Any hydraulic place will sell you copper rings or - perhaps better - "doughty washer" rings.  Just take the banjo bits along and ask.  Cheers

"spares kit" is a great idea, yes

Interesting

For many years I had VWs - owned maybe eight or ten in the years before we had cheap Japanese cars available here.  My ex-wife wrote off at least four of them . . .

The last was a '70 bus with a 3-litre V6 Ford Capri engine which fitted in the hole in the back just nicely

Great to drive, but when it finally did what every Ford V6 engine does and expired in a cloud of expensive oily steam I bought a Toyota and have continued to do so

350,000 miles is impresive

Hey Bruce (and others)

We talked about home welders & related stuff a while back - probably in the context of "what machine do I need?"  So maybe there is some value in the following thoughts:

See pics?

This is the little single-phase welder I use all the time out of my service truck running off the generator you see in the pic (see detail, nominally a 7500W machine).  This welder likes the generator and runs just fine off it

One of our suppliers has a slightly different variant of the 16TC 7016 Low Hydrogen electrodes I normally use for everything and I bought a box to have a play and did a rough test-piece (see pic detail)

Tomorrow when its cool I'll cut some slices off it and attack them with the press and the sledge-hammer so see if there are any faults

The test piece is an inch thick and used about 3 or four pounds of electrodes (to use American dimensions) and the little welder did a close-to-100% duty cycle - just the time taken to swap electrodes and chip/wire brush as it's only down-time - running at about 60/70% of its nominal 170A capacity

The point I wanted to make is that, while current ratings are a bit nominal, I started off the first ten or fifteen runs at 125A and the final five or six at 100A as the piece got hot and I was working closer to the surface

I'm a fan of these inexpensive (but not "cheap") Chinese-sourced, Australian-branded welders and the inexpensive (and only slightly cheap) Chinese Honda Clone generators

I'm expecting that if there are any faults in that test-piece they'll just be the result of a pretty causal approach on my part but that penetration etc will be good

FWIW I would conclude that - unless you're working on Serious Heavy Machinery - that a nominal 7500W (Chinese watts with a lot less torque than American/English/Lister watts) and a nominal 150A or so of welding capacity is plenty for most applications

Maybe the DC output is 30 or 35V?  On that basis, say, 150A is kinda 5000watts?  Whatever the arc-striking current draw is at 125A, it seems to be well within the range of the nominal 7500W Chinese generator

Cheers

Go for it Ade

I just appreciate the work you do that makes it available

Cheers

So where are they doing it right?  Shed some light.

We've got some of it right-ish here, although a combination of Free Market influences on government policy and pendulum-swung-too-far Green/Liberal influences on legislation are threatening . . .

However anyone can and does collect rainwater or run a permit-free domestic water bore.  Business folks are encouraged to run back-up generators in recognition of the run-down infrastructure (that Free Market stuff again) and in recognition of the increase in severe weather events

Communities are encouraged to develop resiliance (the aforementioned Free Market Model has allowed roading & other essential infrastructure to degrade as contractior/utility companies have pocketed huge profits) and initiatives around solar, small-community wireless internet etc are common

As a nation we are grappling with how to reverse the degradation of our natural resources that is the result of a century of exploitation - without damaging the economy too badly

It's not that place it used to be (although I guess old folks always say that) but it's still a great place to live

Fascinating stuff Bruce & Starfire

Much of what you postulate is completely out of the realm of possibility for me.  Where possible I like to keep the tech as simple as I can - that's why I have old Toyota Camrys and why my last diesel truck was a non-turbo, pre-common-rail and why my last four motorcycles all had carburettors.  If possible, I like to run things I can understand in operation

I still have a few years to retirement (if there is such a thing) and I hope you guys will have sorted out all the potential wrinkles in any decision-making I need to do at that time

As I have no need for a water pump, have solid-fuel heating, and a gas hob plus direct solar or wetback water heating (and, more importantly, as any women up at my shed are visitors rather than residents) my electricity needs are modest and I still lean towards a keep-it-simple-stupid approach to power generation:  12VDC + solar + AGM batteries (although I could be talked into 24 or 48VDC if the case for the benefits was strong enough to outweigh what i see as the advantage of being able to use cheap automotive stuff in the system . . .)

Keep it up.  I am being both entertained and educated here.  Thanks

On a semi-related note, current wisdom says the LIFEPOs will intantly evaporate into a mist of expensive, radioactive steam if charging current is applied at sub-zero temperatures.  I wonder how the Teslas et al do in Canada/Alaska?  I figure they are "charging" with regenerative braking while being driven?  Perhaps they are "smart" enough to have a work-around

Cheers

Hi Chef

If you're thinking of the hole around the outside/perimeter of the casing?  More likely they are used to retain something driven by the output shaft there - gearbox etc? . . .

Most likely the engine will have four cast-in feet with bolt holes?

Good luck