Inventory Time

 One of the things I learned from both my Dad and The School of Hard Knocks, is that to do and complete a job requires with having all the required parts on hand. Since I'll be changing all the belts and hoses this Summer, I figured I'd better see if I had all the required parts.

I have at least one of everything, and the "One Is None" got rectified tonight with another order to good old Rock Auto, one of the few places left that actually stocks parts for these cars. I have multiples of the V-belts for the power steering and A/C compressor, and several different lengths of the serpentine belt that drives the water pump and alternator. Since I'll be swapping out the 60A alternator for a 100A unit from a Camry, and it's bigger but with a smaller pulley, the OEM belt doesn't fit. One of the guys on the CelicaSupra forum went through all the different belt lengths, and found an optimum length for the alternator swap, so I have several of those belts.

I only have one cam drive belt, and that's going on the car along with a new tensioner. I was going to get another one, but ooops...."Out of Stock". The only ones they had were $9 "Economy" belts, and I'm not going to risk a cheap cam drive belt on an interference-type engine. OOOPS...Just found out this engine is a NON-interference engine. I still don't like using an El Cheapo timing belt (or chain, or gears) because they're almost always a PITA to replace.

Since the current Hot Problem is an oil leak from the drain plug, I ordered several different plugs (M18-1.5 thread) along with several different types of oil drain plug gaskets. I git yer nylon ones, your fiber ones, and yes, even the Holy Grail of oil drain plug gaskets....the Dead-Soft Copper ones! I have to get this fixed before I refill the oil (groan...another 5 quarts of 10W-40!) and start the engine. Which means I have to shovel out several pounds (or more....) of oil-soaked kitty litter from under the car, along with the cardboard sheets I threw down there when I noticed it was leaking. It NEVER leaked a drop in Long Beach, and it only seems to start leaking in the Winter, so I'm thinking *something* is contracting enough from the cold to allow the oil in the pan to drip out. I put a new gasket on it the last time I had the plug out, and the plug, gasket, and oil pan surface were very clean when I put the plug back in and I torqued it to spec. When was the last time you got your torque wrench out to properly tighten your oil drain plug? Yeah, it was a first for me, too. So clean surfaces, new gasket, properly tightened.......WTF did the oil leak out? Absolutely NO TRACE of oil around the pan gasket, front main seal, or rear main seal. No trace of oil at the cylinder head/block interface. Oil filter clean, dry, and tight. This engine is sealed remarkably well for a 35 year old engine with 168,000 miles on it. It's DRY externally. The only place I see any wetness (besides on the floor...) is around the drain plug. So either the threads are worn, or something I've only seen a very few times. Rarely, the area around the drain plug where the back-up plate with the female threads is welded inside develops cracks. It's an easy fix. Scrupulously clean the area with a no-residue solvent, and butter some JB Weld over the cracks. Beats pulling the pan to have it cleaned and welded up. You could even braze the area to seal the cracks. 

Oh...and I just noticed the throttle linkage is really sloppy. Looks like a plastic bushing has worn out, and the cable has stretched some over 35 years, requiring adjustment. The linkage is more of an issue, as the parts are staked together, making disassembly problematic.

It's been pleasant out in the garage getting Ms Swan awakened, and I'm looking forward to dancing with her again.

Rainy Day Project - Cleaning Supra Parts

Since it's been raining off-and-on here the last several days, and I don't like playing dodge the raindrops with corded power tools, I put the ground rod installation on hold.

So let's clean-up some of the parts I have to reinstall on the Supra!

And it all starts with hot, soapy water.

The parts in the sink are a weather seal from under the hood, and a shield that goes behind the fabled Timing Cover #3. Prior to this, I scrubbed the daylights out of the rubber air couplings used to pipe the air from the Air Flow Meter to the Throttle Body. There's three of these couplings, and if any one of them doesn't seal properly, you have an air leak between the Air Flow Meter and the Throttle Body, which throws off the Electronic Fuel Injection. It's similar to a vacuum leak on a engine with a carburetor, and makes for poor running, and failed emissions testing.

35 year old rubber air couplings like these don't age well unless they're taken care of. And very few people bother to take them off and clean them yearly. It's not on the Toyota Maintenance Schedule other than to "Inspect and Replace If Required", so they only get a brief glance, if that.

I was fortunate to get a set of used ones in good condition. I scrubbed them with soap and water, and then took a toothbrush and scrubbed in a generous amount of Eastwood "Rubber, Plastic and Vinyl Restore". This stuff is amazing. Next to the cleaned and restored piece is the one that came on the car.

It was pretty trashed, and I'd resorted to using some 3M "Super Weatherstrip Adhesive" to glue it back together and fill in the cracks.

The cracks went all the way through, so I had to use some tape to keep the adhesive in place.

Even though they "hold air" now, they're very stiff and brittle. The brown color is oxidized rubber, and will not come off with soap and water. Altogether, I'm glad I had a good replacement, which looked new after cleaning and treatment. Nice and flexible, too.

I also scrubbed and treated the two rubber seals under the hood. One is at the cowling, and keeps hot engine art from getting into the A/C system, and the other is on the bottom of the leading edge of the hood. It's purpose is to block any air coming through the grill from going over the radiator, rather than through it.

So those have been my rainy day activities, I should have Ms Swan back on the road in the next week or so, and then we can start the process of getting her properly licensed again.

Ground Rods - Two Down, One To Go!

 And it's turning out easier than I thought it would. It starts with using my 30" deep watering spike to get the hole started.

Takes about 15 minutes to melt its way down, and you have a nice, 30" deep hole, slightly larger than the ground rod.

Then I set the rod in the hole.....

Slide the ground rod driver tool over the end of the rod....

And drive the rod into the soil until there's 10" or so above ground.

This is one I did yesterday.

Easy-Peasy to drive the rods in.

The next step will be to install the surge suppressor mounting plate and suppressor. This one is just mocked up finger-tight. The bronze clamp on the rod will be for a #4 solid copper wire that bonds this ground rod to the other two rods I'll be putting in at this location.

I still have to mount the 20 Meter vertical on the post, and install the coax from the antenna to the suppressor, and then the suppressor to the RF entrance panel.

More to come as soon as the weather cooperates a bit better!

Sweet Little PC for Sweet Little Wife

 

WHEW! Can't say "What A Battle" because in the end it was a simple thing. I reflashed the UEFI BIOS to the current version, and Windows installed normally. I almost always read the release notes on something like this to see what changed over the previous version. The new version had both TPM and Secure Boot enabled as defaults whereas the previous version required you to go in and enable them. The third thing was to "Add Support for ALC888s", and the fourth item was something I don't recall ever seeing before, saying "Add OEM String". Hmmmm....wonder if the Windows install program was looking for that, didn't find it, and rolled over and croaked. All it ended with was a "Does not meet minimum standards" message. Nice error message, Micro$oft! Might be nice if you told us why it didn't pass.

Anywhoo...it's up and running and blazing fast.  

BUT.....I Do Not Like Micro$oft Windows 11.

 No sir, don't like it at all.

Oh, sure, it's fast, easy to use, looks good, and does tons of things for you. 

What provokes me is the behind-the-scenes intrusiveness of it.

It REQUIRES an Internet connection to activate and use. So did XP, Vista, and 7, but this time M$ makes it abundantly clear, and the install would not continue until I plugged an Ethernet cable from the router into the PC. Not even an option to "Ask Me Later".

It REQUIRES a Micro$oft account, to which it automagically connects to when the machine is powered up.

SLW wasn't sure if she had an M$ account, but M$ found one for her based on her email address, so we reset the password on it, and POOF! All her "In The Cloud" documents popped up as shortcuts to the web on her desktop.

It even "found" things she knew she'd deleted, which is kind of spooky.

But she's quite happy with it, as it rips her CDs to a thumb drive in the blink of an eye, and I was able to recover all her photos, music, and documents from The PC That Micro$oft Killed. Yes, murder most foul by an attempted "upgrade" from Windows 10 to Windows 11. I think I can recover/reinstall the system BIOS and get the motherboard to work again, in which case her old PC, originally built for my son as a gaming/multimedia PC, will wind up as the Workshop Computer. Actually I wouldn't mind having a little Shuttle like I just built for her, but I'd rather not spend the bucks building another one.

Work continues on Ms Swan. Since I had to pull the aftermarket air intake tube running across the top of the engine and replace it with the OEM air intake ducting, this is an excellent time to install the new spark plug wires, and replace some of the vacuum hoses that aren't quite right. Then I have to go to the courthouse, pay the registration, pay the late registration fees, and probably pay extra for a temporary permit to drive it to the smog check place.

Battleship Iowa Rotates Turret III For The First Time in 30 years.

 Amazing to see it come to life. One of the very few things I miss about living in SoCal was being allowed to crawl all over the ship, and see all the cool Behind The Scenes things.

BZ, shipmates!

New PC for SLW

 

 And man, am I out of date on the tech! My last build and Windows installation was during the Windows 7 days. SLW needs her PC to run some current business software, and that means Windows 11, complete with a lot of hardware and software things I had to learn. Like the UEFI BIOS, TPM stuff, and Secure Boot. Windows 11 requires all these things to install and run. Since her new little Shuttle "XPC Cube" is new hardware, and meets the listed hardware requirements for Win11, I figured another ho-hum Windows installation.

WRONG.....

The specs for this little Hot Rod are far in excess of what Micro$oft considers the minimum.

CPU requires a 64-bit processor with at least two cores @ 1GHz.

I have eight cores @ 3.5GHz. This processor is certified as compatible with Windows 11  by both Micro$oft and Shuttle.

Memory is 4GB minimum.

I have 64GB.

Storage (drive space) is 64GB minimum

I have 1TB.

And this PC has the required UEFI BIOS, and supports all the required firmware/security items.

And STILL the Windows installer stops with an error message about the PC not meeting minimum requirements.

Shuttle has even certified it for Windows 11, noting that certain things have to be changed from the defaults in the BIOS. The newest version of the BIOS has these changes, so I'm considering flashing it to that version.

And it looks like I'll have to find some Shuttle User Forums and see how other people figured this out and manged to get Windows to stop choking during the installation.

Also been working on Ms. Swan. Since I had to revert it back to OEM configuration to pass the visual exam on the required every-five-years smog test for "Collector Car" plates. This means pulling the Big, Shiny aftermarket Air Intake Tube:

And put the boring-plastic-and-rubber OEM ducting back on, which I can't find any pix of. Oh, well...it's restrictive, ugly, and has five sections of rubber couplings, plastic parts, and an air-chamber "Resonator" that reduces the inlet noise at wide open throttle.

Looks like a bunch of rain coming in, so I have to scoot off to the dump and empty a full bed of yard trash that's been in the truck for a several days now.

Hope you all have a great weekend, and Blessed Sunday.

 

 

 

 

Race Day!

 On a fairly small scale. Since TLG made an unexpected (by me) visit for an overnighter, I was stuck on what to do when it was my turn to goof off with him.

So I got out the two little R/C trucks, charged the batteries, and off we went!

We had a ball running them up, down, and around the cul-de-sac here, and up into the front yard. These little "1/12th Scale" 4WD trucks are pretty quick, and can handle some impressive stunts, but they bog down in tall grass, and just spin all 4 tires. I had planned driving in the ground rods for the antennas today, but that got put on hold, and tomorrow is TNLG's 2nd birthday, so we'll be busy then, too.

Just a spectacular day today. Sunny, blue skies, mid 70's, and light breezes. Just delightful.

Hope you all have a Blessed Sunday!

Post-Op Visit

Had my post-op appointment with "my" Urologist this morning. He was very buoyant about the Pathology/Cytology reports on the samples he sent them.

NO evidence of any type of malignancy; ALL the results were "Benign" or "Negative".

SLW breathed an audible sigh of relief. Or it might have been a sigh of resignation knowing she has to put up with me for the foreseeable future.
So the Nurse removed the catheter, and sent me home with instructions to return late in the afternoon.

Wasn't able to void, and I had 500mL they drained via the catheter that went back in.
Joy.

The Doctor was very hopeful that I would NOT need another procedure/surgery today, and it'll be interesting to see what he has to say at the next visit.

And my last Orthopedic visit is next week, where I expect to be pronounced Fit For Duty, Pending Other Medical Conditions....

I'll really be glad when this is in the rear view mirror, and I can close out the "Medical Blog" section!
Y'all have a good weekend, Blessed Sunday, and keep your head on a swivel.

Wild Weather South Of Us

 Baseball size hail in Denver, and a confirmed tornado in the Highlands Ranch/Lone Tree area, about 12 miles South of Denver.

We're getting a light drizzle, and I don't expect much more, but who knows.

Tomorrow is my post-op appointment for The Procedure I had performed on Monday. All the lab results have come back as "Benign" or "Negative", so that's good news. I just might be coming down the back straight on this issue, which would be really good news.

Preliminary Cystoscope Exam Results

 Went to Poudre Valley Hospital today, got prepped for surgery, got knocked out and got "Probed".

No, not THAT kind of probe.......thank God.

The initial observations by the Urologist (a real cool young guy) were pretty much nada, and he said he didn't see anything to be concerned about at this time. We still have to wait for the Pathology and Cytology reports on the biopsies and washings he took, but when I heard SLW give a sigh of relief, I was relieved. I was also still pretty wonky from the anesthesia, so the exact wording he used got scrambled, but for all intents, it was a cautious "No Issues Found" procedure.  Still have a Folye in mw, which I expected, and next Monday is a trip to the Urology Clinic for a "Voiding Test" (they pump a bunch saline into the bladder. If you can't void, the Foley goes back in) and hopefully the Foley stays out.

So, I'm on a Light Duty restriction for the next 10 days or so. No heavy lifting, no strenuous exertion, and the usual. Came home with another group of meds to take, all specific to this condition and procedure. One of the meds turns your urine "Neon, Nickelodeon, Day-Glo ORANGE", and I'm waiting for that take effect.

UH-OH.....Flood Alerts Downstream From Us

 The National Weather Service has issued Flood Warnings for the Cache La Poudre River through Greeley, to where it meets the South Platte River, and all the way out to where the South Platte crosses the state line, and goes into Nebraska. The South Platte joins the North Platte in North Platte, Nebraska, and continues along as the Platte River through Nebraska, and joins the Missouri River South of Omaha, and then on to meet the Mighty Mississippi in St. Louis.  The Cache La Poudre and the South Platte, along with the Arkansas River, form the entire Drainage Basin for all of Eastern Colorado. Snow melt (we're above normal on the leeward side snow pack), and Spring rains (Whoo boy!) from huge areas of land all collect and drain from here using these rivers, propelled by gravity, and continue on down to the Gulf of Mexico.

Quite a big area to drain. With the saturated, and nearly so, soil in this area, it ain't gonna soak in. I think I mentioned something last week about the "empty" drainage ditches and canals SLW noticed when we first moved here. Well...they're pretty full about now, maybe a foot or two from the top of their banks. Miles downstream of us it going to be much worse.  The alert mentioned various places downstream along the course of the South Platte, and in all the places mentioned, they were a few feet short of the official "Flood Stage", but the river was expected to go above that in the next few days.

Per the NWS, this event is in the upper 10% of the maximum of what's been observed before, so it looks like there's a Big One Comin' downstream of us.