Minor Win thread - Life is good!

slefain said:

18 years ago today a drunk driver in an early 90s Ford F-150 hit me head-on so hard that the front of my ’90 Lincoln Mark VII imploded. I woke up in a hospital room with my arm in a sling and an Erector set in my lower right leg. The seat belt broke my collar bone, the air bag scorched my forearms, my knees ate the dash, and the engine/trans shattered my lower right leg when they were shoved through the firewall. The drunk driver ran off with this buddy but was caught almost immediately. He was out of jail on bond before I even woke up from surgery.

I remember the moment everything went quiet in the car. I remember throwing all my weight against the door to get out, not realizing that my busted shoulder and mangled right leg were the reasons I couldn’t get better leverage. I remember finally getting the door open, landing on the asphalt staring up at the stars and the truck driver that had stopped to see if I was alive. I remember grabbing the towel I kept behind the driver seat, tying a tourniquet on my compound fracture (thank you Boy Scouts), and thinking to myself “I’m not going to die in Doraville.”

I spent months in rehab learning to walk again. Thankfully the walker only lasted a month, but I needed a cane for a year. I don’t feel the titanium as much as I used to, but the gnarled bone, screw heads, and missing muscle are a reminder of how close it came to lights out. Whenever things get rough I remind myself that I’ve been through worse and came through it okay.

I'm still here.

Don’t drink and drive folks.

 

 

Make that 19 years. Would it be too ironic to drink a toast to my leg tonight?

MrsRecon's gallbladder removal went well. She's been suffering for about 8 weeks, so we are glad it's gone. Doc said it was approx. 3x larger than normal, and it contained 5 stones greater than 1 cm in diameter.

Finally have a chance to put the rather large gardenful of mint to good use.  I may have not had my feet on hallowed ground for the Derby, but better late than never, I guess!

ALMOST got a deer this morning on the drive in.  Did the squirrel "I don't know which way to go" thing in the middle of the road.  Fiesta did great, let me lock it down but still maneuver around the indecisive white tail.  

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Picked this new (.3hrs!) gennie outta the trash recently, wouldn't run right, but showed potential. Said that's a project for future Jim. Got it running yesterday when a significant power outage forced my hand. Just needed the little carb rebuilt minus the manufacturing swarf that Chinaman left inside. Winning!

DarkMonohue said:

... lovely old General Electric 1-1/2 horse, 240V, TEFC motor ... Hazard Fraught 6x48 belt grinder ... hate to part with $72 ...

The lovely old motor had a bearing growl that did not get better with lubrication, so I ordered some nice sealed bearings for it over the weekend. Somehow they made it from Ann Arbor to the west coast yesterday. Little Monohue and I tore it down after dinner - a four-year-old reefing on a two-jaw gear puller is a heartwarming sight - and I popped the new bearings in after he went to bed. All good now.

There were a couple of late season snow storms up at the lake and one of them dropped some monster pine tree limbs on the electric service drop pulling the trim board off the back of the roof along with the electric service.  My parents are both in their 80's and now that the weather is getting decent they want to be up there.  Couldn't seem to get any of the usual suspects interested in making a repair and the house is on an island so need to get the boat in first and see the damage myself, that was two weeks ago.  

I was able to get the damage fixed and the service back onto the house last Saturday and called the outage in (Dad and I have wired houses together, not my first rodeo).  My wife and I got most all of the downed limbs, leaves, etc. cleaned up last Sunday so now its safe for them to walk around.  The minor win?  I followed up with the utility company this morning to see what the status was.  They're a smallish cooperative and headquartered nearby.  Spoke with a super nice customer service lady on the outage line, emailed her pictures and she said she'd walk it right over to the operations people.   That was at around 10:00 this morning, I got a call that the service was restored just before 2:00 this afternoon.  Thanks Jeanine! (And you line service guys too, it was a good day for a boat ride.)   My parents are thrilled and will be heading up Friday.

TLDR: Power is back on at the lake house, 11GTCSDad is wicked happy and therefore so is 11GTCS.

Edit, had a beer with Dad on the deck yesterday afternoon after they got settled in.  #missionaccomplished  

Got my CLEP score back this morning and I officially have proven that I can string words together.  I don't have to waste time and money with ENG101!

I covered a lot of ground today!

Those who know, know.

Stopped by my neighbor's yard sale.  Scored a pretty nice copy of the 1967 Rolling Stones release, "Between the Buttons" for two whole American dollars.  Also, a copy of Boston's first album, and the ever-popular Frampton Comes Alive!

I got crazy lucky last weekend and all the Ohlins parts I needed to put on the Harley were in stock and local, and I got 15% for the holiday discount. 

Did the install myself and best 1800$ I have ever spend on a bike. 

New compressor, condenser, and expansion valve installed in the wifemobile.  Vacuumed it down for about 90 minutes, let it sit for about an hour, and the needle didn't move.  Filled it with r134a and ice cold air again.  I'll find out later if there are any tiny leaks, I guess!

In reply to Karacticus :

Yes, you did! And you flew RIGHT OVER my house. SW of Topeka. You even slowed down! (I checked)

Let me know if you ever want to stop, I'll buy you lunch.

In reply to llysgennad :

I might take you up on that some time!

The only reason I would have slowed down would have been because of headwinds or to climb.

Defintely a luxury to complete a round trip in less time than it would have taken to even drive one way. 
 

Trip was to visit these folks at an open house, and to get out and stretch the airplane's legs for the first time over some distance.

https://www.airplains.com/

I scored these Adirondack chairs from the Orange Store for $36 each!

The next day the price went up to $160!

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

 

Those who know, know.

We do all of those for the local dealerships; they take them apart (if able) and we ream and reload them. It's interesting that dealers don't have all of those tools.

llysgennad said:

In reply to Karacticus :

Yes, you did! And you flew RIGHT OVER my house. SW of Topeka. You even slowed down! (I checked)

Let me know if you ever want to stop, I'll buy you lunch.

Wellington, KS?? What do you know of Wellington, KS? It's funny but with everyone so transient these days you don't realize how much you are part of a lineage - a family tree - until you go to a big old family funeral in your ancestral hometown and see multiple copies of yourself and your siblings. 

chandler said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

 

Those who know, know.

We do all of those for the local dealerships; they take them apart (if able) and we ream and reload them. It's interesting that dealers don't have all of those tools.

Oh hell, the bushings took like 60 seconds with an air hammer and a 7/8 socket.  Brrp out, brrp in, die grinder to bevel the edge.

Removing that particular knuckle took 30 minutes of fighting to get the retainer pin out, and four hours to get the kingpin out.  Ended up needing heat, a Snap On ball joint press, and two other people with air hammers buzzing the knuckle while I ran the impact gun, head a foot away from two air hammers at full bellow.

The neighbors love us.

(Isuzu NQR.  It was so seized that it blew a power steering line)

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I haven't done a kingpin in anything for a very long time.

The old twin I beam Fords, I would usually torch out the thrust bearing, burn half an inch of kingpin out, the hopefully get the spindle to move enough to torch the other end.  

What a messy job.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

The boss has an old kingpin welded to a long pipe for someone else to hold while you smashed it with a sledgehammer.

An iATN forum post recommended the Snap-On ball joint press.  Snap-On specifically because it is (barely) long enough to fit over it all.

On the non seized side, after fighting the retainer pin out, the press just buzzed it right through with a little heat on the axle.  Worked as advertised.

My right angle impact gun paid for itself again this day.  The siezed kingpin would not go DOWN but it would go UP, and the truck wasn't high enough to get a regular impact on the ball joint press.  Had to work it up and down a couple times before it finally decided it might be willing to come out.

In short, grease your berking kingpins

Do you deal with this?  Today's project:

And I can still find the tool.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

chandler said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

 

Those who know, know.

We do all of those for the local dealerships; they take them apart (if able) and we ream and reload them. It's interesting that dealers don't have all of those tools.

Oh hell, the bushings took like 60 seconds with an air hammer and a 7/8 socket.  Brrp out, brrp in, die grinder to bevel the edge.

Removing that particular knuckle took 30 minutes of fighting to get the retainer pin out, and four hours to get the kingpin out.  Ended up needing heat, a Snap On ball joint press, and two other people with air hammers buzzing the knuckle while I ran the impact gun, head a foot away from two air hammers at full bellow.

The neighbors love us.

 

(Isuzu NQR.  It was so seized that it blew a power steering line)

Ours are mostly Volvo/Pete/KW

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Mopar axle?

I had to reseal an I-dont-remember-what.  The old guys with the trans shop across the street's dad had the tool.

The axle seals we bought had 1953 date codes on the boxes.  They were leather.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Dana derivative.  Volvo used a close enough clone of the Dana 30 that the aftermarket limited slip will fit with a bit of shim screw-age.

Mopar bolt pattern, though, until the 140's came out.  I'm really not sure if mine is a Volvo or Mopar tool.