The great "can't fix that" racket

[mpbarrett]

What did you do over the Jubilee weekend? 
Wife was very ill with nasty vomiting and diarrhea bug caught from grandson so we didn't go to any events in the village  
So I spent a morning taking the spare wheel off our campervan (2011 Peugeot). 
This is held under the rear of the van with a mechanism to lower it down to the ground. This is done with a cable drive that extends and allows you to drag the wheel from under the van. Quite clever when it works...
Although I have used it before and it worked but now it was completely rusted solid. Cutting the cable didn't free it. Once the wheel is in place you cant get to the mechanism that holds it to the van with out cutting the flange that holds the spare wheel to drop the wheel and get to the mechanism.
2 hours under the van (enough room to get underneath without jacking it up) with various grinders, cutting plates, shafts, double springs I finally go it off. 
Fitted a new one (Ebay OEM part £75), 30 minutes! The new one was completely dry no lubricant, so now its greased and hopefully last a few more years. 
Interesting working on a van everything is so big and heavy compared to the  the Herald  
Actually not sure I want to change the wheel as the standard jack is a slightly bigger version of a Herald scissor jack to lift a 3T van... 

Mike

 

[JohnD]

What I do this Jubilee Weekend?

I went to the 90th Birthday of an ex-colleague.   Lovely party, organised by a devoted family, and a chance to see the completed restoration of his Mk2 Landy.      But there is more to this Landy than meets the eye, as it still looks more than a little worn, but every scar tells a story because he and his wife drove the car from Australia to the UK !!!  With some sea passages, from Tasmania, they went through Oz's Central Desert to Adelaide, New Guinea, Malaya, India, Afghanistan, Persia - sorry Iran and Iraq,  Turkey and so on.

It needed chassis and engine work, but the Landy body being aluminium, there was no significant corrosion and he has just refitted it.  And that scrape was winching out of sand in the desert in Persia, that dent was where they nearly went off a pass in Afghanistan, it's a log of their journey.   They kept a log, with a lightweight typewriter on a special shelf  built into the dash for the passenger, and I've read it.   An extraordinary adventure, that I fear would be impossible today!

John

 

Edited June 6, 2022 by JohnD

[sparky_spit]

Hi Mike - been there and done exactly that!  We have a 2008 Peugeot Boxer based motorhome, and had the same problem 2 years ago. After taking it apart with a grinder, cold chisels, and a big club hammer I found the mechanism was rusted solid. We needed to use the motorhome so the new mechanism came from a Peugeot main dealer and it cost £360 (No, that's not a typo), and it took me 15 minutes to fit.

So, lesson learnt and the mechanism is now unwound and greased twice a year.

[Nick Jones]

3 hours ago, JohnD said:

What I do this Jubilee Weekend?

I went to the 90th Birthday of an ex-colleague.   Lovely party, organised by a devoted family, and a chance to see the completed restoration of his Mk2 Landy.      But there is more to this Landy than meets the eye, as it still looks more than a little worn, but every scar tells a story because he and his wife drove the car from Australia to the UK !!!  With some sea passages, from Tasmania, they went through Oz's Central Desert to Adelaide, New Guinea, Malaya, India, Afghanistan, Persia - sorry Iran and Iraq,  Turkey and so on.

It needed chassis and engine work, but the Landy body being aluminium, there was no significant corrosion and he has just refitted it.  And that scrape was winching out of sand in the desert in Persia, that dent was where they nearly went off a pass in Afghanistan, it's a log of their journey.   They kept a log, with a lightweight typewriter on a special shelf  built into the dash for the passenger, and I've read it.   An extraordinary adventure, that I fear would be impossible today!

John

 

That’s a very nice story.

This long weekend I have mostly been putting up marquees, taking down marquees (in the dark, in the face of rapidly advancing thunderstorm) and visiting sick in hospital……

Very mixed bag…… 

[mpbarrett]

its been another very hot week in Cambridgeshire and the perfect time for the fridge freezers to start a slow decline and to die...

first noticed strange noises, more than the usual groaning. Went to get some frozen peas and there were extremely soft!. Grandchildren lollies now liquid. Top shelve of freezer  ~4C lower shelves still -10C, fridge about 14C and rising.

The fridge freezer is a Bosch with a single compressor and a fan to blow cold air  everywhere, I think the fan had packed up. Suggested to wife I should pull it apart find the fan and fix it... This didnt go down very well so new one ordered from John Lewis and paid for next day delivery and take away the old one Probably the right choice as it was 14 years old.....
New one is almost the same design (but the shelves are different widths so I cant use the old ones from the original fridge), and doesn't have a radiator at the back but seems to have a heat exchange built in to the wall of the fridge as one of external walls gets noticeable warm when its running.

mike

[Nick Jones]

Is it a “frost-free” one? Probably just needed defrosting…..

[mpbarrett]

1 hour ago, Nick Jones said:

Is it a “frost-free” one? Probably just needed defrosting…..

no...defrosting worked perfectly!

mike

[Nick Jones]

1 hour ago, mpbarrett said:

no...defrosting worked perfectly!

Yeah…. Was the same with MiLs fridge freezer. However, once it had more or less fully defrosted itself (and it’s contents ) all evidence of its problem was gone and it worked fine.  Really irritating. I expect it’ll do it again at some point….

[mpbarrett]

3 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

Yeah…. Was the same with MiLs fridge freezer. However, once it had more or less fully defrosted itself (and it’s contents ) all evidence of its problem was gone and it worked fine.  Really irritating. I expect it’ll do it again at some point….

I hate it when that happens, you know it will come back and bite again at the worse possible time  

Mike

[Nick Jones]

White-goods nemesis has struck again. Yep, MiL’s dishwasher became unwell. Initially back in the summer when it was reported to be continuously filling and emptying, but was always fine when I was there to try and diagnose. It finally died permanently making it possible to diagnose that the flow meter wasn’t working. Yes, modern Bosch dishwashers have a flow meter rather than a level switch…. Presumably so they can vary water input with different programs and load settings.

I removed the flow meter to make sure it wasn’t just stuck. It wasn’t. Forced to order a new one. Seems like they are a known failure point.

Fitted the new one yesterday and the machine was immediately well again. Happy days.

So I thought I’d investigate the old flow meter.

Sophisticated it is not. Little turbine wheel, presumably with a magnet in it. And a reed switch ffs…...   no wonder they crap-out. Predictably the reed switch is done.

I bought the complete flow meter - cost £23. Could have been worse I suppose. However, I could have bought 10 reed switches for £2.00 delivered….

Too soon old….. too late smart 

 

Edit: with the 3 wires I was expecting Hall effect, but I guess they’d last too long.

[JohnD]

My Zanussi washing machine gave notice of its age (twenty years?) the other day.    Towards the end of the cycle, it stopped, gave an error number (17?) and would not open the door, despite there being no water in it.     But recycling it through a spin got it to open up, and it has worked again normally, so fingers crossed.

Remarkably, Zanussi still provide a user's manual, online, and there are many sites that interpret the error codes, albeit not Error 17!

John

PS Twenty years?  Pshaw!    My mum had a Bendix when I was at school.  She still had it when they retired, and I think it was only scrapped when Dad had to move into care.   

Edited October 9, 2022 by JohnD

[Nick Jones]

Our previous machine was a Zanussi. It did ok. 12 years I think, though it did go wrong a few times. It used to do what you described quite often towards the end. Basically there’s a pressure switch which is used to measure water level and the pipes to it get full of gak over time. Eventually it starts to misbehave because the pressure switch can’t see the actual status due to blockage and various peculiarities occur. The non-opening door was one of them. A reluctance to start a new wash was another. A firm kick would often sort it.  I was banned from fixing it again so gave it away as “runner with attitude”.  Easier than taking to the tip!

[rogerguzzi]

Hello All

              I will Wisper this in case it hears me!

Our Candy(cheapest I could find)washing machine must be about 16/17 years old and not a fault up to now!

Plus about 2 years ago our Daughter was having a house extension done and had NO kitchen etc for several months and one of the grandchildren was of a age were she kept wetting the bed!

So our poor old machine was running Twice a day for most of that time not 2 or 3 times a week with us retired people!

Our old one that I repaired so many times (bearings,seals,belts and most of all Carbon motor brushes!)

I could tell when they were buggered all the lights would flicker(off grid power for you!)

I used to keep a spare set taped to the top of the machine and could change them in no time!

Roger

ps try telling that to the Kids today?

[Escadrille Ecosse]

24 minutes ago, rogerguzzi said:

ps try telling that to the Kids today?

But a reed switch. 

[rogerguzzi]

42 minutes ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

But a reed switch

Hello All

             I have a small boxfull of them and Micro switches from my ATM service engineer days(not found a use for them yet!

I tell a lie there are 2 on my home made solar tracker for end stops!

Roger

[Nick Jones]

1 hour ago, rogerguzzi said:

So our poor old machine was running Twice a day for most of that time not 2 or 3 times a week with us retired people!

Yeah…. Our old Zanussi was with us through two babies. It took a fair old beating. I don’t think anything mechanical broke. It liked to melt the heater contacts in the mechanical timer. Expensive and time consuming to fix. Second time around (because I’m a slow learner) I added a relay as Zanussi should have done in the first place.

 

58 minutes ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

But a reed switch. 

Quite.

[Escadrille Ecosse]

33 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

Yeah…. Our old Zanussi was with us through two babies. It took a fair old beating. I don’t think anything mechanical broke. It liked to melt the heater contacts in the mechanical timer. Expensive and time consuming to fix. Second time around (because I’m a slow learner) I added a relay as Zanussi should have done in the first place.

Ours (originally mine) was the same. Although one additional 'fault' was the punched holes in the drum turning inside out. Although that was probably on account of the 1lb of galvanised nails my wife inadvertantly put into the machine along with my work clothes.

That took qute a lot of elbow grease to fix.

[rogerguzzi]

Hello All 

              Our Son has made a lamp out of an old S/S drum in their entrance hall(its tall)

like this.

Washing Machine Drum Lights | Upcycle That

Roger

ps I wonder where he gets it from?

[Escadrille Ecosse]

11 minutes ago, rogerguzzi said:

Hello All 

              Our Son has made a lamp out of an old S/S drum in their entrance hall(its tall)

like this.

Washing Machine Drum Lights | Upcycle That

Roger

ps I wonder where he gets it from?

[Nick Jones]

45 minutes ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Although that was probably on account of the 1lb of galvanised nails my wife inadvertantly put into the machine along with my work clothes.

Hah!  That must have made some fairly threatening noises.

All your fault obviously 

[mossmonaco]

 

[Nick Jones]

Huh…. One or two safeties bypassed there….. and screwed to the pallet presumably, our goes walkies with much less provocation than that.

Impressive destruction though.

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Somehow seems cruel 

[Nick Jones]

1 hour ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Somehow seems cruel

Yes….

[mossmonaco]

next time on youtube we see the reassembly.....