Tractor Time

Beautiful day yesterday. Since it was so warm and sunny I figured it would be a good time to tune up the old Allis.

I bought the distributor cap and the points, condenser and rotor kit years ago. Since the tractor always started and ran fine, I figured I'd wait until it seemed like it needed it before I installed the parts. Since the time had arrived, I swapped out the spark plugs and then took the distributor cap off. Didn't quite match up with the new one. I then took a look at the rotor and the same thing there. Ruh, Ro, George. On the back of the new parts it says it fits everything from 1948 up with the Delco-Remy distributor. Apparently mine isn't one. I ran over to the auto parts store around the corner only to find they're no longer open on Sundays, so had to abandon that job. I'll check with the parts store up town that's run by the two old guys. They always come through for me. If that doesn't work, I'll check with my older brother. He's got one of these things. Maybe he'll know what I need. He's a real Ag guy, not a "gentleman farmer" like I am.

After abandoning the tractor job, I finished making up the pieces for Surly's shock spring compressor.

This one's a tag team project. His drawing and plate. I cut the plate to size, he bored the hole. I'll do the rest. Should be able to finish this one up this week at work. 

After I finished the machine work on the compressor parts, I worked on the forks for the 900 a bit. I removed the old seals and cleaned the lowers up. I need to look around in my pile of seal drivers to see if I've got something that will work to install the new seals. If not, I'll turn a piece of aluminum to do the job. I've got a handle I made that has 3/4" threads on it I use for driving seals as well as a few other oddball uses. It won't take long to machine up a round plate and thread the center hole. Then I can throw it in with the rest of the one-off tools I've got that I'll probably never use again. I would have done that yesterday but I had several other little jobs I wanted to get done while the weather was nice.

Have a good week.

Shoveling and Two Wheeled Things

Saw this one over at The 520 Chain Cafe. He's got quite a few pictures posted of the Indiana Motorcycle Expo that was held this past weekend. Looks like I should have gone. I could use a dose of inspiration and a day out. 

I spent some time on the business end of the snow shovel yesterday. I did enough to get out with the truck and allow the mailman to get to the box, plus cleared a path so the Missus can get her car out if need be. The snow was pretty heavy so I took it easy. I didn't figure having another heart attack would be a good idea, especially when most of the county roads were still closed. The weatherman is forecasting temperatures in the 60's on Sunday. Lot of trouble for a lot of people for something that will be all gone in just a couple of days anyway. 

I've got Spring Break coming up soon. Looking forward to getting some things done then. There's motorcycle projects to work on, taxes to finish, gardening/yard work, and, with a little bit of luck, some decent weather to get out on my bicycle a bit. Won't be too much longer and it'll be time to fire up the Sportster also.

I received an e-mail from Chesapeake Light Craft about a teardrop trailer kit they're putting together. It uses the same building technique that's employed on some of their boat kits. It's a cute little thing. If you're interested, you can check it out here. With the gas prices down, might be a good time to take your show on the road.

Think Spring, my friends. 

Mo' Snow

Pretty serious snowfall yesterday and last night. I'm guessing about 8" here. The wind gusts were 30-40 mph. The whole county and a couple of the surrounding counties were declared a snow emergency. Most all the county roads were shut down. Looks rather pretty outside this morning unless you're contemplating having to go out and shovel. 

I ran the tractor down the lane yesterday afternoon but the old girl wasn't running too good. Sounded like a spark plug was firing intermittently. I've got a set of plugs here at the house plus a new set of points, distributor cap and rotor. I'll throw the plugs in it before I try to start it up today and see if that helps. The rest can wait until a later date when the temps are a little bit warmer. It's supposed to be close to 50 on Saturday. No sense in going overboard on the snow removal. I'll let Mother Nature clean up after herself. As long as I can get in and out, that's good enough. I've got no place I need to go today anyway.

Snow Day

Woke up this morning about 6:00 and the power went out shortly thereafter. Since they were calling for snow and winds, I went into emergency mode. I got a fire started in the fireplace, dug out my little catalytic heater, lit a kerosene lamp and put the kettle on. I had never used the heater before so it smelled a bit when it first started up but it seems to put out a nice even heat. I bought it for camping more than emergency use but figured if the power was going to be out for any length of time, better see what I could do before it got real cold in the house. Fortunately the power came back on about 1-1/2 hours later, so we're all good there. It is, however, snowing like a bastich right now. The wind's blowing a bit as well. So I'll be staying in, tending the fire and the Missus. She had four teeth pulled yesterday. She was pretty miserable last night as you would expect and still in some considerable discomfort this morning.

The brake and fork parts for the 900 project came in. Depending on the weather, maybe I'll get back on that project tomorrow. I'll have to see how the snow removal goes. Talking 6"- 8" and gusting winds. Might be all I get done for the day.

Tin Knockin'

I've been cleaning up my workbench/welding booth the last few days. There have been some things around the sides of the booth for quite some time but things continued to move inward until there wasn't a lot of room left on the top of the bench. Since I need to do more of my welding at home now, I figured I should get things cleaned up before I burn the shop to the ground. I've still got a ways to go but I made the little sheet metal shelf in the photo to fasten on the outside wall of the booth to get some of the common things I use all the time out of the booth and off the bench next to it as well. Not much of a project, really. Just some scrap galvanized sheet bent up and riveted together. I did use my new brake to bend up the parts. I'm planning on doing some modification on the brake some day to make it more user friendly but it'll probably be like the tool rack that's on the other side of the new shelf. I made the rack years ago. Put it up yesterday while I was hanging the shelf.

While working on the shelf it occurred to me that if I was still at the high school, I would have made this on company time, in effect getting paid tp make it. But then I asked myself, when was the last time I welded up a student desk? It's been years! I'm thinking I got the best of that trade.

Voc Ed

I saw this at The Lonely Libertarian:

Support Voc Ed in your local public schools

 If you're forced to pay school taxes, then you should have a voice in what programs are offered. My old high school started phasing out vocational programs in the mid-90s and was very proud of being named one of Texas' premier college prep schools. The problem was, in the following decade, they saw a rapid increase in drop-outs. They were shocked, SHOCKED, and immediately launched a committee to study the issue. One of my classmates, Gary Crabtree owner and master mechanic of Crabtree Automotive, was included as he was considered a successful businessman and graduate. Nothing was mentioned about the fact that he spends his time, under hoods and on creepers, covered in grease fixing the cars of bankers, doctors and lawyers. He was a "businessman".

In their first committee meeting, Gary brought up the issue that not all students were cut out for college, their interests and aptitudes were in the vocational arts which the school district decided to ax due to "budget" and "lack of interest". He pointed out that forcing a teenager who wanted to work on HVAC unit to study Shakespeare and calculus was like making a fish climb a tree because that's evolution.  Around 2009, vocational programs started making a comeback in the local schools. Programs were designed in partnership with local community college to offer dual enrollment for not only academic classes, but also vocational programs. Now you can graduate high school with most of the work done for a CNA, paramedic/EMT, plumber's apprentice, automotive, diesel, etc. Enrollment and matriculation is back up. Success is about more than GPAs and how many students get accepted to tier 1 colleges. It's about preparing ALL students for life, regardless of the path they choose.

It's better than OK. It's getting to the point it had better be mandatory even if you want to be a doctor or lawyer. There was just an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal discussing the current and forecast shortage of doctors. It's a long haul from high school to practicing physician. Starting salary is somewhere in the range of $75,000 but most are saddled with big college loan debt. Being a pipefitter or boilermaker is looking better all the time.

Progress Report

Photo From Here

Maybe I should consider making an Earles type fork if I'm going to go "full Monty" on the sidecar rig. That could be a project for next winter, I suppose.

I painted up the front fender to see how I liked the color. I'm pretty happy with it. Hard to tell the true color under the fluorescent lighting, however. I had a '71 Olds Cutlass that was a metallic brown - Burnt Sienna I believe was the color. Always liked the looks of it. If I decide to get the wheels powder coated gold, should look nothing short of regal. Or garish. My mother's saying about all of your taste being in your mouth may apply here. The fender paint isn't as glossy as I expected it to be. I could clear coat it. That would make it shinier and a little more durable as well. 

I'm starting to work on the front end. Shouldn't take too long there. Of course I thought taking the forks in the photo apart would be easy. The procedure is relatively simple. Clamp the fork tube in the vise using soft jaws, pull back on the lower leg, then zap the bolt in the bottom with the impact wrench. Except when I went to use the impact, the trigger was frozen in the on position. At first I thought it was literally frozen due to some condensation that froze up. After warming it up, still no go. So I had to take the wrench apart and fix it before I could take the forks apart. I probably haven't used the impact in a three or four years which in all actuality is probably a good thing. Impact wrenches and hard work normally go hand in hand. I don't know how old the thing is. I got it used from someplace. Auction, garage sale or the used tool place that I used to frequent before they closed up. It's been so long I don't remember. It sure doesn't owe me anything, though. 

I thought I had a pair of new dust seals for the top of the fork lowers but didn't see them in the box of parts. Surly got most all of the bike parts organized, so if I had them, I should be able to find them. Since I didn't, I ordered them. I also ordered some parts to rebuild the calipers while I was ordering things. I'll have to jerk the engine out at some point and get the frame blasted and powder coated but there really isn't that much left to do. I'm pretty well convinced I need to build a sidecar for it, however. That'll add a bit to the completion date but this thing's been on the back burner for at least 25 years. What's another month or so at this point?