Don and Peter's Hot Rod Corner

[glenn-k]

Neighbor calls me a lucky bum.

It allows me to easily do things I could only do with difficulty before.  Other option would have been the Bobcat, but it wouldn't have been near as easy.

[benevolance]

Glenn that bush hog is a lot fancier than my wheel barrow

[MountainDon]

The dump bed came in handy as I dumped it right in front of the woodshed and wood splitter.  

Darn show off!!  Oak's nice burning wood, though back home there wasn't much opportunity for it; fair amount of Birch, also nice burning. Here we'll stick to S-P-F (Pine, Spruce or Fir, just like the lumber yards   or Aspen (burns quick :'( )

Trust you pulled the chain saw off before completing the dump.  

That was a wise option for the hog, yessir. Got a name for it? The Bush Hog.  :-/

When ya' going to install A/C?

[glenn-k]

I find I have a lot less creosote build up and carry in a lot less wood if I burn Oak, but Pine etc. gives a nice hot high heat fire.  

I find things work much better no matter what the wood if it is real dry and chopped pretty small.  Bigger chunks are OK for holding a fire for a while -- but don't burn as clean and efficiently as a smaller chopped wood fire that burns real hot and burns up more of the high temperature volatiles.  Otherwise they kind of distill out and become a chimney coating -- and can later become a very hot chimney fire if not cleaned out often enough.  Two or 3 times per year here for cleaning.

Actually that was just a photo-op. -- I drove it down to the bottom by the woodshed and took the saw off in the garage.-- camera was up top in the truck.  I just wanted to impress you with that Stihl 046 with a compression release and 30 inch bar.

Actually the saw was acting unmpressive- gas line needs to be replaced so it barely ran, but to its credit - when everything is good it is a real go-getter.  Cuts dry oak in seconds.  I have the mean chain on it with no safetys.

[MountainDon]

Some time back I made mention of the Vincent motorcycle. This week  http://www.jaylenosgarage.com  is featuring a 1952 Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle. A video look at it, then firing it up and taking a run on it. They are one cool bike, fastest of their day, an engineering marvel, truly outstanding bike considering other bikes of the era. If you're a gearhead you'll appreciate it. No frame as we know it, the engine was a stressed member.

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/index.shtml?vidID=167040

an example

[glenn kangiser]

Your Vincent made me think of my 1925 Villiers -- motor cycle -- engine -- on my lawn mower.

http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/Museum/Engineering/Villiers/Villiers10.htm




1925 ad

I have it here at the underground complex.  Need to clean it up for a pix.  Brought it up a couple months ago.  No lawn here so no danger of me having to use it.

[MountainDon]

Not a riding mower is it?  

Love a picture whenever it's fit to be shown. Before & after?

[glenn kangiser]

No, not a rider - a walk behind-- the pix in the ad seems to be of my model.  There were slight differences in those years but not much.  An old fellow in England sent me a bunch of info on it and the company which is still in business sent me some also.

I will try to clean it up and get some pix of it soon.  Maybe even start it up.  Haven't had it running for many years, but still cranks over.

Chas. Pugh owned a foundry and had a large estate that he mowed with a mule pulling a lawn mower.  The mule died and he was left with no way to mow his lawn.  He commissioned his engineers to design a gas powered lawn mower so he wouldn't have to rely on animal power.  This is the result.

[MountainDon]

I was joking about the riding part...

 OWW! Just for the heck of it I searched ebay and found a '54 Vincent Black Shadow with a "buy it now" price of $48K..    

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Other-Makes-1954-Vincent-Black-Shadow-Strong-rider-GOOD-DEAL_W0QQitemZ220160068887QQihZ012QQcategoryZ6719QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[glenn kangiser]

Sorry about that, Don.  That was a good one too --but I got it after Sassy informed me I missed it. :-/

[glenn kangiser]

That's a pretty pricey bike.

[glenn kangiser]

Pulled the mighty Cummins Diesel out of my Dodge one ton yesterday.  Cummins made a bad block -thin casting in Brazil around 1998-99 or so.  The bad blocks all have the number 53 on the side of them.  Cummins rebated me $1000 even though the truck is a 99 and had 148000 miles at the time I turned it in to them.

In my opinion that was a fair deal.  Dodge warrantied many that cracked under warranty.  Mine is long out of their warranty.

The crack is now 17" long - I used 30 gallons of water to go 60 miles the day I decided to shut it down.

I got a used engine out of a burned truck for 1500.  I may have posted something about this before --don't remember.  i was trying to get all I could out of the old engine and procrastinate about changing it as long as possible.  2 pints of stop leak at the same time would no longer slow it down.

[MountainDon]

You mentioned the crack some time ago, when Stop-Leak still did the job.

The water usage reminds me of a time in the middle of nowhere, about 60 miles south of Green River, UT. The CJ water pump decided to cause trouble, coolant pouring out of the weep hole in a steady stream. There were three of us and I used up nearly all the water we all carried getting back up to Green River. It was close to 30 gallons IIRC. Napa Green River Auto Parts had a pump in stock so we only lost a days travel/play time.

G/L on the engine swap, Glenn.

[glenn kangiser]

Going pretty good on the swap but today I found a new problem.  The dealer did warranty work on the fuel pump when I got it.  His mechanic was a bit of a slop I'm afraid.  Found missing bolts -- lifting bracket under the battery - took it off - didn't bother to put it back -- bent the bottom fuel pump mount bracket on the block and threw the bracket away I guess.

His best was better yet though -- I pulled the Injection pump and found that he hadn't aligned the timing key -- just smashed it into the gear with the mounting bolt - crushed 1/2 of it.  Trouble is it is matched to the Bosch pump to fine tune the timing.  There are 21 offset keys -- all different.  I had to go to Fresno -- 150 mile round trip to get the 046 key.  There other burned pump had an 043 so wouldn't swap.

Coming along though.

[MountainDon]

-- 150 mile round trip to get the 046 key.  

Don't you just hate backyard mechanics who disguise themselves as professionals!!

I feel that... The weekend I did the hip ridge shingles on the gazebo I had everything I needed. Or so I thought until I went to nail one in place. Because of the triple layer thickness of the special ridge shingles, added to the double thickness (in places) of the regular shingles the nails I HAD WERE TOO SHORT. Drove a 1  1/2 hour round trip to Los Alamos for $1.74 worth of longer roofing nails. Got their a half hour or so before closing thank goodness.

[glenn kangiser]

I paid with my credit card and they put it in their mail box for me.  There were a couple guys still there but it was 5:20 when I got there.

I guess I'm still a good enough mechanic to spot the fake ones screwups.  I still do it the same way -- get the book - read it - do it right as well as I can.

Speaking of other mechanics -- I found Mike a used Bobcat 843.  The hyd. motors were leaking into the chain case.  Bobcat wanted 3600 for parts and would do the job for $8000 or so.  Mike traced down the manufacturer - ordered the motors for abiut $535 each - so about $1100 rather than $8000 plus.  Pays to DIY - even mechanic work.

[MountainDon]

You know you either need more garage space (what I think) or have too much stuff (DW's thought) when you find yourself backing the Jeep in this close to the wall shelf.  :-/ :-/

[glenn kangiser]

No question about it.  You always need more garage space.

One thing is out of my garage now.  Frank (renter and friend ) and the boys (son and brother-in-law) came over early this morning - before 9 and said they weren't leaving until my truck was on the road.  I finished installing the injector pump and high pressure lines and the game was on.  Seems everyone was busy all day long.

We had it running by about 5 pm.  Things went smooth.  Everyone knew their job and it went great.  I still can't believe the nightmare is over.  No more 30 gallons of water per day.   I drove it downtown about 6:00 after checking the fluids etc.  All was well.

What a great bunch of friends.

[glenn kangiser]

Some professionals disguise themselves as backyard mechanics.

[glenn kangiser]

Cleaned up the old Atco today.

Here are a couple pix.

[benevolance]

i do not want the hassle of being in a big shop....I have regular customers and their friends...Doing their work suits me...No hassles with general population...

[Preston]

Just read the topic, congrats on the 4x4 Glenn.  I miss my wife's 73 jeepster commando,
just like this one but orange!

[MountainDon]

The ATCO appears to be a marvel of complexity. Kinda cool though!  Tanks for the pix.

Hey Preston, Commandos are cool Jeeps too. We have one running and two "being worked on" in my 4x4 club.

[Preston]

I would love to get one again, I've been searching online.  I loved that Jeep!  It was great, had 300,000+ miles on it and just kept running!  

[glenn-k]

The ATCO is a real thing of beauty and an engineering marvel.

Thanks, Preston.  I really like the old beast.  Like a truck in a car.

It will need an overhaul in the near future but I have it hitting on whats left of all 6, so is getting around pretty dependably now.  The new OH'd trans is working great.  I'm sure it would run much better if it was overhauled.

So many things going on now - truck block change just finished - final drive to put in the John Deere 2010 trackhoe/loader- rock crusher to build a trailer for and mount the motor etc. -prospecting - fixing things on and for the house and shop -- I don't know which to do first but the overhaul will have to wait as long as it is usable. :-/