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1426

General Discussion Area / Was that your drowned facelift Omega on the news?

« on: 10 September 2008, 14:04:02 »

I watched a bit of UK news today. It was about some flooding. Apparently you lucky beggars have had some rain.

The clip showed a procession of cars driving through quite deep water. I thought they were all doing quite well as it was deep. Then it cut to a light coloured facelift  Omega with a few people pushing it through ankle deep water.  Water in gear selector? Who knows? Maybe the answer is to put a rubber glove around it like you used to do over the distributor of a mini back in the olden days! can't imagine it being the ignition system.

Was it you? !!

varche

1427

General Discussion Area / WIN 98 hard disk FAT32 or NTFS

« on: 08 September 2008, 17:19:13 »

Only OAP's will know the answer to this Q. !!!

I am trying to fit a second 20 Gig hard drive into a PC running WIN98 (not SE)The first drive is FAT32. The second is NTFS. Is that why it won't "see it"? Do I need to reformat in the other PC ?

Is it possible that as it is fairly old (Celeron 433) that the 40Gig already in is the most it can take?

varche

1428

General Discussion Area / A Huge, Huge Thanks to Omegatoy and Sassanach

« on: 07 September 2008, 22:26:43 »

Well Autobox thrust washer LOADS of fear project has been concluded successfully after much grunting and worry on my part. The car changes gear a lot more smoothly now than it has for a long time and no clunks.

I would like to thank two forum members without whose help I definitely wouldn't have been able to do the job.

Firstly SASSANACH for advice and help sourcing parts. Top man. The moral support whilst doing the car equivalent of brain surgery was invaluable.

Secondly to OMEGATOY for his time, knowledge and strength. For me it is a job I could not undertake without an added pair of hands. Top man.

Without Omega Owners forum and these two people in particular my car would have been at the scrapyard and I would have been driving a 25 year old c15 van by now.

A mobile (after 10 days ) again varche!

1429

General Discussion Area / Improving performance by weight reduction?

« on: 30 August 2008, 17:49:16 »

I don't mean the driver!

Was the omega one of the last cars built where weight didn't seem to be a consideration?  Just one example seems to be the rear gearbox cross member. I suppose on the plus side it is low down so will aid the centre of gravity.

Has anyone done any serious weight reducing on their road car?

varche

1430

General Discussion Area / Autobox Thrust Washer- LOADS of Fear Project

« on: 27 August 2008, 18:58:26 »

Thought I would give an update on changing the broken thrust washer on my 2.5 V6 auto.

The removal of the gearbox was a fairly straighforward if messy process.  Oil lost out of the cooler pipes till you "swap" the ends over and out of the torque convertor which came loose.
It most definitely helps if there are two people. I am very,very grateful to Omegatoy for his assistance and support. There seems to be endless wires and tubes attached to the gearbox which need detaching or unclipping. For example the breather tube is located at the rear of the box on top and is very hard to get at.

After a good clean up of the exterior it was into the workshop and off with the two pans to empty them of any dirt or bits. Omegatoy thought the oil was a little black. Ever the optimist I thought it was pinkish!

Next the bell housing end of the box was dismantled(once it was securely held upright) using Sassanach's excellent how to in the maintenance guides. The faces of the components are damaged where the long since removed broken thrust washer should be. Worse the oil, although only changed relatively recently (mileage wise), is a dark pinkish colour.

I do however have the necessary parts to reassemble the gearbox tomorrow thankfully. At this stage the pessimist in me says even if I ever get it all back together it will be too far gone to work properly. The optimist in me says sure it will be fine. Time for another beer!

Plan B is to obtain a S/H AR35 and get it over here and fit it...... First lets see how Plan A goes. All for now more beer beckons..........

Can you believe that such a small part can cause such a lot of trouble?

The Sonnax thrust washer part no is 54701-03K and the large rubber washer is GM part number 96017189. You can get the washer washer from JPAT.

varche  

1431

General Discussion Area / Breaking OLD landrovers for a living?

« on: 22 August 2008, 16:08:51 »

There are loads of old landrovers (badged as Land Rover Santanas) dotted around the landscape here in southern Spain. Old =30 or 40 years I guess.

Now that Spain is a relatively wealthy country they are just left to rot. There are five withing a ten minute walk of my house.

Is there a demand for parts off these old cars? I guess whats left would sell here for 200 euros a ton at the scrap metal yards.

varche  

1432

General Discussion Area / EBay's new fees

« on: 25 August 2008, 16:12:22 »

Gosh. Their new fee structure has quite a lot of increases. Shops seem to have large increases too. I guess they will have to pass those on to us!

I suppose EBay aren't making enough in these hard times......

varche

1433

General Discussion Area / tool box sort out!!

« on: 15 August 2008, 14:20:53 »

had a sort through my tool box and was a little shocked to find I didn't have all metric sizes in sockets, open enders and ring spanners. I do however have loads of AF and Whitworth etc stuff which has been seconded now to another tool box- useful for house plumbing and repairing the neighbours 20 or so years old cat tractor.

I didn't have an 18mm socket for example or an 18mm open ended spanner nor a 16 mm open or ring spanner. I do have an excellent set of torx sockets and allen keys though.

Do you need 16mm ,20mm and upwards tools for jobs on an Omega?

varche

1434

General Discussion Area / Water bills to go up!

« on: 11 August 2008, 15:22:48 »

Why? Surely Ofwat ought to do like Oftel did with the phone companies (well BT) and say rises at LESS than RPI.

I cannot get my head around why Ofwat or the government would allow increases above inflation. If they need to invest in pipelines and so on then that needs to come out of turnover or shareholders profit or increased efficiency. How hard can it be to carry some (free) water from( free) reservoirs and to carry away and treat the waste in (free) pipes ?

Bad idea selling off the utilities in the long run. Electric, water and gas are going to bite hard in the coming years.

varche

1435

General Discussion Area / Note to Gordon re 2012 Olympics opening ceremony

« on: 09 August 2008, 18:26:33 »

Note to Gordon (or successor) copied to Boris.

I have just seen the opening of the Olympics in China. Pretty impressive eh! Shame you weren’t there to wish our athletes well.

I know that you have people working on the details for the 2012 opening ceremony but here are a few useful ideas. Apologies if you are already using some.

1. We need to cover our history. Do the good stuff (Spanish Armada, Waterloo, Battle of Britain, British Empire, Iraq war). We can use the armed forces for those displays to save money. Might be an idea to avoid slavery trade, drugs, aid and weapons to despots etc.

2. We need a wall. Hadrian’s  is a good contender but needs a bit of restoration. Use prisoners on work gangs. If there is enough time a new wall around London or the South Coast would also be handy.

3. I see the Chinese only have 56 ethnic groups. We have lots more and we need to make a big thing of that. Geordies/Newcastle Brown, Yorkshire/cricket, Cornish/Pasties and so on. We could give everyone a cup of tea as they enter the stadium.

4. Heritage and culture. Morris dancers, druids, foxhunting, cheese rolling, welly wanging and crown green bowls will be representative of our national pastimes. Get in plenty of stuff about castles and old buildings. The Americans love that sort of stuff.


5. Environment. By 2012 environmentally friendly, green and so on will be well and truly  branded on people. Parades of electric city cars with a backdrop film of London when proper cars were widely owned would be a starter. Plenty of other material there.

6 Modern day. We could get a pretty good display of synchronised prams propelled by single mothers. They are already on benefits so could rehearse for the next four years for free.

7.  Rather than fireworks which will cost too much we could blow up the Millenium Dome at the end of the opening ceremony. Fresh start for those that thought it a waste of money or was much maligned. Best have an exclusion zone around it and keep it fairly hush.

1436

General Discussion Area / Witnessed a Spanish style accident today!

« on: 04 August 2008, 15:11:30 »

I was stood waiting outside a supermarket and saw the lot. Thankfully no need to be a witness.

A guy in a car was slowly turning into a parking space but not indicating. A scooter, driven by a young lad and with a scantily clad young female passenger, decided to overtake and so accelerated to get by. He was doing about 30mph when he realised he wasn't going to make it through the decreasing gap.

He quickly laid the bike on its side and that pitched him and the girl off. They slithered to a halt right at my feet, meanwhile the bike slammed into the rear quarter of a parked Audi and lay there revving its guts out.

The helmet flew off the lads head (no visible strap as I picked it up for him). The seat fell off the scooter.

What made it a typical "Spanish" accident was the guy in the car and the young lad traded insults whilst the lad reassambled his bike. The girl rubbed her thigh and hands. Motorists behind started honking their horns so everyone moved off.  

Oh and no one gave a second thought to the damage to the back of the parked Audi!!! That is why all the cars here look as though they compete in banger races.

great stuff, varche

1437

General Discussion Area / Gas going up 35% and electric 25%

« on: 31 July 2008, 17:44:00 »

When will it stop? Some guy on the box this morning said the problem is that the price of gas is toxically linked to the price of oil!

I can see nothing but gloom in the future for Britain as those sort of increases are bound to be reflected hugely in the cost of virtually everything. Will pensioners get a 20% increase in pensions to be able to keep their heads above water and their feet warm enough? Will your company pay you a 6% increase next pay talks? I don't think so.

The electric company here in Spain wanted to raise prices 11% and can't unless the Spanish government approve it!

I have always thought that nuclear power is the answer despite the huge unresolved issues with the byproducts and security. Imagine my horror to find that "Darth Vader" had been to see the Saudis over funding them. Now there is an interesting proposition. They support Osama Bin Laden and will potentially have their finger on the switches. But it is alright as they buy loads of arms from us! What will there be to stop them raising the price of electric in the future by 30% a go to bolster their coffers as oil runs out?

It is a truly mad world but it is alright as we all have fast Internet, bilberries, McDonalds, cheap clothes and stuff from China and a thousand channels of wonderful entertaining TV.

Methinks essential services ought to be nationalised and run efficiently now people know what is expected. The Russians aren't daft they have just done exactly that.

varche

1438

General Discussion Area / Omega as a collectors classic car?

« on: 17 July 2008, 10:15:44 »

With all this talk of selling their none green gas guzzlers and the admirable efforts of our car breaking members maybe there is a very good case for laying down one or more better examples of the car for a future time when only the rich have a car without government GPS controlled speed and acceleration  When I think back to the cars I once owned some would be worth a fortune now (e.g. 970cc Cooper S).

So what would your classic Omega be? Mini facelift 3.0 auto Elite saloon?

varche

PS If any OOFers need storage for such a vehicle in dry conditions let me know. I would of course "use" it every so often!  

1439

General Discussion Area / Omega Torque converters - do they fail?

« on: 14 July 2008, 17:32:31 »

Has anyone on the forum ever had problems with their torque convertor?

What form did the "failure" take? Was it a loss of performance or sudden?

varche

1440

General Discussion Area / What is the CO2 emission of the older V6 Omega's

« on: 08 July 2008, 17:42:53 »

What are the official government emissions of the 2.5 and 3.0 Omegas please? i.e. is it

160 to 200g per Km or is it over 200!! ?

varche

The reason for asking is that the lovely Spanish government have changed the thresholds on matriculation task to 9.75% for the lower figure and 14.75% for the higher. This is a tax you pay to convert a Britiosh car into a Spanish reg car. It is based on their book values - 8 year old Elite is about 5000 euros. I may have to stick with mine and get the gearbox fixed.