Author Archives: bowtie6

On Vacation: California

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Greetings from California…

Headed out to LAX last Saturday for a much needed week of R&R.  The missus and I arrived at LAX, secured a rental and headed out of town.  Sorry but big cities are not my speed.  Instead we are headed to wine country.

Thanks to the good folks at Delta, we were quite hungry upon arrival (the stuff they call “food” is for crap – but that is another story).  At any rate, once on Highway 1 outside of LA we happened to find a really good place to eat.  The photo at the left is out view from out nice table.

Once we got a chance to have  a warm lunch we hopped back in the rental and headed to our next destination:  Ojai, CA.

Along the way on Hwy1, we had a chance to see a crapload of Ferrari’s, Aston Martins and Bentleys.  Lucky f%$#r’s!!  Also along the bike lanes many dudes in TRI bikes – looks like Cervelo is very popular in this neck of the woods.

Later in the afternoon we arrive in Ojai, CA.  What a great little town.  Had some great food and on Sunday we headed out to pay our respects to The Great Communicator.  If you ever have a chance to visit the Ronald Regan Presidential Library, don’t miss it.  In a time when we desperately need a true leader, this place was very special to me.

After dinner on Sunday night, the missus and I took a leisurely walk down the main drag in Ojai.  We found a small coffee shop, inside were the owners, three customers and this trio.  We bought our coffees and sat down to listen.  So we sit down and they start playing Ramblin Man.  Only in California.  I almost asked for the iconic “Freebird”, but decided to just enjoy my coffee and let the boys play.  We ended up staying there about an hour!

This morning on the way to a little pastry shop, I happened to catch the following bad ride.  Wow!  It was a VW “pickup”.  It belonged to a local dude, doing some repair work.  I guess if you are going to do your “thang”, might as well do it in style.  This is what the vee-dub looked like from the front.  The paint was layed down flat black with a very tastefully done gloss to highlight the reveals on the bodywork.  The “VW” emblem was done in a very nice light blue.  Porsche hubcaps were on the wheels – which made it look really cool.  This bad boy was slammed on the ground too!

After a very tasty pastry we headed out towards Carpinteria, CA.  That was a very nice drive – only wish I had been driving bowtie6!  There was a very nice road with plenty of twisties and some awesome views.  Once past Carpinteria we headed towards HWY 101 and proceeded towards Santa Barbara and eventually to Los Olivos.  In Los Olivos we found a quite a nice variety of wine tastings and of course we had to partake!  While there we found a little local restaurant that just decided to open its doors to the public on this Monday, April 16.  Food was great!!!

And while we are having lunch, this bad boy pulls up and parks in front of the little restaurant.  Only in California.  Folks here just seem to have a different appreciation for old cars.  As I have been driving I can’t tell you the amount of vintage classic Detroit’s finest I’ve seen along the way.

Today we arrived at Arroyo Grande.  The missus secured an awesome B&B and we pretty much have it to ourselves.  It has an astonishingly fantastic view and could not be any better.  For dinner tonight we went downtown Arroyo Grande and found a great outdoor cafe where we just admired the cars going past.  And of all things, we saw a very nice Pimento Red TR6 go by several times. Good times.

More to come…

Changing Oil

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Last Sunday (03/04/12) was “oil change” day.  I wanted to get the “factory fill” oil from the engine out.  Remember, this engine had only 8 miles!

Changing oil on an Ecotec is a breeze.  These engines have a cartridge type filter, inside a housing in the block with a screw-on cap.  The “nut” on the cap is right large but you can get a special socket to fit the nut.  Since the oil drains back into the block, when you take the cap off there is no oil spill.  This is great.

Honest, it takes longer to jack the car up and let it rest on jackstands than it takes to change oil.  I have been buying GM filters but they are kinda crappy – I rather buy a premium filter.  They are a little more expensive, but IMHO they are worth it.  As I do with all my other cars, the only oil used is Mobil1 synthetic.  The stuff is not cheap, but this has worked flawlessly for me through the years.  This is the way to go.

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.