Re: G5 fans

Andy Hewitt <wildrover.andy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[..]
Well, it does turn some mechanical energy into heat, so it's not a
complete misnomer.

Its correct name is a Spring Oscillation Damper (according to what I was
taught at college [1]). But I see your point.

It'd be more accurate to call it a `system oscillation damper' if you
ask me - the car will bounce up and down without it, yes?

Good point. Of course the footnote fairy attacked again..

[1] was supposed to be - one of my college lecturers was an engineer [2]
with the Chapman-Lotus racing team, and was a bloody good teacher - I
generally believed him when he spoke.

[2] a real engineer BTW, he hand made many parts for the race cars.

That sort of person is almost always right about what they say - but
their terminology is often arguable. I'd never say *wrong*, mind - I've
met that sort, you won't find me saying that they're *wrong* very often
(I know better), but I'll happily engage in a dispute with one.

This is one of those situations - I'd say he's right, but I think I'm
righter.

[..]
It is confusing, it's more common to use Bar now, in automotive terms
anyway.

Why, I wonder? psi is a lot more convenient than bar for tyre pressures
if you ask me; and if you want to be proper about it, use pascals.

Yes, I've seen that used too. Trouble is, nobody still wants to stick to
a standard, and we still have to deal with a variety of ways to measure
things.

<puzzled> But people do want to stick with standards - the ones that
they're used to. Bar, psi, Pa - all standard. It's just that bars are
inconvenient for tyre pressures, as are Pa. psi is the most convenient
unit for `human sized pressures' - similarly with most imperial units.

The question is: how come bars get used now?

I actually bought some 5/8" hose from Halfords last week - a 2M length
of it!

That makes a lot of sense, actually - 5/8" to fit the standard fitting,
and 2m (M is something else) because we work in metric these days.

What didn't make sense was hearing that IC designers used to think in
`thousands of an inch' on the surface (US: `mil' - which caused no end
of confusion when talking to thou-wielding Brits), but used metric
measurements when dealing with the depth into the bulk of the silicon.

That was in the 1980s. I'd guess that they've gone completely metric
these days with that sort of thing.

Aye, a good engine note is important too :-)

And you can have one of them perfectly legally with a 1987 motorcycle
like mine.

<grin>

I think you're being generous. My experience of modern cars would say
more like 3-5 years (of reliable use).

(that was my initial estimate, but you're right, I decided to be
generous)

By contrast, the newest bike I owned was about eight years old, and they
were all reliable enough.

They only got that way in the 1980s, really.

For sure, but then so did a lot of engineered products.

Not many that I can think of. The 1980s was when quality went down the
tubes if you ask me - okay, the 1970s were quite shabby around the
edges, but there was good solid stuff around.

[..]
If you really want to see crap electricals you don't need to look any
further than the Italian motors - we often used to push new cars off the
transporter and have to fix them before handing them to the victi....
customer.

Oh yes, but if you're buying Italian, you ought to know that it'll be
badly made and will need to go back to the shop for frequent repairs and
adjustements for the first several months at least.

Hmm, not many of the customers I spoke to were aware of that

Italian bike buyers, I'm told, mostly do know. Or at least the ones who
have come back for a second round of punishment...

- typical
of salesmen though, of course they're not going to say 'yes sir, it will
break down, a lot, and bits will fall off it, just keep the AA number
handy won't you...'.

There's no subtle way of hinting at that, is there?

I once re-wired a Moto Morini 3 1/2 Sport for a mate who was giving it a
thorough going-over. I can't recall the full details now, but I do
recall thinking (when I'd finished) `How come Morini stuck so much wire
on it, and why oh why put all the connectors under *that* side cover?'

My wiring job used a *LOT* less wire than standard, a lot fewer
connectors, and provided exactly the same electrics (I'd spoken to Benjy
Straw at WeeVee to learn about the lunatic regulator). Oh yeah, and the
wiring routing was more elegantly done - more so than just what you'd
get from `less wire'.

The common one with Fiat/Alfas was to find the pins in a multiblock had
been pushed out while assembling. They connected just enough to work for
a few weeks, and of course contact was remade when a meter probe was
used on them, so no fault was ever found while testing.

<howls with laughter> I shouldn't, but I never met that one so it never
bit me so I can sit back and laugh, can't I?

[snip]

Just check the smaller Ford engines, and again the Italian
motors - we had a queue of them in the yard waiting for new engines.

Oh aye - but if you thrash 'em when cold and don't change the oil,
there's no petrol powered car engine designed that'll last.

On the other hand, I met a small Vauxhall the other day that I was told
had done over 100,000 miles before the first oil change. Fully sythetic
oil (I think he said Mobil 1, but I could be wrong), and a gas
conversion. Apparently, the firm had been running another one the same
way - both of them, I am told, were emptied of *clean* oil come that
first oil change at over 100,000 miles.

LOL, but how often had it been topped up?

`Just occasionally', apparently. The vehicles were not thrashed: just
used for commercial stuff. I forget what exactly - met 'em at the tyre
shop I used to go to until it closed down. One of these days I'll try
to find out what happened to PR Tyres in Liverpool (P&R Tyres in its
latter days). But even its phone number seems to be extinct now.

Since synthetic oil has been used more in normal servicing, I have
noticed that it gets burned off much more easily than mineral oils.

Yeah, but when it's (say) a 0W-50 oil in a 10W-40 application, do you
wonder? Especially given that the people who use that oil look, so it
seems to me, like the sort of people who will give their engines a hard
time.

Speaking of which: I met a Lambourghini the other day. Orange, it was
(what model? Buggered if I know - it was wide and orange and modern and
really ugly but what the *** it's a Lambo). Trundling up the A41 in
bursts of rapid acceleration and I do mean rapid - he was wanting to
open it up a bit, I think. Seemed like he was taking it out for the
first time after the post-winter service, maybe.

Turns out that when he was in front, I could keep up with him no
worries; but when he was behind, I couldn't seem to out-accelerate him
at all. Lambo v.s SV650 and I wish I'd had my VFR - I /suspect/ I might
have left him behind a bit on that one, at least at the speeds one would
dare use on an in-town A road, even if it is a trunk road with dual
carriageway bits on it.

Most
cars will have used all the oil on the dipstick before the annual
service is due. It's quite likely that those cars had actually had the
oil replaced a number of times, albeit not in one go.

No, the oil wasn't changed: unless you drain the sump, you're leaving
the dirt in there and it's the dirt that's the big problem.

And I'll bet they
changed the filter.

They said not.

[snip]

I also drive my vehicles to maintain good wear rates. I usually have to
strip the brakes (something that isn't done in servicing now)

!!!!!

Eek!

Brake cleaning is the one maintenance job that cannot be left undone on
the average bike. Almost anything else, and you can just leave it - not
the brakes. Any time our bikes go out in the rain, they get silicone
lube on the brakes (pistons, not discs). Well, maybe not *every* time,
but we try. It helps a lot - but doesn't mean we can get away without
fairly frequent brake stripes (just calipers off for cleaning, don't
need to open the hydraulics up).

I agree, we used to remove brake pads, and clean all the moving brake
parts, when I was an apprentice (in the early eighties) as a matter of
course. I was stunned when I went to work at Ford in the nineties and
was told we had to call the customer before *checking* the rear brakes,
as it was an extra cost!

<gulp> No wonder I don't trust professional mechanics. If that's the
official Ford way of doing things, I really do need to stick to doing it
myself if I want to survive out there.

and clean
them up, as they start to get sticky because I'm very easy on them.
However, I don't stick to standard service routine, I check things and
change them when I think they need it.

That's usually sensible. Specified service intervals are generally
wrong for most things except tappets, I've found.

Indeed, some things can easily be left longer - modern spark plugs for
one (can manage upwards of 30k miles, or double that for Platinums),

Some NDs have a spec life of over 100,000 miles.

whereas others may even be shorter (air filters, and of course oil), and
definitely brakes.

Aye, that's what I mean. You either need to do the work a lot more
often than the book says, or it can be left for ages - except for
tappets and a few things like that. Oil changes need to be more
frequent that the book says and if the oil's being changed, so's the
filter - no questions about that in my book.

And it's 1500-2000 miles between changes for modern Jap bikes; 500 miles
between changes for old, exotic, fragile, or rarely used bikes; and
something in between for the stuff in between.

Those figures are not arbitrary: after about 1500-2000 miles, you can
hear the engine's different. And after about 500 miles, that's when the
oil starts to look properly dirty.

Rowland.


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