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Wipers, Radiators, Birfields, wolves, etc.

G

Guest

Guest
Sorry for the composite but have been away in the mountains for 2 days again.
Wiper blades, thanks Renate, Roman, Ian and - Christopher - Oh Valerie
Singleton, now there was a woman, (shame she always had to prepare it
earlier though). Problem with the hot water is that when out for a full day
it can't stay hot, especially as its not good (i.e. healthy) to keep the
cabin roasting to keep the water warm when one has to keep getting in and
out a lot. As for swapping the rubber refill, then yes that's a
possibility. Do you remember the good old days when we used to get Trico
refills for our Mini - oh for wipers of the quality of Trico again. But my
problem is that my plastic fittings have decayed and gone brittle after
re-using them several times and a life in strong sunshine out here, same
goes for the plastic joints in the blades as well. I agree that Halfords
do conversion kits etc, but I don't have a Halfords round the corner. More
usually Muhammed's 'Auto Dijelovi' and if you've got a Golf, Audi or Skoda,
he's your man, otherwise tough luck. Yes swapping arms my be an answer.
But again in a poor country there are not so many super cars scrapped that
may have the same configuration - cast foot - for the wiper arm, and
remember, I need LHD. But my main thrust of the question is - have Toy
changed to the hook ended style of arm which most cars seem to have these
days. I may be able to cope with that.
Radiators - Renate wrote...
I've had my radiator replaced piece by piece over the last three years or
so ....
SNIP
Pieces of radiator replaced ? hmmmmmmmmm
Birfields Renate, I don't think you need to fret yet - or until you have
enough spare cash. Mine clicked quite happily on full lock for a year b4 I
replaced them. Remember that you don't spend an awful lot of time - in UK
anyway - on more than say a third lock when in 4WD. If you go to the Plain,
you will mostly be in a straight line till you climb back onto an asphalt
road, and that's the only time you will put it into that position whilst in
4WD.
Wolves, no, read again. When war comes and people disappear for at least 5
years from the mountain villages, there is every encouragement for them to
breed as they have no predators except man, and they were too busy killing
each other for 4 years to be bothered with killing wolves - they don't
taste nice. There are more wolves now than at any time on record. We do see
the odd 'tame' one in a village , but they are never to be trusted like a
Labrador ! The plus point is that these conditions also work for the bears.
So now they are also back up to ancient populations. Each mountain village
has its own bear family and the villagers worship them and keep them safe.
They will tell you where they can be seen, but not where they live. They
are very protective of them. Anyway, enough about wildlife.
Thanks for all suggestions.
Cheers
Jon ('Toy' ??)
'92 HZJ80 ex UN surplus in Bosnia - and its also one of the oldest on the
list- 13 years in April.
 
Jon
</snip>
I was thinking about the"hot water during the day" issue after I posted that - what about one of those 12v car kettle jobs? Or even a thermos flask? (Or maybe a combination of the two.)
A quick search this morning produced a "car kettle" drawing 18A/135w for ?17:00 that plugs into the cigarette lighter (see http://shopping.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/ss_12v_kettle.html). Maybe the sequence should be:
- heat up as you drive,
- transfer hot water to thermos when you stop,
- then to Val Singleton to defrost when you set off again
repeat as required. You could even make coffee with it!
135w would be slow to boil though: the specific heat capacity of water is 4200 J / kg / deg C, so to get 1 litre from 10 deg C to 100 deg C would take ~ 47 minutes. But over the course of a day that probably wouldn't matter.
I appreciate that shopping off the internet may be a tad harder where you are, but I'm sure I could organise getting one sent out to you if you like.
Regarding the rubber blade replacement: the ones I did always seemed to have steel grips for the rubber, and long-nosed pliers made it easy to spread and reclamp them. I've just had a look at the wipers in my machine & those have steel clamps - but maybe yours are different - and arm itself is what I would call "hook ended". I have always used generic blade replacements with no problems.
Christopher Bell
Devon, UK
1996 1HD-FT
 
Hi Toy80,
Obviously it isn't the best idea to use hot water due to the possibility of
cracking the glass.
Other options to consider are:
There is a rubber treatment that repels water that I have used on door seals
to stop them freezing, if I remember I will let you know what it is.
Other option is to keep a blanket in the car and throw it over the windscreen
when parked - it should keep the frost off.
On the wiper design - my '94 has the loop at the end for the plastic fittings
- have you tried wandering around you sure scrap yard to see what other 80s
are using and try to find some with the hooks on the end?
--
Regards,
Julian Voelcker
Mobile: 07971 540362
Cirencester, United Kingdom
1994 HDJ80, 2.5" OME Lift, ARB
 
On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 23:33:13 +0100, toy80 <[Email address removed]> wrote:
Jon,
Can you send me a photo of the fitting on your wiper arm and I can
check if the Halfords kit will be suitable? It's o nly a couple quid
and I could send it to you if it did.
--
Rgds,
Roman (London, UK)
'92 HDJ80
 
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