kevin the chicken

Glad to see you've got your priorities right. Have a good christmas!

I'll have a look at that as soon as I can get the kids off the wii! At least they are racing ferrarri's

After all the cursing and name calling, the new registration number and log book was back with the owner in just over two weeks so that wasn't too bad. Well done DVLA. I am now the proud owner of a 1997 Range Rover which drives beautifully. A 70 mile drive home was enough to make me reasonably confident that it was ok and that there were no faults other than the ones I was aware of. Just need some snow now.

How are you going to fix it to the floor?

I have just bought an old Range Rover for myself as a runabout for when the weather is too bad for the kit (no wet gear) and the wife is using her car. I now have to wait for the owner to sort out his number plate transfer which is a pain in the butt. His mate has bought a new car and he has bought his old one and now I am stuck waiting for my car to be issued with a number plate, either its original before the personal plate was put on it or a new one if the other is unavailable. Anybody know how long this is liable to take? Is there any other way around it? I thought about trailering it home but it weighs too much for the other car and my Unimog is off the road. I'm afraid that although the chap I bought it off seems a genuine sort of bloke he doesn't seem to have much idea about this sort of thing and he's already had the paperwork sent back once because of a mistake and obviously DVLA rather than phone up would rather delay the whole thing for another week than ask a simple question by sending all the paperwork and the payment cheques back which doesn't help me. How I miss the local DVLA office, nothing was too much trouble and letters always came back by return post!

My Unimog has a leaky hub and when I checked the oil level in the hub there were lots of little metal flakes meaning that the final drive gears have gone and need replacing. When I checked they were a grand for each side. That's a proper ouch. Needless to say its been parked up for a while. I did wonder if a specialist gear maker could custom make me some, got to be cheaper than Mercedes ones if it was possible.

Lucky you. Havent had one day where I have been able to go out when there has been good weather since mot day at the end of october. Think I will be sorning it next year.

Mine is slightly different again to the one in your last post. The cap is of the top turret type where the leads exit toward the bulkhead. I was told this was a dizzy conversion from a mk 2 cavalier. Magnecore made some custom leads up for me. Works very well

I used Pickles because they were the cheapest and they have only gone up by less than a tenner in the last two years. Sent me a renewal letter, phoned up and paid by card, job done.

Quality!

Made my day. He is a worthy winner, would have been wrong if he had lost due to the double points score after winning 11 races. Roseberg was gracious in defeat too, must have been hard to give that post race interview. Next season should be a cracker

Did you get the copy I sent you Mick?

Good news that you managed to put it out without too much damage and without injury to yourself. Webers can be a bit leaky if the gaskets are in poor condition or if too much fuel pressure is used. If you are using an electric fuel pump then maybe a fuel pressure regulator would be a good idea. Should be no need for one with the mechanical one though. Although there was a leak there must also have been a source of ignition for a fire to occur. If it wasn't due to spitting back through the carbs then check all the electrics, even the ones not near the fire as fuel vapour has a habit of spreading a lot more than you might think and it could have flashed back from a point well away from the carbs. Having said that if you are still building then you should know your electrics are up to scratch so that should narrow things down for you.

Yes I mean tachograph

Good point, I will check that before I do anything. If anything though that may make things easier if its so. Surprised its not air operated though, everything else is!

Three? theres a couple more I didnt mention so I can always find one that starts. No they are all reliable if you use fresh fuel and look after them. I must admit though i will have a look at the leccy ones as that would mean I could start sawing earlier in the morning without upsetting the neighbours.

Thanks guys, now I know what to look for I will measure them up. I was in my local agricultural factors the other day and noticed that they had a great big rack of them so I will try there first as I they are likely to be pretty meaty ones as it has a 5.7 litre engine and a big battery. Its more likely to be combine size than car!

I need to fit a cut off switch to my unimog so that I can stop the tachometer clock draining the battery as it is not used very often. To do this I need to buy some different leads. The ones fitted are pretty hefty ones and I intend to replace them with ones of the same thickness. How are they measured? is it by cross section size of the core, diameter, circumference or what? Thanks Kevin

I did do the proper training, NPTC cross cutting and felling when I was between jobs. Money well spent when I see some of the so called tree surgeons at work around here. I use a husky 350 with either an 11 or 18 inch bar for most of my work and have a smaller model for limbing and emergencies (ie if I get the other one stuck). For bigger trunks I use a Stihl 048 which is a heavy old saw but will rip through anything with its 36 inch bar. I recently cut down a row of 18 trees for an airfield museum using the 350. The wood filled up the back body of my Unimog twice and stacked up a 17 foot flat bed trailer, at I guess I would say at least 5 tonnes of wood in total, felled limbed and logged ready for next winter. All this on 7 or 8 litres of petrol! Electric chainsaws, not for me!

In our house we call those Birmingham screwdrivers! No offence intended, my wifes family hail from there and I think it came from one of them.

I have Mick. Send me a pm with your address and I'll get it off to you this week. I can either scan it or copy at home or get my wife to take it to work to do it

I wrapped mine to try to reduce the under bonnet temperatures and found that it made a massive difference. As already said it doesn't get rid of the heat but moves it further down the pipe. I find it hard to believe that there is much moisture left in my engine bay after it has been run up to temperature. I have supported my exhaust at both ends on rubber bobbins and put a flexi joint in to get rid of any risk to welds, I dont want 150 quids worth of shiny exhaust dragging down the road.

Yet another brilliant weekend, thanks go to all who organised and helped set up. My children loved the archery and made a pests of themselves to Simon all weekend. The band were very good too and I would urge all those who didn't make it to this years event to make an extra special effort next year. The informality of the event makes it perfect, you can do as little or as much as you like. It is really good for people like me who dont manage to make it to the shows and meetings to be able to chat to people and put faces to names. There were some really awesome cars there too!

I am finally about to bite the bullet and buy a new battery for my Unimog, a purchase that is going to make my eyes water. The mog does not get a lot of use but when It is needed it is an unbelieveably useful tool but the battery has failed probably due to lack of use I have several vehicles that are not used very often and have got in to the habit of giving them a top up charge every month or so to prolong the life of the battery. I was wondering if this is the right thing to do or if there is anything else that can prolong the life of batteries especially a brand new one?

Have you touched anything else? Earth straps for instance. Check all the connections if you haven't done so already.