What did you do to your non-G body project today? [2023]

[Supercharged111]

Figured out what went wrong last week with it, why it felt nutless, and why the left rear was smoking when I got home.

Looks like somebody didn't get the preload quite right. I must not have gotten all the slack out when I set it up last time. It looks like I can polish the axle until the new bearings will slide on. It seems to have taken on more metal than it lost as the inner race welded itself on. What fun that was to remove. It's completely apart now, gotta clean up the drum and once a bearing slides on/off can reassemble normally (and hopefully correctly this time). I kept thinking the gutlessness was due to the tune I'd just flashed. I changed operating systems and everything, big update, and figured the timing map or something else didn't follow over correctly. That still may be, but this was definitely playing a part.

 

[CopperNick]

Bumped the heat in the shop to 60 and slid into my oldest and nastiest bunny suit for some under the G-10 action. My about to be installed AFR gauge needs an O-2 sensor so the first stop was a visit to the passenger side headpipe. Once upon a TBI throttle body injection system ago, I had welded a bung into that pipe because the ECU for the system needed it for the input to adjust the fuel map. (Like that ever worked as advertised) So when the system got yarded out, the sensor and its harness just got left to dangle; no power to it so no problem.

That being the case, today it was a simple task to use a 7/8 combo wrench, smack it a couple of times to loosen off the sensor and out it screwed. Totally carbon fouled. Not sure when/how/why but suspect that when the TPS started to fail, the AFR went dead rich and contaminiated the sensor along the way. So out came the old one and in went the new one. Ran the sensor harness up and over to bring it along side the t-box bell housing and then over that to meet up with the rest of the harness. Added a tiewrap to loosely secure it to the lower starter harness and used an existing hole in the crossmember behind the doghouse pocket to hang an adel clamp through which the harness got threaded. Snapped the two sections together and laced it to the engine wiring harness using an existing retainer clamp that I had hung off the back of the driver's head to pick up those wires some time back. It had room and nothing had to be forced into it so that worked.

Slid out and moved up to the firewall. Adjusted the amount of sensor harness to tighten it up just a little and brought the excess back out to the firewall. Still have to hang a second mounting pin on the firewall for the Ell bracket that supports the upper rad hose and I can use that pin to attach another adel clamp to stand the wires off and keep them from being damaged or snagged. That is pending because the body ware in the van is metric so I have to dig up some mm nuts. Yeah, yeah, why not open them up a hair and go fractional? The metric is the default fastner system for all the van unless you are dealing with the mill and t-box. Some of the bolts have been given the exchange treatment' mostly due to age and wallowing of the old hole. Just a case of picking the nearest size up and politely introducing the bolt to the hole to make sure they play nicely.

Left that hanging for the present, 😀, and snakey slid my way over to the other side to pull the oil pan plug and dump the oil. Left that to drain overnight and called it a day.

Did manage to slide my old buddy the Wheeee-ler under the old washer that had been sitting up at the house and brought it down to the quarter deck to reside there for a while. The Wheeee-ler was a custom fabricated two wheel cart that I ginned up to use for moving MIG gas bottles and other oversized items. Being taller and heavier, it offers more leverage for the used when it comes time to pick up the awkward or heavy and deal with them. The oversize wheels help. That gets the upper sidewalk clean and clear of obstructions for when I have to deploy the snowblower and do the walks. Hard enough as it is without having to play dodge the junk.

The washer?? Scrap. I blew the motor out of it last spring and by rights it should have gone away with the dude who delivered the new one. Only thing is that it has a brand new transmission in it and I want that out before it goes to the recyclers, so the plan is to introduce the corpse to my 4.5 with a razor blade mounted to the spindle and convert the washer into smaller chunks while extracting the t-box along the way. Wish I could keep it and repair it as I need a washer to deal with the washable shop towels and all my old and crusty coveralls but finding a motor, used, that still runs and will fit is a PITA. The shops don't scrap trade ins, they just turf them. So the good gets trashed with the bad.

Tomorrow depends on the weather and how bad my lungs are. At the very least the plug will go back in the oil pan and a fresh charge of Royal Purple will get poured in. If I get fractious, the filter will get wrenched off and the new one prefilled and installed. The end game for all this is to get the engine started on the fresh oil so I can charge the new Accusump unit and pressurize it for spring first start.

Pictures?? Ehh, maybe.



Nick

 

[ck80]

That's not exactly fun either. I gotta find somewhere in between and split the difference, but I would like to eventually move somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

It's not all it's cracked up to be. You add heated driveway/walkway whether steam or electric, and just buy a southern car/truck every 7 years or so, and it's better up north.

We fully expect to head north of the mason-dixon as soon as the stars align.

You pay heat..we pay cooling. But heat just needs a stihl and a log splitter. No discount on cooling.

The biggest problems are twofold. One is a lack of social infrastructure - less knowledgeable medical personnel and lower quality/more expensive health insurance policies, hospitals closing, doctors leaving, 'consolidation' they call it but really its worse care and inexperience with most but basic conditions. Second is lack of things to do... fairs and events you're used to are much smaller scale if at all, so, many things you are used to enjoying just aren't around to be found.

You get a lesser loss of those things if you move to one of the biggest of cities, your Atlanta and Charlotte type, but, then you're in a high density, high cost, polluted and gridlock filled headache.

If anything, perhaps it's nice to have a place in both, but, these days a couple hundred acres in the northeast with an antique colonial sounds nice

 

[Texas82GP]

It's not all it's cracked up to be. You add heated driveway/walkway whether steam or electric, and just buy a southern car/truck every 7 years or so, and it's better up north.

We fully expect to head north of the mason-dixon as soon as the stars align.

You pay heat..we pay cooling. But heat just needs a stihl and a log splitter. No discount on cooling.

The biggest problems are twofold. One is a lack of social infrastructure - less knowledgeable medical personnel and lower quality/more expensive health insurance policies, hospitals closing, doctors leaving, 'consolidation' they call it but really its worse care and inexperience with most but basic conditions. Second is lack of things to do... fairs and events you're used to are much smaller scale if at all, so, many things you are used to enjoying just aren't around to be found.

You get a lesser loss of those things if you move to one of the biggest of cities, your Atlanta and Charlotte type, but, then you're in a high density, high cost, polluted and gridlock filled headache.

If anything, perhaps it's nice to have a place in both, but, these days a couple hundred acres in the northeast with an antique colonial sounds nice

We'll be somewhere along the lines of 50 miles north of the Texas Medical Center so there is no lack of health care here. In fact, a mini Medical Center has come together in The Woodlands, which will only be about 30 minutes from where we'll be. Part of the compromise. Not really rural enough but not moving away from Dad and still close to good health care. Still solidly in the Blast Furnace though. I've lived with it my whole life so I'll stick with the Devil I know. I'm not up for that Ice/Snow/Rust scene.

 

[ck80]

We'll be somewhere along the lines of 50 miles north of the Texas Medical Center so there is no lack of health care here. In fact, a mini Medical Center has come together in The Woodlands, which will only be about 30 minutes from where we'll be. Part of the compromise. Not really rural enough but not moving away from Dad and still close to good health care. Still solidly in the Blast Furnace though. I've lived with it my whole life so I'll stick with the Devil I know. I'm not up for that Ice/Snow/Rust scene.

Yep, devil you know is better than the devil you don't sorta thing. Valid point.

I've done both. Really I'm jealous of the country out DRIVEN 's sort of way. And, interests of 'privacy' I actually seriously contemplated closer, but not in, your neck of the woods where an old fire control center with 18,000 sf+ of buildings, barracks, etc plus has a perimeter fence and guardhouse, some bunkers, all for sale relatively cheap. But, these days, as I'm getting older and finding local docs can't help and I need to visit Massachusetts-based specialists anyways... <eh>..... is what it is.

They've destroyed the local area here in less than two years though, all in the name of 'progress' or so they say. So, were getting out. It'd be nice to be closer to family anyways.

 

[DRIVEN]

You wouldn't like it.

Plus, it's pretty expensive here now. And if I was allowed to talk about politics, I'd say you probably wouldn't like that part either.

 

[joesregalproject]

It's not all it's cracked up to be. You add heated driveway/walkway whether steam or electric, and just buy a southern car/truck every 7 years or so, and it's better up north.

We fully expect to head north of the mason-dixon as soon as the stars align.

You pay heat..we pay cooling. But heat just needs a stihl and a log splitter. No discount on cooling.

The biggest problems are twofold. One is a lack of social infrastructure - less knowledgeable medical personnel and lower quality/more expensive health insurance policies, hospitals closing, doctors leaving, 'consolidation' they call it but really its worse care and inexperience with most but basic conditions. Second is lack of things to do... fairs and events you're used to are much smaller scale if at all, so, many things you are used to enjoying just aren't around to be found.

You get a lesser loss of those things if you move to one of the biggest of cities, your Atlanta and Charlotte type, but, then you're in a high density, high cost, polluted and gridlock filled headache.

If anything, perhaps it's nice to have a place in both, but, these days a couple hundred acres in the northeast with an antique colonial sounds nice

Snow is really just a mild gripe. Cost of living is one of my bigger issues. The job market here in Pittsburgh is one of the worst in the country- 300,000 jobs lost in the last 5 years. As DRIVEN said about Idaho, if I was allowed to talk about politics, I could write an essay.

As far as medical stuff, that is one thing I don't take for granted here. Allegheny General Hospital is one of the best cardiovascular hospitals in the country and it's 10 minutes from my house. Children's of Pittsburgh is one of the best Children's hospitals in the country and it's 15 minutes away. I don't know that our insurance is any better or cheaper, but I know we have good hospitals.

 

[DRIVEN]

I have no health insurance and haven't seen a doctor in about 15 years. I'm 45 minutes from a decent hospital and the local ambulance and fire service is volunteer. If I ever have a real medical emergency, life insurance will probably be more useful than health insurance.

Rural living is where it's at. I literally have to be paid to go into cities of any notable size. I absolutely hate them. The county I live in has 1.6 people per square mile and sometimes it still feels too crowded.

 

[pagrunt]

The job market here in Pittsburgh is one of the worst in the country- 300,000 jobs lost in the last 5 years.

I know somewhere always has opennings

District 11 seems to be allowed to pay more but here in District 10 (& other surounding Districts) are at $21/hour for Operator B regardless of a CDL A or B (entry position is Operator A). We just brought on a kid who just has a CDL A permit & they're going to get his license at the site behind the Mills. Sucks it seems like it takes 3 months from submitting applications to actually being hired. The worse is we are really short mechanics. I'll admit I'm not fully in love with my job but the retirement & benifits is what pushed me towards it. But my winters are nice between my afternoon shift & staying on the same route that is actually my way to & from work. But if you catch the yellow fever Butler is District 10 (10-2) so it wouldn't be as much as Allegheny (11-1).

 

[Supercharged111]

I know somewhere always has opennings

District 11 seems to be allowed to pay more but here in District 10 (& other surounding Districts) are at $21/hour for Operator B regardless of a CDL A or B (entry position is Operator A). We just brought on a kid who just has a CDL A permit & they're going to get his license at the site behind the Mills. Sucks it seems like it takes 3 months from submitting applications to actually being hired. The worse is we are really short mechanics. I'll admit I'm not fully in love with my job but the retirement & benifits is what pushed me towards it. But my winters are nice between my afternoon shift & staying on the same route that is actually my way to & from work. But if you catch the yellow fever Butler is District 10 (10-2) so it wouldn't be as much as Allegheny (11-1).

It's a sin they require a CDL, put that much responsibility on a guy, and only pay him $43k/yr (benefits or otherwise). As with so many other jobs that seem to be taken for granted.