The oil was probably replaced by condensation and rust.Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
Moderators: rickf, raymond, Mr. Recovery
Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
Remember all that oil that you told me leaked out of the trans or transfer case? Now might be a good time to put more back in! The oil was probably replaced by condensation and rust.
The oil was probably replaced by condensation and rust.1964 M151A1
1984 M1008
1967 M416
04/1952 M100
12/1952 M100- Departed
AN/TSQ-114A Trailblazer- Gone
1984 M1008
1967 M416
04/1952 M100
12/1952 M100- Departed
AN/TSQ-114A Trailblazer- Gone
Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
Ya know what, Rick? You're just a little ray of sunshine.
So, today I rolled up my sleeves and took up the deck plate. Got in there with my little cans of various lubricants and with a big wrench and backed off the large retaining nut at the end of the shaft for both selectors. Gaps appeared between them that really let the penetrants get down in there and the HI/LOW selector was the first to get happy.
I put away the mallet and put a pipe on the IN/OUT selector and worked it back and forth. Wasn't long before that started cooperating and with a tiny bit of rotation of the trans brake disc, the IN/OUT started moving all the way in...and out. Yippee.
I WIN!
AGAIN!
Turned my attention to the deck plate. This deck plate once had a piece of tatty old angle iron bolted to it, the purpose of which was to hold the folding front legs of the track commander's seat which is centrally located in the crew compartment. The TC seat is incorrect for the M2, as is the large bulkhead behind the seats upon which it is hung but, while I allow all that oddball stuff to remain in there, I'll keep it the way the Army intended it to be. I probably still have that angle iron piece around here somewhere (I never throw anything away) but there being no real purpose in searching for it, I've simply created a new one.
The reason that piece of angle iron had been removed was that I generally keep the TC seat folded up and out of the way and the area of the floor pan which is central to the cabin space and it is really the ONE place I need to put my feet when stomping around inside the half track. So, having that piece of metal sticking up is a very real impediment.
Solution - make it removable and make the process of removing it, or replacing it as easy as possible. In order to make that happen, I'm going to weld a blind nut on the back side of the floor pan which will allow me to take it out from the top, rather than it being the two-man job it had been, with one guy working above and one guy working below. That's going to make life in this machine far easier.
As for the trans and the transfer, those are going to be drained completely and be allowed to air out. In this heat, the guts will be dry in no time flat. Then I'll button it up and top it off and it can start leaking again...because dead dinosaur leaks are what we are all about around here.
Cheers,
TJ
So, today I rolled up my sleeves and took up the deck plate. Got in there with my little cans of various lubricants and with a big wrench and backed off the large retaining nut at the end of the shaft for both selectors. Gaps appeared between them that really let the penetrants get down in there and the HI/LOW selector was the first to get happy.
I put away the mallet and put a pipe on the IN/OUT selector and worked it back and forth. Wasn't long before that started cooperating and with a tiny bit of rotation of the trans brake disc, the IN/OUT started moving all the way in...and out. Yippee.
I WIN!
AGAIN!
Turned my attention to the deck plate. This deck plate once had a piece of tatty old angle iron bolted to it, the purpose of which was to hold the folding front legs of the track commander's seat which is centrally located in the crew compartment. The TC seat is incorrect for the M2, as is the large bulkhead behind the seats upon which it is hung but, while I allow all that oddball stuff to remain in there, I'll keep it the way the Army intended it to be. I probably still have that angle iron piece around here somewhere (I never throw anything away) but there being no real purpose in searching for it, I've simply created a new one.
The reason that piece of angle iron had been removed was that I generally keep the TC seat folded up and out of the way and the area of the floor pan which is central to the cabin space and it is really the ONE place I need to put my feet when stomping around inside the half track. So, having that piece of metal sticking up is a very real impediment.
Solution - make it removable and make the process of removing it, or replacing it as easy as possible. In order to make that happen, I'm going to weld a blind nut on the back side of the floor pan which will allow me to take it out from the top, rather than it being the two-man job it had been, with one guy working above and one guy working below. That's going to make life in this machine far easier.
As for the trans and the transfer, those are going to be drained completely and be allowed to air out. In this heat, the guts will be dry in no time flat. Then I'll button it up and top it off and it can start leaking again...because dead dinosaur leaks are what we are all about around here.
Cheers,
TJ
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Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
Ah, the temperature is really rather nice this morning. Being a creature of habit, I will ignore the opportunity to do things while it's a good time to do things and I'll just sit here sipping coffee..
But first, COFFEE!
...and seeing what's in the news and typing all sorts of drivel into this computer. You really shouldn't be reading this. You REALLY should be out there, rolling around in life's experiences like an old dog in a horse pasture. (if you don't understand the metaphor, it involves a dog's natural affinity for horse poop).
One of today's more important things to read came from Road & Track. If it involves things with wheels, I'm ALL IN. Here's the article -
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cultur ... ls-camaro/
On it's surface it just involves kid, Hot Wheels cars and their surprisingly high value (applicable to cars and kids as well). You know, those little die cast treasures that so gently and effortlessly lead many of us down an orange plastic road to the wonderful world of adult automotive adventures. How many of us started with 1:64 scale and ended up with 1:1 scale? I know I did. Folks come up to me and ask how I got started in the MV hobby. I usually tell them my father had me building models of military vehicles. Ostensibly, model building would help me to develop in some way...and it did...just not in the way ol' Dad intended! That is definitely one of the things that lead me up to it. But, if the truth were to be told, Matchbox, Hot Wheels, Corgi, Lesney (and other, lesser-quality die cast cars) came into my life LONG before model building.
But, it was model building that taught me to learn to appreciate the importance of small details. How using less glue and how bringing out the details of a cockpit with a brush with a single hair DID make a difference in the build quality. When I began modeling, blowing up a finished model with a fire cracker or an M-80 was an easy choice to make. No real loss, there. Eventually, I was building museum-quality scale models that would become dedicated dust gatherers in my bedroom and the thought of destroying one would not occur to me.
Dad supplied all the tools we needed to achieve excellence and often as not, the Smith kids were to be found at the kitchen table, the air thick with the odor of Testors model glue and paint, and lighter fluid. HEAVEN. While we 'sweated the details' the house never caught fire and nobody sat around sniffing glue. Imagine that! Use of the Badger air brush made the house smell like a model-making factory. Far better than the second-hand smoke we were all living in.
Eventually, we graduated to slot cars (which is another epic story of my childhood) and a rather large railroad set materialized; one which, apparently, NEVER got photographed.
Eventually the die cast cars were relegated to the bottom drawer of my bedroom dresser. Scale is important when you're railroading so those die cast cars never made it over to the railroad setting in any great numbers.
Dad was also big on museums. Some folks go to museums with the idea that they would come away enlightened or some darned thing like that. We went to museums to expand our bucket list! At least I did. We would come away smarter, to be sure...but as a bonus, there would be MORE things on our bucket list; things that were tantalizingly out of reach. I would say having a half track and a gama goat puts me well-up on achieving my bucket list which is ever-evolving and belongs on a Rolodex because there is no top or bottom to it. In my youth, gama goats were still very much in use so one would never find one in a museum. I didn't even know they existed. But half tracks....WELL! That's something else altogether! I had a die cast half track and I had built several models of half tracks and I knew them as intimately as any child could have without having any actual experience with one. Half tracks spanned the gap between fast cars with aerodynamic lines and clunky machines on tracks. Half tracks have just the right 'look'.
I also had an ongoing love affair with tanks, cemented in my brain by what many young males experience as those raging hormones begin to circulate. They represented a fairly high rung on the ol' ladder of power. I was riding around town on a Western Flyer which was a far lower rung than riding around in a tank but, far higher than being afoot. THAT I knew! I couldn't have told you about the concept of hierarchy of power then, but it was a current of a river that all we youngsters flailed around in, whether we liked it, or not.
We visited Gettysburg endlessly with Dad being very passionate on the subject since our Great (How many Greats? 2 to the 10th power I reckon.) Grandfather was known to have been shot through the head while conducting a "retrograde manuever" at Snicker's Gap near Berryville and Winchester; a hotly contested bit of ground. The 123rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry mustered in Monroeville, Ohio. That's where grandpap signed up for a bullet to the brain. We even have a letter from one of his cavalry friends who saw it happen and who, later, recovered his body. I brought home a small die cast cannon each time we went to Gettysburg. I was a veteran collector even then and I knew, while having one cannon is good, having a whole row of cannons was infinitely better.
There's that power thing again!
We visited Aberdeen and then we all got busy building a whole lot of tanks, which represented rungs of power that were WAY above cannons. After a few imaginary battles between imaginary guys with cannons vs. imaginary guys with tanks, it was clear what the end result would be. The guys with cannons rang their own death knell casting their cannon balls without hope against the hulls of the mighty tanks. The Red Legs died gloriously for their cause.
The WWII Germans always had way more menacing looking armor and a soup-to-nuts menu of vehicles that kept me busy building models of their stuff. The U.S. had these tall, goofy-looking tanks that looked a lot like a 69,000# blob of chewed bubble gum. In our kid's world, none of that mattered because after the mock battles were over, there would always be another chance at glory because everyone lived to fight another day.
Then Vietnam came along and a close friend's older brother was reportedly killed there and that kinda put the kibosh on our playing war, especially after his mother came over in the middle of the day after receiving the notification of his death. She really laid into my dad who, after her son's number had come up, had told her he was in no position to sign his deferment which would have been notional at best. So, that young man got sent to Vietnam like so many others. Years later, I found out he had not been killed, which is good but, it did not restore the warmth of the friendship between our families. Just another one of those weird things you go through in the 'kid world' whilst living on the periphery of the 'adult world' I guess.
We visited Wright Patterson often and an endless array of other air museums because Dad was into things with wings...and so, we also built an endless array of things with wings... which represented another rung of power above that of tanks (which had little or no real chance against airpower). Dad had quite a few paperbacks on the matter, which we read with gusto and through that process we began to learn more about the machines we were building and how, with them, adults made sure the other side's kids didn't ever come home. Pretty fascinating stuff for a kid.
In the real world, building a tank model vs building an airplane model....well, there is really no comparison. Tank models were far more involved... something about all those little wheels (which will refuse to roll if you screw up with the glue)... and on the larger scale tank models you even had to assemble the tracks! All of that is a daunting task when you have the patience of a child. So, we also had to learn how to be patient and occasionally, quit while you were ahead.
Conversely, aircraft models had fewer parts but they had much more involved paint schemes than most tanks, which taught us about the benefits of learning more than one skill set. You may be a genius at trimming parts and a wizard when it came to laying glue but all that was for naught if you couldn't lay paint worth a darn. No quicker way to ruin an aircraft model by slobbering paint all over the canopy, by the way. My poor P-39 Airacobra fell victim to that very thing. One sneeze and you're screwed. No internet to be able to go out and source a replacement canopy, either.
Many, many lessons learned.
Alas, models now cost a very pretty penny which means that kids aren't really going to be all that involved with them....which means kids are missing out on some very important, very formative opportunities that they may not get elsewhere. Just something to think about while you're playing with your big boy toys.
Cheers,
TJ
But first, COFFEE!
...and seeing what's in the news and typing all sorts of drivel into this computer. You really shouldn't be reading this. You REALLY should be out there, rolling around in life's experiences like an old dog in a horse pasture. (if you don't understand the metaphor, it involves a dog's natural affinity for horse poop).
One of today's more important things to read came from Road & Track. If it involves things with wheels, I'm ALL IN. Here's the article -
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cultur ... ls-camaro/
On it's surface it just involves kid, Hot Wheels cars and their surprisingly high value (applicable to cars and kids as well). You know, those little die cast treasures that so gently and effortlessly lead many of us down an orange plastic road to the wonderful world of adult automotive adventures. How many of us started with 1:64 scale and ended up with 1:1 scale? I know I did. Folks come up to me and ask how I got started in the MV hobby. I usually tell them my father had me building models of military vehicles. Ostensibly, model building would help me to develop in some way...and it did...just not in the way ol' Dad intended! That is definitely one of the things that lead me up to it. But, if the truth were to be told, Matchbox, Hot Wheels, Corgi, Lesney (and other, lesser-quality die cast cars) came into my life LONG before model building.
But, it was model building that taught me to learn to appreciate the importance of small details. How using less glue and how bringing out the details of a cockpit with a brush with a single hair DID make a difference in the build quality. When I began modeling, blowing up a finished model with a fire cracker or an M-80 was an easy choice to make. No real loss, there. Eventually, I was building museum-quality scale models that would become dedicated dust gatherers in my bedroom and the thought of destroying one would not occur to me.
Dad supplied all the tools we needed to achieve excellence and often as not, the Smith kids were to be found at the kitchen table, the air thick with the odor of Testors model glue and paint, and lighter fluid. HEAVEN. While we 'sweated the details' the house never caught fire and nobody sat around sniffing glue. Imagine that! Use of the Badger air brush made the house smell like a model-making factory. Far better than the second-hand smoke we were all living in.
Eventually, we graduated to slot cars (which is another epic story of my childhood) and a rather large railroad set materialized; one which, apparently, NEVER got photographed.
Eventually the die cast cars were relegated to the bottom drawer of my bedroom dresser. Scale is important when you're railroading so those die cast cars never made it over to the railroad setting in any great numbers.Dad was also big on museums. Some folks go to museums with the idea that they would come away enlightened or some darned thing like that. We went to museums to expand our bucket list! At least I did. We would come away smarter, to be sure...but as a bonus, there would be MORE things on our bucket list; things that were tantalizingly out of reach. I would say having a half track and a gama goat puts me well-up on achieving my bucket list which is ever-evolving and belongs on a Rolodex because there is no top or bottom to it. In my youth, gama goats were still very much in use so one would never find one in a museum. I didn't even know they existed. But half tracks....WELL! That's something else altogether! I had a die cast half track and I had built several models of half tracks and I knew them as intimately as any child could have without having any actual experience with one. Half tracks spanned the gap between fast cars with aerodynamic lines and clunky machines on tracks. Half tracks have just the right 'look'.
I also had an ongoing love affair with tanks, cemented in my brain by what many young males experience as those raging hormones begin to circulate. They represented a fairly high rung on the ol' ladder of power. I was riding around town on a Western Flyer which was a far lower rung than riding around in a tank but, far higher than being afoot. THAT I knew! I couldn't have told you about the concept of hierarchy of power then, but it was a current of a river that all we youngsters flailed around in, whether we liked it, or not.
We visited Gettysburg endlessly with Dad being very passionate on the subject since our Great (How many Greats? 2 to the 10th power I reckon.) Grandfather was known to have been shot through the head while conducting a "retrograde manuever" at Snicker's Gap near Berryville and Winchester; a hotly contested bit of ground. The 123rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry mustered in Monroeville, Ohio. That's where grandpap signed up for a bullet to the brain. We even have a letter from one of his cavalry friends who saw it happen and who, later, recovered his body. I brought home a small die cast cannon each time we went to Gettysburg. I was a veteran collector even then and I knew, while having one cannon is good, having a whole row of cannons was infinitely better.
There's that power thing again!
We visited Aberdeen and then we all got busy building a whole lot of tanks, which represented rungs of power that were WAY above cannons. After a few imaginary battles between imaginary guys with cannons vs. imaginary guys with tanks, it was clear what the end result would be. The guys with cannons rang their own death knell casting their cannon balls without hope against the hulls of the mighty tanks. The Red Legs died gloriously for their cause.
The WWII Germans always had way more menacing looking armor and a soup-to-nuts menu of vehicles that kept me busy building models of their stuff. The U.S. had these tall, goofy-looking tanks that looked a lot like a 69,000# blob of chewed bubble gum. In our kid's world, none of that mattered because after the mock battles were over, there would always be another chance at glory because everyone lived to fight another day.
Then Vietnam came along and a close friend's older brother was reportedly killed there and that kinda put the kibosh on our playing war, especially after his mother came over in the middle of the day after receiving the notification of his death. She really laid into my dad who, after her son's number had come up, had told her he was in no position to sign his deferment which would have been notional at best. So, that young man got sent to Vietnam like so many others. Years later, I found out he had not been killed, which is good but, it did not restore the warmth of the friendship between our families. Just another one of those weird things you go through in the 'kid world' whilst living on the periphery of the 'adult world' I guess.
We visited Wright Patterson often and an endless array of other air museums because Dad was into things with wings...and so, we also built an endless array of things with wings... which represented another rung of power above that of tanks (which had little or no real chance against airpower). Dad had quite a few paperbacks on the matter, which we read with gusto and through that process we began to learn more about the machines we were building and how, with them, adults made sure the other side's kids didn't ever come home. Pretty fascinating stuff for a kid.
In the real world, building a tank model vs building an airplane model....well, there is really no comparison. Tank models were far more involved... something about all those little wheels (which will refuse to roll if you screw up with the glue)... and on the larger scale tank models you even had to assemble the tracks! All of that is a daunting task when you have the patience of a child. So, we also had to learn how to be patient and occasionally, quit while you were ahead.
Conversely, aircraft models had fewer parts but they had much more involved paint schemes than most tanks, which taught us about the benefits of learning more than one skill set. You may be a genius at trimming parts and a wizard when it came to laying glue but all that was for naught if you couldn't lay paint worth a darn. No quicker way to ruin an aircraft model by slobbering paint all over the canopy, by the way. My poor P-39 Airacobra fell victim to that very thing. One sneeze and you're screwed. No internet to be able to go out and source a replacement canopy, either.
Many, many lessons learned.
Alas, models now cost a very pretty penny which means that kids aren't really going to be all that involved with them....which means kids are missing out on some very important, very formative opportunities that they may not get elsewhere. Just something to think about while you're playing with your big boy toys.
Cheers,
TJ
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Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
Spent much of yesterday cleaning up the mess under the half track in preparation for making new leaks when the new gear oil is added. I dutifully scraped up all the filth that accumulates on oil patches; leaves, acorns, cat hair....cats. All of it got scraped up and put in a bag (except for the cat, which will be recycled). Put down NAPA's version of Absorb-all over the nasty spot, mostly because I didn't want to have to look at it and over that I will put down an inverted Blitz pan and a plastic tub on top of that....
BUT
I'm not going to put 90w in this thing until I'm ready to roll. I am finding out that 90w has become unusually expensive and whatever drips out will be caught. Unfortunately, with the way the wind blows around here I have no doubt that just as much detritus will find its way into the new oil in the tub as it did the old oil patch on the driveway....and this puppy holds 9 quarts of gear lube.
I went out and bought two gallons. That's 8 quarts. I'll just pretend 1 quart leaked out already. To reduce the financial sting of the purchase, I turned over two dead batteries, thereby saving $20. I just can't keep straining oil through it for no reason and presently, I can't enter into another project that reduces the half track to being immobile once again. The TM shows a rather straightforward job for replacing the seals which involves removing the drive shaft yokes and thoughtfully designed flanges that contain the seals. I'm rather sure I'll have to source some speedi sleeves but, on paper, it looks like an honest and straightforward job....for later.
I'm sure Rick is curious as to what I removed from the transmission. Well, what came out came out thicker than 90w...like honey. Pretty filthy but not a chocolate shake which would have been an indication of water getting in. I reckon the filth in the oil was probably finely ground up rust from condensation so, whatever oil I add on this first go-round is going to get a whole new dose of ground up rust, to be sure. That's the world I'm living in at the moment.
Today, I'm taking up the driver's side deck plate and I'll see what can be done to ensure the clutch and brake pedals are lubed up and moving freely.
Cheers,
TJ
BUT
I'm not going to put 90w in this thing until I'm ready to roll. I am finding out that 90w has become unusually expensive and whatever drips out will be caught. Unfortunately, with the way the wind blows around here I have no doubt that just as much detritus will find its way into the new oil in the tub as it did the old oil patch on the driveway....and this puppy holds 9 quarts of gear lube.
I went out and bought two gallons. That's 8 quarts. I'll just pretend 1 quart leaked out already. To reduce the financial sting of the purchase, I turned over two dead batteries, thereby saving $20. I just can't keep straining oil through it for no reason and presently, I can't enter into another project that reduces the half track to being immobile once again. The TM shows a rather straightforward job for replacing the seals which involves removing the drive shaft yokes and thoughtfully designed flanges that contain the seals. I'm rather sure I'll have to source some speedi sleeves but, on paper, it looks like an honest and straightforward job....for later.
I'm sure Rick is curious as to what I removed from the transmission. Well, what came out came out thicker than 90w...like honey. Pretty filthy but not a chocolate shake which would have been an indication of water getting in. I reckon the filth in the oil was probably finely ground up rust from condensation so, whatever oil I add on this first go-round is going to get a whole new dose of ground up rust, to be sure. That's the world I'm living in at the moment.
Today, I'm taking up the driver's side deck plate and I'll see what can be done to ensure the clutch and brake pedals are lubed up and moving freely.
Cheers,
TJ
Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
Okay! Got just a little ways into this and have much to report.
I began with what I thought was the path of last resistance and got this clever little Ryobi cordless impact all set up to undo the driver's side deck plate bolts. They turned....but didn't come undone.
What th....
So, I did what I should have done in the first place and looked underneath. Two takeaways from this -
1. Always look at the other side of whatever it is your'e working on FIRST. Why? Because in my case, there were nuts on the other side of all those bolts...
...and I'm working alone.
The military usually has LOTS of guys who are ready to be voluntold at a moment's notice. whereas I do not. For the military, having a nut on the other side of some impermeable barrier simply means you grab the first guy or gal...
I added that just for you PC howlers out there... (You're welcome, Rick.
)
...anyone that has a pulse, at least one thumb and two fingers on the same hand and maybe both eyes on the front of his, or her head, rather than all on one side. You give him, or her a wrench, point to the nut and say, "HOLD THAT STEADY."
Simple for the military. NOT simple for me.
B. Be certain that what preparatory thing you are doing is necessary to accomplish the job at hand.
After I got under there, I realized that taking up that deck plate would get me no further than doing the work on my back under this big machine. That last sentence seems redundant but it does nicely illustrate another point kind of unrelated to all of this and THAT is, being away from a machine for 15 years kinda softens yer brain. There was a time when I was intimately familiar with every inch of this thing. Now I find I have forgotten a lot of stuff. There is plenty of evidence that I have been under there before. So, I'll have to spend more time just laying under the machine, recommitting things to memory.
ANYHOO...
I sprayed a lot of PB Blaster on clutch and brake pedal linkages. I followed up with some of my home-brewed concoction of ATF, Marvel Mystery oil, and whatever was left in the myriad bottles I found in incomplete (and ancient) gun cleaning kits while scrapping Nice Lady's place. I added to that, just a touch of 3-in-1 oil to give it a little flavor plus a little staying power since most of the other stuff seems to just kind of evaporate after a while..
SOMETHING in that mixture is bound to work!
Lots of grease zerks under there too! I got my little flathead screwdriver and scraped off the grease and followed up with a little wire brush. Hmm, these grease zerks look pretty darned good. I got the Harbor Freight pneumagic grease gun out of its box (I'm really danged tired of walking around it) and decided to give it a shakedown run. Loaded it up with a cartridge containing some kind of Snake Oil brand of grease that the manufacturer claimed to be good for whatever ails ya. Popped that in and popped the top and found it to be the most Godawful shade of pink. Well...whatever. It's going in if I have my way about it. The bonus is, PINK GREASE will serve as excellent evidence that whatever the part is, it has been greased sometime after WWII.
I have only one really important hint for using any new grease gun. Make sure the adjustable tip moves freely BEFORE you stick it into a tiny recessed space where a grease zerk lives because, when it won't come off...well, it just makes things that are hard enough already, HARDER. Ask me how I know. With disaster narrowly averted I observed that most of the grease zerks in that quadrant were actually new-ish and most already had a reasonable amount of grease behind them. Kilroy was here? Nope. TJ was here....many many moons ago. ANOTHER thing I had forgotten. But that's okay.
Things are moving along rather well. Literally, and figuratively.
What's next? Well, I think it's about time to build some bows for this machine so the interior space (particularly the cab) it can be covered up.
Cheers,
TJ
I began with what I thought was the path of last resistance and got this clever little Ryobi cordless impact all set up to undo the driver's side deck plate bolts. They turned....but didn't come undone.
What th....
So, I did what I should have done in the first place and looked underneath. Two takeaways from this -
1. Always look at the other side of whatever it is your'e working on FIRST. Why? Because in my case, there were nuts on the other side of all those bolts...
...and I'm working alone.
The military usually has LOTS of guys who are ready to be voluntold at a moment's notice. whereas I do not. For the military, having a nut on the other side of some impermeable barrier simply means you grab the first guy or gal...
I added that just for you PC howlers out there... (You're welcome, Rick.
) ...anyone that has a pulse, at least one thumb and two fingers on the same hand and maybe both eyes on the front of his, or her head, rather than all on one side. You give him, or her a wrench, point to the nut and say, "HOLD THAT STEADY."
Simple for the military. NOT simple for me.
B. Be certain that what preparatory thing you are doing is necessary to accomplish the job at hand.
After I got under there, I realized that taking up that deck plate would get me no further than doing the work on my back under this big machine. That last sentence seems redundant but it does nicely illustrate another point kind of unrelated to all of this and THAT is, being away from a machine for 15 years kinda softens yer brain. There was a time when I was intimately familiar with every inch of this thing. Now I find I have forgotten a lot of stuff. There is plenty of evidence that I have been under there before. So, I'll have to spend more time just laying under the machine, recommitting things to memory.
ANYHOO...
I sprayed a lot of PB Blaster on clutch and brake pedal linkages. I followed up with some of my home-brewed concoction of ATF, Marvel Mystery oil, and whatever was left in the myriad bottles I found in incomplete (and ancient) gun cleaning kits while scrapping Nice Lady's place. I added to that, just a touch of 3-in-1 oil to give it a little flavor plus a little staying power since most of the other stuff seems to just kind of evaporate after a while..
SOMETHING in that mixture is bound to work!
Lots of grease zerks under there too! I got my little flathead screwdriver and scraped off the grease and followed up with a little wire brush. Hmm, these grease zerks look pretty darned good. I got the Harbor Freight pneumagic grease gun out of its box (I'm really danged tired of walking around it) and decided to give it a shakedown run. Loaded it up with a cartridge containing some kind of Snake Oil brand of grease that the manufacturer claimed to be good for whatever ails ya. Popped that in and popped the top and found it to be the most Godawful shade of pink. Well...whatever. It's going in if I have my way about it. The bonus is, PINK GREASE will serve as excellent evidence that whatever the part is, it has been greased sometime after WWII.
I have only one really important hint for using any new grease gun. Make sure the adjustable tip moves freely BEFORE you stick it into a tiny recessed space where a grease zerk lives because, when it won't come off...well, it just makes things that are hard enough already, HARDER. Ask me how I know. With disaster narrowly averted I observed that most of the grease zerks in that quadrant were actually new-ish and most already had a reasonable amount of grease behind them. Kilroy was here? Nope. TJ was here....many many moons ago. ANOTHER thing I had forgotten. But that's okay.
Things are moving along rather well. Literally, and figuratively.
What's next? Well, I think it's about time to build some bows for this machine so the interior space (particularly the cab) it can be covered up.
Cheers,
TJ
Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
you know, you just mentioned the solution to your nut and bolt problem right there. guy or GAL, Just tell your wife she just volunteered to hold the wrench for you. Problem solved.
Now, onto a more reasonable problem, the losing of fresh oil to the elements. Take an old sheet or several old T shirts and stretch them over the pan under the transmission. Oil will leak through the fabric but detritus will just lay on top. And even if water gets in there it will just go to the bottom. So you will be able to reuse the oil. And considering what you say came out it certainly could not be worse than that.
Now, onto a more reasonable problem, the losing of fresh oil to the elements. Take an old sheet or several old T shirts and stretch them over the pan under the transmission. Oil will leak through the fabric but detritus will just lay on top. And even if water gets in there it will just go to the bottom. So you will be able to reuse the oil. And considering what you say came out it certainly could not be worse than that.
1964 M151A1
1984 M1008
1967 M416
04/1952 M100
12/1952 M100- Departed
AN/TSQ-114A Trailblazer- Gone
1984 M1008
1967 M416
04/1952 M100
12/1952 M100- Departed
AN/TSQ-114A Trailblazer- Gone
Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
Clearly, you don't know my wife!
Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
Well, i got chased off the project by threat of rain. Thunderstorms were passing through so I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off, putting the deck plate back down, throwing a 5 gallon bucket over the transfer case levers, bagging the seats and putting away tools.
But we got no rain.
Crud.
It was hot and REALLY humid. How hot has it been? Well, turn on the cold water faucet in the kitchen sink and the water comes out hot. Hot, like maybe it's coming out of the water heater....which is handy when you want to wash your hands. Not so handy when you want to add water to a cup of ice. Hot, HOT, HOT
After putting up the tools, I jumped in the rain locker, sorted myself out and went out for a bit of dinner with the Good Doctor before she went off to work. When I returned, the house was 79 degrees inside, then 80, then 85 and so on. My cats were giving me the hairy eyeball because they're used to being cool. YUP. The A/C was in the fritz....and it was 7PM....on a Sunday.
Perfect.
On the plus side, the A/C didn't fail in the staggering heat of the day. So, during the evening, while things are cooling off outside, I'm putting out fans on the inside. They are noisy, but they are pleasant. I'll sleep on top of the covers tonight and tomorrow we'll see what the damages are going to be. If I can afford it, maybe I'll buy a unit that will create rime frost on the windows. Yeah!
Cheers,
TJ
But we got no rain.
Crud.
It was hot and REALLY humid. How hot has it been? Well, turn on the cold water faucet in the kitchen sink and the water comes out hot. Hot, like maybe it's coming out of the water heater....which is handy when you want to wash your hands. Not so handy when you want to add water to a cup of ice. Hot, HOT, HOT
After putting up the tools, I jumped in the rain locker, sorted myself out and went out for a bit of dinner with the Good Doctor before she went off to work. When I returned, the house was 79 degrees inside, then 80, then 85 and so on. My cats were giving me the hairy eyeball because they're used to being cool. YUP. The A/C was in the fritz....and it was 7PM....on a Sunday.
Perfect.
On the plus side, the A/C didn't fail in the staggering heat of the day. So, during the evening, while things are cooling off outside, I'm putting out fans on the inside. They are noisy, but they are pleasant. I'll sleep on top of the covers tonight and tomorrow we'll see what the damages are going to be. If I can afford it, maybe I'll buy a unit that will create rime frost on the windows. Yeah!
Cheers,
TJ
Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
My A/C died on the first hot day of the season this year. Thankfully the first day is usually followed by a few weeks of cooler weather so I had time to get it replaced. Mine was an older R-22 system so I needed to get a compressor that would be compatible with that so I did not have to change out the evaporator coil also. That would have added another thousand plus to the job. Still cost me 4500.00! First one lasted 21 years so if this one lasts that long I don't figure I will be around to worry about replacing it.
1964 M151A1
1984 M1008
1967 M416
04/1952 M100
12/1952 M100- Departed
AN/TSQ-114A Trailblazer- Gone
1984 M1008
1967 M416
04/1952 M100
12/1952 M100- Departed
AN/TSQ-114A Trailblazer- Gone
Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
I think I found the trouble. Since these fellas were making me wait and wait and wait, I figured I might just as well cut the power to the unit outside and clean all the little bits of crap that inevitably make their way past the fan and settle into the bottom of the housing.
Got out my little cordless Ryobi (again) and after five 1/4 screws were removed, I propped the top up with a broom stick and then I spied a rubber strip wrapped around the shaft of the fan motor.
That don't belong there!
So, hopefully, we're just looking at maybe a fan motor and associated bits. If these guys take much longer, I'm going back out, opening it up again and blow out the condenser. Looks pretty good on at a glance but I'm betting....
Anybody what to make a bet how quickly they'll attempt to sell me a new everything?
Cheers,
TJ
Have I mentioned it's hot out?
Got out my little cordless Ryobi (again) and after five 1/4 screws were removed, I propped the top up with a broom stick and then I spied a rubber strip wrapped around the shaft of the fan motor.
That don't belong there!
So, hopefully, we're just looking at maybe a fan motor and associated bits. If these guys take much longer, I'm going back out, opening it up again and blow out the condenser. Looks pretty good on at a glance but I'm betting....
Anybody what to make a bet how quickly they'll attempt to sell me a new everything?
Cheers,
TJ
Have I mentioned it's hot out?
Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
If the fan stopped running then the compressor would have locked and blown the fuses that SHOULD be inline on the side of the house by the unit. Should be a hand plug you can pull to disconnect power to the unit and technically to the fuses but be damn sure to check them before touching anything. Best to go inside and throw the breaker. I have seen a lot of those cutout boxes wired wrong. If you suspect the fan was just locked from something wrapped around the shaft then clear the shaft, ohm the breakers and replace if popped and then turn the power on inside with the cutoff outside still off. Set your thermostat to come on and then go out and turn on the power at the cutout. If the compressor comes on but the fan does not then shut it down because that will kill the compressor if it is not already dead. If the fan comes on but the compressor does not just leave it run for a while and see what happens, sometimes the controls need to realign before the compressor will come on. If it has not come on in five minutes............... well, the credit card is gonna take a beating. How old is the system? What refrigerant is in it?
1964 M151A1
1984 M1008
1967 M416
04/1952 M100
12/1952 M100- Departed
AN/TSQ-114A Trailblazer- Gone
1984 M1008
1967 M416
04/1952 M100
12/1952 M100- Departed
AN/TSQ-114A Trailblazer- Gone
Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
Now remember, I'm the guy who can fall into a cement mixer filled with you-know-what and come out grinning like a cheshire cat, with a diamond between my teeth.
So. the AC guy finally shows up and he's probably about 20 years my junior and it turns out not only is he the owner of the company (well established in this area) but he lives down the street AND he's also my #1 Fan. His opening line goes something like, he's SO happy I called because my place is THE place he's always wanted to visit and he's been drooling over most everything I have around the joint, particularly my gooseneck trailer.
So we went through all the steps necessary to suss out the trouble with my unit and the compressor kept overheating (probably due to it being the epitome of the concept of 'ancient') and it was shutting the unit down through one or more of the fail-safe triggers. We put a new capacitor on it and that changed nothing. Pressures were a little wonky. Trigger switches continued to shut everything down and when we bypassed them to see if enforced heat exchange would solve the problem (it was 107 degrees in San Antonio today, by the way), the compressor got too hot to touch. That's WAY too hot. Deduction - compressor is compressing but the motor is D-U-N, done....and naturally, because of its advance years, it's pushing that diabolically evil R22.
So, he, being the boss and all, made me an offer. I turn the trailer over to him and I get a new EVERYTHING installed...with a 12 year bumper to bumper warranty...
TOMORROW.
Well, let me tell ya....I know he's getting every piece of A/C that I need at a wholesale price but that doesn't matter because his offer easily eclipsed what I actually have in the trailer and I haven't used that trailer for quite some time so it has been a luxury, whereas having AC is a necessity. I'm crazy but, I'm not stupid. I said, YES because even if it was fixed, my AC isn't going to get any younger and this is one of those deals where you simply must take a deep breath, close your eyes, think of The Queen, and jump in with both feet.
Yeah. I did it. Yer darned tootin' I did it!
So, after dinner, I get to clear out the attic around the air handler...without AC. Pray for me!
Cheers,
TJ
So. the AC guy finally shows up and he's probably about 20 years my junior and it turns out not only is he the owner of the company (well established in this area) but he lives down the street AND he's also my #1 Fan. His opening line goes something like, he's SO happy I called because my place is THE place he's always wanted to visit and he's been drooling over most everything I have around the joint, particularly my gooseneck trailer.
So we went through all the steps necessary to suss out the trouble with my unit and the compressor kept overheating (probably due to it being the epitome of the concept of 'ancient') and it was shutting the unit down through one or more of the fail-safe triggers. We put a new capacitor on it and that changed nothing. Pressures were a little wonky. Trigger switches continued to shut everything down and when we bypassed them to see if enforced heat exchange would solve the problem (it was 107 degrees in San Antonio today, by the way), the compressor got too hot to touch. That's WAY too hot. Deduction - compressor is compressing but the motor is D-U-N, done....and naturally, because of its advance years, it's pushing that diabolically evil R22.
So, he, being the boss and all, made me an offer. I turn the trailer over to him and I get a new EVERYTHING installed...with a 12 year bumper to bumper warranty...
TOMORROW.
Well, let me tell ya....I know he's getting every piece of A/C that I need at a wholesale price but that doesn't matter because his offer easily eclipsed what I actually have in the trailer and I haven't used that trailer for quite some time so it has been a luxury, whereas having AC is a necessity. I'm crazy but, I'm not stupid. I said, YES because even if it was fixed, my AC isn't going to get any younger and this is one of those deals where you simply must take a deep breath, close your eyes, think of The Queen, and jump in with both feet.
Yeah. I did it. Yer darned tootin' I did it!
So, after dinner, I get to clear out the attic around the air handler...without AC. Pray for me!
Cheers,
TJ
Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
Well................. Considering what I just had to pay for my trailer and it is NOT a gooseneck I would debate your decision but you know better how much you need the trailer. And in Tx I am guessing gooseneck trailers are all over the place for sale so a bit different from here. As far as the attic, I would be doing that in the morning after the heat soaked out all night!!!! Not a morning person or not!
Good luck.
Good luck.
1964 M151A1
1984 M1008
1967 M416
04/1952 M100
12/1952 M100- Departed
AN/TSQ-114A Trailblazer- Gone
1984 M1008
1967 M416
04/1952 M100
12/1952 M100- Departed
AN/TSQ-114A Trailblazer- Gone
Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
Happily, I will not be doing much of anything where the installation is concerned....except putting attic stuff away after the installation and that, only happening after taking a very hard look at what NOT to put back. Perfect time to take a scythe to it.
Trailer has seen very little use since I brought the Gama Goat home. Having it was really only related to taking it places but in the current state this country is in, I just don't see much of that sort of thing happening. Which means my having a trailer that has a bunch of my money tied up for no good reason.
If the economy goes in the toilet, I have a feeling I'll be able to pick up another G-neck on the sly without too much trouble.
Cheers,
TJ
Trailer has seen very little use since I brought the Gama Goat home. Having it was really only related to taking it places but in the current state this country is in, I just don't see much of that sort of thing happening. Which means my having a trailer that has a bunch of my money tied up for no good reason.
If the economy goes in the toilet, I have a feeling I'll be able to pick up another G-neck on the sly without too much trouble.
Cheers,
TJ
Re: Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux
The AC guys showed up like Santa Claus and brought me big, shiny presents in humongous cardboard boxes and unwrapped them for me.
In the meantime, I took the old condenser apart, gutted it, salvaged the aluminum and brass, put the chassis back together with only the fan and the capacitor.... and made myself a cracker-jack box fan! It really is pretty 'uptown'. The A/C guys were impressed.
Oh yeah! Houston, we have A/C!
Cheers,
TJ
In the meantime, I took the old condenser apart, gutted it, salvaged the aluminum and brass, put the chassis back together with only the fan and the capacitor.... and made myself a cracker-jack box fan! It really is pretty 'uptown'. The A/C guys were impressed.
Oh yeah! Houston, we have A/C!
Cheers,
TJ