2/22/08

Of course mentioning it here will jinx it but, John and I are planning to go to the shop to work on 1200s this weekend. Hopefully he’ll make me work on George and at least get the rear axle back together. I've said it many times now, but there really isn't all that much more to do on that car before I have to try and start it up. I'm a little worried about that engine since it has sat for so long. Well, that and the fact that the machine work was done at, well I'm not going to mention names but they were in a state of flux with regards to machinists at the time. I'm not sure whether the thing is going to run fine, run for a bit and blow up, or just blow up. We’ll see I guess. Oh crap, I feel bad right now. I think I'm going to have to give up Spam. We had it for dinner last night and the first thing it did was act like organic Drano and cleared out my entire digestive tract. Now I've got indigestion, coupled with gaseous bloat. It is quite uncomfortable. Of course we all know it won’t stop me from going to lunch here in a few minutes. In fact I think I'm going to shut up for a while and see if I can’t “mind over matter” myself into feeling better. No, I don’t believe in that crap either but it gives me an excuse to stop talking to y'all for a bit. Aw hells yeah. I feel much better now. I had some lunch and a quick nap and am now ready for ranting. As I mentioned above, John and I are planning to go to the shop sometime this weekend. I think Marty is going to get evicted to park outside while we move John’s 1200 in to the main bay. I think I'll also bring a box of contractor trash bags with me so we can clean the place up some. I guess that means I ought to drive Fifi down there. Well, that would keep me from messing with Darth Versa when I should be working on George. Yeah, I need to drive Fifi some more anyway. I need to have the codes run so I can find out what that “service engine soon” light is trying to tell me. Pat has a code reader but it and Fifi are never in the same place at the same time. I guess I could call and invite him to join us. Wait, he said something about installing some nerf bars on Nora’s Jeep this weekend. I think he might be planning on doing that at my shop. I'll still need to call and remind him to bring the code reader though. Of course we all know I'm not going to do that. I'll forget by the time I have sent this off to Spiderman. I suppose I could shoost him a text massage right quick. Done. We’ll just wait and see what he has to say about that. Ok, so I was thinking about George some more today. One of the things I did which might cause a problem was install the electric fuel pump in the engine bay. Now, I know interrupter style diaphragm pumps, like those loud assed Facet things we always use, push better than they pull, but this is a rotor and vane pump. I'm hoping it will draw the length of the car. I mounted it as low as possible on the frame to give it some “head pressure” but it is still a relatively long way to go. Of course I have seen these things mounted above the tank in the trunk of cars so they obviously will draw fuel up a good way. Anyhoo, the point is I was trying to think of a way to assist the suction side of the pump. I came up with an idea that would work, sort of, but not really. In fact, I doubt it would be a good idea at all. Here’s what I was thinking. I'd tee into the line ahead of the pump and run a hose to a high vacuum source on the intake tract. It would need a one-way check valve to keep the pump from just sucking air from the manifold instead of gas from the tank when manifold pressure was above the vacuum provided by the pump. Of course the problem is it would just suck raw unmetered fuel right up into the intake all the time, especially if the pump were turned off. I think I'll just take my chances that the thing will draw the length of the car. The initial prime of the pump really should be the only worry, I'd think. Well, and anytime the tank is run dry it might need another priming. I'll bet jacking the ass end of the car up and firing the pump will suffice. Yes, in fact I'm going to stop worrying about it. I suppose I should go to my to-do list and see just exactly how much more work that car really needs. I know there are several things which are cosmetic or superficial and won’t stop me from making the thing run. Hang on. Yeah, I'm really not too far off if I'd just get to work and do it. It would be nice to have a toy to drive when the weather isn't conducive to driving Shi-Chi. I'd like to start participating in the “Drive Your Classic to Work” initiative. Some of the classic car specific car magazines are trying to get folks to drive their “classic” car to work every second or third Friday of each month. I'd like to have a different “classic” here each Friday. I could do it too once two more are up and running. Well, each Friday each month. I don’t have fifty two different “classics” to drive a different one each week of the year. But y'all knew what I meant, I hope. Right now I could drive Mr. Wiggly one week and Shi-Chi the next. Once George is going he could enter the rotation. If I stretched my definition of “classic” to include Fifi I'd be there. Of course Marty will be the fourth true “classic.” Once the Chickenhawk is in the mix I could retire Mr. Wiggly from monthly duty (tee hee, I said doody!). Of course I really should… no, I'm not going to say it. Y'all know what I'm thinking and we all know where it will lead. If I kept Barbara and Barbecue Bob, and got them running of course, there’s two more weeks before repetition as well. What does that get me? It looks like seven weeks of true “classics” and one week with Fifi would cover two months of Fridays before I started repeating. Wow, what would the railroad folks think of that? Not a damned thing, probably because I doubt anyone would actually notice. Oh, if I had a designated parking spot perhaps, but the CEO doesn’t even have one of those. Well, I just passed the second page break so I think I'm just about done talking to y'all for the week. I'll let you know what happened over the weekend on Monday. Toodles.