Meet Luna!

 Great name for our new pup, eh? She's camera shy, and "Red Eye Removal" doesn't work for dogs!

She's two years old, predominantly American Staffordshire Terrier, aka "Pit Bull". She was surrendered to the NoCo Humane Center by a young couple who are expecting their first child, and decided they couldn't handle a young dog and a new infant at the same time. The first dog we looked at wanted absolutely nothing to do with us, which is surprising, as we're both People of the Dog, and most dogs like us. I mean growl, turn her back to us, and stare out the window until the staff person came to collect her.

Luna was very happy to meet us, and took to us immediately. She responded properly to several commands we gave her, and seemed to be a very good natured dog.

I tried to get a good picture of her, but the Big Black Nikon camera I have spooked her, and when I clicked the flash up, she backed off. As soon as I took this picture she came back wagging her tail, but I've never seen a dog get spooked by a camera.

And she loves exploring her backyard. I'm sure she'll love the trails here, too.

We get to see how she does with other people tomorrow, as The Kids are dropping by for a bit.

For Phil......

 My buddy Phil from Bustednuckles brought up a good point on my previous post.

Since I have things on the engine torn down this far:

It would be (take your pick) foolish, stupid, and/or Just Plain Dumb to NOT replace the $35 water pump while it's out there right in front of me.

To which I wholeheartedly agree:

These are all new, bought on "Wholesaler Close-Out" from Rock Auto. They're all Made In Japan, and look identical. These haven't been available for quite some time from Toyota, so we're forced to use aftermarket for replacements. The pump in the car is fairly new, isn't leaking a single drop, and the bearing rotates freely with zero wobble, play, or noise or grittiness.

Since the water pump is right in front of me, the cooling system is completely drained, and I have the parts and gaskets on-hand, it a no-brainer to swap it out. Since I'm ditching the engine-driven clutch fan, the bearings in the new pump should last a good, long time.

Annnnnd......Since it appears to be weeping a bit, a new front main seal will also be installed.

YAY! Harmonic Balancer Off The Engine

 The special tool I ordered worked like a charm after I bought some longer bolts. Since the tool is listed as for a Lexus, which used this basic engine, I guess the harmonic balancer isn't as deep as this one on my Toyots.

Tool on Balancer:

 Big Bolt removed:

 

Puller on Balancer:

Balancer off car:

 

It's a Good Thing I'm doing this, because even though the belt looks fairly new, the tensioner is shot. Hard to rotate, gritty feeling, and most likely the one the car was born with.

This will be my play room the next few days while I clean this up, and install the new parts.

Next thing will be to pull the lower intake runners, followed by more cleaning of those parts and the left side of the engine.

 

Then I can start on the wiring upgrades......

Spring? Is That You?

 You jest can't never tell 'bout Spring In The Rockies. It's been stunningly beautiful the last few days, with blue skies, and temps right around 60 or so. Both the weekend, and the coming week, look to be Really Nice Weather in the mid to upper 70's.

And we'll get clobbered with snow at least once more (Never plant before Mother's Day!) before things stay nice. Our new yard service has been here the last two days. They mowed, aerated, de-thatched, fertilized, and seeded the front and rear yards, and I've reconfigured our watering system to make it easier for SLW to do the crack-of-dawn watering. After our preparing and seeding some big dead (as in "dirt") areas in the backyard went so well, we decided to get some Professional Help for everything else. These guys are on the ball, on time, do an excellent job, are friendly, and their charges are very reasonable.

Work is continuing on the Supra. The tool I bought to pull the harmonic balancer included bolts that were too short. Correct length bolts are on the way, as I really, really, really want to get the cam belt and ancillaries changed as they're an "Unknown Time In Use" part, and have definite life spans.

It's much easier to get at the wiring harnesses I'll be working on with the radiator, and all the air conditioning equipment off the car. The plastic "Split Loom" tubing was so far gone that it was crumbling away. The plastic retainers used to hold the split-loom tubing to the chassis were either broken, or broke when I released the harness from them. The wires inside the tubing are being cleaned, and then they'll get wrapped with a special tape, and new split-loom installed. The battery cables and cable from alternator to battery are being upgraded to suit the new high-output alternator. I'm really getting to know the engine bay wiring quite well, as I have to remove the old cables, measure and photograph them, and send that to the vendor for a quote. The positive cable needs to be slightly modified, as the original way the battery was connected was a mess. The extremely corroded "Fusible Link Box" is being replaced with a new assembly I fabricated. 

 This required a minor change in the cable from the battery, adding an 8 gauge wire from the battery to the new Fusible Link Box, rather than having them mount directly ON the positive post of the battery.

Friday I go see a specialist about my neck issues. Seems I have a bulging disc, and some congenital spinal issues.

I'd post something about the State of the Union, but I don't like elevating my blood pressure. Nevertheless, I sense something coming our way, and it won't be good. Whether it happens before or after the election is unclear, but I think something's going to pop.....

Enjoy your upcoming weekend, keep your head on a swivel, and have a Blessed Sunday.

Wind Storm AAR

 Other than the wind howling all night, and a backyard full of Nature's Pruning of the Trees, we got through things alright. There were about a dozen semis blown over on I-25 North of Wellington and then CDOT closed the road to large vehicles.

The area where The Kids live was powered off, and they just now (1530 local) had power restored. 

Trees down, power lines down, vehicles blown over, roofs damaged, and wind gusts here in town of 60+MPH.

Things are back to normal, and the temps will be in the high 60's, low 70's this coming week.

Spectacular Weather.....Followed By Storms.....

 The weather here has been Fan-Freakin'-Tastic for the last four days. Beautiful blue skies, temps in the 60's~70's, and just all around pleasant.

That's going to change in the next 12 hours or so. There's a big front coming in from the North, as usual, bringing cold weather, rain/snow, and very high winds. The forecast is for sustained winds of 35~45MPH, and gusts as high as 70MPH. That's some serious wind, so I went around the yard today sheltering the patio furniture, and checking my antennas for tight mounting hardware. All was good, but I slackened my radials a bit to allow for a bit more sway.

Spring Cleaning has begun in the "Hangar Bay" (my garage), and the tables cleared (mostly), parts arranged, and I'm waiting for a tool to be delivered so I can finally get the Harmonic Balancer removed on the Supra. The Big Bolt that holds the balancer on the crankshaft is torqued to One-Hundred and Sixty Foot-Pounds of torque, which is a fair amount of twist for an old geezer like me. I was going to fabricate a tool, and then one of my Extended Toyota Family clued me in to this tool. $22 delivered in two days from Amazon.

This bolts into the center hub of the balancer, and allows you to hold it while you apply copious amounts of torque to loosen the bolt.

For leverage, a 1/2" drive breaker bar plugs into the end of the tool like so....

And your choice of breaker bar length determines how much torque you have to exert while the impact tool rattles away.

This one is about 16" long, and I have a 26" bar, with a two-foot length of pipe, in the truck, if needed.

Once I get the timing belt, tensioner, and tensioner spring replaced, I can put this task to bed, and move on to the electrical upgrades to make the most of the new 95A alternator.

Handy Desktop App for Hams

 Sent to me by a friend, and now added to the "Link-O-Rama" section.

It's called the "Hamshack Dashboard", and provides quite a bit of info at your fingertips. Or a mouse click.....

He Is Risen!

 Rejoice and celebrate the day!

Gloomy, Gritty, Grey Day

 At 1700 local it's as described in the headline; 30*F, 88% RH, completely overcast, snowing like crazy (small flakes, but lots of them), and the wind is whipping it up at about 25~30MPH. It's a good night to stay inside, have a big Mug-O-Joe, and listen to the scanner. I get near real-time updates on the road conditions from the snow plows and deicing trucks, and this storm is getting nasty. When you hear a plow operator say "Yep, it's started. They're already crashing...", you know the roads are slippery.

I got the garage swept out, and put SLW's car inside, and then retreated back in here. I've been cleaning up my old paper files in the basement, and I've just about filled two yard-sized trash bags with shredded paper. And I FINALLY went through, cleaned out, and organized, my two-drawer filing cabinet.

Almost finished with the reorganization of the "Electronics" bench. Moved the test equipment to be more usable, and moved around the work surface and anti-static mat top eliminate the dead space between the work surface and edge of the table it sits on. That worked so well that I'll do the same over on the "Mechanical" workbench.

So if you live out here, keep warm and dry. If you live elsewhere, act appropriately. And regardless of your locale, keep your head on a swivel. I think we may be in for a Long, Hot Summer......

One Year Ago Today.....

 I fell in the garage and broke my hip, beginning a year of hospital visits, tests, and other procedures.

And the speakers I had just started building? Sloooowly nearing completion. They would have been finished by now, but I missed on two holes used to mount the speaker grill, so now I have to plug, sand, and re-drill them.

This one came out just fine.

It looks a bit off, but it's mounted into a rubber mount, and I didn't push it down all the way. I still have to do the final fitment, apply glue, let it cure, and then SLW is going to help me cover them with speaker grill cloth.

So the odd one is plugged...

Then trimmed, sanded, and filled. Ill sand it tomorrow so the filler has plenty of time to cure.

Since it's going to be in the 60's this week, and clear, I'll be out in the garage bringing that whole system back on-line.

Annnnd.....We Got Zip.....

 Total snow was about 6~8", but half o0f it melted as soon as it hit, and we never had more than 3" on the ground at any one time. All I had to shovel were the front steps, and a path down the driveway.

The streets are dry now, and it's forecast for 50* on Sunday, so most of it will be gone, and all of it by Friday.

And the Ariens still slumbers..