Saturday 4 January 2014

A (Briar) Rose between two Jubilees, and new points make my Amazon go

Sunday 29th December 2013

When we tied up at Stoke Bruerne a few days ago we saw that we were directly opposite another Jubilee, although its owner popped his head out to say that we were, in fact, the "other" Jubilee, as his boat was the original, having been built, if I have this right, in 1927 by Yarwood's of Northwich.

In the morning we found that Jack Frost had been at work overnight.

When it was time to go, Briar Rose steered between the two Jubilees. The apparent change in colour scheme is merely a reflection of the red boat behind our Jubilee.

Towards the bottom of Stoke Bruerne Locks Briar Rose leads the way.


*****************

Back to today, and I replaced the points on my 1969 Volvo Amazon. This is the old set, with extremely worn contacts.

The fixed contact is almost completely burnt away. No wonder the engine was getting hard to start!

Here is the moving contact ...

... and in close-up.

It didn't take long to fit the new set. Unsurprisingly, it has made a huge difference: the car starts immediately and runs much more smoothly. I should have done it a long time ago!

Some of you might be wondering what these mysterious point things are. Diesel engines don't have them, neither do modern cars. Even our "new" Volvo, 1987 vintage, has breakerless ignition.

3 comments:

Alf said...

Got your moneys worth out of them !!

Graham and Jill Findlay said...

I remember the joy of points on the old motor bikes. A cigarette paper helped set the timing, a bit of fag packet the gap and the striking surface on a match box cleaned up the faces. No wonder we all smoked in those days.

Halfie said...

I confess I "cheated" and used feeler gauges!