Wow, I completely ignored the cars today. Except for going outside and looking under them. Sheesh, leakyness. The FX is leaking from one of the transaxle output seals. The AE86 is no longer leaking from the steering because all the fluid is gone, but I see it looks like it’s leaking from the transmission output also. Well, I’ll just ignore them for a little longer, gotta take care of the snowboard!
Well, the parking brake is still acting strange, the tightness changes randomly, but it works. It was good enough to pass safety so everything’s all legal now. Still lots of work to do, but at least all the paperwork is taken care of, whew.
Last night decided to try & fix the parking brake on the FX. Went over to the donor and pulled off the piston assembly. Something seems to be wrong with the cylinder adjuster on it, doesn’t move. The new FX, other than munched boots, and a missing lock pin, seems to work fine. Odd. I start messing with it and finally figure out that the problem is that the brake cable is too tight! The brake needs to release tension all the way in order for the self adjuster to ratchet and… self adjust. Whew, easy fix, and while I was at it I switched rubber boot from the donor. Looks like Saturday will attempt safety again!
Darn, I had hoped to have the cars legal this weekend and even join in a bike ride. It’s not like I don’t enjoy working on cars, but working on these two cars for the past days kind of wore me down so I didn’t do anything with them tonight.
Anyway, going back to the weekend, after the Saturday fun, I went out to take a closer look at the power steering of the AE86. Cleaned off spooge and ran the car for a bit. Strange, the new hose connections look fine. Don’t see any leakage at all, I figure if the high pressure line is leaking should be seeing some good spray. Continue reading ‘Be Cautious of the Car-ma Passed to You’
Monday, 12 November 2007
Three XC rides on one long weekend? It’s starting to sound like riding in Whistler! Jeff, Chris, Ckucke, and I hit Maunawili Ditch Trail again on Monday afternoon. It was clear and starry at 0530 when I got up, but by the afternoon, the clouds had rolled in. I would have actually liked to do maybe a Wailuna ride in the early morning, but I didn’t think anyone else was up for that. Even with the overcast sky, there were no signs of rain, so it was all good. It was crazy hot and humid again like on Saturday. Continue reading ‘Whistler Lite’
Saturday, 10 November 2007
The blue sky of yesterday afternoon continued into Saturday. Ckucke called me to say that Jeff had called him and said Atomman got rained on in Waimanalo on his road ride in the morning. Also citing Doppler radar information indicating continued rain in the area, Jeff, Sara, and Chris were opting out. I went outside and it was indeed overcast over the Pali area, even though a bright noontime sun hung in the cloud-spotted sky above Kaneohe. Ckucke and I agreed to give it a chance and hit the trails. Continue reading ‘Doppler Ride’
Friday, 09 November 2007
Last weekend’s thunderstorm and the continued heavy rain persisting through the beginning of the week kept me indoors and off the bike. The rain had subsided by Wednesday, but a late drizzle and dark skies put a damper on riding by the time I got home. I managed to get home fairly early on Friday. The sun was still above the mountains and was challenging the mixed clouds for dominance, but there were no hints of rain. Gearing up, I went out on my normal loop. Continue reading ‘Weather Relief’
Who is that goofy guy they got for Fearless Planet? His delivery of lines was just a shade shy of my “ah ha ha ha, you inferior human beans!” Nathan told me he wasn’t sure what they were going to do with footage after they came back for the second shoot, which was with goofy guy. Now we know. Basically the footage that you can’t see Goofball face is Nathan. The magic of editing! Thankfully gratuitous skids was identifyably Goofball. Don’t think they used any of the footage I helped with. Well, at least Nathan got credited.
After all of Saturdays running around getting car stuff done, turns out only the AE86 got all legal. So I decided to go ahead and drive it to Wayland’s for dinner tonight. The transmission was making it’s whining sounds, but everything else seemed alright. Some burning oil smell that seemed to go away, I attributed that to left over brake fluid & power steering fluid that dripped on exhaust manifold burning off. This engine was really made for right hand drive. On the LHD we have here, the brake cylinder & P/S lines all end up on the same side as the hot exhaust. Anyway, things seemed to be going alright, although the burning oil smell would come and go. I got to Kalihi area on the H-1 when I saw that I was trailing big clouds of smoke out the back! Holy chrome, I pulled off the freeway onto Waikamilo and pulled into gas station. Popped the hood & took a look around. Either the fitting for the replacement p/s hose I installed wasn’t tight enough, was leaking, or was leaking somewhere else. It looks like it was spraying p/s fluid all over the place, which would collect and drip onto the manifold, producing the Spy Hunter (come on, you don’t remember that old arcade video game?) smoke screen. People sure stop following behind you in a hurry! So I turned around and nursed it back home. I laid down quite a few more screens, but made it home ok.
So the next time some kid asks me that question, I can rightfully answer, ‘why yes!’ Today on Discovery Channel they should be using some of the footage shot a few months ago with Nathan riding. You won’t see any of me, the most you might see is my back tire. The show is Fearless Planet. It should be interesting to see how what we did will actually be used and show up on the screen. We’ll see if my name shows up anywhere in the credits, looks like it’s scheduled for 8PM, catch it if you can!