DerekS

Evening all, lidl have a 1 tonne chain block in store on Sunday for £39.99, it looks like a good buy. Derek.

Petrol on the M6 at Tebay Northbound was £1.77.9 yesterday, here in North Cumbria it's £1.55.9, a shocking difference. Derek.

Morning all! An old trick is after cleaning the bendix, give the sliding surfaces a going over with the "lead" of a pencil. Get as much of the graphite on as you can. It's very effective and lasts a surprisingly long time. While I'm here, when I try to reply to posts on my Samsung phone, all of a sudden the page jumps and if I'm not careful I submit a column 3 feet in length... Why? Derek.

Roger, when I asked the supplier, they said to mount it with the pipe connections at the top and the wiring at the bottom, but that would leave the manufacturer's "label" upside down! The label is etched in to the surface, for want of a better description, not stuck on, that tells me what you say is correct. Derek.

Thanks for that guys, as I say I would have thought that there would have been more comprehensive instructions included with the pump. Cheers. Derek.

Sorry guys, it's a Huco 133010 suction type. Sorry about that...

Evening all, I'm going to fit one to my 1500 Spit, in the engine bay. The very basic instructions dont show the orientation. The supplier reckons mount it vertically with the pipework on the top but this would leave the manufacturer's label upside down, which seems strange. Also, where EXACTLY have you fitted yours? Any advice would, as always, be very much appreciated! Derek.

Phew, thanks Pete, don't know what went wrong there but hopefully it's sorted. For some reason my phone kept saying the website was not responding... no wonder! Thanks again. Derek.

Evening all! Rather late in the conversation but I'm just sorting the garage at our new home and thought I'd post this pic of the drain I added to both the old (while on the car) and new (when off the car) diffs off my Spit 1500. (This is the old diff.) It's basically a shortened 5/16" UNF set screw with a thick washer and ptfe washer underneath. Drilling and tapping the cast iron was straightforward, it's good material to work with and both castings had a convenient dimple as a drilling point with the casting being plenty thick enough. I haven't had any problems with them. Hope this helps! Derek.

Evening all! I've drilled and tapped mine 5/16" UNF too, a couple of years ago and it's perfectly big enough when the diff and the oil is hot, it drains easily. A very worthwhile mod! Derek.

That's the ones, Colin! In all fairness, they are fairly effective, unless someone is sitting on your back-end... Derek.

If I remember correctly, getting it done back in April at our local Post Office meant that the status change went through right away and could be checked on the DVLA website the following day. The guy in the post office knew his stuff, he'd done it before. He took the strip off my V5 to send away but handed the main part of the V5 back. Derek.

My Spit 1500 was built in August 1980 and registered in June 1981, I applied at our local post office in the first week of April. I took my heritage certificate with the paperwork and it went through there and then. I was told that my tax refund would be automatic and take a few weeks to come back and it actually took nearly 3 months, but it was back-dated.

I've been sorting through my stuff while preparing for a house move and came across this booklet from 1939. The advert on the back cover shows a triple-electrode spark plug, here's me thinking they were a newish idea!

Thanks Paul, that's brilliant! Derek.

Morning all! I've been wanting to have a squint at Rimmer bros website but haven't been able to access it for a couple of days, has anyone else had the same problem? Derek.

Oops! Pleased you got sorted though! Derek.

A daft question, if it's still on the car have you tried to unscrew it with the engine hot?Also, very often when something won't unscrew, if you try to tighten it ever so slightly it can crack the bond between the two items. It needs care because, of course, there is a chance that it will shear... you'll get it though, I'm sure. Derek.

Absolutely Pete, at risk of nagging on the subject, I spent the best part of my working life in the chemical industry ( including working on a plant that generated and processed hydrogen at 300 bar pressure but that's thread drift... ) and the expression used - introduced by the trade unions- was CYBAT! Cover Your Back at All Times! Derek.

For what it's worth I put my application for the Historic Vehicle Status in at our local post office as soon as I could in April, the guy did warn me that there was a backlog back then. It actually took over 12 weeks to come through and the refund arrived a few days later. Apparently the DVLA are experiencing a perfect storm and it's not the people "on the shop floor" there's fault, they are trying to catch up... As for MOT's, I'm definitely on the side of it HAS to be done as an independent safety check. I wouldn't like to be standing in a court of law in front of a barrister trying to convince him that the brakes were fine, honestly... Previously my MOT was due in February ( for March ) and I've just had it re-done this week to move it to a time of year where it's more comfortable for working on. Also, should you decide to sell, isn't a MOT trail a plus-point?

The plates definitely go underneath the chassis, hope this helps. Derek.

David, going back a few years, I posted the same question and ended up fitting the spacer/washer to my 1500 Spitfire as I was convinced that it was missing, for some reason... at the time I was having a juddering at odd times when reversing. I don't do many miles but after a while I noticed the back end of the car was down on the passenger side. To cut a long story short I ended up taking it back off and had to replace the mounting rubbers as the left hand side were crushed, this levelled the car back up again. One of those times when I wished I'd left it alone... Just my experience, don't know if it will help! Derek.

Thanks Mark! Derek.

Sorry guys,the delay wasn't intentional, we had to go and meet our newborn grandson, our first. An absolutely magical moment! Anyhow, apparently it's at least 50 years old and is a Sward Hardness Rocker, a very delicate instrument. You counted the number of oscillations until it stopped and that told you the hardness of the material being tested, glass being 100%. (There must be more to it than that but Google will fill in the gaps in this info.) Apparently they're still made and used but are now digital.

Good morning, that was a good suggestion John, I've just had an email back off the Sheen Industrial Physics Department and it's a...