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Jan 11, 2021 22:58:05 GMT
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Now what am i going to do with my life? Just spent the last few days reading this, didnt realise you had any other threads George. Here in the UAE I interact with thousands of Filipinos and I can relate to a lot of the descriptions you give. I find the Filipinos that work for our contractor to be happy, rescourseful, hard working people that value their jobs. It is a pity that there is so much corruption keeping their country down (not as bad as Zimbabwe, where I am from with South Africa rapidly following). Thanks for the entertainment over the last few days! Glad you enjoyed it. What we have here is a potent mix of corruption, inefficiency and bureaucracy, leading to almost complete inertia. Some things have improved in certain areas over the last years, but nowhere near enough. In addition, in a recent survey, 49% of the population considered themselves as living below the poverty line, and that's a hell of a lot of folk. Still, as you say, not as bad as some places.
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Jan 11, 2021 23:07:41 GMT
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Well, lawks a mercy, well I’ll be, knock me down, who’d have thought it, etc. So, last Friday was designated vehicle registration day. The time off was duly booked and Tania volunteered to accompany me, mainly on the promise of a Full English afterwards at a little bar I happen to know. Now, just to double check, I’d been on the Land Transport Office website just to confirm they were still doing walk-in and that I didn’t need an appointment. No mention, great. 07:30, up we roll. I’m greeted by my little mate who tells me that they can’t do emissions tests anymore and that I’d have to go to this other place (which I’d basically driven past on the way), get tested and then return. Off we pop and finally find the place but, hold up, this isn’t an emissions test, it’s a full blown “MOT”! Ah well, in we go and park up. I’ve no idea how it all works and, it seems, neither do many of the staff. Seems to go like this. Pull in and directed to a slot by a little chap who gives you a number (of course). You then go and pay and are told to go to the waiting room. Now, I’d espied some brake rollers and, keen to not have my gearbox climb into the passenger seat, went and spoke to someone about how they tested permanent four-wheel drive vehicles. He didn’t know, but he thought he may know someone who did. Eventually another chap arrives and asks me what the problem was. I repeated that I was only curious about their brake testing methods for full-time 4x4 vehicles. He smiled and led me over to the roller area and pointed to a set of dummy rollers that went under the non-tested wheels. He said he’d make sure they were used on mine. We also chatted about testing prop acting handbrakes and I went away reasonably happy. Anyway, instead of sitting in the waiting room, I left Tania in there Netflixing away and went to stand outside to watch. Good job too. After 15 minutes or so, the manager of the place, Mike, came over and asked me if I could open the tailgate for them. Every day’s a school day! Got chatting with him and said that whilst I applauded the move towards more stringent testing, I was a bit peed off that there was no mention of it on the LTO website and, had I known, I’d have given her a quick pre-test check and come here first, before going for registration. He replied that it only opened last Monday and he’d been getting grief ever since then from motorists who, like me, were told just to nip there for emissions, no mention of a full test. Anyway, we chatted for a bit whilst his minions crawled all over, round and under the P38 until eventually we had a verdict. It failed! First thing was a gearbox oil leak. This isn’t, it’s from where I was refilling the box via the dipstick hole, with inevitable overspill, but never mind. Second was the lack of an early warning triangle, easy fix and third was a bit bizarre. Brakes. They told me they worked and stopped within parameters, but they thought the pedal went a “bit too far down.” Hmm, no point arguing, I’ll give ‘em a quick bleed. So there we are, not bad for it’s first, and unexpected, test in who knows how many years. More fluid on the way, as I haven’t quite got enough in stock to be sure, warning triangle, ditto, and “gearbox oil leak” already wiped away. I’ll give it a wash off when I bleed the brakes, so it’s nice and clean under there for them. Oh and emissions? CO = 0.02 and HC = 43.8, an easy pass. I’ll aim to return this Friday morning and, probably because I didn’t curse word and moan, Mike said they’d do the retest for gratis, rather than the normal 50%. Nice guy. I’ll get some pics of the place as well. I'm also guessing that it’ll probably involve another breakfast too! In other news, this Sunday morning, I drove the new Skyway extension. Up until now, Skyway, all elevated, came from Alabang in the south, above the South Luzon Expressway, and terminated about a kilometre from the house. All very well, but our project office is about 25km north of me, so not a damn bit of use. So, just after I moved here full-time, they started building its extension which would take it from just around the corner, all the way up to the North Luzon Expressway, cutting out Manila and linking the two highways directly. Much more useful. Seven years later and a week ago, whilst it’s still unfinished, they did a soft opening, reduced speeds and no tolls, so I thought I’d give it a go. The normal Sunday morning run-time for the 12kms from my house to the bottom of NLEX is around 30 minutes. It was just over 10 on Skyway. Given that same run using the surface roads can often take over two hours (three’s the record) coming home during the week, Skyway has some serious potential to shave a chunk of time off any future commute (should there be one!) and, even better, has an off-ramp which drops me about three or four minutes from home. Of course, we’ll be moving this year, almost certainly further south and out of Manila, so any advantage I’ve briefly gained, will promptly disappear again!
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Last Edit: Jan 11, 2021 23:09:02 GMT by georgeb
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As always a pleasure to read your updates George
I would probably have had few things to say, but suspect these things, like the new test, just are part of daily life.
Moving out of the city, I can relate to.
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Not a bad result, we have oil leaks on the MOT here as well but it has to be pouring out to fail, when they first introduced there was a lot of variability as it was down to the testers judgement of what a major leak is eventually the ministry gave them guidance (I think it's something like a 75mm dia puddle in 5 minutes), if you fail on that you really do need to fix it!
Probably not a bad idea to change the brake fluid every year or 2 with the humidity you get in the tropics anyway.
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Problem is now, there is "a test". Nobody has any experience, there's no information, just, "a test". Mike pointed out several cameras, telling me, "These are monitored by LTO, so we have to check." I'm guessing LTO have no idea either! As far as I can see, it's just some tick boxes, no advisories, nothing else. So until things settle down, it'll be pass/fail, no argument, no initiative, no common sense. The other little issue is that I don't know, (nor does Mike) what happens with registration if a fail. Now, I went to LTO first on Friday and before I left, sorted out the compulsory 3rd party insurance. You have to have this, irrespective of what other cover you have. The procedure was previously simple:- Insurance Emissions Registration Now we've added this test into the mix, could I just go back with a fail sheet, but having passed emissions and get registered? Or do I have to pass, then go back and register? If so, what happens to the insurance, which is supposed to run in conjunction with the registration but will now be a week apart? Nobody seems to know. So many questions, so many people, with so little idea! Guess I'll find out Friday. I'd been intending to do another brake bleed anyway, but the paucity of DOT4 here means specially ordering the stuff, so I'd not got around to it. It's actually arrived today, so we'll bleed tomorrow or Thursday.
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Last Edit: Jan 12, 2021 9:54:07 GMT by georgeb
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Jan 12, 2021 13:11:24 GMT
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1st step in getting rid of the Jeepneys possibly?
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1st step in getting rid of the Jeepneys possibly? Already in process. They're supposed to be tested every year anyway, but God knows where, or who by!
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Brake bleed done. Put 4 litres through it , so basically done a fluid change, pedal now nice and firm again. No reappearance of gearbox "leak". Bloody triangle not turned up. I'll see if there's one in the back of Madam's I can nick. Tomorrow wash, Saturday morning, re-test.
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Last Edit: Jan 16, 2021 23:43:57 GMT by georgeb
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Jan 15, 2021 22:46:21 GMT
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Engine and underneath given a rinse and a dressing, flipped round to the car wash for the body. Sent My Little Bottle Opener out to get a warning triangle, so we're all set for this morning. And yes, there'll be breakfast involved!
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"Another 12 months trouble free motoring Sir." All done, and true to their word, there was no charge for the retest. MLBO obviously had a bad back, as she couldn't get off it at 7am this morning, so no breakfast either. Plenty more beer money!
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Been wanting to do shocks for a bit now and was going to order from the UK.
However today, I've found a place that can supply Konis for around the same price as I'd get Bilsteins delivered. I say around as experience tells us that duties can, at best, be described as a moving feast.
Had no personal experience of Koni but they seem to have a good rep in the LR world, with people only put off by cost. I'll go and have a nose on Saturday.
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Feb 11, 2021 20:17:23 GMT
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Enjoy your write ups, never a dull moment is there. Are you actively working on a train project at the moment ?
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Enjoy your write ups, never a dull moment is there. Are you actively working on a train project at the moment ? Thank you. No, dull it never is! I've been involved in the North South Commuter Railway (NSCR) since December 2017. It's funded by Japanese development bank money, so we've seen no let up in work over the recent past. Originally it was divided up into three sections which, for some bizarre reason, the Japanese planned should operate as three individual lines, despite the three forming a single railway. Anyway, I was originally responsible for the train operation planning of the first 45km segment until, at last, it was realised by the Department of Transport that having a single system would be a really good idea (that took me 12 months to persuade them!), so now I've got 150km to worry about. That'll teach me! Problem is, I have a very different philosophy than the Japanese, so most of my time is spent battling their completely impractical offerings instead of getting on with my work. All the brown bit on the map is mine and, because the DoT have got fed up with the men from Nippon, I've somehow got the red bit (the new subway) as well. Don't ask me how that happened! Needless to say it is, as you would expect in this part of the world, a complete shambles. Anyway, this morning I picked up two boxes of jobs... Koni, "Well 'ard" shockers. What's not pictured there is a new steering damper as well, which I fitted this afternoon after taking My Little Honour Student for breakfast. Talk about a difference. Chalk and cheese over the old one. Looking forward to seeing if the shockers make a similar improvement.
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Last Edit: Feb 13, 2021 9:28:54 GMT by georgeb
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Feb 13, 2021 13:37:22 GMT
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Koni are Dutch so these must be good I have been in Tokyo a few times and their train system was quite impressive Peter
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Feb 13, 2021 22:16:45 GMT
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All the dampers on the kit we have are Konis; good dampers, bolted to curse word stuff.....
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Rover Metro - The TARDIS - brake problems.....Stored Rover 75 - Barge MGZTT Cdti 160+ - Winter Hack and Audi botherer... MGF - The Golden Shot...Stored Project Minion........ Can you see the theme?
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Feb 14, 2021 14:02:54 GMT
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Yep, as a commuter, the only system I've been on that rivals the Japanese trains is the Singapore metro. And that's a lot simpler to get everything lined up time-wise so I'm not sure it counts.
Public transport in Australia is horrific. I still don't understand how a railway system with fixed distances and the ability to stop all other traffic can be less efficient than a bus that has to wait for said train to cross the road in front of it.
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Feb 14, 2021 23:18:38 GMT
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I agree Tokyo metro is very efficient. However, in all the discussions, one teeny item is glossed over by our colleagues from the Land of the Rising Sun. Tokyo metro has the infrastructure, in terms of track, to be able to operate all their differing services. They've got twin, quad and even six tracks in places, I have two and some hopelessly placed passing loops which can't support all the various services with differing speeds and stopping patterns that they were advocating. Anyway after much fighting, we're down to two services, a regular commuter, that calls at all stations and which, I suspect, will be rammed from day one, and an hourly express to Clark Airport that stops at one and will probably be empty for all time! Even that's a pain to run. But wait, they've not finished. They next wanted to feed me five trains an hour from the underground onto the southern part of my system. It'll only support four without effing my services up and that took weeks and DoT intervention to kill. In the most part, common sense has finally prevailed, but all this has probably set us back 12 months, hopeless! Some lines in Singapore are struggling as well, but that's due to popularity which has led to the assets being sweated, causing some reliability issues. They'll overcome it, as you would expect, and throw new trains at it at a guess.
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Last Edit: Feb 14, 2021 23:20:17 GMT by georgeb
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Frankenhealey
Club Retro Rides Member
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death
Posts: 3,885
Club RR Member Number: 15
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Feb 15, 2021 10:23:54 GMT
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My recollections of the efficiency of the Tokyo metro are tinged with the memories of all the young Japanese males wanting to practise their English on me and welcome me to their country while all I had in Japanese was "Yes", "No", "Please", "Thank you", "Beer", "Toilet" and for the ladies "What time does your boyfriend/husband get home?". All essential words/phrases for the world traveller. If you think all Japanese women used to do was giggle behind their hands then trying the last phrase would occasion a guffaw, behind hand of course. If it went wrong it was all put down to 'Famous Engrish Humour' and then we'd all start laughing again
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Tales of the Volcano Lair hereFrankenBug - Vulcan Power hereThe Frankenhealey here
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Easy, they said. No problem, they said. Just undo this, undo that, replace, tighten everything up and job’s done. These people have obviously never replaced a front shocker on the driver’s side of a left hooker P38. What an effin’ nasty, spiteful, horrible job. On a normal ’38, all the air suspension gubbins is on one side and all the brake and steering stuff is on the other. Stands to reason, see. However, on the LHD everything, brakes, suspension, steering column is all stuffed into one little space on the left side of the bay. And what else is there? You got it, the top mount for the shocker. You can get a wrench in there but you’ll only get 1/16 of a turn each time, reversing the spanner after every go. The bolt’s quite long, as it would be, and the only place it can go as it unscrews, is into the mess of pipes and lines that snake their way between various pumps, accumulators, modulators and so on. Now you can’t get a spanner on it. So you have to find a suitable jack to go under the bottom mount, undo that, use said jack to push the shock up and out to relieve the pressure on the top mount so you can get your fingers in there (just) to turn the bolt the rest of the way. Of course, refitting is the opposite of removal, an absolute pig of a job! So the first two hours of Saturday were spent undoing the top bolt as far as I could, three hours then waiting for Madam to turn up with her car in the hope she had a simple scissor jack, bottle jacks couldn’t cut it, sketchily balance said jack on various blocks of wood, slightly angled, and shove the old shock up and out. Another half hour turning a very reluctant top bolt with fingers and with a clang, it was free. New shock stuffed in, half an hour to align the top, jack up new one and once it was above the height of the seat, give it a sharp tap with a hammer and hope it jumped the gap between jack and where it was supposed to be. Cry, “Eureka!” Then spend next hour doing up the top bolt, 1/16 turn, reverse spanner, 1/16 turn, reverse spanner, remember? All the while teaching innocent passers-by a whole new world of Anglo-Saxon invective. Replace wheel, drop off jack and retire in disgust for a cold beer, still muttering under your breath. 7AM Sunday, still aching mightily from the contortions you put the body through yesterday, you reluctantly set out your tools and, within an hour, have done the other side. I could get a socket on that side, hell, you could have held a dance on that side, there’s that much room, so it whizzed off. Look… Anyway, the upshot is the fronts are done, a drive revealed all was well. I don’t think the old ones were too shot, they still needed a fair old shove to compress, but the top bush had collapsed on one, so that wouldn’t be helping. Just the rears to do now, but I’m thinking that if I’m going to teach Tania to drive, she really needs to understand how things work... See where I’m going with this one?
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Feb 22, 2021 14:43:23 GMT
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Good to see that you are keeping your hand in George!
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