To leak or not to leak

While putting the final touches to the DHC's engine bay already two months ago I also gave the water pump a quick look. And at the time there were clear traces of coolant from the infamous slot underneath the water pump. A tissue wedged in the slot would be soaked within 24 hours. But during a circa 300 kilometre tour over a month ago all was normal. When I set of in the morning there surely was a leak. With the tissue stuck in there again being completely soaked in coolant. But there was no significant drop in the coolant level in the header tank. So I decided to ignore the leak and enjoy the driving. And when I returned home some 5 hours later the slot in the engine block was completely dry. Even after the engine had cooled down there still were no traces of coolant in that area. So it looked like my initial thoughts on the problem were correct: due to the cars idleness the mating face of the water pump's seal had corroded slightly, thus causing the leak. And using the car more often should get rid of the corrosion and the leak.

But when I wanted to take the car for a spin last Friday evening, a quick inspection before I set of again showed a tiny trace of coolant from the slot. But more worryingly, the coolant level in the header tank had dropped considerably. But then I remembered that while changing the header tank recently, the hose between this tank and the radiator developed a leak (hose clip slightly loose). And since I hadn't topped up the coolant. So I did it now! After which it was time to enjoy a lovely evening of topless driving.

Of course I kept a keen eye on the temperature gauge. But I needn't have worried. The temperature remained rock steady in its usual position. And a close inspection of the complete coolant system carried out this afternoon showed no leaks and nothing wrong with the coolant level.

So hopefully there's no need to replace or recondition the water pump. But I have made a mental note to use the car on a more regular base in the time remaining for Club Triumph's 10 Countries Run in September. But before that event there are two essential items that will be replaced. They were dropped of at a friend's place for renovating, a few weeks ago because the ones currently fitted to the car have rather worn spindles. As a result of which they have become rather difficult to tune and synchronise. So time for a shiny new set ...

Photobucket P500

Almost a month ago, while reading through some online forums I noticed that all the pictures I posted there through Photobucket had been replaced with an image stating:

"3rd party Hosting has been temporarily disabled + to unlock your account visit: Photobucket.com/P500"

First thought was that one of my two accounts had exceeded its bandwidth again, so the pictures would reappear in a few days time. But they didn't. And both accounts were down. So after visiting their site and some searching on the internet I found out that they had changed their Terms of Service. As a result of which linking a picture from my Photobucket account to my weblog or a forum is not permitted anymore. Or in their words:

"Photobucket defines 3rd party hosting as the action of embedding an image or photo onto another website. For example, using the tag to embed or display a JPEG image from your Photobucket account on another website such as a forum, auction listing, blog, etc. is definitively 3rd party hosting"

But if I would be so kind as to pay an annual fee of $ 399,- for each account, I could continue with their services. Still wondering what business case PB was dreaming of when they came up with this change ...

But their services have been going downhill very rapidly over the years. With their site being very slow, and with ever more annoying and irrelevant pop up adverts. As a result of which linking pictures to my Blogger account had become quite an ordeal. I have been toying with the idea of changing to another photo host a few times in the past. But the fact that all pictures posted on various forums and on my weblog would be lost, kept me from doing this.

But now PB has been so kind to make that decision for me. As all pictures posted on forums are not visible anymore there's no way back.
Remains the time consuming task of restoring my Blogger account using Google Photos. Currently working back from the last post, and at the time of typing these words my weblog has been restored back till September 2012 and one of my two PB accounts has been cancelled. Added bonus of using Google is that linking pictures to my Blogger account is much easier and quicker. As is their site!

Edit: both my Photobucket accounts are now cancelled.