Recent content by Calvadosser

Thank you for all the information. Yes, I am very happy that the problem has been solved. I'm still puzzled that the car always started very easily, with no misfiring at all at low engine peeds) but only misfired on more than half throttle. Almost the opposite of what I would have expected...

Thank you for the comment. As I mentioned, I had checked the ignition system (I checked spark coil output voltage by using a calibrated spark gap, replaced the capacitor, replaced the rotor arm, checked the timing with a strobe). There is no question that the misfiring was due to the fuel and...

Recently I bought an old car (1954 Ford Zephyr, a six-cylinder 2.2 liter English car) whose recent history was essentially unknown to the seller but had probably done little running for some time. He warned me that the engine was not running correctly - the car was blowing black smoke and...

psparky - thank you. I never doubted that engineers designing cable systems have all necessary design tools at their disposal but having that confirmed does not really help me. Could you please give some off-the-cuff ball-park figures, based on your experience, such as I asked for? I want to...

These are questions for electrical engineers involved in electrical power transmission by overhead line and knowledgeable about current practices. - What catenary sag is normal, under normal conditions of weather and transmitted current? [obviously the answer will depend on the distance...

Thank you. I am still struggling to make sense of all this. It seems that even isolating joints don't prevent corrosion, because of the path through the water remaining quite short. So I am not sure of the benefit of them. And they cost 20 euros the pair. Maybe a 50cm length of...

Thank you. If I have understood what you are saying, two adjacent areas of metal surface form anodic and cathodic regions even though there is just one single metal present. Or have I misunderstood (again)?

Thank you. Does that explain why the insulated joiners are necessary and do their work even though the pipes on either side of the insulated joints are electrically connected? If it does, I am sorry to say I have not followed the reasoning.

The interior of the old dielectric joint that I removed from the old water tank looked much like your picture. The picture seems to show an isolating joint - I wonder if it functioned as it was supposed to before being removed and sectioned to display the corrosion or whether it was faulty in...

Thank you. I'm trying to understand. I believe that the current flows through the water, whether or not the steel and copper are in direct contact (in either case, they are connected together via the grounding wires). We have copper and steel in contact with water containing ions from...

nsaspook - thank you for your reply. I had already well understood that the electrical bonding of the hot and cold pipes (and the casing of the hot water tank) to ground was for electrical safety. And the reference given is all good sense about electrolytic corrosion but it does not seem to...

I'm living in France and have just replaced my "chauffe eau" - a 200 litre hot water tank with built in 2.4kW electrical heater and thermostat. The instructions say that it should be installed with an electrically insulating joint where the hot water outlet pipe is attached. I bought a pair...

Thank you for the suggestion. I will give it a try as soon as I can (but not for a week or so because of things that have to take priority). I was using C(t)-C(t-1) because that then covered the same time interval as Fa(t). Maybe I can use 1/2(Fa(t+1)+Fa(t-1)) to match up with 1/2...

First, thanks for all the responses to my original question. I agree completely that, if one had observations of C(t), where C(t) satisfies dC(t)/dt = -λ C(t), starting from C(0), then you'd simply find the exponential that fitted the observed points. I tried to include sufficient information...