blog919

Saturday, September 21, 2019

This morning I went for a three-mile walk. With the Hershey fall meet just a couple of weeks away I need to do at least three miles every day that weather permits. Last year I didin't prepare, and all the walking at Hershey made me sore for several days after. I used to run the three miles, but had to give it up. I have a hip starting to go south, and I don't want to aggravate it.

Sunday, September 22, 2019

It was mostly a clerical day. I recorded receipts from my trip and figured out mileage by adding up numbers on maps, since I had no speedometer/odometer for most of it. My total miles added up to about 2170. I spent $500.50 on gas, oil, and water for the car. I ate in a restuaurant only once, and spent $105.76 on food. Admissions and donations to museums and historical sites came to about $75. One night I stayed in a motel for $78.73. I was gone for nineteen days, spent under $800, and came home weighing ten pounds less than when I left. I call that a successful trip.

Monday, September 23, 2019

The weather forecast and my depleted supply of clean sox determined that this would be laundry day. While the clothes washed I began mixing my magic elixir of death to resume the war on johnsongrass and other inconvenient vegetation. This time I doubled up on the active ingredient in hopes that it will get down to the roots and really kill them so they won't come back. The first day of fall was summery enough to make me take a break between batches and sit in front of a fan to cool off. I kept at the spraying most of the day and ended up mixing and spraying fifteen gallons. There's more to do when weather permits, but I got a lot done today.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

I took the top off the carburetor in the runabout and looked inside. It looked like a gasoline lake in there. I need to reset the float. To do that properly the carb needs to be out of the car with a small temporary fuel supply, so I set about building that, which required a trip to town for a tubing bender. While I'm dealing with the G I've put the NH back in the car so I can drive it.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Today's project was making a big change in the bike speedometer on my runabout. The bicycle speedometer I've been using for years is great when it works, but it's failed several times because of the sensor and wires being damaged by flying rocks and other road hazards. This time the bracket holding the sensor was somehow destroyed and the sensor is gone. So I'm moving the works away from the front of the car. I aim to have the sensor and magnet on a rear wheel, inside the brake drum where they should be protected from road damage. Part of this arrangement is a ¼-20 bolt with the head cut off and a ¹⁄₈" hole drilled through the center to make it a threaded tube. This was the most time consuming part of the job so far. I drilled four bolts and tossed them before I finally got one right. Then came shopping for wire. The only thing I could find was 22/2 security wire, which isn't perfect for this setup, but I think I can make it work. I suspect this may turn out to be more than a two day project.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Well, that went better than I expected. I finished up the new speedometer setup this afternoon. I've updated my website speedometer page with the pictures here.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Today's project was a holder to mount the Garmin in the runabout. I didn't get it done, so may finish tomorrow. When I went to town I compared the Garmin and the bike speedometer. They agreed on speeds above 12 mph. On speeds slower than that the bike speedometer seems less accurate.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Time out. Everything else went on hold while I attended the Defore auction in Winfield. I bought a Craftsman reversible drill, a driveway bell, an aluminum funnel, a box of anchors I'll use for a new tool shed, a claw hammer, a ball peen hammer, a telephone magneto, a box of sockets for my T tool box, and a chain saw sharpener. I spent $14.57.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

My runabout used to be easy to start. Not now. After engine work in May and June I put the engine back in the car in July, and it's been a hard starter ever since. It takes a lot of cranking to get the thing going when it's not warmed up, and sometimes even when it's warm. I've tried different carburetors, different spark plugs, different carburetor adjustments, resetting the ignition timing, resetting it again—I even had the coils adjusted at the Model T shop in Greenfield Village. Nothing has made the car the easy starter it used to be. This afternoon I gave up messing with it for today and installed a new starter on the Dixon mower. I'll start mowing tomorrow and hope the bad ring gear doesn't wreck the Bendix before I finish the mowing season.

Monday, September 30, 2019

The plan was to mow all day. That's what I did, but with a two hour interruption in the middle. The mower runs on gasoline, and I used up the last of the thirty gallons I bought for yard work in April. So I loaded up the cans in the Suburban to go for more. The seven-year-old battery was down, so I had to put a charger on it. When I did go to town I had to buy a jug of ATF for the Suburban because it has a slow leak and has to be refilled occasionally. Next was a stop at the lumber yard to order wood for the new windows for the living room. Then down to the gasino to fill the cans with another thirty gallons. After that I mowed until the mower quit. The plastic gear on the new starter is already chewed up by the bad ring gear on the mower. The starter came with an extra gear, but I'm not going to use it until I replace that ring gear. So any more mowing will have to wait until I go online and find a new ring gear, and wait for it to get here, and install it. With a week out for this year's Hershey trip, the next mowing will probably be in a couple of weeks.