Saturday the 6th. was ride day, so we met for a Wailuna ride. Jeff, Sara, and Root were early. Root had the bonnet up on his car, apparently messing with something mechanical. Ckucke showed up as we were getting prepped to ride. The park was full with soccer families. A couple of kids got abandoned in the upper field to play baseball by their parental authority figures who drove off to parts unknown. All geared up, Ckucke pulled his bike off the rack to discover a front flat. Sara had already taken off to get a head start up the road climb, so Jeff took off to catch up to her. Ckucke found a Schrader valve tube in his pack instead of a Presta one, so he borrowed my spare. Continue reading ‘Shoe Breaker’
Monthly Archive for September, 2008
Page 2 of 3
Dropped by after the Monday night bike ride last week. I tried the signature Kotteri ramen this time around. The chicken (and pork?) based broth was thick and flavorful, almost gravy-like in consistency. The noodles were cooked a little firmer this time around, which was to my liking. The basic toppings were the same, with menma, finely sliced green onion, and a slice of charsiu. This time, the charsiu piece was a bit more substantial than last time, being around twice the size as I remember it being previously. Root tried ordering the spicy menma last time, but they were out, so I asked if they had it. They did, so I got it as a side. The spicy menma was julienned instead of sliced into slabs as is more common for a ramen topping, and is marinated in a sesame-based chili oil. There are some whole black sesame seeds also. The spicy menma is very good. All in all, I give them a better rating than last time at a B+. Value is still an issue, as my ramen was around $8 USD, and the menma $1.50 USD, for a total of around $11.50 after tax and tip.
Ckucke and I got what seemed to be “the MSG-wheeze” afterwards when we went to watch Root break his car. Scat was phlegmy, but whether that was from his recent surgery or the food is undetermined. We all got a touch of cottonmouth from the post-ramen elevated sodium levels, so we had to stop and get some drinks on the way back to town.
Recommended.
Three grinning monkeys out of four
Scat was still in recovery, and Root went home to break his FX, so Ckucke and I went up to do a ronery St. Louis descent. We got to the top a little late because there was something up with the front hub of Ckucke’s new white Azonic wheelset. The axle end caps were dragging against the cartridge bearing covers at the labyrinth seals, galling the unanodized aluminum – shades of my Cane Creek headset! I tried cleaning it up and filing one cap down, but tightening the axle to the correct preload bound the hub. We quickly swapped out to his old front wheel in order to make it up the hill at a reasonable time. We scored the choice parking spot, and we geared up and headed into the park. There was a tall woman getting her white Santa Cruz ready to ride, and some dude in a white pickup who was shadowing us as we rode through the trees off the park entrance, then turned around and went back out of the park. Continue reading ‘Quick Drop’
Toyota had the one gasket I needed. Didn’t have just about all other things I asked for including some hoses. Does not bode well, will I have to resort to cutting own paper gaskets in the future? I love the Toyota coated metal gaskets so much more. Ah well, anyway after some struggling got the gasket replaced and everything back together. Scat, CKucke and El Santo cruised by after their dinner to bug me. Did an oil change too. Belt sounds a bit squeaky, tried retightening belt. We’ll see how it is, it’s late now, good night.
If you need back-up sensors on a Mini Cooper you shouldn’t be driving anymore. If you have those little stick-on wide-angle mirrors on your Mini Cooper, you shouldn’t be driving anymore.
(0)Ugh. So I ran down to Redline Automotive to pick up a waterpump for the FX. Spun by AM Sears to also buy one of those Diehard Platinum AGM batteries for the AE86 since they finally got them back in stock and I’ll need to move it. Get home, install battery, AE86 starts right up. Move cars, pull FX in. Start on removing the old water pump. In the process I get a chest full of radiator fluid from when the pump finally pops apart and dumps it’s contents out on me, yum. Aside from that it goes relatively painlessly.
Once I get things out, I look at the old pump and start to get a sneaking suspicion. The water stains on the outside don’t look right for a failing waterpump, which usually starts leaking out the weep hole(s). There’s some more waterstains on the block that don’t look quite right. In any case, I have a new pump. This AC Delco replacement has a plastic impeller, interesting. It makes it lighter, and I imagine won’t rust like the original iron impellers
. I also discover the pulley’s got a bunch of ugly holes drilled in it. I can’t figure out why, only thing I can think of it’s an ugly and feeble attempt at lightening the pulley. I can’t imagine this being balanced. Anyway, I don’t have another one handy at the moment, so it goes back on. With everything finally back together, I fill up the radiator. Just about ready for the moment of truth when I check everything over and see a new puddle under the car. Curses! My earlier suspicions were correct, the leak was coming from the water outlet fitting above the water pump. The knocking about & prying to install the pump and alternator must have opened up the leak more because now it was obvious where the leak was coming from. Damn, it’s late, I don’t have gaskets, time to call it a night. I’ll have to go to Toyota tomorrow and pray they have the parts.
Ugh, over the past weeks, the FX has been consuming a lot of water without a really obvious leak. Its so bad now it looses half a quart in a day. When I got home today, I immediately popped the hood and shined the SureFire around. This time I spotted wetness on the water pump. Saves me the trouble of rigging up the riceboy UV black light neon that I had found under the dash of the FX and going to store to find some UV dye. Now the question is what should I do about this? I’d been wanting to do a complete rebuild of the original FX engine and install that. But that’ll take some time. Do I fix this current engine which is of unknown condition that lights up the oil pressure light at low idle and valve clatters like a diesei?
Ah the saga continues. Oh, and had a disheartening trip to Toyota parts. Wanted to replace the fuseable link box, no longer available, neg cable, discontinued. More and more parts are becoming unavailable.
No, not wang. When I started drivng home on Wednesday, I heard a tap on the passenger window, and when I looked over to see what it was, I saw myself in the side mirror. I didn’t clip anything, so I didn’t know why the mirror was folded in. Maybe someone brushed up against it in the parking lot. As I approached the four-way stop, the mirror rotated back into the normal position. WTF?! As I stated moving off the stop, it started to rotate in again. Bumps in the road made the mirror shake around. Had the pivot mechanism failed? Continue reading ‘Floppy Wing – Field-Expedient FJ80 Side Mirror Repair’
Ckucke didn’t have golf plans for Wednesday afternoon, so we put a Tantalus pau hana ride together. Jeff and Sara were taking a doctor paddle boarding, and Scat was out recovering from his surgery, so they were out. Root was supposed to be in, but backed out when we called him after waiting until a quarter hour past the start time. I popped a gel before we started for a bit of extra “go” for the climb, but it was really to no avail. At the first left hairpin at the State base yard road, the torment began. The weather was nice and clear, and a cool wind blew in along the shaded road up, but I immediately felt the drag pulling me back. A heavy hamburger steak plate lunch from The Alley Restaurant at Aiea Bowl and several weeks of missing afternoon secret training had made me weak. Continue reading ‘Ronery Road Ride’