Subject to Change

Sigh!

Oh well, I had to spend almost exactly what that mixer would have cost, to get the heap to pass inspection. So, no mixer this month.

At least what they said was bad, actually was. I do not much like having my vehicle inspected by a shop that is going to make big money doing the repairs on it, that kind of brings out my paranoia. At least in this case it was something I had on my list to fix as soon as possible. It was the serpentine belt, but I do not think that is on the list of things to check for the annual inspection. Sure, if it breaks it will make the car hard to steer, but not so much it is a safety issue. Only, I already knew I needed a new one, and it only cost me about $10 more than replacing it myself and having the vehicle reinspected.

Anyway, that means no new toys this month, but on the other hand I can now afford the couple of six packs I was going to forgo.

All’s Well

OK, after 5 years, I now have 4WD again. I was somewhat worried that I had misdiagnosed the problem, as it has been years since I did it and my memory is not so good these days. Actually, my memory never was so good, but that is another story. But, no, I did not make a mistake, the new encoder motor fixed it.

The tailpipe chose the test drive to fall off the truck, so I will have to replace the exhaust system real soon now, and next month (May) is my traditional vehicle maintenance month, so I need to oil change the oil, do a lub job, plus replace all the filters and the spark plugs (150K maintenance). Then there is some new rust from the winters salt that needs to be dealt with.  The lady is sixteen now, and every one knows how expensive sixteen year olds are to maintain.

I got a couple of new hard drives in the mail today. I replaced the two old RE2 drives with the two new RE3 drives, and moved the other RE3 from the motherboard controller to the raid controller as a hot-spare. That leaves me with the same capacity as I had, but faster, and more reliable as the hot-spare will switch in automatically if one of the drives in the raid-5 array fails. The Western Digital 500gb RE3’s cost me about $50 each off ebay. They have been replaced by the RE4’s and most folks are buying bigger drives these days which is why they are so cheap right now.  If I can come up with the funds to buy a couple more I will expand the array to 2tb which will serve my needs for the next few years. The RE2’s are now doing backup duty. The workstation would also like some more memory, and a pair of faster processors.

The little server, has about reached the end of its life too. I had to delete a lot of stuff off it because the 320gb hard drives were full up. Gah, I remember when I bought a 100mb hard drive and thought I would never need more space than that.

The unseasonably warm weather is going away the next few days, but we do not seem to be going to have the rain they were predicting.

The price of gas has gone up again.  The price of food is up again. And Social Security is frozen. The poor get poorer and the rich get fatter. If prices were stable and I had an extra couple of grand a year, I think I could get by OK. That would be about $10K. I used to live kind of poorly on $25K/year, anything more and I actually could build up some savings. That was a long while back however. I actually, had that extra couple of grand the past year, maybe another windfall will show up this year too. Just got to keep that positive attitude.

What’s New?

First this in the first post on the new version of Wordpro. They have changed all the interfaces, so it is just like starting over. I wonder why programmers insist on doing that? What I like least is that it no longer gives me info on how many words I have written. I try to keep these posts between 250 and 1500 words long.

ADDED: Just discovered that they had moved the word count to the bottom of the editing window.

I got an ink refill set for the CISS on the Epson 1400. It was easy enough to refill the tanks, but I think I will get a system that uses bottles with nozzles on them next time, so I will not have to mess with syringes.

I finally got the part to fix the four wheel drive on my old Mini Blazer. The weather was perfect for working on the truck. So how does it work? I do not know, I do not have a needed tool to get the front drive shaft yoke off. You need to remove that so that you can pull the syncro-motor off the transfer case, after you remove the three bolts that hold it in place, so it will have to wait until I have enough funds for the tools, and the weather is nice.  We arecurrently starting into a least a week of rain. Oh well, that is better than 3 weeks of snow.

Got the 40-140 telezoom for my e420. It was a deal only $99 bucks if you bought the camera with the kit lens. I picked up an extra CF card, and a couple of spare batteries for the camera. The battery grip was missing the spring in the bottom battery compartment and the seller eventually sent me one. Only now I am not so sure it was missing, because with the spring in there the latch will not hold the battery against the spring pressure. Sigh… I guess I will have to remove the spring.

The Olympus e420 has the capability of saving both raw files (.orf) and jpeg’s at the same time. Only, that has resulted in some strange exposure problems. It has been driving me nuts. My current theory is that they implement most of those features by biasing the exposure. I will have to do some experimenting to verify that, but if that is what is happening I will be going back to strictly raw files.

I have noticed that since I decided to again make photography my central interest, I have come into some serendipitous funds several times that has helped me get things I need to do that. Now if the weather would just cooperate. Oh well, after ten years of drought around here, I guess it is time to get back to wet foggy weather.

You probably have noticed that I still have not shot a new header photo. Mostly laziness, but also poor health, a bad back, and the late winter blues.

these four words make 501 –Good Day!

Nothing World Shattering

Nothing world shattering to report. Got another cold that has sapped my energy. Had to spend money on the car. So, everything is pretty much at a standstill.

I did get some 3/4″ c 5/8″ nylon bushing stock and made adapters so the Norman Lamp Heads fit the 5/8″ spigots on the stands better. That was after finding that the Norman ones cost $8.95 + $9.00shh each. In case your math skill are weak that come to almost $72 for four of them. I made the first one like the Norman ones with a hole in it for the set screw, then realize the nylon was flexible enough that they did not need a hole as they just dented in enough to hold them tight.

I finally got some 11×14 Epson Photo paper. Have not printed anything on it yet. But at least I can now make prints bigger than I could on the R200 so it kind of justifies the 1400.

I also bought a rear kickstand for the Dunelt. One of those that I will install that and fixe the chaincase so it will not move, “real soon now”.

It has been raining again. It has rained about 2/3 the time for the past six weeks. It is beginning to get old.

I bought a new cardigan sweater today. My old sweaters are showing their age to the point where I do not want to wear them in public. The interesting thing is that I had to pay 25 bucks on sale for a synthetic one. The last one was about ten bucks for wool. The only store I found stocking wool sweaters was TJ Max and they were about $40. It is getting harder and harder to find decent clothing in Boone.

Well, now that I have reminded myself that I actually occasionally do something, I guess I will quit rambling and go take a couple of aspirin.

20 Minute Flat Rate Job

The starter on the Blazer went out Monday. It was not unexpected, it had been flaky for months. I was planing on replacing it next month anyway.

In the old days that was a 20 minute job in the shop, 30-45 minutes in the driveway. Now?…

This is what the Factory Shop Manual says for a 1994 S10 Blazer 4WD with 4.3L V6:

1. Disconnect negative battery cable.
2. Remove brush end Mounting Bracket (if equipped).
3. Raise vehicle on hoist.
4. Disconnect the Solenoid wiring (from in Wheel Well).
5. Remove the Skid Plate (if equipped).
6. Remove bolts, and two brackets holding the Brake Pipe to the Cross Member.
7. Remove Cross Member (3 bolts each side).
8. Remove Bracket holding Transmission Lines to the Flywheel Housing.
9. Remove Rod Brace to Flywheel Housing.
10. Remove Lower Flywheel Housing.
11. Remove two Starter Bolts.
12. Remove Starter.

Replace in reverse order (it may be easier to connect Solenoid Wiring prior to bolting in the starter).

(I did clarify some things in that, they were more criptic)

That was pretty close. I did not have to so steps 3a to 7 (My Blazer came with skid plates however I have them off, the other four steps are not actually required as you can work around them). However it does not say anything about having to drop the front drive shaft to move the flywheel housing far enough to clear the starter. If they had allowed a half-inch more clearance you would not have to do all that extra stuff, but then I guess the dealers have to make a profit on repairs.

I had to walk to the auto parts store, and carry the new starter back with me. The auto parts store is only 2.5 miles from the apartment, but I am a 64 year old disabled guy. That was the first ordeal.

When I got home I took a bit of a rest, then jacked up the truck, and tried to remove the starter. No, I did not check the manual, after all I had R&R’ed maybe 200 starters over the years, I knew how to do it. Two hours later, exhausted, I decided I didn’t know how to do it, and knocked off for the day. That was the second ordeal.

In the morning I dug out that Factory Service Manual and got the above listing of steps. The third ordeal begain. Under the truck again I removed this part, and that part, and disconnected this and that. I scraped up my hands getting the wires lose, you have about two inches between the frame and exhaust header from in the wheelwell to get at them. About three hours later with some contorted twists and turns I had the old starter out.

Then came the fourth ordeal, getting the new starter in place and connecting the wires. Putting the parts I had to remove to get the old starter out back on took about an hour.

I picked up the tools and put the tire back on. Oops, I could not get the safety pin out of the jack with the tire on. So I removed the tire again, pulled the pin, replaced the tire, lowered the truck, connected the battery, put down the hood, and got into the truck. I turned the key and she spun over for a few seconds, then fired up. That was not an ordeal at all.

So that 20 minute flat rate job took only eight hours total, including the walk to the auto parts store and back, and cost me $120. No wonder they want so much to do it at the shop. I imagine it is a two hour job if you know exactly what you are doing, have power tools, and a hoist.

For those looking for HOWTO information, this is how I would do it in the future

1. Disconnect negative battery cable.
2. Raise the passenger front of vehicle on jack.
3. Remove right front wheel.
4. Remove the Skid Plate.
5. Disconnect universal joint and move front drive shaft out of the way.
6. Unbolt Rod Braces at Flywheel Housing and move aside.
7. Remove the four bolts holding Flywheel Housing
8. Drop and move aside the Flywheel Housing.
9. Loosen the two bolts holding Starter so it will drop about an inch.
10. Disconnect the Solenoid wiring (from wheel well).
11. Remove the two Starter Bolts.
12. Remove Starter (It will take some twisting and turning to get it out).
13. Replace in reverse order.