Tag Archives: starter motor

Friday 5th August 2011 – We didn’t manage to start the Minerva :-(

Bill came round this afternoon as planned and we had a good play with the Minerva. But we didn’t manage to start it. We cleaned the plugs and the points, checked the electrics out and made sure that there was a nice bright spark wherever there should be one.

We worked out how to hot-wire it so that we had the ignition circuit live, but the starter bendix gear wouldn’t slide out. In the end we removed the starter (and that entailed removing the floor and the oil filter of the Minerva) and cleaned it so that the bendix gear would slide out, but the starter still wouldn’t turn over. After dismantling it, we found the cause as well. While the vehicle has been standing, there’s been a slight oil leak and it’s dripped inside the starter motor and fouled all the coils. 8 or 9 years of standing hasn’t done it much good and I need a new starter for it now.

But it does fire up though – I tried it on the starting handle and not only is there plenty of compression I got it to backfire twice – that with my bad arm as well and now it is even worse.

I freed off the clutch pedal too. Simple lack of use. I took off the grease nipple heated it with a blow torch to melt away the old manky grease, refitted the nipple and pumped a huge load of grease into it. That’s quite nice now.

I had a mind to invite Bill in afterwards for coffee but he was in a hurry to get away. But no matter. I had spent the morning tidying up in my room and fitting a couple more bookshelves so that the place is so much tidier now, so some good will come out of it all.

Tomorrow is shopping. I think that I’ll go to Commentry, and then go for a swim at Neris les Bains.

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Tuesday 22nd June 2010 – It was 19:04 when I knocked off this evening.

barn wood beams chevrons xylophene wood treatment les guis virlet puy de dome franceBut I’ve been having a temendous amount of fun.

This afternoon I’ve been painting the woodwork for the barn roof with some xylophene – the stuff that kills all the beasties and so on that try to infest it. I’ve done about half so far – enough to do one side of the roof. That’ll do to get me started once we have the scaffolding.

It’s quite easy to spread the stuff on the wood too. It’s quite thin so it goes on really easily and quickly with a paint roller.

But this morning was even better. The starter had gone on Bill’s car and he has a similar car for spares so I went round there, took the starter off the scrap car and swapped it with the duff one. It took a while to do it as you have to move all kinds of hoses and filters and so on and I ended up covered to my armpits in old and dirty oil but it was just like old times when I had my taxis. Hardly a week went by without me having to change a starter or an alternator and strangely enough I used to enjoy it.

But the enthusiasm has started to fire up my imagination. When the roof is on the barn and I’ve disposed of the body off the caravan I’m going to set up a decent workshop in the barn. I’ll resurrect my old gas-welding gear, get some oxygen and acetylene bottles, buy an engine crane and rescue all my decent tools from Brussels.

And then I’m going to have some fun.

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Monday 21st June 2010 – Sometimes when you do house clearances …

foot forward tandem bakfiets les guis virlet puy de dome france… you strike it lucky – although it’s not all that often. Most of the stuff that Kate had to dispose of had already been disposed but she did keep a couple of things back for me, including this magnificent “foot forward” tandem, for which I’m extremely grateful.

It’s a home-made effort made up of bits of bike cobbled together and although the idea and the design look sound enough, the workmanship is somewhat rudimentary and it needs finishing.

But what is extraordinary about it is that I’ve been looking for a bakfiets for years and having a good look at this, I can see that parts of it actually started out as a bakfiets and so it will be a comparatively easy task to convert it back.

I could be on to something here.

But the move was exciting in more ways than one. Due to Guillaume’s van having broken down I was asked if I could deliver Rebecca’s stuff to her. But a constant change of plan meant that the boxes and so on for her were in and out of the van on numerous occasions before Karl and Lou ended up taking them. For most people this constant change of plan wasn’t an issue but for one person, who wasn’t even involved in the move and who spent most of his time standing around and watching, it was a total crisis. If it had been anyone that I had known, he would have had a smack in the mouth long before we had finished. I dunno how people put up with behaviour like this.

So I took my leave of Kate, which was disappointing because I quite like her and I wish that I had got to know her better, and I went off with Karl and Lou to look at their house. It’s a nice little place in Lapeyrouse. we’re having a chantier there on Saturday to help progress the work

. At the moment they are living in a caravan with a huge awning and I can safely say that it is the first time ever that I have seen a caravan awning with a fitted kitchen. Definitely a step up from the days of the camp camp.

This afternoon after unloading Caliburn I did some gardening. I’ve planted out a few more plants and I’ve done some more succession sowing.

Those of you who have been following my adventures will know that all of the water consumed on the premises is from the rain that falls on the verandah. It drops down a pipe into a sump that catches the stones and heavy rubbish and then backs up into a pipe that goes through a mesh filter into a 203-litre water butt with a tap for water out. The tap is situated about 10cms off the bottom to allow anything that falls into the tank (sticks, stones, leaves etc) to sink to the bottom.

There’s another 203-litre water butt that is connected to it. Of course all water destined for human consumption is boiled beforehand.

But an examination of the water butts the other day showed that the water in the “in and out” water butt is not as clean as I would like it to be whereas the tank in parallel is spotlessly clean because nothing ever drops into it – it’s all fed in by the connector pipe which is at 10cms off the bottom of the other tank.

rainwater harvesting home made filter les guis virlet puy de dome franceThat situation can be altered by feeding into the rearmost tank and drawing the water out of the front tank and it’s a modification that I’ve had in mind for a while.

But at Brico Depot on Saturday they had the bits I needed and so I cleaned the mesh filter, cleaned out the pipework, swapped the lids over and routed the rainwater pipe into the rear tank.

The bits that drop into the water will stay on the floor of the rear tank and the front tank should stay quite clean.

But there are two other mods that I can do. I’m going to build an in-line filter and fill it with puzzolane, the volcanic lava rock that has impressive water-filtering capabilities, and seal the two tanks so that nothing can creep in underneath the lids.

And this morning I went to the medical centre at St Eloy les Mines for my medical for this refereeing lark. I passed pretty much although I have to go to Montlucon for a test d’effort and an ECG. But the doctor told me that he thinks that my blood pressure is up.
“Well, so would yours be if this weather has done to your garlic what it’s been doing to mine”. But having to have a tetanus injection is exciting. I was given a prescription to go to the chemist’s to buy the injection, and then I have to go back to see the nurse to get her to give it to me.

Tomorrow Terry has another engagement so I’m going to do Bill’s starter for him.

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