Kickstart

Half of an armies vehicles being able to be put back into service is a massive number. While some would have been destrotyed by being used as part of impromtu jetties, most were probably fairly rapidly disabled (eg, drain the oil and leave running) and mechanically simple enough that given time easily fixed with readily manufactured parts (worthwhile in quantities like that). Could be worse. In the desert the Italians had so many captured 25pdrs that they produced ammunition themselves. All the best Katy

As I understand it, the British army was the only fully mechanised army for logistics at the start of the war. Hence a hell of a lot of trucks left in France after Dunkirk. Feed your troops enough methamphetamine and trucks become less vital! All the best Katy

Parts book not a testable item. And the MOT test exemption for lights is based on whether the lights are fitted or not, with no mentiond of switchgear or wiring. All the best Katy

A case of the tester gold plating the regulations There are enough holes in them anyway! All the best Katy

If no lights are fitted then none are required. A rear position lamp renders the rest required. Some mot testers interpret light switches mean lights are fitted, but most dont All the best Katy

Saved a driver who I was passenger for as well. I tend to do them even as a passenger, and a shout stopped them moving lane into another vehicle! Not in the UK, although if fitted they there are the standard requirements on sharp bits that can injure others. Mind you, you can MOT a bike with no lights at all. All the best Katy

Probably depends on the work. In a role where the manager needs technical knowledge to fight for technical upgrades (this is true in many IT environments) then a manager without technical skills is a liability unless they are a people manager with a separate technical lead. All the best Katy

Times when visibility is bad and there is someone in front and not someone behind, so I want the rears on without having the fronts on. I don't want to add to their problems for no reason. And also to flash my foglights when someone is driving behind me on high beam without the fronts flashing All the best Katy

Some things are a pain to figure out. On a lot of cars there is little or no logic (to me) to rapidly know whether I am turning on the front or rear fog lights (although even worse are those where there is no separate control for each). A lot of modern bikes now have switchgear that looks like an ice cream dropped into hundreds and thousands. I get worried about the indicator switches on the late 1980s Aprilias and Cagivas, and others. Feels like it would break very very easily. To be fair, I have never broken one All the best Katy

Some places still have canteens, but probably more restricted to larger sites these days. Last place I worked that had a site canteen I left in 2007. As to managers, yes it is a skill. Both the ability to avoid getting bogged down in details (but still be aware of them), people skills and others. A lot of people are very technically skilled but would make lousy managers, and most of these know it and avoid it. Unfortunately managers actually having the important skills is not always a certainty. Certainly not helped when management is seen as the only way to have more money / prestige. All the best Katy

Hiya For me, yes I would like information. Best chance of combating rising anxiety. But the same applies in most things. Roads are possibly worse (although off the motorways, more chance to to something about it), and a useful information sign is an exception! Mail order is much the same (I have been waiting over a month for some wargames figures - and wish I knew when they would arrive) Last railway delay I had was about half a mile from my destination, but the guard did keep us informed. All the best Katy

I take it they are unionised, and only they are allowed to use a hammer on it? All the best Katy

So that is what M+S stands for! Always known it by the more colloqial 'Mud and S****' All the best Katy

One problem is that you need a slightly richer mixture with ethanol. Not a problem with closed loop system where a lambda probe feedback to the ECU so it can adjust the mixture on the fly. But on an open loop system (including carbs) it won't know so will run a bit leaner. If the mixture is set up borderline lean as standard then it might be dangrously lean on E10 - potentially holing a piston (this might be an issue on 1980s carbed Kawasakis for example). Note that some systems run closed loop through most of the rev / thottle range, but switch to open loop at large throttle / revs (and probably when the lambda probe is cold also, but hopefully nobody is putting a cold engine under that much load!) So yes direct engine damage is certainly possible. I probably will richen the jetting a touch on some of the bikes I have (especially the 125 2 strokes!) BMW had issues with this in the USA mainly about 20 years ago. From memory the Nikasil they used to coat the bores failed prematurely on high sulphur fuel, costing BMW rather a lot of money in replacement engines (either switching back to steel bores, or to something they called alusil). They also didn't update some engines to lower emission spec for markets with higher sulphur fuel as the cats required low sulphur fuel (BMW N52 to N53 engine changes). All the best Katy

This was similar. They did manage to ride back to our place very gently! I have a worse rear sprocket that came on a bike I bought for spares. But it is an alloy sprocket, so liklely wore very rapidly as soon as the teeth had mostly disappeared. All the best Katy

This was a friends front sprocket. We gave him a lift home….. All the best Katy

Struggling to work out what you mean, but the closest I can think of is a Lexus Soarer All the best Katy

Dont know, but think at least predominantly for the Indian market , not for export. All the best Katy

Triumph do make bikes in India. They were also developing a smaller engined bike in conjunction with an Indian maker, but think that has been scrapped. All the best Katy

Some Youtube videos of the cars being checked:- All the best Katy

The Cortina is down as a green Ford Cortina (first registered 4th September 1963) on the MOT checker site. And a quick google for the registration number brings up this sold auction listing:- https://bid.tennants.co.uk/m/lot-details/index/catalog/957/lot/563953?url=%2Fm%2Fview-auctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F957%3Fpage%3D1%26view%3Dlist%26sale%3Dundefined%26cat%3D106%26catm%3Dany%26order%3Dorder_num%26xclosed%3Dno%26featured%3Dno All the best Katy

I think King Dick still make them them, but limited other choice. My WW ring spanners I bought 15~20 years ago. Unused, Britool spanners in "War Finish" All the best Katy

I had enough problems finding WW spanners, etc. Had collected a few, but then a friend donated a load to me. All the best Katy

Hiya Biggest problem with the 80s and early 90s Maseratis is the fuse box. Rest of the electrics are not bad. Standard fuse box contains several flexible PCBs. These are difficult to separate , and the connections to the terminals are not great. An Italian company is now making replacement fuse box internals! Further, using blade fuses rather than “ceramic” fuses. We ordered one last week which has now arrived , so I assembled it into the spare fuse boxes container tonight. Went together easily. All the best Katy