Touch wood!

touch wood, refers to the apotropaic tradition (from Greek apotrepein, to ward off : apo-, away + trepein, to turn) in western folklore of literally touching/knocking on wood, or merely stating that you are doing or intend same, in order to avoid "tempting fate" after making a favourable observation, a boast!
It was an unusual week with Fillmore. Usually there are bumps in the road, some bigger than others. Usually I know that you never make assumptions, never make predictions and simply go with the flow.
This week the flow was as smooth and quick as the Bow river.
Monday and Tuesday were effecient and productive. Wednesday and Thursday were mapping and re configuring circuits for Chris while I went to doctors appointments and aimlessly wondered between my chair in the living room and looking over Chris's shoulder in the back of the bus.
5 pm Thursday Chris, sitting at the kitchen table surrounded in papers, folded everything up, looked up and said in a puzzled and questioning voice...." I think I'm done!"

We decided over a few libations that night that Friday would be a day to pack up, go over a few things and then have a quiet afternoon. Which we did...but not before I talked Chris into topping up the fluids and having a road test. I was worried, in the last few short runs, Fillmore was sluggish and shifting was far from smooth. I really would feel better if Chris was in the bus during a road test. Earlier in the week we had talked about this and Chris had a solution. I am ashamed to say the solution was simple. Although I had filled the tranny fluid to the level, it was after the first run that I noticed the shifting issues. Yes, yes, I had forgotten to recheck the levels after the tranny had gone through all the gears...it would be a simple fix, top it up and he should run like the wind.

We started Fillmore up, watched the pressure build, everything looked great. I grabbed my camera and we backed it out the driveway. Then the moment of truth. Was the hesitation and sluggish performance simply the fluids or was there more? I switched from reverse to drive, let my foot off the brake and gave it some throttle. I'll be damned if it didn't almost send Chris tumbling down the isle the pick up was so strong. Seriously this ol' boy really scoots! I got so taken aback that when I gave Chris a turn at the wheel I almost forgot to get any footage until the last few hundred meters...lots of fun!

Michelle could sense the significance of the ride and came running out to the driveway to capture the moment. Here is Chris and I with shit eating grins after we realized that this old boy is purring like a kitten with power to spare. Smooth as silk, no vibrations, no hiccups....

As we sat in the kitchen sipping some smooth single malt at sunset we relived the thrills of the week, all the unimpeded progress,forward momentum, and thrill of the ride. All is good...touch wood!

The Day has come....

A little of this a little of that...

 After a really productive day on Monday, Chris needed some parts. So I accompanied him on the way as a half blind navigator ! Made perfect sense....yes I'm going to say it..."The blind leading the blind"
 Having said that, Ol' eagle eyes (Chris) saw our reflection in a car in front of us and he said, "Hey you have a burnt out headlight!" So aside from Flxible's he does a bit of roadside assistance for Volkswagens too!

 As we (the royal we: Chris working, me watching) were listening to the engine bearings last time it became obvious that the belt tensioner bearing was making 'funny' noises. So we changed that out and got a new belt.

Three years ago on Fillmore's arrival, I took him to get the once over. The saftey inspection found a few faults, most of which were fixed. One of the last items on the list was the slack adjuster on the passenger side front. Simple enough, but we figured we didn't want the tall arm hanging out there so we decided to give it a trim.

 Chris asked me if I would do it, to which of course I said yes. But he saw the hesitation in my good eye, and thought better of it.





 I remained official photographer.

Another thing we had discovered was the airline, after 4 feet of braided cable and after it went through a bulkhead was still too hot and melted the airline going to the dryer! We ended up pulling that and running braided cable all the way from the compressor to the AD9 (air dryer)

On our parts run I got new shoes for the kids quad. So with me looking on and giving encouragement(nagging at him what to do) he put the brakes back together!! It was a proud Dad moment for me to see him do it!!

Here's mud in yer eye kid!

 

There's a tear in your eye, 
And I'm wondering why, 
For it never should be there at all. 
With such pow'r in your smile, 
Sure a stone you'd beguile, 
So there's never a teardrop should fall. 

 "When Irish eyes are smilin'" song lyrics

 Sorry, but I figure you have to have a sense of humour to survive this mishap.

The first few days, laying low was a piece of cake. When your eye hurts so much that you are afraid that it will explode if you sneeze it's pretty easy to say....."ehhh, I think I'll just listen to my podcast and have a little nap." Now that the pressure is down and I can think straight, I am itching to do something...anything....within my restrictions of course. But dishes, making breakfast, anything to keep my hands from being idle.

 So I am relegated to being the observer, opinion giver, random question generator, electrical connection kit organiser.

 In my observation of Chris, I'm watching a young guy with old school knowledge as well as the latest in virus protection for the new cars of today.....yes mechanics these days have to have a certain amount of IT training to work on the electronic cars of today. Anyway here is Chris diagnosing a bad bearing in our belt tensioner. He uses the crowbar up against the piece that we wants to listen to the bearings in, it's an old school stethoscope....works like a damn too!

Here, if you listen closely you can hear the chirping of the belt b/c of the bearings...and the age of the belt but...it's there.

 I graduated to the most physical work on my list, bending a metal flange for a cover on the heater cores!

Eys are the window to the soul

but tragedy struck?....what the ????

OK stupidity struck really. I don't know how many times I've said to my kids while we are skiing " OK it's the last run of the day....this is where accidents happen... be EXTRA careful!!"
Well it was the last run of the day last Thursday night. Jeff and I had spent a little time in the garage. We took apart his rear wheel brake assembly on the kids quad because they were sticking (turns out a brake pad separated from one of the shoes and would periodically get jammed in the second pad)
The next project was to put a removable handle on the large dolly that we have been using. Things turned out great. We were finished and packing up when I realized that one of the swivel castor wheels was impeded bu the handle. It just needed to have a small "nub" ground off to allow the proper movement of the wheel. I grabbed the angle grinder and started it up. Next thing I knew I was flat on my ass, feeling like I just got sucked punched.......in the eye.

And I did. Although I had glasses on, because I was upside down, they had shifted off the bridge of my nose leaving an opening. This was taken at 24 hours

Hyphema is the official diagnosis. Bleeding in the anterior chamber of the eye, usually due to blunt force trauma. The space between the lens and the iris fills with blood. At this point I am still panicking. I cannot see out of my left eye and the thought of loosing sight leaves me chilled to the bone.....my career will be over.

This is at about 36 hours, I still can't see much more than a bright light if shone directly into the eye. I am a little more relaxed in that the doctors say that in most cases people heal fine from this type of injury. The caveat is that they still cannot tell if there is any damage to the retina, I can't see out and thus they can't see in yet. The real immediate concern is a secondary bleed. If blood pressure gets too high or there is some sort of secondary trauma the initial trauma site can bleed and this can cause severe and permanent damage. So after spending Thursday night, Friday and Saturday at different hospitals and clinics, I am home for a week to ten days on light duties and bed rest. Hoping for the best

Here is the culprit, a small loonie sized chunk (Canadian reference) broke off the wheel. Looking at the cart, the metal wasn't even scored which meant there was a crack in the wheel from a prior use. This thing was going to fly as soon as it got up to speed.

For the first 5-6 hours sitting in the hospital with my friend Troy, all I could think of was "what am I going to do?" Not in  'pity me I lost my vision' sense but a simple and practical re-evaluation of the skill sets I have and what job can I perform to provide for my family.
Now I don't know if it was the percocet talking or what, but a stanza from a Robert Frost poem kept going through my head, over and over....

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. 

I know the interpretation is much more sinister, but the message was simple. I have responsibilities and promises to my family and so many more. I cannot, and will not, give up and lay down. I have a long way to go before I give up.

I will see again

Bump and Grind

Last post, which was last week, Randy was working on the bumper. I worked on the shifter. As the week went on I had the opportunity to play a little more with the bumper.

As I was circling the rig I noticed something looked a miss on the passenger side rear bumper. You can see that the bumper didn't follow the contour of the skirt.

 Looking at the drivers side you can see how nicely it follows the lines. It meant I had to remove the bumper (7 times) and try a new set of spacers and positions. 







 

Eventually, I got it.









I had planned on a big day this past Friday, Randy was coming over, I had a list of things I wanted to get done. Chris, the mechanic from Montana is coming on Monday so I wanted to get things ready......but tragedy struck....

Things that bump and shift.

There was a time in my life that I would have scoffed at mermaid band aids. As I get older  function trumps form and my main concern is getting me back out there......and to stop the bleeding of course.
Yes I pulled a dumb ass move, I had my superman cape on and thought(or perhaps I didn't think) that I could hold a piece of sharp metal steady while I tried to loosen a nut tightened with an impact wrench.

It ripped through my glove and sliced me open faster than I could say 'moron'.

Friday was a beautiful autumn day, Randy came over and we set to puttering. Randy was charged with the rear bumper. I had the bumper piece come back from the Rod Shop. They did a great job of reshaping the bumper for me. Not Perfect but we can work with it.








Randy put some of the levelling jacks to good use. It's pretty finicky work trying to get things "just so"

While Randy toiled away at the bumper. I put the finishing touches on the shifter.

After a few failed attempts at leaving the shifter in it's original position and trying to create a linkage. I decided to bite the bullet and move the whole assembly. Today was to finish that off.

(special thanks to Trevor, I forgot to give you the hot tub steps, but they come in handy right now...)

After it's all said and done, it really doesn't look like much, moved back about 11", but it makes a world of difference when you're in the drivers seat. The patches are glued into place with a metal strap underneath for support. I have a few more things to get at this week in preparation of Chris's visit next week. We really are close to extended movement.......what ever that means!!

Wake up and smell the coffee

I figured that I need to utilize the kids while I can. There are plenty of places on Fillmore that are way more suited for a small body. Replacing the air horn body was one of them. Oh yes I could have backed up the bus and done it myself, but you know that every kid really wants to crawl up on a roof.
Anna was all over it when I said who wants to help with Fillmore?

I found a new horn body on eBay. The trumpets on it are plastic, but that is OK because I have saved the original chrome ones. (they are just getting spruced up). Once they come back we'll swap out the trumpets and we'll be back in business. Anna loved being the first one to sound the horn when we tested it.....it was LOUD!!!!

No matter how much you try we all fall into a rut where we grow so accustomed  to something that we forget that it is there. We live on the eastern slopes in the foothills of the rocky mountains. After being here for 17 years you never cease to appreciate the mountains but sometimes you can go for very long stretches where you just don't seem to notice them. I find it usually takes a visitor  who looks at the western horizon in awe to make me take a step back, wake up and smell the coffee if you will, and say "Oh ya! Look at that!"
I recently had a similar happening with Fillmore. It's been well over a year or more since the windows have been refurbished (largely due to Randy's hard work). I have been walking up and down the sides of the bus  more times than I can shake a stick at. It wasn't until I had made contact with another Flxy owner looking to source some of the hard to find window seals that I made a startling discovery.

The very first window that I put together was installed in the rear most window bay on the passenger side. This was done before I had found a place to custom make the exterior window seal on the stationary window. Thinking back I remember saying, when I get the rubber, I'll install it then.

Guess what never happened?

But how many times did I walk right by, never registering the defect?

The last order of business for the weekend was to reposition the shifter. I played around with a linkage system but that was a "FAIL". So I went back to the drawing board and found the best way was to disassemble and reposition. Trim the shifter shaft, re drill and remount the assembly in a position about 10" rear of the original. This will allow the driver to get in and out of the drivers seat without accidentally pushing it into gear.

Changing gears

I'm never to old to learn, it just really burns my britches when what I am learning was right under my nose....and in my haste and arrogance I ignored a seemingly simple yet creative solution.
Allow me to explain. A couple of weeks ago my friend Trevor ( Good Friends, good times) came out to get my hot tub. The two of us wrestled with that damn thing for 3 hours trying to get it up onto a trailer that ended up being too small. A week later another friend of mine(Jeff) was moving. Having done the lions share of transferring the household belongings to the new digs he was left with a couple of big ticket items.....a piano....and a hot tub! UUUUUUUUGGGGGHhhh!
But I threw caution (for my back) to the wind and showed up to help move the big behemoths. Much to my surprise and my shame Jeff was way more prepared and organized than I was. First off he had 6 guys, second he had this awesome moving cart...a simple 3 foot by 5 foot platform with big pneumatic wheels. We simple hefted the tub on an edge, shoved the cart underneath and then wheeled it up on his trailer.
My heart sank....
I knew I had the frame at home...and the tires...just not together.......sigh.....lesson learned.

First thing Friday morning, I sandblasted and painted the old engine cradle frame, mounted the wheels and topped it off with 3/4" Plywood. I can't wait to move that #@##** hot tub again!!

Now onto something more bus related. I don't like the shifter position relative to the seat. When seated it's fine, but if you want to set it in park and then get up out of the seat you have to dance around the stick. Biggest issue is there is a very high risk of bumping the stick into gear. I found some old linkage pieces from the original set up for the clutch assembly I think...

Cut, sandblasted, drilled, and tapped...

Voila....a new shifter linkage!

Good news is that it will allow me to keep the original shifter in the same spot, as it would be a nightmare to move it now.

Bad news is that the linkage lever arm is too short, not giving enough travel. I could move the linkage arm on the lever but I don't want it to be too tall.....

Back to the drawing board.