Good morning!!!!

   / Good morning!!!! #93,641  
Now I know it wouldn't be unusual for you folks up north, but for us down here in the south 49 degrees this morning is a bit unusual, going for a high today of 61. I love it! More rain in the forecast the next day or two, and we really do NOT need that.

It was warmer up here than it was in Texas this morning :laughing: and NO rattlesnakes!
 
   / Good morning!!!! #93,642  
RNG, your mechanical ability continues to amaze me. Added to a bit of apparent fearlesness...;)
Always wondering what mechanical adventure you are getting into next.

Having owned an old boat, I can commiserate with the feeling of dumping money into the old girl,
substantially and repeatedly, but restoring and even improving the boat or car or truck is half the fun.
Is your van standard or a Synchro? Which I think means AWD. I think this was older than Quattro...
Does the Subaru engine have the power you expected?
 
   / Good morning!!!! #93,643  
RNG, your mechanical ability continues to amaze me. Added to a bit of apparent fearlesness...;)
Always wondering what mechanical adventure you are getting into next.

Having owned an old boat, I can commiserate with the feeling of dumping money into the old girl,
substantially and repeatedly, but restoring and even improving the boat or car or truck is half the fun.
Is your van standard or a Synchro? Which I think means AWD. I think this was older than Quattro...
Does the Subaru engine have the power you expected?

I also wonder at the mechanical adventures I find myself in, Drew.:confused2: I've slowly accumulated the specialized tooling to rebuild the old bike transmissions, and took apart, measured, and reassembled a professionally rebuilt one last year to gain some experience. The junker that arrived yesterday will be my first real rebuild, and could end up being a bumpy ride depending on what's inside. Once done, though, a transmission on those bikes usually lasts at least 50K miles, and usually much more. I'm not a big fan of having to make repeated repairs, which is why the Norton sits in the living room and has never been licensed.:laughing:

The VW is the Syncro model of the Vanagon, hence the off road driving park location for last weekend's camp out. But until I can sort out the drive line vibration issues, the one here won't have the driveshaft that propels the front wheels installed. In fact, I'm planning to remove the axles from the front to prevent the front differential from turning at all in order to determine if the vibrations are coming from the front or the rear. Now there's a mechanical misadventure that should have been pre-empted by the ex-mechanic, but wasn't. Just goes to show that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. :mur:

Not quite sure what to think power wise on the Subaru engine. It makes its power at higher RPMs than the VW engine, and redline is accordingly higher. But the old VW tach still in the car has a big red zone that starts about 1500RPM early for the Subaru, and I've been reluctant to dive very far into the red so far. I have a new tach face but installing it involves removing the needle, and I'm afraid of either losing calibration or breaking the needle if I try to install it myself. The speedo is making ominous clicking noises, so I really should just send both of them out for a rebuild. Might as well put that on the list for this weekend, eh? I was somewhat pleased at an almost 19 MPG tank of gas on the trip last weekend, cruising along between 60 and 65 on the freeway. And if I kept the revs up, I was able to cross the coastal mountain pass at the speed limit, but that might change once all the cabinets and such from the Westfalia are added. Lots of metal was removed from the heads and piston tops to drop the compression from a calculated 12:1 to something in the 9:1 range, but it was all seat-of-the-pants and could very well have gone a bit too far. I'd have to find a dyno and make some runs to find out for sure, but the engine needs more break in miles before I can really pursue it.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #93,644  
Good morning all,

A chilly 35 this morning with a thick layer of frost on everything. Pure blue sky and no wind. Hopefully around noon or so the ground will dry out enough that I can start rock picking again.

Note:
The reason I need to pick the rocks is the roller my neighbor borrowed me broke down. The carrier bearings on both sides sheared off the shaft. The left side was cracked and rusted, that's what caused it to shear off. The owner of it just smiled and said "if it didn't break on you it would have broke on me". We'll get it fixed today hopefully and I can finish rolling instead of rock picking.:)
 
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   / Good morning!!!! #93,645  
48°F and cloudy this morning, going up to 64° today. Pretty chilly around here for May, too, Bird.

Thanks for the reminder, Phil. Add me to the list of people with a new flagpole that needs installation. Wife picked one up last summer, but it's still leaning against the corner in the garage.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #93,646  
Good Morning Everyone!!!!

A drizzly/showery 42ºF morning low; 45ºF conditions unchanged; and I anticipate a rainy mid 60ºF for this PM’s high temperature. The weekend looks to be mostly dry and sunny. Next week looks to be wet until mid-week. Some day this place will dry out. I saw my first wild strawberry flowers this AM walking the lower perimeter. I discovered this AM that Baltimore Orioles will eat suet. (both male and female). Wifey needs to pick up some extra oranges shopping today. I ended up buying an orange feeder for the BO’s because of the tree rats.. We’ve never had a nesting pair of BO’s here before.

Another made up word :rolleyes: My “wheel key” is actually called a shaft key. I bought the D130 because it had a pressurized lubrication due to my slope. This is the second time the HST failed on this rider. I am going to check the linkage. In hindsight my property and use may be too demanding of the 100 series rider mower. I mow ~3 acres. It will be ~ a week before the dealer picks the D130 up. This will give me time to ignore the grass and focus on rocks and switching tractor attachments. I have lots of rocks in need of harvesting and creatively adding to my rock piles (‘features”). It’s still too early and wet here to plant.

"…. Having owned an old boat, I can commiserate with the feeling of dumping money into the old girl, substantially and repeatedly, but restoring and even improving the boat or car or truck is half the fun.”- Drew. On my sailboat I fiberglassed the hull from the Plimsoll line down, replaced the cuddy cushions and just about everything else but the boom and mast. Now its a lawn ornament waiting for a “For Sale” or “Free to a Good Home” sign.

I am awed by the skillsets inherent to this group’s posters. I learn new stuff every day here.

I hope everyone has a decent day and “decenter” weekend and Mother’s Day.

My + thoughts, wishes, and prayers.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #93,648  
Phil- Nice looking place. Nice paint job. Thanks for sharing. :cool:

Don- I never heard of Spinosad. Thanks for sharing. When we have to resort to insecticides we only use “organic” products. A lot of those products are pretty nasty.

“…. Our house is not prepped for senior adult safety with rails, etc.”- Billy Dr. Zhivago was an awesome movie. Our upstairs BR is set up like a longterm care bathroom (minus the grab bars so far). By the time we really need to use it we will not be able to access it.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #93,649  
66°F and .05 inches rain.

Expecting to make headway with propane line today. Yesterday was a mixed bag.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day
 
   / Good morning!!!! #93,650  
55° cloudy and cool in the south. Got youngest son moved out of dorm yesterday, still got to pack some of oldest stuff.

Not much on tap today, dropped a mini fridge and microwave with a local friend to hold for fall. Tomorrow will be busy, graduation in AM, pack, start head home.
 

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