Difficulty in buying HT lead

[John Wakefield]

Inspired by James May's (Captain Slow)The Reassembler tv show on Monday night when he put together a Suffolk Colt motor mower. I decided to pull out a spare engine for one of these I had in the shed & get it running. No spark, so off with flywheel & checked contact breaker & connections. After a bit of a clean up I got a spark but HT lead was a bit short & looking worse for wear so I decided to take a trip into town and buy a replacement.
Went first to my local Wilco car discount parts shop.
Me: One metre of HT lead please.
Assistant: Sorry sir we only do complete sets for cars, what make is yours?
Me: Its not for my car but a lawn mower, dont you keep this on a reel & sell it by the metre?
Assistant: No sir, no call for it like that these days
Me:What about the classic car & motorcycle owners, they want this stuff.
So left this shop & went 5 miles to the local branch of Ernest Doe the local horticultural/agricultural dealer. They must have it I thought, all those lawn mowers, strimmers chainsaws, hedgetrimmers etc.
Doe assistant: Sorry sir we only stock the replacement leads for individual machines.
Me: But surely you must get the occasional obsolete mower in for overhall & need to make up a lead.
At this point an old hand from the workshop came by & heard the conversation. "Think we have some out the back Fred"
Doe assistant: Hold on sir I think we may have some.
Couple of mins later he came back with half a roll of black HT cable, "Looks like we have some after all, Bert's been with us a long time & remembered that we had a roll for workshop use".
Me: How much is it?
Assistant: 70p per metre.
Me: Thanks ill have 2 metres please (never know when I might need some more for the Greeves or the engine on my mower).

What is the world coming to, all these classic cars, bikes & old lawn mowers out there yet no one stocks HT lead by the metre anymore. Yes I know you can buy it on line, but not long ago every garage stocked it.

Looking on line a replacement HT lead for a Suffolk engine only comes complete with coil & condenser at £48.48 http://www.gardenhirespares.co.uk/basket nuff said

[Dogsbody]

Started watching that programme, but switched off in disgust after he hammered the gudgeon pin in, put the piston in without oiling it and then used enough gasket sealant to build a dozen engines on the sump! Sorry, I know it's tv but for heaven's sake there are standards.
Dogsbody

[Brian Catt]

The "modern way" is quite frustrating at times! If I go on a particular spares website, it will only let you enter after you declare what model you are buying for. If you do not have a model on their list, you can't get any further. I e-mailed this company telling them about this problem, but it is still the same! I bought my stuff from a dedicated old-fashioned outlet.

[John Wakefield]

Started watching that programme, but switched off in disgust after he hammered the gudgeon pin in, put the piston in without oiling it and then used enough gasket sealant to build a dozen engines on the sump! Sorry, I know it's tv but for heaven's sake there are standards.
Dogsbody

I agree, I expected a bit better than that from May, he is after all a biker & I have always thought him 'hands on' in things mechanical. Like you I was appalled the way he hammered the gudgen pin in, all he needed to do was heat it up in some hot water. He also skipped a lot of the more intricate parts like putting the contact breaker points in & setting the gap. Reality TV made to a tight budget. I wonder who took it apart?

[Colin Sparrow]

I was betting that he had a circlip in there still. Fully floating gudgeon pin (?)should just slide in surely.

[KevinLS]

I had a similar experience at Wilco last weekend. I wanted a plug cap for my mower. "Nope, we don't have one." Tried Halfords. "Nope we don't stock those, but I can order you one in, it'll take a couple of weeks."

I'm ashamed to say that my mower is now running on a 1965 Lodge plug cap stolen from my Silverstone. (Temporarily).

[stace]

TV

There is a similar programe about bikes called shed and buried, i have seen it twice which is two times too many, there is a tv type presenter that as far as bike go is a complete numpty and a guy who does the spannering that obviously knows one end of a spanner from the other but is as exiting as a cold bowl of custard. Hope not to catch it again.

[Dick F]

You must be referring to Hooray Henry and his sidekick who is only to speak when told too , how much they get paid i dont know plus his biking adventures as well, entertaining i find him more like frustrating!http://www.greeves-riders.org.uk/for...s/confused.gif