Monthly Archive for February, 2017

Trail Karma

Published on February 26, 2017 in bike by taro. Closed

Rode sunset solo today, arrived to find only two cars parked identifiable as MTBers. Weird, where is everyone on a beautiful sunday? Trails were primo, Jungle the driest and nicest I’ve seen in a while.

 I recalled Chucky on our last ride commenting we should pitch in more on trail maintanance, he grabbed a rake and cleaned part of trail as Chris dealt with his snapped derailleur hanger. So as i rode up Needles trail, i stopped at the first rake i saw and cleared about 40 yards of trail. Its not much, but i figure if every riderat least once per ride did the same, it would add up. Figure good for some trail karma.

Saw 5 riders the entire day, all people i didn’t recognize. I mixed up the route a little too. Decided on my final run to go all the way to boyscout gate. Instead of slogging all the way used the road, decided to take the Banyan Alley to Elbo trail. Just past the banyan i spotted remnants of an old trail, it looked promising in that it might bypass all the backtracking that Elbo makes you do. Walked on a little in, will need more investigation when there with others. Continue reading ‘Trail Karma’

Beer Is Good – Cannery Brewery Lakeboat Lager

Published on February 20, 2017 in Food and Review by taro. 1 Comment

A beer I brought back from BC, pours bright yellow with light head. Hint of funk in the aroma. Touch of sweetness. Quite light in flavor, light bitterness in finish. Carbonation does not persist, lending to a medium mouthfeel. I can’t say I’m very excited by this beer.

1 out 4 lakeboat monkeys

 

 

Got the Shaft

Published on February 11, 2017 in car by taro. Closed

The new half shaft ends came in from DriveShaft Shop. Interestingly these ones are the type I’m more used to seeing, the tri lobed bearings. The old joint utilized six large balls in a cage type bearing arrangement. I don’t know which is better. The diameter of the cup is slightly smaller and the bearing assembly looks a lot smaller and lighter. Anyway, removed the old boots, bearing assemblies, and installed the new parts, grease spooge getting everywhere. Yes, rebuilding CV joints is a horrible messy affair, I usually don’t bother anymore, but racecar. No using mystery China/Korea CV shafts. Continue reading ‘Got the Shaft’

Because Racecar

Published on February 11, 2017 in car by taro. Closed

The LSD and transaxle are back in the FX, but the half shafts aren’t scheduled to arrive until Friday. In the meantime, tackled issue with the driver door not wanting to open. Took off interior door card and found disconnected linkage, and readjusted one of the pivot points. I noted that the door card is actually heavier than you might think, it has a sheet metal panel on the top edge. So that got me to thinking of being all racer since the FX is now in mod class. I’ve already removed the rear seats. The interior plastic is succumbing to age and cracking anyway, and I spied tucked behind shelf the pieces of plastic sheet I bought to fabricate the intake box. It was in perfect sized pieces! Set to work cutting and drilling yielded my new door cards. Good for a couple pounds, I’d say.

Customer Service

Published on February 5, 2017 in car, rant and Review by taro. Closed

It’s nice to post a non-rant about customer service. You might recall (did I post about it?) that at the last rallycross event, I snapped one of my custom Driveshaft Shop shafts. These were 2/3 custom and supposed to hold up to hard use. I was well outside of the warranty period so was not expecting much, but I contacted them. DSS quickly got back to me and told me they would remanufacture and replace the ends, they had some suspect heat treat on parts around the time mine were made. All I have to cover is shipping, and they are now on their way. It took a while because the guy in charge of rolling the shaft splines had been out with a serious snowboarding injury, lol.

Part two of the story is that the shaft that broke was inside the differential side, in the KAAZ limited slip. To extract the broken part, I ended up welding a bolt to it and slide hammering it out. Ends up that I didn’t need to, could have inserted a rod from the opposite side and hammer it out that way, 20/20 hindsight. Anyway, doing so left bits of slag and the splines in the LSD were scratched. So I contacted KAAZ USA who also promptly replied. They gave me an initial estimate, which was far less than I expected, unless the housing was damaged. I shipped it off to them for closer inspection. They told me the damage looked worse than it was and said it should be fine if they just cleaned up the splines and bearing flange. The rest of the unit was in good shape and since they were in there they rearranged the clutch plates to shift the more worn ones around. They charged me nominal labor, the shipping charges came out far more!

I just finished reassembling and reinstalling the transaxle, which went in surprisingly easily. One kick and it slid back together. I guess having done it more than a half dozen times I’ve gotten the theorems down.

So shout out to The Driveshaft Shop and KAAZ, I would not hesitate to heartily recommend them to anyone!