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Sgt Fox posted:One thing to note if your $65 replacement doesn't pan out, 4seasons makes the crimp on ends. I had to make new hoses by cutting off the ferrule on the other end of a hose, and using that, a new ferrule, new hose and a 4seasons universal end to get my system working. tinned owl posted:Could you also braze a repair on that one? One of the things I really enjoy is reading a thread like honda whisperer’s or CSB’s where they’re all “so I fabricated this manifold and that wasn’t quite right so I reprogrammed my ECU to deal with a slight lean condition between 3600-3650 RPM and then I made a new motor out of popsicle sticks and autozone lender tools on the side of a dirt road in the Yukon.” It’s amazing. But I feel like I would be doing you a disservice if I wasn’t upfront about both my competence (bad) and my ability (also bad, and yeah, that’s a synonym) and my decision making (bit of a shocker here, but also bad). After I saw that tiny hole I threw away the hose in a fit of rage. Obviously that was dumb and I knew it was dumb the morning after I did it but I was very frustrated. These are both excellent suggestions and I was thinking of them (ok, maybe not exactly them but like what about that silicon tape over some jbweld on the inside and outside). But not until afterward. Hopefully the lesson here, as always, is that if someone as bad at making decisions as I am can use jack stands and PPE then you can too. Sadly, I’m out west now visiting family and then go on real vacation when I’m back so any real updates will have to wait until the third week of august.
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Jul 20, 2022 03:43
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builds character posted:One of the things I really enjoy is reading a thread like honda whisperer’s or CSB’s where they’re all “so I fabricated this manifold and that wasn’t quite right so I reprogrammed my ECU to deal with a slight lean condition between 3600-3650 RPM and then I made a new motor out of popsicle sticks and autozone lender tools on the side of a dirt road in the Yukon.” It’s amazing. Am mad envious of some people's abilities to just knock stuff together from nothing. Currently watching a Yorkshireman in France throw together a completely nuts Honda K20 powered GTM Coupe which is the smallest thing in the world. His dad's been just hand making the suspension mounts out of sheet steel hammer bent and with holes cut out for weight saving. https://twitter.com/theOlliePickard/status/1526215428313325568?s=20&t=qRYr_bVrz_JDbpd_zQ7XHA https://twitter.com/theOlliePickard/status/1527899710995980288?s=20&t=qRYr_bVrz_JDbpd_zQ7XHA Hope you manage to get the van sorted before too long though, it's a cool project used for a cool use.
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Jul 20, 2022 12:06
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Olympic Mathlete posted:Am mad envious of some people's abilities to just knock stuff together from nothing. Currently watching a Yorkshireman in France throw together a completely nuts Honda K20 powered GTM Coupe which is the smallest thing in the world. His dad's been just hand making the suspension mounts out of sheet steel hammer bent and with holes cut out for weight saving. Holy poo poo this owns. And yeah, extremely jealous of that ability.
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Aug 9, 2022 00:43
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I’m back after visiting the west coast and doing vile, morally repugnant things, like riding an ATV.  The first thing to do after getting unpacked is go check on the van and see about making some progress on getting the AC working. But god punishes and in amusing ways so knowing my former virtue and keen appreciation for the hilarity of the suffering of others, provided me with “air.”  Maybe the inside is better? No?  Despite its name, “safety” glass is still full of tiny shards and will stab you and make you bleed all over if you try to gently sweep it out without gloves. You can’t quite see it but there’s $81 in the cup holder and pieces of broken window glass up and down the block so this was just someone breaking things, not stealing anything.  Good as new!  Reinforced for extra strength! Every time I close the door, I hear little pieces of glass playing pachinko inside.  As long as I was out there, I might as well install the AC line. Look how shiny and new it is!  No? It’s right there. It was so easy to get in when the rubber was actually flexible and bendy!  Then, because I was tired and feeling frustrated and distracted by someone breaking my window I had a really dumb moment and didn’t realize I’d already taken out the condenser. So I diligently took out the intercooler  New window glass coming tomorrow. Hopefully it’s just a matter of opening up the door and popping it in. I’m sure it’ll be fine, right?
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Aug 9, 2022 01:38
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Looks like you have air conditioning now.
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Aug 9, 2022 02:00
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cursedshitbox posted:Looks like you have air conditioning now. Problem solved. 
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Aug 9, 2022 02:27
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Oh that's poo poo. People suck. Glass in a van I imagine shouldn't be too much of a nightmare due to the size of the doors. You might struggle getting it in alone though, last time I did it when replacing a window motor I had a helpful friend hold the glass while I did the business of guiding it in.
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Aug 10, 2022 14:23
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Olympic Mathlete posted:Oh that's poo poo. People suck. It wasn’t bad at all except one tiny thing… The new window came yesterday and today, motivated by the thunderstorm we may get tomorrow, I was able to scrape together some time after work to put it in.  Off this pops, don’t move it too far because the cable is still connected to the door handle and if you break that you have to crawl through a broken window to get in. You can see that arm is the mechanism for rolling the window up and down. I took the black piece of metal (mounting plate? bracket?) holding it in place off, slid the glass in, put it back on and then realized it has a little hinge that you have to place into that metal slot in the bottom of the glass. I thought I had a picture but apparently not.  Fine enough, just pop off that black metal piece and…. gently caress. It was dark at this point and I thought I’d grabbed my t30 impact socket but apparently that was a safety socket and now the bolt is stripped.  SAFETY CHAT I don’t give a poo poo how frustrated you are at how an easy job turned hard or how your glasses are buried in the back of a van or how the babes don’t look at guys wearing safety goggles. WEAR EYE PROTECTION. If you don’t, because you are a stupid jerk then eventually you will be drilling out a stripped bolt and a tiny shard of metal will ricochet into your eye. Hopefully you get lucky and it falls right out and doesn’t scratch the cornea and you can still write posts to all your friends on the internet. But don’t do that. All PPE all the time. Anyway, as long as I was in there, I added some of my favorite thing. Sound deadener. If nothing else, it makes closing the door more satisfying.  Little MB symbol on the glass so you know it’s actually just branded freightliner for the US market. All T1Ns were built and assembled entirely in Germany by Mercedes-Benz.  Wait, what’s this? This isn’t a window?!  In a fit of rage I continued to work on the van. And it was good I’d gotten in the mood because I discovered some PO FUCKERY. They’d previously had the radiator replaced and the mechanic who did it did about the job I do when I’m tired and annoyed and told my wife I’d be home two hours ago. This is the intercooler and its attachment point to the condenser. I figured it out all on my own because it sure as gently caress hadn’t been connected before.  Nor had they actually bolted the horn back on after undoing it to move it out of the way. Because it was too much effort?  They were also missing two of the four bolts that connect the intercooler to the radiator. The hard to reach one’s obviously. I played fast and loose, using Genuine OEM KTM bolts. They’ll have the added benefit of reducing the van’s weight by .03 grams.  Here you can see the cleverness of the design. The intercooler bolts onto the radiator in four places on the far outside. Then it hooks up to this line with two small screws. On the bottom, it bolts to the condenser and then the top of the condenser bolts to a crosspiece that goes above the radiator.  Last but not least, the fan connects to the van body on the bottom in the front and to that bracket that goes over the condenser. I’ve read a lot about how folks who replace the condenser get rubbing from this fan that rubs a hole in the condenser but I don’t see how. They’re close ish but they definitely in no way touch and they’re both firmly held in place (if you reconnect everything correctly).  As long as we’re here and it’s almost midnight and I have work tomorrow, I might as well check to see, right?  That is vacuum!  And here is ten minutes after disconnecting the vacuum pump! I’ll go out and check it tomorrow or Friday but it looks like I’ve fixed the catastrophic hole to atmosphere. Next steps are replacing the dryer, vacuuming for an hour or two and then refilling with R134a by weight. The engine also sounds quieter/smoother with everything properly attached too!
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Aug 11, 2022 05:32
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I’m going on real vacation for a week. Please don’t steal my van or break its windows while I’m gone. When last we left off we had vacuum! After much fumbling and loud hissing as I messed up popping on the gauge, we still have vacuum! Slightly less but I think it’s likely because I didn’t put the gauge on very cleanly. At all. I’m only mentioning it because my mistakes must be memorialized and in case you care about how much vacuum there is.  That thing in the back in an inconvenient place is also getting replaced.  It’s an ax expansion valve. It connects the system to the evaporator and makes cold. It also wears a jaunty chapeau. I loving love adorable things that have faces like this. LOOK AT IT  Cleanly installed.  Then the dryer which, disappointingly, has neither face nor hat.  Original though so probably good it’s getting replaced.  And replacing this sensor because the guy who sells the dryer recommends it. Mine works. You can tell by unplugging it and if that makes your fan go on it works. I still replaced it because I’d ordered them together.  So shiny.  While putting a vacuum on for 90 minutes (as long as folks recommend? Maybe not, but when your vacuum pump is attached to a converter hooked up to the battery you cut some corners on time.), I addressed another issue. See those little empty holes in the black bracket on top of the condenser?  Two of them get a couple of rivnuts.  Because the genuine Mercedes-Benz brand grill had been hanging from the single silver bolt and was starting to crack. Two more bolts on each side (washers to come! But at least they’re matching black) should hold it in place a lot better and stop it from snapping in half.  “CAUTION: SYSTEM TO BE SERVICED BY QUALIFIED PERSONNEL” uh….  484 grams full.  184 grams empty. I switched tops because the brass colored one was for the old style cans and the silver one was for self sealing cans. You can tell the difference because the little punch that comes down to open the can up is a cylinder for self sealing and has a sharpened end for the old cans.  We have pressure going in!  And pressure on the high side too!  No pictures, but glorious cold air comes out of the vents now. Is it ice cold? Only if you’re talking about it in an ad. But it is great and a huge difference and should be enough to convince my family to use the van literally every when it’s hot out. I’ll check pressure again when I get back and hopefully it will still have plenty of coolant and blow cold and I can move on to the garage portion or maybe cleaning up some more rust.
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Aug 13, 2022 01:02
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Hell yeah, very nice. I always know I'm about to get mad at cars when I mutter "how clever" And +1 on ppe. There's people who wear it and people who haven't found out.
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Aug 13, 2022 03:51
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builds character posted:In a fit of rage I continued to work on the van. And it was good I’d gotten in the mood because I discovered some PO FUCKERY. They’d previously had the radiator replaced and the mechanic who did it did about the job I do when I’m tired and annoyed and told my wife I’d be home two hours ago. This is the intercooler and its attachment point to the condenser. I figured it out all on my own because it sure as gently caress hadn’t been connected before. All of this screams "hey Steve just drop that for a sec I've got a lady who needs a wiper blade fitted out here, it'll take two minutes"
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Aug 13, 2022 03:56
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I'm jealous of how easily accessed your TXV is. I had to replace the one in my CR-V (was the only thing that just plain broke in a way that left something nonfunctional) and it was hours of swearing underneath the dash to get at the fucker. Lost a 10mm socket in there too.
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Aug 13, 2022 04:51
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honda whisperer posted:Hell yeah, very nice. I always know I'm about to get mad at cars when I mutter "how clever" It’s fine as long as you do exactly what the MB engineers want you to. Every single time I think “oh this is something small it’ll be fine” I have to remind myself and then when I don’t I find out. Slavvy posted:All of this screams "hey Steve just drop that for a sec I've got a lady who needs a wiper blade fitted out here, it'll take two minutes"  IOwnCalculus posted:I'm jealous of how easily accessed your TXV is. I had to replace the one in my CR-V (was the only thing that just plain broke in a way that left something nonfunctional) and it was hours of swearing underneath the dash to get at the fucker. Lost a 10mm socket in there too. Hopefully at least the socket doesn’t rattle. But yeah, I was not looking forward to when I thought it was the evaporator. And I expect that still would have been easier than the TXV on a CR-V.
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Aug 14, 2022 14:29
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Good news, nobody broke into the van while I was on vacation. It was nice being on vacation.  But there's nothing quite like NYC... Check out the dude's sign on the right.  This weekend I went riding, but before I did, I had to fix something. You see, there was a bolt left over from fixing the AC. Now if this were some other car, I might have just sent it. But because I am becoming intimately acquainted with the MB engineering philosophy of "do it our way or get hosed" I thought maybe it was best to figure out what was going on. And what was going on is that the line from the compressor to the condenser is bolted onto the top of the compressor, and then there's a separate bolt that on the side of the compressor. It's there to hold that line solidly in place so that the line can serve as an attachment point for the return line in the picture and won't slowly bend under the weight of hundreds of thousands of miles. It's a clever design. Unless someone forgot to put that second bolt back in and, in putting it back, then discovered that the condenser-compressor line was going underneath the return line rather than over it. So, undo the condenser-compressor line, work it inside that return line, bolt it up and attach the return line to the condenser-compressor line so that it has support and everything is good and proper in just the way the MB engineering team  Then it was time to go for a ride. Having A/C was fantastic. It's not super cold, and my vents are broken (having come off like confetti explosions at a ticker tape parade when I took apart the dash to look at the evaporator and run speaker wire), just like they are on all T1Ns so you can't point the air where you want. But it's still glorious. It does make me think I need to start working on the insulation. The AC can barely keep up with 84 degrees, let alone real heat. But once it's insulated that should help. Riding was great, but man I am just not good at this. Slow, out of practice, terrible line choice, propensity to veer off into the trees. I didn't crash, but there were a couple of close calls on some rocks. I love it.  After riding it was time for tacos. This place is great and you should go there if you're ever riding at Thomaston Dam. Their tacos and burritos are quite good, but the quesadillas are great. It's cash only.  "Hey man, this is a lovely picture why are you posting it?" Well, it's funny you ask. You see that silver BMW station wagon peeking its nose out? I was getting cash from the van and heard a huge crunch from the other side. I scampered around thinking "oh goddamnit, why would you hit my van?" only to discover the driver of that BMW standing, looking perplexed at the telephone pole he'd just driven into. Not backed into, just driven the driver's side of his car right into the pole. Then he got backed in, backed up and sat down at one of the tables. Presumably to contemplate his failures? I have no idea. But the last time I was there someone backed into it so I'm posting this picture as a warning. The tacos are good but this telephone pole craves side panels. 
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Aug 29, 2022 16:59
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It's been a while... but I'm still at it. This weekend I tried to install a diesel heater. It goes underneath this seat.  The emergency toilet paper and fire extinguisher will have to go elsewhere. Probably on the floor because I am a disgusting person.  Perfect fit!  Use this gasket to mark where it's going to go.  Huh, the hole saw shouldn't do that.  Or that.  or... that.  gently caress.  Double-gently caress because this is very easy to splice back together so what the gently caress is going on with the crank position sensor? It's only $40 to replace it and not too difficult but... what the gently caress?  Basically a lineman splice. More or less.  Some nice new files to make the edges smooth. And ream out the hole after I bought a hole saw that was ever so slightly too small. I'm sure it makes sense to spend forty five minutes with a file enlarging two holes instead of buying another five dollar hole saw, right? Right? Anyone? Obviously I broke the tip off one of these on my first try. But they are a beautiful tool.  And, perfect!  T1N sprinters have an option for a diesel heater that heats up the coolant in your van so it warms the engine up MUCH FASTER in the winter. It's not a block heater, mind you, but it does mean that there's an existing fuel line that's perfect to tap into so I don't need to worry about dropping the tank. Just tap into that, wire up the power and away we go! But because I'm an idiot and bad at life all of that will have to wait for another day. gently caress.
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Jan 3, 2023 20:35
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builds character posted:
From a while back, but florida man strikes again!
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Jan 3, 2023 21:54
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Woolwich Bagnet posted:From a while back, but florida man strikes again! Yeah, it's definitely some group of folks who just break into every car once. It hasn't happened since then but we're selling the daily driver, a honda CR-V and I parked it near the van and within a couple days its window was broken and... I'll do a small post on that car as an interlude as it's raining and I am a wuss and don't want to go under the van to do fuel lines and pump in the rain and the dark.
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Jan 3, 2023 22:29
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"What took you so long to post again?" I hear you ask. Well, I'm glad you asked. Several things. First, it is important to note that I am lazy and that is a primary driver. The van works OK as is to transport me and motorcycles to places to go riding. And now that that's true there's so much less drive to do things like "finish it" and "make it not look like a hideous eyesore" and "why isn't there a backup camera how can you expect anyone else to ever drive this?" Second, been riding.  Third, this loving thing.  For some reason, Honda used a different metal or finish or... something? On this coolant pipe in the 2010 CR-V. Previously, we'd been thinking about holding out until electric charging was a realistic option in NYC and then getting one of those but when I parked the car one day and came back out to find a huge pool of coolant underneath it my wife had had enough. Even though I told the bad part it was no longer welcome (not pictured: blood, lots and lots of blood). Yeah, none of the other literally anything else in the engine bay or undercarriage looks like this.  Little bit of genuine Honda coolant (blue so you know it's authentic raspberry flavor) later and voila! The new car got to park in the garage and the CR-V got to sit on the street while I thought about selling it. Which is where I discovered the dumbest thieves in the entire world.  Someone had broken the window on the van and not taken any of the cash or other things. This time, they stole a tool kit. MSRP $145 but more importantly that was a gift you jackasses! A jump pack, some milwaukee M12 tools and my dewalt 20v inflator. But despite rifling through the car they did not open the envelope marked 'insurance' and thus did not discover the $60 in cash we kept in there. Or the free floating cash in the middle console which was admittedly a much less impressive $15 in change. Still... whoever you are, you are a loving terrible thief and you should feel bad. I had ordered glass to replace this when I discovered (because my wife told me) that we had glass coverage and this was covered and oh, it's someone else's problem! That was a good day. And then it was time to fix the thing I'd been ignoring for a while. The blend door actuator was broken. There are two - one controls where the vents point and it lives on the passenger side to the left of the passenger's feet/leg. The other controls the mix of hot and cold air and lives in the same spot on the drivers side and is what was broken. It looks like this on the outside.  And like this on the inside.  Pop a new one in and now I just have to write up the ad. No blood involved in either of those, which was frankly a bit confusing although it did involve lying half in-half out of the car like a contortionist unbolting a tiny bolt an 1/8th of a turn at a time because I don't have a ratcheting m7 wrench. So at least that was something.
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Jan 3, 2023 23:11
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builds character posted:Yeah, it's definitely some group of folks who just break into every car once. It hasn't happened since then but we're selling the daily driver, a honda CR-V and I parked it near the van and within a couple days its window was broken and... I'll do a small post on that car as an interlude as it's raining and I am a wuss and don't want to go under the van to do fuel lines and pump in the rain and the dark. I was making a joke that the shape of the hole in the window looks like florida  Really sucks that it keeps happening to you though.
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Jan 4, 2023 04:25
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Woolwich Bagnet posted:I was making a joke that the shape of the hole in the window looks like florida I… had not noticed that. 
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Jan 4, 2023 05:40
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I read someone in another thread talking about the underseat diesel heater they had in a different van. They mentioned having a CO alarm and a vent located in the floor of the van, which vent they were careful to work around to keep it working. Is there a similar provision in The Can?
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Jan 7, 2023 00:30
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madeintaipei posted:I read someone in another thread talking about the underseat diesel heater they had in a different van. Was that one propane? This diesel heater, the intake and exhaust for the combustion chamber will both feed from and vent to outside the van. That’ll heat some fins and a fan will blow air from the front of the heater inside the van to the back of the seat. So there shouldn’t ever be any issue with the heater generating any extra CO air CO2 or anything but warming the existing air. I got a bit sidetracked though…. Yuck.  2500 grit and a deoxidizer.  3000 grit and wet compared to 2500.  The problem is, it was mostly the “wet” that did it. So I started over from scratch. This is a progression of 400-600-800-1000-1200-1500-2000-2500-3000-5000. ~5 minutes on each headlight at each grit. About two hours, all in.          gently caress.  But they looked good wet, I wonder if I just put this cerakote on them… Yes! It works! This is coated and dried. 
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Jan 9, 2023 02:41
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Polishing headlights is so satisfying. Looks great!
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Jan 9, 2023 02:49
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In NYC you have annual inspections for diesel vehicles. I stopped to fill up for gas before I went over to the mechanic who does the inspection.  And when I went to start the van, it just cranked and wouldn't start. And then cranked some more. Finally it started with a check engine light on. gently caress, that's some timing, eh? The code was for the crankshaft position sensor. Fortunately, diesel inspection doesn't check lights and so I cleared the light and left the van running and luckily enough, the guy only turned it back on once and it was fine. My secret? I overnighted the replacement sensor and because there were two possibilities I overnighted both of them. Can I explain it? No, but that's how the world works. If I hadn't spent the extra money to get both of them there the next day, I would have failed.  And then, it was on to replace the sensor. Where does that sensor live? On the top of the transmission, of course! So you're stuck with lying on the ground kind of working your arm around the transmission to get at the sensor to undo it. Oh, and if you're in the NE it generally rusts into place and is completely and utterly stuck. But someone at MB in their infinite wisdom decided that they would put an access panel into the van. That's how I ended up taking out my passenger seat, pulling up my carpeting and sound deadening and... voila! There it is!  I parked it for a couple of weeks, stopping by every few days to douse it with penetrating oil and then Friday night before going riding, I got to work. Of course, MB doesn't give a poo poo about your shade tree rear end mechanic proclivities and the internet is awful for information so nobody told me this thing was welded down. I ended up chiseling it up and creating some very sharp edges that I then spent the next few hours working with. The blood dripping onto the transmission definitely helped though. You have to kind of wiggle it around and around and then pry up at it.  Now because you're not an idiot like me, you haven't spent hours of your life reading about and watching videos of people who try to solve for the problem of breaking off this sensor in the transmission. In fact, with the exception of some guy whose van looked WAY to clean and from the southwest, I didn't see a single person posting or taking a video where their sensor came out. Certainly nobody who had to spend hours wiggling it like me. But, thanks to the combined sacrifices of blood and money, here we are.  Didn't even squish the top in.  New sensor vs. old. Funny, it doesn't look broken. And at the moment of truth (remember to start it before you button everything back up BUT DON'T loving RUN IT FOR TOO LONG OR poo poo WILL GET HOT AND YOU WILL BURN YOURSELF) it started right up. That'll do, tin can, that'll do.  And then it was time to go riding! OK, maybe a little fetch first. But... oh, ok, maybe actually literally two hours of fetch first.  Then riding! I swear this is the top of a hill.  And then a nap on the way home. You can see the paper backing trash next to her from where I put in a bunch of sound deadening in the rear of the van. She didn't like how it squeaked and boomed when we went over bumps. Did I fix it for me? No. Did I fix it for my wife? No. Did I fix it for my kid? No. But the dog didn't like it so... time to do something about it. That sounds a lot worse having typed it out but there you have it. Yup, that's my milwaukee heated hoodie she's sleeping on. 
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Mar 30, 2023 19:34
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Man it would be nice to have dirt cheap gas prices like that. Here in Sweden it's double.
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Apr 16, 2023 10:43
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MrOnBicycle posted:Man it would be nice to have dirt cheap gas prices like that. Here in Sweden it's double. We got up to ~$7.50/gallon at one point in the city (although you can find Swedish prices if you go somewhere like here where I assure you the price on the internet is very wrong. But generally, yeah. Not clear this whole thing would work in Sweden where as I understand it you also don’t really have the same ability to drive for three hours and find a place to ride dirt bikes.
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Apr 17, 2023 12:30
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builds character posted:We got up to ~$7.50/gallon at one point in the city (although you can find Swedish prices if you go somewhere like here where I assure you the price on the internet is very wrong. But generally, yeah. Not clear this whole thing would work in Sweden where as I understand it you also don’t really have the same ability to drive for three hours and find a place to ride dirt bikes. Kinda depends on where you live in Sweden. In the north you drive for hours to do anything. But yeah we have more alternatives to driving (thankfully). I think the average Swede drives about 9-10k (miles) a year. Truth it, you get used to the prices as there isn't much you can do.
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Apr 17, 2023 14:16
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Sometimes the only thing keeping you working on a project is that you posted about it. Other times it’s the god damned mountain of mess that has invaded your van. Like a sentient magma flow of junk. So, time to clean things up a bit. Pay no attention to the pile behind the seats. Focus on the fact you can see the seats at all! A little hammock does a great job holding all the various elbow and knee pads, chest protectors and gloves. This will probably move to the back when I put plywood on the other side of the wall.  Helmet in the back and most importantly - I’m going to need another one of these racks for cans. At least now every time I open the door I don’t get a little cascade of brake clean.  More helmets, goggles, gloves and a little fold out shelf on the other side. I think the shelf may move to one of the rear doors.  Last but not least, finally taking the suspension off my bike to get it resprung and revalved. 
builds character fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Jun 4, 2023 |
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Jun 4, 2023 22:32
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Wow, been a while since the new suspension. That’s weird. I wonder what happened? First things first. Time to go for a ride! Oh, well. gently caress you too.  One harbor freight dent repair kit later….  Perfect. Off to go ride!  Well, it turns out new suspension ain’t the same as talent. Riding ~5mph uphill a little off-camber on a rainy day through some rocks like this and my rear tire slipped right, my left foot caught on one of the rocks while the rest of me went with the bike and pop, there went my MCL. Fortunately no surgery but I’m still two weeks away from being able to ride again.  I was out of commission for a while. When my knee was finally feeling better enough to do anything I tried to reorganize the van a bit. That was a problem because I had some tires and mousses I bought last year and had just thrown behind the seat. They were structural for my pile of junk. But don’t let that discourage anyone. In fact, putting mousses on is easy peasy lemon squeezie. I only bent three of these tire spoons, was drenched in sweat, bled on the wheel and got a few nice bruises doing it. But, uh, really bent.  Probably would have helped to do it with a tire stand instead of in the dirt. Who can really say? With that done, time for an easy job. New rotor, calipers and pads up front.  The caliper bracket bolts had other ideas. Even with heat (just a little propane torch because, please remember, all this is done on the street in NYC), soaking with penetrating oil and some serious effort with a breaker bar. Just… nothing. I gave up and put this on the “send it to a pro to suffer” category.  In the meantime I tackled something a little more my speed. My kid crashed and broke his arm and some bike parts and I’d fixed all of them except the front fender. Well, job done.  He was riding the ttr125 because he grew. And he has a CRF125 coming. But he has a friend who hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet and fits the KLX110 really well. The only option? Keep them both and make room for another bike. I had finally put the carpet on the wall in the front so it looks all fancy. There wasn’t enough because I’d used some to cover the rear window, intended at the time to buy more and forgot about it so I need to pile junk against the bottom for aesthetic reasons. Toolboxes come up front, all the fluids get piled next to them and a huge pile of mostly garbage sits on the seat.  In the back you can see the beginning of some lights being wired up. And space! So much space for another bike! 
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Sep 18, 2023 13:42
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Glad I made all that extra room for my kid’s new bike! Unfortunately, the instructions were a bit unclear but I muddled through and now, yay! New bike day!
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Sep 23, 2023 02:48
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It's boss as gently caress that you're doing this on the side of the road in NYC. Definitely embodies that NYC attitude that I felt the first moment I walked off the subway onto the street.
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Sep 23, 2023 17:31
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RIP Paul Walker posted:It's boss as gently caress that you're doing this on the side of the road in NYC. Definitely embodies that NYC attitude that I felt the first moment I walked off the subway onto the street. Thanks! Work with what you got I suppose. I definitely would prefer having a huge garage with lots of space and the ability to have welding stuff. But then I wouldn’t need a van so… Plus, places with a garage are either 1+ hour commutes to work or $3+million.
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Sep 23, 2023 19:28
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Yeah been enjoying this thread and the roadside repairs 😆
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Sep 24, 2023 08:22
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Sorry about the knee, good poo poo otherwise. How do you get the bikes up into the van? I had to get a ramp which ended up being $$$
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Sep 24, 2023 08:39
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knox_harrington posted:Sorry about the knee, good poo poo otherwise. Folding ramp, left side. Fits so well it looks like it was made for that space.
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Sep 24, 2023 14:55
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knox_harrington posted:Sorry about the knee, good poo poo otherwise. Yeah, either a ramp like madeintaipei said or I push it up the ramp depending on exactly what you’re asking. But, uh, I know the van isn’t nice but cost of ramp <<<< cost of van. The height when I’m very tired does make me long for a promaster which are some weird words to be typing out together. E: here’s the ramp I got, fwiw. But maybe not helpful because as I recall you’re in Europe. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/rrr-afl-9012 madeintaipei posted:Folding ramp, left side. Fits so well it looks like it was made for that space. The opposite - the space was made for the ramp.  I need to put plywood on the walls and in particular the front one so I can hang stuff up there too. But as I’m using it I think probably I want the helmets and goggles on or near the van door along with the ramp. So folks can get dressed while I unload the bikes. It would be nice to have a spot for the gas can that I didn’t have to move it every time I unloaded the bikes but also didn’t have to go hunting when I stop for gas - maybe the other door? builds character fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Sep 24, 2023 |
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Sep 24, 2023 22:01
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builds character posted:
Hang it from the ceiling so it's up and out of the way, easy to grab, and could be jerry-rigged with a longer hose for racecar-style gravity refuels?
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Sep 25, 2023 02:30
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Captain McAllister posted:Hang it from the ceiling so it's up and out of the way, easy to grab, and could be jerry-rigged with a longer hose for racecar-style gravity refuels? Racecar-style gravity refuels would be awesome. In 2020 I was going to race Vegas to Reno on my old 450 and I’d bought the gas tank part of this system https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h8P_52O7NU which is pretty similar but hadn’t bought the can and then COVID and I ended up selling that bike and buying the two stroke for the woods riding I was actually doing. But it’s still a cool way to do refueling. Too bad all my race times are slow as gently caress so it isn’t the fuel slowing me down. The new bike I bought was a 2014 Ducati monster 796 ABS. ABS because I’m old and it seems safer. The rest of it because it’s prettier than an SV650 (fight me  ) and I clearly enjoy stupid engineering (this will be my second Italian bike - the first was a beta that had some incredibly catastrophic failures that were my fault and also their fault and then it was stolen. I still love it.) and the 796 is the last of the air cooled monsters.Anyway, I’m cheap and pathologically unable to not scout classifieds for the best deal so I drove out to PA for a bike that was relatively very cheap. It had a few issues. Like the display didn’t work. Because some moron smashed it. Not me this time.  He said it had 6k miles on it and that’s what he wrote on the title and got notarized. But €100 later (say it with me ducatista. Good, now we’re both pretentious), and one of the easiest repairs I’ve ever done - it’s just like ten screws and a trip to Home Depot for a T6 torx bit - and voila!  The bike only has 2100 miles on it. Huh. Well, that’s better but a little awkward for the title where I said it had 6k miles on it because that’s what the PO said. I’m sure it will never be an issue as long as I don’t sell it before I ride a mere four thousand miles.  I took it for a little ride around the block to celebrate and then parked it outside the warm embrace of the van. Remember, there’s another bike coming so I actually need the space. How many vehicles is too many if you live in New York City and is the answer seven? We’ll find out! builds character fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Sep 27, 2023 |
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Sep 27, 2023 05:06
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builds character posted:Remember, there’s another bike coming so I actually need the space. How many vehicles is too many if you live in New York City and is the answer seven? We’ll find out! 36ft long, 8ft tall, 8.5ft wide car hauler trailer, with the van stored inside. Whatever bikes don't fit in the van itself in the trailer, towards the nose. Unload van, hook up to trailer, load extra poo poo behind the bikes. I don't know how NYC feels about street parking a trailer, or how you'd finagle it away from the kerb (I have IDEAS), but that could work. T1N Matryoshka can motovan.
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Sep 27, 2023 05:32
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madeintaipei posted:36ft long, 8ft tall, 8.5ft wide car hauler trailer, with the van stored inside. Whatever bikes don't fit in the van itself in the trailer, towards the nose. Obviously this is a great idea and you deserve recognition for having a very good idea. Sadly, you can't street park trailers (unless you go to abandoned warehouse type areas where folks do it anyway and the cops don't care because what are they going to do? tow the giant trailer? why? nobody's complaining.) so it doesn't work.
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Sep 27, 2023 16:17
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