What did you do to your non-G body project today? [2020]

[axisg]

I put someone on my truck last week for a gravy money - ground level pressure washing job. 14 hp motor with a shaft driven , 3600 psi pump. ( nothing really radical ) Attached to 200' of wash line on a reel. This is all mounted to an old fax cabinet on wheels so we can wheel it off and on the truck as needed. Same rig I have run for almost 2 years and 200 or so hours ( so it owes me absolutely nothing but it works... or rather it worked ... ).

He called friday to say it was out of fuel and it was low on pressure. Friday was hot as ... so I cut him loose early. Come to the job site today to grab the truck and check out the pressure issue but only to find the motor loose on its bolts and the washer pump flopping on the cabinet. All 4 bolts mounting the motor to the cabinet were missing the nuts. So as it ran the washer unit was flopping on the cabinet. It cracked the housing on 3 of 4 bolts mounting the washer to the motor. The fuel tank is now flopping around at least 3\4" on the motor as well. In disgust I sent a text to the operator saying I wont need him back in until the unit is fixed. There is a little over $1k out the window and a day lost in locating replacement parts and rebuilding the unit. He wanted to know what time on Tuesday to start LOLOLO NO ! I took it to work, said **** it and went home. Business partner went and looked at it a couple hours ago. Said 3 of the bolts are sheared off in the motor. He was able to get 2 out by welding a nut to the sheared bolt. Last one is giving him grief. Pump is fooked, hoping to save the motor. We have another pump as a spare that he will swap on tomorrow night ( you know fathers day so not supposed to be at work )

Bottom line. Especially in the current "economic climate". Would you not realize that you earn your money with the equipment you use. And if the equipment is broken then you get no work ?? If I would even so much as put a scratch on a work truck that was not mine I would be very apologetic at the very least..... and hope for the best outcome.

Sorry for the rant.....

 

[DRIVEN]

I put someone on my truck last week for a gravy money - ground level pressure washing job. 14 hp motor with a shaft driven , 3600 psi pump. ( nothing really radical ) Attached to 200' of wash line on a reel. This is all mounted to an old fax cabinet on wheels so we can wheel it off and on the truck as needed. Same rig I have run for almost 2 years and 200 or so hours ( so it owes me absolutely nothing but it works... or rather it worked ... ).

He called friday to say it was out of fuel and it was low on pressure. Friday was hot as ... so I cut him loose early. Come to the job site today to grab the truck and check out the pressure issue but only to find the motor loose on its bolts and the washer pump flopping on the cabinet. All 4 bolts mounting the motor to the cabinet were missing the nuts. So as it ran the washer unit was flopping on the cabinet. It cracked the housing on 3 of 4 bolts mounting the washer to the motor. The fuel tank is now flopping around at least 3\4" on the motor as well. In disgust I sent a text to the operator saying I wont need him back in until the unit is fixed. There is a little over $1k out the window and a day lost in locating replacement parts and rebuilding the unit. He wanted to know what time on Tuesday to start LOLOLO NO ! I took it to work, said **** it and went home. Business partner went and looked at it a couple hours ago. Said 3 of the bolts are sheared off in the motor. He was able to get 2 out by welding a nut to the sheared bolt. Last one is giving him grief. Pump is fooked, hoping to save the motor. We have another pump as a spare that he will swap on tomorrow night ( you know fathers day so not supposed to be at work )

Bottom line. Especially in the current "economic climate". Would you not realize that you earn your money with the equipment you use. And if the equipment is broken then you get no work ?? If I would even so much as put a scratch on a work truck that was not mine I would be very apologetic at the very least..... and hope for the best outcome.

Sorry for the rant.....

Nope. You need to pay him full wages + $600 per week until you can guarantee 40 hours with full benefits, pension, and complete immunity for stupid behavior. Suck it up, fatcat.

 

[Supercharged111]

Swapped out the spindle ducts on my Camaro, the existing ones are too small for my Corvette rotors. Starting with the new.

The old ducts appear to be Blainefab units intended for LS1 brakes.

I needed longer bolts to space the new ducts out farther. This, in and of itself, was a thing as nobody local stocked a 10 x 1.5 x 90 mm fully threaded bolt in grade 10.9. The shank on a non full thread was too long.

The bolt in the middle is backed out some. This ended up being the ideal spacing for the ducts planted up against the nuts.

I believe these ducts were meant for Stoptech rotors and intended to sit inside the hat, not ride super close to the rotor surface like I have them but I think this will be a lot more effective than the old setup.

We'll find out next weekend. 😎 This will be a short lived setup while I await my C5 hub adapters. Going to change up to that because 4th gen hubs suck. I'll also be able to use C7 hubs which are supposed to be really badass.

 

[CopperNick]

Went back to chasing a brakes master caution light that popped up on the S-10 dash. Had a chat with the Parts Manager at my local GM dealership and he pointed me in the direction of the hose and valve that provide vacuum to the booster. The valves are still available for the S-10 application but the hose itself, which is molded into the shape of a "?" mark to fit into the space allotted to it has been delisted and declared obsolete. The solution for that was a 1/2 inch x 90 degree plastic hose fitting and a length of 1/2" vacuum line that got cut and fitted together to simulate the old piece. For anyone trying to jam a plastic fitting into a piece of rubber hose and cursing vituperatively due to the fitting only going so far and stopping, a toothpicks worth of silicone die-electric grease applied to the fitting or to the inside of the tubing will allow the fitting to skate all the way in and bottom out just nicely. Be CHEAP with the grease; a micro-dab will doo ya.

Onward and backward: to the rear brakes that is. OKAY, Stop Right There!! First thing you will need is a good floor jack, good jack stands and a great source of air. Use the jack to lift the vehicle and set the stands under the rear axle or somewhere located where they will NOT Slip or move if you have to into large hammer and excessive energy mode. Pull the rear wheels; Choice of tools can vary from Cross Wrench to air. Air is fastest; I have and use a heavy 20V Li-On impact wrench with impact sockets. Wheels off, time to pull the brake drums, NOT! Before going anywhere near that drum, put on some coveralls, even cheap painters coveralls will do the trick and then put on a GOOD Dust Mask and eye protection. For a mask I use a 3M item that has replaceable filters. Why All This? Because BRAKE DUST IS TOXIC!! Even the so called organic shoes generate dust that is nasty. No mask in this situation is an invite to a case of COPD or asthma or the waiting list for a new set of lungs. All dressed up? OKay, now pop that drum off. Not going to get into the joys of persuading a reluctant drum to let go and come along for the ride.

For myself, because I visit my brakes regularly to check on shoe wear and keep things clean, the drums tend to come off fairly easily.. Because I have air, air is what I used to blow away the dust and crud. Remember the benediction about the mask?? Be warned, you will need it; I sure did.

Before I did remove the drums, I took the air gun to the adjacent areas, blowing away all the dust and rust and crap and crud from the the springs and frame rails and bed bottom and everywhere I could get the tip of the gun into. Amazing the amount of crap that comes flying out and swirls around. Have a broom handy, you will need to sweep it up--Keep that mask on--and dump it into a trash can or bag that you can seal. Rust dust is about as nasty as brake dust.

The rest of the ride is routine maintenance. The shoes were in good shape and no evidence of leaks anywhere or damaged springs or associated components. Took some CFC free Brake Cleaner and sprayed down the internal components and used air to blow it all dry. Took a Dremel stone to the outer edge of the brake surface of the drum to remove the lip that had just started to form and grow. Makes installing the drum so much easier. Checked the shoe to drum clearance and reset it as needed and put it all back together.

When I first visited the rear brakes many years ago, the drums I found back then were marginal so they got replaced by Napa units. This is not a plug for Napa, just saying where I sourced my parts from. At the time I got the chance to compare two varieties of drums; one made in China and the other in Argentina. Night and Day. The Asian made parts were miserable; you could barely read the numbers and letters that described the drum and max turning values. The Argentine pieces were crisp and beautiful, The ribs were complete and well sculpted; the Asians were NOT. I say all this because those Argentinian drums are still present and doing business on my S-10 after all these years. I may have to start looking for their replacements now just to locate and source them for later. It took me three tries at the time to get a matched set of them in the first place. Not the clerks fault; multiple sourcing for parts means you get supposedly the same part but from a different mfgr and quality is not always at the top of the hit parade. Biggest problem nowadays is to find a shop that knows how to turn drums and rotors plus which most of the junk that gets sold is one use and done anyway. Rebuild?? What does that even mean???

So the next step is to lift the front end and go through the calipers and rotors to see what can be seen. I did replace them and had to revisit them when I had a dust shield fail. The dust shields also possess the sensors for the ABS and you can't get a sensor without the shield. Did give me the opportunity to check and repack the bearings and peek at the pad and rotor wear. Not so happy with these rotors as they are a performance item and need to get hot before they grab well. Meant for speed but if heat is what is needed then commuter stop and go traffic provides it in abundance.

Suppertime.

Nick

Sorry, no pictures; dust is hard on the camera too.

 

[pontiacgp]

Finished the Corvette up and fired (sparked?) it up.

Power cut off like Daddy's Monte:

View attachment 149468

The composite body makes for a nice power bulkhead.

View attachment 149469

20V 5.0Ah batteries in parallel to avoid nuking the motors... for now.

View attachment 149470View attachment 149471

Stop and go pedals. Evidently it has regenerative braking.

View attachment 149472

It verks!

the only person I saw working on the Vette was your daughter while you hung around....seems like your trying to take credit for all her work.... 🤔

 

[axisg]

So just a little bit of a PSA. I have refueled hot motors literally hundreds of times over the years. Never an issue. I have heard stories but yesterday my card came due. Pressure washing with a crew of 4. My unit is still waiting on parts so we used the backup to the backup which I have owned for more than 20 years. Refueled a hot engine as it was sitting in the back of the truck from a full 5 gallon jerry can. I splashed the fuel and right away seen and felt the fireball, realized I was done for and then called for help. Instinct told me to toss the jerry can over the side which sloshed fuel on me, the washer and the truck ( lol dumbass ). I jumped down and hosed off my t-shirt from the running water from the other washer we had going just 4 feet away. Then started hosing off the truck. Luckily I don't have much hair left but I lost my eyelashes and most of my beard in the fireball. My dumb *ss left the Extinguisher on the deck of the other work truck 2 floors below. Had a little one in the van so it knocked it down pretty quickly. Otherwise nothing hurt but my pride. Couple blisters on my face. I think the Jerry Can is a total loss. I may rebuild the washer LOL Also called the fire department and asked them to stand down as other than really smokey it was all under control. They said they had 3 calls in the couple minutes the fire burned.

....and my parts came in today to fix my rig so it's all put back together now and we continue rolling on....

 

[5spdCab]

So just a little bit of a PSA. I have refueled hot motors literally hundreds of times over the years. Never an issue. I have heard stories but yesterday my card came due. Pressure washing with a crew of 4. My unit is still waiting on parts so we used the backup to the backup which I have owned for more than 20 years. Refueled a hot engine as it was sitting in the back of the truck from a full 5 gallon jerry can. I splashed the fuel and right away seen and felt the fireball, realized I was done for and then called for help. Instinct told me to toss the jerry can over the side which sloshed fuel on me, the washer and the truck ( lol dumbass ). I jumped down and hosed off my t-shirt from the running water from the other washer we had going just 4 feet away. Then started hosing off the truck. Luckily I don't have much hair left but I lost my eyelashes and most of my beard in the fireball. My dumb *ss left the Extinguisher on the deck of the other work truck 2 floors below. Had a little one in the van so it knocked it down pretty quickly. Otherwise nothing hurt but my pride. Couple blisters on my face. I think the Jerry Can is a total loss. I may rebuild the washer LOL Also called the fire department and asked them to stand down as other than really smokey it was all under control. They said they had 3 calls in the couple minutes the fire burned.

....and my parts came in today to fix my rig so it's all put back together now and we continue rolling on....

Glad you came out of that pretty much OK.

 

[fleming442]

So just a little bit of a PSA. I have refueled hot motors literally hundreds of times over the years. Never an issue. I have heard stories but yesterday my card came due. Pressure washing with a crew of 4. My unit is still waiting on parts so we used the backup to the backup which I have owned for more than 20 years. Refueled a hot engine as it was sitting in the back of the truck from a full 5 gallon jerry can. I splashed the fuel and right away seen and felt the fireball, realized I was done for and then called for help. Instinct told me to toss the jerry can over the side which sloshed fuel on me, the washer and the truck ( lol dumbass ). I jumped down and hosed off my t-shirt from the running water from the other washer we had going just 4 feet away. Then started hosing off the truck. Luckily I don't have much hair left but I lost my eyelashes and most of my beard in the fireball. My dumb *ss left the Extinguisher on the deck of the other work truck 2 floors below. Had a little one in the van so it knocked it down pretty quickly. Otherwise nothing hurt but my pride. Couple blisters on my face. I think the Jerry Can is a total loss. I may rebuild the washer LOL Also called the fire department and asked them to stand down as other than really smokey it was all under control. They said they had 3 calls in the couple minutes the fire burned.

....and my parts came in today to fix my rig so it's all put back together now and we continue rolling on....

 

[axisg]

have you been speaking with my wife ? She already knows I am a dumbass FYI. Maybe that is why we took out the bigger life insurance policy on me some years back ......
The 2 girls we had on the crew were pretty awesome. One started and then moved the truck ahead ( it had gas had spilled underneath ) and the other grabbed the extinguisher to put out the fire in the jerry can which was making tons of smoke from a small fire. Nobody panicked and there were ( and will be ) lots of laughs at my expense I am sure for years to come. They have nicknamed me FIREBALL !

#cdnbbq

 

[fleming442]