Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tautech]

Thats a pretty cat.

In twilight years now at a bit over 16.
Up and down the attic ladder everyday has kept her in reasonable trim although she's getting a little arthritic now.
Fresh rabbit or fish is absolute fav tucker. 

[Cubdriver]

Correct, retrofitting hot water tempering valves is not mandatory in NZ.
For some 30 years our wetback has boiled water if you let it however over the winter when we have the firebox running 24/7 for ~150 days we also have the mains element turned OFF for it not to keep boiling the water.
Never fitted a tempering valve but do manage the water heating to some degree....pun intended ! 

When you say "wetback" are you referring to something like a wood stove that has a water jacket to heat water for domestic use? 

I'm guessing that tautech is talking about what we call a 'back boiler' here in the UK, where there's a boiler fitted into the back (and sometimes sides) of an open fireplace.

Catching up on old posts.....

Yep but not an open fire so much as log burner fire like such:



The firebox in this thing is some 18" deep so can take a long log for it's tiny size and as it's rated as 6.5KW heating and some good portion of that goes into water heating where it can indeed boil our 25 gal water cylinder after some hours running at full tit. Cat camps in front of it for most of our winter. 

My ex's used to like to curl up next to the propane heater I would occasionally use during my renovation when there was no heat.




-Pat

[Specmaster]

My 2 cats (sisters) are 10 years old now and their favourite food is fish or hot chicken when have chicken, they sit about in the kitchen looking their share, bless em. Had 2 brothers before them and they both passed on a few months apart from each other after 18 years, still miss them after 12 years.

Pictures below, Willow, is very small and lost her tail due a neighbours dog attacking her 9 years ago, it was touch and go with her for a while according to the vet, who did a great job of docking it and thus saved her life. Her sister Megan is about 4 times her size and has the softest fur I have ever felt, and she is a real games freak. She also loves to watch TV and will sit in front of the computer monitor and watch what I'm doing.

[cyclin_al]

Mmm Crunchy  Problem with PTO pumps was the noise of the Tractor and you couldn't hear anything. Bit of Moly Grease on the Impeller and nut when you put it together again too for the next human gorilla

Agreed however just turning the input shaft by hand screamed there was something that needed looking at and indeed crunchy it was. 
I like to spin things up at an idle where without the tractor motor on full song you can often hear such misdemeanors and investigate.

Nickel anti-seize is our current 'get apart much later' remedy. 
Parts coming: Gaskets, Bearings (4) and seal (2) kit, Impeller nut, Pump seal kit (expensive  ) and of course a new Filler/dipstick/vent cap.

Some fine and clever engineering in this pump and when together again with all the new bits it should be pretty robust although we don't intend to use it for slurry as it's designed for but only for pasture irrigation.

Thanks again for help and guidance to the Bean !

Another trick that I learned from experience is to watch that vent cap when you first bring it up to speed.  Okay, if you were watching the vent cap, you may have noticed it was missing.  However, when the water and oil emulsify, it likely generates a froth.  If it is puking froth out the vent cap, then you know you need an oil change to get rid of the water.

In my case, it was green froth, a mix of grass dust, oil and water.  The nasty bit was putting the Bush-Hog (brush & grass mower) on its side in order for the sludge to drain out the drain port.  The loader was just barely able to get high enough to tip it up on end, but you don't want to be anywhere near there if the hydraulics ever let go.

[cyclin_al]

Your comment on 4WD reminds me of an old joke I heard back in the 90s when about the only cars with 4WD/AWD were Audi Quattros - "Why don't you see any Quattros in the ditch during snow storms?"  "Because they're going so fast they fly over the ditch and wind up in the woods!"  I used to chuckle to myself when I was in the Miata and a jacked up pickup or SUV would fly past in the snow, thinking "I have just as many brakes as you do, and a whole lot less mass to stop!"

This is the legendary Audi Quattro advertising spot from 1986

Edit:
Better quality clip:

I'm not 100% convinced by that video, I think that the car must have had special spiked tyres and maybe some other aids because of the way it climbed the ski slope but also the way it stayed stationary at the top.

I can't find the video I was looking for on this topic.
However, I did find this video, but the speaker is only a little bit overly melodramatic...

The Quattros were absolutely an extreme vehicle.  The whole Group B category was rather deadly 

My Dad has always said the same thing about 4WD, "It just gets you stuck deeper in."  It comes down to responsible driving.  I wish I had ignored his advice earlier, since 4WD has turned out to be very valuable for getting through when you really need to.  Then again, I did get stuck only once with 4WD and that was in my own yard; the ground was so soft that the heavy truck sunk in and had nothing to do with driving skill, except maybe judgment on choosing where to park. 

[cyclin_al]

I can't go to Home Despot and buy a trash can; they still haven't got working PayPal, and their dumbass webstore devs never considered that someone from the US might want to buy shit in Toronto, so the required billing address dialog is only Canadian provinces, etc. And our local RBC card didn't work with them, as they evidently don't take debit either.

Fuck 'em. C'nad'jin Tahr took muh 'murrican money, no problem et all.     Hoserzz.

mnem
*trashy*

At least your expectation from crappy tire was trashy.  Don't expect anything greater.  For returns, I was required once to do the return only in the province/state of residence, not at the store location where the item was purchased.  Of course, the tax rates were slightly different and their system could not refund me all the taxes paid.

[cyclin_al]

@Saskia, Sorry to hear about your Audi bursting into flames.

As to a factory defect or not would really depend on I would suggest, on just where was that fuel line on a new car of the same model as yours when it left the factory. In other words, did they locate it really close to a major heat source that would cause it to melt like that, or did it happen by the actions of others, ie. could it have been dislodged by yourself or a mechanic while carrying some other maintenance function etc?

Audi or indeed VAG group cars do not have as far as I know a history of such fires, whereas many French cars are reputed to have such a history.

I suspect actual statistics would reflect more similarities than differences regarding manufacturing defects/faults.

The most reliable car I ever owned was a Peugeot 205, the most unreliable a BMW E46. Such anecdotal evidence does nothing except colour one's own personal opinions, in my experience.

Unfortunately, that is the most common cause for total loss of the car in the rally community (not from crashing the car).  It does not seem to matter what type of car.  For some reason, there is always a fuel line under high pressure located above the high performance (very high temperature) turbo.  Any sort of mishap results on fuel contacting the turbo resulting in fire.  It happens pretty quickly.  In all cases that I am aware of, the rally teams make it out of the car in time to discharge the fire extinguishers and then back away, but never make it quickly enough to save the car.

[mnementh]

I can't go to Home Despot and buy a trash can; they still haven't got working PayPal, and their dumbass webstore devs never considered that someone from the US might want to buy shit in Toronto, so the required billing address dialog is only Canadian provinces, etc. And our local RBC card didn't work with them, as they evidently don't take debit either.

Fuck 'em. C'nad'jin Tahr took muh 'murrican money, no problem et all.     Hoserzz.

mnem
*trashy*

At least your expectation from crappy tire was trashy.  Don't expect anything greater.  For returns, I was required once to do the return only in the province/state of residence, not at the store location where the item was purchased.  Of course, the tax rates were slightly different and their system could not refund me all the taxes paid.

I meant that I felt trashy... cuz, you know, new trash cans.

Which, BTW, they had industrial quality 32 Gal versions, with actual rubber wheels, for less than RubberMaid at Home Despot. And You can't even get them from Home Despot.

Only problem I have with C'nad'jin Tahr is they seem to have a lock on rubber doughnuts up here, and their prices are obscene. I paid more for two no-name snow tires than I did the last set of Michelins I put on the PT Cruiser at Discount Tire in Tejas, even considering the exchange. 

Other than that, they seem pretty comparable to Western Auto, etc back home.

OTOH, I did outwit Home Despot and managed to order some plastic bins for sorting & storing sh... tuff in the house. 

What really annoyed me tho is the fucking Keystone Oops attitude towards curbside pickup at both locations. After waiting for the "Your order is ready" eMail, and checking in as directed in the email, still no response for over 20 minutes. Then another 20 minutes calling the number on the sign with no answer... Both places I had to grab a random associate and ask them to look into my order that I'd been waiting on.

An hour & a half waiting and I still had to do the door-person's job for them.
 

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

[med6753]

Gee, seems like the Great White North ain't the paradise you thought it would be. 

Hoser. 

[beanflying]

Piss off Cats this ones mine 

[mnementh]

Gee, seems like the Great White North ain't the paradise you thought it would be. 

Hoser. 

Well... am I really getting hosed, or were tire prices artificially low because we were living in oil country...?

And sorry... if expensive tires and inconvenient shopping is the price of not living in The Petri Dish Nation, I'd say I got a bargain.

Thanks for helping me put today's adventures in waiting into proper perspective.

mnem
"If that's the worst that happens to you today... it's been a damn fine day." ~grand-dad

[Saskia]

Re Audi: it happened on a Tuesday morning, the cop arriving at the location said: oh, that's the 5th this week, electrical problem, many amps taking the steel cased fuel line as a detour, it gets warm, melts, and then your car blows up. Nothing remaining to prove it, so ...

Nah, no more Audi for me.
F dscherman cars. I'd rather drive an F150.
(Even though the Octavia is getting the best gas mileage out of all cars I had)

[Ice-Tea]

You don't want an Audi. It's two cunts ahead of a BMW.

Anyway if you want flame throwing cars, head to Vauxhall (Opel). Search for "zafira fire" on google images.

Will stick with my socialist French tuk tuk.

Will do the same.

They couldn't make a panel fit if their life depended on it but they have served me well.

[mansaxel]

All VAG marketing claims are true even emissions 
I drove an S4 (B5 Avant) for many years, but would not buy one now because of the image (Justifiable in many cases) the drivers have in the UK now.
That's a Chukar II jet propelled target drone on the roof (I drove back from north Wales like that  ) The Range Rover with antennas and SCAM mast in the background was mine too.

Oh hell yeah, even the emissions  I'm not sure I'm getting your point about the image UK drivers have now? Are you talking about a Brexit issue or just Dieselgate (which was not restricted to VAG cars but MB and others)

The "Twat in a BMW" has moved on to be a "Twat in an AUDI".

I'd argue they're both alive, but with slightly different rôles, wiz:

• BMW drivers are, in their eyes, infallible, and will succeed at anything, therefore they will attempt daring moves and not consider them as such.
• Audi drivers have a strong sense of entitlement, and expect the rest of the world to succumb to their desires, because that would be the obvious thing to do when facing such excellence.

[tautech]

Mmm Crunchy  Problem with PTO pumps was the noise of the Tractor and you couldn't hear anything. Bit of Moly Grease on the Impeller and nut when you put it together again too for the next human gorilla

Agreed however just turning the input shaft by hand screamed there was something that needed looking at and indeed crunchy it was. 
I like to spin things up at an idle where without the tractor motor on full song you can often hear such misdemeanors and investigate.

Nickel anti-seize is our current 'get apart much later' remedy. 
Parts coming: Gaskets, Bearings (4) and seal (2) kit, Impeller nut, Pump seal kit (expensive  ) and of course a new Filler/dipstick/vent cap.

Some fine and clever engineering in this pump and when together again with all the new bits it should be pretty robust although we don't intend to use it for slurry as it's designed for but only for pasture irrigation.

Thanks again for help and guidance to the Bean !

So bits were ordered yesterday from a crowd ~200km away and we have them in under 24hrs for 11 NZ pesos freight. 

Gearcase is all together now excepting for the sump plate as you can see here:



Quiz time.
As you can see there's a Hex key in the output shaft end cap that pushes against the bearing cap to adjust/set the taper roller bearing preload. How much to give it ? ? ?

Historically we wound a string around the shaft and pulled it with a set of spring scales to measure the pounds/kilos pull it takes to rotate it however as this pump shaft runs at 3200 rpm max I'm a bit nervous of setting the bearing preload too tight.
Also as assembly dictates the shaft seal must be installed before adjusting bearing preload its additional drag on the shaft also needs taking into account.
~28mm shaft.

I'm thinking a full 5 pounds (2kg) but certainly not 10 (4kg) as when the bearings are run/bedded in there would still be too much preload which would shorten the life of the bearings.
Any better suggestions anyone ?

[med6753]

I may be completely talking out my arse but here's my thought.....

What if you considered it similar to the input pinion shaft like an automotive differential and used that as guide for the pre-load? Seems to me it might make sense because we're talking in ranges of the same high RPM.

But again.....I'm way out of my league here. 

[Cerebus]

You don't want an Audi. It's two cunts ahead of a BMW.

Anyway if you want flame throwing cars, head to Vauxhall (Opel). Search for "zafira fire" on google images.

Will stick with my socialist French tuk tuk.

Will do the same.

They couldn't make a panel fit if their life depended on it but they have served me well.

Yeah, but the advantage with a French car is that if the sheet metalwork doesn't fit you can remodel it with a butter knife. 

[Ice-Tea]

You don't want an Audi. It's two cunts ahead of a BMW.

Anyway if you want flame throwing cars, head to Vauxhall (Opel). Search for "zafira fire" on google images.

Will stick with my socialist French tuk tuk.

Will do the same.

They couldn't make a panel fit if their life depended on it but they have served me well.

Yeah, but the advantage with a French car is that if the sheet metalwork doesn't fit you can remodel it with a butter knife. 

Lol. Luckily, the days they would rust if you looked at them angrily are over

[jonovid]

thermal testing of household pets, 

[tonyalbus]

@tonyalbus have you seen one of these before? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Velleman-DVM13MFC2-High-Resolution-Counter/373425136313
[/color][/size][/b]

Yes i have one
from Victor or SouShui.. its all the same
construction inside is not that good, quality control also not..
i saw in a video the metal protection around the input was not well closed or sometimes even shorting the input.
i checked mine... it was the same.. i can show you pictures if you like.
but when that is solves they are resenable good, and proper sensitive.
but you get what you pay for... 65,- or 85,- dont remember ... it is in no comparison to my TTi TF930 of course.

[tautech]

I may be completely talking out my arse but here's my thought.....

What if you considered it similar to the input pinion shaft like an automotive differential and used that as guide for the pre-load? Seems to me it might make sense because we're talking in ranges of the same high RPM.

But again.....I'm way out of my league here. 

Your arse and mine are on exactly the same page. 

The Dwagon has a fair bit of mech experience so I'll wait for some input from him but as I'm beat after painting in the heat earlier and some hours in the workshop it's time for some  now after a stiff nightcap. 

See ya's all tomorrow when yea I can finally collect a shipment after takin 2 forking weeks to get through our totally retarded Auckland ports. 

[Robert763]

Anyway if you want flame throwing cars, head to Vauxhall (Opel). Search for "zafira fire" on google images.

I'd always thought that "Zafira Fire" was the model name. Rather like when I was a child and watched the sports results on a Saturday afternoon with my father, I thought the name of a certain Scots football team was "Partick Thistle Nil"

Nope, they were notorious for catching fire on the early models. I seem to remember something about the plastic heater rads being too close to the exhaust manifold or something, but I'm not sure.

No, it was cheapskate electrical design. Only the non-climate control models caught fire. Manual fan speed conrol was a switched resistor network with the (bare wire coil) resistors in the plasic air duct for cooling. Penny pinchers at Vauxhall didn't put a thermal fuse in the resistor pack. Any loss of airflow or increased fan motor current causes the reistors to overheat and set the plastic duct on fire. Leaves in the fan can cause both reduced airflow and increased current.
The fix, when they finally admitted there was a problem, was to fit a resistor pack with a thermal fuse. The climate control cars had electronic fan speed control so did not have the problem.

[Robert763]

Too many cats. I have something that keeps them off my TEA

[Robert763]

@Saskia, Sorry to hear about your Audi bursting into flames.

As to a factory defect or not would really depend on I would suggest, on just where was that fuel line on a new car of the same model as yours when it left the factory. In other words, did they locate it really close to a major heat source that would cause it to melt like that, or did it happen by the actions of others, ie. could it have been dislodged by yourself or a mechanic while carrying some other maintenance function etc?

Audi or indeed VAG group cars do not have as far as I know a history of such fires, whereas many French cars are reputed to have such a history.

I suspect actual statistics would reflect more similarities than differences regarding manufacturing defects/faults.

The most reliable car I ever owned was a Peugeot 205, the most unreliable a BMW E46. Such anecdotal evidence does nothing except colour one's own personal opinions, in my experience.

Unfortunately, that is the most common cause for total loss of the car in the rally community (not from crashing the car).  It does not seem to matter what type of car.  For some reason, there is always a fuel line under high pressure located above the high performance (very high temperature) turbo.  Any sort of mishap results on fuel contacting the turbo resulting in fire.  It happens pretty quickly.  In all cases that I am aware of, the rally teams make it out of the car in time to discharge the fire extinguishers and then back away, but never make it quickly enough to save the car.

I have been told that on the Paris - Dakar rally any badly crashed car "always burns" becuase the expense of recovering the bits is more than they are worth but the only thing customs will accept as an alternative to exporting the the car or paying the import tax and duty on the car is complete destruction by fire.

[AVGresponding]

Finally managed to get to the PO during opening hours to pick up my Ukrainian silver mica capacitors (they've been sitting in the sorting office since December 29th!).

This was during an abortive attempt to get to work today. Who would have thought that we might have snow? The council certainly didn't, so no gritters, and absolute fucking gridlock about 1/3 of the way into my journey.
Only part of the problem is useless councillors, and only part of the problem is useless drivers who have no clue how to drive on it. The main problem is selfish bastards blocking junctions.
Took me 4 hours to go 14 miles, and also discovered the Insignia is nowhere near as competent as the Vectra (no climate control or unexpected combustion events     ) when it comes to these conditions.

Anyway, preliminary testing using my handheld DMMs hints these 0.3% yummies are likely closer to 0.1%, save for one outlier which may be just outside tolerance limits.

Currently waiting for the bench LCR meter to warm up, and will post some pics later in the day.