Good morning!!!!

[mpham]

Spent the weekend cleaning up the front yard with the hand rake. What a mess the winter winds caused. Steady rain and wet conditions next few days. At least it is warmish.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

RNG, how do you check shaft alignment on the van? I'm guessing it has U joints in strategic places? How hard to replace all those bushings?

There's a lot of theory out there about driveshaft vibration in Syncro Vanagons, but no real tried and true recipe for getting rid of it. The drive shaft has a u-joint at each end mated to a flange that mates to matching ones on the transaxle and front differential. The output flange of the transaxle and the input flange of the front differential were not designed to be on the same axis. Instead, they both point down to some extent, depending on the engine mount used in the Subaru conversion. I think I'm going to make up a couple of square steel tubes about 3' long, drilled to mate up with a pair of holes in the flanges, and measure from end to end to see how much lateral misalignment there is. I think I can hold my iPhone up to each flange to get a measurement of the vertical tilt of each one as well, and see how that jives with accepted practice. There is some slop in the bushings I'm changing out, enough that there's hope of eliminating the side to side misalignment. I'm just going to have to live with the vertical tilting, though. There was a tiny bit of vibration with the old bushings after I noticed that the rear flanges were not drawn fully together by the old mechanic. It was worst at about 25 MPH, and gone at freeway speeds. Hopefully I can get that to go away. I also noticed that one of the bolts holding on the front differential mounts was little more than finger tight yesterday, so that might have been the cause.

There are five sets of bushings: Two for the transaxle in the rear, and three on the frame that supports the front differential. I was able to get one changed yesterday. I got two more off, but the bolts in those were rusted so tightly into the bushings in the old bufffers I ended up cutting the bolt heads off to save the giant fender washers that hold the bushings in place. The new urethane buffers come with their own bushings that are a bit larger than the old ones, so I ended up ordering new bolts from McMaster-Carr. I still have two more bushings to change in the rear, and if the rain holds off today that's what I'll be doing.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

That's one of the few really open areas, in that pasture, that I can cut with one of the tractors. Most of it is;

Beautiful, Rick. Is your neck stiff from trimming around all those trees?

Everything's green out here now; if yours was tipped up about 10% it would feel like home.:laughing:

 

[Buppies]

60 high of 75 storms after lunch could be nasty but more than likely skipping us to the east

Prayers for all in need

 

[RedNeckGeek]

...now his wife wants me to meet a local 62 year old oncology nurse who wants to meet a new friend. I could only smile because my other close childhood friend thinks I should meet his first wife, who is an oncology nurse also, a few years older. How strange, in a short time.

When it rains, it pours, Drew. Hopefully your long love drought will soon be over, though your anxiety over black widows should also extend to gold diggers, too:

"Say, miss, you wouldn't happen to be a rich widow, would you? Just how many ex-husbands DO you have?":laughing:

 

[Looking4new]

34 °F and going to 43. Wind E 24 gusting 32 mph. Rain.

It is raining now and will continue 'til noon. Thankfully not a gully washer, just a nice steady rain.

I will go out this afternoon and see if I can get the three large puddles to drain off the driveway.
I have a battery or two to dig out of a snow bank, they will be the core charge for the two new ones I am getting on Wednesday.


Have a good day all

 

[Rich B1]

Good morning. 55 now, near 70 later. Got to 74 yesterday.

Ran the rototiller in the garden yesterday. Figured new fence Saturday, may as well get the ground broken. The old beast tiller started on the first pull and ran great all day. My body, not so much, feeling it today.

Well...first day back in the office in 2 weeks. Been traveling. Got a couple of internal issues to deal with. Not real pleased how some things were poorly handled last week. They are going to be happy when I am retired.......

But today is the first day this year I ride the bike to work!

Everyone have a safe and good day.....

 

[Thomas]

37F light rain low 40's for high.

Yesterday was good day for outside puttering,but unable do any lawn cleaning because of ice snow mud fingers cross for this coming weekend.
Only 6 deer show up for dinner guess there starting to range out more,small flock geese headed north.
No real plans for after work other than :confused3:
E muffin feed little critters slow roll to work.

Enjoy the day all.

 

[ronjhall]

Need to pour first cup of coffee. 56° with cloudy skies this morning. Heading to 67° with afternoon sun. Rain forecast for yesterday never arrived. Places north and south got it. Skies got very dark. After yesterday's work I feel pretty good this morning. Spring weather has a lot of healing in it. Got some cleanup to do around the pond and some other small projects. Grass is turning green and trees are budding. Sandhill Cranes are back. They land in field so gracefully.

New house across street has a JD compact tractor doing some landscape work. 2 pickups show up yesterday afternoon. Next I hear loud noises like a sledgehammer pounding. Shortly after that tractor is starter up. Then a very loud roaring sound. Shut it off, shut it off is yelled. Back to using york rake to level thing out. Compact tractors and sledgehammers are not a good mix. I have not met this new neighbor yet. Work unusual hours.

Drew, hope you meet the perfect lady for companionship. :cloud9:

Rick, your place looks great. Are horses allowed to roam there.

Good Morning All.

 

[toppop52]

The Baylor University Ladies won the Championship, beating Notre Dame 82-81.

Congrats, anyone but UConn and ND.
Could be a banner year for TX basketball. As jaded as it sounds, being from NC and being a UNC basketball fan, I’m use to NCAA championships. It would sure be special if the Red Raiders won it.

 

[toppop52]

60 now, first 80 of the year predicted, then Buppies thunderstorms get here later. I’m already getting tanned!

Have a good one my friends.

 

[daugen]

Phil, your yard looks nice, now just waiting for some green to show.

84 degrees today, storms this afternoon, hopefully will wash the pine pollen away.

need to make one quick run downtown, then back to pick another box of collards. Getting at least half of it done late yesterday was good, less bending over this morning. Normally I have help for this but called them off this morning after upset last Monday when new volunteer not only drove down my neighbor's property by mistake, but then in front of his video cams drove all over his newly seeded lawn. Not good. Food pantry immediately ordered directional lawn signs for me/others, so folks know where to turn. Hard to yell at this middle aged woman in a Priius with two grandchildren in car, here to help and do good, and boy sure is clueless about driving. Never a good idea to drive over someone's lawn without asking first. Good way to find where their septic tank is...

It's a great day to be alive.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

But today is the first day this year I ride the bike to work!

Well, at least you'll arrive with a smile on your face, and have something to look forward to at the end of the day as well!:thumbsup:

 

[WoodChuckDad]

58 degrees this morning. Birds singing in overdrive. If you listen you can pick out a dozen different songs going all at once.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

58 degrees this morning. Birds singing in overdrive. If you listen you can pick out a dozen different songs going all at once.

:welcome: Welcome aboard, WCD! Nice view!

 

[ronjhall]

:welcome: WoodChuckDad.

 

[JMKleinBBK]

Good morning everyone! 54 here in SE NM with a high of 88. 2 more days and I'll be back home for a month where the wife says it hasn't stopped raining. BOOOOO! Not looking forward to that but definitely missing her and the kids. Stay safe and have a great day!

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 59F @ 5:00AM. Cloudy with rain developing this afternoon. High 69F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%.

Looks like today's rain will be the last we'll see here for the next ten days. Can't say I'll miss it.:laughing:

Hope everyone's week gets off to a good start!

 

[daugen]

gas prices have sure spiked, it seems what is good for the stock market is good for ExxonMobil.
Premium non ethanol, what I use in my car and all my gas equipment, jumped 30 cents to $3.29.

A bargain for many of you out far on the distribution chain, but noticeable here. Hopefully we aren't getting back to 20 dollar fill-ups of
5 gallon cans...
More likely just some age old manipulation of the market designed to make some refiners even wealthier.
The fat cats get fatter.
While their refineries burn most often it seems from lack of maintenance.

Headed out to use a trim mower while it's cool out. Taller weeds along the driveway, I think because dark color of pavement heats the ground faster, like black plastic in the garden, and weeds germinate faster near the heat. The trek from barn to mailbox is a good walk, walking behind a mower is good exercise. And they say exercise is good for my ear. Ok... Husqvarna awd mower with Honda engine, likes to go in straight lines, not so easy to trim with. I have a ditch mower, which is the lightest weight bottom end Poulan you find in front of hardware stores, and the lightness is the key for me pushing that up and down ditch slopes. Worked on that yesterday, sharpened the blade. Once I got it going with starting fluid (in the foam filter, not down the throat) and dosed it heavily with Sea Foam, it seemed to get much happier. This will be the third year for that mower and I'm expecting to see holes in the deck appear soon.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good morning everyone! 54 here in SE NM with a high of 88. 2 more days and I'll be back home for a month where the wife says it hasn't stopped raining. BOOOOO! Not looking forward to that but definitely missing her and the kids. Stay safe and have a great day!

Those last couple of days must seem LOOONG after working for a month away from home. I am assuming that you drive to and from work. How long does it take you drive across Texas back to La?
I saw in the forecast this morning that Roswell was suposed to get up to 92 today....way too hot this early.