String really is the way forward!

[GrahamFountain]

String really is the way forward! I understand a certain F1 team regularly pop into a local fishing shop to buy fluorescent line
I used something similar on my spitfire to centre line it. A bit of faff, took me about 90 mins all in.
And made a camber/castor gauge buy copying this (literally, enlarged pic and used the scale!)
https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/p/ad ... uge-adaccg

Rather than pollute the tread the above quote came from, I've started a new thread.

The very, very worst use I ever saw string put to on a motor vehicle, was by an agricultural engineer. I'm sorry the back-story's a bit long and barely credible – even to me, and I was there.

I'd been roadieing for a mate's band, "Machine Gun", at some WMC in Whitby, and we were going back to York in his Bedford CF van, when the pi55ed-up bugger lost it near the top of the hill down into Sleights (Carr Hill, not Blue Bank). As a result, he mounted the kerb, and the back wheel hit the fence. That broke the axle's location to the leaf sprint, the axle shifted back a bit, and the propshaft fell out at the gearbox end. So there we were, pogo'ing down the road (which was odd, 'cos it weren't a punk band), with half a ton of WEM stacks, drum kit, and amps, etc., in the back. Till we spun, and all the gear burst the back doors and flew out onto the road. Talk about shared skit-less.

The least believable bit of it all is that we stopped on the verge at a perfect right angle to the road, in the gateway to a field. With all the damage on one side of the van and hidden by some trees, it looked like it was just parked. That, and this image I still have of John running after his metallic orange base drum (it were the 70s) as it bounced off down the hill.

Anyway, much later that morning, this agricultural engineer mate of the bassist came out to help recover the van and stuff. Coasting backwards down the hill for half a mile with the end of the propshaft dragging along the tarmac looked like a bad idea, even to him. So, he decided to thread string through the front CV joint and lift it up by tying the other end to the door handle. It did lift the propshaft off the deck, and we did manage to push it towards the road. We got all of 6 feet before the turning propshaft wound the string up and it broke! The door handle held though.

I just laid there on the grass, and laughed till I cried.

Graham

[Dolly-Dimple]

Graham that was a fabulous read, you put so much into your descriptions you can almost feel you were there. A great memory and a great anecdote anytime the string comes out Im surprised the handle held.....

Kind Regards

Russell.

[trackerjack]

The thread of this story was very good indeed, I too could almost see the event.
As far as I know we have never met and I only know you through your writing on here, and think it at odds with anyone connected to a punk band
However it takes an enquiring and ingenious mind to sort out an engineering problem with simple tools and for that I aplaud you.

[GrahamFountain]

Thanks for the appreciation. I'm just glad that jokes on posts and threads don't cause a fence.

I don't think I've met many in the dolomite circles (though with the pull to the right, my car's clearly in that class), except MikeyB once. I used to go to many TR Driver and TR Register events in the 80s and 90s with the TR7s, but it got too difficult when the Horde of the Things came along. Now the youngest is 7 and we've once again got enough seats and boot space in Triumphs, we may start to get out more. We're certainly thinking about the North Yorks. Triumph weekend at Runswick Bay next May 20th – 22nd (and especially if the Sunday run out is to t'Lion on Blakey ridge). I do hope there'd be a few reasons I couldn't win the wooden spoon and best Doly at the same meet anymore.

Graham