a fairground life (what is luck?)

What is luck?

I had hoped for a delivery time of the 24th march for the pump and motors. It became clear early on that that was looking unlikely. The hydraulics firm has requested a visit from a chap who used to work on this particular hydraulic motor type. That visit/consult took 10 days to happen. It turned out that the motors were in very poor condition and needed a specific repair/ refurbishment strategy. This meant liaising with the hydraulics engineer, the consultant and the machinist in the machine shop. All time and ALL money. A plan was finally executed and the repairs were started. As these motors were no longer manufactured no spares were at hand and all new components had to be made from scratch then sent to be treated / case hardened and then returned to be fitted. On a positive note, the consultant had supplied some old spare parts he had laying about BUT they needed some re-configuration. The pump was a slightly different story. It was returned to the manufacturers UK agent who were able to strip it, assess it and fit spares. This was to be a 7-10 day turn around but took longer. The pump was also badly worn and needed extensive refurbishment, in fact it required so much and would cost so much that I had to ask the question-If that's how much to repair one, what's the cost of a new one???. It was more expensive but amazingly would take even longer to arrive !??? I called for an update early the week before the 24th and got less than good news, a delay in parts from the machine shop had a knock on effect and the 24th would now probably be the 26th. On a positive note however the pump should be returned by the 25th at the latest. On the 23rd I called again, good news was that they had started to re build one of the motors, bad news was they were still waiting for parts. On the 24th I called again- good news was that one pump had been run up and tested- bad news was that it failed the test and was being stripped down again. The consultant had diagnosed a major problem over the phone. I called again on the 25th- good news was they had found the problem in the first motor- they had broken a piston ring on re assembly, bad news was the pump hadn't arrived.On the 26th I called again-Good news was that the two pumps had been assembled (due to the extra hours put in late through the night from the hydraulics staff) and that the pump had arrived- bad news was that the pump to electric motor coupling had not returned from the machine shop. It was late Saturday afternoon now, the hydraulic engineer suggested I pick up the pump and motors and he would send the coupling up by courier. I said that I needed the coupling as I could not fit the pump until the coupling was attached. He said he would make a call and see if the engineer could do anything. Twenty minutes later he called back- the engineer was going in early Sunday morning to finish the coupling and I should get it that morning whilst picking up the other items. So that was it, "r" and I would leave early Sunday morning drive down to Norwich for 10am, pick up all items then drive back again. Estimated 800 mile round trip about 17 hours in total. Sunday 2am the alarm goes off, I get up and put the clock forward. The mission has only just started and we are already an hour late! "r" and I set off- £80 of derv in the pickup and a packet of midget gems! oh and mrs showman packed the sannies,crisps and a case of pepsi. It was an uneventful trip down in fair weather. I stopped about the 250 mile mark and "r" took over while I got some kip. A few minutes before 10am we arrived. Unfortunately the coupling was not ready and we loaded the pickup with the gear. This took an hour, still no coupling .Then at 12:20pm it arrived, at last we could set sail for home. I drove first again while "r" kipped and at 200 miles we changed over again. We pushed it a little harder this time, no doubt getting tired and eager to get home. This was risky as the pickup was heavily loaded in the rear and the steering was very light due to this. Luckily we made it ok. At 8pm we arrived home. The next day at 10am we headed into the shed. I had it all planned- 4hrs to fit pump, 2 hrs 1st motor then 2 hrs second motor then a couple of hours trying out and then pulling the ride down. We got the coupling out to fit it- mis alined retaining holes and the new pump bolts were thicker and rubbing the coupling. So right away a problem, we tapered the coupling with the grinder, then tapered the grubs to fit the mis aligned holes and put it altogether. I had calculated that I needed less than 100mm from pump face to coupling end for it to fit to the motor. We slid the coupling onto the shaft as far as it would go, it looked a bit long but I measured it-99mm, phew! Now we had to fit the pump to the motor under the ride. To do this we manufactured a trolley out of a frame with 4 castor wheels then a bit of ply then a car tyre then another bit of ply then a trolley jack with a bit of 6 inch channel welded to it. We sat the pump on it and rolled it under. It worked like a charm and we jacked it up to the correct height to align the couplings. A bit of jiggling and the two went together, we hung the pump on a ratchet strap and rotated it about 10 degrees to align the mounting bolt holes (why have things mounted at angles instead of horizontal???). Next we fitted all the pipes again.At this I noticed a plastic blank under the pump- good job cos if we had ran it up this would have blown out and lost our oil in a few moments- luckily we had a blank to fit it. I checked the time- 1:30pm, a whole 30 mins ahead of schedule. Next we went onto motor1, we attached the overhead crane and hoisted it up into position. Unfortunately the motor was mounted at an angle too. The lifting eye had the motor level so we had to improvise- 2 long threaded rods were inserted into the motor bolt holes and we wound it in- it twisted as it went until we had to remove the hooks from the lifting eye and hang it by a strap wrapped around the end of the motor. After a while we finally had it in, I check the time- 3:45 so we had lost 15 min from my original schedule. Motor 2 went on quicker as we had learned the technique now. We moved onto the piping and I said to "r" if we fit these last two pipes in 4 mins we will be bang on schedule. Of course it took longer,but only a few minutes and I was well pleased. All we had to do was run it all up. First we turned on the oil taps to flood the pump, we started the motor, a sweet quiet humming noise- so far so good. We tried the hydraulic back flash ram we put the seals in-extend, retract,extend,retract- excellent, no leaks and its working. We raised the backflash and started on the motors. We hadn't fitted the cogs yet so we could spin them up and check they were rotating in the same direction. They were so we fitted the cogs. Now the acid test, we would lift the carriage on the ride. I gingerly eased the joystick forward- the ride slowly began to rise up but it stopped at about 8 o clock position. I tried again and it stopped at the same position. I though instantly that the pressure was not high enough. I called the hydraulics engineer and he confirmed that there were indeed two relief valves present on the pump casing but he wasn't sure were. He would find out for me, but during this time I had found two likely candidates and adjusted them about 1/2 a turn. I tried the ride and it moved past 8 o clock and stopped at 9 o clock position. At least I was on the right track and had another attempt adjusting. This time the ride completed the revolution easily and I connected the counter weights so I could test the ride. I eased the ride around one way then the other a few times. We checked for leaks and there were none so we gave it the full monty. The ride was over speed by 1 rev in reverse but under speed by 5 revs in forward. I was dismayed but thought it only needed the control "Dynex" adjusted. So we started tinkering- a few minutes later and it was all no go, the ride was un-controlable. The only component not to be refurbished seemed to be malfunctioning. It was well after 9pm and I had an old mobile number for the ride manufacturer that I had not used for about 5 years. I called and he answered!! I got a quick heads up on the dynex set up. We tried again for another hour but it was no good. Tired, cold and demoralised we went home. At that point I wondered why I had even bothered at all, I surfed the web for info and found a PDF document for the Dynex device. The next morning we headed out again, all I could do was possibly clean it while I waited for a price from the Dynex uk agents. I called a couple of other hydraulic chaps but none had any information to give regarding this device. So "r" and I stripped it. Firstly, it had a small internal filter with an ultra fine gauze that we cleaned out ( not that we could see any dirt). Secondly we removed a casing plug and blew through it, a very small speck of dirt seemed to come out, but nothing to speak of. Thirdly we removed the force motor but could see no oddities. So we put it all back together. At that Blakey arrived and his words of wisdom were- I can see you are stalling to put it back on in case it doesn't work but you've got to try it. So I put it on, again it was un-controlable, but this time I disconnected it from the pump arm and began to adjust it free of the pump. I bled it, then adjusted the force motor position, gradually I got it to

settle down. I told "r" to activate it back and forward with the joystick whilst I measured the strokes of the little piston. Eventually I had it mm perfect on push and pull. We reconnected it to the pump arm and tried it. Eureka!! exact revolutions forward and reverse, in fact both were exactly the same for the first time ever. For a whole hour we ran the ride and pumps- no leaks,no squeaks, no problems. We pulled the ride down, cleaned up 6 weeks of rubbish and headed out to the mall.

Wednesday "r" and I went to pick up the skydiver and Dropzone from the yard. We eventually got the EC11 started when we diagnosed that flat batteries was in fact a faulty battery isolator switch. We left the yard soon after. "R" managed to limp the EC10 in on a dirty filter. Arriving on site we set the rides and started to erect the skydiver. "r" was eager and suggested we do the maimi too as the weather had dried up. We started the pump and "r" headed towards the lever valves. All of a sudden bang and he cried out burst pipe. Dashing to the paybox he stopped the motor. Looking under the ride we could see a small puddle of oil, but it was not a pipe, no. On the back of the refurbished pump was a brand new small auxiliary pump, with an even newer crack down its casing that was leaking oil. What can I say, it was either faulty or had been stressed by over tightening when assembled at the hydraulic place. I have called for a replacement to be sent up. However they had a better idea and are sending me tomorrow to pick up a replacement from a nearby Scottish supplier.

NOW WHAT HAS ALL THIS GOT TO DO WITH THE QUESTION, WHAT IS LUCK?????

Lets see- the wasted 10 days were to get the consultant up who it turned out was 70yrs old and had designed the motors! was that lucky?

the motors were so badly worn that only he could have come up with a repair plan, was that lucky?

the pump didn't mount horizontally so this let me see that the metal blank still needed to be fitted, was that luck?

because the motors had failed their initial test and delayed, I picked them up days later, this gave time for the coupling to be ready, was this lucky?

because of the delays it was Sunday that I went down, the roads were quiet and I made up the hour I lost from the time change, was this lucky?

the whole job has taken 6 weeks and to kill the time waiting we have done many many others jobs, was this lucky?

the ride manufacturer still having the same mobile number after so long, was that lucky?

Blakey spurring me on to try the Dynex again instead of me buying another, was that lucky?

because of the problem with the battery isolator on the Foden we checked the EC11's right away, was this lucky?

because it stopped snowing before 6pm- "r" decided to erect the miami and found the blown pump earlier, was this lucky?

"r" limped the EC10 onto site without changing the filter stuck on the hard shoulder in the snow, was this lucky?

As opposed to- another consultant came sooner and I got everything 10 days earlier.

the motors only needed a clean and paint, a monkey could have done it and gave me change out of a fiver.

the pump mounted horizontally and the plug was already fitted.

everything was ready on time at the same time and I picked it all up.

the hydraulic engineer was only 4 miles away not 400 and any day would have been a ten minute trip.

the whole job took 2 weeks, I never had time to work on the other jobs as I was away on a months cruise.

I didn't need to phone the ride manufacturer because when I put it altogether it worked.

Blakey was out working earning cash as he was not needed due to the dynex being "A O.K"

both isolators had never ever failed at all before.

it never snows because its always sunny in Scotland and the pump didn't blow anyway.

dirty filters? what are these? I've never experienced any such thing!!!!

LUCK IS (definition of) "THE ABILITY TO IMAGINE A WORSE SITUATION THAN THE ONE YOU ARE CURRENTLY IN!" quote by showman 2010.