I needed to change some simple wiring in my basement. The lights in my hallway were to be included into a longer lighting path. I needed to disconnect them from the power source and swap a couple of switches from 3 way to 4 way.
Mostly normal looking light switches.
Looking into the switch box I don’t see too much out of place but there’s an odd lack of wires and a wire nut that shouldn’t be where it is. Hm.
I used my pickup truck several times on the interstate recently. The vibration I’ve noticed before got worse. I checked the U-joints and they were sound. That meant the problem was elsewhere. Looking at the bottom side of the truck I decided to trade it in.
I found a 2009 Chevy Tahoe LTZ with a lot of great features used at a dealer in Kingsport. It had been there quite a while and the price was down already. When I called about it the price dropped again. Continue reading “New Vehicle time”
Taking a nice scenic ride on Monday after Mother’s Day I managed to discover a new hazard on the roads. Roads were dry after a rain but darkness under a tree in a corner caught my attention. Rightly so it turned out as that was sap from the tree wetted by the rain. Slick!
I did my best dance to keep the bike under control but came up short. I went down hard on my left side. With help from a passing motorist we righted the bike and I found fairly minimal damage to the bike. I was hurting pretty bad but still plenty able to ride.
My left side mirror had popped off. No problem I thought; it’s mounted on pins and rubber sockets. I couldn’t get it lined up though. On the 280 mile ride home from crashing that was my biggest frustration. I never realized how often I grab a peek in my mirrors.
In order to find out why it wouldn’t go back on I started dismantling the bike. This is where I am.
First a picture showing the armature that supports the left side of the fairing and the mirrors.
Overview of mirror support
I measured from that center cross section out to the pins that hold the mirrors. It turns out that the left side is pushed in by roughly 1/4″. Next is to figure out how to apply smooth controlled pressure outward on it to get it back in position.
Here’s just the left side. I can’t really see what’s bent but there’s a round arm supporting the mirror part. The bar I’m focused on is not overly visible.
Left framework
Here’s the right side not quite as disassembled.
Right framework
After moving the bike out where I can better get to it I got back on fixing it. I had tried a couple of different ways to push the mirror bracket back into position but finally realized the best tool for the job was my 20 year old Harbor Freight hydraulic ram set. It was the first thought but I didn’t figure out how to use it that time.
Being a little more mobile this time I dragged out a table that would allow me to set up the pump within easy reach of where I needed the ram. Stacking the right pieces helped too, and last but definitely not least was sawing up a small chunk of plywood to let me apply pressure to the right parts.
Here’s the ram in position.
Ram in position to push the mirror out.
Closeup of the block that kept me from distorting the smaller parts that support the mirror and some of the fairing parts.
Next after moving things just 1/4″ I test fit the mirror next to the dash. After the crash it would not push back on.
The mirror fits perfectly now. No gap either.
And one last picture with everything put back together.
I’ve driven past this place for a while and finally decided to check out what’s here. Among other things there are a couple of large scale wood working machines. I’m pretty sure one is a planer. The other may be for making specific lengths of wood but I’m not sure.
And sadly a pile of what was probably once nice wood just stacked and rotting. There were several such stacks.
When a friend rode over 1000 miles to bring the tag back to near TN I felt like I just had to give it a kick myself.
I left home at 12:30 and tanked up near my house with non-ethanol high test gas. I didn’t get far before I ran into a major downpour. Water was rushing down the street 6″ deep. I was in cooling mesh gear when it cut loose. I had a brief thought about putting on some rain gear. Then I thought I didn’t bring any. Oh well. About that time the sun came out and helped dry me off. I got rained on off and on all day. I spent 9 hours in the saddle and covered 300 miles.
Hm. So what is this that Pat’s building? Is it a one armed robot? Some kind of musical instrument? Time will tell. My sheet metal welding skills improved as I worked on this. Sure, it’s a job that cries out for TIG but all that time to set that up… Nah, MIG works, it just isn’t as pretty.
