Chat & Social > The Bar - General Chat
Dream job
xmob:
Sorry for the delay in reporting back, I had to take a trip to Widnes yesterday, and went by train (you'll find out why later) so didn't get home 'til late.
The good news. I have a part time job! :D Not that I needed one, but this one sounded like fun. I am now a patrol/recovery driver at Langdale Quest.
I arrived on site at 10am as planned. After a quick breifing about the perfect 10 year safety record at LQ I was sent out into the forest. I decided to use my own (my wifes actually) car in the end because I would be sticking to the gravel tracks and had all my important stuff in it (lunch). My duties for the day:
Help lost people.
Offer instruction/guidance/monitoring to drivers/vehicles on some of the more technical sections, particularly the descents.
Keep an eye out for Colin McRae wannabes.
It sounded like it should be fairly easy. It wasn't. Sunday was a quiet day, and keeping track of up to six vehicles at a time was not easy. Especially when you have two novices approaching different descents at the same time. You have to tell one to wait, get the other down safely, then get to the other descent as quickly as possible.
I had a great amount of fun. The feeling you get when you see the smiles on peoples faces after making a descent is great.
SWMBOs Discovery came home muddy, even though it spent most of it's time of gravel tracks. It also came home on the back of a recovery truck. At about 4pm I went to change down a gear. The clutch pedal was already on the floor and the gearstick was jammed solid. [!Expletive Deleted!]! Reported in sick, fortunately the site had got really quiet by now and they could manage without me (good job really considering I was only meant to be there training!). Forced the car into third and limped it back to the car park. Had a quick check of fluids, all present. Nothing obviously wrong. In the end I called National Breakdown.
The recovery driver arrived about 45 minutes later, with one of those trucks that hoist the front wheels up. When I pointed out that he couldn't tow me home with that, he seemed a bit miffed. He phoned his HQ, and they told him to take the rear prop shaft off. I can't repeat his response, but basically he said "No" because there was a more than average amount of mud under the car. Had to wait another hour for a flat bed to turn up. SWMBO went beserk when I got home. Everytime I take a car to LQ, it gets broke. She doesn't believe me when I tell her that this had nothing to do with being at LQ. Help me out here guys!
Initial prognosis suggests it's the slave that's gone k'put. I went out for a look this morning, and the bloody thing is working fine! I'm going to pop the slave off when I finish work tonight and check the seals etc.
xmob:
It seems that it was the slave cylinder (phew!). At £9.60 + VAT for a brand new replacement, I didn't bother with a repair kit.
Colin 009:
Well done on the new job :mrgreen:
I hope to be going up there in Feb,
I've been told that you can tow a Discovery as long as its in neutral. I guess yours was stuck in gear.
xmob:
I didn't know that. It wasn't stuck in gear, but still, it got home.
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