A temporary set back.

[whippy]

I got the Franklin Wayfarer weighed on Friday (960KGs) & took her to the local Vic Roads Office to get registered.

Everything was going great until we came to check all the lights.
No Tail or side lights working. The girl who did the inspection was great & gave me the rest of the afternoon to find the fault.

Firstly I discovered the car fuse had blown, put another in, gone again!

Armed with a screw driver & nothing else I wasted about an hour undoing lights to see if I could find the fault. I didn't, so I told the girl and left.

I spent all of Saturday morning systematically isolating wires, even pulling a peice of the rear panel off to find where all rear tailight wires connected together. Tracked the short to one wire.

Let me see, what was the last thing I did after checking that all the lights worked ? Changed the screw holding the number plate light in place to alarger one as the small screw didn't cover the hole properly. The larger screw touched the side of the batter connection to the globe earthing it.

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH What a %$##@@#%$^%^ idiot. !!!!!!!!!

Now I have to get another time to get an inspection.

[Roehm3108]

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH the FUN of vintage vanning ;D ;D ;D
Ray

[whatwhat]

Whippy Is that a case of being screwed?

[Deleted]

Hi Whippy

Oooooooooooo Bugga eh
The old self tapper trick
The worst thing about all this is you cant blame anyone but yourself.
We live and learn ;D.
If you think caravan electrics are bad you ought to try messing with old pommy motorbikes and try sorting out the mess that "Joe Lucas" used as an excuse for electrical components.
If you can master "Lucas Lectrics" you are smart enough to split the atom ;D

Here is a collection of Lucas Jokes to help you get over your stuff up.

* The Lucas motto: "Get home before dark."

* Lucas denies having invented darkness. But they still claim the "sudden, unexpected darkness"

* Lucas is the patent holder for the short circuit.

* Lucas - Inventor of the first intermittent wiper.

* Lucas - Inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.

* The three position Lucas switch - Dim, Flicker and Off. The other three switch settings - Smoke, Smolder and Burn.

* The Original Anti-Theft Device - Lucas Electrics.

* "I have had a Lucas pacemaker for years and have never had any trou...

* If Lucas made guns, wars would not start either.

* Did you hear about the Lucas powered torpedo - It sank!

* It's not true that Lucas, in 1947, tried to get Parliament to repeal Ohm's Law. They withdrew their efforts when they meet too much resistance.

* Did you hear the one about the guy that peeked into a Land Rover and asked the owner "How can you tell one switch from another at night, as they all look the same ?" "He replied, it does not matter which one you use, nothing happens !"

*Lucas systems actually uses AC current; it just has a random frequency.

* Back in the 70's, Lucas decided to diversify its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product they offered which did not suck.

* QA called and told the Engineering they had trouble with his design shorting out so he made the wires longer.

* Alexander Graham Bell invented the Telephone. Thomas Edison invented the Light Bulb. Joseph Lucas invented the Short Circuit.

* Recommended procedure before taking on a repair of Lucas equipment: Check the position of the stars, kill a chicken and walk three times sunwise around your car chanting: " Oh mighty Prince of Darkness protect your unworthy servant.."

* Why do the English drink their beer WARM? Because their refrigerators are made by Lucas

Have a nice day sparky... ooops i mean "Whippy"
Reddo ... from the dark side

[Don Ricardo]

Thanks for the Lucas Jokes, Reddo. They caused me much mirth.

My first two cars were a 1960 Wolseley 15/60 and a 1972 Hillman Hunter Royal 660. Both ran Lucas electrics. Your jokes brought back many memories.

The Hillman in particular blew head lamps so often (sealed beam units in those days) that I started importing them by the container load. Well...maybe I'm stretching things a little... But I did keep spares in the car because you could never predict, and the fact you'd replaced them yesterday was no guarantee of anything...

Don Ricardo

[whippy]

For those interested, I got the van registered today and I an going to Warnambool next weekend 28/09/07 for our first test run.

[tinnie]

G'day Whippy,

Good to hear ya finally got by Vicroads.

Someone down here in Gippsland finally beat Vicroads a couple of weeks ago, pity they had to burn down the morwell office to do it. Police mentioned something about a couple of suspects from the Lucas family.........

Seriously, enjoy Warnambool, lovely town, if ya staying in a park I definately suggest surfside, Pertobe road. Nice big grassy park and (as name suggest) close to beach.
Warm up for Mt Gambier '08??

Cheers,
gristy

[jrod]

Hi Whippy,

Glad you got it through Vicroads with not too much trouble. I wasn't happy when i took mine there and then they told me that 300 other vans had the same serial number so they couldn;t register it without me going and getting someone to stamp a new one in the drawbar...

Have a great maiden voyage, i hope its all smooth sailing.!

Also, where did you buy your van from. I looked at a Franklin Caravelle back in 2004 that looked exactly like yours, it was at a Coromal Dealer out Sunshine way from memory. They wanted to $2500 for it.

Cheers J-Rod

[whippy]

I bought it off Ebay in August 2007 J-Rod.

Gristy, I will give it a go the get to Mt Gambier. but as I have built my 49 Single Spinner Ford Ute to tow the Van, I want that finished before I go too far.

There were two other older vans in the Fig tree at Warnambool, one on it's m aiden voyage like us, so we compared a few notes.

Glynn