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*If anyone knows of a nice 1988-1990 FJ62 anywhere in the USA, I’m looking Some of you may have (not) been wondering what I’ve been up to for the last few years, so here’s a thread to catch everyone up and hopefully log more of my doings. I’ve been posting *some* of this on vehicle-specific forums but I like the idea of one catch-all location to document my failures as an amateur gearhead. I’ll start with the vehicle everybody’s heard of, my FJ40 named GIR. Yes, I still have it. It’s the one that hasn’t quite managed to get away yet, despite many attempts.  (GIR is the white one) In 2005 I was in college in Fairbanks and it was my daily driver. I spent many thousands of dollars on a tricked out 2F rebuild that wouldn’t pass smog, so ‘daily’ really meant ‘in the summer when I could get a seasonal exemption from the smog tests’. That spring I pulled it out and was being stupid with a friend when I accidentally jumped it. High. Way high. Tommy Chong high. My friend had time to put his feet on the dash before we hit, and we could see immediately that the front axle was hosed. Solid axles shouldn’t have camber like that. I ended up air-freighting an axle from Kodiak, rebuilding it, and installing that. The only problem was, I apparently also did something to the transfer case and it was making a ton of noise. I started the process of rebuilding a core but eventually the financial realities of being a college student caught up with me and I ended up parking the whole thing at a friend’s house. There it sat. And sat. I finished school and moved to Juneau, 730 miles away with Canada and an ocean in between. A tree grew through the bumper.  One day I got a phone call. My friend had bought a house and was moving out of his rented cabin. I had 48 hours to move it or lose it. I don’t know if I had any favors to call in with my friend Ash, but he certainly earned a few that weekend. I flew to Anchorage and we drove to Fairbanks, rented a trailer, cut down the tree, and hauled GIR to Wasilla, where my sister had recently married a guy with a house and space. He has a hot rod Chevy pickup from when he was in high school, and GIR was parked next to that with the understanding that it would be gone within two years. It took three years, and I paid the difference by giving them my air compressor (and buying their kids a shitload of science toys that I honestly thing they’re getting sick of). Amusingly, while parked there it got into a 2-vehicle accident with a moose. A huge bull with a big rack tried to squeeze in between and smashed the poo poo out of the thin Chevy sheetmetal. GIR was unfazed. My brother in law was unamused. In 2016 my dad retired and we decided to make the drive (and ferry) to Juneau with GIR on a trailer along with my remaining childhood belongings. So again I flew into Anchorage, rented a UHaul trailer, and loaded GIR up.  (There’s a spoiler for later in this thread visible) The drive was great and the longest time I’ve spent alone with my dad in 20 years. We made it into Juneau, got off the boat, and as we were driving into town we spotted this at the gas station:  I had been working to get that drill rig into town for two years. The day we bought our house we walked in the door to hear the furnace making noises. The thrill of homeownership lasted 15 seconds past the front door. Since that day we had been working to get a ground source heat pump installed, and now that I had my driveway filled with my dad’s camper and a trailer with a whole bunch of stuff, they showed up out of the blue with two big trucks and priority for both space and money.  $27,000 worth of drilling later ($50,000 overall), we now have an awesome and efficient home heating system. Unfortunately that also meant GIR needed to go into my shed. It has been sitting there ever since.  I’ll pick up up on GIR later in the thread.
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Apr 14, 2021 06:17
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2020 was a hell of a year. In January we decided the price on big TVs had dropped low enough that it was time to finally upgrade from the ‘pity TV’ that a friend gave us because we’d built a cardio theatre with a 19” TV. I pulled my wife’s pickup out of the garage and started driving to Costco. It was pulling like a tire was low, which would make sense because we don’t use it much. I turned off the road to check and all the tires were >30psi. Then I started feeling for temperature. The driver’s wheel was hot. Stuck caliper. Dammit. I was right near home so decided to just go back. Except I had pulled half-off the asphalt and needed to use 4wd to get moving. When I engaged 4wd the front end exploded. Ball bearings and CV parts fell out. loving hell. I don’t have a lot of pictures for some reason (probably because I don’t like remembering all the horrible things that truck has done to me), but it ended up in the garage for just over a year.  (picture from when we replaced our apartment deck last year, thankfully buying most of the lumber before prices went crazy) A full year on stands while I tracked down parts for a 1993 Mazda B2600i. A full year of my garage space. Ugh. I ended up replacing CVs, brakes, most of the cooling system, and a couple other items. Here’s the radiator drain, conveniently located above a crossmember:  The drain is above the hole in the crossmember, facing the axle shaft. I’ll spare you all the agony of replacing the O2 sensor, but suffice to say this loving truck was clearly not designed for repair. My wife is finally understanding that her first vehicle is no longer reliable, as I think it’s averaged $1/mile in parts over the last 5 years. She still wants to keep it forever but every time I touch that truck it draws blood, I always have to order a new tool (or three, which is the one nice thing about working on it), and every single part for anything needs to be special ordered. Have I mentioned that RockAuto stopped shipping here in 2020? I finally got the truck put back together in February 2021.  Here’s another spoiler: 
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Apr 14, 2021 06:48
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I don't know what it is about those early pre-Ranger B-series trucks that makes people love them despite being terrible, but... it's a thing, alright.
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Apr 15, 2021 05:48
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Man... I'm glad you're back. I grew up driving a Mazda b2000 with my dad. It was an unrelenting shitbox, but we loved that little thing. My first truck was a 4.0L 5-speed 4x4 '98 Ranger that I spent far too much on, but beat the poo poo out of it and kinds miss. I do love that the photo of Gir is a Google street view image. It's telling when a vehicle becomes a landmark "turn right at the white not-a-jeep with the tree growing out of the bumper" Advent Horizon posted:2020 was a hell of a year.
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Apr 15, 2021 13:15
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I decided 2020 was the year I would start working on GIR. As all projects must start somewhere, I decided to start with something simple. The engine didn’t have hoist hooks as those were missing, so I long ago tracked down a set and they were sitting in a parts bin. I pulled one out, stripped it down, and hit it with primer.  There it is, the one part I have stripped and primered. Feel free to mock my progress. I also started putting out feelers for a parts rig. I’ve wanted to put FJ60 axles under it for a long, long time, so that’s what I was looking for. Miracle of miracles, I got a lead on a non-running FJ62. The owner had it for nearly 20 years and was sick of it not working when he wanted to use it. He and I went back and forth a little while he decided whether to sell it cheap and finally we did the deal. I am now the proud owner of a rusty-as-hell 1988 FJ62.  That’s how it looked the day I dragged it home. Turn the key and *nothing* happened. PO was pretty sure it was the ignition control module, which is an expensive piece. No matter, my FJ40’s 2F is already built and I really just wanted the axles. But...I Wonder what’s really wrong with it? The PO said it had a full tank of fresh gas but didn’t do poo poo when he turned the key. No lights, nothing. I figured I’d give it a couple days and $100 worth of troubleshooting. First step was charging the battery. I hooked up my trickle charger and left it. By lunch the next day it would turn over with the key, but wouldn’t fire. I pulled a plug and it was wet, so we had fuel. Let’s check the ignition system...  [Adam Savage] Well, there’s your problem! [/Adam] It looked like an old coil off my FJ40, pre-HEI swap, would fit. A coil’s a coil, right? Well, it fired right up. Ran great. A bit of a high idle and the valves were noisy but no knock and it seemed to love running. If it runs, I may as well use it, right? I had the title so I went in and got it registered with a new set of plates.  How was that plate available?! Despite being a rusty B, it’s actually quite nice inside:  So...Now we have an FJ62. We actually use it quite a bit - I never wanted a wagon before, but now I really want one that isn’t rusty. We had been saving for a newer truck but we can honestly do 95% of a pickup’s job with this thing. I totally get the appeal now, as does my wife, so we’re officially looking for a nice FJ62. It will even haul crazy big lumber. Here’s some 18’ long pressure treated lumber (the nice interior was protected, don’t worry!): 
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Apr 15, 2021 16:47
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sharkytm posted:I do love that the photo of Gir is a Google street view image. It's telling when a vehicle becomes a landmark "turn right at the white not-a-jeep with the tree growing out of the bumper" Welcome back! That's the right amount of sitting for a 4wd lolol. Those B2200s were spiteful trucks even in not-rusty areas. nice alpenlite too, heavy bastards.
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Apr 15, 2021 17:47
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cursedshitbox posted:Those B2200s were spiteful trucks even in not-rusty areas. It’s a B2600, which is even better because they shoehorned a Mitsubishi engine in there. The hood has an asymmetrical cutout in the bracing for the intake manifold and the oil plug drains onto a crossmember. You can’t even get to said oil plug without removing two skid plates. That Alpenlite has a slide-out and my parents are basically hoarders. The camper has a built in generator but my dad carries a Honda ‘just in case’. They bring folding stools to sit in front of the dinette because there’s so much stuff in the seats and under the table. We’re not looking forward to cleaning out the house when they die. There’s so much stuff. It’s clean stuff, but there’s a ton of it. They have a whitewater raft that hasn’t been used since before I was born. I’ve never even seen it out of the storage roll; all I know is that there’s an “obscene beaver” painted on the bow.
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Apr 15, 2021 18:03
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We bought our house in spring 2013 and the week after, while we were moving, the Mazda developed a stutter. It was our only working vehicle and now we have a commute; before we could walk to the office. poo poo. 2013 was right when gas was nearly $5.00/gallon and EVs were starting to be useful. We managed to get by until fall and bought a brand new 2013 Nissan Leaf SV in Seattle. I flew down, as did my friend Ash from the above post, and we had a guy’s weekend in Seattle before driving up to Bellingham. I dropped him at the airport and then got on the ferry - it’s a 3 1/2 day ferry ride from Bellingham to Juneau. Right before I picked up the car we also adopted a Black Lab-ish puppy so the two of them are named Doctor Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.  We live in the State Capital of Alaska, Juneau. There are no roads in or out. The only 4 ways here are boat, plane, birth canal, or hiking across an icefield to Canukistan. Leafs are perfect here because hydroelectricity is cheap and this is as far as you can physically drive:  Of course, nothing is drama free. This being Alaska, we have to have weird problems - one day we were driving to work and a bald eagle dropped a rock on our windshield. A big loving rock.  $1800 later we have a new windshield. gently caress USAA insurance, they didn’t pay a dime because we refused to drive to their preferred provider 800 road miles and a ferry away. The car has held up really well. We have almost 103,000 miles on it (highest mileage EV in the State of Alaska and the first to crack 100,000 miles) and it’s still using the original battery. It even made it just over 85,000 miles before losing the first capacity bar.  My wife is less than pleased she married a 12 year old  The biggest maintenance I’ve had to do so far is the brakes. The stock rotors rusted and spalled at about 50k. The aftermarket rotors are holding up much better but I went through 8 sets of aftermarket pads before I found a set that actually had the correct parts. I need to do the shocks and struts soon and I’m not looking forward to either paying for Nissan or finding aftermarket that work. Oh, and as for operating costs - in 100,000 miles I’ve spent more on wheels and tires than electricity. 
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Apr 15, 2021 22:45
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My next door neighbor is way too nice to me. When we bought our house, we knew we’d need to replace the apartment stairs. For some goddamn reason the builder left a spruce tree against the staircase and, over time, it bowed the whole thing. That meant we were going to need to hire a tree removal service to take the tree down without destroying the building before replacing the staircase. One day last summer I spotted my neighbor, a contractor, taking down some trees in his yard with a manlift. We got to talking and I helped (drove the truck with the rope) him down over a dozen trees next to his house. He volunteered to help with our trees, too.  You can see how bad the tree overhung the building. But he’s drat good at everything I’ve seen him do and that tree dropped right where we wanted it - twice. Both halves of the tree dropped in exactly the same spot, 90* away from the structure:  We ended up taking down a total of 6 trees; 5 Sitka Spruce (mostly small, before they become a 200’ problem) and a bigass cottonwood right behind the apartment that had me sleepless any time there was a gust of wind. He even hauled away the debris.  I bucked up the logs and hauled them in the FJ62 over to where we could split firewood out of the rain.  (This is probably why I can’t have nice things) Another friend who heats with wood loaned us a log splitter. Three days of splitting later we now have a pile of firewood that should last a long time.  After we were done splitting he let me borrow the manlift to clean the roof (yes, we need to restain the siding - there used to be a carport and it splashed against the house).  ...And string up Christmas lights. I got all the way to the peak of my roof when the manlift puked all the coolant out and died. gently caress yeah. 
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Apr 16, 2021 20:45
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This was begging for it.
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Apr 16, 2021 22:08
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Decided to finally stop fighting the garage door opener and just replace it. 
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Apr 17, 2021 08:06
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Garage door openers go under the finished ceiling, not above them, silly.
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Apr 17, 2021 13:39
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sharkytm posted:Garage door openers go under the finished ceiling, not above them, silly. I too am confused by this new technology requiring air cooling no doubt.
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Apr 18, 2021 17:45
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Elephanthead posted:I too am confused by this new technology requiring air cooling no doubt. Opens or closes the door in 30 milliseconds.
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Apr 18, 2021 18:16
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Elephanthead posted:I too am confused by this new technology requiring air cooling no doubt. The garage was originally the entire first floor and did not have drywall. The previous owner of our house, whom I have nothing good to say about, were required to drywall it when they opened a Bed & Breakfast. He framed in a huge space beside the ducting, right up to the edge of the opener, and also drywalled over the mount.  gently caress you, Len. That’s how far I had to remove to hit solid framing. I had to bust into that box to fit the new, wider, opener. I’m going to have to tear out all the garage ceiling drywall and redo it (just like every single other thing in the entire house that Len ever touched) so we just put plastic over the hole for now. New opener works great; I even got the HomeKit bridge set up without any issues. 
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Apr 18, 2021 21:25
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Woke up this afternoon and planned to hit the lifts but checked their webcam first gently caress that noise. We took the dog for a nice long walk instead; the weather today was amazing.  For reference, our house is in the valley across the water (picture taken from Douglas Island), a bit to the left where the bottom of Mendenhall Glacier meets the trees. We were still gaining snow until last Friday, spring only hit for real on Thursday. Yesterday, April 17th, was the earliest date it has ever hit 70*F. Since it looks like we’re not going to get more snow I swapped out the snow shoes on the Leaf. Before:  During:  After:  Took a quick trip around the block and torqued all lug nuts to 83 ft-lbs, over-inflated the tires to 43psi (I’ve found the OEM 35 psi is way too low and the tires wear poorly), and only forgot to install the stupid plastic centering ring on one wheel 
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Apr 19, 2021 06:26
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1976 was a wild time in Alaska. If you had a lukewarm body you could make armfuls of money working on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline construction project. Schools couldn’t keep teachers because they would be paid many times more money to do pipeline paperwork. It sometimes took 20 minutes from the time you picked up a phone to when you heard the dial tone because of all the people phoning home. Restaurants had Spam and Dom Pérignon dinner specials (they still have these). My dad grew up dirt poor and now had more money than he knew what to do with. Aside from the obligatory 70s coke parties he bought a few items that stuck around. One day he was driving past the Yamaha dealer and spotted a motorcycle that caught his eye. Someone else had bought/ordered it new, had it for a few days, and decided they wanted the next model up. Dad had some cash in his pocket (literally - I have heard many stories of impulse purchases during this time) and bought it - An orange 1976 Yamaha DT250B Enduro with less than 150 miles from the first owner.  When he started dating my mom (that year or the next) he would taker her, a sheltered New England Catholic girl, out for some good country fun. One day they were riding up a hill that was way too steep when everything went over backwards and landed with mom on the bottom, dad in the middle, and the bike on top. They decided to get her a bike of her own, and picked up a metallic blue 1975 175 Enduro. They even decided to take the class and get their licenses, and dad is still pissed that he had to show the DMV guy everything about riding while the guy just let the pretty girl, my mom, show that she knew how to start and stop. One day they took a ride down to McHugh Creek, along the Seward highway, and Dad proposed. This year they will be married 43 years. One of my mom’s sisters came to visit one summer and wanted to learn how to ride. Dad took her to a gravel pit and showed her the basics before letting her take the bike by herself. She immediately went out on the street. Dad waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually she came walking back. She’d gotten out on the highway and forgot how to shift, revving it up as high as it would go and holding it there. The engine blew. Dad was pissed. I’m not sure who paid for the engine to be rebuilt, but the bike had about 2500 miles from new at the time. A bit later I came into the picture and the bikes were parked. My parents brought the bikes with us when they moved, but around 1995 were starting to talk about getting rid of them as they hadn’t even been started in over 10 years. My friend Aric and I decided to see what we could do and spent a full day kicking the thing. Over and over. Somehow the 250 started. We were riding in circles in the yard when Dad came home and hit the boat trailer because he was distracted by the scene. That winter and the next Dad and I stripped the bike down and cleaned it up. We’re not experts but it looked pretty good. Aric and I futzed with the 175 but it needed more work to run. Eventually they signed the title over to him; I know he eventually got it running but I should really track him down and ask whether he still has it. Unfortunately we couldn’t get the flywheel off to adjust the points. We took it to the dealer but they broke a flywheel puller in the attempt. We rode it a bit but it was lacking power and eventually it was just running rough as hell. It got parked again, though at least this time it was inside their hoarder garage instead of outside under the deck. Eventually Dad decided he wanted to have fun with it again. Around 2012 he found a shop willing to caress the flywheel; the guy had it on a stand all winter and hit it with PB Blaster and a ball peen hammer every day until the flywheel worked off. Now it has a shiny new set pf points. Unfortunately he’d also had a bad accident in Russia and his right ankle doesn’t really anymore. Riding was fun, but the fun bs pain calculation wasn’t great. It got parked again, but this time he’d take it out every once in a while for a trip around the neighborhood. In 2016 he retired, and I’d bought a house with a garage. It was time to pass the bike along. We loaded it behind my FJ40 and hauled it to Juneau. It ran great but I’d never actually gotten my license. I wanted to do it right but by that time all the classes were done for the summer, so I parked it and waited for 2017. In spring of 2017 I took the course and now I’m fully legal. Unfortunately the bike also was way down on power. The achilles heal of these engines are the crank seals, one on each side. When they die the engine will idle but starve for fuel and oil at higher RPM. Seeing as I didn’t want to *really* kill it, I set about trying to fix things. I ordered new seals and even got one side done. Unfortunately the other side requires removal of the entire ignition again, and I was not feeling confident in my mechanical abailities. Especially after I broke the brake handle and then broke the replacement when I tried installing that.  I ordered more parts but never got around to installing them. Then a bunch of other projects took over the shop, and in 2020 the Mazda prevented me from even moving the bike out to work on. But that has changed! Right now I have open floor space, I have parts, I have some mechanical daring, and it is springtime! The bike should be out in the sun, not inside the garage! A couple weeks ago my wife spotted a motorcycle lift on FB Marketplace, which I bought, and that brings us to the bike in the middle of the shop floor as seen above. Thankfully I also have the original factory manual to follow..  ...which is full of useful information, like the fact that you’re supposed to tear down the engine every 2,000 miles. Thankfully the whole bike only has 3,300 miles, so I’ve got a while before I need to do it again. It also sounds like rebuilds can reuse a lot of parts:  I got that brake handle replaced, without breaking anything this time, and dove into the engine. This isn’t how the manual says you’re supposed to do it, but this is what worked for me:  I really need to pony up for a proper impact driver and socket set. I got the flywheel off and the next bit is taking out the ignition. There are three screws holding it in place. Two came out and one wasn’t moving.  I hit it with some Aerokroil and left it for the night. I’d rather let that soak and not fight it - I don’t want to get angry and have it sit again for years. So that’s today’s update.
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Apr 20, 2021 06:49
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Get yourself a set of Milwaukee demo drivers. They'll take that screw out easily after a couple love taps.
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Apr 20, 2021 07:18
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This is a cool thread.
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Apr 20, 2021 13:14
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kastein posted:Get yourself a set of Milwaukee demo drivers. They'll take that screw out easily after a couple love taps. That or the impact driver from HF where you smack it with a hammer while turning it. Stuck phillips screws are its specialty.
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Apr 20, 2021 15:17
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IOwnCalculus posted:That or the impact driver from HF where you smack it with a hammer while turning it. Stuck phillips screws are its specialty. A manual impact is the best thing for poo poo like this. 2# steel faced deadblow and a good fitting bit.
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Apr 20, 2021 15:35
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Advent Horizon posted:The achilles heal of these engines are the crank seals, one on each side. When they die the engine will idle but starve for fuel and oil at higher RPM. Seeing as I didn’t want to *really* kill it, I set about trying to fix things. Be careful with those old phillips screws on there, they are made out of cheese or something equally as soft.
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Apr 20, 2021 15:36
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Are they really Phillips, or are they JIS screws? I'm about 90% sure I see a dot on that head.
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Apr 20, 2021 16:54
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Are they really Phillips, or are they JIS screws? I'm about 90% sure I see a dot on that head. They're undoubtedly JIS.
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Apr 20, 2021 16:55
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IOwnCalculus posted:That or the impact driver from HF where you smack it with a hammer while turning it. Stuck phillips screws are its specialty. This thing? https://www.harborfreight.com/6-bit-impact-screwdriver-set-with-case-64812.html I’m wary of buying hand tools from Harbor Freight that you hit with a hammer. I can’t just return them after they break in 3 days. I shipped 2 pallets of HF and IKEA stuff up from Seattle a couple years ago. I’m 100% happy with the IKEA stuff, my hacked record console turned out great, but HF always leaves something to be desired. I managed to bend the 20 ton press pressing apples for cider. Speaking of, any pint of apple cider that costs less than $20 is a goddamn bargain compared to how much effort it takes to press and brew apples. I’m glad we tried it so I’ll never have to wonder if I’m missing out but I’m never doing that again. SpeedFreek posted:Be careful with those old phillips screws on there, they are made out of cheese or something equally as soft. I noticed, that’s why I left it for the night. There’s still a head left and I’d like to keep it that way. Seat Safety Switch posted:Are they really Phillips, or are they JIS screws? I'm about 90% sure I see a dot on that head. Definitely JIS - I could really use a good recommendation for a good JIS screwdriver set. Almost everything mechanical that I own is Japanese. Is that dot the JIS marker? TIL. Thanks!
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Apr 20, 2021 17:08
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Advent Horizon posted:This thing? https://www.harborfreight.com/6-bit-impact-screwdriver-set-with-case-64812.html Yeah, that one. Works fine, mine is probably ten years old at this point. It's not a tool you'll use often but when you need it, it's the best thing out there. Might want to see if you can find one that comes with a JIS bit though.
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Apr 20, 2021 17:16
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Are they really Phillips, or are they JIS screws? I'm about 90% sure I see a dot on that head. 100% JISSSSSSSS Use a little heat too.
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Apr 20, 2021 17:16
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I see points and want to run screaming. It's a bit of money but if you're keeping the bike, electronic ignition like this (or something like it) is the first thing I'd do. This was just my first google hit and I'm surprised to see it available. https://hvccycle.net/yamaha-dt-rt-dt250-dt360-dt400-cdi-ignition-12v-180w-7238799dc/ More googling shows there are cheaper options that just replace the points as well. LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Apr 20, 2021 |
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Apr 20, 2021 17:57
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LloydDobler posted:I see points and want to run screaming. It's a bit of money but if you're keeping the bike, electronic ignition like this (or something like it) is the first thing I'd do. I plan to do that, and a 12V conversion, once I get the kickstand welded back on (it broke years ago). I don’t want to accidentally short out a new ignition system. My mouth with good hot sauce is brighter than a 6V headlight.
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Apr 20, 2021 18:39
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Advent Horizon posted:Definitely JIS - I could really use a good recommendation for a good JIS screwdriver set. Almost everything mechanical that I own is Japanese. Vessel is a good, affordable brand. Their Megadora Impacta has a built in impact driver function but they have a lot of options. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Vessel+screwdrivers&ref=nb_sb_noss For mangled screw removal this Anex impact driver has a special bit that works well. Also if you can grab the head these screw removal pliers (also branded as Vampliers) work a treat. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DTON1HS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_3M543DS6FD1MARWJXVP1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002L6HJAA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_CAHH15AWXY242ZHSVGZ9
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Apr 20, 2021 18:50
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HOT drat SOME GOOD NEWS Waaay back when, before the tree grew through the bumper, I had custom plates for GIR.  But then I let the tags expire because it was sitting next to a cabin growing moss. One day a friend posted this on FB:  gently caress. I had let them go so long they lapsed and someone else reserved the plates. For the last 8 years I have been checking with the DMV once a month about whether those plates were available again. I had nearly given up hope, which is one reason I got these plates for the FJ62:  Worst case scenario, I could transfer those plates. So not bad at all, really. But then, in January, the DMV changed to a new plate system. It seemed to be full of glitches - I found several plates that I knew were taken, but it showed available. I decided to gamble the $30 fee and put in for a new set of GIR plates in the same style as 4WD above. It took the order. Since then I’ve received no word. I finally went through the hassle of sitting on hold with the DMV and found out the status of my order. THE PLATES ARE MINE AGAIN WOOHOO! There’s a minor catch in that they won’t actually give them to me (they’re apparently sitting in the DMV headquarters in Anchorage) until I register and insure GIR again. Since we don’t have inspections and registration is cheap I’m just going to do that while it’s still in the shed. I wonder how much liability insurance for 0 miles per year will cost... Oh, and yes, GIR will be painted green. Toyota Spring Green, specifically. The best FJ40 color: 
Advent Horizon fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Apr 20, 2021 |
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Apr 20, 2021 20:31
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You don't want to know the going value of decent spruce in the lower 48, https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/wppages/sprucesparstock.php $10-20 a foot for clear straight wood with tight grain. Seeing your complaint about it growing like weeds is painful, I waited 6 months for my last order of ~40', and it got sent to the wrong address, so I never even got it.
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Apr 20, 2021 22:38
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Advent Horizon posted:Toyota Spring Green, specifically. The best FJ40 color: You have a funny way of spelling Dune Beige.
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Apr 20, 2021 23:21
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Quick bike update: I took the advice above and ordered an impact screwdriver; that arrived yesterday and freed the stuck screw in no time flat.  Got crank seal out and replaced; taking that thing out was a bitch but hammering a drywall screw in worked:  I started reassembly but only had 45 minutes total in the shop before my alarm went off. Busy busy busy. I wish I’d had the bike working over the last week, we’ve had some awesome spring weather.  I also have to limit my shop time because I like to cook. Wednesday was my last ‘work from home’ day so I started a pork shoulder at 7:30am  Pulled off the heat at 5pm to rest in a hot cooler until 7pm, it pulled nicely.  …and now I’m back to the cube life, which isn’t so bad and leaves me a lot less stressed.  I should have more project time now that I’m not taking work calls at 7pm on Fridays. Thursday, my first day back, I had three work calls on my personal cell during the drive home. Sorry, not at the office anymore, can’t help you!
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Apr 27, 2021 18:47
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Had another 45 minutes tonight to futz in the shop so I figured I’d work on the bike again. I couldn’t find a torque spec anywhere for the flyweel retaining nut so I gave it one ugga-dugga and called that good. I probably put something together wrong anyway so it’s fairly likely I’ll need to take it back off to get the ignition adjusted. Alright, time to pull the spark plug and try to figure out the dial gauge…  Goddammit. Yes, I grabbed the boot and not the wire. The wire is integral with the coil so I can’t just hack something together. It also feels original and the plug wire is very brittle. As I sat pondering what Brexit has done with the exchange rate and how much shipping would cost from literally halfway around the world for a £16.99 part I figured I’d dig around and see what other stuff I may as well order to make it worthwhile. Into the random parts bin.  Score! Thanks, dad! I know I didn’t order that. Tank had to come off; honestly it’s probably easier to pull the tank to do the spark plug than leave it on. That impact screwdriver is really getting a workout.  I may order a couple more for my dad and FIL. Cheap, thoughtful, and useful presents. Thanks for that suggestion! Are the spark plug boots fairly standard? Any suggestions on what I should ask a parts store (I have NAPA, O’Reilly, and Western Auto locally) for? I have that new coil but not a plug boot, and I don’t really want to try reusing the old one.
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Apr 28, 2021 07:01
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Yeah they are. Just ask for a spark plug boot and terminal. You'll have to crimp the terminal on (after the boot is on the wire). Might have better luck with it being on hand at Napa vs the others.
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Apr 28, 2021 07:30
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STR posted:crimp the terminal on (after the boot is on the wire). this is important, lol
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Apr 28, 2021 07:33
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Raluek posted:this is important, lol :Cries in flare nut: Also, heatshrink tubing, connector backshells, and wiring grommets.
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Apr 28, 2021 13:05
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sharkytm posted::Cries in flare nut: What’s the rule that says you only ever get a properly good flare if you forgot the nut? Also I *always* guess a size small on heat shrink tubing and have to cut my connection to put on the next size up. Every. Freaking. Time.
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Apr 28, 2021 15:54
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NAPA: “We discontinued plug caps because nobody makes their own plug wires anymore.” O’Reilly: “We don’t carry anything individual like that, I have to look it up in the system by make and model; there’s no other way to filter it.” Also was told they don’t have any plug wires of any kind in stock, it’s all special order. WTF. Western Auto: Nope. So, great. Back to ordering. I found the replacement Yamaha part number - $40.99 plus $15 shipping for a single spark plug boot.
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Apr 29, 2021 02:13
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