Author Archives: bowtie6

The 1940 Census

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For the last 72 years, the 1940 Census records have been locked away by law.  Yesterday, April 2 2012, they finally became available to the public on the internet.

At first the servers holding all this data crashed due to the high demand.  Indeed, I was one of those folks that caused such demand.  However, overnight the powers that be proceeded to stand up a bunch of servers in “the big cloud in the sky” and suddenly things started working.

And things got very interesting…

Today was special…  Not only was it my deceased Dad’s birthday, but I was able to finally access the details of what was on record about my family circa 1940.  My paternal grandfather and grandmother are 59 and 51 years old respectively and my Dad is listed as being 18 years old.  Just a few  years later he would be serving in Europe as part of the 13th Armored Division.

I saved the JPG’s of the census listings on my laptop.  This afternoon, after work I visited with my aunt – my Dad’s eldest sister.  She is my cousin Jim’s Mom and she is 96 years old.  When I showed her the records I had found and start reading the names of the people next to my grandfather and grandmother’s entry, she starts telling me who these folks were and where they lived.  She started telling me all this as if it were yesterday.  This, from a lady that is 96 years old!!  Remarkable stuff indeed.

If you have a little bit of time and some curiosity, go find out about your family.  You might be surprised at what you find. The search engine provided is not exactly perfect: there is no search by name and/or address.  However there are some great instructions online showing how to access the database.  If you are interested, CLICK HERE.  This will take you to the National Archives 1940 Census website.

Rear Wheel Bearing Replacement

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2400 miles driven and one of the two rear axle wheel bearings has failed on a sub 2500lb car.  Sad shape of affairs this is indeed.

Fist off, the wheel bearing in question has the SKF name all over it; made in of all places, China.  I have a problem with offshoring and a bigger problem when the offshored goods are defective.  QA was definitely not in the picture when this bearing was made.  And no, this is not the first one to fail.  My cousin Jim Thompson’s TR4 had the exact same thing happen on an identical rear axle as used on bowtie6.

So what is all this fuss about?  Let me show you.  After lifting the rear of my TR6 up in the air, we were able to determine the driver’s side axle bearing was at fault.  I took the caliper off, then the rotor and the retainer plate off the rear housing.  A couple of strikes with a deadblow hammer and the axle was out.  This is what it looks like:

The picture above shows the bearing and on top of it the retaining ring.  In order to minimize damage to the axle, the bearing is cut as follows:

And once the outside race “pops” (it is under tension and cutting the outside race eventually makes a muffled “pop”), we get a chance to see inside.  This is where things get very interesting:

In the picture above we have the outside race cut showing the ball bearing retainer.  It is what lies below the ball bearings what is of interest!

Here we start to see the root cause of the problem.  The inside race should be slick, polished and accurately ground.  Look at the photo above: the lower half is indeed properly hardened and finished.  However, see the top half?  It looks very rough indeed.  That is where the racket was coming from.  Another couple of pictures:

And…

Further inspection revealed the outside race was in good shape.  No case-hardening issues there.  However, the inner race was very poorly made – somehow the case-hardening process was not properly applied and the surface of the inside race pitted severely after only 2400 miles.  This cannot be blamed on poor lubrication because these are sealed bearings.

A new bearing has been sourced – unfortunately it is SKF.  I just hope I’m not here in another 2500 miles talking about another bad apple.  Here is a photo of the new bearing being pressed in:

Once I got the axle back in the housing and bolted it all back together we were set to go.  I put about 50 miles this afternoon and all is good.  I just keep my fingers crossed the new bearing lasts a little longer.

 

Things You See Along The Way…

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Today was an interesting Spring day.  Started out cloudy and overcast, then it turned into a “typical” Spring shower.  Sun came out after that at which time I decided to hit the road and put some miles on my bicycle.  About a dozen or so miles from home it gets overcast again and stays that way for a few hours.  Later in the day a thunderstorm moves in,  rains like hell, along with pea size (and larger!) hail.  Hmmmm…

Must be some of that 2012 Mayan Calendar stuff and the planets getting in perfect alignment…  BTW, today is:  12 Bak’tun.19 K’atun.19 Tun.4 Winal.15 K’in.

At any rate, I’m pedaling along on my titanium SevenCycles bike and I see this:

The photo makes no justice to the beauty of the moment…  I have no clue as to how to raise chickens but this all struck me as very special.  The two mutts in the foreground were not all too happy to see me there, but by the time I retrieved my iPhone and pushed the button to take the picture they had calmed down and their tails were wagging.  Needless to say, they were there to protect the yard-birds which incidentally did not get all too excited when these two K9’s started barking.  How about that arrangement?

There must have been a time in the history of this great nation of ours where folks raised a bunch of chickens, had fresh eggs for breakfast and fresh poultry for supper. I remember my Dad telling me stories about how farm-life was like during the days of The Great Depression – they did not have much, but there was always food on the table.  Somehow this moment made me think about him.

2,400 Miles and Counting…

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I’ve been able to rack up about 2,400 miles on bowtie6 so far.  And, it has been a blast!!  The frame is rock solid, and with the ECM tweaks the engine is so much more responsive.  Yet we have been able to see 28mpg in city driving no less.  Not too bad considering the tune is now more so towards performance rather than for economy and I’ve been really putting my foot into the electronic throttle pedal.

A few weeks ago, I found a vendor that makes an awesome coilpack cover for the Ecotec.  You can see this in the above picture.  Four screws with spacers hold the water-jet cut aluminium cover and very nicely hides the valley between the cams.  Looks trick.  I was thinking about unbolting the intake, cover and valve cover and perhaps having this all crinkle coated in black.  Maybe later this year…

Along with the great news, there has been on unpleasant development:  a bad wheel bearing on the new rear axle.  It seems like we got hold of a crappy “foreign” made wheel bearing and it started making a racket last week.  New ones have been sourced and I’ll be taking apart the axles this weekend.  All good – the diff fluid needed to be changed after “break in” so this should be a fun Saturday.

I’ll have pictures and a full report once we get the new bearings installed.

Custom Ford Pickup

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After work today, I stopped by a local bookstore to pick up a couple of magazines.  When I stepped out, I saw this custom Ford pickup.  If I am not mistaken this is a mid 60’s vintage Ford.  My Dad had a ’65.  His was red with white with the exclusive “Twin I Beam” suspension.  Dad really loved that truck and this truck reminded me of how much he enjoyed driving it with me riding shotgun.  At any rate I figured I’d take a few pics and post them here for you all to enjoy.

Here are the photos.  I took them with my iPhone (amazing thing the iPhone) this afternoon around 18:30 – the light was a little dim but you get the idea.

I think this is an extremely nice truck.  The stance is spot on – not too low and not too raked.  It does not have huge tires or huge wheels – these are also “just right”.  Paint is tastefully done and the interior is nostalgic but well made.  The dash was also nicely done.  The back of the cab had a really cool chrome trim (Dad’s truck did not have that).  I say this fellow really pulled it off well and has an awesome truck.  Unfortunately, I did not get to meet the owner.

I am not a Ford truck expert, however I’m sure somebody will probably give me the 411 on the exact year and model.  I would imagine the chrome trim on the cab had to come from a “De Luxe” version or such.  If you know what this is, please let me know.

Update

Thanks to Dennis Baumgartner’s comment (See the comments on this post), I did a little research.  Indeed, this is a 1961-63 F-100 “Unibody” truck.  My Dad’s ’65 had a separate cab from the bed; this one is one solid piece.  In my opinion, this makes it really nice.  I did find a very interesting writeup – CLICK HERE – that describes these trucks.

The part that is even more interesting is the difference between the pictures of the “original” truck and the ones above.  I realize there is a time for “originality” but the one pictured here is such an awesome looking truck!  🙂