Peugeot 106

My Sureflo has started to weep from the body after at least 9 months continuous use over 4 years. I have bought another to replace it. It is worth having a shop around on eBay. My replacement was around £100 and is a direct replacement. Mine is properly mounted with flexible pipes adjacent to the pump as per the instructions but I’ve heard that they are prone to leak from the body anyway and a leak detector or lunchbox (or both) sounds sensible if like mine it’s buried in a locker

When I was in a lad and Vickers at Barrow was in its hey day they reckoned that if Vickers took back everything belonging to Vickers there wouldn’t be a boat left floating in Walney Channel. And some had pretty exotic metal prop shafts. One of the local Bars had a notice saying. “Please don’t ask for a sub. Try Vickers” Goodness knows what other foreigners were made there

There is a small hire fleet based at Garstang in those colours and they look very smart. Duck Island Boat Company if you’re interested for examples

For thin coach lines we used marine vinyl tape. We were told to make sure we got the thicker marine type. It went on very easily and I have to say is in better nick than the paint after 6 years. I got it from a company called Vinyl Cut Graphics in Kirkudbright. Ours were only 4mm wide and easy to go round large bends with eg the cabin back. I don’t know what wider vinyl would be like but it may be worth investigating. we used Silver coachlines on dark blue and it made an enormous difference to the looks even though it’s only 4mm wide NB I’m hopeless at choosing colours which was why we stuck with blue so won’t suggest any.

I thought hedgehogs ate them. Maybe they tenderise them first as they must stick to Velcro pretty well

The Spider that travelled with me for 2 months and appeared outside the window every night on the end of its thread amazed me. It’s probably still there waiting for our next trip

Now I’m showing my age. I had a boss who in his previous job sold neodymium magnets. I think they went into car speedometers. That was at least 30 years ago

A bit like when we used to sell a scratty piece of each carbon fibre tissue and Kevlar tissue to a major ski manufacturer. It can’t have made a jot of difference to the performance but their marketing bumf claimed ( correctly!) that the skis were manufactured including carbon and Kevlar. We sold the same stuff to tennis racket, golf club and fishing rod manufacturers. Anyway everybody was happy

I’ve used the same handheld Dyson for 15 years with one change of battery for cleaning up after laying the fire at home every night during winter. OK it’s only light duty but it does occasional work on the stairs or in my shed. It’s fine though I do keep the filter clean. The only alternative I knew of when I bought it was the rubbish Black and Decker one. Just back from a skip run. At least 5 new looking Dysons in the small appliance skip and it’s only a quarter full! I’m still clueless what a “digital “ or “Hyperdymium” motor is though. Sounds like something from Cern. Does it have hydraulic tappets?

It’s probably got a Hyperdymium motor

We went from Limehouse to Lechlade last summer and had nearly every lock to ourselves. At one lock we turned up at lunchtime to be told by the lock keeper we were the first through all day and he said it was “eerily quiet” we never had any problem finding a mooring even at Henley during the regatta. Come to think of it it was the same on the tidal Trent a couple of years ago The Leeds Liverpool was only a little busy around the hirebases near Skipton ( until it was closed due to lock failure one day after we passed through…..)

But I’ve spent some 9 months on mine in the last 4 years holiday cruising but have yet to have a go on anybody else’s apart from helping a couple of hire boats turning around. It took me 2 years to “do up” and after that the first trip I made was the only time I’d ever been on a Narrowboat. The first day I was bored off my trolley and thought I’d made yet another massive mistake. (I’ve built 2 sailing dinghies I”ve only actually sailed in twice!) I went all the way up the Lancaster to Tewitfield on my own over 3 days and got stuck behind a boat doing about 1 mph for quite a while. When I got back I decided I quite liked it and it was like backpacking but with more home comforts and no sore legs & back. When I’m on my travels I’m amazed how quiet the traffic is even on the K&A, Thames and Llangollen.

Or those that peer at my Lister Petter Alpha and say that it’s bombproof and will go on for ever. They don’t realise that not all Listers were created equal though mine is ok it certainly isn’t bombproof!

I’ve already said that I’m surprised at how many Dyson’s are skipped because owners don’t realise the filter is blocked and just need washing I’m again surprised at the number of people with expensive binoculars who don’t realise the lens’s can and should be focussed independently. They may as well have a cheapo pair properly focused as one lens will probably not be focussed properly depending on their eyesight. My Son in Law works for a Wildlife Trust and has watched wildlife all his life. He didn’t believe me but was amazed when he tried it……. Anybody else with any pearls of wisdom?

I’m amazed how many people who don’t realise that the foam filter needs washing every now and then. I’d bet most of the skipped “suckless” cleaners would work fine if their intake filters were cleaned.

It’s a good job those bags didn’t swing inboard when they were under the bridge. I assume they kept it heeling all the way from the bank where then there look like light lines swinging them back in? I’d have been happier holding them out eg with the boom Very impressive though!

We had some proper hard bastards. One was a Derrickman. One day he hadn’t seen an errant drill pipe and I pushed him out of the way probably saving his life. His only thanks was “ the devil looks after his own” The pipe caught me in the shoulder and I was black and blue next day and sent back to Aberdeen. A month later we were running casing in the middle of a cold, dark, windy wet night for the well. The same Derrickman was in a temporary ramshackle lift that ran up the derrick on an RSJ. (The casing was too short to use the monkey board). He left his hand outside the cage and ALL his fingers were chopped off. He climbed out of the cage and 60 feet down the outside of the derrick lattice. We searched everywhere for his fingers and even had a chilled poly bag to put them in while we waited for the rescue helicopter. We never saw him or his fingers again Best of all I got to work the Derrick in his abscence but I didn’t keep the promotion probably due to not being a hard enough bastard. You can’t be a scaredicat in that job! No harm in reminding us. Familiarity can breed contempt

I have a roll of blue tissue that I have used to find leaks. I have wiped everything clean and then tied wadges to the engine with string and tape before running it with some success. I’ve tried fluorescent dyes as well but they are not brilliant. I had a pesky oil leak for ages! I would like to assure you Tony that I am a very careful idiot. My fingers, hair clothing or any other parts will be no where near a running drive belt. I worked with a young lad who got his shirt caught in a tractor PTO shaft. He survived but it did not end well. Another contemporary started a Fordson Major whilst standing in front of it and it pinned him to the wall before someone came to help. Luckily it was on smooth wet concrete. Still his ribs were crushed and he was hospitalised for several months. In my youth (50 years ago) I was a Roughneck on Semi Submersible Exploration Rigs in the North Sea. Ocean Rover, Pentagon 86, Atlantic 11. There were 4 of us Roughnecks and hardly a two week spell went without one of us being injured. It made me very wary of rotating machinery.

This will make a change. I got used to spotting an oil splodge after running but having sorted that will now have to look for a coolant splodge! When turned by hand without belt the pump turns very smoothly without a trace of play but maybe I shouldn’t count my chickens!

Apologies to everyone if this seemed like a false alarm. I have done quite a lot of work on my engine. Main oilseals, head gasket etc. including taking the engine out. I would describe myself as a keen amateur. Before attempting anything I like to get as much information as I can. I’ve seen plenty of damage done by gung-ho mechanics including so called marine engineers. I am aware that a little knowledge can be dangerous and lead to expensive mistakes. I’ve even dropped a head nut down the plug hole after reassembling a Ford Escort side valve engine. In my youth I’ve sat looking at plenty of stripped/snapped bolts wishing I’d taken things more slowly. As I’ve got older and wiser I’m aware of just how little “feel” I have got for tightening things and where I can I rely on torque wrenches etc This forum is great for hand holding and thank you all. Hopefully I’ve learned a bit more

Reporting back. I rashly (late at night) bought from Amazon a Gates Krikit 1 tension gauge armed with the my new found info from BEngo that what I’ve got is called a “multi rib belt”. The bumph says that it should read 10kg per rib. Since I have 4 ribs I expected around 40 Kg. It was in fact less around 20Kg. It twists 90degrees quite easily. I ran the engine for around 20 mins then took the belt off and inspected the pump for leaks at the weep holes. I turned it over by hand and there was no play or grittiness in it. All seems to be fine and the belt despite being over a year old looks brand new so I reassembled it at the same tension. I ran it again and there is no squealing or slippage i did have a few drops of coolant under the engine but haven’t seen them today so maybe they were spillage from previously topping up the coolant. Any expansion overflow gets directed into a milk bottle and o don’t think there are any other leaks. If I find my spring balance I will try with that https://docs.rs-online.com/0707/0900766b8002ca6f.pdf

If you play a hose over the suspect area you may well see a stream of water on the inside where it is (if it is) leaking. Start at the bottom and work your way up the windows finishing at the vents then hopefully if does leak you can see where the leak starts. Condensation won’t stream in but water from a hose pipe most likely will

The belts I have are I think Goodyear 845PK 333K 4 ridge I have a couple of spares as I did have some squealing a year or two ago. They weren’t £25 but around half that price as old stock. I’m not sure how I would alter the tensioning method without taking the engine out as I can only just reach the tensioning bolt as it is though it would be nice to have something more easily adjustable. It’s a bit trial and error with the windlass as a pry bar at the moment. I’d be happier if I could find a pusher that pushed in the range 5 x7.5 lbs as shown in the manual. I suppose I could “calibrate” my thumb against a spring balance. I’ve done this with spanner’s and torque wrenches in the past where access is poor. i’m glad you’ve cleared up the v belt misnomer as it’s not like my old Morris 1000 fan belt which I could understand being caused a v belt. Multi Rib Belt is I think a more apt description

Thank you everyone. I may be slightly overtightening my belt. BEngo thank you I may try the luggage scale method I had thought of that before but access is of course difficult. Adjustment is coarse (a bolt in a slot with the windlass handle used for leverage) If I could find the proper spring pusher in the right force range I might go for it but I can’t find anything in the range 5-7.5 lbs. I’m not sure why it’s called a V belt as it’s flat with 4 ridges in it