[Thad E Ginathom]

Ah! I had not understood at all. female need mails and males need femails . (Dyslexia Rules, KO!)

Yes, I see how it all fits together now. Very nicely done.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Adjusting the parking brake is simple. You turn the adjuster so that the parking brake shoes are full on, so you can’t turn the hub/disc anymore. Then, you carefully start slacking it, so the hub/disc can be turned without the shoes touching.

Simple, effective.

Should the parking brake be engaged when you do this adjustment? If yes, then to how many clicks should the hand brake lever be pulled up?


The EBC Greenstuff are Stage 1 upgrade from the OEM pads. The EBC redstuff are Stage 2 upgrade


It is recommended that the front and the rear brake pads/disc combo be of the same material so that the co-efficient of friction is uniform at front and back. Else, it might result in tail sliding during hard braking. If the front brake pads are at their end of life then please change them to EBC greenstuff as well.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Should the parking brake be engaged when you do this adjustment? If yes, then to how many clicks should the hand brake lever be pulled up?

No, you leave the parking brake disengaged when adjusting the brake shoe. You need to first adjust the brake shoe and next check how much slack the hand brake has, i.e. how many clicks. The workshop manual stipulates 3-5 clicks.

I was talking to my friend Raymond, the Jaguar X308 specialist. I have shared some of the technical workshops earlier on in this thread. He supplied the parts for this job. He told me they never touch the brake shoe adjustment at all when replacing the disc/drum assembly. I followed the official Jaguar instruction step by step as it was the first time i did this on my Jaguar. Better safe than sorry.

But it is not necessary at all. As this is only the parking brake, there is virtually no wear on the inside of the drum. So the whole disc/drum assembly comes off without slackening up the park brake shoe adjuster.

Raymond told me he checks the handbrake before he takes the disc/drum of to see if there is more than 5 clicks play. If not, he will just put the new disc/drum back on without ever touching the adjuster. Any undue play over 5 clicks is rare and if there is a little he takes it out by adjusting the park brake cable. Which is a lot quicker. Live and learn.

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

The EBC Greenstuff are Stage 1 upgrade from the OEM pads. The EBC redstuff are Stage 2 upgrade

Thanks

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

It is recommended that the front and the rear brake pads/disc combo be of the same material so that the co-efficient of friction is uniform at front and back. Else, it might result in tail sliding during hard braking. If the front brake pads are at their end of life then please change them to EBC greenstuff as well.

Yes, I am aware of this recommendation, but I think it is very theoretic. What it doesn’t take into consideration is that on nearly all cars, certainly on my Jaguar, the front brakes are much more powerful than the rear ones to start with for this very reason. A bit of difference in friction coefficient is not going to make a material difference. And then this car comes with ABS, ESP and every other imaginable abbreviation that keeps it straight under all sorts of conditions.

Obviously, changing right and left (irrespective of wear) does make sense.
Mind you, in practice you would be hard pressed to notice a difference if one of the rear brakes was working less than the other one.

Even less so, if you have a set up with drum brakes at the rear and discs at the front. Such as we had on Cees his Dacia I showed earlier. He drove around with the left rear brake completely blocked off and could not even notice the difference when braking hard. Now that might be different when the road gets slippery, so I would not recommend it under any circumstances, but it does show how big the difference between front and rear braking is.

Jeroen

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

No, you leave the parking brake disengaged when adjusting the brake shoe. You need to first adjust the brake shoe and next check how much slack the hand brake has, i.e. how many clicks. The workshop manual stipulates 3-5 clicks.

But it is not necessary at all. As this is only the parking brake, there is virtually no wear on the inside of the drum. So the whole disc/drum assembly comes off without slackening up the park brake shoe adjuster.

Raymond told me he checks the handbrake before he takes the disc/drum of to see if there is more than 5 clicks play. If not, he will just put the new disc/drum back on without ever touching the adjuster. Any undue play over 5 clicks is rare and if there is a little he takes it out by adjusting the park brake cable. Which is a lot quicker. Live and learn.

The issue i am facing in my 2010 Hyundai i20 is that even when the handbrake slack is adjusted, the car rolls backwards even on a slight incline. I need to pull the handbrake to the max extent for the car to stop rolling backwards. Even then i feel the brake is barely holding the weight of the car. Also, when i engage the handbrake when the car is moving backwards 1-2 kmph, i feel the rear right suspension travel upwards indicating the brake shoe engagement . The rear left suspension barely shows any movement. This makes me think that when the hand brake is applied, the shoe is not contacting the drum at the rear left wheel and all the load is being taken by the rear right drum. Hence want to get down to adjust the brake shoe at both the wheels. Hence the question

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

. Hence want to get down to adjust the brake shoe at both the wheels.

Yes, that makes sense. On most drum brake system the general procedure is to adjust each brake shoe first before adjusting the park brake handle.

If your hand brake does not hold the car with it being pulled up to the max, it is very likely there is something wrong with the brake shoe adjustment.

Whether you can adjust the shoe brake through a hole in the drum, or need to take the disc/drum assembly off is car specific. I would say, rule of thumb:

If it is a disc brake with drum hand brake most likely you will find a hole through which you poke a screw driver. (similar to the Jaguar)

If it is only a drum brake it is likely you will have to take the drum off to get at the adjuster. (E.g. like of Cees his van).

Many drum brakes have self adjusters. But they don’t always work that well, especially when covered with lots of brake dust they might stop working.

Good luck, let us know what you find

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

I found a nice and helpful Dutch modelbuilding forum that has a dedicated section on metal / machining and building model steam engines. So I signed up, put an introduction and asked for some assistance in where to get various parts for metal model building. I want to build this little wobble engine I have got the drawing for.

Within 24 hours I got a mail from a gentleman. He had downloaded the drawings from the wobble engine and got all the parts and pieces I need and mailed them over to me! Very generous, very kind, he only wanted the postage re-imbursed.

Today it all arrived:



So I will be studying the drawing and the bits and pieces I have got now in some more detail. I need to double check if I need anything special such as drill bits. I will need to get myself a knurling tool. Or make myself one. The thing is, with these tools coming from China, making one yourself tends to be way more expensive!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Yesterday I started on the Wobble engine. I spend a few hours, reading through all the different steps. I will need some more specific size drill bits and two reamers. I will have to order those. Hardware/DIY stores don’t stock those I think.

I also realised I don’t have a proper centre punch, nor a proper “scratching” pen. I have some that did ok-ish in the past, but some of the holes that need drilling for the wobble engine, need to pretty spot on.

So I got some straight away. Obviously, when I visit a Hardware/DIY store I always come home with more than was on my shopping list.

So a few more files, next to two punches, also an auto-punch, marker and a two more boxes to sort stuff.



I have the base plate all down to the exact dimension. Next drill the holes.



Whilst at the Hardware store I also got some more of these little “allan-type bolts”. Remember, I had to use a large bolt on the tap follower which did not look so nice.



Much improved version




Whilst I was very happily fiddling in my garage a new tool arrived. An ultrasonic cleaner! I ordered it earlier this week.



I did some research into these ultrasonic cleaners. Because there are many of them on the market. This one has a 2.5 L bath. You can find these from Euro 30 to Euro 300, for which at face value is the same machine. Anything bigger and you end up paying some very serious money!

But there is a lot of difference in how they are constructed and operated. This one is made out of 1mm Stainless Steel.

Mine has a heater and thermostat up to 80oC, timer, Different power settings on different frequencies and “Power Transducers”. Which so I am assured, are far superior to normal Transducer.


I had discussed with my wife earlier, she was keen to get one as they do an outstanding job on cleaning jewellery. (many jeweller shops have one)

So when last week HBM had one of these on “special” I jumped at it.

So that was the first thing I tried. Some golden chains, rings etc. Diamonds are fine, but you need to be careful with rubies, gem stones etc. For jewellery you just use water, a bit of vinegar and some washing up liquid. Very good results.

I also tried various parts from my garage. I have also bought a special cleaning fluid. Depending on the material, level of dirt etc you use more or less of it in a water dilution solution.

Somehow I forgot to take images of the “after” look and feel. That will come in due course.

But the water had got quite dirty and lots of residue left on the bottom afterwards. So something has been coming off!





Today (Sunday) I am going to test out my newly sort of restored test/engine analyser for the first time. Co-owner and friend Berndt will join me and he is likely to bring one of his classic cars too.

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Is that an automatic centre punch in the blue pouch?

If not, I most strongly suggest that you get one. It is one of the most useful tools I have ever owned, and mine has done duty centre-punching many things from gold to concrete! One of the best things about it is that it is a single-handed job.

Ultrasonic cleaner: I have wanted one since for ever! When I was hobby-making jewellery, they were very expensive, and as you have noticed, the pro ones still are, but at least they are now available for lower budgets, even if the cheaper ones are not built to last a lifetime.

All jewellery should be cleaned from time to time, especially if worn often or daily. Lesson learnt: I had to repair some links in a gate bracelet. As soon as I turned the torch on it I had to run away from the stench!

General note: be extra careful with pearls. Watch out for turquoise: the genuine stuff is very porous (touch it with the tip of your tongue to prove!). There's probably more I've forgotten.

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Different power settings on different frequencies and “Power Transducers”. Which so I am assured, are far superior to normal Transducer.

Finally. https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/diy-d...ml#post4333392 (At long last: My own man cave...My Garage!)

Piezoelectric for hobbyists, magnetorestrictive for serious stuff. Of course technology might have moved on since my last interaction with these.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Is that an automatic centre punch in the blue pouch?

Almost certainly.

If not, I most strongly suggest that you get one. It is one of the most useful tools I have ever owned, and mine has done duty centre-punching many things from gold to concrete! One of the best things about it is that it is a single-handed job.

It is such a simple tool that I thought Jeroen would certainly have it.

General note: be extra careful with pearls.

No matter what you do, consider pearls perishable.

Watch out for turquoise: the genuine stuff is very porous (touch it with the tip of your tongue to prove!).

I forget which, but it was customary to boil one of the semiprecious materials in olive oil. So that the olive oil would be absorbed, and keep the other stuff out. Maybe today we'll use silicone oil.

Ask your wife about 'seasoning' stone utensils.

Sutripta

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Is that an automatic centre punch in the blue pouch?
.

Yes, it is. I have never tried one. Gave it it a few test in the shop, punching a few centres in one the shelves.

Glad to hear you liked it a lot! I will let you know how I find it.

Had a go testing out my Engine analyser. First put the W123 in place with its exhaust sticking out of my garage.



Managed to get all the various electrical bits hooked up, including my newly made high Voltage probe. The one thing I did not hook up yet, is the shunt for testing the battery Amps.

You have to admit, even if it would not work at all, it still looks the part!


Just for good measure I also hooked up my recently acquired somewhat newer engine analyser too..



Cycled through all the various test



There was a bunch of function working properly now, but a few were still giving me problems. Then I realised the W123 has an electronic ignition instead of mechanical breaker points. Leon had managed that it would not work.

So I called my co-owner of the engine analyser and good friend Berndt to come over for some coffee and bring a proper old car!

So Berndt rocked up in his old Mini, he lives 10 minutes drive from us in the next village.



Nothing electronics on this one. It did have a problem though. It misfired a bit. So we quickly took the spark plugs out. One was very wet. We cleaned them all, re-inserted and the problem persisted. With the engine idling, I pulled the spark plug cable and we listen to the engine sound/rpm. Sure enough each time the RPMs dropped a bit and came back on, when I pushed the cable back on. For good measure we just swapped the suspected spark plug to another cilinder and re did the test. Same thing, something wrong with the spark plug. Cleaned it very thoroughly, inspected it, could not find anything wrong with. We tested it again holding it, in the cable against the valve cover. Sure enough it still sparked, but it did look a bit odd. Gap was fine. So we decreased the gap from 0.8 mm to 0.6mm and that actually improved things considerable. Berndt will swap it out for a new one at home.

So we hooked up the Mini:



Some more test. Still a few more things to sort. I will need to take this whole thing apart piece by piece. No hurry though.

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Is that an automatic centre punch in the blue pouch?

Originally Posted by Sutripta

It is such a simple tool that I thought Jeroen would certainly have it.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Yes, it is. I have never tried one. Gave it it a few test in the shop, punching a few centres in one the shelves.

Glad to hear you liked it a lot! I will let you know how I find it.

Most people don't seem to know about them. I don't recall seeing them in any of the jewellery textbooks. I discovered mine in a toolshop near to work. When I took it back to the office, a colleague told me that most car thieves knew them well!

Piezoelectric for hobbyists, magnetorestrictive for serious stuff. Of course technology might have moved on since my last interaction with these.

That's interesting: I didn't know there were different types, which helps explain the very different pricing.

I have no idea what gem one would soak in olive oil. Usually, the idea is to keep grease away from them. I don't think I did any jewellery since late '80s: I've forgotten a lot.

[Jeroen]

About a fortnight ago I shared some images from the salvaged WW2 Rolls Royce Merlin that happened to be in the shed of my neighbour Henk.



Henk did not have much information about this particular engine.

Today in our local paper I noticed a little article about this very engine. The image shows museum volunteers positioning the engine in the Sky op Hope WW2 museum (www.egvl.nl)



Although strictly speaking not part of my fiddling story, I saw quite a few members enjoying the little story. So here is what I learned from the story in our newspaper.

It is indeed, as I suspected, a Rolls Royce Merlin. It was one of the two engines of the RAF Mosquito HK529. The Mosquito was a successful night fighter, largely build out of plywood.

HK529 was intercepted on the eve of 17th of December 1944 on the way to Dortmund, by Hauptman Fritz Lau. It was brought down over Amsterdam. Lau was piloting a Messerschmidt Bf110.

Pilot Roy Schwartz and navigator Robert Walden Donaldson both lost their lives in the crash. They are both buried at the Nieuwe Ooster burial grounds near Amsterdam.

This was the so-called Dutch WW2 honger winter. (hunger winter end of '44 till early ‘45)

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_famine_of_1944–45

Close to some 20.000 Dutch people died due to starvation or related causes.

My mum and dad lived through the war and actually met through the war. My dad was a law student when the war broke out and the Germans invaded the Netherlands. For the last two years of the occupation he had to hide from the Germans. The Germans were rounding up all sorts of groups of people (Jews, Gay), but also students were targeted. Adolf had no time for intellectuals and academics so he had them all rounded up and put to work as slaves in various labour camps.

My dad was one of the lucky ones. He hid for almost two years in the attic of a family. They had a big barn as they were one of the big grain distributors in the region. At the time it belonged to my granddad (my mums dad). So my mum met my dad whilst he was in hiding from the Germans under her roof!

Although it sound easy and straight forward, hiding anybody from the Germans was a capital offense. Anybody caught doing it, was likely to be executed pretty swiftly! I don’t think my mum’s mum and dad (i.e. my grand parents on my mum’s side) thought they were doing anything particular brave. They were deeply religious and helping out your fellow man came natural to them, without much consideration for their own safety, or more importantly their family. They were Roman Catholic, and had 11 children, my mum being the youngest.

When I was a little boy my dad and I used to go for endless walks. He used to talk about the war now and then and his experience. My mum’s family put up several students and also the odd Allied pilot that managed to parachute to safety after being shot down. The Dutch resistance hid them and found ways to repatriate them back to the UK, or keep them hidden till the end of the war.

My dad whenever we were on holiday, would always stop and visit war cemeteries. To date I still do as well. It is a good way to reflect. We have quite a few immense WW2 cemeteries in the Ardennes and similar in France WW1 cemeteries. Tens of thousands of casualties in single battles, often relatively small geographical areas. I always find the American cemeteries particularly impressive.

My dad often talked about the various planes flying across the sky on their way to Germany. His dad, my granddad, was killed by a German bomb in 19040 on one of the first days of the German offensive and invasion. (It took only five days before the Dutch surrendered to the Germans)

So these WW2 memorabilities and museum do have a bit of a special meaning to me. I don’t think it is the same for our children. WW2 is something they know from history lessons and movies. Not from listening to someone who actually lived through it, lost family members, had to go into hiding etc.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

I have been doing some more work on my little wobble steam engine!

As I mentioned, a gentleman I never met in my life, other than on a modelbuildingforum I joined 10 days ago, send me all the materials I needed. I have been exchanging some emails with him. Yesterday I spoke to Henry on the phone. Turns out he is 75 and has been building models almost his whole life.

Very nice gent, very knowledgeable on turning, milling and such. He lives not to far from where my eldest sister lives. So I might go and pay him a visit.

I have ordered some stuff. Drillbits for tapping metric thread. I have most of the whole and half mm sizes. But some smaller sizes have odd sizes, so I checked what I had and ordered every size of drill I need to tap up to M12.

I have also ordered two reamer. 10 and 12mm It was one of the things I had been discussing with Henry. He suggested for brass to drill 0,2mm smaller and take it very slow on the reaming. So I also ordered those. All drill bits just standard HSS.

I have most taps, except nothing smaller than 3mm, so I ordered those as well.

Should all arrive early next week.

One thing I have been missing out on during this whole Corona-work from home, are my magazines. I read almost exclusively English magazines and I want the UK version to. Before Corona lock down, I travelled on business at least 2-4 times a month, which meant going through Amsterdam airport. Where I could stock up on my English car, photography, aviation, yachting and science magazines.


Here in the rural south of the Netherlands there is not much of a call for these magazines. I can’t get any. So this morning I sat off for a trip into Rotterdam with a long list of magazines for my wife and myself. Managed to get most.

Also, I visited a model building shop and got a few more tool bits. Through my model building forum I had also been given the name of a shop in Rotterdam selling all sort of metal parts. So I paid them a visit too. Amazing place and they have everything I need. They will cut any part of metal to your exact size, so you only pay for what you really need. They also had a couple of bins with off-cuts, that are sold even cheaper.

Before I start drilling and reaming in my Steam engine bits, I definitely want to try it out first!



IN the above image you can see the base plate and the frame for the steam engine. The base plate is all ready, and all holes are drilled. The frame is milled to the exact right dimension and the next thing is to start drilling the various holes.

This coming Friday we were suppose to set off on our annual holiday to our good friends Cees and Annelies who run a Bed & Breakfast in France. As always we would travel with 4 other couples, all in our Alfa Spiders. This year we had planned to stay four days and then drive to the Champagne area where I had book us also a nice B&B near Rheims. A few weeks ago everything had to be cancelled as we learned that the borders with France don’t open till 15th of June.

So we had to change our plans. We were supposed to all meet near the Belgium border on Friday morning as we always do. I have shown this annual trip before. As everybody had already taken time off, I suggested to at least get together on Friday, starting at our home and do a little touring in and around our stomping grounds. So everybody will come to us, we will have some coffee, cake, catch up and then start touring. I have put together a nice tour, everybody can put put in their TomTom. We stop at a few old villages along the way, we have a nice picknick location along the river Linge. If all goes according to plan on the way back we are going to stop at my friends car model museum after which we head back to our home for some drinks and nibbles!

So it meant getting the Spider ready obviously:



Quick wash, vacuum, tidying up etc



It was the first time I applied another layer of the Swissvax since its BIG polish job at the beginning of the year. Really pleased with the result.

As I had all the cleaning kit, hoses, buckets, sponges etc out, did the Jaguar quickly to, just a hose down and quick wash. I can do that in less than twenty minutes.



I did notice that the rear rims on the Jaguar were full of brake dust. As you will recall I have just installed new discs and pads. These pads have this special bedding-in layer. I hope this brake dust will get less once they are probably bedded in.



So all cars looking well! Nothing major needs doing. The Jaguar is booked for its annual MOT and I am taking the Spider back to Goos in a few weeks, to check the engine oil leak.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

This (Sunday) morning a bit of fiddling with my Lathe and steam engine to be.

I managed to finish the cylinder pivot in about 2,5 hours. Started as a 6mm round bar. Now it looks like this, exact measurements, M4 thread on one side, M3 on the other side.



Some of the thread mentioned in these drawings is BA (British Association). But I don’t have those taps/dies/drill bits or bolts or nuts. So I just convert to a sensible metric size..

Afterwards I took my bicycle out for a little tour. As I was cycling though one of the nearby villages I came across, yet again a RR Merlin engine. This one from a Lancaster.

In the night of 21/22 May 1944 Lancaster ND-559 of 159 squadron of the Royal Air Force made a 'Pathfinder mission' to Duisburg. During the returnflight the bomber was shot down by a German fighter. Six of the crew members perished. They are buried at the local cemetery in Molenaarsgraaf. Pilot W.J. Ward was the sole survivor. He managed to bail out and was taken POW.

After the crash most parts of the wreckage were salvaged. A few parts were excavated much later. A Merlin engine and a propellor of this aircraft now form a fitting memorial. An information panel tells the story of the last flight of ND-559

See also https://www.tracesofwar.com/sights/9...ter-ND-559.htm

The German pilot was Hauptman Martin Drewes. He was what I assume we would call a squadron commander. His unit was stationed at Leeuwarden Airport, in the North. He was a very successful pilot. On this night he managed to shoot down five Avro Lancasters in the space of 74 minutes with his Messerschmidt!

This particular Lancaster, was a so called path finder. Which meant it flew ahead of the main bomber fleet and lit up the targets. It was also equipped with radar. because the Allies wanted to prevent radar falling into Germans at all cost, these planes were equipped with explosive. Unfortunately, it looks like some of the Messerschmidt shells must have hit the self destruct system and the Lancaster blew up in the sky.

Every year on the 4 of May in the Netherlands is remembrance day. Every year there are all sort of memorial activities on many locations around the Netherlands. This is such a location. Six people lost their lives, for the freedom of others.











You will notice this engine is in far better condition as the other one! It is almost all complete! I could not take an image from the side. It sits in this glass display box and no matter what I tried I was getting terrible reflection on both sides.

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Nice work on the lathe.

Please help out with the Dutch! I think most of the Lancaster crew designations can be guessed, but I haven't any clue at all about boodwerktuigkundige