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March eh? I’ve gotta check out the gear you wear in March.
I need to buy a set of gloves that slot between my leather & wool “cold morning” pair, and my fairly thin MX gloves good for +15 degrees.
Replacing my missing OEM wind deflectors would go a long way too I’m sure.LOL. I used to be a 1%er – I rode from February until December and always took a ride on Christmas morning (I still do that if the roads are clear).
I would get out of work at 4am. While everyone else was scraping their windows, I was scraping my seat! lol
I have more appreciation for life now, so my first rides are when the weather warms up and most of the road crud is washed away. March was warm and we rode down to Dover! Time stamp on the photo is March 21st! Not many other bikes on the road. lol
Well this thread has been stale for months, but the shop hasn’t been completely void of activity.
The DR600S got a bunch of tweaks and upgrades to keep it road going and I finally sorted out the carb troubles. Figure I put on about 2,500km before I winterized in early November.
In September I started chipping away again at a GSX-R 750 I got from my buddy two years ago and got it to start, idle and rev up to 13,000rpm inside the shop. Things were going so well I threw it up on kijiji for sale/trade cause I had no desire to kill myself on a 128hp crotch rocket from the 1990s. Sam appreciated my maturity.
In October a kijiji trade came through on that GSX-R and I trailered home a 1985 Honda Goldwing 1200. Perhaps I showed too much maturity and skipped ahead to my retirement. The first day I tried to push the GL backwards into the shop….I nearly died. Took me two more days to get it in haha. I needed way more air pressure in the tires, and a 2×4 at the concrete threshold because 3” was too much to bump up and over.
There’s some wiring troubles somewhere on the GL, and I had to strip 85% of the fairings to reveal the many harnesses. I’ve decided that I’m not going to put any of the 200lbs of fiberglass back on, and will end up with a sorta naked GL (thatI’ll be able to move by hand). Since I stripped the bike I havent done much, still havent heard the motor fire up, but I’m at the point where all I have to do is put in some fresh gas and cross my fingers.Currently the shop is hosting James and his FJ while he undertakes a couple weeks worth of restorations. He’s planning to wirewheel and rust convert the entire frame, figure out an electrical gremlin with the turn signals, and do a full tuneup to prep for the 2022 wheeling season. His goal is to be lifted and skidded prior to our spring camping in Ardbeg. Should his rust treatment work out, I’ll use the same products on Redee in the spring.
Sad news, I don’t plan to renew my plates on Redee for 2022. I’m going to (hope to) do tons of work and a 2RZ or 3RZ motor swap. Going back to 4-cyl 5-speed roots, maybe with a turbo kit for some ooomph. We’ll see how finances look as the year rolls around.
In November James and I replaced the leaf springs in Truckee. Back in June I hauled my atv to Ardbeg in the bed of truckee, and at some point in the trip in I lost a bump stop and broke the passenger aide leaf (AGAIN!). I bought some 3rd gen leafs, bump stops and u-bolts off Patrick on TacomaWorld with about 13,000km on them. They were a direct fit, and I was super glad I bought the U-bolts too as I had to cut the old ones off. I also bought a set of airbags to install, but I ran out of time that day and haven’t made another attempt to get back out there.
I havent noticed any improvement other than the rear of the truck sitting level again, and 1cm higher, but the steering wheel was pointed at 11 o’clock when travelling straight.
I booked an alignment at Hallmark Toyota told them my issues arose because I just swapped leaf springs on my back on a concrete floor. They commended my effort than gave me THE ABSOLUTE WORST ALIGNMENT OF MY LIFE!! Lazy ass tech adjusted the toe ever so slightly to make red numbers green, and said “Ahh, job well done. That’ll be $150”. I was upset before I even paid my bill because the printout showed no attempt to adjust castor or camber, the values were identical before and after. So I complained and was told “uhhh, yea, we tried but everything is seized.”
I let them know that my LCA and adjustors were 2-years old with 20,000km on them, OEM parts that were installed here. Perhaps the Tech didn’t try very hard?
The service guy said, “we don’t warranty our repairs, your truck is in the green zone now, what more do you want?”
I told them I will be back in a few days if the truck still tracks poorly.
100m out of the dealership parking lot, I called and re-booked because my steering wheel was still off centre. I drove home furious because I felt cheated out of my money, lied to about the thoroughness of the alignment (lazy B didnt even road test), and possibly mislead about the condition of my LCA and adjustors. Are they actually seized?
The re-alignment was only slightly better because now the steering wheel is straight, still NO ATTEMPT (or at least evidence of an attempt) to even the castor and camber Left/Right. So I’m still pissed.Uggghhh, can’t believe I forgot this epic tale of being eff’d by the dealership. Never again. Hallmark Toyota service department is dead to me. I suggest you all stay far away as well.
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I had an issue like that years ago with my 04’ Tacoma. The camber was so out of whack and they were seized
I’m pretty sure James plans to pull the trigger on the Icon Stage 2 kit. It’s pretty complete with UCA, HD springs, shocks for about 2-3” lift? James wants HD springs all around cause the FJ will be heavy, and pretty much 100% loaded up ready to go wheelin’ on a whim. He’s plan ing to run RCI skids front to back, and make/install a drawer system for all his gear, tools and spares, a 12V system install too. A real 4WD Action inspired build, So the HD springs are already justified. I’m excited for the build up, I know FJs are plenty capable bone stock.
My biggest grief with the seized parts is that i got 7 years and 144,000km out of originals and not seized, dealer puts in OEM LCA and bolts, and they’re seized in under 2 years/25,000km. Clearly they fucked something up. Worse, when I expressed interest in making it right, I wasn’t given any part #s, estimates or even a recommended course of action. Just “uhhh, tech says it’s seized”. Useless.
Sounds like James has done his research. Great choices all around, just glad its his pocket book, LOL
Agreed, my pockets can’t dig that deep either haha. Should be a whole new animal at Ardbeg this year, he’s pretty stoked.
A slight change of pace in The Shop the last two nights, Toyotas and Toys were not the focus. Instead, it’s Snowblowers taking centre stage.
I have a Troy Bilt unit (recently named Weldy, more on that later) with a 11hp Tecumseh and a 30” cut, circa 2003-2005 (can’t quite remember). To date, Weldy has only ever had oil changes and perhaps one spark plug. Near the end of last year I started seeing that rust was really taking over the auger frame area, but it didnt look too bad…..however I was quite rudely awoken to Weldy’s actual condition on wednesday night. One of the slider plates caught an ice chunk, and the rust let go allowing the auger to catch the shave plate and jam. Thankfully 3 shear pins (which were the originals) popped and no further damage occurred.
Thursday I bought new shear pins $8, and 3’ of 2”x2” angle iron from work $0, and after the kids went to bed, I started riggin’.
Some cuts, some grind, and about 2lbs of flux core wire later, the damaged side was repaired. FUGLY, but functional.
Friday night I set out to prevent “the good side” from having the same fate, I dont wanna buy more shear pins afferall. Repeat the same process, and another FUGLY but operational repair.
So there, Weldy works, throws snow like a champ, and finally earned a nickname after 17-19 years of service. Hopefully I’ll get another 5-10 out of this, but with my absolute disregard for weld prep, who really knows.
Up next, two more snowblowers. Matt’s affectionately named Rusty 2.0 the successor to Rusty who was sent to scrap 5-years ago… R2.0 needs a new friction wheel cause it is losing drive.
Also my neighbour Preston just received a snowblower from his dad as a “First House” gift. His threw snow well for about 10 mins then smelt of burning rubber, then no mo snow throw. So we’ll see if it just needs adjustment, a belt, or a bearing too.No more snow since Tues/Weds of last week.
Last night I pulled the belt cover off Prestons snowblower to find an incredibly dry twisted and misset belt. It broke after one little pull. The tension bearing spins great, so I cleaned up the melted belt with a wire wheel. Ready for a new belt, hopefully a few bucks locally.
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It took a couple attempts but I found that a Canadian Tire Type A V-belt fit the auger pulleys perfectly. Prestons blower is only 5-hp (once upon a time), so I’m not too worried about it burning out the cheap belt. $25 in total parts and now he’s all done shovelling.
Yesterday was a 1/2 day at work, so I used some daylight hours to do another repair to Weldy. One of the two bolts that hold the handle bars on has been refusing to hold torque for two seasons. So I added some lightning to stabilize them and stop the flopping.
This morning I was up early and fixed Rusty with some welder action as well. Tough to explain the problem, but the symptom was no drive. When you squeeze the drive trigger, a cable pulls up on a lever, the lever rotates a shaft which moves the friction plate towards the friction wheel. The lever which causes the shaft to rotate had a stress crack and was not creating rotation. Think of it like having stripped splines. So I snaked my welder up into place and fuse those suckers together. Worked like a charm!
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