What are you working on today?

[D60]

You got it off...All that matters.

I would've weld three pieces of bar stock into a tripod then a 5/8" nut & use a slide hammer, That hard bearing race material spooks me as I've had to remove pieces of it from under my skin more than once. Couple years ago had to go to a Care Now & have a piece cut out, That $800 bill wasn't worth the time saving Cowboy s**t!!

Agreed I had a piece of a chisel shrapnel cut me in school. It was just a really weird cut/injury that took way too long to heal.

I dunno if you followed the controversy with Myth Busters years ago when they claimed to have busted the myth that it doesn't matter if you use a hardened hammer with a hardened chisel. LOTS of people told them they were wrong (I agree) and I think they rescinded their findings.

Ball peins or similar only with chisels! Definitely not framing hammers.

 

[14Accent]

Added one of the few missing options to my Seville: compass! Found an OE on the 'Bay for $29

 

[Bighorn2500]

Mowing the lawn, all five hours worth.

 

[D60]

Diag'd a no-start on a Ford 300 irrigation pump. No spark, no power to the coil. I found the relay in the aftermarket ignition switch had failed, so it wasn't sending power to the coil. It also won't let you shut it off once I got it running by jumpering.

Anyway I found the identical Murphy 117 on ebay for ~$60 so I've got that coming.

 

[meep]

Diag'd a no-start on a Ford 300 irrigation pump. No spark, no power to the coil. I found the relay in the aftermarket ignition switch had failed, so it wasn't sending power to the coil. It also won't let you shut it off once I got it running by jumpering.

Anyway I found the identical Murphy 117 on ebay for ~$60 so I've got that coming.View attachment 292702View attachment 292703

How many of these are still out in service? That engines got some years on it!

 

[D60]

How many of these are still out in service? That engines got some years on it!

I dunno, it's carb'd but running on LP in the field

 

[meep]

That’s a lot of gas!!! @D60

 

[D60]

Well, I don't have a fancy parts washer so I had to engage the white trash parts washer for this NV4500 case: an old tire/wheel, a piece of scrap futon frame, garden hose and cans of degreaser.

On the bright side I fixed the crappy hose connector with an Oetiker-esque clamp. It was previously spraying back at me and now it doesn't leak a drop!

Try not to be jealous that you don't have old futon frames strewn about your 35 acres

 

[wtd]

Worked on a 1999 Chevy Cavalier that we bought yesterday for my fiancé's son to replace his 2008 Ford Focus with a bad transmission. Car only has 117,603 miles on it and in pretty good shape. Has some rust on the passenger side next to the rear wheel and a little bit under the car near the back. It's a base model car with an automatic transmission, rollup windows, and pretty much nothing power. AC is very cold and it runs pretty good. Previous owner just put new AC-Delco plugs in it, new wires, a new battery, and did an oil change.

The rear driver's side wheel would lock up in the gravel driveway of the previous owner's home, so I figured the drum brake was not adjusted right. Today I pulled both rear wheels off of it and adjusted that side. Both set of brake shoes had plenty of pad left and had been replaced at some point.

Today I also replaced the fuel filter, gas cap, and coolant overflow reservoir cap which was broken. I'm going to change the transmission fluid and filter and replace both O2 sensors. The after-cat sensor took a long time to warm up and stayed near 0 for quite a while and the pre-cat one seemed to work okay but would occasionally drop near 0 during the test drive. No CEL or codes stored, and all monitors had run so no one had cleared any codes recently. Hopefully he doesn't destroy this car like he had done with the Focus but he probably will.

 

[BrianF]

@wtd when I did the transmission fluid on my 2002 Sunfire, I just unscrewed the top transmission cooler line, right in front of the battery. Pull the battery or headlight to gain plenty of room and I just used the engine to pump it out.

@D60 I appreciate the trials and tribulations of white trash world. I'm tossing our old futon out in the near future. I may just keep the frame for some white trash projects in the works.

 

[Kennedy01]

This week has been quite busy for me at work. I've drilled, tapped, skimmed and chamfered aluminum link bars. I've had an order of 12 unit bearing assemblies that needed to be changed from 14mm studs on one bolt pattern to 9/16" studs on a smaller pattern. The smaller pattern gets drilled on the CNC mill, not by me. 8 4340 steel axle shafts passed through my department, each getting the shaft side of the yoke clearances by .120-.150" at 15 degrees for spindle clearance. Yesterday I had an order of four unit bearings that retained their 8x170 bolt pattern, but I had to remove the 14mm studs, drill out the holes for 9/16" studs, then press in said studs. The Baleigh hydraulic press at work makes pressing a breeze. Today I've got more link bars to do.

 

[Bighorn2500]

Trimming tree branches, reloading grease guns, greasing zerks on tractors, mowers, PTO U-joints and laundry after that.

 

[wtd]

@wtd when I did the transmission fluid on my 2002 Sunfire, I just unscrewed the top transmission cooler line, right in front of the battery. Pull the battery or headlight to gain plenty of room and I just used the engine to pump it out.

@D60 I appreciate the trials and tribulations of white trash world. I'm tossing our old futon out in the near future. I may just keep the frame for some white trash projects in the works.

Thanks. I'm going to drop the pan and replace the filter. This car has the three speed automatic so it does have a dipstick. The four speeds for that year did not. The fluid does look pretty clean but I just want to change it as preventive maintenance which we did not do on the Focus and is probably why the transmission went out since I don't think it ever was changed.

 

[D60]

Thanks. I'm going to drop the pan and replace the filter. This car has the three speed automatic so it does have a dipstick. The four speeds for that year did not. The fluid does look pretty clean but I just want to change it as preventive maintenance which we did not do on the Focus and is probably why the transmission went out since I don't think it ever was changed.

I just did my neighbor's 3-speed this spring. I used a Pro-tec filter kit on closeout from RA for $1.38.

No longer listed but they have a CQ (Famous) for $4.42.

 

[14Accent]

Assembled our new $55 Blackstone so we could take inventory of what pieces were missing. We picked this up at our local "Bargain City", think of a box store full of overstock and returned goods.

Everything important was there; all that was missing was the side shelf brackets, 2 caster wheels, and the grease trap. $50 on Amazon and everything missing should be here in a couple days. All in we should be under $200 which is a SMOKING deal for a brand new 36" Blackstone.

As far as actual vehicle repairs go... my boss swung by after work with his basket case Colorado and a backseat full of parts. Spent a couple hours installing:

-Rear shocks
-Fuel filter
-Downstream O2 sensor
-Outer tie rod ends
-Front stabilizer links
-4 new door speakers

And a rear brake adjustment. He has no problem fixing anything on the farm, but I'm learning quickly that farmers despise working on vehicles of any kind. Doesn't make much sense to me, but I'll take the work.

 

[D60]

View attachment 292943

Assembled our new $55 Blackstone so we could take inventory of what pieces were missing. We picked this up at our local "Bargain City", think of a box store full of overstock and returned goods.

Everything important was there; all that was missing was the side shelf brackets, 2 caster wheels, and the grease trap. $50 on Amazon and everything missing should be here in a couple days. All in we should be under $200 which is a SMOKING deal for a brand new 36" Blackstone.

As far as actual vehicle repairs go... my boss swung by after work with his basket case Colorado and a backseat full of parts. Spent a couple hours installing:

-Rear shocks
-Fuel filter
-Downstream O2 sensor
-Outer tie rod ends
-Front stabilizer links
-4 new door speakers

And a rear brake adjustment. He has no problem fixing anything on the farm, but I'm learning quickly that farmers despise working on vehicles of any kind. Doesn't make much sense to me, but I'll take the work.

I truly admire farmers' ability to improvise and make things work, but ultimately everything winds up cobbled together with temporary-permanent fixes and "good 'nuf" repairs. I get it -- they've got bigger fish to fry.

 

[meep]

This week has been quite busy for me at work. I've drilled, tapped, skimmed and chamfered aluminum link bars. I've had an order of 12 unit bearing assemblies that needed to be changed from 14mm studs on one bolt pattern to 9/16" studs on a smaller pattern. The smaller pattern gets drilled on the CNC mill, not by me. 8 4340 steel axle shafts passed through my department, each getting the shaft side of the yoke clearances by .120-.150" at 15 degrees for spindle clearance. Yesterday I had an order of four unit bearings that retained their 8x170 bolt pattern, but I had to remove the 14mm studs, drill out the holes for 9/16" studs, then press in said studs. The Baleigh hydraulic press at work makes pressing a breeze. Today I've got more link bars to do.

I really have enjoyed your posts as youve transitioned into your machining work. You seem to be more excited doing this new thing. I think that’s awesome!

 

[D60]

Progress continues at a snail's pace on the NV4500. Truly, clinebarger would be astonished that that which takes him an hour takes me a week. What can I say, I got skillz.

Getting the countershaft back in the case. As a happy accident a portion of the KM 45725 has a tiny lip that fits the front bearing race perfectly:

Driving it in:

It also fits the dust cap perfectly:

Pressing the front bearing back on the shaft:

The rear bearing must be installed with the shaft in the case -- kind of a PITA design:

You don't really want to press (or hammer) on the front rollers in their race so space the shaft up, out of the front race:

If you're ever shopping for a press, get the most Z-space you can and a bed on a winch. This press (just a 50T HF of old) has been worth its weight in gold. Bonus points if you can get something like a Dake with a ram that can be moved left/right (on my wish list -- accepting donations!)

That said, I prefer an arbor press for bearings when possible -- with this you have no feel.

 

[Sam_Julier]

Honda 3013H restoration

I picked this up from from a farmer in Rowe Massachusetts yesterday. It had sat in his barn for 3 years. It was free for the taking.

Honda GX 390 engine, 38” mower deck, hydrostatic transmission, 397 lbs, sold in the US ~1985 to 1988

Drain and fill Hydrostatic Transmission Fluid, 24 oz Honda OE fluid
Clean, vacuum, degrease cylinder head cooling fins
Cleaned the carburetor, gas tank, new fuel lines and filter, spark plug, new oil (15W40 CK-4), new battery

Next up: belts, tires, lube all mechanisms, pulleys, sharpen blades.

Over this coming winter the deck will get cleaned, rust sanded, primed and powder coated.

 

[JustN89]

Got around to replacing the brakes officially. I tried to a little while ago, but found something that is less than ideal. Ended up putting everything back together to buy new front calipers. The front right caliper had a leaking boot and the front left caliper guide pins were corroded beyond recovery. At 12 years and 101k miles, I think I am the first person to do a brake job on this car.