wheel nut torque

I also had a TV repair mate (had his own repair shop) who was like that. I had a Sony Trinitron 'Monitor style' TV that went wrong a few times over the 20 years or whatever we had it for and each time a description of the fault over the phone was all that was needed for him to drop the parts through my door with the note as to where there component was to be found. ;-)

I made the point of dropping some cash though his door in return. ;-)

When flat screens came out and started getting cheaper he closed the shop and went onto fixing vehicle ECU's where again, it's often a 5p component that kills a '£1000' box. ;-(

Cheers, T i m

Very true. But those surface-mount components are getting smaller all the time and we already have caps and resistors not much bigger than a grain of salt. I know some people can still work on these, but it requires a good eye and a very steady hand and I've got neither. Factor in custom chips and no publicly-available service manuals to be found and it gets worse still.

Vast majority of faults these days tend to be in the PS. Most usually a failed cap. And those are still pretty easy to replace, since a large cap can't be miniaturised by much.

Absolutely. Even my finest soldering iron tip looks like the end of a scaffold pole under the USB microscope I have to use for anything reasonably small these days. ;-(

It comes to us all mate. ;-(

With plenty of setup and the patience of a saint I can *usually* do what needs doing as long as it's simple enough. The thing is toy also often need a fair range of extra tools to do things easily. Like an IR PCB pre-heater and hot air tools and masks. Luckily I have access to such via a mate (and his help when required).

Exactly. I have a nice Sherwood surround sound receiver that can't use as a receiver because the FM radio squelch circuit seems to have failed. I think I found a diagram and have a good idea which bit it could be but risk destroying the entire thing with a slip of the iron. ;-(

One day maybe ... ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Oddly, I made the mistake of offering to repair a Kenwood receiver/amp which a pal had built in to the bedroom furniture. And couldn't find a new one which would fit.

Googling KR A-46 schematic (or service manual) give pages of hits. But no one appears to actually have it to download. Ebay offers one from germany for about 50 quid including postage. I'd expect a complete working amp for that. ;-)

The PS side is all discrete components and pretty basic. Indeed the actual power amps still work if you inject a signal to the volume control. But none of the switching, pre-amp or radio tuners or display worked.

A second PS on the main board provides +/- 14v and +/-5v, from a 28v rail.

A dropper resistor was rather obviously toast, as were a couple of transistors. Sadly, the markings on the dropper resistor long since gone. Hence wanting the schematic.

Tried running the 14v supply (after replacing the transistors) from a bench top supply and measuring the current. To calculate the dropper needed. Then adjust under test. ;-)

Have got it working, but it is drawing more current than the original 2w wirewound would stand.

But it's been working OK all of today, so without a schematic I'll have to declare it is the best I can do.

Nice one! ;-)

Cheers, T i m

This is the way things are going. Car control systems are becoming so complex and protected that the weekend DIY mechanic who enjoyed maintaining his cars has to make a choice between owning modern cars and subbing all the maintenance out to an authorised dealer (at sky high prices) or turning his back on modern cars altogether and focusing on the older, classic market. I know what I'm going to jolly well do!

I .

LOL! Bin there dun that was in that game in the 1970's and the s**te that people lived in inc baccy smoke was unbelievable.

Let alone poor old ladies who wet themselves cos they couldn't make the bog in time or their carer wasn't around, yep! see it all in the domestic TV trade;(..

In article , Dave Plowman (News) scribeth thus

Well in those days it was the better easier option for most!

That was why we built the kitcar over 30 years ago now, simply to have something *we* could stand a chance of maintaining, *especially* not having a steel bodyshell to rust away [1]. ;-)

The only aspect the worries me about these older cars is how dirty they may be to run but then there is a possibility that the pollution saved compared with making a new one may go someway to offsetting that?

We have never done many miles per year in ours and part of why we have just kept it running is because it should be pretty cheap to run, especially if it makes it to 40 years old and become tax (and MOT) exempt? ;-)

Luckily, our newest vehicle is Cira 2007 so still not too littered with complexity and so far I have been able to get copies / clones of the diagnostic tools that allow me to do some stuff myself (Forscan / OpCom etc).

Our motorcycles are all also fairly old and so basic with electronic ignition being the most complex feature. Oh, a recent addition to the fleet is a little Yamaha YBR125 and that's got fuel injection but I'm told they are pretty reliable.

Cheers, T i m

That's pretty much ultra modern by my standards! Still into Beeza A10s;

I can see the appeal, but it wasn't something I really had any exposure to. None of my mates had motorbikes at the time either (most forbidden by their parents etc). ;-(

My first moped was a Honda P50, brought off my then secondary school English teacher for £5 because it had a stripped plug thread and the repair cost wasn't worth it. I repaired it myself and used it for 6 months or so. The second was an NSU 'Quickly' (2 speed) and again, I was given it, took it home in bits a wheelbarrow and then used it for nearly a year. Then a Lambretta SX150 when working at BT (my daily commuter) before going though a mix of bikes, generally just used for fun, the nearest to anything 'Brit Iron' being my 'Madras' RB 350 (which I have to say served me well with just a bit of fettling).

Dad had a Bantam and an Excelsior but then went to a Lambretta LD150 before I came along, passed the repayments of the scooter over to my Uncle and they got a car.

The most fun one up (and the newest bike I've ever owned) was a Yamaha XT350 and one of the few bikes I've had that was actually 'my size' (I'm 6' 2"). The REB was probably the more 'gentle', happy to potter along at 50-60 all day long but just a bit small for the two of us when wanting to 'push on'. It was also the bike to get the most interest, often finding an elderly man or couple looking at it when I came back to it outside a shop because it reminded them of when they had one (and original no doubt). ;-)

But the ultimate in lazy mile-eating has been both the BMW 100RT and R80 (summer), and nearly every pillion has fallen asleep at some time or another. ;-)

Being a 'butterfly rider' these days I'm looking forward to the milder / drier weather and we can all go out for a spin again (daughter has a

Cheers, T i m

I need to dig out a bike again, simply for my local conditions. My area experiences total gridlock on a regular basis, and getting car parts can take ages. My wife drives to work (three miles away), if gridlock occurs that three miles can take between two and five and a half hours to travel. So if a motorbike was in immediately usable condition then I could at least get bits and run her to/from work if needed, leave her car at one end or the other/in between if needed. My B31's were stolen, so it would have to be my Suzuki SP370, there are several smaller bikes that need to go, but time/nostalgia precludes that at present.

MrCheerful wrote: [snip]

Three miles is an ideal distance to cycle. Better if the route is not shared with car traffic, of course. However weather is a problem, so your wife would need to keep a change of clothes at her place of work, and have access to a hot shower. Such a facility should be mandatory at all places of work !!!!

This is 2018, not 1947

The road conditions and traffic would totally preclude safe cycling. Not least the long hill for the final bit would be knackering for anyone. The very last thing someone would need either end of a 10 hour day!

Ebike then. No sweat. ;-)

Tim

Or learn up about basic electronics. That way you'd be one step ahead of virtually every garage. Who restrict themselves to expecting a code reader to do everything for them.

I was very surprised to hear a keen cyclist friend talking about having his bike serviced, and how much it cost.

Think you could multiply that several times with an Ebike.

Basic electronics isn't going to be any help inside a modern car's electronic management unit!