Tank 240 had a day out last Friday................

I had to 'nip' down to Poitiers on Friday - it was not un-eventful. Tank loaded & a little trailer full too. Return trip was loaded too after swopping some stuff over.

Distance was 160 miles each way on the fab' frenchy un-congested (in the main) roads.

Setting off in glorius sunshine about 1115hrs Tank soon settled in to a steady 70mph on the quatre-voie (dual carriageway - or 'four lanes'). I drove for about 2 hours befoe stopping in an 'aire' to have my pic-nic. Incredibly just 2 hours south & folks were sitting outside enjoying the sun. I had about 30 miles to run & a good hour to our 'rendezvous' time. All going well then?

Well I set off & then pulled in for fuel, not needed really but thought it'd save stopping on the return.

Shortly after fuelling, I noticed the temp guage was down at the bottom...... then saw the rev counter jumping about.............. then at a roundabout no indicators..........then GPS told me I was speeding in a 50kph when my speedo said I was doing 50? So I pulled over & stopped to have a check around. I was 16 miles away from my destination.

I could not find anything obviously wrong, fuses all okay, no loose wires... So tried to start up............... nothing, not even dash lights! Tanks was dead!

Fortuenately I was in an industrial area by now. I slung my jump leads over my shoulder & asked in a factory place if someone could try to jump start me.
We tried this, but still could'nt get Tank to fire up. He nearly did.......

Anyway the chap said that there is a garage just across the way & he kindly offered to get the mec' to come over to 'help'.

The mec' arrived & I explained what had happened. Straight away he said, "It's your starter motor" How he worked that out I'll never know. Anyway, he got a big screwdriver & shorted the starter across it's terminals with the ignition on! Sparks flew & the motor (at least I think it was the starter) began to spin & whir. He again said yep it your starter alright. I politely suggested I thought he was wrong, but if he kept trying to do what he was doing he would probably kill it for me. He seemed a little 'back footed'. I suggested he tested the battery & then got a battery pack & then check the charge. I also told him that 240 starters are very long lived in general. He said that 'you can't just go sticking a battery pack on it when you don't know what's up'. I was starting to dislike this berk' by now.

So he got his tester.......... 11.3v. "There I said battery is dead" reply, "No 11.3 is not to so bad" Now I did dislike this berk! lol. I asked him to put his battery pack on, I wanted to prove that the starter was good. It was & Tank fired up immediately! Mr Mec' was sort of squirming by now. So I put his tester on the my battery after he dis-connected the pack. 7.8 volts & no change if I revved him up.

He said he'd tow me to the garage & he'd look in to it. By now I'd decided to ring my insurers, I was wishng I'd done in the first place.
I sort of thanked him & didn't offer him a few euro's for his 'efforts'.

Here we are at the side of the road, after the 'mec' had 'tried to kill my starter':





Insurers gave the 40 mins average call out time. So I waited. During the wait my oppo arrived to swap our loads over as planned (well nearly as planned)

Breakdown arrived & after me explaining the faults, he put Tank on the back of his truck & hitched the trailer up. We went to an auto-electrician about 5 miles back up the road.

Here we are, having just been un-loaded:





I had a chat with the chaps. They tested my battery & condemed it. They also reckoned a 55A hour was a little to small. I'd marked it with the month & year I fitted it (11/05). They said I'd had my monies worth! Out came a brand spanking 70A hour & it was dropped into place. Then they pulled the regulator out of the alternator (now I'd fitted this only 18 months or so back - it was a scan-tech). I was expecting it to be okay, but one brush was about 3/4's, the other was about 1/4! They replaced it (I'm not sure what make it is). Once fitted Tank was fired up & a test at the battery on tick-over with head lamps on showed 14.4 volts. Woohoo!

My credit card was then walloped for 171 euros

Once I'd recovered I set of for home. The return journey was un-eventful!

On a slightly brighter note, 'Zeb' - Volvo 850 went in for his Contrôle Technique (French version of MOT) on Saturday & passed 1st time! Only a couple of minor advisories, the worst of which was that the exhaust pipe is extremely rusty.