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34786

General Discussion Area / Re: ADSL Router Toast...

« on: 19 June 2007, 16:43:12 »

Granted that the only way to stop a direct lightning strike from killing something is to go back to using valves and, even then, you'll struggle.

However, the point I was making, and I think you have made as well, is that consumer electronics products are engineered down to the mininum cost and, whilst it meets the applicable standards that doesn't necessarily mean it'll work in anything other than the least hostile environment.

That the standards are set as low as they are is probably back to the bean counters, but at a national or european level.

I've often pondered the power of a lightning strike when driving the winch at the gliding club. Sending a length of 5mm steel cable with a bloke on the end if it 2,000 feet into the sky does focus the mind, and the winch gets shut down at the slightest hint of electrical activity.

A glider was unlucky enough to get hit (in free space, not on a winch) a couple of years ago and the damage was mindblowing. Sections of circa 15mm diameter control tubes in the wings got flattened by electromagnetic forces due to the currents they were carrying. Analysis showed they didn't get heated much above ambient so there was no melting involved, just a stong enough current in the tube, and thus electromagnetic field around it, to crush it. The steel levers at the inboard ends didn't fair too well due to their higher resistance. They vapourised explosively, blowing out a section of fuselage and both canopies. The pilots parachuted to safety but both suffered burst eardrums from the aforementioned blast.

BTW: Stormchasers might be interested in this:

http://www.isleofwightweather.co.uk/live_storm_data.htm

Looks like Devon's getting a bit of a zapping at the moment!

Kevin

34787

General Discussion Area / Re: ADSL Router Toast...

« on: 19 June 2007, 11:05:08 »

So you finally confirmed my diagnosis then??

Yep. Sounds like it's F***ed!  

My parents had a scaffolding tower on their house a couple of years ago during some building work and it got struck by lightening (luckily when the builders were having a fag break! It didn't half make them spill their tea though, apparently!).

Anyway, the insurance claim for all the knackered electronics ran into thousands. Anything with more than a few feet of cable connected to it died.

About half the items that bought it didn't pack up immediately but took a week or two to fail having been damaged by the strike.

My dad's ADSL router had a pin hole in the bottom of it, and a corresponding pin hole in the paint on the metal surface on which it had been standing where something had flashed over.

Most consumer items have only very basic protection against abnormal voltages. If you look at the circuit boards of network cards, ADSL routers, etc you can see where extra protection components have been designed into the device but not populated because some bean counter has decided to cheapen it.

Kevin

34788

General Discussion Area / Re: Whats your top speed????

« on: 16 June 2007, 23:32:46 »

Gah! This reminds me. I had an AP22 in my boot at the Lakes. Could have done some 0-60 measurements. Then again there wasn't a runway available to do them on (not a flat one, at any rate)

Kevin

34789

General Discussion Area / Re: Tax disc fine question

« on: 01 June 2007, 14:56:45 »

Seems a bit daft fining people who actually have a valid tax disc.

Resources wasted - that could be spent on the scum who have no tax disc, MOT, insurance, etc.

The letter of the law may state that it must be displayed but what actually matters, especially now that checks can easily be made by computer, is that tax has been paid in respect of the vehicle and, more importantly, that it's MOT'd and insured.

Kevin

34790

General Discussion Area / Re: Non-alcoholic champagne

« on: 19 June 2007, 23:45:17 »

but, you can have a gun..

..and the rest!

On a recent trip I spent hours queueing for various security checks to get into Atlanta.

Despite this I arrived with time to kill so I went into an outdoors type shop. Think Millets but about the size of a B&Q warehouse. Anyway, you could wander down the "ammo" isle and fill your shopping trolley with all kinds of "consumables" and then go to the gun counter where there were several guns just sitting on the counter and a huge number of them on racks behind a dopey looking bloke. It wouldn't have taken much to create a scene of total carnage there, for anyone who had the inclination.

Kevin

34791

General Discussion Area / Re: Non-alcoholic champagne

« on: 19 June 2007, 09:47:02 »

My Dad got I.D.'d there on holiday once. I think he was about 48 at the time. Made me laugh!

I was 2 weeks short of 21 and went out for an evening with a native friend from Uni. She was about 5'2 and built like a rake. She kept buying beers "for herself"and pouring them into my Coke beaker. The guys at the bar kept joking about how she could really hold her beer. The clearly weren't the sharpest tools in the box as all the explanation they needed was present in the slightly tipsy under age guy with her, whose Coke had lasted him all evening!

Kevin

34792

General Discussion Area / Re: ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS

« on: 15 June 2007, 23:04:54 »

as I said before, your next stop is to get in touch with the chairman of the governing body

Very true. And the governors are likely to be made up, at least in part, of concerned parents like yourself and not brainwashed to be PC like the staff.

Kevin

34793

General Discussion Area / Re: ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS

« on: 15 June 2007, 22:10:20 »

It all comes back to this patheitc "not letting there be any losers at sports day" cr@p if you ask me. They can't be seen to judge and therefore punish the one who was in the wrong but have to be even handed and dish out the same to both parties involved. We're in for a hell of a ride when this generation grow up and, perish the thought, some of them will be running the country, policing it and running the court system.

I really feel for your lad, Fin. I think you're right to make it as public as you can. That's the only way sane thinking people will hear about it and start to ask what the hell's going on.

 

Kevin

34794

General Discussion Area / Re: Z18XE engine - Cambelt and exhaust manifold

« on: 19 June 2007, 13:02:09 »

just done one of these

Ahh, OK. Penny dropped. The water pump will denfinately be on the list then  

Kevin

34795

General Discussion Area / Re: Z18XE engine - Cambelt and exhaust manifold

« on: 19 June 2007, 10:01:04 »

Thanks for your help guys.

Kevin

34796

General Discussion Area / Z18XE engine - Cambelt and exhaust manifold

« on: 18 June 2007, 17:49:44 »

A bit off topic on an Omega forum perhaps but my brother has got a 2001 Astra SXi with the Z18XE engine. It's about time the cam belt was changed and something around the exhaust manifold is blowing. Don't know if it's a cracked manifold or the gasket, broken studs, etc. yet because I haven't had the heatshields off. It quietens down completely when warmed up, sounds like a tractor when cold.

Just wondering if anyone's got any experience with this engine. In particular:

Any gotchas with the cam belt on this engine?
Does anyone have a cam locking kit they would be willing to loan?
Is a waterpump change advised with the cam belt? Does cam belt drive the waterpump?
What's the likely prognosis on the blowing exhaust manifold? As bad as the Omega? (cracked manifold, broken studs, etc?)

Thanks in advance,

Kevin

34797

General Discussion Area / Re: AR35 Futures

« on: 18 June 2007, 14:54:45 »

Its a route I think should be explored.....

Me too. I don't plan on needing a replacement for a while (touch wood) but when the time comes I'd rather put in one I have rebuilt and am confident in than one that came from a scrappy.

Whilst the supply of 2nd hand gearboxes might be safe for a while, the probability of a 2nd hand one being a good one will reduce in time.

OK, so we may lack the skills required to rebuild one now but we won't learn them until we jump in with both feet. I vote that someone donates a knackered AR35 to the cause next time we have a meet and we have a go at rebuilding it, taking plenty of pics and vids as we go.

Kevin

34798

General Discussion Area / Re: I've never seen one...

« on: 06 June 2007, 09:52:18 »

I must admit I think the 6 series is a seriously ugly car. Give me an old shape 635CSi any day of the week, or a 2002ti   BMW have lost their way big time.

I think it's ugly, and tacky inside, looks just like a cheap VW on that dash.......

Yep. Black plastic everywhere, punctuated only by the odd bit of fake carbon fibre!

70mph max country's limit... yes it would be fun, but at what cost?

yeah, 149 MPH will do me nicely for now! And at a fraction of the cost....

Kevin

34799

General Discussion Area / Re: '94 - '03 Workshop Manual

« on: 17 June 2007, 00:59:10 »

Many of these are pirated Vauxhall software so beware. They may not be legal and may not be ideal for a home mechanic in any case as they are designed for the trade.

Edited to clarify: No experience of this particular seller, but 9 times out of 10 workshop manuals offered on CD are the above.

Kevin

34800

General Discussion Area / Re: Scumbags

« on: 17 June 2007, 01:27:23 »

I was amazed to walk down the high street in the early evening one weekday a few weeks ago. A group of 3 teenage girls were hanging around outside the off licence smoking. A WPC walked over to one and politely asked if she could have a word. I have never heard language like that which she received in response. Totally unprovoked. She could have been asking for the time for all they knew.

When I was that age I had been taught to respect others, especially those in authority. I probably hadn't been on the planet long enough to have worked out for myself why that was right, but I knew that bad things would happen to me if I didn't and that worse things would happen if my parents found out.

I used to moan about how the country is run but that's irrelevant now. Nothing's going to be fixed by a change of government or policy. The country's rotten to the core and I think the only thing that's likely to fix it is a re-run of the battle of britain, to remind people that nothing is an absolute right in life, and that sometimes you have to make sacrifices for what you need, rather than expect it all on a plate, and raise hell if it's not to your liking.

 

Kevin