Hi,

Sorry I'm abit late with these entries, been behind on Blog entries lately! So:

Day 5:

On day 5, I worked on the north driving car of a Class 165, No. 165011, again we were working on the underframe and engine (aka downstairs). We started by checking the brakepad clearances, then changed 2 of the 16 brakepads that are on the car. The pads come in two parts and are changed by simply realising a single clip and sliding them out.

We then went onto take oil samples from the car's final drive and then put on the locking wire. We then had to dump the oil to check whether the oil reserve tank was working. The oil reserve works by the engine telling the reserve control box that it's oil level is low, the control box then pumps oil from the oil reserve into the engine.

We then changed the fuel filter on the car and went to have some lunch! The Fuel fliter on a class 165 is much harder to change than on a class 168, it being hidden behind the auxiliary heater, where as on a class 168 it is placed in front of it. The Auxiliary heater is used to heat up the fuel to get it flowing through the engine (if I understand it correctly!). We came back to check the fire system and brakes. To round the day off we filled the starter and auxiliary batteries.

Day 6:

After having a break due to the bank holiday, I came back to work on a class 168/1, No. 168113. Today we had to replace the drivers side, side skirt on the North Driving car, the one that was to be replaced damaged and worn. By the time I had started work the skirt that was to be replaced had already taken off. Our first job was to take the steps off the old skirt and put them on the new skirt. This involved ripping up the grit from the steps to get to bolts.

The next job to take the mounting bracket off the old skirt and transfer it to the new skirt, this involved cutting the bracket from the fibre glass skirt. This was a task undertaken by the fitter in the open and wearing a mask.

We then glued and fibre-glassed the backet on and went for some lunch while we let it dry. After we got back, we painted the fibre glass and bracket. Once the skirt was dry, we mounted the skirt, regrited the step and packed up for the day.

Simon