and today i have mostly been...

[steve_earwig]

I've just watered the juice from 500 dead slugs onto the garden

[steve_earwig]

..washing the yoyo Well, I was beginning to think the amount of mud stuck to it was probably enough to affect the fuel consumption.

Clean now


I started off by blowing as much dust, mud, gravel and garbage as I could out of the inside with the airline, then followed up with a hoover. I was then going to wash the inside but I found the bucket I was going to use had a hole in it, so I moved on to the outside. For this task I followed the "single bucket" procedure:

although, rather than mix up some fresh stuff, I used the remains of what I'd already used to wash the Pug the other day. This was about a 5% solution of the expensive* car wash detergent available in the local supermarket, although now containing special ingredient "S" (I found a dead slug was floating around in it, which I didn't remove).

Incidentally, anyone know where I can get a brush like that from? That one's falling apart.

Now in the shade I was surrounded by a swarm of mosquitoes, some of which ended up stuck to the car:

I've long since discovered that no matter how much mosquito repellent I put on they always find the bits I miss or just bite me through my clothes, so now I don't bother and simply stick an mp3 player in my ears so I can't hear them.

I finished just as it was getting dark, so I expect to find the bits I missed glaring back at me in the morning.

[Welly]

You rebel you, no pre-wash, no Reverse Osmosis water for the pre-pre-wash stage no G-Tech 5.163 APC at 1.25 parts per billion.

And what have you ended up with? a clean car

[steve_earwig]

Apart from the bee poo anyway, that really needs individual attention with a fingernail. I just tipped out the bucket and there really wasn't much crud in there, just a trace in the bottom. Oh, and a dead slug of course.

[steve_earwig]

I must say the yoyo looks rather good in those pics, let me assure you that it really doesn't look that good IRL, it's covered in stone chips, scratches and dings.

One of the (many) things that bugs me about it is the outer brackets on the front seats are rusty, so while I was cleaning* it I decided to do something about it.

Passenger side shown as I didn't think of taking pictures before I did the driver's side:

The offending article:


Remove bolt (14mm):


Lever seat up to slide mask under the bracket (aha, Jaska Plus, I knew there was a reason we get it):


Wire brush to remove rust, then blow with airline. Well, ok, use airline to remove loose paint (ffs), wire brush again and blow it away:


Mask seat rail with tape and paint with, erm, whatever you have handy by way of a primer:


Top coat with.... ah, I seem to have a tin of this, I've no use for it now the car's long gone and it's kind of the same colour as the car and will fit in with the childish "this bit comes off so I'll paint it blue!" interior:




Finished:

Hold on, how did I manage to get overspray using a brush?

Driver's side:

I also painted the fuel flap release 'cos that was rusty too.

With the seat in place it's almost invisible:


Not so the driver's side:

The seats are parallel too

Fanks for watching

[Welly]

Beautiful repair sir!

[steve_earwig]

Pfff, piffle, it won't last.

Congratulate me, at 1:30 I went out to start the yoyo to pick t'wife up from work and the battery was flat. Poxy tiny little thing that it is. There then followed struggles to push it out of the way so I could get the Pug out. Nothing doing, so I called t'wife to tell her the bad news, she wasn't pleased as it's pushing 30 degrees today. That done I got the charger on it, and then realised I'd only been trying to push it backwards, not forwards. It went easily, I didn't realise the yard's on a slight incline. So I pushed it forwards into the wall, managed to squeeze the Pug out past it and went to rescue t'wife who was about halfway home and mightily hot. Dog house avoided

[Welly]

Jap car batteries are always small like that, I've had three Japs now and they were all the same. The thinking being that the battery only needs to be that big same with radiators and brake* discs I'm NEVER having another Jap car they were all sh*t in their own special ways.

Let it be said here and now; NEVER and I repeat NEVER stand your missus up by not having a working conveyance of some sort, doesn't matter what, but something to fetch her as arranged.

Back in 1995 I dropped my missus off for a trial make-up session prior to our Wedding on the basis that she'd phone me to come and collect her later on. Now on the run up to getting married what's the most important thing a man should do? that's right get a Peugeot 309 up on ramps and de-rust/grease up the underside components; this is VITAL. Tiny little downside in 1995 was only having the House Telephone which was in the Living Room at the back.............

We're still married you'll be pleased to know and yes she had to walk 6 miles, on one of the hottest days of the year wearing wayyyy too much make up, 'big' hair, but only casual wear

[steve_earwig]

I can imagine you under your car, covered in rust flakes, dried mud, grease and underseal thinking "I'm sure there's something I forgot..."

a working conveyance of some sort

I'm sure my wife would be well pleased* if I turned up on the bike

[steve_earwig]

...getting the air con in t'Pug regassed.

Symptoms - lots of wooshing noises behind dash, especially after switch off. The fan also seemed lethargic, it got their eventually but it took a while and never seemed really convincing.

Owing to the fan's laziness I initially thought may be it was the ecu but the wooshing noises reminded me that it hadn't had a top up or anything all the time I've owned it and maybe not before that either. So I took it to the chap here that fixes all the household appliances and presumably does this as a side line from refilling fridge freezers...

I had to go to the guy's house to get it done. Not having seen this done before (the same guy gave the yoyo a top up a few years back but that's the sum total of my experience) I wasn't sure what was involved. First up he hooked up a pressure gauge to it, 6.5bar seemed ok to me but he said he needed to see how much was actually in it. So he hooked up some weird sort of compressor to it to suck out the refrigerant and push it into a bottle, which was sitting on top of some electronic scales he'd zeroed before he started- He reckoned the system should contain 7-750g of refrigerant. He got 150 grams out of my Pug

Next up he reversed the pump, fitted up a full bottle of refrigerant to it (again on the re-zeroed scales) and started pumping it back into the car. At -690g he got me to start the car and stick the air con on. It gradually took a little more but, despite revving it, the scales stopped at -720g. Air con tested by hand - chilling and that was it. It cost me 200Kn (about 20 of your earth pounds) and I drove home in an icy gale, despite the 30+ outside temperatures today

The fan also cuts in full tilt fairly soon after start up as it should, rather than taking an age to get there. There's aren't any funny noises now either.

In other news... this morning I had the genny running. I didn't have much fuel for it to run it for long but I wanted to see if it still worked ok, not having run it since last, erm, December? Off it went, like it had been running yesterday. I wanted to try and sort out the fuel gauge because I couldn't tell how much fuel it had unless I took the cap off, took the filter out and peered inside. I thought maybe it was bust but I took the little perspex window out and under that the gauge itself was covered in crud. I cleaned that up with a kitchen surface wipe (useful stuff) and it works fine now I can see it. I also drained the fuel system and cleaned out all the crap I could see in the bottom of the tank. Now all I need is some fuel, I plan to use it to run the hot water tank just to give it a work out.

And finally... The Yamaha is insured 180 quid's worth (Goran's sis-in-law works for the insurers and managed to use the car discount from the Pug, it was 300 quid odd without that). So tomorrow morning it's going for it's MOT* and then, hopefully, it'll get it's Croatian numberplate and... It'll be road legal for the first time in almost 11 years

[Doggy]

I love it when a plan comes together......

Sounds like a productive day.

FWIW I put about 725g of refrigerant in the original Dogmobile, then found a chart somewhere that said it should have been about 650g.
Mind you that was in 2009 and AFAIK it's still OK now.

[jonsowman]

AFAIK it's still OK now.

Certainly is (234k miles)

[steve_earwig]

I just Gurgled it, 625g +/- 25g Effects seem to be either blowing all the seals (erk!), not working at all or... bugger all.

[Welly]

It's not ideal over-gassing, you could get icing of the evaporator in the cabin which'll disable the compressor using a temp sensor or too much un-evaporated refrigerant returning to the compressor which it won't like (look for an extremely cold Low Pressure pipe, the larger of the two) it should be chilly but not with surface ice etc.

If you're worried or can't/don't want to go back to the guy you could always 'lose' a tiny bit from one of the test ports use long arms and don't breath it in

[steve_earwig]

Dammit I've no idea what that amount of gas would look like, maybe I'd only let a few grams out of maybe I'd let way too much out. Back to Mr Pigeon (seriously) I go

Anyway.

RIP J406 LKJ

Hello ZG something something something something FM

Yes, the Yamaha is fully road legal and is now sporting* a brand spanking new bit of tin.. sorry, numberplate. Woo. There are some pics but I seem to have left my mobile up at my gaff, arse.