What are you doing today? Thread

[ATC King]

Putting stone on the driveway...

It certainly seems like you find home projects as a form of relaxation. Like that feeling of just getting on the mower with a beer and cutting the grass on a nice day.

[El Camexican]

It certainly seems like you find home projects as a form of relaxation. Like that feeling of just getting on the mower with a beer and cutting the grass on a nice day.

Yeah, except I only have a push mower and it takes at least 3 beers to get the lawn cut. I really need to get a riding mower, all the pushing is cutting into my drinking time.

[ATC King]

+

[El Camexican]

I see potential…

[knappyfeet]

Chasing down an oil leak today that I thought was a valve cover gasket leak on my El Camino....... but oil seems to still find its way to to the lower part of the exhaust manifold......no valve cover leaks.. Without a clear picture I'm thinking it's a head gasket leak. Will use an inspection camera but already preparing for the worst.



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[ATC King]

Chasing down an oil leak today...

It could be coming from up higher, like the intake or distributor and tracing the line down to a lower point. Maybe check those accessory mounting holes which are supposed to be blind, but you really never know if the casting or machining was a little off and a tiny crack formed over time in a really thin spot. That, and sometimes too long of bolts could have caused an issue. Those old small blocks can have them on each end of the head since the heads are swappable to either bank.

Probably nothing new to you, I'm just throwing that out there. I know I forget things sometimes and overcomplicate stuff.

There's always the UV dye which is very inexpensive and effective. If you just happened to have a EVAP smoke machine, those can be used to find engine oil leaks too. With one it helps to have a dark shop and the other plenty of light and calm air. In the right situation, the smoke machine works well and you don't have to run the engine and wait for another mess to start.

[knappyfeet]

Thanks for that King.

What I did Saturday evening is cleaned as much as I could see with solvent/gas/degreaser to get all the oil residue off everywhere I could get to. Sunday morning I started it up and drove it to breakfast and it smoked a little…. Then we took it on a 130 mile ride to the coast and up into the mountains. Amazingly it's not leaking anymore….. and it seemed to have burned off all the residue off the exhaust manifold, heads, etc…

This morning I pulled out the fresh piece of cardboard I put under the engine to see if there was any drips and not one drop.......and nothing on the engine.

I doubt driving it cured the problem but did then I will take it on another 130 mile drive and see if the cracked windshield will repair itself haha

[ATC King]

I had a look at the solar rechargeable electric fence to see if I could figure out why it stopped working.

Damn fire ants, getting all burnt and blown up then sticking to the circuit board. One careless ladyman bug too.



This guy got between the high energy terminals.



After clearing away the dead bodies, everything is working fine.


The ATC110 I bought a little while back was next on the list. It was time to see about the shifting issue. It turned out to be something from left field and none of the typical broken detent are or spring boss stuff. Trikes are like a box of chocolates...



I think I'll be able to disassemble the primary set and just bolt everything back in with not too much cost. You guys that mess with these 110s know what you're looking at.

I had a homemade clutch tool which I haven't used in probably fifteen years or longer but couldn't find it today. Will just order one. I actually rode this around a little bit and it shifted up alright enough but I had to jiggle it a little to get back down. That meant the shift arm spring or boss wasn't broken but looked like the detent arm may have been. NOPE. Everything was loose from whoever was in it last. How far have they been into it (?).

The detent wheel will have to be replaced because it blowed out where the drum dowel fits into the hole and I'll go ahead and put a new detent arm on since they're still available new and I don't want to go back in if it can be helped. Ran well and shifted through all the gears with a little work, so hopefully I won't find any more dumdum behind the gears.

Just won't know what a problem is until getting into it on these unknown history machines. There's always some new way to screw stuff up that hasn't been seen.

[El Camexican]

Your post reminded me that I needed to look that up. Seems one gets zapped, releases a chemical and everyone comes to the party.

I wonder if there’s a battery operated device you can leave on an ant hill that will take out the colony? I swear my fire ants eat ant powder like it’s candy.

They really seem to like water pump pressure switches.

[ATC King]

I've had good luck with some homebrew stuff. Borax and sugar maybe, it's been a while since I put any out.

The available ant control poisons don't seem to work any better and regardless, they'll come back after a while. I really don't like having to continually put poison on the property.

Battery operated device that will take out the colony? Maybe something with D cells that goes bzzzzzz. Let them eat on that.

[El Camexican]

I've had good luck with some homebrew stuff. Borax and sugar maybe, it's been a while since I put any out.

The available ant control poisons don't seem to work any better and regardless, they'll come back after a while. I really don't like having to continually put poison on the property.

Battery operated device that will take out the colony? Maybe something with D cells that goes bzzzzzz. Let them eat on that.

I did a quick search and nothing came up. Seems odd that nobody would try it. I have seen in Texas as well as northern Mexico the entire pressure switch of water pumps completely packed with fire ant carcasses.

I would think that something along the lines of a bug zapper left on the ground near the hill would attract them and to certain death.

I’ve always heard about them when I lived in Canada, but now that I encountered them face-to-face almost daily they’re starting to really piss me off. I’ve got a bunch of scars on my leg from bites that are months old. I don’t know if everybody reacts the same, but I get something that looks like a tiny blister everywhere I get bit. Sometimes a little buggers get in between my fingers on that soft flesh and bite two or three times before I realize it.

[ATC King]

Pretty much everyone I know reacts the same to the sting. Tiny pus filled blisters show up in a day or so. I don't know anyone that has a reaction any worse than that, but it's certainly possible with any type of insect sting.

That's the difference between fire ants and pretty much every other ant in the US, in that fire ants actually have a stinger with venom while other ants just bite and secret an acid. Fire ants have, can, and do kill cattle, especially newborn calves. Their attraction to electricity causes millions of dollars in equipment damage every year.

They're certainly nasty. I've heard people in the northern US call red ants fire ants as if it's interchangeable. Fire ants haven't migrated that far yet and anyone that mistakes a typical red ant for a fire ant obviously hasn't come into contact with them.

Of course we have the mix of other ants like the small black ants all the way to those big fuzzy ones that have stingers but they are actually wingless wasps and not ants. Then there's the issues with carpenter ants.

[ATC King]

I bought IR night vision binocular a while back and just found out something interesting about it last night. It'll image into murky water at night when it's impossible to see through with a flashlight on the surface.

As for the fish in the image, I'll leave that for anyone to guess. It's a native species, can breathe air, and has a mouth full of sharp teeth. They are a living fossil. When they come to the surface for a gulp of air is when it's easier to spot them during daylight.



The water was full of floating vegetation and the surface had a film on it that couldn't be seen through with a bright flashlight. Without the IR night vision, I'd never known it was right below the surface.


There were also a whole lot of nutria swimming about, eating the vegetation. These were a bit further off and the pictures taken by the binocular aren't as clear as when viewing.



Nutria are large aquatic rats. Think of a capybara mixed with a possum with webbed feet.

[knappyfeet]

200X getting some hard-core use

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[ATC King]

Happy Halloween!