My friend Greybeard over at Pitchpull calls his time on a motorcycle “Two Wheel Therapy”. A long time ago, I used to ride often. I have had the opportunity to retune my chops on a street bike over the last four days, and I gotta tell ya that the phrase is truer now than before. It used to be a novelty transportation, something to bust out on the weekends. Using it to do my job yesterday and today, and getting used to it on Saturday and Sunday, woke something up inside me. I gotta get one of these for myself.

A big THANK YOU to my Pastor, Mike. He is letting me borrow his 750 Shadow to see if it will work for work. For the most part, it will. On the rare occasion that I have to carry a part to a job site, it may pose a problem. It’s not normally my job to take parts to a job site, but once in a while it’s been known to happen. Maybe a milk crate tied to the back rest …

The Road Rhino has been eating up a lot of the discretionary income lately. After the new distributor (computerized, thank you for asking) and finally (finally!) figuring out where all the water was going (not into the oil reservoir, in case you were guessing), it has come to a point where I’m looking at either sinking more money into it and hoping it lasts a while before having to sink MORE money into it, or cutting our losses now and biting the bullet to get another vehicle. (another besides a bike, I mean. that’s a given at this point. just finding the right one, at the right price is the question. if you happen to know of a sub-1000cc machine with most of the road gear already on it for under five grand, let me know)

At the same time, I’ve got to sell the Road Rhino. He’s been a good unit, but it’s time. Anyone interested, leave me a message. 205+ thousand miles and mostly trouble free. Needs to have a new water pump and timing chain. The leak that I’ve been chasing (and, as a result, ended up replacing everything BUT the water pump in the process, including the radiator and all the hosing) is in the water pump housing. The water pump covers the timing chain. Both should be done at the same time, according to the generally accepted wisdom around the cracker barrel.

I’m gonna miss the Rhino. But I’m not going to miss the mileage. (18 downhill out of gear with a stiff tailwind, 17 the rest of the time)

Chat ya later…

Thanks for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, and Wear Red on Fridays!

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Good News: I can get the starter out of the Road Rhino in twenty minutes.

Bad News: I’ve taken the starter out so often that I can do it in twenty minutes.

At first, I thought it was just a hot start problem. Then, after the Rhino had been sitting for over an hour and it still wouldn’t start, I knew there was a problem. So, I asked the guy who had gotten the starter for me if he still had the receipt. I got out from under the Rhino by 2320 hours, and after cleaning up, here I sit. I’m supposed to be leaving for the ASTRA Convention in a few hours. Now, I’m very wound up/exhausted. Yeah, doesn’t sound like a good sleep combination to me.

Follow me on Twitter and I’ll keep you up to date this week – no blogging, and after the timed-release Father’s Day post, nothing new until I get back. So, both of you regular readers, don’t lose heart. I’ will be back.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

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As my regular readers know, I’ve been trying to keep the Road Rhino (1998 Infiniti QX4, 170k miles) in a somewhat reasonably reliable running mode. As I type this, the smell of cleaner and soap is still on my hands after replacing the starter. This is another reason I wish to kill some automotive engineers. Or at least make them work on their own creations.

I have replaced the starter on this vehicle many times. I think, but I’m not sure, that this is number four. You would think that after the first three times I would remember that the bolts holding the starter to the tranny case are 14 mm and the electrical connection is a 13 mm, but you would be wrong. You would think that I would remember how to worm the starter out from next to the lower control arm on the passenger side without jamming my fingers or slamming the starter against the palm of my hand and then wedging said hand against the still warm exhaust pipe, but again, you would be wrong.

One thing I have noticed, though – I have to raise the passenger side of the vehicle higher every time I change the starter. I think the suspension is slowly going bad, and that side of the SUV is sitting lower to the ground.

(not mine, but almost identical – same color, mine doesn’t have the rear wind deflector. oh, and my paint has all kinds of aftermarket scratches … )

A big thank you to Harry, for helping procure a new starter at less than I was able to find one.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Talk about wanting to choke an automotive engineer or seven:

The black duct work (didjanotice the gorilla tape repair? it’s been on there for four years) is the intake. We aren’t in the area of the leaking hose yet.

The hose in the bottom center of the pic has a pinhole leak under the visible clamp. The other clamp is tucked under the throttle body. I have to remove the throttle body just to touch the clamp with more than a finger.

Not looking like an easy repair yet.

Sure is black in the throttle body. I’ll worry about that later. The clamp on the right side is the same one from two pictures ago. The hidden clamp has been removed and the hose is ready to come off. I took it off, went to O’Reilly’s, and wonder of wonders they had the exact hose I needed in stock on the shelf. Bought some anti-freeze while I was there.

Sure wish I had looked closer at this picture before I ran to O’Reilly’s. It would have saved me a trip. The sharp-eyed among you have already noticed that the shaped hose was not the major leak source. Yes, I had this puppy buttoned back up before you could say Jack Frost – fired it up, and was floored when water was leaking out from the same spot. I tore it back apart, and got the offending short hose off – I had to cut it, and wrestle the clamps off. Another run to O’Reilly’s, a section of straight hose (and some gasket material, because my haste caused me to break off a piece of the gasket, and I had to make a new one … ) and I was ready to button it up again.

This one shows the new shaped hose in place – notice the lower hose, just lurking there, laughing quietly to itself as I stand back and take a picture of my handiwork, confident that I have solved the issue …

All buttoned up, ready to go. After I replaced the lower hose, I had lost any sense of wanting to take pictures, so I didn’t take a second picture after the final assembly. Someplace along the line, I shorted something out, and the Rhino wouldn’t start. Pastor Mike suggested I disconnect the battery, and let the computer reset. Initially, it still wouldn’t start. After a little time, it finally started. Like a dummy, I had not disconnected the battery before disconnecting the electrical connections you saw in the first picture.

Lesson learned.

Update – turns out the starter solenoid is fried. or frying. it occasionally starts, but just as occasionally it decides not to. i have to beat it with blunt objects to get it’s attention. not too bad when you are dressed for working on the car, but in your white dockers and light-colored polo shirt, it wreaks havoc on the clothing. oh, and it was raining today when i got off work and the solenoid didn’t want to work.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

So – Friday I was a bit frustrated. With everything.

Let’s start with one of my favorite topics = drivers. Or, more accurately, non-driving operators of motor vehicles on the roads of Maricopa County. (please note – if anything i write about driving habits offends you, perhaps you should re-read a few things – like the part that offended you, the driving manual, the part that offended you, and the driving manual.)

Things I have noticed about the traffic laws of Arizona – most of the people doing the non-driving are not here – shall we say – with the full approval of the government. Yes, I know that’s how you drive where you came from, but that’s not the custom, the norm, the law here. Pedestrians DO have the right of way – in crosswalks either marked or implied (and in this case, “implied” has a legal definition – that is, at intersections, and then only parallel to the flow of traffic). They do NOT have the right of way, or the right to expect to survive, when darting across five lanes plus a turn lane during rush hour dragging their defenseless and learning-a-bad-lesson children behind them. If you do not follow the law, do not act put-upon if I do not yield to your arrogance or stupidity.

The center turn lane is just that – a turn lane. By occupying that lane, you are implying/indicating/insinuating that your next move is going to be a left turn. This is the only legal maneuver allowed from the middle turn lane on roads equppied with the turn lane. The turn lane is not a safety spot to use when trying to get into traffic. It is not an extra lane to be used when the traffic is moving slowly and you are much more important than everyone else following the law. (true story – i was eastbound on glendale ave, in the left hand lane, approaching 51st ave, when a monte carlo passed me on the left, swerved across my nose and two other lanes, to get into the right turn lane and – pull into the gas station – as the group of cars i was in was approaching the traffic light which had just turned red, and we were all slowing down. if he had stayed behind us all, he would have had a clear shot to the gas station without endangering three lanes of traffic and anyone thinking about making a left turn going west) At the same time, just because someone pulls into the middle turn lane to make a left turn, if you are headed the same direction that person is, you do not need to stop. Neither does the person in the lane next to you.

The most frustrating item on Friday? The Road Rhino popped another hose. No, it’s not one of the hoses that had recently been replaced. It is, instead, a hose that is part of a cluster of bypass hoses (the qx4 has more bypass hoses than anything else, i have yet to figure out why) located under the throttle body. This means that the intake/induction piping and tubes need to be removed, along with the throttle body itself, in order to replace these hoses. And yes, I’m going to replace all the hoses in that area at the same time – what, do I look slow? I’ve learned THAT lesson – to avoid any issues in the foreseeable future. That is a job for this afternoon, after church.

For now, I”m off to church. My prayers are with you all, even if you don’t believe the same way I do.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!