another day, another driveway...

Thanks to Austin's help and tools, Will did indeed manage to fix the alternator last week (for the grand total of £3.60's worth of bits out of someone's scrap bin rather than the £120+ a new alternator would have cost!) and all just in time for dinner (well almost) so we have been back on the road for a week - hurrah! 

unfortunately though we've not actually gone very far...  having successfully completed all the jobs which require heavy tools and returned them to our garage, it is car trouble of a different kind which is now holding us back, namely the fact that we still have two cars to sell before we can go...







both are advertised on pistonheads and autotrader and we have even put a new MOT on the green one (passed first time of course! although it still needs tax) but as yet no interest  :(

so we are stuck in Cambridge and the cars are temporarily lodging on my various relative's driveways - surely someone wants a lovely well looked after car to either jaunt about in the sunshine with or sensibly tow heavy things with and all in all generally make their life nicer and nicer - I will leave it to you to deduce which car is best at which activity :)

Special buy-it-now discounts to blog readers, just quote the reference: "Ireallywanttoensureyouactuallyleavebybuyingalovelycarfromyou" in your email. 
Family get a further discount by quoting ref:
"justbegonealreadyandgetoffmydrivewayyouareloweringthetoneoftheneighbourhood"...



But whilst we are stuck on my parents' driveway, Will is making the most of the time with a new project - central locking and a car alarm!  It even comes with a proper boy racer key fob!





Previous wiring related projects did not go so well.  Due to the unique way in which our van is wired, all the wires from the coil are black, labelled in black on a black background with a little black light which lights up black to let you know you have connected the right one (ok, so I am exagerating here but they are all black wires) and as such, having "fixed" the reversing lights, there was a point at which (obviously when we were trying to head home in the dark), the van would only start when in reverse...

This new wiring project however involves a myriad of wires, in all the colours of the rainbow and more besides, and wiring diagrams which might as well be in code...

but progress is being made and not only do the front door locks now work at the push of a button (manual door locks are just *so* 1970's), the indicator lights flash when it does it and a little blue LED flashes to warn people off - it is so bright there is a danger people will think the police have already arrived!

The next step is the immobiliser, after which I think there are some sensors and the sounder to go - I am merely supervising from the living room, making tea and popping out to hold things or feed in solder when required ....

This is not to say that I have not been usefully occupied as I have been extremely busy setting up a wildly successful and highly regarded facebook cafe...  we *so* need to leave whilst I still have vestiges of a life and some remnants of my credibilty intact...