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61

Omega General Help / Re: Hand Brake Shoe Pin Corroded through the Back Plate

« on: 30 July 2024, 21:49:31 »

If you remove the stub axle first you get better access to the heads of the bolts, rather than trying to undo them through the holes in the stub axle. Removing the stub axle will wreck the bearing though.

IIRC two of the bolts are in blind holes, so they don't rust from the 'wrong end' and are relatively easy to get out. The other two bolts are in open ended holes, so these do rust from the 'wrong end' - which makes getting them out very difficult. I've always had to use an angle grinder on them to cut a slot, and then hammer and chisel them round. Obviously this means you'll need new bolts to re-fit.

As Nick says, you'll need a very good snug XYZ bit to shift them. The heads are made of cheese, and once stripped you're doomed to the angle grinder, chisel and lump hammer approach.

Good luck - it's one of those jobs I pray never to have to do again.

62

General Discussion Area / Re: Election Night...

« on: 07 July 2024, 23:18:20 »

Are Sinn Fein allowed to take their seats? I thought they were prevented from doing so by anti terrorism legislation 

Yes, they're allowed to take their seats providing the swear allegiance to the King. Which they won't, so they can't.

63

General Discussion Area / Re: Election Night...

« on: 07 July 2024, 23:03:03 »

Labour have a majority of 86 or so.....

Were have you been these last few days?    Labour have a majority of 174.     

Misspoke - what I meant was the Conservatives need a swing of 86 seats from Labour. Yes they have a 174 vote parliamentary majority.

1) In the 2019 election, UKIP came second in 120 seats.

UKIP barely existed in 2019. 

According to this (yes it's the Grauniad, so coud be fantasy)....

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2024/jul/05/eleven-charts-that-show-how-labour-won-by-a-landslide
[quote = "The Guardian"]
 The Brexit party came in second place in only three constituencies in 2019, although it did not contest Conservative-held seats. While Farage’s Ukip won only one seat in 2015, it came second in 120 constituencies.
[/quote]

So UKIP came second in 120 seats but didn't even fight in any Conservative ones? And this time Reform came second in 100 seats whilst it did contest Conservative seats. Doesn't sound like any kind of advance to me. I fully expect Respect to go the same way as UKIP, SDP etc and just end up a footnote in UK political history.

And I doubt there will be very many by-elections either. Most of the new crop of MP's are wet behind the ears PPE graduates straight out of university, so will live for years, and I would expect their parties to have checked their Twitbook and Faceache histories for anything mildly contentious.

Yes you might be right about that, but the thing with wet behind the ears PPE grads straight out of Uni though is the scope for them to naively do and say stupid things. 

Especially if Rachel Reeves is true to her word about being fiscally responsible. There will be alot of frustrated Labour MPs if she doesn't open the spending taps.

It takes time for political dessent to grow, and for political corruption to fester. I just can't see anything significant happening in the first term, when everyone will tow the line to avoid scaring the horses. Starmer/Reeves will have to be tough on the unions though -  probably by promising them jam tomorrow.

64

General Discussion Area / Re: Election Night...

« on: 07 July 2024, 20:41:54 »

.You'll probably say yeah, but Reform got 4.1 million votes vs the Conservative 6.8 million. Irrelevant. The UK system is FPTP so what really matters is who comes first and second in every seat. If a voter decides they're fed up with the Conservatives and want to oust their sitting Conservative MP, they'll hold their nose and vote for whoever came second last time. Hence why the Lib Dems have done so well with 72 seats on 'only' 3.5 million votes.

With 412 Labour MPs, we can expect a significant amount of by elections over the next 5 years where the incumbent Labour MP has gone for whatever reason, and in places where Reform came second. There are over a 100 constituencies where Reform came in a comfortable second from Labour.

This is the attitude I'm warning against. Labour have a majority of 86 or so, although in practice it's more since Sinn Fein never take their seats. The belief that if the 100 or so constituencies which had Reform second had all voted for the Conservative candidate instead is simply flawed, for several reasons.

1) In the 2019 election, UKIP came second in 120 seats. So coming second in 100 seats (and winning 5) isn't really any advance.
2) The belief that all reform voters are ex Conservatives is questionable and probabaly wrong.
3) To 'win' back all the reform voters, the conservatives would have to move so far to the right that they would lose even more voters to the centre (LibDem or Green) or even Labour.
4) The 100 or so seats where Con+Ref would have won were not all won by Labour - so winning a seat back from (say) the LibDems does nothing to reduce the Lab majority.

The Conservatives need to win back votes from the LibDems and Labour, not UKIP/Reform. If they do not realise that, then they're going to lose the next election too.

And I doubt there will be very many by-elections either. Most of the new crop of MP's are wet behind the ears PPE graduates straight out of university, so will live for years, and I would expect their parties to have checked their Twitbook and Faceache histories for anything mildly contentious.

65

General Discussion Area / Re: Election Night...

« on: 07 July 2024, 20:21:15 »

....
- unless you want to blockade/declare war on France.  ....

sounds like a plan  ..... we've done it before! 

Perhaps, when we had a navy. Nowadays I think we're down to something like 20 'proper' ships (frigates, destroyers, carriers), so we'd probably lose.

66

General Discussion Area / Re: Election Night...

« on: 07 July 2024, 17:13:58 »

Sir Starmer has already scrapped the Rwanda plan and when the weather improves and surge in dinghy crossings is expected. This surge has already been dubbed The Starmada! 

The concentration on immigration is the major problem for the Conservatives. We now have 100% control on legal immigration - 685K net last year. We have 0% control on illegal immigration - which was somewhere around 50K-55K.

There is nothing anyone can do about illegal immigration - never is, never was - unless you want to blockade/declare war on France. So all the while the ERG zealots drive the Conservative party banging on about dingys and coming up with more and more balmy ideas, it just turns more and more people off them. They need to accept there is nothing that can be done about illegal immigration, and move on to explaining policies to the public that can actually work.

Starmers best option IMV is to try and control legal immigration. If he can reduce that by (say) 10% each year then it'll be about 50% (350K p/a) lower by the time of the next election. That'll be much easier to claim as a 'win' rather than concentrating on the 55K p/a illegals. The problem being of course that things like the NHS and Social care rely on immigrants.

67

General Discussion Area / Re: Election Night...

« on: 07 July 2024, 13:27:32 »

IMV - if the Conservatives lurch even further to the right in an attempt to win back Reform voters, then they'll lose even bigger next time. For every one right wing voter they win back they'll lose two left wing voters to either Labour or one of the centerist parties - Green, LibDem etc.

Elections are won by winning the votes of the centre ground - Major, Blair, Cameron and Starmer all knew/know this. The Labour party under Corbyn went too far (far too far!) to the left and lost big. The Conservatives have made the same mistake (opposite polarity obvs) under Johnson and Truss. They need to lose their ERG loonatics in the same way as Labour has largely side-lined the Momentum lot.

You'll probably say yeah, but Reform got 4.1 million votes vs the Conservative 6.8 million. Irrelevant. The UK system is FPTP so what really matters is who comes first and second in every seat. If a voter decides they're fed up with the Conservatives and want to oust their sitting Conservative MP, they'll hold their nose and vote for whoever came second last time. Hence why the Lib Dems have done so well with 72 seats on 'only' 3.5 million votes.

I fear the Conservatives will choose either Braverman or Badenoch as their next leader. If they do that they're doomed almost regardless of what the Starmer govt do.

68

Omega General Help / Re: Monroe Levelling System

« on: 30 June 2024, 22:01:52 »

The rear Anti-roll bar is the same on all Carltons, Omegas and Senators.

What happens in a corner is air is forced out of the 'loaded' shock and into the 'unloaded' shock, but at a relatively slow rate (because the pipework is so small) so there is no sudden change. The effect is to extend the unloaded shock, so that sides tyre remains more in contact with the road than it would be if it were simply being spring assisted.

It's much more dangerous if both rear shocks pump up to full height/pressure - if say the link arm to the sensor pops off. The rear end goes rock solid. Been there, done that, got the gravel rash.

69

Omega General Help / Re: Monroe Levelling System

« on: 30 June 2024, 13:12:16 »

The pipework connecting everything up is very small bore - something like 1.0mm or 1.5mm. When you dynamically load one side or the other by turning in a corner, the small diameter means the air cannot leave that quickly, so there is already a 'restriction' in the rate at which the shox can be loaded/unoaded.

The exact same system is fitted to the Lotus Carlton/Omega, and if there is one thing Lotus know about it's suspension. I've seen a Lotus document which discussed the arrangement, and their conclusion was that it was sufficient for road use, and the best improvement would be to fit a stiffer rear anti roll bar. However, stiffer rear suspension can result in quite a sudden snap-away in cold/wet/icy conditions which for a road car and the average driver becomes irrecoverable very quickly - in other words you wrap yourself around a tree on the outside of a fast corner.

70

Omega General Help / Re: Monroe Levelling System

« on: 29 June 2024, 20:10:37 »

There's check valve in the compressor to regulate the system pressure whereas the guage/Schrader combo serves the same purpose.

There isn't a check valve to regulate the pressure. There is a valve/solenoid to release air when the level sensor thinks the car is too high. But the compressor can and will run to stupidly high pressures if the level sensor thinks the car is too low. Nothing in the standard setup actually knows what the system pressure is.

Basically, car too low, sensor enables the relay which causes the compressor to run to pump the shox up. Car too high, sensor opens the solenoid to let some air out and let the shox down. I've never opened a sensor up, by there does appear to be some electronics in it to add some hysterysis so the pump/solenoid aren't continually turning on and off over every lump and bump in the road.

71

General Car Chat / Re: iPace Buying Advice

« on: 26 June 2024, 18:37:25 »

There was a thread on another forum I frequent, and the advice there was to get your ducks in a row well BEFORE you buy an EV - either new or used. The issue being that the cheap overnight charging rates offered by Octopus and the like rely on you having a modern Smart Meter, and a decent 4G/5G phone signal in your area. Also if you want a 22kW charger then you will need 3 phase mains supply - and few UK home have these as standard most are single phase. If you only have single phase you will be limited to 7kW charging.

To get 3 phase installed is not an overnight job - you need the agreement of, and work from your local DNO, may need your fuses upgraded (from 60A/80A to 100A), blah,blah,blah before a 22kW charger can be installed.

72

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: Speaker wattage

« on: 16 June 2024, 22:55:00 »

This 25/50W rating looks like it means RMS/Peak.
Does that sound about right to anyone reading this?

Yes, but people mistakenly believe that the power rating equates to maximum volume acheivable - it does not. A much more important figure is the speaker efficiency, which you are unlikely to get for the OEM Bose speakers. Only about 0.5% - 2% of the electrical power into a loudspeaker is converted to sound power. The other 98-99.5% ends up as heat, and that's what the loudspeaker power rating tells you - how much heat the thing can dissipate - not how much sound output it can generate.

A 2% efficient loudspeaker will output 4 times the sound power of a 0.5% efficient one for the same electrical input. You would not be able to sit in the same room (never mid car!) if you could find a 100% efficient 25W loudspeaker.

So concentrate on finding a high efficiency 2 ohm loudspeaker, and any power rating greater than 10W (ish) will be fine.   

73

Omega General Help / Re: Steering box leak

« on: 23 May 2024, 21:59:39 »

There are at least 8 RHD part numbers. Can't narrow it down without a lot more info, so you really need to get a part number of the current unit.

Does your car have servotronic variable assistance power steering? If it does, there will be an electrical connection on the side and a square box solenoid - like this...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/326034740558

If it does not, then there isn't an electrical connection, and no square box, like this...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363649425920

74

Omega General Help / Re: Ticking sound

« on: 22 May 2024, 23:41:45 »

This was what happened to my engine when the strainer got blocked : https://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=122287.0

Some mucky pictures for you to compare. If there are chips of white metal in the sump when you drop it, then you're probably going to have to do a full bottom end rebuild.

75

Omega General Help / Re: Steering box leak

« on: 22 May 2024, 13:49:16 »

I've just re-built the steering box on the LC. In order to practice first, I bought an Omega steering box from eBay and stripped it down. Think it was about £30, and it came with the steering arm and centre link still attached. I was hoping that some of the parts, perhaps even the complete steering box would fit the LC, but unfortunatley everything is just a little bit different.

Assuming it's not just the PAS fluid input/output pipe junctions that need tightening up, to leak to the outside world there are only really a few places it can do so.

1) Bottom of the steering box - where the steering arm is. There is a lip seal on the output shaft here.
2) Top of the steering box, under the alloy plate with 4 bolts and the tension adjuster. There is an O ring under here.
3) Junction of the PAS pressure box and the main body - another O ring here.
4) Under the PAS pressure modulator Servotronic solenoid. Couple of small O rings here.
5) Steering column input shaft. Lip seal here.

You can probably replace any/all the the O rings in 1 and 4 without a complete strip down - perhaps even with it still in the car. However the two lip seals will need pressing out, and to get that far you really might as well replace everything

So it all depends exactly where it is leaking from. A complete seal kit is available (from Bulgaria!) on eBay for about £70. That doesn't include the 3 bearings - two of which will need to remove - they will be another £100 or so. 

In short - I'd probably throw another second hand PAS box at it. Will be cheaper and less agro. Try to get one from exactly the same spec Omega - there are lots of subtle changes, and even different length of steering arm. You can swap the arms from one box to another, but they're on effing tight and you will need a decent puller, and probably some heat to persuade it to come off.