Saturday was a mechanical day. My car is just coming up to 60,000 miles run so it is time again for a service. Holiday are coming up too so it is wise to get the car ready for the extra mileage. It only takes me 45 minutes to change the oil, filter, air filter and spark plugs. I topped up the coolant and checked the handbrake.
Degsy has been sounding a bit out of tune. I decided that I would reset the timing. Given I knew this day would come. The weather was fine and I had set aside time for the job. I remember the process from my younger days when this was I had to do all the time on both my bikes and cars. I found the timing marks which were on the flywheel. The marks are viewed through a little access plate which is buried at the back of the engine. It took a bit to find it and to get the plate open. The next job was to set the timing mark on the flywheel. To do that you have to turn the engine over until the timing mark on the flywheel lines up with a pointer on the access cover whilst cylinder one is approaching top dead centre. Land Rover were considerate in supplying a starting handle with which to spin the engine. The problem is the handle is at he front of the engine and the marks are at the back with the radiator and bodywork in the way. even the manual say to get a friend to spot the mark or turn the engine. I only had H to hand so she had to spot the mark. We only had to have two or three goes to get the marks spot on. You cannot crank the engine backwards so if you miss the mark you have to round again. Once the marks were lined up it was a simple job the set the points. I loosened the distributor and set the dwell angle. Bolted it up again and turn the ignition key. Vroom, it started. Now I know how to do the job I should be able to do quite quickly next time. I noticed that the distributor cap transfer bars are burned as is the rotor cap so I should get a new ones.
I fitted a flip up step on the near side for H to able get in and out more easily. I had to drill a couple of holes for bolts but it went on without much trouble. I also fitted the rear reflectors, a MOT requirement. I was done by early afternoon. I had a sandwich and a brew a went to see the Bees.
There is trouble at the bees. The queen is not laying and I am not sure what to do. Wait for the Queen is get mated on buy in a new laying Queen? I will have to think about this but I have to decided upon a course of action very soon.
On the way back from the bees I went to the lottie and dug up a row of spuds. They look really good if a little large for earlies. H was on the her way out for a evening do so I popped home to say goodbye and have a brew. I went back to the lottie a continued weeding. The birds were very untidy when eating their seeds during the winter so now I have wheat growing on my path. I had a general weed. New Stu came down so I we had a chat about Degsy. I was noting that the tyres were the noisiest in the world. Stu agreed. He could tell it was me 200 yards away just from noise off the tyres. He remember a friend of his might have some road bais tyres that might fit. A few minutes and a phone call later I was the owner of four newish tyres and two wheel for £20. I was to collect them the following day.
It started raining so I went home H was out for the evening and Miss L was at friends. I drew a bath and flopped into it for an hour. Nothing to do and I switched off my brain and just relaxed for the first time in weeks. I had to collect Miss L from her friends house so had to get dried and dressed. I went in Degsy. It fairly flew along. So much so the tyres were smelling as they overheated. Lucky I have got some spares coming. Miss L and I had a nice evening watching TV and chatting.
Next morning a had a few things to do but waited until H came home since Miss L was having a lie in. I loaded up Degsy with seed trays in readiness for a trip to the lottie later in the day. H and I went out to a garden centre in Newton Regis. H needed a brew but the tea room which normally has a organist tinkling the ivories had a stand in Saxophonist who was playing by numbers. We got what we went for a tottled back through the lanes to home. Another brew and judging that the showers would miss me, I went to the lottie. I got a couple of trays a seedling planted before the showers came in. New Stu had turned up to drop off some wood for his borders. I followed him home to get the tyres. The tyres were a major result. Part worn yes but with plenty of tread. Two of the tyres were on good wheels as well!. I want to paint the white to smarten Degsy up. He has two cream wheels and two black. I could easily put the two new wheels straight on the have the new tyres put on the existing white wheels which would give me four white wheels I am looking for. That gives me a spare to put on the bonnet and on for the garage.
Tomorrow, 20th July, is the 40th anniversary of man walking on the moon. I think I remember stay up to see it on TV. I am not sure I did, I was only eight and I have been to sleep a few times since then. I do remember seeing the grainy pictures at school and we have seen the iconic footage many times since. I have just started reading Buzz Aldrin's autobiography, Magnificent Desolation. It was an amazing feat of endeavour. More amazing when you think they flew with the state of the art computer with only 74k of memory and a 2 megabit processor. Modern mobile phones, never mind the laptops, have much more computer power than the Apollo 11 rocket. However they did have a back up.............a slide rule.
All in all a restful weekend. Only two weeks to my summer holiday.
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