Thursday, May 28, 2009
Spa Box & other yard projects
Whitney and I have been building again. At the end of last year’s outdoor season we picked up a table and chair set for our patio. Over the winter the cushions have been getting in the way in the garage. With some extra siding pieces from the house in Seattle, some free tile from Katie’s parents, a few dollars in wood, and more in hinges; we built a box to hold them outside. It’s all cedar T&G so should keep water off them quite well. The steps are also part of the box and will make getting into the hot tub a little more pleasant. I think it came out quite nicely especially for being mostly extra unused material. The tiled surface will make grilling a little nicer with a bigger prep area. The tiled top also provides a spot to put glasses down while in the hot tub so we can have water right there and not dehydrated in the hot tub. The shelf holds some of the grill implements as well as the chemicals for the hot tub.
Sorry about the mess of stuff on the hot tub. The other project for the weekend was building a shelving unit in the shed with some free MDF we got off a craigslist posting. We now have a lot more storage space, as well as a work table in there. However, it meant that we had to move what was being stored in there out, and the hot tub was the easiest temporary storage. The shelving in the shed also means that we could clear up lots of space in the garage making it more useful. Now I can get back to work reassembling the Scirocco.
Another thing we got was a power washer. We got the cheapest Home Depot unit, but it seems plenty powerful enough for us. We sprayed our patio, and what a difference. It is white now, not a murky grey-brown color. I also got an automotive cleaning nozzle for it to help with washing the Land Cruiser down after trips. The hose just wasn’t cutting getting the mud off underneath, so the regular nozzle will be useful there. This auto nozzle has a small car shampoo dispenser built in and a rotary brush. An initially test showed it gets the caked on very fine dust off much better than the 2′ brush and bucket of water had been using. Now all I have to do is actually spend the time to brush it. I’ve never used a power washer before, but it seems quite useful, and frankly a lot of fun.
Our yard continues to clean up nicely. Before power-washing we put in a gravel strip in front of the patio and now it drains much better. Hopefully this will cut down on the green gunk build up we saw on the patio over this last winter.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Land Cruiser
I added a static page about my Land Cruiser build-up. It’s now linked from my menu and located here
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Tightened Steering
I hadn’t touched the Scirocco for a couple weeks after cleaning the engine bay. It looks a lot better, I can see metal rather than gunk. Today I cleaned a lot of the parts I had pulled out and so didn’t get washed with the engine bay. I also did a bunch of testing and inspecting of various components. I’m tying to put together an order for what needs replacing. I think I’ve covered a good deal of what is inspect-able except for the suspension and steering components. I need to get the car back up on the jack stands to get underneath and examine those. I think that all of the axle components and repacking of the wheel bearings and CV joints will wait until after the car is running again. Make sure everything in the engine bay is good and then put it up on jack stands and deal with the rest. It means I may need multiple orders for parts, but that’s ok.
I also installed the new steering column bearing that I purchased a while back. I don’t have a driver’s seat in the car to test it too much, but it seems to be much improved other the previous wobbly steering wheel.
Hopefully I can do some more inspection of parts tomorrow and then get an order underway shortly.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Christmas Valley
This weekend, Whitney and I left Corvallis after 6:00 with the intention of meeting up with a group of people from the Northwest Overland Society and driving around off-road in Christmas Valley, in the Oregon desert. Although we made it to Christmas Valley just fine, we did not have good enough directions to make it to their campsite. We spent an hour driving around in the dark on some of the dirt roads out of town. We had what we thought were correct GPS coordinates and slowly narrowed in on them. Many bumps and shallow puddles later, the car now covered with white mud, we made it to the coordinates. A very nice cultivated field, no sign of the group. So we headed back to town and then headed off on another guess of where to go. Another hour of driving, it was no midnight and we had no idea if we were any closer or not. So we set up camp. It was quite cold so we carried the dogs up to the roof top tent so everyone could be close for warmth.
At this point we decided to sleep in and give up on meeting the group. Pictured is our camp the next morning. We set off, continuing down the dirt track we had come in on, overland about 30 miles to Hwy 20. Lots of rocks, potholes, and a few steep and rocky descents. Nothing technical but quite enjoyable, and I got to use 4-low a number of times. We went through the Lost Forest, this odd several thousand acres of evergreens miles from any other forest. According to posted signs, apparently something in the soil allows the water to quickly get below the surface avoiding evaporation in the desert heat. The water is then absorbed by the trees. They live on less than 1/3 the rainfall of their usual habitat.
We drove back along Hwy 20 towards, and through Bend and then up into the Cascades. Operating off of a BLM map and the gps, we tried several dirt roads that looked like they would loop around and end up near Green Peter Lake. Unfortunately, we hit snow just shy of most of the passes we were hoping to go over. There would be no snow on the surrounding hillside, but 1.5-2′ of snow on the road surface itself. Not having chains or winch equipment with us, and having no experience driving through deep snow, we turned around at each point. Lots of pretty vistas of the mountains but no way over. We stopped trying routes while it was still light, and set up camp in the forest. We made a poor attempt to light a fire, but wet wood meant it didn’t last long. Thankfully, it was significantly warmer the second night. The dogs stayed in the car and were quite good being there all night.
We set out the next day, after changing a tire that was a little low. I think I found the piece of metal that is causing the slow leak in it. But I didn’t have a compressor to add air, so just changed it instead. The spare tire is still under the rear, so was throughly covered in dried desert mud from the day and night before. I should paid more attention to this mud at the time and cleaned it. I didn’t however, and a few miles down the road, could not identify a strange noise from the rear. It sounded like a stick was hitting the wheel on each revolution, but I couldn’t see anything when I got out to look. It also made no noise when I had Whitney drive it at slow speed while I walked along and listened. After driving a little more, I realized that the noise stopped when I went around a turn, but it was not preferential to one side or the other. I had a hunch as to what was causing it, and when I got out and checked I was right. The wheel was loose on the studs. The mud had prevented the nuts from tightening properly and so they had come loose and the wheel was sliding around as I drove. Thankfully no apparent damage to the underlying hub, the only loose was one of the nuts. Each wheel has a special security nut on it and that one had come off. I have thought about replacing those with regular nuts, now I have to. Thankfully the remaining nuts keep the wheel securely on for the rest of the trip.
As to our progress that day, we made a few more attempts to find a way up and over Moose Ridge, but to no avail. We finally found a route that skirted the west side of Moose Ridge and made it into the Green Peter Lake area. Our way in was rough, and at times a very steep and rutty descent. We also had one puddle to go through that turned deeper then expected, creating a bow wave that came over the hood. Quite a nerve-racking experience. Probably not something that should have been attempted without a winch to pull us out if needed. In a pinch the Hi-Lift can be used as a hand-winch, but I’ve yet to try that, so I’m not sure I have all the parts I need.
Once we got over the hills though, we found a very beautiful area and lake. We took a road to within a few hundred meters of the lake, and were able to walk down and enjoy it with the dogs for a bit. The road around the lake was a well developed dirt road, so we decided to take it to the dam, join pavement there and head back. We got to within sight of a parking lot at the start of pavement to discover that we were on the wrong side of a locked no unauthorized access gate. There had been no prior signs on our way in to indicate we should be there. Although we could see the paved road at that point, there was no route forward so we headed back to find another way over to Hwy 20. The first two routes went for a couple miles then petered out into the forest, but we did then find a route that went up and over dropping us off at the Short Bridge and onto Hwy 20 and the road home. (Photo by Jerri Graff)
All in all, it was an enjoyable trip, and no disastrous mishaps (though two that came close). It served my needs as a shake-down test of my camping setup. I’m mostly happy with things like my tent, fridge, and newly constructed kitchen box. I was not happy with some cheap reverse lights I installed. I installed them on the wind deflector thinking they would help me see behind me wen backing up. Instead they just made for awful glare of any dirt on the rear window.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Brakes
After hearing squealing coming from the rear of the Land Cruiser for a little while and suspecting it was the brake pad wear indicator, I have finally got around to replacing the brakes. Due to a few factors, I have broken with my fashion and gone non-OEM. And not for something better, just something cheaper. I need brakes that aren’t about gone, I can’t afford local dealer prices, and don’t want to wait for a CruiserDan order. So for now, and until our cash flow is stabilized, I’ll be running a cheap NAPA set of pads. They seem to stop the Land Cruiser, and the awful noise I was hearing is gone, so I’m happy for now.
It was actually a very easy job doing the rears. When I did the fronts before (the only brakes I’ve replaced so far), I did not have the right tool to compress the cylinder(s) and get them far enough to slide over the fresh pads. On the rear caliper, there is only one cylinder, so there is no need to fight pushing one in as the other goes out. I also now have a big C-clamp, so I put an old pad against the cylinder, and just kept clamping it down until it was in all the way. After that it slide right on over the old pads.
When checking for the noises that I’ve been hearing, I went out and found a neighborhood street with no cars parked along it. It was a straight road, with a slight up-hill. I put the Land Cruiser in low 4 (due to a modification this no longer engages the center differential lock automatically, so no reason not to use low-4 on pavement). Put the transmission in drive, made sure it was crawling forward straight and then hopped out and walked around the car some listening for any rear end noises. After a 100m or so of the car driving along at a snails pace and hearing nothing unusual, I got back in it, spun it around and did the same in reverse. I have no idea what those neighbors though, a car driving slowly down the street while the driver got out and walked around it.
Anyway, new brakes and I did what I could to set them without burning up the fronts.