More rain yesterday - a couple of waves that hit pretty hard but nice in between times. Other than the humidity, that is. The sun was out around 2:00 and you could see a haze hanging over the corn field. Made for some serious sweating and safety glass fogging while I was finishing up the radius rods but they came out looking down right sexy.
I decided to go ahead and TIG weld the new bungs on. I used an 80,000 lb tensile filler and warmed the parts up with my air-acetylene torch until they just started to show a color change and then welded them up - no evidence of underbead or shrink cracking so everything should be Jake. After the pieces cooled down I dressed the welds with a flap wheel, did a little file and emery cloth work and got them primed.
I looked a little closer at the saw horse and I think I can sneak the radius rods back to the frame inside the legs if I move the horse back some. Next up is getting the spring and the axle mated back together again. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and order the front end components one of these days. Probably should do it before the prices go up - because we all know they will.
I met with my insurance man yesterday for a review and to get a couple of questions answered. There's a hardware store right down the road so I stopped there in pursuit of some fine thread nuts. I didn't see any in the cubby holes or the boxes on the shelves. I continued on heading to Aldi's for some groceries and stopped at a lumber yard/hardware store and got lucky. They had the fine thread nuts in one of the slide out boxes with the castle nuts. It's a bit of a trip up there but they've got most anything a guy could need, including decent lumber.
So now we come to the above photo. Prior to going to the grocery store, I had read an article in the paper about what they call the CCP virus - CCP standing for the Chinese Communist Party. In the article it mentioned that 78% of all the Covid fatalities were people who were obese. And looking around the grocery store at some of the clientele, that might explain why the death count in the US is as high as it is. One of the things obesity has an effect on is low vitamin D levels. Seems vitamin D is fat soluble so there's a direct correlation between obesity and low vitamin D levels. And with the high temperatures levels around the country now, most heavy duties will be seeking shade rather than spending time soaking up the rays. This also helps explain why dark skinned people have a higher death rate. I had read that quite a while back. It's nice that after 15 months the government is still not giving us any solid information on prevention or the drugs that could safely cure the CCP virus such as Ivermectin. This cooties thing has been screwed up right from the very beginning. Lose some weight, get plenty of vitamins C, D and the mineral zinc, wash your hands and avoid crowds. Best advice I can give you, but why would you take medical advice from a welder?
I got the radius rods cleaned up for the jitney project. The last welding I had done was some stick welding with my old welder. I got the new welder out to TIG the ends onto the radius rods. My argon tank is about empty but I figured there was enough to tack the pieces on. However, after making the first tack it appeared that something wasn't right. It looks like the radius rods are some type of high carbon. I've got some filler rods for 4130 material and they would probably work with a bit of preheat but I think I'm going to stick weld the rod ends with a low hydrogen rod after doing a spark test.
I've got to put on my chauffer's hat the next few days and take care of a few non-project things so I don't know how much I'll have to report. Be cool and stay safe in the heat.
Pretty good day yesterday. Got in six miles on the bike, four miles on foot. Also got the wishbone split apart and hung the front spring on the car. I tried connecting the axle to the spring but wasn't having much luck. I needed a third hand or I need to pick the axle up with the floor crane. I'll weld the bungs in the radius rods and get them cleaned up. The saw horse supporting the frame rails is too wide. I won't be able to connect the radius rods to the axle and frame rails unless I narrow the horse or come up with a different support - one step forward, two steps back.
No damage around the property due to the storms. The power was out an hour or so. Other than the ten second delay before the generator comes on, the operation is seamless. Nice to not have to worry about the Missus being able to breath in the hot, humid weather.
With the heat, humidity, exercise, and the physical work I've been doing, I'm down a few more pounds. If I watch my diet between now and race day, I might be close to being a middle weight again. That hasn't been the case, not just in years, but decades.
Got a few chores lined up today but I should be able to get the radius rods welded up and make a decision on cutting down the saw horse or making a new support of some sort. While I'm at it, maybe finalize the shift and brake arrangement on the Rickati.
I might not have done it all but I did get the front end finally taken apart. I just happened to hear this one yesterday morning on Birdhill radio. It's been a long time since I'd heard it. Still can't get over the fact that some of the best classic country tunes come from a station in Ireland.
I was hoping that by soaking it over night the bolt was going to loosen up but no such luck. I put a pipe jack under the end I needed to get apart to give it more support than the plastic saw horse. I then heated up the axle boss where the bolt goes through until it was good and hot and then wacked it a couple of good hard licks with the sledge hammer. The top four or five threads on the bolt were already shot due to rust, so I wasn't too concerned about mushrooming the end of the bolt. Once I got it to move a bit, I filed the end of it down and ran a die over it to make sure it would go through the hole. Obviously there isn't much clearance if it wouldn't come out, so I wanted to make sure it didn't hang up when trying to get it to go the rest of the way.
After finally getting things apart, I chased the threads on the other bolt and then I tried removing what was left of the cotter keys that were still stuck in the bolts. That didn't go well either. I couldn't get them to budge with a hammer and punch, so I'm going to put them on the mill and take them out with an end mill.
I looked at the Speedway website and they've got the replacement nuts with the taper on the bottom for the bolts - $5.99/pair. I think I'll get myself a little plastic organizer box and stock up on regular fine thread nuts. I don't need them that often but shopping for them locally can be a pain in the ass - with no guarantee that I'll be able to find what I need. Probably should have done that long ago. I had a hard time sourcing fine thread stuff when I was putting that Sportster together a few years back.
I was going to start cutting the wishbone apart but the radio came on with a weather alert - a tornado had been spotted not too far from me. It was tracking to the north but I wanted to get in the house and make sure the Missus was ready to get to the basement if need be. About the time I was ready to head back out we got hit with some monsoon type rains, so I called it. Glad I did because another wave came through with big winds and rain. It knocked the power out that time. Indiana weather can sure be fun.
I fit up the pieces to hold the spring perches in place and then cut the perches loose from the wishbone. After getting that done I started taking the wishbone off the axle - and that's when the fun began. The nuts were rusted solid - no surprise there. I tried some PB Blaster and a breaker bar but no luck. Having never worked on one of these before, I didn't realize the bottom of the nut was tapered. Because of that I couldn't split the nut all the way to the bottom. However, between splitting the top and the heat applied it came loose after just a couple of solid licks with the hammer and chisel. I didn't even try a wrench on the other side and went straight to the torch.
After getting the nuts off I tried taking the bolts out. One of them came out with a minimum of penetrant and hammering. The other side's still in the axle. I sprayed it and hammered on it and when that didn't do it, I heated the boss in the axle to get it to expand a little and break the rust bond. Still nothing. I went back out after dinner and gave it another couple of rounds of spraying and hammering but it still hasn't budged. I'll keep after it until I get it out, then I can split the wishbone and keep moving forward.
Surprisingly enough, my chest didn't hurt yesterday after bending the pieces for the spring perches. It rained in the morning but I was able to get out on the bike in the evening for a quick six miles - chest was fine bending over the bars. I've got about a month until the race. I underestimated how long it would take to get back into shape but regardless of the outcome of the race, I'm feeling better and stronger. And that's really all I'm looking for.
The lilies are all starting to bloom. I've got a nice variety of colors along with a bunch of "ditch" lilies - those would be the orange ones that you see along the side of the road out in the country. I need to find some other type of perennials to plant in spots where I had a couple of trees taken down. The stumps are still there so I could just chop them out and reseed the area. The one spot has a yucca there but it looked out of place before and even more so now. I'm not much of a landscape designer - in fact I'm just a guy who likes the looks of an old farm house with some of the traditional plantings. Especially if they don't require much more work than the occasional weeding. I should have come up with a plan a little earlier in the year when the garden centers were closing out on the spring plantings.
It was a nice morning yesterday - a little breezy but I was carrying 18 miles an hour for a 1-1/2 miles with the tail wind - we won't talk about what I was doing into the wind (Edit: I probably should have added that I was out on my morning bike ride). I later stopped at the Tractor Supply Co after picking up my weekly box of veggies. I was looking for some 7/16" fine thread nuts for the "U" bolts that hold the spring on the front end of the jitney project but no go. The "U" bolts came with lock nuts but I don't want to use them until the final assembly. I don't know why 7/16" hardware is such a bastard size but it seems I'm always running into a problem with it and 10-32 machine screws also.
They're calling for rain the next week so I mowed before it rained but just barely. I went out to the shop to discover that the woodchuck is back again. I did a temporary fix with a piece of sheet metal and a cement block since it was sprinkling. Of course, I just did a temporary fix last year and that's what got me back into this mess again.
I bent up a piece of stock (3/4"x 1") to make the brackets for the spring perches. They bent fairly easily on my little bender. Two heats and just enough effort on the handle that my chest will probably be sore for a couple of days. It would have been nice if one of the doctors I consulted over the years would have figured out what's causing that. Anyway, I'll get the pieces fit up and tacked on and then split the wishbone. I need to get a couple of answers about the kingpin diameters and length and then I'll order the front end kit. Steady by jerks.
I took a run over to the side hustle yesterday. The sink in the above photo needs to go where this one is:
That's going to take some head scratching and a couple of Saturdays. I also talked to the boss about the other job he wants done. No time line on either of these yet.
I finished removing the bushings from the axle and the spring. Took more than a hammer - but nothing a welder with an oxy-acetylene torch couldn't handle.
Here's the bits and pieces. The ones in the foreground came out of the axle. I assume the pivot bolts had those ridges from the factory as even as they are. You can see where they wore through the rubber they were bonded to and were eating away the outer steel shell. The pieces on top came out of the spring. They just bounced when I hit them with the hammer, so I got the torch out and burned some of the rubber out. The bolts came right out after that but the steel shell was stuck in there pretty good. I split the shell with the torch in a couple of places and then I could drive them out. On these kinds of jobs the rust actually works in your favor. The thin shell heats up hot enough to cut before the heavier section gets hot enough to cut into and the rust layer between the parts helps to prevent cutting into the spring or whatever it is you're working on. As long as you've got a clean tip and a steady hand you can burn thin parts out without damaging the other piece.
The second hollyhock is starting to bloom - different color this time. There's still one more to bloom. No idea what color that one will be. Things are looking pretty nice around here now. The grass had started to get brown and the corn wasn't doing much but the recent rains have really perked things up. You can hear the corn growing now.
I'm planning on some more work on the jitney again today - maybe a little on the Rickati to stimulate the brain cells enough to finalize the brake and shifter arrangement.
