Ian Beale

There are a lot of those electronic load bar scales used in Oz. Usually with a weight platform in the crush (your chute I think). Recordings now common to be linked to RFI ear tag ID. And a few elsewhere. At one stage I was involved with sailplanes even to the level of state airwortiness. Now you will appreciate the importance of weight and balance with things that fly. Bluntly get it wrong and they don't. One meeting the need was expressed for a better system of weighing gliders - which had a tradition of bathroom scales. I gave the airworthness boss a link to one of our early makers of load bar electronic stock scales and they provided sets tailored for glider weights.

I was never inside one but IIRC from the shop manual pictures - Didn't the IH petrol start diesels have a wave form machined into the big end cap joint?

Theiss is the give away - that is in Australia. Looks like at a mine in the Central Queensland coal basin. More on the machine - https://thiess.com/news/thiess-tv/burton-liebherr-9800

"Fess up! I reckon you've been watching TV? "Alberta Invokes Sovereignty Act" https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2023/11/28/alberta-invokes-sovereignty-act/ Chiefio is more direct - "Alberta Tells Ottawa To Stuff It on Renewables Mandate" https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2023/11/28/alberta-tells-ottawa-to-stuff-it-on-renewables-mandate/

Any "pedegree line" of those Brasilian engines back to those of the English Ford "D Series"?

FWIW - One of the big cattle ranching chains here in Oz seems to have standardised on Makita

Wouldn't that need some research on injector spray patterns? Different I know but older Cats seem to convert from pilot motor to direct electric start OK without pre-warming facilities

Maybe as a generalisation make sure on that - the Fiat Allis (FA 10 etc line) manuals were actually power shift with the main wet clutch operated via the transmission selector lever. I don't know if others did this.

A different look at oil consumption When the Jaguar E Type came out Road and Track got chassis #9 for their road test. And reported high oil comsumption. Seems the rationalle was that the first run of a car that looked like that had the chance of a snowflake in h e l l of getting run in properly. So the early ones were built loose - better a mention of high oil consumption than headlines of siezed engines. And fixed later.

Years ago our local Honda motorcycle and industrial engines dealer scored a trip to Honda in Japan. He came back talking of the wonders of sintered metal e.g gears formed with metal powder and cooked into shape. I'd wonder if that might not be how those rods are made, with some high tech weakening across the big end part line so they break cleanly without distortion?

We use River Red Gum for heating. One day as I was cutting such a log out of a flood fence the rememberance occurred that they used to fire paddle steamers with that and the wonder of how it would go in a wood heater. The answer was "Well". It is mostly straight grain so easy splitting. And good with chain saws as there is minimal dirt in it. You do get the occasional curly grained ones.

Mike Interesting - I've never seen anything like that. I doubt it would wean me from the "Drybollocks Jack" version though these days

Another one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Classic And https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Interpol_2

If you can find one of these Australian made ones - ours has been pumping flawlwssly since about 1990 IIRC https://au.macnaught.com/documents/instruction_manual/im_hp.pdf Looks like they may be out of production though

Sounds like that could get painful?