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Oct. 6th, 2008 09:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogGod/dess but my arms and wrists are sore today. Fortunately, it's in the 'I did lots of work' way as opposed to the 'too much typing' way, though they are more sensitive to typing strain when they're in that condition already.
Sunday was spent helping![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
posicat get his van mobile and moving. When I was working on the Neon, akreaveter and some of his friends helped me try to move the van to make room to get the Neon into the garage, but it wouldn't budge. I figured it was the transmission. But when Posi tried to move the van under its own power yesterday, we realized that it was actually that some wheels were locked up. It turned out to be that both rear drums had seized.
Application of a sledgehammer (the one I nabbed from an abandoned building in Gary actually!), crowbar, WD40, and a jack wedged between the drums and the van body finally got them off the bearings. On one side this resulted in bending of the starwheel adjuster making it impossible to just take the brake shoes all the way in toward the hub to make it movable. Instead, since Posi had already decided at that point that he was just going to get the van to the Pick N' Pull to sell as salvage, I extracted the adjustment lever and, after using a claw-hammer to pull the shoes away from the hub, the entire starwheel adjuster. Posi said those rear brakes weren't working anyway (though they seemed to be operating ok to me; at least until I got through with them).
So it was finally movable and, when Posi tried to drive it, found that the transmission would at least go into first gear. So we limped it south along Sheridan Road until, for reasons unknown, it suffered an electrical failure. The engine fuse blew out and, in trying to replace it, we found that it continues to blow instantly as soon as the key is turned to the on position. This seems to be keeping power from getting to the spark plugs and it won't run. So it's sitting on the side of the road. I feel bad. We put a lot of work into getting it moving and I was really hoping that it would turn out to have been worthwhile for both Posi and I. But though I wish I could do more, I did my best. If there's some way I can help from here on out, I will, but I'm not sure what I can do.
While working, I put on the mechanic's overalls I got from Salvation Army a couple weeks ago. They're great! Definitely a worthwhile purchase! I just have to either hem the legs up a little or remember to roll them up next time.
I also used some time yesterday to empty out the chest freezer into the cooler I borrowed from my mom, knocked all the ice out with a hammer, removed the lid, and hauled it into the basement where I set it up once more. I'm hoping that having an easily accessible chest freezer will lead us to do more cooking in bulk and encourage us to buy in bulk during sales too, and will save us some non-trivial amount of money on food in various ways.
Posi also fixed the screen coming out of the back door by just sticking a penny into the corner of the frame. Yay for geek kitty!!
After it was all done, the five or us (Tybis having joined us around three-thirty or so) went out to get food. I was sore, exhausted, and hungry, and Chinese buffet was welcome, even though I had a couple plates worth of chicken fingers with bleu cheese dressing. Comfort food. *grins*
And then, Moira and I had a comfort evening! We nestled on the couch and watched a couple episodes of House, then went up to bed and continued being smooshy under a couple of nice, warm, fuzzy blankets. This made a sore puppy very happy.
And tonight, after dinner, she and I have a date at a special, quiet, starlit bit of Racine for a little she-and-I time. I can't wait!
Sunday was spent helping
posicat get his van mobile and moving. When I was working on the Neon, akreaveter and some of his friends helped me try to move the van to make room to get the Neon into the garage, but it wouldn't budge. I figured it was the transmission. But when Posi tried to move the van under its own power yesterday, we realized that it was actually that some wheels were locked up. It turned out to be that both rear drums had seized.Application of a sledgehammer (the one I nabbed from an abandoned building in Gary actually!), crowbar, WD40, and a jack wedged between the drums and the van body finally got them off the bearings. On one side this resulted in bending of the starwheel adjuster making it impossible to just take the brake shoes all the way in toward the hub to make it movable. Instead, since Posi had already decided at that point that he was just going to get the van to the Pick N' Pull to sell as salvage, I extracted the adjustment lever and, after using a claw-hammer to pull the shoes away from the hub, the entire starwheel adjuster. Posi said those rear brakes weren't working anyway (though they seemed to be operating ok to me; at least until I got through with them).
So it was finally movable and, when Posi tried to drive it, found that the transmission would at least go into first gear. So we limped it south along Sheridan Road until, for reasons unknown, it suffered an electrical failure. The engine fuse blew out and, in trying to replace it, we found that it continues to blow instantly as soon as the key is turned to the on position. This seems to be keeping power from getting to the spark plugs and it won't run. So it's sitting on the side of the road. I feel bad. We put a lot of work into getting it moving and I was really hoping that it would turn out to have been worthwhile for both Posi and I. But though I wish I could do more, I did my best. If there's some way I can help from here on out, I will, but I'm not sure what I can do.
While working, I put on the mechanic's overalls I got from Salvation Army a couple weeks ago. They're great! Definitely a worthwhile purchase! I just have to either hem the legs up a little or remember to roll them up next time.
I also used some time yesterday to empty out the chest freezer into the cooler I borrowed from my mom, knocked all the ice out with a hammer, removed the lid, and hauled it into the basement where I set it up once more. I'm hoping that having an easily accessible chest freezer will lead us to do more cooking in bulk and encourage us to buy in bulk during sales too, and will save us some non-trivial amount of money on food in various ways.
Posi also fixed the screen coming out of the back door by just sticking a penny into the corner of the frame. Yay for geek kitty!!
After it was all done, the five or us (Tybis having joined us around three-thirty or so) went out to get food. I was sore, exhausted, and hungry, and Chinese buffet was welcome, even though I had a couple plates worth of chicken fingers with bleu cheese dressing. Comfort food. *grins*
And then, Moira and I had a comfort evening! We nestled on the couch and watched a couple episodes of House, then went up to bed and continued being smooshy under a couple of nice, warm, fuzzy blankets. This made a sore puppy very happy.
And tonight, after dinner, she and I have a date at a special, quiet, starlit bit of Racine for a little she-and-I time. I can't wait!
