will be responded to "within 35 days" - helpfully outside the window I'm given to pay...

I'll be double checking the signage - but I remember checking it the first time I stopped there to make sure it wasn't pay and display.

My foolish move was assuming that the McDonald's was part of the same business park - therefore that the car parks were essentially one and the same...idiot. The fact that I was "leaving the site" never occurred to me as I thought all the businesses in that "block" were part of the same business park...

Makes me now worry about how much else have I missed on a daily basis - and as this dates back to 10th February - how many more times have they caught me parked in there since?

Been out once today, and am now second guessing every road sign, lane marking and traffic light. Yay...

[lexi]

Makes you mad for a hundred quid down the spout like that. I got a £60 fine (first ever) 2 weeks ago. A part of Glasgow that has changed radically since I was there last. In a bus lane for a few hundred yards and on camera. Paid to Glasgow Council. It is a fab source of income for their Soirees . Pay in a week and get it down to £30! Sounds like "get one, buy one free"

[van ordinaire]

One small point which is often overlooked is that they are in the wrong placing the "ticket" on your vehicle. In the event of being taken to court you can slap in a counter claim for trespass, I would suggest damages at least twice the charge, for which they can have no defence. If you were realy lucky you could persuade the court to grant an injunction - which means if they ever touched your vehicle again that would be a criminal offence.

You could even make a pre-emptive strike - & sue them. It's almost certain they will ignore that so you get judgment by default which they'll also ignore, so you can send in the bailiffs: just be sure to make it clear you want a full inventory.

[Zelandeth]

Sadly, this was a brown envelope through the post - with the details, and a web address to view the CCTV footage within.

My other grump yesterday was that I finally managed to track down my brake pipe flaring toolkit - which I didn't think was a bad achievement given I'd not seen it in somewhere around six years and four house moves. The pipe even turned up precisely where I remembered it being in our disaster of a loft.

Could I then find the pipe cutter? Not a chance! Cue much disgruntled grumbling.

[Zelandeth]

So had a spare hour this evening.

Was glad to find that not having used it probably in the best part of ten years that I still remembered how to properly make a flared pipe joint. Not sure if I've ever actually made one up for a brake pipe thinking about it...dozens for HVAC stuff though.

In an hour I'd made up the last couple of pipes I needed, had them fitted, and bled the system through.

Reckon there's still some air trapped in the master cylinder, so it's been left "with the pedal held down" overnight. Know that has been helpful on MGBs and Princesses where getting all the air out the master cylinder can be a pig.

Not sure how many brakes are working or how well, but will find that out tomorrow.

Also managed to get the cover off so can finally get into the transmission, so can get the drive belt (which is way too slack) adjusted properly.

Might actually get to drive it around the drive a bit tomorrow! Not really been able to do anything with it other than walking pace because there were no brakes!

Not many cars with a drive system that looks like this!

[CitroJim]

That's a meaty looking belt Zel

I discoverd I have a genuine old Gunson's Eezi-bleed here. One of those that clamp over the master cylinder reservoir and uses the air pressure in a spare wheel to do the bleeding...

Guaranteed to remove the most stubborn air from any braking system..

Yours to borrow at any time if it'll help...

[Gibbo2286]

That's a meaty looking belt Zel

I discoverd I have a genuine old Gunson's Eezi-bleed here. One of those that clamp over the master cylinder reservoir and uses the air pressure in a spare wheel to do the bleeding...

Guaranteed to remove the most stubborn air from any braking system..

Yours to borrow at any time if it'll help...

And put a lot more in if you turn your back for a second.

[CitroJim]

That's a meaty looking belt Zel

I discoverd I have a genuine old Gunson's Eezi-bleed here. One of those that clamp over the master cylinder reservoir and uses the air pressure in a spare wheel to do the bleeding...

Guaranteed to remove the most stubborn air from any braking system..

Yours to borrow at any time if it'll help...

And put a lot more in if you turn your back for a second.

Yes, that's very true and it can also make an unholy mess if the cap on the master cylinder reservoir blows off during the bleed operation

Had it happen on an AX...

[Zelandeth]

It is a bit overkill in the belt department I reckon, last time I came across one this size it was coupled to a 20hp 3-phase motor that ran the huge centrifugal blower for the grain drier at the farm we lived down the road from. The blower was a good 20' in diameter - the axle was well over head height, and the lower edge was well below floor level.

Have to admit that the noise that thing made during starting up used to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end...Along with every other hair when the star-delta contactor dropped back in as it got up to speed and you used to feel the (concrete!) floor jump...Shudder to think what the current draw during start up must have been...don't imagine the compressor on the refrigeration side of that (it was basically a giant dehumidifier) was exactly light on power use either...Only time I've ever seen a V8 configuration compressor in person.

EDIT:

Back on topic...Thanks for the offer of the Easibleed. I'll keep that in mind if I keep having issues, though I usually resort to a pressure bleeder only as a last resort given my history of making a truly epic amount of mess with them. Hopefully this will clear itself in due course anyway.

[Zelandeth]

You know that you sometimes have days where things go surprisingly well and you get a heap of stuff done? Well today was the other sort of day.

First up I went to change the rear brake flexis. Got the first one off no bother (access is just awkward enough on the inboard end to be "annoying" however not quite enough to be actually problematic). However sticking the new one in place immediately revealed a problem.

So apparently that pair of NOS hoses is for another invalid carriage...Most likely an Invacar Mk 12, and are too short. Annoying. I'll need to source another pair of flexis from somewhere then.

Figured as I'd already got the nearside half apart that I may as well change the line to the wheel cylinder - to find that someone has been in there before me, and has rounded off that fitting. Great! I've got a few spares, so once I have the right flexi hoses I'll cut the pipe off and just batter a slightly smaller socket on there to get it off. Given that I'm going to have to take it to bits again later anyway, I decided not to bother with it today though. Have drowned it in Plusgas as well.

I then thought I'd have a look at adjusting the drive belt tension - have come to the conclusion that I'll try that again after I've attacked the front of the gearbox/chaincase with the pressure washer - it's just so coated in gunk at present that I can't even *see* the three mounting bolts I need to loosen first. I'd like to be able to see what I'm doing so I don't go and wind up loosening the wrong thing and dumping half the gearbox oil all over the drive as that would be highly annoying.

Annoyed at coming up against an issue there as well (albeit one that just needs me to dig the pressure washer out), I decided to do something that I knew would be easier - and stuck some quick release terminals on the battery.

Given that this battery is actually shared currently with the C5, it's useful to be able to get it in and out quickly. It will return to the correct location in due course as well.

Once it is back in the proper place a battery isolator switch will be installed as well - as I trust the electrics in this thing about as far as I can throw it and I'd rather not burn the house down.

Despite all of the grumbling though, I'm glad to report that I do now have brakes. Not faultless, but I do have brakes. I'm not sure whether there's actually an issue with the brake master cylinder I've got, or whether it's still just got a bit of air in. I seem to have an issue whereby if I depress the handlebar yoke very slowly, there's essentially no resistance and no braking effort. Doing it a little more quickly seems to bring a decent amount of braking effort, though the "dead zone" at the top of the travel does seem to vary a lot. Granted, I've not adjusted any of the drums yet either.

It means I have brakes though. I did lean on the handlebars with basically all my body weight and nothing went "pop" either, which is good to see. Having left the pedal under pressure overnight too, we've got nothing weeping from any wheel. I'll pull the jack out tomorrow and see if all three are actually providing braking effort. Offside rear definitely is (to the extent it has locked up when testing), and I seem to recall the nearside was before I had the first pipe blow out when I first changed the master cylinder.

This meant I could do a bit more testing to see what using more than 0.00001% of the available power would do though.



Apologies for the dodgy camera angle, I just had to wedge the phone on the windowsill. If I'd been smart I'd probably have stuck it on the rear wiper of the Lada or something like that. I might shuffle the Lada over to the other side of the drive to give me a bit more room to play with tomorrow. Plus apply bungee cords to the battery and fuel can!

It goes...It really goes! Stops pretty smartly too...I can't honestly see that there's far wrong with the brakes actually at the wheels there. Just have my slight suspicions about the master cylinder. For all it's unused, it has spent a lot of years sitting in a box of bits.

Definitely need to adjust the drive belt though, it's quite possible to get it to slip if provoked. The brakes can provide more grip than it can power at the moment when stationary too.

Notable that having got some good heat into the engine that it has almost completely stopped "sneezing" now - especially if I leave the choke on just ever so slightly - so I reckon it is just running ever so slightly lean.

...Again, I've not touched the carb aside from un-jamming the choke, which is rather astonishing!