Favourite grease?

[AnthonyH]

Righto, one it is. I was reading a thread you contributed to a couple of years ago, i think you or someone else suggested using cling film to prevent the leaks, that or putting the brakes on using a big stick against the pedal. I've used a big stick before so one or other should work.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

LOL, i can well imagine the gaseous reaction!

The portion sizes were enormous as i remember. The whole plate was filled and it didn't look like a small plate. And it came with a pot of tea/coffee.

Its interesting that you recall times having to avoid the motorways because the car was unreliable, it jogged my memory and now i'm straining to think of the last time this happened to me. Probably not that long ago though lol.

There was actually a very similar cafe in a back street round the back of the main college buildings near the college I attended in London. Mostly frequented by taxi drivers and commercial delivery drivers. The sausages weren't quite so good but the steak pie was it's equal. A big aluminium oven container full of the steak pie meat and lots of gravy which had been cooking for so long the meat had all but dissolved into the gravy with the pastry cut into portion sizes on top - flaky and light on top and deliciously soggy underneath. What wouldn't I give for a portion right now! Around about that time Mrs J and I became a serious item and started living together - ooooh! I was forbidden from eating the steak pie from then on "It's either you or that damned pie" I seem to remember her saying. Always a pot of tea, don't remember coffee featuring much.

Back in the earlier days of my motoring/life as a couple life I could only aford old bangers. Typically I'd buy trade ins from the larger franchised dealerships which they didn't want to retail, "Trade Cars", on the strict understanding that once the money was handed over you wouldn't come back. They won't sell these to you now due to consumer protection laws giving the buyer too much power. However I did run around in some pretty dodgy motors! I particularly remember doing a core plug on the Ambassador in a filling station on the M1. and cutting my top lip very badly trying to separate the centre pipe from the transverse front silencer on a DAF 44 so I could carry it into the commercial repair shop, again somewhere on the M1, where they were going to let me use the welding gear to repair it (the pipe had cleanly fractured - probably due to resonance vibrations from the 2 cylinder engine being mercilessly thrashed up the road - so welding was a good option) This was at about 2 am on a winter's morning at a commercial emergency recovery workshop. They were ever so friendly and horrified when I stuffed the ragged end of the broken pipe stub into my top lip as it finally gave up it's grip on the silencer - Lots of blood all over the place! Since those early days my vehicles, although often old, have benefited from my experience and been "over maintained" so breakdowns on long journeys haven't really featured. Until, of course, a couple of years ago, when the Ibiza chewed up a final drive (probably pinion) bearing around the M6/M5 interchange going down to Devon. Luckily it degraded quite slowly so we did complete the journey but so much damage was done a new box had to be fitted, OUCH! that made a hole in the savings!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Righto, one it is. I was reading a thread you contributed to a couple of years ago, i think you or someone else suggested using cling film to prevent the leaks, that or putting the brakes on using a big stick against the pedal. I've used a big stick before so one or other should work.

Holding the brake pedal down to the floor - perhaps with a "big stick" - should stop the fluid being able to flow from the reservoir through the master cylinder but I prefer not to do that as I don't want to push the piston seals into a part of the cylinder bore where it usually doesn't go and maybe consequently suffer damage. Cutting off air to the reservoir air bleed hole by putting something like a used crisp packet - which seem to be immune to attack from the brake fluid? - over the filler and screwing the cap back on will stop the fluid just as well and it's my preferred way to do it. I avoid pinching off flex hoses as, especially if they are older, it can damage the hose. However I would consider pinching off a hose for fault finding purposes if all other options had been tried first.

 

[AnthonyH]

There was actually a very similar cafe in a back street round the back of the main college buildings near the college I attended in London. Mostly frequented by taxi drivers and commercial delivery drivers. The sausages weren't quite so good but the steak pie was it's equal. A big aluminium oven container full of the steak pie meat and lots of gravy which had been cooking for so long the meat had all but dissolved into the gravy with the pastry cut into portion sizes on top - flaky and light on top and deliciously soggy underneath. What wouldn't I give for a portion right now! Around about that time Mrs J and I became a serious item and started living together - ooooh! I was forbidden from eating the steak pie from then on "It's either you or that damned pie" I seem to remember her saying. Always a pot of tea, don't remember coffee featuring much.

You're right i don't ever remember getting a pot of coffee, it was always tea. I don't think they used brand name PG Tips or Tetley, but it tasted just fine.

I liked the idea of the food being cooked in front of me, i suppose that wasn't the case with all greasy spoons. But these days you pay a price premium for someone to cook a meal in front of you. It was a novelty to me to go and collect sugar sachets at the time in these places.

Back in these days there were fish and chip shops, greasy spoons, restaurants, but no fast food. I can remember McDonalds coming to my town for the first time back in the 1980s, i wasn't that impressed.

Back in the earlier days of my motoring/life as a couple life I could only aford old bangers. Typically I'd buy trade ins from the larger franchised dealerships which they didn't want to retail, "Trade Cars", on the strict understanding that once the money was handed over you wouldn't come back. They won't sell these to you now due to consumer protection laws giving the buyer too much power. However I did run around in some pretty dodgy motors! I particularly remember doing a core plug on the Ambassador in a filling station on the M1. and cutting my top lip very badly trying to separate the centre pipe from the transverse front silencer on a DAF 44 so I could carry it into the commercial repair shop, again somewhere on the M1, where they were going to let me use the welding gear to repair it (the pipe had cleanly fractured - probably due to resonance vibrations from the 2 cylinder engine being mercilessly thrashed up the road - so welding was a good option) This was at about 2 am on a winter's morning at a commercial emergency recovery workshop. They were ever so friendly and horrified when I stuffed the ragged end of the broken pipe stub into my top lip as it finally gave up it's grip on the silencer - Lots of blood all over the place! Since those early days my vehicles, although often old, have benefited from my experience and been "over maintained" so breakdowns on long journeys haven't really featured. Until, of course, a couple of years ago, when the Ibiza chewed up a final drive (probably pinion) bearing around the M6/M5 interchange going down to Devon. Luckily it degraded quite slowly so we did complete the journey but so much damage was done a new box had to be fitted, OUCH! that made a hole in the savings!

Ah yes, a story I can remember is going to a garage and asking them to loosen the flywheel nut because i couldn't do it myself. They said fine, just don't drive far on it or you'll lose it...so the next day I was at a dealer asking to buy the nut lol

 

[AnthonyH]

Cutting off air to the reservoir air bleed hole by putting something like a used crisp packet over the filler and screwing the cap back on will stop the fluid just as well and it's my preferred way to do it.

So the brake clutch master cylinder isn't air tight? I seem to remember something about that but i'm not sure.

I avoid pinching off flex hoses as, especially if they are older, it can damage the hose.

I'm sure mine will break the brakes, excuse the pun. So i'm not looking to pinch the hose at all.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Back in these days there were fish and chip shops, greasy spoons, restaurants, but no fast food. I can remember McDonalds coming to my town for the first time back in the 1980s, i wasn't that impressed.

I'm not impressed by the modern fast food places, only tried them a couple of times actually and thought the food was not great and prices not value for money. - On the other hand I remember the experience in America being very different. I particularly remember a hamburger joint in New York called the "Blue Max" where the hamburgers were to die for! I don't like large slabs of fish so tend not to frequent fish and chip shops but I do like a Scottish mince pie or scampi or a white or mealy pudding, always available in a Scottish chippy with Edinburgh "Chippy sauce" if possible. If we're away somewhere we tend to use local cafe/restaurants and find them better both food and value wise.

 

[AnthonyH]

I'm not impressed by the modern fast food places, only tried them a couple of times actually and thought the food was not great and prices not value for money. - On the other hand I remember the experience in America being very different. I particularly remember a hamburger joint in New York called the "Blue Max" where the hamburgers were to die for! I don't like large slabs of fish so tend not to frequent fish and chip shops but I do like a Scottish mince pie or scampi or a white or mealy pudding, always available in a Scottish chippy with Edinburgh "Chippy sauce" if possible. If we're away somewhere we tend to use local cafe/restaurants and find them better both food and value wise.

I generally find McDonalds burgers or chips are lukewarm, i do wonder why they can never manage a hot meal. Burger King would sell me frozen burgers if they could lol.

We're gravitating to more sit down meals these days because fast food prices have inflated so fast they're not far off the cost of sit down pub meal.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

So the brake clutch master cylinder isn't air tight? I seem to remember something about that but i'm not sure.

Yup. As the friction linings wear the piston resting positions - on calipers especially, but also drum brake cylinders if the self adjusters are working properly - move further out of their cylinders to compensate for the worn away material. Some of the fluid in the master cylinder reservoir will move into the caliper/wheel cylinder to allow the piston to assume it's new resting position. It couldn't do this if there wasn't an air hole in the reservoir cap. You may have noticed that the reservoir level drops very slightly as the pads wear? I prefer not to top up routinely, unless the level drops appreciably, because if you keep topping up then when the time comes that you need to push the pistons back for some reason you risk the reservoir over flowing if you're not careful. Of course if the level drops quickly you've probably got a leak so just topping up won't help that. I check all my levels and monitor resting battery voltage regularly, once a month at least, along with tyre pressures etc, so get to know the rate at which the reservoir level drops. On my new Scala the level has dropped less than a couple of mm in the nearly 18 months I've owned her. If you're looking for the air hole in the cap it can be very difficult to find on some designs as they incorporate a "trap" to stop dust and "foreigners" gaining entry.

 

[Greasytrucker]

I'm not impressed by the modern fast food places, only tried them a couple of times actually and thought the food was not great and prices not value for money. - On the other hand I remember the experience in America being very different. I particularly remember a hamburger joint in New York called the "Blue Max" where the hamburgers were to die for! I don't like large slabs of fish so tend not to frequent fish and chip shops but I do like a Scottish mince pie or scampi or a white or mealy pudding, always available in a Scottish chippy with Edinburgh "Chippy sauce" if possible. If we're away somewhere we tend to use local cafe/restaurants and find them better both food and value wise.

Scottish chip shops are legendary, i nipped into one at Ardrossan a few years ago and pointed to something and said “what’s that please?” There reply was “Battered pizza” Oh yes, we’ll have a bit of that. Blumin lovely it was! Same as Scottish snack vans, whenever i’m in the area i always head for Hermiston Gait to get my “Sausage and Black” on a fresh morning roll, or Glasgow area it’s normally Cumbernauld for a “Bacon and tatty scone roll” all half the price of down south of course

 

[AnthonyH]

If you're looking for the air hole in the cap it can be very difficult to find on some designs as they incorporate a "trap" to stop dust and "foreigners" gaining entry.

I get it now, i really can't see any hole in the cap, but it must be there. I'll look extra close!

If I can find the hole and its small enough then some well placed duct tape may work.

 

[AnthonyH]

Scottish chip shops are legendary, i nipped into one at Ardrossan a few years ago and pointed to something and said “what’s that please?” There reply was “Battered pizza” Oh yes, we’ll have a bit of that. Blumin lovely it was! Same as Scottish snack vans, whenever i’m in the area i always head for Hermiston Gait to get my “Sausage and Black” on a fresh morning roll, or Glasgow area it’s normally Cumbernauld for a “Bacon and tatty scone roll” all half the price of down south of course

Battered Pizza, i'm lost for words lol.

I'm going to assume the black is black pudding, which i eat at home regularly. But the tatty is? Potato?

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Scottish chip shops are legendary, i nipped into one at Ardrossan a few years ago and pointed to something and said “what’s that please?” There reply was “Battered pizza” Oh yes, we’ll have a bit of that. Blumin lovely it was! Same as Scottish snack vans, whenever i’m in the area i always head for Hermiston Gait to get my “Sausage and Black” on a fresh morning roll, or Glasgow area it’s normally Cumbernauld for a “Bacon and tatty scone roll” all half the price of down south of course

Oh, "tatty scones" (potato scone) cooked in a frying pan along with the bacon - yum yum! There's a chippy at the top of Broughton Street, just off Picardy Place, still advertising deep fried battered mars bars in the front window. I like the occasional Mars bar (but gives me tooth ache due to receding gums) however I can't say the idea of a deep fried one doesn't sound attractive at all. Might be tempted to try a battered pizza though, but Mrs J would never allow it. She doesn't even like me having a mince pie!

 

[AnthonyH]

Oh, "tatty scones" (potato scone) cooked in a frying pan along with the bacon - yum yum! There's a chippy at the top of Broughton Street, just off Picardy Place, still advertising deep fried battered mars bars in the front window. I like the occasional Mars bar (but gives me tooth ache due to receding gums) however I can't say the idea of a deep fried one doesn't sound attractive at all. Might be tempted to try a battered pizza though, but Mrs J would never allow it. She doesn't even like me having a mince pie!

Tatty scones sounds a bit like the bubble and squeak patty i had a few days ago. Pleasant enough.

I will only eat my wifes home made mince pies, the shop bought ones aren't to my liking but home made ones delicious, although i don't know whats different, less fruit probably.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Tatty scones sounds a bit like the bubble and squeak patty i had a few days ago. Pleasant enough.

I will only eat my wifes home made mince pies, the shop bought ones aren't to my liking but home made ones delicious, although i don't know whats different, less fruit probably.

Ah! Scottish mince pies bare absolutely no relationship to yours. They are quite a bit bigger, made with a lovely "flat" pastry and contain a well seasoned, quite peppery, minced meat filling mostly mutton/lamb but sometimes beef. They are usually quite greasy and, if you get a good one, are absolutely delicious! Chip shop versions are specifically formulated to survive deep fryers so are a bit different to a "proper" one made in a family bakery but usually very tasty none the less:



There's a chippy just as you leave Edinburgh going south on the old A7 road which used to be open all hours and, after a good evening out with the future Mrs J and friends, I'd stop there, buy a mince pie and munch it as I hared back down into the border country and home. Oh the memories!

 

[porta]

Ahhh Scotch Pies, yes, know them well.
The bakery near where I was brought up in Leeds did a mean one.

 

[AnthonyH]

Thats a much better use of mince than in the xmas pies in my opinion

I rarely go the chippy these days. I much prefer their chips to the fries at say McDonalds.