Recent content by Tall Ratbag

Going back a long time, we used to run some AEC trucks with DPA pumps. When the pump was about to seize up, the quill shaft would snap. The quill shaft was the deliberate weak point in the drive to the pump. A new quill shaft would get the engine running, and the truck off the side of the...

I would begin by making sure that both bulbs are correctly seated - if the bulb is rotated from where it should sit, the blob of solder on the base of the bulb could short across. So, take the lenses off, put the tail lights on, and gently waggle the bulbs, and watch to see if the brake lamps...

Sorry, yes, you are quite right.

The spacer doesn't change the final position of the pinion as it is a collapsible spacer. The pinion nut is tightened until there is the correct preload across the bearings, and the location of the bearings themselves determines the position of the pinion. All the collapsible spacer does is...

As the heater matrices are in series with each other, and the flat heater is getting hot, this suggests that the water flow is OK, and the problem lies on the air side.

The puff of dark smoke suggests the opposite of a lack of fuel. Next time it cuts out / won't start, get the plugs out quickly, and see if they are wet with fuel, .

>>I am going to move the vacuum pickup to the intake plenum directly below the carb mounting and see what happens. Yes, you need to use the large vacuum take off for the brake servo. If you measure near the throttle valve, you are not measuring the full vacuum, and will get misleading results.

Do you still have the problem? i.e., have you checked it since cleaning up the rocker pads?

It might be worth looking into fitting hardened valve stem caps. It all depends how bad the wear ridge is.

I would look carefully at the pads where the rocker contacts the top of the valve stem. If there's a wear lip on this oad, that could stop the rocker returning freely - especially if the rocker geometry has been changed a bit owing to the head skim.

I don't know about the screw, and the parts manual is no help, but, I would try BA sizes first. For the low reading, a high resistance connection anywhere in the circuit could cause this. A poor connection between the tank sender and earth, a poor connection at the large multi-plug by the...

Is continuity OK, or does that indicate that my voltage stabiliser might be blown? It's fine. The voltage stabiliser is a bi-metal strip with some wire wound round it. When the strip is cold, the switch is closed, and current can flow. This current heats up the bi-metal strip, and the strip...

It's more of a problem with 109 front brakes. The idea is that if you have an air bubble in the slave cylinder which isn't flushed out during bleeding,, then, the best way to deal with it is to push the piston(s) back as far as possible to force the bubble out of the slave cylinder. For 109...

>>(11.9v vs 13.4-14.2 on LH flasher) This sounds like you didn't actually follow what I was saying. Look for voltage drops from a fully assembled circuit. I'll give you another example Imagine that you are checking the starter circuit, and you want to check the voltage drop between the...

The problem is that voltmeters do not load the circuit like a bulb does. So, seeing your multimeter "flash" isn't the same, and isn't necessarily telling you anything. The better approach is to look for voltage drops while the circuit is working. For example, put the positive probe of...