Coffee July 6, 2013

Mornin all. I know it's early, but with this walkin pneumonia I've been doin battle with for the past 2 weeks, my sleepin schedule is screwed up. PLUS, I know coalnewbie is up & chompin at the bit. Went back to the Doc's yesterday & he gave me another 10 days of antibiotics. Freddy & Marty headed north yesterday for the week-end, soooo, I promised I'd hit the on switch on the old coffee pot. Don't be bashful, come on in & enjoy a cup of JOE & visit for a spell. Suggestion for the day would be---STAY HYDRATED--have a good week-end people, I'm goin back to bed.

Morning FF and thanks for the coffee. Thanks for stepping up to the brew pot while Freddy is on the lam. Figured I'd share this morning's reappearance of Ole Sole with y'all. I was down here for the Fourth and watched three consecutive unannounced rocket launches heading north up the coast. Wonder what they were? That was a first for me. Glad my son saw them too. I'm glad he seems to be there when the strange stuff happens like the time this black helicopter was dropping something into the woods

Mother Nature is remembering it is July. Going to be a hot spell for the foreseeable future while the Jet Stream is set up to pump North some of the Gulf's thick soup. I'll be enjoying (enduring) it along with the rest of us.

Morning all. Coffee is good.

I've got no plans today. At all. Which is weird I always plan something. Oh well, it's too hot to do anything anyway.

Yep, it's july !! Heat and humidity.

Freetown, you try doing a little LESS than normal, OK,,? give your body and those antibiotics a chance to work and knock out that infection!!
Otherwise you will be in the hospital with IV antibiotics and an oxygen mask !! And they WON'T let you play on the computer in the ICU!

Big party tonight for a friend's graduating daughter,,, probably about 200 people.. UGH.. I'll put in an early appearance, then leave early .. can't stand crowds of people who I don't know.

Today, I have to finish up boxing all the Packard parts and pieces so they can be picked up tomorrow morning.

OK time to get moving.. NOT you Fred, YOU stay put and have another cup 'o Joe!!

Greg

Time to get over to the cleanup project next door and keep filling the dumpster. Drink my coffee first. I don't think it is wise to consume anything in the vicinity of that mess.

Alright! Always love coffee at Fred's. I'll head up the towers again and scan the horizon for threats.

Got another wheeled toilet story for everyone ... only this time it involved my ATV!

So, I noticed a torn CV axle boot on the outer joint. Was torn right next to the smaller diameter clamp - go figure that one. So I figure, no biggie and ordered up a pair of boots. So I take everything apart and try yanking the axle from the front diff. WILL NOT budge. After getting REAL pissed, I gave it one good yank and the shaft came out of the inner joint. Not a big deal, as it's also held in place via snap ring. I get it to the bench and discover the outer joint is SMOKED - the 6 balls were trapped in a groove at the farthest point from the diff. The grease all seemed to be in the boot, with none on the balls or cage .. go figure that one ... so get online and order up a outer joint. The next day I figured I'd tackle getting the inner joint out of the diff. That was fun! Had to screw a lag bolt and huge washer to the barn stud, then wrap a ratchet-strap around it and the joint. Cranked it until it almost pulled the 800lb. ATV over. Didn't budge. Left the tension on it, and stuck a prybar under the joint, and started POUNDING on it with a 4lb. sledge. FINALLY started moving. Was all rusted up and full of powdered metal, rust or dirt - who knows! My mix of tranny fluid and acetone saved the day, as the splines were totally wet with the stuff. So I get that one to the bench ... and guess what? YEP! Just wasted over $100 on boots and joints when I should've just replaced the whole damn axle! I ordered up a pair of axles at that point, and they came in yesterday. So figured I'd remove the lower A-arm, grease the bushings, paint it, and install a new ball joint. There's a shaft that runs the entire length of the A-arm - totally rusted. Each mounting bolt screws into each end ... so one spins and don't move while the other comes right out no problem. Fought with that for at least a half hour before getting them both out. Brought the A-arm to the greenhouse (my paint booth ) for paint, and promptly had a yellow jacket fly into my shirt unbeknownst to me. So I swatted whatever it was that was crawling on my neck. BAM! Stung in the neck ... then it falls down my *censored* ... BAM! One in the chest. By this point I'm in the yard screaming obscenities while trying to tear my shirt off. Damn bees!! Finally recovered and finished that task, and moved onto the ball joints (also smoked). I had bought ball joints for this thing at least 3 or 4 years ago, but never took the time to install them. Anyway, so now this ball joint is pressed up inside the big aluminum strut support which serves as the upper A-arm / ball joint. There's a grease fitting on the side that pumps grease into the cavity above the joint, then into the hole in the joint. Pumping it full of grease made a mess and did nothing ... so how the hell to get this thing out? I tried making a puller from an old rear bearing from another Polaris which is very thick, but it just bent the washer up and the joint didn't budge. Then I took a 3mm allen, stuck it through the cotter pin hole in the stud, and hammered it with the air chisel. Came right out! Sweet!! So I install the new joint (which had no hole for grease ... so I drilled one ...), put the little retainer over it, and installed the 2 allen machine screws that nearly stripped out during removal. I start pumping it full of grease. One pump ... 2 pumps ... ok, why is there no grease coming out ... 3 pumps ... then I thought I saw grease coming out the back ... 4 pumps ... and I look closer. The grease was hydraulically pressing the ball joint out THROUGH the retainer!! DAMMIT!! Bent it all to hell ... and now there was so much pressure on those nearly rounded off screws that I ruined my allen key trying to get them out. I was able to stick a pick in the grease fitting and bleed some pressure off, then heated both screws, bled more pressure off due to the heat, and used the ball end of the key with a crescent (adjustable) wrench on the curved end. CRACK! Thought they broke, but they came right out. No drills, Timeserts, taps or dies needed. Guess there was no point in drilling a grease hole. From reading the net, not even the OEM Polaris replacement ball joints come with a grease hole anymore. Go figure ... Got the new bolts this morning at the local hardware store and straightened that retainer out with some heat and a ball peen hammer and the vice. All is well again!

Now back out into the 102° heat index to throw it all back together and start on the OTHER side!

VigIIPeaBurner wrote:
Mother Nature is remembering it is July. Going to be a hot spell for the foreseeable future while the Jet Stream is set up to pump North some of the Gulf's thick soup. I'll be enjoying (enduring) it along with the rest of us.

You got that right and I'm sitting right in the middle of the tight point on the funnel that the Gulf Stream is making with its huge dip south and the high pressure that’s in place to the East. All that Gulf thick soup is flowing right over us here in Northern GA; we’ve had rain and thunder storms every day for the last week or so. We’re told that we can expect more of the same over the next week. Wahoo! GA seems like a nice place to be from once again. Good thing I’m heading home tomorrow.

I’m heading out in a bit to my Mom’s church picnic. Hopefully, the rain will stay away for a couple more hours but there’s no way to avoid the 100% humidity. That’s like being inside a cloud. You are damp the minute you walk out the door.

I hope everyone had a great rest of the weekend, take care, Lisa

Afternoon gents

Fred if theres any of that mud left I believe I'd have a squirt. If not Ill just have a beer. The pneumonia thing sees like its been hanging around awhile. Next time you're at the doc's ask for some potassium iodide drops to help get rid of the shyt in the lungs. Its cheap and works gr8. couple a drops in a glass of juice, or a beer,and you'll be back at it in no time flat .Any hoo , I set up the pool for the kids today and a thought What if I were to fire the efm back up and heat the pool? Boy im tempted....But I just got the thing put to bed a month ago ahh screw it they're young , 50 deg water wont even phase em. But for me, I can ill afford any shrinkage from cold pool water Have a good weekend boys

Waldo Lemieux

Fred hope you don't mind I grabbed a beer, try and keep a little better variety ,geesh

So what??? You don't like my stash of Iron City quarts--- That IS the better variety here in Freetown.

I found the Haffenreffer ....... and Narragansett tall boys!

Just got back from Cherry Springs Sky park. Good riding, good storms, good stars.
Left here Friday 8:00 AM got back Saturday 3:00 PM. Even got a little sunburn watching
the clouds yesterday. Good trip.

Hope you're starting to feel better Fred. I didn't know you were sick. We've been wondering why you haven't been at the Friday breakfast, the lady folks have been asking for you.

My wife and I are off now to judge the local Firemen's Parade tonight, should be fun.

Stay safe everybody. John

I can't figure out why your still sick, those Iron City quarts will cure most anything, we grew up on that & Black Label (only stuff the speakeasy had) gotta learn to love what you can get. hope ya get to breathing a bit better, your probably like me & sleeping sitting up ain't this old age thing a gas. One thing I gotta say is with my B-in L that passed away, his being a LEO that's a tight knit group, while his wife was in the hospital with him 30 officers from all different forces took their Saturday off & went & finished the back yard project he & his S-in-L were working on when he died, finished the whole thing & never said a word. Now that's a good group of people, they ain't all bad just doing a job like everyone else.

I'm wiped. The humidity today drained every ounce of liquid from me. Went to the local hardware store this morning and wouldn't ya know they had what I needed! Even the Polaris dealer didn't have the damn machine screws in stock. Finished that one nightmarish side earlier today, and now only have about a half hour's worth of work for tomorrow to get the other side back together. Things go much more smoothly when you know what to expect!

Now just waiting for my steel CV guards to come in to replace the plastic ones that came factory, so this won't happen again ... at least I hope.

Good morning all!

Hey, Fred, how ya feeling this morning? improve I hope.

Smitty, now that you got that Polaris fixed up, don't take it to the ocean and run it through the waves like you did the last time.. Man, you sure get the rust on your vehicles out there, I thought Michigan was bad..

The graduation open house went well last night, there was a short, maybe 30 minutes of light rain, but that just got everyone together under the tents and around the bar,, good food and drink.

When I got home after the party, I realized how lucky we had been at the party,, my rain gauge was reading 1.8" of rain !! It must have just poured here, I need to go out and see if there is anything washed out or flooded.
Still raining this morning, started about an hour ago. light rain, but the radar shows it should end soon.

Time to get back to the shop, the Packard parts are all packed, the truck will be here tomorrow morning to pick it all up.

Have a nice sunday.
Greg L