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

[pagrunt]

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.

The pay one thing we fight with the union so they'll fight with the state to give us better pay. This is one of the reasons we have a hard time to get operators. If we did have smaller trucks it might be a reason not to have a CDL but we really don't have many roads that don't need a CDL truck.

 

[86LK]

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.

the local Richie Rich school is hiring school bus drivers at $25/hr

 

[Ugly1]

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

View attachment 230387View attachment 230388

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.

A very unhappy axel. Best of luck with your mission!

 

[ck80]

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.

If livestock outnumber people per square mile, that's good enough for me.

I looked at a house in the town I grew up in. When I moved away they had a population of 450. These days they're nearing 650!!! Talk about a population explosion!

Part is sarcasm, but, percentagewise, it was almost 50% jump. But, even so, that was a town in Massachusetts.

North-east living doesn't have to mean density or cities, and, I'm targeting some more rural areas.

 

[Ugly1]

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.

A lot are moving north into my area too. Houses are going up in any area they can stick them with people that are not used to living in the rural woods. Then find out the peace and quiet isn’t as good as it used to be. They get all scared from the critters living there before them and put lights everywhere “for safety “

 

[Ugly1]

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

You can always make the washing tub into a fine outdoor fire heater for marshmallows or night rest/ relaxation on cool fall nights

 

[mclellan83]

Thew the new shoes on Friday so I had something to drive for the weekend

Tried to be responsible and take this instead of taking the GTO which may give me problems and end up with this.....

 

[Ugly1]

Thew the new shoes on Friday so I had something to drive for the weekend
View attachment 230458
Tried to be responsible and take this instead of taking the GTO which may give me problems and end up with this.....
View attachment 230459

They have been calling you about your warranty…..

 

[mclellan83]

They have been calling you about your warranty…..

 

[CopperNick]

Ugly 1, The tub as a fire bin is not a bad idea, unless you ask the local bylaw mooks. Around here outdoor fires are SO restricted that the local fire bugs have to come in and measure the free zone between the fire pit and the nearest buildings. Surprised the neighbour south got theirs as the delivery line for their Nat-gas might still run underneath the lawn around there. I wouldn't qualify as the greenhouse and the vegetable patch enclosure are too close to the garage to give them the room they want for a fire break. Last BBQ I was at the rim for the fire pit was an old split rim from a semi. They've been outlawed for commercial use as they are flat dangerous to work with' particularly during tire changes and have a bad habit of trying to rip people's faces off at the tire shops. The location is far enough out in the toolies with enough room in the back yard that it is not an issue. Not quite the privacy of a farm or cabin but tolerable close.



Nick