so waht ya doin today?

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I love those road hazard warranties. We do all our auto work at one local independent garage and the lady there has saved us more than once by remembering we had a road hazard warranty on the tires we got from them. Always seems to be the high dollar tires that get the problems too.

Still working on the leaky Escape tranny. We'll see if the miracle in a tube will hold. I have my doubts.

Last fall when I had the new tires put on the front of the F350 I was told by my garage, the one mentioned above, that an alignment was wasted money until I got all the worn and loose stuff in the front end fixed. Took the truck across one of our counties finest goat paths that they euphemistically call "County Route 10" yesterday afternoon. Between the frost heaves, pot holes, areas where the pavement gave up the ghost 5 years ago and turned to mud and the "puddles" deep and long enough to be worthy of navigation buoys, I found out you don't go 55 mph in a large truck with a squirrely front end. In fact in some places 35 mph is throwing caution to the wind with a devil may care attitude! I also found out my reflexes just aren't what they used to be...
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Bret, maybe a tiny piece of fiberglass cloth embedded in epoxy would give it enough extra
strength to survive. Lay down epoxy on the surface, lay on a small piece of fiberglass cloth,
then more epoxy.

If you don't have any, let me know, I'll mail some.

Bill
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
sometimes you don't 'correct' those type front ends you just kind of catch them going left or right and kick them back into play.
I know if I start 'chasing' the Bronco it's a good 1/4 mile before I get it lined out again, but if I just gently let it lean into the wheel for a bit it finds a new rut in the road to follow and we are going straight again.
I'm pretty positive taking the slop out of the gear box will fix it, if not I will put some caster in the front axle to make it track straight.

I have never seen a vehicle that gets flat tires like the Tahoe gets them.
the first week we had it I got 3 flat tires [on brand new sticker tires no less] I ended up buying a whole new set of tires for it. [3 in Idaho falls and a 4th 2 days later in Pocatello]
we took it to Winnemucca for the NVCBS 2 weeks later and got 2 more flat tires.
I'm not even gonna try to count the others between those and this one, but a few stand out as pretty memorial.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
we used to mix that aluminum radiator sealer in 2 part epoxy to make repair patches for gas tanks and such.
I have filled in water runways on heads with the 2 part JB weld stick stuff, you just have to give it a super clean rough surface to stick to.
 

Hawk

North Central Texas
I had a 1976 GMC, full time 4 wheel drive Jimmy.
Driving it on the highway was like riding a bull. You couldn't get distracted for a second or you were in the next lane!
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
Marie and I did a multi-purpose trip to the local mountains today, mostly just to get the BLANK out of the house for a while but also to spend some time in the snow country up high. We wanted to get up high to test my aerobic capacity at altitude, 4-1/2 months out from the medical adventures that ensued in late 2018.

The snow had stopped falling about 3 A.M. this morning. We had brunch at a GREAT spot at the foot of the mountains, and started uphill about 11 A.M. Roads were clear and out of ice by this time, so our first stop was made about 6,500 feet up, in a highway turnout cleared of snow and no ice. This is a long area, meant for use to chain up when things got raggedy--room for lots of cars. Its long dimension also has a 3%-4% grade to it. We had parked at its upper end, where Marie was taking some pictures for her InstaGram--whatever that is.

I started out downhill to a NF sign sticking out of the snow (about 18" deep), roughly 500 feet away. This part went well, I walked this non-stop. Encouraging! I could not have done this 2 weeks ago. Just a little out of breath, I stopped for a minute or so and turned about, starting back uphill toward Marie's Jeep. Going uphill was a little tougher, and I made it about halfway and stopped to loosen up a sore muscle in my back. That done, I finished the return to the Jeep more out-of-breath than the downhill excursion produced, but not uncomfortably so. I "recovered" in about 90 seconds. I count this as a WIN, and good-to-go for Nevada varmint hunting, which gets done at 6k-7k elevations.

In for a penny, in for a pound. We drove on to Onyx Summit, with some coyote strafing on my mind. 8,500-9,000 ft. up, THIS will test things, all right. Cal-Trans or County Roads plows out the paved section of the trailhead road into the back-country for some reason, then halts at the gated-off unpaved section that goes for miles into fairly deep forest for this part of the country. Over the years my partners and I have taken a whole lot of deer out of here, because the season is early and they stay up high unless snow drives them down. Well, with 2-3 feet of snow on the ground--I would say the deer were not around. This time of year, most of the coyotes are probably at the snow line with the deer birthing their fawns--but all of our entry points to that part of the forest were gated off--so we settled for this spot 1/2 mile off the state highway, got out the CZ 22 Hornet and loaded up with Lyman #225438 at 2400 FPS courtesy of 9.0 grains of Alliant 2400. I started working the rabbit screamer mouth call a bit, and I am always amazed how quiet the forest or desert gets when that sound goes out. Any coyote still around the area is NOT eating well with 2-3 feet of snow on the ground, so maybe a young, stupid, hungry one might sashay right up. Not all of them are Rhodes Scholars.

I spent a couple hours like this, changing spots along the roadway, 30-50 yards each move. The grade here was more like 7%-8%, and at 9K elevation was a mite more taxing--but I WAS IN THE FIELD. I was actually HUNTING. DID IT EVER FEEL GOOD! Yes, it got my juices flowing, and like back-country ventures always do--my sight and hearing sharpened up. The senses combine into a synergy that exceeds the sum of its parts. This is what I live to do.

I needed this. No song dogs sighted, no shots fired. Still a great day.
 
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Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Great to hear your recovering so well and fairly quickly. That's gotta be quite the traumatic thing to go through.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
Thanks, guys.

Traumatic. I didn't and don't view it in that light, but it sure as h--l isn't something I would recommend or undertake recreationally. Not trying to be a smart aleck here--this is just the way I processed the course of events.

I felt pretty certain that I would not see Christmas 2018, and even Hallowe'en wasn't a good bet. I was circling the drain, I knew it, and the doctors agreed. The foot had to go, or I was a goner--not a shadow of doubt about it. Remove the foot, there is an even chance of survival. Not a complicated equation, that! I'm on board, let's proceed.

(Not the first time I have posted this)--I woke up feeling about a zillion percent better than I had in a very long time. That has continued through the present day. There was something really nasty going on with that foot, and I don't miss it (the mangy critters) very much. I do miss the foot a bit. The prosthetic and I get along pretty well, and the only down-side to it is that I cannot get it wet. Launching the boat solo is likely a part of the past, but so far that is the only net loss--everything else is full speed ahead!

Ernest Hemingway was a Communist jerk, an incurable misogynist, a drunkard, and probably a crummy angler if his novel The Old Man And The Sea even hints at his fishing skill-set. But he did pen one fine idea in the body of that book, one that I have taken to heart since I first read it in middle school--"A man can be destroyed, but not defeated." AND I AM NOT DONE YET.
 
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Ian

Notorious member
Excellent, Allen, you didn't survive a dangerous career to retirement just so you could kick off shortly afterward. You said a mouthfull about the senses sharpening outdoors, being cooped up is its own special kind of depressing torture and the only cure is fresh air and stretching out your depth perception.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
No doubt that getting out and hunting is a good thing, in any circumstances. Even more when you have
had a real stressor like that.

Is this "can't get it wet" limitation a part of the prosthetic design limitations somehow or some healing
issue? If that isn't too intrusive. I guess maybe it could just rust.

Bill
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Nothing behind the pan but the valve body. Pump is in the housing itself.


One of the same videos I watched. The hole is in the round housing the pump is in. Looks to be a mess of stuff in there, and the area I want to fix just may be a passage for the fluid under pressure. Thanks though.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Good to hear you're out and about Al! Hope your recovery continues and you get back to full vigor soon. I did find your line " ...mostly just to get the BLANK out of the house for a while but also to spend some time in the snow country..." very humorous. Imagine, traveling TO someplace that has snow. To quote a character in one of my favorite British series, "Oh, how droll sir! How veddy, veddy droll!" ;)

Not much to report, rough day yesterday, still having a few bouts with what is described as PTSD from the job. Today has GOT to be better.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
well I got the first box for the cold frames done yesterday [and one screwed the corners together] now I have to build the top.

it took me a while to figure out the distance a 4' roof was gonna cover sloping down from 2' to 0' [which is 3' BTW] and from everything in between up to 6"s, and down to 18"s without undoing the angle needed to catch some direct low south sunlight.
not having a formula to follow for any of it I went ahead and winged it by sort of measuring stuff and doing the 'W.A.G. looks goodish' method which i'll implement later today.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
For those interested, I ended welding a patch over the holes...yeah, there were at least 2. One I found for sure by applying just a little too much pressure to what I thought was a possible leaky area with the tranny in neutral. Well, it sure as heck leaked after I did that! Did you know an automatic transmission will shoot fluid a good 20 feet if you poke a hole in the wrong spot? No? Neither did I! Tried braze, no joy, made the holes worse. Cut and ground a patch out of 10ga sheet. MIGed it to what was there and spent an hour chasing pin holes. It's got a slight leak now, but now the tranny slips or feels something like slipping. I imagine I got some crap in there or the heat was too much for the pump. So, wasted effort I guess. At least it moves and I can go get gas 2.5 miles away. Don't trust it much further than that.
 

JonB

Halcyon member
My Truck won't start.
turns over well enough, but won't fire?
maybe it's the 2 days of 38º rain?
Everything is wet and/or ice, and it seems everyone in the neighborhood has water in the basement too, because of the deep frost?

I'm gonna just let it sit until it dries out some.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
Is this "can't get it wet" limitation a part of the prosthetic design limitations somehow or some healing
issue? If that isn't too intrusive. I guess maybe it could just rust.

Not a healing issue, I've been able to shower semi-normally for about 6 weeks. (Sink baths SUCK!) I haven't pressed the question much, because until yesterday's snow adventures the matter wasn't an issue. With fishing season right around the corner, I'll need some info on the "What ifs". The tech did make mention of a convoluted waterproof covering that was available, which sounds a lot like a huge compression sock--as hard as comp socks are to put on, that waterproof covering is a NON-STARTER. I guess we all have our own levels of PITA-Tolerance.

I think it is a rust question, at bottom. In this low-humidity/high heat environment that seems a little overblown, but those folks are the experts. Most advisements of this ilk have their basis in experience.