My Camelbak Better Bottle cap developed an annoying leak. With the nozzle in the open position, everything works as designed, but when the nozzle is flipped to the closed position, the contents leak out around the nozzle base. I wasn’t quite sure how the mechanics worked, so I took the cap apart with a security Torx bit, and found that instead of a system of seals, the valve utilized what amounted to pinching off the flow like kinking a garden hose. A short section of flexible hose runs between the cap and nozzle, and when the nozzle is flipped down, the hose is bent at a right angle and pinched shut. This is where the failure on mine occurred. The hose developed a perforation where it gets pinched. The paradoxical leakage is from the tube becoming deformed when bent allowing fluid to exit the perforation, whereas when straight, the perforation returns to a static closed position. Continue reading ‘Camelbak Better Bottle Cap Leak’
Monthly Archive for October, 2009
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Whoever designed the GM jack and tire changing tool set that comes with the Express van has never changed a flat before in their life! The jack has a planetary gear, so it takes forever to raise the vehicle, the handle doesn’t have a “crank” shape, so it is difficult to use, and the tool to lower the spare doesn’t extend past the bumper edge, so it takes forever to ratchet it down – in quarter-turn increments! All the mounts for the jack and tools look to have been cobbed together from random bits of bent metal.
(0)Chris had some free time on Saturday afternoon, so we put a ride together at the Ditch. Ckucke and JT were unavailable, but Root, Jeff, and Sara made the trip out to Waimanalo. There hadn’t been much rain since mid-week, but the ground was saturated enough that even the intervening clear days didn’t dry up the ground completely. Chris had gone on some crazy all-night hike on Friday evening through Saturday daybreak, so he was taking it easy. Along the climb up to the Ditch junction, a tighty single-speed guy with his full-head DH helmet friend and brand-new-shiny-Trek friend came up the trail. After regaling us with tales of the distant past when he and his friend built all the trails in Waimanalo, he and his buds went down the Ditch, while we continued up Government road to do the side loop. Continue reading ‘Quick and Dirty’
Went out for an easy Friday spin. I took out my keitai to answer a text, but when I put it back in the pocket of my Oakley Ballistic 3.7 shorts, the zipper jammed and I couldn’t close the pocket! I struggled with it until it got dark, then gave up and rode home being careful not to lose my phone. Damn krappy shorts! While trying to unstick the zipper at home later, I discovered that only one of the four zippers on the shorts works properly! WTF!? The waist elastic sucks, the weak fly snaps suck, and whoever designed it must have a crazy long torso, since both the liner short and outer baggy have such a long rise that in order to have the chamois against your perineum and the outer not hanging down to get hooked by the nose of the saddle, the waist ends up above the navel! Erkel MTB action! If the color didn’t rule, I’d toss them in the trash.
D = 13.16 km (8.18-miles), Vavr = 18.0 km/h (11.2-mph), Vmax = 39.3 km/h (24.4-mph), T = 44-minutes
Just got back from the HIFF screening of this movie, english translated title being Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl. This unabashedly over the top ridiculous blood gushing piece of bizarre entertainment. From much of the same creative talent that brought forth Tokyo Gore Police, Machine Girl, Meatball Machine, so you should know what to expect. Some of the initial camp didn’t click too well, when you see it trying too hard, but it settles down feeling more, how can I word it, natural? That should be about the last time the word natural should be associated with this movie. You just need to go for the ride and let it flow. Do not question how goth lolita, ganguro extreme, emo wrist cutters, kabuki mad scientist, naughty nurse, sumo gimp, samurai skelleton armor janitor, St. Francis Xavier, cameo by director of Juon, all comes together, because somehow just as with Dr. Frankenstein’s creation, it does. I actually found the “plot” of this film to be pretty cohesive, simple, and easier to follow than many of the other gorefest films I mentioned. And the sexual content is actually fairly minimal, esp in comparison. But the absurdity content is not, which is a good thing. I’ve seen other reviews complain about the low production values, they missed the point. I don’t have much complaints with the directing, there was maybe a scene I felt went on for too long, but in all the roller coaster ride worked well. I like the soundtrack, added to the absurdity of it all. I have to say I really enjoyed this movie. For fans of Japanese cult films, over the top gore fests, highly recommended for mature immature audience. For people who don’t get this kind of stuff, they’ll find much to be offended. I can’t believe with this title and all the promo materials that there were people who thought this was going to be a horror movie….
Got correct clutch slave and came home straight from work and installed. Then decided to look at engine slugishness. I started unplugging spark plug and when I got to #4 there was no change in engine smoothness, which meant cylinder 4 was not firing. Nuts. I could see plenty well that it was getting spark. I shut er down and pulled the spark plug. Completely dry and no smell of gas. Looks like something wrong with injector. Left to go meet the boys for ramen at rocket ramen, Yotekko-ya.
Got home, pulled out the multimeter, checked the wiring diagrams and service manual, and went out to take a look at the #4 injector. When I pulled the plug, it became obvious there was a problem. The pin contacts had come out of the connector. Well this would explain things. Just to be sure, I metered the injector to make sure it wasn’t burnt out. Pulled the boot (unfortunately cracking it in process), carefully pried out the retaining tabs, reinserted the contacts, put boot back and plugged it in. Now the test, how’s it run? Aaah, smooth. Buttoned things up and went for a test drive. Now this is what I was looking for! Rev response was snappy, power was what I was expecting. I was not hallucinating driving it yesterday and feeling kind of let down that it didn’t feel very strong. It would be with one fourth of it not running!
Looks like I might just make it to the SCCA event on Sunday, although the clutch won’t have much break in miles on it. See yah at the races!
OK, most of my Toyota’s are pretty good about this, but some designer/engineer was napping when they designed the clutch master cylinder in the AE86 Corolla. After all the engine and tranny work the past weeks, discovered the hydraulics were quite crusty and leaking. 
It was something I was intending to address from way back, but finally got the parts. So I figured this was going to be a quick and easy job, on the FX if you were motivated could be done in an hour. Not so here. For some reason someone at Toyota decided to put one mounting stud into the engine bay, behind the brake booster. In order to squeeze in a wrench and move it, you need to unbolt the brake booster from inside the foorwell. In order to gain easy access to those bolts, you need to remove some dash trim and drop the steering assembly. Sheesh. It’s done now, and then I discovered the clutch slave I bought is the wrong one, looks like its for the SR5 4AC model that has the slave mounted on the opposite side of the bell housing! Nuts! Looks like I’m not going to make the event this Sunday.
Krap. Got home a little late, took a while to get geared up and out of the house, and talked to my neighbor about my November JAL ticket, so it was already quite dark when I finally rolled at 17:55. The skies were overcast, but aside from a few random drops, no rain fell. I figured this would be a short ride one way or another, so I did some interval sprints and stand climbs to peg the heartrate and get a burn going. The high humidity helped generate an immediate heavy sweat. After my third lap, I saw a wall of grey coming in over the bay from MCBH, so I cut it short and headed home before the squall hit.
D = 11.36 km (7.06-miles), Vavr = 19.8 km/h (12.3-mph), Vmax = 43.3 km/h (26.9-mph), T = 34-minutes
Yikes! This is going to need some getting used to, the new clutch is
quite grabby! Choked it once already driving to Zippys.
WTF, this is the 4th time I’ve had to do a windoze to my iPhone &
reboot it after getting cannot activate cellular data network. I
though apple was supposed to be stable. I’ve had more random crashes,
funky stuff like music playing while makin phone call, then I’ve had w/
my XP machine!