BT Freeway PMR dismantle

I would say repair, but I couldn't find the problem. It was a fiddly little beast to take apart though.

It starts easily enough with removing the batteries, to reveal 4 screws you can take out. That leaves it firmly stuck together at one end. What you have to do is,

Slide the silver cover on the back top down. A firm push on the raised semicircle should do it. Use a screwdriver to prise off the cover from the top, starting on the back where you have just exposed two small holes to lever in, and then on the front where you just have to work int in. Slide it up over the aerial.

Take out the final screw thus exposed, on the back near the aerial. The front now pulls off quite easily. Getting at the back however is more tricky. De-solder the tab connecting the aerial to the circuit board. Then the board should lift and pull out quite easily.

 Better luck finding any faults than I had.

Coffee Machine

The office coffee machine broke. I need coffee. It's a simple drip filter machine that only cost about 15 quid but there a principle at stake here. It was obviously blocked,.Descaling didn't help, and nor did taking the feed tube off the top, so it's got to come apart. First problem is the bottom is held on with triangular recess screws. An old screwdriver plus a bench grinder solved that problem. After that getting at the inlet was easy enough. There is a small valve in the inlet spigot. Sucking and blowing on the tube showed it was not working. After a little trial and error, it turns out to be easy to push out from the reservoir side with a piece of wire. At that point, a lump of paper towel fell out of the hole. Job done.

Rubics cube

I finally decided to get a new tractor. Well, I say new, 6 years newer than the old one. A Ford 4610 with what is colloquially known as the "Rubics cube" gear shift. Having tried randomly wiggling the lever about, searching the web gave no clue about how it worked. I finally resorted to buying a manual. Out turns out it is fairly straightforward, although completely unintuitive. There are three neutral positions. The one in the middle of where the starter interlock is. The ones at the ends allow the lever to be lifted, from where a secondary movement forward or back selects a gear.

All this is the right hand lever. The left hand reverse/ low/ high one is much more obvious.